Software Development in the Real World

Visual Studio 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 Beta

Scott Gu has an awesome write up on the upcoming Service Pack for Visual Studio and the .net Framework 3.5.  Make sure you check it out here.

With Service Pack 1, Visual Studio 2008 introduces a large assortment of new features for targeting Windows, Office, and the Web. Developers building .NET-basedapplications will enjoy improved performance in the WPF designer, new components for Visual Basic and Visual C++, as well as an MFC-based Office 2007 Ribbon. Web developers will see continued improvement in the client-side script tooling including JavaScript IntelliSense. Additionally, full support for SQL Server 2008, the ADO.NET Entity Framework and performance improvements for the IDE make Service Pack 1 a great release across the board.

The .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 delivers more controls, a streamlined setup, improved start-up performance, and powerful new graphics features for client development and rich data scaffolding, improved AJAX support, and other improvements for Web development. Additionally it introduces the ADO.NET Entity Framework and ADO.NET Data Services, which simplify data access code in applications by providing an extensible, conceptual model for data from any data source and enabling this model to closely reflect business requirements.

Download Visual Studio 2008 and .net Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 Beta

Microsoft and RIM Bring Windows Live to BlackBerry

One annoying thing about using a BlackBerry has always been the fact that some of the Live Services that work so well on Windows Mobile Devices don't work at all on the BlackBerry.  Sounds like Microsoft and RIM will be solving the issue shortly!

For enterprise users, this won't mean much, but for consumers that go out and buy BlackBerry's and don't have a BES Server, this means you can sign up to Microsoft as your email provider, and have the email "pushed" to your device.  Google has GMail for Blackberry, but it is not push technology.

The integration of Windows Live services into the BlackBerry platform will allow customers who use Windows Live Hotmail and Windows Live Messenger on their BlackBerry smartphone to benefit from the BlackBerry platform architecture with the ability to communicate in real time using push technology, and an exceptional mobile communications experience. Customers will also be able to seamlessly access their Windows Live Hotmail and Windows Live Messenger account from their BlackBerry smartphone by simply entering their Windows Live e-mail address and password once.

“The BlackBerry platform is respected around the world for providing optimized messaging capabilities, and RIM continues to look for ways to provide customers with a wide range of communications options and the best possible mobile experience,” said Mark Guibert, vice president, Corporate Marketing at RIM. “Our relationship with Microsoft and the addition of Windows Live services to BlackBerry smartphones help us build on that strategy for our customers.”

These partnerships are great as they pave the way for things like Silverlight on BlackBerry's, and other cool ideas.

Read the Press Release from Microsoft here.

Software Development Tools Free From Microsoft

Microsoft has launched a new initiative called DreamSpark with one simple goal, giving students professional software development and design tools at no cost.  It's a great initiative as it will enable students at any level to start developing with some of the best software development tools available.  For the amount of jobs out there for .net developers, and lack of qualified candidates, this should really help students get introduced to the .net technologies early!  It's not just Microsoft that has a vested interest in students learning to work with the latest and greatest technologies, its everyone.

Technology continues to drive our economy, governments, and our future.  It's nice to see Microsoft taking some initiative and offering up some ways to save money to students that are already broke enough.  I still remember working tech support till 2 am in 96 to try and save enough money to buy Visual Basic.

If you are a student, simply go to the DreamSpark site, and sign up.  Within minutes you will be able to download any of the following products absolutely free:

 

Who knows, if you are a student and are able to come up with some cool applications, you could be on your way to France for the Imagine Cup! The Imagine Cup is another way Microsoft is encouraging students to apply their imagination, their passion and their creativity to technology innovations that can make a difference in the world.  This years theme is the environment.

Silverlight will be smaller than...

Is Silverlight's best kept secret still to come?  I think so.  Scott Guthrie is the man behind the Silverlight project (and other wicked Microsoft Dev Project), and in a recent interview on Channel 9, he explained how he holds people's feet to the fire to keep the runtime small, and keeping the code tight!

"Not in a minute, not in thirty seconds, but much faster!"

Scott Guthrie: What's Coming for Mix, Part 1: IIS7 for Developers

This is exciting, because as cool as Silverlight is, if it's not installed on every machine, or if it's too hard to install on people's machines, then it's not going to take off.  If its small, dare I say smaller than flash, and simple to install, then you are going to see MASSIVE adoption of Silverlight.  If you can throw the CLR in there, and keep it small, INSANE

Cross Domain Network Access! Speed!  Awesome beautiful web sites... Silverlight rocks!

 

Technorati Tags: Silverlight

Busy few months

It's been an extremely busy few months, both from a personal side, and a business side.  Over the next few weeks I will slowly begin writing fresh new content for Software Development in the Real World.

Miguel Carrasco

Software Development in the Real World Podcast!

First a Big Thank You!

A big welcome to all the new readers via Digg, Technorati, DZone, and del.icio.us!  Thanks for all your support, and great comments over the last few weeks.  For those that are not aware, Software Development in the Real World has grown nearly 1,000 percent in traffic over the last two weeks! 

I'm humbled, and excited to have all of these new readers, and look forward to feeding your thirst for knowledge over the next few years!  Although we are very far in software development, we still have even further to go!  It's exciting times to be in this industry!  Lets share our knowledge together, grow together, and live with undeniable passion for software development and our quality of lives!

Help Spread the word!

If you have not done so yet, help spread software development by adding this blog as your Technorati favorite! We started a contest to give away a free iPod once we are number 1 on Technorati!  We are actually nearly at the top 100!  we only need about 200 more favorite additions to make it!  Spreading the word will help us get better speakers, guest blogger's, and help make this blog a really awesome place to visit daily!

Software Development Podcast Coming Soon!

That's right!  Software Development in the Real World will be introducing a brand new podcast in the next few weeks!  We are really looking forward to starting the Software Development in the Real World podcast! We are planning on interviewing some of the most amazing software developers, managers, CEO's, and founders across the software industry.

Another great feature is you will see in the coming weeks is audio enabled RSS feeds!  This will allow you to easily subscribe to our audio RSS feed, and listen to our blog on your iPod or other MP3 player!  My lovely wife Erin will be voicing the new audio enabled RSS feeds!

If any of you have specific software developers, architects, CEO's, or blogger's you would like to see featured, please let us know via comments below!  All podcasts will also be converted to text for your downloading pleasure.

 

Technorati Tags: software development podcast, podcast, software development