Microsoft will give customers a first look at Office 2010 through an invitation only Technical Preview program. They have put up a website where you can sign up for the invitation.

Link to Office 2010 Technical Preview Registration.

Just wanted to let readers of this blog know that I will be presenting Cloud Computing for .Net Developers at

WDNUG (Wollongong .Net User Group) on 13th May 2009.
ADNUG (Adelaide .Net User Group) on 10th June 2009.

 
I look forward to meeting developers at these user groups and enjoy a geeky evening.
If you run a user [...]

Last Thursday was the first meeting of vNext user group. I’d like to thank attendees for coming to the meeting and I hope that in return everyone learned something. Now to reflections. The turn out was about 50 people and we had plenty of toys to give out. I got great feedback on the presentation [...]

If you run a website then you assume the comfort that people from all over the world can browse your site. This may not be completely true. For example your site could be blocked or just not accessible from certain cities in the world. Just Ping is a service you can use to find out [...]

After releasing Office 2007 SP2, Microsoft has unveiled screenshots for Office 2010. Like all previous versions Office 2010 will also introduce UI innovations but the most interesting thing about Office 2010 is that most Office Suite applications will also have a corresponding web application. In simple terms this means that we will be able to [...]

As developers we are always excited about latest technologies, and as a developer working in Microsoft eco-system there is no shortage of new tools and technologies. This is the driving point behind starting vNext User Group. The group aims to share knowledge about offerings from Microsoft which are in pipeline i.e they are to be [...]

I’ll be honest that I was not much excited about Internet Explorer 8 until it went RTM. There is only so much beta software one can take. But today when IE8 went RTM I decided to install it on my main machine. This post talks about my first experience with the browser.
Installation of IE8 [...]

Ok, so you’ve seen Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and you thought the technology looked interesting. You know your applications are starting to look dated, you understand WPF has matured, now in its 3rd release; but life gets in the way and you haven’t had the chance to get down and dirty with it yet. So [...]

Microsoft Thrive is a clever demonstration of how Silverlight can be used for a public facing website. Other than being a showcase for Silverlight the site also has some valuable content for career development, desktop optimization, cost savings and compliance & governance among others.
 
 
The most fun is a game called Are You Certifiable. The game [...]

It feels good when you find a hidden gem on www. Through a link trail which I cannot remember now I somehow landed up on SQL Server 2008 Jumpstart site. Here you can access training material which is categorised into four tracks.

Database Infrastructure Track
Business Intelligence Track
Developer Track
Application Compatibility & Upgrade Track,

 
Each of the tracks have [...]

I found this very interesting.
When you install Oracle, a user by the name of Scott is always created for you. This users’ password is Tiger. The user is actually named after Bruce Scott who was one of the first employees at Oracle and Tiger was his cat’s name.
Original Source.

Participants of this contest will create a game in Silverlight and the winner will get $5000 as the first prize. The contest is open to residents of US and you must be 16 years or older to enter. You can find the official rules here.  You  are allowed to submit 3 entries which will be [...]