Sam Gentile

New and Notable 386

samgentile — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:54:57 GMT

VS 2010/.NET Framework 4 Beta 2

Add Reference Dialog Improvements (VS 2010 and .NET 4.0 Series) - The twelfth in ScottGu's series is one a very welcome change - An Add Reference Dialog that loads fast

ASP.NET MVC

ASP.NET MVC Templates, Part 3: Default Templates - Brad continues his series with a post on Template Resolution, and names before covering the default templates

Silverlight

10 Expression Blend 3 Tutorials for Silverlight available for download - A great resource. The 10 tutorials from the Eyes of Blend series on Project Rosetta site are now available for download in both Word and PDF format.

Windows Workflow

Deep Dive into the WF4 Designer Data Model: ModelItem and ModelProperty - Matt Winkle takes a deep dive into the data model behind the new WF4 Designer
WF4 Designer Blogs - Matt Winkle lists some other blogs and information from the team

New and Notable 387

samgentile — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:55:00 GMT

Windows Workflow

WF4 Beta 1 => Beta 2 Breaking Changes Document Published – Matt Winkler points to the document on Microsoft.com downloads that lists the major breaking changes that occurred for WF between Beta 1 and Beta 2
My presentations at HDC 09 – Matt Milner’s presentations include one on WF4 Custom Activities
Much to my dismay, Expression syntax in WF4 is in VB syntax, which is also tripping up a bunch of C# programmers who use C# to write workflows. Cathy Dumas, from the workflow team, and new to blogging, has a pair of posts for this: VB Expression Example: Manipulating generic lists and VB for C# Developers

Silverlight

Silverlight From Zero – Just what I needed! Jesse starts a series of blog posts for folks who are new to Silverlight and/or want to brush up on the fundamentals, and consisting of a series of mini-tutorials

Visual Studio 2010/.NET Framework 4

Interesting .NET 4 thing of the Day: String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace – a little tidbit explanation
What’s new in CLR via C#, 3rd Edition as compared to the 2nd Edition – Wow! The classic- must own 1st book any .NET programmer is getting updated since the CLR did change in 4.0 as opposed to 3, 3.5, 3.5SP1. Jeffery’s post details the changes chapter by chapter

Windows Azure

The Azure Handbook - My dear friend and inventor of Neudesic’s Neuron ESB, David Pallmann, is writing an Azure book
Azure ROI Calculator Updated With Better International Support - Neudesic's popular Azure ROI Calculator has been updated to work better for users outside of the U.S. (that is, for those with regional settings besides English-US).
Azure Storage Explorer 3.0 Beta Now Available – Another David project - Azure Storage Explorer version 3.0 is now available as a beta release on CodePlex. Azure Storage Explorer is Neudesic's free tool for viewing and managing Windows Azure blobs, queues, and tables.

Technorati Tags: Windows Azure,WF,Windows Workflow,Visual Studio 2010,.NET Framework 4

.NET Framework Contest & Campaign: Win $12,00, a 12-day Galapagos Islands Adventure, or a new Smart Car!

samgentile — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 19:55:30 GMT

This is cool! From our friends on the .NET team, they are putting together a contest that features some real super cool prizes! If you have built a super cool or killer app with the .NET Framework, they would love to hear about it. So, check out http://www.mydotnetstory.com to enter and win!

What is Windows Identity Framework (WIF)?

samgentile — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 20:12:00 GMT

Windows Identity Foundation (formerly called code name Geneva framework) is a new Microsoft .NET Framework technology that gives developers a programming model and SDK to create new advanced identity capabilities in .NET applications. It provides developers pre-built .NET security logic for building claims-aware applications, enhancing either ASP.NET or WCF applications. Windows Identity Foundation makes it easeir to build richer, more secure applications (cloud and on-premise) without being a security and identity expert. It will boost developer productivity, as a result, and enhance app security through a standard approach to federation, strong authentication and identity delegation.

The RC is available here.

Windows Identity Framework (WIF) Announcements

samgentile — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 20:20:00 GMT

Windows Identity Foundation (WIF)

Big day for the evolution of Claims Based Security (originally partially CardSpace + WCF) and then known as Geneva

The RC of Windows Identity Foundation is here! Mr. WIF, vibro.NET has a number of posts, including this one that has a link to the RC itself
FabrikamShipping has been updated to WIF RC - The big sample has been updated to take advantage of WIF RC.
ClaimsDrivenModifierControl has been updated to WIF RC - Following the route of FabrikamShipping, the Claims-Driven Modifier Control is now ready to influence the behavior of your federated sample websites… using WIF RC :-)
Download the November 2009 release of the Identity Developer Training Kit - The training kit has been updated for Nov. and the WIF RC. The new version of the Identity Developer Training Kit ported forward the three WIF labs (web site, web services, ASP.NET Membership provider) to the RC, and improved support for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

Updated! - Snow Leopard makes Vista ‘issues’ pale in comparison?

samgentile — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 00:50:00 GMT

Even more fustrating than their annoying, incorrect (you can write a virus for an INTEL MAC just as easy for an Intel PC - there's just NOT Enough users/machines sold for anyone to give a care for), crappy ads is their OS and hardware. And yes, I own multiple Intel powered MACs that have been beset my multiple issues not the least of which is how dog slow and fustrating they are. Check out this - it boggles the mind what Apple customers will go through without ever complaining and indeed celebrating.

Claims-Based Authorization with WIF Article

samgentile — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 02:10:32 GMT

Michele Bustamente has a greatWIF article in thismonth's MSDN.

Next "Oslo" CTP to be released in conjunction with PDC

samgentile — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:52:05 GMT

My blog has these nice "blocks" on the top like "Oslo", "New and Notable", "WCF" and others. The problem is that I wrap things so well with New and Notable, that some of these categories don't get any "posts" for a long time. For instance, Oslo. It's been over a year. So I'm going to try to balance a bit and put some things in their separate categories.

Speaking of Oslo, Kraig B. reports that with PDC only two weeks away, they are putting away the finishing touches on the "Oslo" CTP that will be available for download at that time (Nov 17th) plus updating many kinds of content. This will be the first CTP since May and the first requiring VS2010/.NET 4 Beta 2/

Silverlight Links

samgentile — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:00:40 GMT

Designer v XAML v Code - Jesse Liberty has the second on his new series on Getting Started with Silverlight. He starts out with something that brought me joy, "Until recently, just about every introduction to Silverlight started out by talking about Xaml; the markup language of Silverlight, WPF and Workflow. I believe it is time to stop."
Silverlight 3 and F# Support in Visual Studio 2010 - Bart makes us aware of F# support in Silverlight in Visual Studio 2010, by showing an example why F# is going to be very important for Silverlight architects and developers.

Azure Links

samgentile — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:16:00 GMT

Windows Azure Content Delivery Network - Microsoft just announced the Windows Azure Content Delivery Network (CDN) to deliver Windows Azure Blob content. Windows Azure CDN offers developers a global solution for delivering high-bandwidth content.
Windows Azure and Cloud Computing Posts for 11/2.2009+ - The Gold standard for Azure links
Microsoft .NET Services Novemmber CTP Release - As part of the Azure Cloud Computing Service, this post announces the November CTP, which represents the complete feature set that will be available at Microsoft’s PDC conference from both the Service Bus and Access Control Service when the Windows Azure platform becomes commercially available early next year.