Tag: msdn

realDEVELOPMENT_07 Edmonton

Post ImageMSDN is touring the country again, this time to talk about strategies for today’s web application development. They’ll be in Edmonton at SilverCity in WestEd (actually I guess it’s Scotiabank Theatre now) on October 25th:

If you are a Canadian Web developer, this free event is for you. We will look at common challenges such as security, accessibility & usability, AJAX, Javascript debugging, using patterns to improve your development process and working with external services. In a nutshell, this is a two-part tips, tricks and tools presentation.

It will be focused primarily on Microsoft technologies (like ASP.NET), however if you develop on other platforms, you can get a lot of value from the event in terms of techniques and free tools for debugging your client side code to load testing your websites. This event is sponsored by MSDN Canada.

I like that they mention right on the details page that tools like Fiddler and the Developer Toolbar will be demonstrated. The page also mentions HTML and Javascript by name! It’s not your typical MS-marketing-speak event, that’s for sure.

I was on the community conference call where Microsoft solicited feedback on their web-related developer events, and the key point was to go beyond Visual Studio and ASP.NET proper. It definitely looks like they listened!

Read: MSDN

Podcasting with .NET and Paramagnus

[This post originally appeared at the Canadian Developers blog on MSDN, so check it out, it’s a great blog. For those of you who might consider parts of this post somewhat dated, that’s because it was written a couple weeks ago!]

Post ImageIf you’re a .NET developer in Canada, you’ve probably already heard of Plumbers at Work and if you haven’t, you should! It’s a great podcast featuring “four geeks from Canada” talking about all things .NET and Microsoft. I’m not exactly sure how they create and publish their episodes, but I am guessing it’s not as easy as they would like. In fact, most podcasters are pretty technical folks – at least for the time being.

Along with Dickson Wong, I run the Edmonton .NET Wizards user group in Edmonton, Alberta, but we have another connection to .NET development too – we create tools and services for podcasting. Our software company is Paramagnus Developments Inc., and we are trying to make podcasting as easy and as fun as possible.

We have created two applications and two services – Podcast Spot is our hosting service, Podcast Wizard is our Windows-based creation tool, Podcast Tags is our directory/tagging service, and Podcast Basket is our “podcatcher”, an application that helps you find, subscribe to, and manage podcast downloads. Our entire solution has been built using .NET and related technologies, and it has really allowed us to accomplish our development goals very quickly. We’re are currently on track to launch in May 2006.

Just recently we had some great success in a couple of business plan competitions. We were one of three finalists in the Alberta-wide VenturePrize business plan competition, and the following day we won the national Wes Nicol competition. Both competitions were a boost for our business, and the idea of a podcasting company in general, as the judges were some of the most respected investors and business people in the country.

We’ll be at Canada’s Web 2.0 conference called Mesh in May, so stop by and check out the products we have created! We’ll also do our best to get Plumbers at Work to start using a Canadian-made, .NET-based solution for podcasting 😉

Read: Canadian Developers

Get Visual Studio Express FREE

Post ImageThe official launch date for Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005 was yesterday – I’ve been waiting a long time! Congrats to the teams for getting everything shipped. And there’s good news for novice, hobbyist and student programmers too – you can get the Express tools for free:

We originally announced pricing of Visual Studio Express at US$49. We are now offering Visual Studio Express for free, as a limited-in-time promotional offer, until November 6, 2006. Note that we are also offering SQL Server 2005 Express Edition as a free download, and that this offer is not limited to the same promotional pricing period as Visual Studio Express.

If you’ve ever wanted to start playing around with .NET or ASP.NET or anything else that Visual Studio can help you do, this is a great opportunity. Download sizes range from 35-70 MB (excluding SQL Server 2005 Express) and you can choose your edition here. Happy coding!

Read: Visual Studio Express