Tech·Ed North America 2009 is just days away. If you are fortunate enough to be going to Los Angeles for the event, you will have many opportunities to make and renew your user group contacts. INETA would like to invite you to take part in the many community opportunities. From the many diverse topics and conversations of the Birds of Feather sessions and the diversity conversations of the WomenBuild Women in Technology session to the information, conversation and just plain fun and games at the INETA Community Lounge booth in the Technical Learning Center, there will be something for everyone.

Stop by the INETA booth for your chance to meet other members of the community including INETA Speakers Bureau members, INETA board members and user group leaders and members from all over. Get some ideas for your local group's next big event or regular meetings. Give INETA some feedback on how things are going for you, your latest great idea for building community and the kinds of things would help you run YOUR group? Or just take a break from the hustle and bustle of the conference and kick back for a few minutes.

If you aren't making the trek to California this time, you can still take part in the online Tech·Ed experience at www.microsoft.com/techedonline.

In addition to lots of details about the various programs at Tech·Ed, this newsletter contains details about your free Live Meeting account, an INETA User Group membership benefit, a new Windows Client article on developing for the Microsoft Surface, details on the on-going INETA LIVE webcast series and INETA:Career webinar series, details on a new Azure developer contest, new Cloud(), plus information to start getting you up-to-speed on Microsoft Azure to enter that contest and several special offers for training, certification, and events.

Finally, there are community events and upcoming INETA speaker events as well as how you can keep in touch with INETA.  Enjoy!

If you plan on attending Tech·Ed, stop by the INETA booth in the Technical Learning Center Community Lounge for your chance to meet other members of the community, including members of the INETA Board, speakers from the INETA Speakers Bureau and User Group leaders from all over.  The INETA Walk of Fame will feature well known INETA Speakers Bureau stars and up and coming stars from local communities.  Come by and add yourself to the Wall of Stars.

During Tech·Ed, like always, we want to hear from you! What can we do to make INETA better? What can you do to help INETA? Got a question about running a user group? Want to start a new group? Want to get out and share your knowledge with others? Long story short, this is your chance to get your voice heard!

Stop by the INETA booth to register to win one of several great prizes, one of which is a Dell Mini 10 NetBook.^*  Winners will be drawn on Thursday evening at the Community Night event. Oh, and don't forget to pick up your Birds-of-a-Feather blinky flamingo pin. Take part in the fun and games and leave with some treasure from the ".NET of prizes".  See you at Tech·Ed.

^*INETA reserves the right to substitute a similar item with comparable value.

Once again INETA and Culminis are organizing the Birds-of-a-Feather (BOF) sessions at Tech·Ed in Los Angeles, May 11-15, 2009. These open discussion sessions on a variety of technology topics are led by volunteer moderators. There are daytime BOF sessions (Room 501A) and a special BOF event with 16 sessions Thursday evening, May 14, as part of the "Jam on IT" night. If you are interested in seeing the BOF session topics, visit http://www.msteched.com/sessionlist/default.aspx and search on “BOF”.

Microsoft will be hosting their next WomenBuild (LEGO Serious Play) event at Tech·Ed. This hands-on process draws on the power of creative thinking to shift group conversation from talking heads to collaborating, focused minds. Through this interactive workshop, participants will share real life experiences, network and build on-going relationships with other Tech·Ed attendees (both women and men) who are interested in finding solutions to the challenge of involving more women in technical careers.  Both MEN and WOMEN are welcome. All attendees will receive a complimentary WomenBuild Lego kit.

Did you know that one of the benefits of INETA membership is a free Live Meeting account? Regular and virtual groups can use this benefit to give and record presentations. If you have not requested your Live Meeting account, contact your INETA Membership Mentor.

An hour-long Live Meeting training entitled "Best Practices for Presenting Using Live Meeting" is being offered to help you get started managing virtual presentations in collaborative, online events, and eLearning scenarios. The training course is being presented at Noon Eastern (US and Canada) on May 5, 12, 19 or 26 or at 1:00 Eastern (US and Canada) on May 8.  Register at https://events.livemeeting.com/967/10267/reg.aspx

We'll have more details on using Live Meeting for your events in upcoming issues but this blog post written by Zach Young may help get you started: Setting Up LiveMeeting for a User Group. Zach is the President of the Northwest Arkansas .NET User Group (http://www.nwadnug.org/).

new CloudApp(): The Azure Services Platform Developer Contest

new CloudApp() is a US-based developer challenge to promote the new opportunities and innovative ideas developers are creating with cloud computing on the Azure Services Platform.

Write an application running on Windows Azure and the Azure Services Platform. .NET and PHP category applications will be judged by industry leaders, Om Malik and Michael Cote. Entries will be evaluated based on user experience and user interface, innovation and creativity of the application, applicability to cloud computing, and real-world applicability of the application. The overall Community winner will be decided by public voting.

Microsoft employees are not eligible to participate in this contest.

Contest Dates

• Monday, May 4: Contest Open
• Thursday, June 18: Submission deadline
• Friday,June 19: Community voting starts
• Thursday, June 25: .NET and PHP Category winners announced at Structure 09
• Monday, June 29: Community voting ends
• Tuesday, June 30: Community winner announced

What do Contestants Win?

Winning submissions will:

• Be featured on www.azure.com as well as at major Microsoft events
• Be featured in a video interview on Channel 9 with the application author
• Winner will be announced at Structure 09
• Receive cash ($):
• .NET Applications Category winner: $5,000 Visa gift card
• PHP Applications Category winner: $5,000 Visa gift card
• Community winner: $2,500 Visa gift card

Contestants can choose to submit one entry in either the .NET or the PHP applications category. Azure applications that have already been built can be submitted for the contest. Valid submissions are limited to residents 18 years or old of the 50 United States and District of Columbia.

Call To Action

• Pass along to developers and encourage them to enroll in the contest today at www.newcloudapp.com
• Blog and tweet (#newCloudApp) about the contest and encourage the developer community to do the same.

Learn More

Resources for learning more about SQL Services and the Microsoft Azure Services Platform are available here:

• Public Contest Website: http://www.newcloudapp.com
• Public Azure Website: http://www.azure.com

Get more details at http://www.newcloudapp.com

The Microsoft Surface is a table-like computer with massive multi-touch capabilities that allow for collaborative experiences. You touch the Surface and interact naturally with your data, rather than using a mouse or keyboard. For the next step in this “Windows Client Development” series, we’ll take a look at developing for the Surface using the Surface SDK.

Are you familiar with WPF? If so, you’re most of the way there! Many of the Surface controls derive from and have similar functionality to corresponding WPF controls, but provide extra functionality for the Surface. For example, the WPF Window has very close functionality to the Surface’s SurfaceWindow, except the SurfaceWindow runs full screen on the Surface (because all Surface apps run maximized on the Surface space) and automatically orients the display toward the user (since the Surface is a 360-degree environment). The table below illustrates some examples of WPF controls, the equivalent Surface controls, and the extra functionality that the Surface control gives to support the Surface multi-touch experience.

Now, there are some special facets of Surface applications: they are highly collaborative because you have a 360-degree view of the application, and you can set objects on the Surface top and it can recognize and respond to them. To support this amazing experience, there are two additional classes that you should know (both in the namespace Microsoft.Surface.Presentation.Controls):

ScatterView: This control quickly enables 360-degree applications. Using data binding as you would in WPF, you can connect a ScatterView to a directory of images and the control will artfully scatter the pictures across the Surface top. It also standardizes the manipulations for resizing, moving, and rotating the pictures.

TagVisualizer: This control (along with TagVisualization and TagVisualizationDefinition) allows the Surface to recognize and respond to objects. For example, let’s say that when you set a coffee mug on the Surface top, you want a coaster visualization to appear on the Surface below it. To accomplish this, the steps are:

1. Create a TagVisualization which contains the XAML to display a coaster.
2. Put a physical tag on the coffee mug (tags are included with the Surface unit).
3. Create a TagVisualizer, which contains a TagVisualizationDefinition. This maps the TagVisualization to the tag’s value, enabling the coaster visualization to appear when the tagged coffee mug is placed on the Surface.

The Surface SDK is not publicly available at this time. (However, if your company is interested in developing a serious Surface development expertise, contact me through my blog.) As you can see, you can leverage your existing WPF skills, learn a few new classes which support the additional functionality that the Surface provides, and be ready to develop Surface applications in no time.

Jennifer Marsman
Senior Developer Evangelist, Microsoft Corporation
Blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/jennifer
Twitter: http://twitter.com/jennifermarsman

INETA Live Webcast Series

What is INETA Live?

INETA Live is a forum for virtual events and webcasts via Microsoft Live Meeting.

What can I present?

Whatever you want! Speakers can present a full presentation that they may present to user groups, or this can be an intro to one of their talks, or a topic of current interest. The choice is completely up to you!

When do the webcasts happen?

INETA Live webcasts are typically done during the week at 12 noon or 8pm eastern time. Feel free to request other arrangements if these times do not work for you.

Hosts

Each presentation and speaker will be introduced by a meeting host who will also serve to field audience questions to the speaker.

Recording

The presentation will be recorded for later viewing on INETA Live.

What next?

If you are interested in doing an INETA Live presentation, please contact Steve Andrews (steve.andrews@ineta.org).

Three INETA Live webcasts were presented in April and will be available shortly online at the INETA Live site (http://live.ineta.com).

   A Lap Around Silverlight 3 was presented by Pete Brown on April 21, 2009
   Visual Studio 2008 Tips and Tricks was presented by Steve Andrews on Aril 22, 2009
   Design Patterns in .NET was presented by Claudio Lassala on April 27, 2009

Got Work? INETA: Career Webinars Series

We know that times might be tough right now, and we want to help! INETA in partnership with Sherlock Technology (http://sherstaff.com) is pleased to present the INETA: Career Webinars Series. So if you need help seeking new employment, tweaking your resume, or better positioning yourself at your current job this webcast series is for you! Attend them live via LiveMeeting or watch the recordings on INETA Live (http://live.ineta.org).  Hector Hernandez and Alex Funkhouser of Sherlock Technology Staffing will present.

Recorded Webcasts

You don't need talent to succeed, but Everything else Counts... was presented by Hector Hernandez on April 30, 2009

Upcoming Webcasts

*All times are Eastern US/Canada

How to talk to your manager about your career and actually make it happen... - May 21, 2009, 6:00 PM

This career discussion will help you with the following questions and suggest some career changing ideas that can put you in the right position to compete and meet your aspirations. When I start my job, how do I initiate a conversation about my future? Is this normal, and when do I do this? I am relatively new and I work from home—how do I obtain guidance to move my career forward? How do I use social networks to increase my chances of moving my career and professional relationships forward? How do I get others to recognize my leadership skills and contributions?. Everyone around us is like a recruiter. Managers, supervisors and executives are always looking for that special individual who can bring leadership into the organization, regardless if you are inside or outside the company. Everything we do on daily basis counts and matters, when studies show that close to 35% of resumes contain inaccuracies, screening becomes difficult. We need to be able to back up the resume with explanations of how our skills were applied and accomplishments achieved. All of this can be learned and applied for success. These and many more questions are explored with real tips on how you can write a great resume, move your career and your life in a positive direction.
Register

Unlocking the hidden value of your organization through people, technology and innovation... - June 4, 2009, 6:00 PM

The implications of collaborative innovation are many—the most important being its potential to reshape not just individual enterprises, but whole industries, perhaps even entire economies. Hector believes in investing in innovation in good and bad times. This session covers the alignment of business and technology to create a flexible environment that fosters innovation without permission. How do we get the most out of your employees and how does the employee get the most out of management. Its a WIN-WIN proposition. This session will provide insights on how to unlock all of the assets that are hidden in an organization. i.e., technical, communications, services, experiences, and most important, the employees capabilities and desires. Unlocking thought leadership and innovation is at the heart of this presentation.
Register

Unlock YOUR potential, by Applying the New Language of Business - CTRL-ALT-DEL your Career - June 18, 2009, 6:00 PM

Your capacity for change and growth will determine your full potential. The global landscape and a new language of business is now a key differentiator and a competitive weapon you can use to advance your career. The individuals who understand the new global requirements for aligning business and technology and think like "T" thinkers increase their opportunities for job advancement and success. The implications of collaborative innovation are many, the most important being its potential to reshape not just individual enterprises, but whole industries, perhaps even entire economies. Hector believes that you need to invest in yourself in good and bad times. What can you do now to get ready to compete in these challenging economic times? What is the new vocabulary that needs to be part of your resume. You need to have compelling reasons on why you are the right candidate. The resume is your infomercial to landing a job or a promotion. This session will help you unlock your inner capabilities to manifest your career and personal desires/aspirations. It will also provide you with tactics and strategies to increase your chances for career advancement by understanding the new language of business and having your resume reflected.
Register

Show off your best Azure thinking at a national event!

Don't pass up the chance to showcase your brilliant Azure thinking to a host of influentials and potential clients. Submit session ideas for the Web 2.0 Expo in NYC, Nov 16-19. The deadline is 5/26/2009.

Web 2.0 Expo is a mixture of implementation and inspiration, so attendees know what they need to do in the next 6 months, and what going to happen in the next 18. Case studies, war stories, and technological deep-dives are encouraged. Get smarter:

• Craft a session idea that speaks broadly to the larger community conversation about a certain topic, bring your insights that can be applied to tough issues versus simply pitching the Azure technology solution.
• Review the Top 5 Do's and Don'ts for proposals, conference tracks and session formats
• Review sessions from the previous Web 2.0 Expos: New York, San Francisco

Azure How Do I Videos Available

The Azure "How Do I" videos are free, task-oriented, and "bite-sized" to get you up to speed quickly.  See the Azure Services Platform in action without the CTP

An example of one of the "How Do I" videos is Using Logging in a Windows Azure Application. Windows Azure provides a built-in framework for writing log messages from your applications. In this screen cast, you'll learn how to use the Windows Azure logging API and how to read log messages whether your application is running in the development fabric or in the cloud.

Learn More

• Webcasts (www.microsoft.com/events/series/azure.aspx)
• Training kit (www.microsoft.com/azure/trainingkit.mspx)
• Azure SDK (http://www.microsoft.com/azure/sdk.mspx)
• Sample projects to review (www.codeplex.com , search “azure”)
• Join Azure user groups (www.azureusergroup.com   )

You may be a Dev Rock Star…but 'Are You Certifiable?!?'

Have you ever considered taking a certification exam? Here's your chance to practice, in a very fun way. Choose an avatar, select your expertise, and pit yourself against a worldwide community in a quest for Tech IQ supremacy, a top spot on the leader board—and ultimate bragging rights! Are You Certifiable?!? Find out today at: www.areyoucertifiable.com

NEW! Career Assist Package – up to 90% off the usual price for one Microsoft Official E-Learning Collection, when you register for Second Shot!

In the real world, you might need more than one chance at certification. With Second Shot, if you do not pass a Microsoft IT, Developer or Dynamics certification exam on your first try, you can retake the exam for free. Academic exams are still only $60! New! Until June 30th 2009, if you register for Second Shot, you get any Microsoft E-Learning Collection for just US$35 (typically priced up to US$349) - up to 90% off!

There’s a limit of one discounted E-Learning Collection per customer, and once you’ve activated yours, it will only be available for 90 days. Whether you’re looking to start or accelerate your career, become indispensible in your current role, or build your skills to get into the technical workforce, this is a great way to maximize your certification and training budget.

Sign up for the Second Shot offer today at www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/offers/2ndshot/default.mspx.

Join Ramp Up and Help Advance Your Career - www.MyRampUp.com

Ramp Up is a free, online, community-based program that can help you save time in learning Microsoft technology. The easy-to-access content, provided by subject-matter gurus, is specifically tailored for the Ramp Up program and offered in a variety of forms, including articles, virtual labs, “codecasts” and “slidecasts.”

How Do I: Learn More About Encryption?

Join Katheryn Baker as she explains the basics behind encryption algorithms and practices used to create cryptographic schemes. Learn more about symmetric and asymmetric encryption algorithms, the SHA256 hash encryption algorithms, and how to implement in a simple application.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/security/dd442480.aspx

How Do I: Get Started with Code Access Security?

Join Katheryn Baker as she explains the basics of the integrated security model, Code Access Security, in the .Net Framework. Learn more about how Code Access Security works conceptually, and how to implement it with a simple application.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/security/dd442474.aspx

HOW DO I: Practical Entity Framework for C#: Compiled Queries in Entity Framework

With any new technology, performance implications are important to consider. If you want to get the best performance from Entity Framework queries, you should use the Compile function of the CompiledQuery class. In this video, Todd Miranda demonstrates how to use compiled queries in the Entity Framework. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vcsharp/dd565858.aspx

HOW DO I: Practical Entity Framework for C#: Entity Framework for ASP.NET

ADO Entity Framework can be used in ASP.NET as well. There are only minor things to keep in mind. In this video, Todd Miranda demonstrates how to use Entity Framework in ASP.NET.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vcsharp/dd565859.aspx

HOW DO I: Practical Entity Framework for C#: Explore Entity Framework

ADO.NET Entity Framework is an object-relational mapping (ORM) framework for Microsoft .NET. In this video, Todd Miranda explores how to use the Entity Framework to access and manipulate data from a database.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vcsharp/dd565857.aspx

Stir Trek: May 8, 2009 – Columbus, OH

We’re bringing MIX to you! For just $25 you’ll get the best of MIX at a location that is a little closer to home and in the comfort of a movie theater. Attend Stir Trek in Columbus, Ohio on May 8, 2009 to learn all about the exciting announcements from the MIX09 conference. This eventful day will include lunch, a raffle with significant prizes, AND a private screening of the new Star Trek movie, which opens in theaters the day of this event. Check out www.stirtrek.com to learn more about this unrivaled event. It will be an experience you won’t want to miss!

Upcoming Conferences

Code Camps and Other Events

Microsoft’s next generation browser Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) is all about compatibility and supporting Web standards. And it’s about key features to make it the developer platform of choice.

Compatibility

By default and by design, Windows Internet Explorer 8 displays content using its most standards-compliant mode, the IE8 Standards mode.

The Internet Explorer 8 team went to great lengths to insure compatibility with Web standards and contributed to tests that demonstrate more than 7200 test cases to the W3C.

IE8 is the browser that ships with Windows 7. And users of Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, or Windows Server 2008 are getting notified through Windows Update to update to Internet Explorer 8. So if you haven't done so already, be sure both your Web application and your customer-facing Web site are compatible with Internet Explorer 8.

As a quick fix if you haven’t done so already, you can add a tag to your Web application at the page or site to render your site in IE8 as it does in IE7. For more information, see Introducing IE=EmulateIE7. That's a short term measure though. You'll want to update your Web pages from IE7 to IE8. The Internet Explorer team has pulled together a list of the major things to look for in your pages and how to update them at Site Compatibility and IE8.

We've released some great tools to help you see how your page renders across browsers. There are developer tools inside IE8 that outline your HTML, and help you figure out how your cascading style sheets are being applied, debug your JavaScript, and much more. In addition, you can compare how your site renders in various browsers using Expression Web SuperPreview.

And while you are looking at your code, you can also add a tag that will prevent clickjacking your site. For more information, see Prevent Clickjacking on Your Site with a Metatag.

Developer Tools

Every installation of Internet Explorer 8 comes with the Developer Tools. Developer Tools enable you to quickly debug JavaScript, investigate a behavior specific to Internet Explorer, try out prototypes of a new design, or solve problems on-the-fly. By selecting the object on the page, you can see which rule in your cascading style sheet is being applied to a specific part on the Web page, change the value and see how it affects your layout. You can change values in HTML or CSS and see the results across various versions of Internet Explorer. And you can debug and profile scripts. No additional tools or installs are needed. Walkthroughs of how to use Developer Tools are available online in MSDN. For more information, see Debugging HTML and CSS, Debugging Script, and Profiling Scripts.

New Features

New features in Internet Explorer 8 improve the user experience while being able to downgrade to browsers that do not support the feature. Features downgrade with browsers seamlessly. Yet Accelerators even work in Firefox with a plug-in because they are based on an open standard. The new features help you define portions of a page and control its update frequency and expiration, improve the user's search and navigation experience, and lots more.

MVP Daron Yöndem has written an article that describes how to implement Web Slices, Accelerators, DOM Storage, Search Suggestions, and AJAX Navigation in New Features To Slice, Store, And Accelerate Your Web Applications in the March MSDN magazine. The article is among the best sources of information on IE8 development and includes an explanation of each feature and code samples.

History of the Internet

We can all use a break. So as part of the promotion of Internet Explorer 8, the team put together a humorous video recalling the history of the Internet. Net History provides a comedic overview of the history of mainstream Internet use. Janeane Garofalo, Dave Hill, and the ninja from the Ask a Ninja podcast riff on topics from modems to Internet memes. See Internet Explorer 8 and the History of the Internet.

Bruce D Kyle
ISV Architect Evangelist, US ISV Team in Developer & Platform Evangelism
http://blogs.msdn.com/usisvde