Global Nerdy

Another day, another book deal: today’s book deal from Manning Publications is the MEAP (Manning Early Access Program, a “books in beta” sort of thing) edition of the book Hello! HTML5 and CSS3, which is being written by Rob Crowther. For today only, you can get this book for a mere USD$25 (CAD$24.57 as I write this) in both paper form (when the final edition comes out) and ebook form (right now, and as the book is updated).

Here’s a description of the book:

Hello! HTML5 and CSS3 is written for the web designer or developer who wants a fast, example-oriented introduction to the new HTML and CSS features. After a quick review of the basics, you’ll turn to what’s new. Start by learning to apply important new elements and attributes by building your first real HTML5 pages. You’ll then take a quick tour through the new APIs: Form Validation, Canvas, Drag & Drop, Geolocation and Offline Applications. You’ll also discover how to include video and audio on your pages without plug-ins, and how to draw interactive vector graphics with SVG.

Once you’ve explored the fundamentals of HTML5, it’s time to add some style to your pages with CSS3. New CSS features include drop shadows, borders, colors, gradients and backgrounds. In addition, you’ll learn to layout your pages with the new flexible box and layout modules, and add the finishing touches with custom fonts. You’ll also see how to target specific devices with media queries, and do all of it with less code thanks to the new selectors and pseudo classes.

Finally you will walk through several large examples where you see all the features of HTML5 and CSS3 working together to produce responsive and lightweight applications which you can interact with just like native desktop apps.

To get this deal, simply go to Manning’s site, place an order for Hello! HTML5 and CSS3, and enter the code dotd0221 in the Promotional Code field when you check out.

This article also appears in Canadian Developer Connection.

It’s Family Day in certain parts of Canada: Alberta, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Prince Edward Island. We’d like to wish every one of you, whether you get the day off or not, a happy Family Day. We’d also like to remind you to enjoy and appreciate your families, whether they’re the one you were born with, or the ones you picked up along life’s travels.

I’d like to send a personal greeting to my team, a good number of whom I spent a week with in Seattle at Microsoft’s TechReady conference. They’re more than just coworkers or friends: as far as I’m concerned, they’re family too.

This article also appears in Canadian Developer Connection.

Someone who goes by the name “TheArcticEcho” digitized all the Jeopardy episodes featuring Watson playing against champion players Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter and uploaded them to YouTube. As an added bonus for people who like to see behind the scenes, VentureBeat uploaded the practice match.

I’ve been in Seattle all week for Microsoft’s TechReady conference, so I haven’t had a chance to catch Jeopardy on TV. I probably won’t get a chance to watch the YouTube videos until after I return from Seattle on Sunday night, so I decided to gather all the videos in one place for convenient viewing on Family Day – enjoy!

The Practice Match

Day 1, Part 1

Day 1, Part 2

Day 2, Part 1

Day 2, Part 2

Day 3, Part 1

Day 3, Part 2

This article also appears in The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century.

If you find yourself looking longingly at the Windows Phone 7 books at your local bookstore but are short on money to buy them, here are four books on the topic that you can download for free!

Programming Windows Phone 7

Written by Charles Petzold, published by Microsoft Press.

You’re not going to get more bang for your non-bucks than with Programming Windows Phone 7. Spanning over 1,000 pages, this leviathan of an ebook is written by the guy who literally wrote the book on Windows development. It’s quite thorough, covering not just Silverlight and XNA development, but also programming techniques applicable to those frameworks as well as mobile development.

The ebook edition, which covers both Silverlight and XNA development, is free-as-in-beer and available for download from Charles Petzold’s site. If you feel more comfortable with physical books, they’ve split the content into two dead-tree books: one that covers SIlverlight and one that covers XNA. I’ve listed those books in other sections of this article.

Visit the Programming Windows Phone 7 download page, which also includes sample code.

Windows Phone Programming in C#

Written by Rob Miles, self-published.

Windows Phone Programming in C#, a.k.a. “The Blue Book”, is written by Rob Miles, a Microsoft MVP and an instructor at the University of Hull in the UK. He’s known for his instructional materials on programming, which include the C# Yellow Book, a free book covering introductory programming in C# and the 19-part Windows Phone 7 Jump Start instructional video series. Windows Phone Programming in C# is just one part of a course on Windows Phone development provided by Microsoft Faculty Connection for university and college teachers. The book comes with a package of labs, which includes code for exercises and PowerPoint slides for lectures. Whether you’re leading a class or just doing some self-directed learning, this package is free and worth checking out.

Visit the Windows Phone Programming in C# page in Microsoft’s Faculty Connection site.

UI Design and Interaction Guide for Windows Phone 7

Written by the Windows Phone Team, self-published.

The user interface for Windows Phone 7 sets it apart from other smartphones, and the applications you write for it should have user interfaces that fit in well. If yours apps respond to user input and gestures one way and Windows Phone and the standard apps do so in a completely different way, you’re going to either confuse or annoy your users. That’s why you need the UI Design and Interaction Guide for Windows Phone 7.

If you’re serious about developing apps for Windows Phone 7 and getting them into Marketplace, you’ll definitely want to get the UI Design and Interaction Guide and make sure you’re familiar with our UI guidelines and know the rationale behind them.

Download UI Design and Interaction Guide for Windows Phone 7.

Windows Phone 7 Developer Guide

Written by Microsoft Patterns and Practices, self-published.

Just as the UI Design and Interaction Guide for Windows Phone 7 looks at the front end of Windows Phone 7 apps, the Windows Phone 7 Developer Guide is all about the back end – the underlying architecture of your app. This book covers things like the MVVM design pattern (that’s Model-View-ViewModel), which you might not have seen if you’ve never done Silverlight or WPF development before, connecting with web services, creating cloud-based services for the phone and the like. The book is written by the people at Microsoft’s Patterns and Practices group, a very picky bunch whose job is to share their knowledge of the best ways to build applications.

Visit the Windows Phone 7 Developer Guide page in Microsoft’s Patterns and Practices site.

This article also appears in The Great Canadian Apportunity.