MSDN FLASH IRELAND - INTERNATIONAL RESOURCES - 17 NOVEMBER 2008

Top News Developers Seeing Blue at PDC: Windows Azure Unveiled Register to try the community preview of Azure Services Platform and build new applications in the cloud - or use interoperable services that run on Microsoft infrastructure to extend and enhance your existing applications. Watch Ray Ozzie's keynote or read the transcript of Ozzie's address. Windows 7 for Developers This guide describes features and includes vivid screenshots from the pre-Beta version released at PDC. Build applications on a solid foundation, enable richer application experiences, and integrate the best of Windows and Web services. News for Students Imagine Cup Game Development Competition  The Game Development Competition challenges you to create a game with a solution that changes the world. The United Nations' Millennium Goals, which range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, are our guide to inspire you to make your project. This is a great opportunity to learn and strengthen your technical and interpersonal skills, connect with thousands of students from all over the world, get access to over 100 hours of technical e-learning and virtual labs, and be the potential winner of up to US$25,000 in the WW Finals, plus an all-expenses-paid trip to the Imagine Cup World Wide Finals in Cairo, Egypt, in July 2009. • Round 1 - Qualifying (August 29, 2008 - March 1, 2009) Required deliverables: Game demo; short, playable video game application; short description of the game including its premise, unique gameplay features, and how it addresses the 2009 Imagine Cup theme; and gameplay instructions. • Round 2 - Semi-Finals (March 2, 2009 - May 20, 2009)  If you are invited to advance to compete in round 2, your team must create and submit the following material: A 100% playable video game application, based on the game demo submitted in round 1; game summary; three (3) game screenshots; gameplay instructions; and game video. Fun links: • Win an Xbox360 by Participating in Microphone • Follow HilaryP on Twitter for Daily News for Students • Thirsty Developer Interviews Women in Technology Silverlight 2 Launches  Silverlight 2 is now available, and students can develop applications for free! Springboard blog covers the release for students, from free developer tools for Silverlight to free e-learning. Just getting started with Silverlight? Check out the quick video How Do I Add Silverlight to an Existing Web Site?  Free e-Books Microsoft Press has a set of free e-books to launch your learning with Visual Studio 2008. The free e-book offer includes: • Programming Microsoft LINQ by Paolo Pialorsi and Marco Russo • Introducing Microsoft Silverlight 2, Second Edition by Laurence Moroney • Programming Microsoft ASP.NET 3.5 by Dino Esposito Microsoft Offers Free Retake on Certification Exams - and an Academic Discount!  Students and faculty are eligible for the Academic Second Shot program. You get two shots at passing the Microsoft 072 Certification exam, and your first exam is offered at an academic discount! For students on a budget, Microsoft's free Second Shot offer is a great opportunity to validate your skill set and upgrade your resume. Register here. Featured Content The SUPER PROmotion Through March 27, 2009, customers who purchase at least 10 licenses of Microsoft Office Visio Professional 2007 or Microsoft Office Project Professional 2007 through a new or true-up Enterprise Agreement or Select License Agreement with Microsoft Software Assurance can earn up to 15% back on ERP in Microsoft partner subsidy funds. Make Your Life a Lot Easier with Hyper-V Virtualization can make your life much easier when it comes to modeling and creating a test environment with a specific OS and set of applications. But how do you get started? Download the Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit to see if your existing servers can be virtualized into a consolidated virtual environment for your development and test. Microsoft Visual Studio Tools for Applications (VSTA) 2.0 Microsoft Visual Studio Tools for Applications (VSTA) 2.0 enables your customers to extend your product, leveraging their existing knowledge of Microsoft's Visual Studio environment. The Microsoft VSTA 2.0 SDK is now available for download from the Summit Software Web site. Security Development Lifecycle: Three New Programs As part of its commitment to make the Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) available to every developer, Microsoft is delivering three new SDL programs and tools this month: the SDL Pro Network, the SDL Optimization Model, and the Microsoft SDL Threat Modeling Tool. These offerings will enable the industry to create more secure and privacy-enhanced technology for an online world. Learn more about these programs or watch a demo about the SDL Threat Modeling Tool. Accessing and Using a Mapping Web Service from a Custom Task Pane in Word 2007 Create a Word 2007 add-in that includes a custom task pane which is launched by a ribbon button. The task pane connects to the Microsoft TerraService mapping Web service and allows you to insert the map into a Word document. Preparing InfoPath Templates to Use in Groove 2007 Use an InfoPath 2007 sample template as the basis for a Groove InfoPath Forms tool, adding your own customization, or without design or layout changes. Performing Incremental Crawling with the Business Data Catalog in SharePoint Server 2007 Learn to create a Business Data Catalog application definition file in SharePoint Server 2007 that supports incremental crawling. Introducing Front Runner for Innovate On SQL Server 2008 Whether you are looking to build, upgrade, or migrate your packaged application on Microsoft SQL Server 2008, you should consider joining the Front Runner for Innovate On program. By joining the initiative, you will receive technical and marketing support to help you be one of the first to go to market with an application built on SQL Server 2008. SQL Server 2008 Promotion - Get on the Case Begin training now and become a master of Microsoft SQL Server 2008. You'll learn to control powerful new features, taking your skills to the next level. Your efforts will be rewarded. Prove your heroic new abilities in our game, and you could win an incredible prize. Evaluation Center Download the Newly Released Windows HPC Server 2008 Trial A wide range of software vendors, in various verticals, have been designing their applications to work seamlessly with Windows HPC Server 2008 so that users can submit and monitor jobs from within familiar applications without having to learn new or complex user interfaces. Download the 180-day trial software and receive valuable resources delivered at convenient intervals throughout the software evaluation period. .NET KB Articles FIX: On a computer that is running the .NET Framework 2.0 Service Pack 1, the file name and the line number are not reported as part of an error message if a Visual C# Web site project is in a directory that has a name that contains parentheses FIX: The return type or the out argument of an ASMX service method that includes a property that has an internal setter may not be serialized on a computer that has the .NET Framework installed FIX: When a .NET Framework 2.0-based application sends e-mail messages by using the System.Net.Mail namespace, the FQDN is not sent when you send a HELO or EHLO command Versioning the publisher policy file for your assemblies  RSS Feeds.NET Framework 2.0 | .NET Framework 1.1 Visual Studio 2008, Visual Studio 2005, and Visual Studio .NET KB Articles PRB: A pinning pointer passed to variable-argument function causes System.BadImageFormatException Hosting a WPF Control in MFC and Enable Cut-and-Paste Performance issues in compute-intensive VC++ application after upgrade from VS 2003 to VS 2005  RSS FeedsVisual Studio 2008 | Visual Studio 2005 | Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition | Visual Studio .NET 2003 | Visual Studio .NET 2002 SQL Server and Data Access KB Articles FIX: A memory leak occurs when you repeatedly invoke a trigger that contains the RAISERROR statement by using a SQLCLR stored procedure in SQL Server 2005 FIX: A SQL Server Agent job that creates a ServerXMLHTTP object by using an ActiveX script remains in the Executing status and is never completed in SQL Server 2005 FIX: When you run a query that contains a JOIN operation in SQL Server 2005, and the ON clause of the JOIN operator contains a LIKE predicate, the query runs slower than in SQL Server 2000  RSS FeedsSQL Server 2005 | SQL Server 2000 | SQL Server 2000 Analysis Services Web Resources PDC2008 Available Anywhere, Anytime If you weren't able to make PDC2008 in person, fear not, code warrior; with PDC2008 sessions available online, you can code on while experiencing the future of the Microsoft technology platform. Watch the keynotes and more than 160 sessions available online. This is where you'll learn about Windows 7, Cloud Services, and the future of a bevy of other products. Startup 101 with Bob Walsh On-Demand Web Seminar Series Startup 101 is a set of four Microsoft sponsored on-demand webinars for developers creating software companies. In each session, Bob Walsh, noted Micro ISV/startup expert, addresses the burning questions you have for authorities on legal considerations, accounting, selling software to businesses and resources to help you build your company. On-Demand Webcast: Interoperability Between Managed and Native Code In this webcast, we show you the basics of P/Invoke. In the second part of this webcast, we show how you can use existing COM objects inside your managed applications. Of course, both P/Invoking into native code and using COM objects inside managed applications are illustrated by a number of code samples. On Demand Webcast: Using Pocket Outlook Data inside a Managed Application In this sample-filled webcast, we show you how to retrieve, use, and store PIM data inside your own managed applications through the Windows Mobile Managed APIs that ship as part of the Windows Mobile 5.0 and Windows Mobile 6 software development kits (SDKs). Windows XP Professional for Embedded Systems Attend this webcast to learn how you can take advantage of the full power of the Windows XP Professional operating system. Virtual Lab: A SharePoint Developer Introduction - Workflow After completing this lab, you will be better able to build a simple workflow that sends an e-mail when a user adds a document to a document library, build a workflow that creates a task when a user adds a meeting request to a calendar, and modify a workflow to send the administrator a reminder e-mail if a period of time has passed without a resolution to the meeting request. Virtual Lab: Visual Studio 2008 Windows Communication Foundation and REST 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. Virtual Lab: Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Installation and Configuration After completing this lab you will be more familiar with the installation and configuration options available in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, such as installing a new farm, configuring global workflow settings, configuring incoming e-mail, administrative tasks, farm topology, provisioning new web applications and configuring alternate forms-based authentication. geekSpeak Podcast: SharePoint Wikis with David MannWMA (17 MB) | MP3 (15 MB) For this geekSpeak, David Mann, who was recently on geekSpeak in August 2008, returns for some more engaging discussion on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server. This time, David enlightens us on best practices for implementing wiki sites using SharePoint Server. Security for Developers SDL Series - Article #1: Investigating the Security Development Lifecycle at Microsoft This article is the first in the "SDL series" - a set of 8 articles investigating the Microsoft Security Development Lifecycle. In this series, through extensive interviews and research, the authors pull back the covers on Microsoft's Security Development Lifecycle e- a development practice upon which millions of users (and billions of dollars) depend. Applying SDL Principles to Legacy Code MS08-067 and the SDL Good Hygiene and Banned APIs Test Your Security IQ Threat Models Improve Your Security Process Agile SDL More Security... Training Free E-book Offer: Introducing Microsoft Silverlight 2 Get free e-book chapters about Silverlight 2, LINQ, and ASP.NET 3.5. Preview a chapter and sign up for the free download offer to get additional content. Find Great Deals on Training at the SQL Server 2008 Experience • 40% off select SQL Server 2008 books • 40% off the Microsoft Press E-Reference Libraries subscription fee • 20% off E-Learning Collection 2778: Writing Queries Using SQL Server 2008 • Free E-Learning Course 4331BE: Modifying Data in Tables in Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Free SQL Server 2008 Downloadable E-Book Offer Written by Industry experts Peter DeBetta, Greg Low, and Mark Whitehorn, Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2008 will lead you through major new features in SQL Server 2008, including security, administration, performance, high availability, and business intelligence. Get a Free Retake on Windows Server 2008 Certification Exams Get a second chance to pass your Windows Server 2008 certification exam with Second Shot. When you register for Second Shot, you will receive a free retake if you don't pass on your first attempt. Through December 31 you'll also get 25% off a future exam if you pass on the first try. Free Developing Applications Using Visual Basic 2008 or Developing Applications Using Visual C# 2008 Training Download Learn the basics involved in building Windows applications using Visual Studio 2008 with award-winning training from AppDev. Each download includes more than 1 hour of media runtime along with courseware, labs, and sample code. Case Studies Solution Provider Explores Flexible New Cloud Platform to Cut Costs and Expand Business Pitney Bowes expects to gain flexibility, cut costs, and expand its business with the Azure Services Platform from Microsoft. Infosys Creates Cloud-Based Solution for Auto Dealers using SQL Data Services To create its hub-in-the-cloud solution it needed a cloud-based database, which it found in Microsoft SQL Data Services, part of the Microsoft Services Platform. SQL Server 2008 Runs 6.5-Terabyte SAP ERP Database to Support Microsoft Worldwide Microsoft upgraded to the beta edition of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 to take advantage of new features, including data compression, backup compression, and some enhancements to existing features like database mirroring. More Case Studies... Partner News LEADTOOLS Imaging SDKs v.16 Ships Download a free 60-day evaluation with tech support. Get a Trial, Get a T-shirt There is a better way to manage software projects. Try VersionOne's Agile Project Management Software, rated #1 by users, and get a free T-shirt. Download the SpreadsheetGear 2008: Free Fully Functional 30-Day Evaluation Design dashboards, reports, charts, calculations and business rules in Excel 2003 or Excel 2007 and deploy them with SpreadsheetGear 2008. Improve .NET Code Quality with Free Trial Download DevPartner Studio Professional Edition 9.0 enhances code quality with automatic detection and diagnosis of software defects, performance problems, and security vulnerabilities. Develop Absolutely Free with Visual WebGui 6.2 - VS Express Combination The free SDK available for download now features compatibility with the free Express Edition of Visual Studio. Download Visual WebGui and start developing advanced Web applications. Teamprise Remote Accelerator for Team Foundation Server Free Trial Teamprise Remote Accelerator is a single-user download proxy that provides remote developers with fast access to TFS. Get the free 30-day trial. Download a 30-Day Free Trial of the Altova MissionKit Available in multiple configurations, the Altova MissionKit offers an integrated suite of XML, database, and UML tools.