MSDN Mid-Atlantic Roadshows – Reston and Richmond

Microsoft invites you to attend the                             

MSDN Mid-Atlantic Roadshow – Summer 2009

AGENDA

Session 1: Developing on Microsoft Windows 7

Building applications that are easy to use, visually appealing, and offer high performance is a challenge that developers face every day. Innovative applications can greatly improve the user experience, empowering companies to differentiate their services and solutions. However, developers are increasingly asked to do more in less time, while also optimizing the power and performance requirements of their applications. 

The Windows 7 platform makes it easy for developers to create engaging, user-friendly applications by providing familiar tools and rich development features that allow them to take advantage of the latest PC capabilities.  In this session we will explore the new Taskbar and Jump Lists, the Scenic Ribbon, file management with Libraries, and Windows Web Services among many other enhancements to the new operating system.

Session 2: What’s New in Internet Explorer 8 for Developers

With any new browser release, there are two questions of interest to most web developers –

1. Will this release break my site, and if so, how do I fix it?

2. What shiny new features does it offer to add value for my visitors?

In this session, we’ll address both of these questions, first showing how developers and users both benefit from improved standards-based rendering in Internet Explorer 8, and how developers can ensure that their sites will render properly for users using IE8. Additionally, we’ll take a look at some of the new features of Internet Explorer 8 that open up new possibilities for web developers, including Accelerators, Web Slices, and Search Providers, as well as AJAX and DOM improvements. Accelerators are helpers added to the browser that allow users to access your web-based services from anywhere, via a simple right-click on any page. Web Slices allow you to designate parts of your application for the user to consume and keep up-to-date in the browser without having to visit the full site. You can leverage these features to add value to your site and make it easier than ever for users to take advantage of the services and content you have to offer.

We'll also look at the new Internet Explorer 8 Developer Tools, which provides you with killer tools for examining and debugging your HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, all without ever leaving the page, plus profiling for finding and fixing the performance bottlenecks in your client-side code. The IE 8 Developer Tools also aid in compatibility testing, by allowing you to change the layout and compatibility modes on the fly. Lastly we’ll look at some best practices.

Speaker Bios

G. Andrew Duthie , aka .net DEvHammer, is the Developer Evangelist for Microsoft’s Mid-Atlantic States district, where he provides support and education for developers working with the .net development platform. In addition to his work with Microsoft, Andrew is the author of several books on ASP.NET and web development, and has spoken at numerous industry conferences from VSLive! and ASP.NET Connections, to Microsoft’s Professional Developer Conference (PDC) and Tech-Ed. Andrew is also the creator and developer of Community Megaphone , a site designed for promoting and finding developer community events. Andrew can be reached through his blog at https://blogs.msdn.com/gduthie . You can also follow Andrew on twitter .

Zhiming Xue “Z" is a Microsoft Architect Evangelist based in the Mid Atlantic area. He has more than 12 years of software development, consulting and IT experience, specializing in enterprise application architecture, development and integration. While with Microsoft Services he played technical and architectural roles on many consulting projects for large enterprise customers in both the commercial sector and the public sector. He has presented various topics at Microsoft events and local user groups. Through his blogs and publications he has reached readers in the U.S., China and other countries and regions. He holds a Ph. D. in Management Science from the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, a professional certification from American Production and Inventory Control Society (APICS), as well as several Microsoft certifications. He can be reached through his blog at https://blogs.msdn.com/zxue .