Mike Ormond's Blog

Some great new Win7 Developer resources on Developer Fusion

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:04:39 +0000

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Converting ASP.NET MVC 1.0 apps to version 2

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:03:32 +0000

Eilon has produced a handy tool to convert from ASP.NET MVC 1.0 to ASP.NET MVC 2. I wish I’d spotted this a couple of days ago - it would have saved me an hour or two already J.

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ASP.NET 4.0 - New Project Templates

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:24:29 +0000

ASP.NET 4.0 - New Project Templates:

There’s been a few changes to the project templates in ASP.NET 4.0 to make things cleaner and simpler. I really like them. First off is the streamlining of web.config by moving boilerplate…

ASP.NET 4.0 - and semantic markup

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:24:28 +0000

ASP.NET 4.0 - and semantic markup:

By default, the menu control in ASP.NET 4.0 now renders tableless markup. Here’s the default ASP.NET Web Forms template (see my previous post) which uses an control for navigation.

…

Windows Azure PDC Sessions Announced

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:44:04 +0000

Windows Azure session list on the PDC website

Here’s a sample of the latest ones to be announced:

· Tips and Tricks for Using Visual Studio 2010 to Build Applications that Run on Windows Azure

o A platform is only as powerful as the tools that let you build applications for it. This session focuses on using demos, not slides, to show the best way to use Visual Studio 2010 to develop Windows Azure applications. Learn tips, tricks and solutions to common problems when creating or moving an existing application to run on Windows Azure. Come see how Visual Studio 2010 supports all parts of the development cycle as we show how to take an ASP.NET application running on IIS and make it a scalable cloud application running on Windows Azure.

· Windows Azure Monitoring, Logging, and Management APIs

o Learn how to build and maintain reliable applications using the monitoring, logging, and debugging capabilities of Windows Azure using a new set of APIs being released this year.

· Developing Advanced Applications with Windows Azure

o Go beyond “Hello, World” and see how Windows Azure supports building complex, multi-tier applications with some of the new features just released.

· Windows Azure Tables and Queues Deep Dive

o Windows Azure Tables provide the ability to store structured, non-relational entities in the highly scalable Windows Azure Storage service. Come to this session to learn about the new features for Windows Azure Tables and Queues as well as tips, tricks, and performance guidance.

· Patterns for Building Scalable and Reliable Applications with Windows Azure

o Learn common patterns that will help you build applications that seamlessly scale. This session covers topics such as data access, parallel processing, and managing work using queues.

· Scaling out Web Applications with Microsoft SQL Azure Databases

o Microsoft SQL Azure and the Windows Azure Platform provide all the necessary building blocks to develop and host rich Internet applications that can service an Internet-scale user population while storing nearly limitless amounts of data. Come learn how to build such applications and see firsthand the power and elasticity of Microsoft SQL Azure and the performance gains seen while using scale-out development patterns.

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ASP.NET 4.0 Beta 2 – What’s New?

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 01:17:16 +0000

ASP.NET 4.0 Beta 2 – What’s New?:

A bit behind the times here but in my defence I’ve been up to my ears in nappies and things :). I’ve just been having a read of the ASP.NET 4 and Visual Studio 2010 Web Development Beta 2 Overview…

Dino Esposito on ASP.NET MVC

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 10:12:35 +0000

He seems to think we’re underselling it by a good way… ASP.NET MVC is MUCH better than MS seems to think

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Heads-up: Free Event: Developing with Bing Maps & Silverlight

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:22:59 +0000

Where: Microsoft Offices, Reading, UK

When: 25^th November 2009 from 9.30

Event Overview

The Bing Maps Platform brings location data to life by making it easier to visualise, understand and analyse. It’s already being used by thousands of governments, companies and organisations worldwide.

This developer focused event will show you how to build well performing and visually engaging web mapping applications using the Bing Maps Silverlight control.

The event will begin with an update, bringing you up to speed with the latest from the Bing Maps platform. The rest of the agenda will cover some of the more standard mapping requirements such as database connections, before diving into the more sophisticated spatial analysis and performance optimisation.

The Bing Maps team will be joined by partners Earthware and Infusion Development. Earthware will showcase their development of the Bing Maps World Tour using the Silverlight Control and Windows Azure, whilst Infusion will demonstrate how to create dynamic tile layers in order to visualise large amounts of frequently changing data.

More Information / Registration

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CartoGoo Windows 7 Multi-Touch App

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:55:09 +0000

Linda from the always awesome Black Marble sent me through some details of an app one of their BizSpark startups (CartoGoo) has been developing. 3DSurveyor is a Windows 7 multi-touch enabled surveying application. It looks to me like a great, intuitive use for multi-touch and it’s free…

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The perils of OOF auto-replies

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 21:32:40 +0000

Combine them with mailto: enabled services like Posterous and you get tweets, comments, posts and RSS entries that you didn’t really want (and neither did anybody else). In other words, sorry about that last post / tweet etc.

I wonder if I can add Posterous to an auto-reply blacklist…

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Automatic reply: Posterous | Re: The New Arrival

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:53:40 +0000

Thanks for your mail. Unfortunately I’m now out of the office until Friday 6th November with no access to voicemail or email.

I will respond to your message as soon as I can on my return.

Mike

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The New Arrival

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:52:34 +0000

My beautiful baby daughter born yesterday. I can’t even begin to describe the experience but I did find myself spontaneously crying in Tescos earlier. Try to get a grip of yourself man.

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Office 2010 Application Compatibility Program

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 18:12:39 +0100

It’s been a while since I did much serious blogging about Office applications but I see that Gray Knowlton has a post on his blog today from Michael Kiselman which outlines our efforts with respect to Office 2010 compat. In particular some of the tools, guidance and programs we’ll be offering as part of this initiative to ensure maximum application compatibility with Office 2010. Ie making the transition as painless as possible.

· Office 2010 Application Compatibility Program

· More about Office 2010

· Microsoft SharePoint Conference 2009 Site (including video highlights of the conference)

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Family Guy does social commentary via Windows 7

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:56:28 +0100

“Yeah, that only works when I do it.”

Stewie on Twitter

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People do seem to like this new Windows 7 thing

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:43:24 +0100

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/social/

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Spot the odd one out

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:30:26 +0100

From the new MSDN homepage. While there’s an argument that says we’re all a bit odd, it strikes me that MikeT’s caricature looks a lot like MikeT. Ditto for Eric and myself. Paul, on the other hand, looks nothing like this. Do we have an imposter in our midst?

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Visual Studio Myth Busting

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:21:00 +0100

Eric (with the help of the rest of the team) has pulled together a great little app that sets out many of the improvements between Visual Studio 2005 -> 2008 -> 2010 as well as capturing many of the myths we regularly hear that somehow make their way into folklore. Eric has a full write-up here. The application itself can be found here.

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Visual Studio 2010 / .NET Fx 4 Beta 2 Available for Download

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 10:58:29 +0100

Download Link for Visual Studio 2010 / .NET Fx 4 Beta 2

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Silverlight Streaming to be discontinued

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:53:42 +0100

As a big advocate of Silverlight Streaming I’m sad to see it’s going to be discontinued. There will be an alternative Windows Azure based service available but it won’t be a direct replacement.

The main purpose of this post is to highlight that if you *do* have content on Silverlight Streaming currently and you want to keep it, the link above has all the information you need. There is no firm date yet for when Silverlight Streaming will be taken down but it will be taken down.

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Beta 2 of Visual Studio 2010 / .NET Fx 4 Available Today for MSDN Subscribers

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 19:29:56 +0100

Beta 2 of Visual Studio 2010 / .NET Fx 4 Available Today for MSDN Subscribers:

General availability is 21st October. Visit the Visual Studio 2010 / .NET Fx 4 Beta site for more information, downloads, forums and to submit feedback.

There have been …