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• Why You Want To Book Your PDC2008 Ticket NOW...

  If you're into any of the technologies that this blog covers, you'll be mad if you miss the Professional Developers Conference this year. It's actually been three years since our last PDC, so we're overdue! I'm really excited about all the things we're going to be covering at the PDC this year: those of you who have attended the conference in the past will know that we only run a PDC when there is major news to share, and we've got some killer content this year. Registration opened yesterday, so now is a good time to get ahead of the crowd. We keep most of the session titles under wraps until the event starts - this is a future-orientated conference, after all. But even from the session abstracts we've posted so far , you'll see sessions that cover the Live Mesh, Internet Explorer 8, Windows 7 (including details on how to program for the multi-touch feature we showed off this week at Walt Mossberg's D conference ), as well as really hardcore deep-dive sessions on topics like the internals of the Silverlight rendering pipeline and our internal usage of Team Foundation Server. But there's one other thing that has me salivating me about the PDC as a WPF developer. Jaime Rodriguez (content owner for the pre-conference ) has secured none other than Charles Petzold to deliver a one-day session on WPF . Charles Petzold! If you've been living on Mars for the last twenty years, Charles is a titan of the Windows programming world, having written several seminal titles, including no less than two books on WPF. Indeed, Jeff Atwood describes him as " the guy who put the h in hWnd ". Charles is a hero of mine - he writes concisely, precisely, knowledgeably and articulately. I remember bringing a stack of copies of his first WPF book to a team meeting; the product architects were as eager to read his verdict on their platform as a Broadway theater director is to see the early papers after opening night. Charles isn't one of those speakers who seems to be permanently on the conference circuit - in fact it's pretty rare that you get the chance to see him "live" at all, even though he delivers some amazing lectures when he does present . This is a unique opportunity that you just don't want to miss if you're building your mastery of WPF. Here's what Charles wrote for the pre-conference abstract: This session will go deep into WPF and explain the infrastructure and services that WPF introduces... Posted May 29 2008, 10:10 PM by Tim Sneath Filed under: WPF, windows 7, windows, ie, training, events, live mesh, pdc2008

• MIX08 Day 2 Keynote Live Blog

  I'm going to be "live blogging" the Steve Ballmer keynote this afternoon at this URL. Keep this blog post bookmarked and start hitting "refresh" shortly after the keynote starts at 1pm Pacific / 9pm GMT. Or simply tune in to the webcast ( 750kbps , 300kbps , 100kbps ) and watch it live yourself! 1:04pm - Ray Winninger (my boss!) is on stage to announce MIX09, taking place here at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas between March 18th-20th, 2009. No - registration hasn't opened yet! 1:07pm - Guy Kawasaki and Steve Ballmer are now sitting in comfy chairs, ready for Q&A. 1:08pm - Guy: why do you want to buy Yahoo? Steve: we've shown tenacity around advertising. Search is the killer feature for online advertising. You could say that we're not where we'd like to be, but we're very committed. Yahoo seems to be a way to accelerate that because of the required critical mass. "What's the current state of the offer?" Steve: We've made an offer - that's all I can say! 1:13pm - Guy: so you're telling me you're an underdog? Steve: Yes, you could say that, for this space. 1:14pm - Guy: I know this won't leave the room, but I use a Motorola Q phone running Windows Mobile, not an iPhone, because I need Exchange. 1:16pm - Guy: tell us about the deal with Facebook. Steve: again, it's about advertising. 1:17pm - Guy: what drives you? Steve: Three things: firstly, I love what I do - bringing out great products like Silverlight 2 and IE 8. Secondly, I get to work with some of the smartest people in the world. Lastly, I enjoy a challenge. 1:19pm - Guy: can you describe a typical day in the life of SteveB? Steve: there are three kinds of days. Sometimes I'm outside of Redmond meeting with customers, flying around the world. Sometimes I'm in the office with back-to-back strategy meetings. Sometimes I have a day where I can think, write and research where there's only perhaps one meeting and I can really focus on strategy. Guy: how much email do you have? Steve: I get perhaps sixty emails a day. Guy: really? I don't believe it. Steve: why do people get a lot of mail? Human beings aren't abusive in general, they send thoughtful, constructive mails. I might get more than sixty tomorrow, of course! 1:23pm - Guy: can you talk about Bill's departure? Steve: he's very fortunate. He's had something to build professionally in Microsoft, and now he's got a second opportunity... Posted Mar 06 2008, 11:37 AM by Tim Sneath Filed under: Silverlight, web, windows, vista, mix08, silverlight 2.0, Windows Live, ie, office

• Download Links for MIX08 Announcements

  Here's a consolidated list of all the key downloads you'll need to update your developer workstation to the latest and greatest technologies announced this morning: Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 Windows Vista / Windows Server 2008 (x86) Windows Vista / Windows Server 2008 (x64) Windows XP (x86) Windows Server 2003 SP2 (x86) Windows Server 2003 SP2 / Windows XP (x64) Silverlight 2 Beta 1 Runtime Silverlight 2 Tools for Visual Studio 2008 and SDK Expression Studio 2 Beta (contains Blend, Design, Encoder, Media and Web) Expression Blend 2.5 March 2008 Preview ASP.NET MVC Preview 2 A couple of tips: The Silverlight 2 Tools release (third item above) includes Silverlight 2. You don't need to install the runtime separately first: just run the tools installer and you'll have everything you need. The Visual Studio extensions don't work with the Express editions - make sure you've got the full Visual Studio 2008 installed before attempting to install them. If you installed Silverlight 1.1 Alpha, uninstall it first, along with any related tools or SDKs before installing Silverlight 2 Beta 1. I watched someone get into a bit of a mess this morning by trying to update Silverlight 1.1 Alpha in-place. Fortunately, they were still able to uninstall and reinstall, but you're definitely best to start with a clean machine. Have fun! Posted Mar 05 2008, 12:57 PM by Tim Sneath Filed under: ASP.NET, Expression, Silverlight, Blend, mix08, silverlight 2.0, ie

• MIX08 Keynote Live Blog

  I'm going to try to keep up a live blog this morning through the keynote to provide folk with an Engadget-style blow-by-blow account of proceedings. Keep hitting refresh on this entry to see the latest news as it comes. 9:30am - Ray Ozzie is on stage promptly. In a few minutes, we'll show you IE8 and Silverlight 2. Wanted to first spend some time framing the big picture so that these individual releases don't seem random. Advertising is the economic engine that powers the Internet, and it's innovation in experiences that provide the fuel. Online advertising is predicted to increase from $40bn to $80bn over the next three years. Microsoft will do our part to ensure a vibrant ad ecosystem on the web. 9:35am - Three core principles driving our strategy: Firstly, thinking of the web as a hub of our social, technology and personal experiences. Linking, tagging and sharing will become as commonplace as File / Open and Save. The quaint concept of one PC or device per person will give way to a connected network of experiences based around the network. Secondly, the business world is in transition as applications are progressively refactored to take advantage of a utility computing model that will span from the datacenter to the cloud. All our software will be refactored to provide server / service symmetry. Thirdly, a transition from tightly-coupled systems to loose federations of co-operating systems. Transparency and standards are key to this: RSS, ATOM, REST-based services. Declarative languages like XAML allow us to recombine and refactor applications dynamically. Not just apps that are "ported" to different devices, but apps that take full advantage of each system. This requires new skills both at the front-end and at the back-end. Over the next five years, the way we develop, deploy, debug and maintain our applications will be transformed by this shift to utility computing. 9:43am - Connection is at the heart of the scenarios we're building. Connected devices : a mesh that provides common storage and personalization no matter where you are. Connected entertainment : by connecting portable, media center and gaming devices, we're reducing friction. You shouldn't have to buy the same music track multiple times just because you have multiple devices. Connected productivity : Office for Windows / Mac, Office Mobile and Office Live - three offerings to deliver seamless editing, note capture and anywhere-working. Look forward to... Posted Mar 05 2008, 09:40 AM by Tim Sneath Filed under: WPF, mix08, silverlight 2.0, Windows Live, ie, sql server, presentation