Coffee and Code Montreal takes place tomorrow (Thursday, November 25th) at the Second Cup at 2020 University. It starts at run 11:00 a.m. and runs until about 5:00 p.m.

Coffee and Code is a way for you to get in touch with us in an informal setting. Rather than work out of an office, at Coffee and Code, we work out of a cafe, where we can easily be found, enjoy some nice caffeinated beverages and talk with other developers and IT pros about all sorts of things. I’m going to be talking about Windows Phone 7, but a number of my Microsoft colleagues will also be there, and they’d be happy to talk to you about all sorts of things, from Microsoft platform goodies like Windows, Windows Server, Azure, Internet Explorer, SharePoint, IIS, Internet Explorer and more, to more general topics, from programming to the tech industry to career opportunities.

If you’re in the neighbourhood, please drop by and join us for a coffee!

This article also appears in Canadian Developer Connection.

Tonight’s the night of the Building Awesome Apps for Windows 7 simulcast featuring super-smart super-talented developer Kate Gregory talking about how to build applications that make the most of Windows 7. Kate will be presenting two sessions:

• Session #1: A Lap Around the Windows API Code Pack
  The Windows API Code Pack for the .NET Framework is a managed library for building applications that light up on Windows 7. It provides access to new user interface features (taskbar jump lists, libraries, sensor platform and more) as well as "behind the scenes" features that make your applications more aware and responsive (restart and recovery, power management and more). This is a must-have library for developers targeting Windows 7 with managed code. In this session, you’ll learn how to quickly incorporate the Windows API Code Pack into your applications to take advantage of features in Windows 7.
• Session #2: Building Touch-First Applications for Windows 7
  In Windows 7, innovative touch and gesture support enable a rich and natural interaction with applications. Are your applications ready to support this new wave of PC form factors? Are they finger-friendly to support interactions and gestures on Windows 7? This session highlights the new multi-touch gesture APIs and explains how you can leverage them in your applications.

Best of all, you don’t have to pay anything or go anywhere to catch this session! It’s online tonight at 6:30 p.m. Eastern (3:30 p.m. Pacific), streaming straight to your computer.

To register for the event, visit the Building Awesome Apps for Windows 7 registration page.

This article also appears in Canadian Developer Connection.

Microsoft Canada is working with Yorkville Media Centre (YMC), a downtown Toronto learning facility where where you can learn the skills you need to work in digital media. Typically, YMC covers building websites with open source technologies like PHP, MySQL and WordPress, but this time, they’re doing so with a slight twist: they’ll still be building a site on open source technologies, but they’ll be doing so with Microsoft development tools and products such as the Web Platform Installer.

The course runs for nine weeks and takes place for a few hours every Saturday, and as an added bonus, they’ll be recording the whole thing as a series of documentary-style videos. You’ll see a season at Yorkville Media Centre, from the start where they introduce both open source and Microsoft tools and technologies right to the end, where they’ll have produced a fully-functioning web application.

Here’s their first video, Session 1: Industry Overview, which introduces YMC’s Mark Reale, the rest of Yorkville Media Centre and the people taking the course:

We’ll post these videos here as Yorkville Media Centre release them throughout the season. If you’re looking to learn about WordPress on Azure, WebMatrix, the Web Platform Installer, Web Gallery or any other Microsoft web goodies, check out these videos!

This article also appears in Canadian Developer Connection.

I’m in London, Ontario with Academic Developer Evangelist Associate Will Hoang to attend, exhibit and speak on a discussion panel at the DIG – that’s Digital Interactive Gaming – conference, which takes place on Thursday, November 18th and Friday, November 19th. DIG is all about encouraging growth in the videogame industry by bringing together game developers, tech companies, publishers and other associated folk together to discuss, share ideas about, and yes – play – games.

On Thursday from 3:45 to 5:00 p.m., I’ll be participating in a panel discussion titled The New Social Gaming Paradigm, where we’ll talk about social and online games and the sorts of challenges and opportunities that will arise from them. The other participants will be:

• Fredrik Liliegren, Antic Entertainment, as the moderator
• Grey Thomson, Tall Tree Games
• Bryce Hunter, Big Blue Bubble
• Rob Balahura, Electronic Arts

We’ll also be in the Game Zone of the exhibitor area, with Xbox 360s featuring big commercial and indie games, Kinects and the Kinect games Kinect Adventures and the incredibly popular Dance Central, PCs running Visual Studio and XNA Game Studio, and Windows Phone 7s also loaded with games. Come on down, say hi, and talk to us about making games with XNA for Windows, Xbox and the Phone!

This article also appears in Canadian Developer Connection.

Over the next little while, you’re going to see us Microsoft types doing a fair bit of talking about cloud computing in various forms. One of the ways we’ll be talking about the cloud is in the form of ads, including this clever ad about Windows 7 and Windows Live based on a palindrome poem (a.k.a. mirror poem) about technology and how it helps or hinders us. The poem takes on different meanings, depending on whether you read it forwards or backwards line by line, and it underscores a great truth about the tools we use: it’s often a matter of perspective.

This article also appears in Canadian Developer Connection.

Gamercamp takes place today and tomorrow in Toronto! Billed as “two days of living, breathing and playing video games”, it’s a conference for people who make – or aspire to make – videogames, love to think and talk about them, and of course, play them.

I’ll be there today, catching the keynotes, and tomorrow, demoing XNA, Xboxes with Kinect and Windows Phone (yup, Microsoft’s a sponsor).

Gamercamp spans two days (here’s the agenda), with a different location for each day:

• Saturday, November 13th at Toronto Underground Cinema (186 Spadina, a little bit north of Queen)
• Sunday, November 14th at George Brown College School of Design (230 Richmond Street East)

If you’d like to attend, tickets are available at the door and also online. Here’s how much it costs to attend:

• The Gamercamp Festival Pass goes for $30.00 and gets you into the main sessions for Saturday and Sunday.
• If you’re attending Gamercamp and want a ticket to the 1UP Party (featuring musical acts Anamanaguchi and Starscream), tickets for 1UP are $12.00.
• If you just want to attend 1UP and not Gamercamp, tickets are $15.00.

This article also appears in Canadian Developer Connection.