MSDN FLASH IRELAND - INTERNATIONAL RESOURCES - 30 January 2009

 
Top News
MSDN Subscribers: Come and Get It - the Windows 7 Beta Is HereMSDN Subscribers, now you can try the Beta. We've assembled some special resources, including forums staffed by experts, feature walkthroughs, and FAQs. Download the Windows 7 Beta now from Top Downloads.
This release (formally known as Windows 7 Server) includes enhancements in virtualization, Web platform, management, scalability, and reliability. New features also ensure greater integration with Windows 7 for scenarios such as security, remote access, and branch office infrastructure.

Featured Content
This article examines how Microsoft uses defense-in-depth at an organization level to ensure that there are many opportunities to detect and remove software vulnerabilities. You'll see how security responsibilities are assigned from individual developers, up through the global security team.
Security doesn't start with coding, it starts with secure design. In this article, you'll see how Microsoft uses threat modeling to ensure secure design and prevent vulnerabilities that could not be fixed with simple coding changes.
Some technologies that Microsoft has just made available for licensing might make developers really sit up and take notice. Check out these exciting new areas:
Cell2Notify - cell phone energy management architecture
Microsoft Research Deinterlacer - convert interlaced video
Microsoft Research Frame Interpolator - change the frame rate of videos
Wi-fi hand-off to diversified base stations - seamless Internet and VoIP to vehicles by hops to multiple base stations simultaneously for improved network stability
High-performance connectivity on buses - high-performance Internet access on-board moving vehicles by combining multiple wide-area wireless paths.
Undelivered or delayed e-mail notification system - notification system to make intended recipients aware of e-mail they might be missing
If you're looking at evaluating the latest user experience technologies (Silverlight, WPF) and platforms (Vista, Internet Explorer 8), Front Runner for Innovate On: User Experience offers a set of technical benefits to help you through the process.
Do you build complex, enterprise-level applications using the Microsoft .NET Framework? This Microsoft patterns & practices guidance is a collection of application blocks (re-usable software components), services, and quick-starts designed to assist with common enterprise development challenges.
Visual Studio Professional with MSDN Premium users can now save 30% when stepping up to any Visual Studio Team System edition. In addition, you can now get the Database Edition at no extra cost with the Development Edition with MSDN Premium.
Through January 30, MSDN Flash subscribers can get the new AppDev OnDemand Learning Library for SharePoint 2007 for just US$495. You'll get a full year of online access to six in-depth courses covering SharePoint - administration, development, Web content management, business processes, and portals.
This Ramp Up learning track has been tailored specifically to provide you with the core information you need to start successfully developing with Microsoft Visual C# 2005 on the Microsoft .NET Framework.
.NET KB Articles
Visual Studio 2008, Visual Studio 2005, and Visual Studio .NET KB Articles
SQL Server and Data Access KB Articles
Team Development, Source Control, and Testing KB Articles

Web Resources
In this series of Web seminars, you'll learn the critical concepts behind S+S, and learn how to get started on the road to a successful S+S implementation.
Learn how to consume an ADO.NET Data Service from within a WPF application. ADO.NET Data Services provide a way to query and extract data from a data store. We will see how LINQ gets translated into the required RESTful service request to return a subset of data.
See how to bind data to WPF controls in data templates. We will use the Binding markup extension to describe which class members are bound to which control properties. We'll also see how these data templates can be reused for multiple controls.
Discover how to use ASP.NET Dynamic Data to create data-driven Web applications or build model view controller (MVC) applications with the ASP.NET page framework. Test-drive the AJAX features of ASP.NET 3.5 in a virtual lab or watch an on-demand webcast.
See how to use .COM branding to brand your Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 site. Create and use master pages to add search functionality to your site, in addition to social networking content, including blogs, wikis, and personal profiles.
We explore the built-in Internet Explorer 8 features that help developers build standards-based Web applications. By exposing how the browser interprets a Web page, the developer tools provide many opportunities to research and resolve problems faster than has been possible with the previous versions of Internet Explorer.
Learn how to set the difficulty curve of the game and make levels. We also discuss testing the game, making final adjustments to the game, and getting it ready for release. We explore how to take the game further with simple expansion possibilities.
In this webcast, we focus on the necessary process and steps to configure all the elements of enabling forms-based authentication. We explain how this has been achieved in our development environment, Adventure Works.
This lab will serve as an introduction to creating Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) services. It will also illustrate how a WCF service can easily be adopted to meet the ever-changing needs of service-based software by adapting the service we create to use REST.
After completing this lab, you will be better able to implement a resource access layer that interacts with an existing Microsoft SQL Server database, use the LINQ to SQL Designer to create LINQ to SQL entity classes and associations (relationships) based on tables in a database, manage the DataContext and use where clauses, perform joins, order the results, and handle conflict detection.
In this lab you will use the powerful new CSS editor in Visual Studio 2008 to manage styles sheets in Web pages. You will also try out other new tools like the new DataPager control and the new LINQ Data Source.
Security for Developers
Check out Martin's excellent talk at Microsoft Research, Secure Code Generation for Web Applications, plus three more security-related videos.
Training
Increase your marketability and job security by earning your Microsoft Certification. Now when you register for Second Shot, you will receive one free retake for each paid exam if you don't pass on your first attempt.
Receive a free copy of SQL Server 2008 when you attend select SQL Server 2008 courses with Microsoft Certified Partners for Learning Solutions. Limited-time offer.
Visit the Learning Portal to find all Microsoft Learning products that support Visual Studio 2008. You'll find certification information, free Learning Snacks, and special offers on books, e-learning, classroom training, and more.
Written by industry experts, Understanding Microsoft Virtualization Solutions will teach you about the benefits of the latest virtualization technologies and how to plan, implement, and manage virtual infrastructure solutions.
Begin training now and become a master of Microsoft SQL Server 2008. Your efforts will be rewarded. Prove your heroic new abilities in our game, and you could win an incredible prize. You'll need dedication, intelligence, and intuition. Are you up to the challenge?
Help your organization manage any data, any place, any time. Promote your abilities to store, manage, and optimize this data with a certification on Microsoft SQL Server 2008. Study the SQL Server 2008 certification roadmap. Contact Prometric to learn what times are available for MCTS and MCITP exams in your area.
Case Studies
CCP, the publisher of the massively multiplayer game EVE Online, is turning to Windows HPC Server 2008 to improve performance, enable scaling to more computers, and facilitate easier management of a supercomputing environment.
The Katholieke Universiteit Leuven used to rely solely on a Linux-based high-performance computing (HPC) environment to process research data, but several researchers were unfamiliar with Linux or already used applications that were not compatible with that system.
Aerospace engineering firm a.i. solutions, Inc. adopted Windows HPC Server 2008 to keep up with the increasingly complex computational needs of its customers.
Partner News
Download a free 30-day evaluation of NI Measurement Studio or try it online in minutes.
Telerik now offers four of its products for free: OpenAccess ORM Express, Sitefinity CMS Community edition, RadEditor Lite for MOSS, and RadFormDecorator for ASP.NET AJAX.
Add Excel-compatible reporting, dashboards, charts, calculations and more to your ASP.NET and Windows Forms applications.