For today only (September 26, 2010): Manning is selling the ebook version of Azure in Action for a mere US$15, which converts to CAD$15.36 as of this writing. The ebook is a MEAP book – that’s Manning Early Access Program – which means that it’s an in-progress book. Purchasers of MEAP books get updates and the final version as part of the deal.
To get the deal on Azure in Action, use the discount code dotd0926 in the Promotional Code box when checking out.
Don’t have Silverlight? Download it here or download the video in High Quality WMV, Medium Quality WMV, MP4 or MP3 formats.
Featured on the latest edition of This Week on Channel 9, the summary of the most interesting videos and news on Microsoft’s Channel 9 site:
Number 27 already?
DemoCamp is “show and tell” for the bright lights of the local tech and startup scene, where they get to talk about their current projects in front of a group of their peers. Although its format has undergone many changes through the years, the spirit remains the same:
There’s a big-name guest coming to this DemoCamp: New York City-based venture capitalist Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures. You might have read his blog, A VC. (In light of the recent tech media kerfuffle called AngelGate, this should make for a very interesting Q&A session.)
Here are the details of DemoCamp 27:
The idea behind DemoCamp has always been to make it as inexpensive as possible and to charge only enough money to be able to recoup costs such as paying for the venue. $15 is a steal.
For more information and to register for the event, see this entry in the DemoCamp blog.
From a textbook on learning Spanish:
Found via Reddit. Click the picture to see it at full size.
The text:
To ask what people do for a living
¿A qué se dedica el señor Machado?
What does Mr. Machado do?
To respond
Es programador. Sabe diseñar páginas Web mejor que nadie.
He is a programmer. He knows how to design web pages better than anyone.
It makes sense, after all:
That’s the question a number of developers have been asking, as Brandon Watson’s earlier tweet hinted:
And we’re now one step closer to that becoming real. Today on the Windows Phone Developer Blog, Brandon announced the availability of Visual Basic CTP (that’s “Community Technology Preview”) for Windows Phone Developer Tools.
With it, you get:
In short, everything the Visual Basic developer needs to start writing Silverlight apps for WP7.
Remember, unlike the C# tools, which have been Released to Manufacturing, Visual Basic for Windows Phone is CTP, and remember that the “P” stands for “Preview” and that CTP comes before Beta.
Be advised that:
Visual Basic takes a lot of heat from developers, both within and outside the Microsoft developer community. Perhaps it’s because it’s derived from BASIC, back when the name was an acronym and the “B” stood for Beginner’s. It could also be that there is a history of some really atrocious code being written in VB. I think it’s because it brought the power of programming to everyone, which annoys people who are deeply invested in keeping programming a sort of “high priesthood”, a club where not everyone can be a member.
That’s snobbery, and it’s also a shame. One of the purposes of languages like Visual Basic is that it opened the world of programming to “domain experts” – people who know the ins and outs of the fields or businesses for which applications are written. People who’ll actually have to use those applications. Languages like Visual Basic empower these people who have the domain knowledge take their ideas and turn them into apps without having to always “outsource” it to one of us. They capture the best parts of the “DIY” spirit, and we should be encouraging the people who use them, not denigrating them for using a “toy”.
I think of this as the antithesis of programming for the Esteemed Competition’s mobile platforms, whether you’ve opted for the wide open but fragmented one, or the more closed one where you have to chase pointers, write method declarations twice and are a barely-tolerated “fourth party developer”. Phone development with Visual Basic makes it easy for anyone with an idea and the will to work – but not the programming background – to dive in and start seeing results quickly.
I think that’s a good thing.
If you write applications that live on one or more of the following Microsoft platforms:
…then you should get them Microsoft Platform Ready!
Microsoft Platform Ready is a program to help you bring your applications from the initial idea to working software that people buy by giving you what you need to get through three major phases:
By bringing your applications to Microsoft Platform Ready, you’re:
…and yes, it’s free!
You move your applications through these phases using Microsoft Platform Ready’s dashboard. For example, here’s a screenshot of my dashboard with an application running on Windows 7 highlighted. I’ve developed it, and it’s now ready to move to testing:
For applications that use more than one platform – say, the one below, a web app that uses both Azure and SQL Server 2008 R2 – you bring each platform through the phases. In this case, I’m ready to bring the Azure and SQL Server components to the testing phase:
Normally, bringing your application through Microsoft Platform Ready requires going through the “Test” phase, which involves downloading our test harness and then running your application through it. However, for the time leading up to October 1st, if you’ve already tested your applications using your own testing and QA processes and have made sure that they run on our platforms, you’ve done everything you need to get past the testing phase.
If you’ve got an application that you want logo certified and want customers to find – and you want to do it quickly – take advantage of this opportunity to “fast-track” your application through Microsoft Platform Ready.
Aside from an application, you need a Windows Live ID to sign up for Microsoft Platform Ready. Like the Microsoft Platform Ready program, Windows Live IDs are free.
It’s a good idea to have at least two separate Windows Live IDs:
The reason for this arrangement: at work, you can get moved to other projects or change jobs, requiring you to hand over access to services like MSDN and Platform Ready to other people. Having a separate job-related Live ID makes it simple to hand over that access without also handing over your personal stuff (and especially the bragging rights from your Xbox Live Gamerscore!).
The Ignite Your Coding LinkedIn group is a place for Canadian Developers to find out the latest tech news, see what’s happening in the world of Microsoft and other platforms, make announcements, exchange ideas and get to know other Canadian developers. Although we folks at Microsoft Canada’s Developer and Platform Evangelism team run the LinkedIn group, it’s open to all, no matter what platform you develop for. It’s a a place for all Canadian developers to connect, network, and learn in order to help them grow and be successful in their careers regardless of the tools or platform they use.
Let me say that again: the Ignite Your Coding LinkedIn group is for all Canadian developers, not just Microsoft ones. (And we’re not too fussy about the “Canadian” part, either.)
For those of you interested in certain niches of development, the Ignite Your Coding Linked group has subgroups as well:
Join Ignite Your Coding, participate and reap the benefits!