Simon Phillips

Are you new to developing in .Net and looking for Free Training?

Simon Phillips — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 09:47:36 GMT

Microsoft has posted some free online training course for developers as part of their Ramp Up series.

I came across this a while ago but there has been some new content released.

Ramp Up is a free, online, community-based learning program that will help you build professional development skills. Join Ramp Up (it's free!) and help advance your career.

Currently there are 11 courses

Web Development with ASP.NET
Move from PHP to ASP.NET
Move from ASP to ASP.NET
Develop Windows Mobile 6 Applications
SharePoint for Developers - Part 1
SharePoint for Developers - Part 2
Visual Studio 2008
For the VS 2002/2003 Developer: Learn VS 2005
For the VB 6.0 Developer: Learn VB 2005
For the Java Developer: Learn .NET
Developer Basics

Ramp Up home page.

Nice Feature of Windows Media Player and Windows 7

Simon Phillips — Tue, 26 May 2009 09:58:57 GMT

This made me smile today… It looks like there are certain applications that have an enhanced taskbar thumbnail (not sure what the real name is for it). When you hover over Media Player icon in the taskbar the thumbnail appears, at the bottom of the thumbnail you’ve got simple controls for previous, play | pause and next.

I’ll have to have a look how to create these for my apps, that and jump menus. Maybe a topic for a NIMTUG night ;)

Has anyone else come across any other applications with similar features?

Unable to log on to SharePoint web applications from the local web server

Simon Phillips — Mon, 25 May 2009 15:01:51 GMT

I’ve just been dealing with this funny on my newly created virtual MOSS environment. I was not able to log on to any of my created SharePoint web applications from the server which was hosting SharePoint. However I was able to connect with the same users from other machines within my environment.

The Michael Hofer over on sharepointblogs.com has been finding out that this issue can be is introduced with installing IE8 on the server (This is my dev environment, so no comments pls ;)) or service packs to the .Net Framework.

Read the links below to find out more details but the fix that I applied (remember this is my dev environment) was to add a registry entry

Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
In Registry Editor, locate and then click the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa\MSV1_0
Right-click MSV1_0, point to New, and then click Multi-String Value.
Type BackConnectionHostNames, and then press ENTER.
Right-click BackConnectionHostNames, and then click Modify.
In the Value data box, type the host name or the host names for the sites that are on the local computer, and then click OK.
Exit Registry Editor, and then restart the computer.

References

Service Pack 2 for Office 2007, SharePoint (WSS and MOSS 2007) et al released!

Simon Phillips — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 08:18:16 GMT

A couple of days late, but if you did not already know the Service Pack 2 for the Office 2007 suite (desktop and server applications) has been released.

Instead of listing all the individual downloads you can get a list of them all in KB968170.

Keeping in contact with NIMTUG

Simon Phillips — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 16:19:26 GMT

We’ve got lots of way for everyone to keep track of what is happening in and around NIMTUG. I thought that I would list them here.

Blogs + RSS Feeds

There are a number of different blogs hosted at NIMTUG. All the NIMTUG events and other events of interests will be announced on the Event Blog. As well as the event blog some of the members have their own blog hosted by NIMTUG.

You can view all the blogs from the aggregated Blog page () .

There is a Blog roll (opml) file here which lists all the Bloggers on the site. If you are a member and want to Blog on NIMTUG then drop us an email.

Twitter

If reading blogs isn’t your thing then you can follow our twitter feed.

LinkedIn

Mathew O’Hare one of our members had the foresight to create a LinkedIn group. This is a great way for members to keep in contact, especially between meetings ;).

NIMTUG LinkedIn Group

Email

Of cause we will still be sending out emails to the members about events.

Have you got any comments and/or suggestions on how we use these formats or are there any other ones we should be using?

Microsoft SharePoint Team Blog : SharePoint Designer available as a free download

Simon Phillips — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 13:44:56 GMT

This came out around the 1st of April so initially I thought it might be April Fools but no, it’s all kosher.

From this month you can all download SharePoint Designer 2007 for free.

Here is the announcement on the SharePoint Team Blog.

Microsoft SharePoint Team Blog : SharePoint Designer available as a free download

Those people who had bought Designer (with Software Assurance) will receive upgrade rights to Expression Web for the lifetime of their SA agreement.

You can download SPD here

Now please don’t break anything! Or if you do then give me a shout ;)

Microsoft TechNet Events Today and Tomorrow!!!

Simon Phillips — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 14:22:52 GMT

Just a reminder that there are a few Microsoft events being run over the next couple of days.

‘Tech Days’ are a collaborative effort between Microsoft and the IT Pro Community to re-deliver the highlights of Tech Ed Conference to IT Pros across Ireland. Most of the sessions will be delivered by a combination of Microsoft and Community technical presenters and will involve as much time spent demo’ing the technology as possible. The content delivered will be technical level 300. March will see the four-city tour stop for evening events in Galway and Cork, and full-day events in Dublin and Belfast.

Don’t miss this amazing opportunity to get up-to speed on the latest Microsoft technology at no cost!

All the events are going to be held in the Hilton Hotel in Belfast

The Hilton Hotel

4 Lanyon Place
Belfast BT1 3LP
Ireland

I’ve been told there are still spaces available at the following 3 events so I you’re free then pop along.

Microsoft @ Home Evening for IT Professionals

Wednesday, March 25, 2009 7:00 PM - 9:30 PM

This session will be an overview of the connected technologies of Windows 7, Windows Home Server and Xbox to provide a secure, shared and media rich home computing experience. We will demonstrate parental controls, media tagging, shared media, centralized backup and the extensibility of Home Server and the community that surrounds this product. We will also look at how the web plays a part in this experience through remote web access and a personalized website address for sharing photos and home videos in home server.

Agenda:

Digital Photography

Home Server & XBox 360 Media Extender

Securing Your Home Network

Microsoft Community Tech Days - Belfast Core Infrastructure Stream

Thursday, March 26, 2009 9:30 AM - 1:00 PM

Event Overview

Don’t miss this amazing opportunity to get up-to speed on the latest Microsoft technology at no cost!

Audience: IT Professionals

Technical Level 300

Agenda:

Windows 7 & Windows Server 2008 R2 working Great Together and WS 2008 R2 Virtualization (Live Migration is here!)

An Introduction to Windows 7 and Brief Overview of Client Deployment Tools

Virtualising Windows Essential Server Solutions (SBS &EBS)

Microsoft Community Tech Days - Belfast Business Intelligence Stream

Thursday, March 26, 2009 2:30 PM - 6:00 PM

Event Overview

Audience: IT Professionals

Technical Level 300

Agenda:

The Accidental DBA

SQL Server Reporting Services

Integrated BI Solutions with SQL Server 2008, SharePoint Server 2007 (including scorecarding, dashboarding and analytics) & Excel 2007

Competition: What’s missing from this picture?

Simon Phillips — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 20:55:06 GMT

legal statement: Not really a competition, no prizes and defiantly no purchases necessary!!

That’s right you eagle eyed gamers I’m missing the Xbox 360 :S, that’s because the nice people at Microsoft have ask for it back so they can give it a bit of a spit and a polish and to take the nasty red lights that started to appear on Sunday night.

This is the second time I’ve been affected by the RROD problems. As you usually get back a reconditioned console it might be time to buy a new console, however there is suppose to be a new configuration of Xboxes that are hitting the stores at the moment and a new slim-line version due out later this year (Though this is hard to get confirmed)??

Updates to follow..

Last Monday’s Night Talk: What’s New With Team Foundation Server

Simon Phillips — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 19:38:35 GMT

Thanks to Martin for his TFS talk last Monday, sorry for disappearing, but I wasn’t feeling well and it was nothing to do with the subject matter or the presenter (honest). TFS is one of the products that I just want to use every little bit of it every time we get Martin in.

You can head over to Martin’s blog for the slides and links to resources

http://www.woodwardweb.com/vsts/talk_whats_new.html

Technorati Tags: tfs,tfs2008,tfs2010,vsts

DeveloperDeveloperDeveloper! Coming to Belfast April 4th 2009

Simon Phillips — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 19:22:32 GMT

DeveloperDeveloperDeveloper! (DDD) is coming to Belfast on the 4th April with a free day of events presented by the developer community for the developer community. We’re still looking for ideas for sessions, if you fancy presenting then head along to the DDD site and register a session. More details about confirming the location and links to the registration site to follow.

DeveloperDeveloperDeveloper! – Belfast - Events

Technorati Tags: DDD,DDD Belfast,DDD Ireland,Techprechaun

Last Monday’s SharePoint Talk

Simon Phillips — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 10:35:25 GMT

Thanks a lot to Steve Smith for coming over and giving his Best Practice for Getting a Business to adopt SharePoint from Day 1 talk last Monday. We had a great turn out (40+) and I hope that we all took something from it.

We’ve posted the slide deck up on to the Nimtug site here

There is a wealth of other information on Steve’s company site (Combined Knowledge) with presentations from other user group meetings and whitepapers.

Here’s some of the things that we were talking about in the bar afterwards

New version of the VS2008 extensions for SharePoint are available (Microsoft SharePoint Team Blog : Announcing: Community Technology Preview of Visual Studio 2008 extensions for SharePoint v1.3)
New Infrastructure Update for SharePoint was released in December (Updates Resource Center for SharePoint Products and Technologies)

Technorati Tags: NIMTUG,Events,IT Pro,SharePoint

del.icio.us Tags: NIMTUG,Events,IT Pro,SharePoint

European SharePoint Best Practice Conference, London April 6th-8th 2009

Simon Phillips — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 16:15:43 GMT

Just a bit of notice for the European SharePoint Best Practice Conference

European SharePoint Best Practice Conference, London April 6th-8th 2009 - Events

Community Launch Registration Closed!!

Simon Phillips — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 16:04:59 GMT

We've had to close registration for the Community Launch this Thursday because we've hit the limit on the number of attendees. Well actually, due to a small issue with the code in our events module, we've gone over it, :S.

We're having to email those people who registered last that they are actually on a waiting list and might not be able to get into the event. We're also sending out an email to those people who will be able to get in asking them, if they are not able to make it, then please can they un-register themselves so we can free up some space for people who can.

The Launch kit will only be available to those people who actually turn up for the event.

Remember those who can't make it that we will be holding more detailed events later in the year.

Microsoft are also holding the Official launch event in Dublin on the 11th March and we're hoping that they will also be coming to Belfast sometime in April, though this has yet to be confirmed.

SQL Server Reporting Services - Opening up hyperlink in a new window

Simon Phillips — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 11:17:00 GMT

By default if you create a navigation link in Reporting Services it opens the link in the same window. In the majority of cases this is fine as you usually use these for navigating to bookmarks within the same report or other reports. However there are many times that you would want to open the link in a new window, say opening up a customers site. The problem with the default behaviour is that it will open in the same window and you will loose the report being shown. You can hit the back button on the browser but this, unless you're using execution or snap-shot cache, will re-run the report.

If your report is being rendered as a web page you can modify your Navigation expression to use the JavaScript function window.open.

e.g.

="j avascript:void(window.open('{url}','_blank'));"

Wrapping the window.open function with a void is good practice as tells the browser not to expect anything back from from the JavaScript.

You could also extend this to use a name window or even specify the dimension of the window. If you need help on windows.open the head over to these web sites

One word of warning that these links will only work with the report being rendered in HTML,if you render in PDF or Excel then you really need to keep the links as a url without the JavaScript. At this time I haven't worked out how to determine, programmatically, the rendering option.

RunAs Radio - Podcast for ITPros

Simon Phillips — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 14:40:57 GMT

As some of you know I listen to a few technical podcasts. I've just come across RunAs Radio, from the people who bring you .NET Rocks! and Hansel minutes. Also think that Martin also mentioned this on the plane back home from TechEd this year.

RunAs radio is an audio podcast for IT Professionals working with Microsoft products.

I know that I'm a little bit behind the time as the shows started on the 11th April 07, but sometimes it takes a bit of time for me to filter through the mass of information that bombards me every hour of the day and I'm sure I'm not the only one ;).

Head on over to the site (http://www.runasradio.com) and choose to download the format of your choice (mp3, wma or aac) or better still subscribe one of the show feeds using your favourite podcast application. You can also find the show in the podcast directory in iTunes.