Win a scholarship to PDC 2009 in Los Angeles, CA, by building .NET applications with reusable components

Build a .NET Application (WinForms, ASP.NET, WPF, Silverlight, Compact Framework, etc.) using at least 2 components from at least 2 different approved vendors then make a 3-5 minute Camtasia video showing your entry and describing what components you used and why your application is cool. Our judges will review the submissions and the best two will win a scholarship to PDC 2009 in Los Angeles, CA, including air fare, hotel, and conference pass. The submission deadline is 08/25/2009 at Midnight Eastern and the winners will be announced on 09/14/2009. Entries will be judged on four criteria:

• Effective use of a component to solve a problem/display data
• innovative use of components
• Impact using components (i.e. reduction in lines of code written, increased productivity, etc.)
• Most creative use of a component.

See the contest page on the INETA web site for more details and full rules.

As summer starts to heat up here in North America, we have several HOT announcements and a little TO DO list to help you out today.

• The lawn can wait a few more minutes while you think about the application you will create for the INETA Component Code Challenge.
• Grab a lemonade and register yourself for the new Regional Speakers program or find a speaker for your group or event among the registered speakers.
• You can get a few more Community Champion entries in for the quarter, submit that Community Excellence nomination for your regional community rock star and still make that picnic in time.
• You can take that dip in the pool after you get a little guidance on your career, read something about the latest technology and catch up on the goings-on from last month's Tech·Ed.
• Catch up on the rest of the information about your user group benefits, free content and presentations, contests, special programs, and training in addition to some great community events and upcoming INETA speaker events after that matinee or ballgame.

We hope you'll find something of value here. Enjoy the beginning of your summer.

We would like to introduce the INETA Regional Speakers Program. This new initiative is designed to help user groups coordinate speaking engagements for meetings and community events such as code camps connect with local and regional speakers. Long term, we hope to use this as a staging ground to evaluate regional speakers for the national Speakers Bureau. The first phase of the program, registering speakers and connecting user groups with Regional Speakers, is being rolled out today.

If you are interested in becoming a regional speaker, we invite you to register as a Regional Speaker on the INETA web site and enroll in the program. The registration is open to all, so if you've wanted to become a speaker, here's your opportunity.

User Group leaders are encouraged to search for regional speakers and contact them directly via the website. The link will launch a peer-to-peer email conversation for you to make appropriate arrangements. The program is designed such that a user group could potentially schedule all of its speakers.

Please contact us with any comments and feedback. More functionality will be coming soon.

Randy Walker
Director of Speakers, INETA NorAm
randy.walker@ineta.org

In May, many developers and IT professionals made their way to Los Angeles for Tech·Ed 2009, a yearly Microsoft conference event. INETA’s participation at the event included a booth in the Community Lounge area where we showcased the “Stars of Community” and introduced user groups to attendees. Community Stars including INETA speakers, user group leaders, and volunteers, were all invited to autograph a star for us and place it on our INETAWood wall of fame. It was a great opportunity for us to interact with the individuals that truly make community happen and showcase groups to people not aware them in their areas.

INETA Volunteers Stuart Celarier, Bob Goodearl, and Chris Pels were heavily involved in the organization of this years Birds of a Feather events, a joint effort with Culminis that brings together attendees in open sessions to discuss topics proposed by the community. It was great to see how these sessions have grown to be such a successful and visible part of Tech·Ed.

During the week, INETA representatives participated in a variety of events including Party with Palermo, Speaker Idol (hosted by Carl Franklin and Richard Campbell), and the Women in Technology event. One of the strengths of Tech·Ed is how it creates so many opportunities for individuals to interact and learn from new faces in the Microsoft community. While many INETA Speaker Bureau members presented sessions at the conference, it was great to see how they also took the time to sit down and talk one on one with many individuals sharing their knowledge and expertise.

We look forward to seeing more of you at Tech·Ed10 next year in New Orleans.

Rob Zelt
President, INETA NorAm
rob.zelt@ineta.org

INETA Community Champion Second Quarter Entries Due This Month

We are in the last month of the second quarter, and we know you have been doing great things in the community. The INETA NorAm Champs program is our way to Thank You. So take a few minutes to go to the Community Champions Award section of the INETA web site and tell us what you have been doing. The last day to get your entries in for this quarter is June 30th, so what the heck are you waiting for!

INETA Community Excellence Award Nominations

We will also be selecting a first half winner for the Lifetime achievement award. If you have anyone that you would like to see nominated, all you have to do is go to the Community Excellence Award section of the INETA web site and nominate them.

Please contact us with any comments and feedback.

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 June 9, 16, 23 or 30 or at 1:00 Eastern (US and Canada) on June 19.  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() 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.

Deadline for submission is June 18.  Community voting takes place between June 19 and June 29.  .NET and PHP Category winners will be announced at Structure 09 on June 25 and the Community winner will be announced on June 30.

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

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

How to talk to your manager about your career and actually make it happen... was presented by Hector Hernandez on May 21, 2009

Upcoming Webcasts

*All times are Eastern US/Canada

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

INETA Live Webcast Series Continues

Two new webcasts in the on-going series being presented by INETA Live have been scheduled. These presentations will be done via Live Meeting and will also be available for viewing on the INETA Live site (http://live.ineta.com).

If you are interested in doing a live webcast for INETA Live, please contact Steve Andrews (steve.andrews@ineta.org)

*All times are Eastern US/Canada

Build Composite WPF Applications with Prism 2 - June 9, 2009, 12:00 PM

When you build a WPF or Silverlight application of any serious complexity, your code complexity can get out of control pretty quickly, leading to slowdowns in development, poor testability and poor maintainability. Composite Application Guidance for WPF and Silverlight (aka Prism) gives you tools and patterns you need to manage that complexity. This session will cover what Prism contains, what it does for you and how to use each of its features. You will learn how to build WPF and Silverlight applications that are composed of loosely-coupled, dynamically loaded modules that plug in their functionality to the application using UI composition patterns. You'll also learn how to leverage the commanding and eventing infrastructure provided by the guidance to allow your handling code for commands and events to stay decoupled from the UI definition itself. You also learn a little bit about dependency injection, testability, and UI patterns along the way.

Brian Noyes is Chief Architect at IDesign, Microsoft Regional Director for the Mid-Atlantic Region, and a Connected Systems MVP. He is a frequent top rated speaker at conferences worldwide, including Microsoft TechEd, DevConnections, DevTeach, VSLive! and others. He is the author of Developing Applications with Windows Workflow Foundation, Smart Client Deployment with ClickOnce, and Data Binding with Windows Forms 2.0. You can reach Brian through his blog at http://briannoyes.net.

T4: Code Generation with Visual Studio 2008 - June 11, 2009, 12:00 PM

A lesser-known feature in Visual Studio, Text Templating (T4) provides powerful code generation capabilities. We will start by creating a basic T4 template to explore statements and expressions. Then, we will dive into generating domain-specific artifacts based on external business logic. Finally, we will look at custom directive processors and hosts to handle advanced scenarios.

Steve Andrews is a Team System MVP and INETA Board Member and Speaker, and has been working as a developer for more than 9 years. During this time, he has designed and developed applications in such widely varying areas as trust accounting, medical information management, supply chain management, and retail systems. Steve is also a MCTS, ICSOO, and community fanatic.

Second Shot Offer Ends June 30, 2009
The Second Shot offer provides a free retake if you fail your certification exam. Now you'll also get an E-Learning collection for just US$35 (usually priced up to US$349). But hurry, this offer ends on June 30, 2009.

You May Be a Tech Whiz, but Are You Certifiable?
Join the almost 200,000 other developers who are having fun while practicing, for free, for a Microsoft certification exam. Choose a character, select your expertise, and play against a worldwide community of technologists in a quest for Dev IQ supremacy, a top spot on the leader board, and ultimate bragging rights! Are You Certifiable? Find out today: www.areyoucertifiable.com

Microsoft Virtualization eLearning Collection – 10 hrs of courses for FREE! ($159 value)
Get access to five 2-hr courses to brush up on your Virtualization skills. For a limited time, access this eLearning collection for FREE! ($159 value). These eLearnings will prepare you for Windows Server Virtualization Certification. Use promo code 9350-Y2W6-3676 and register now! HURRY: Offer expires June 30th, 2009.

View Free, Short "How Do I?" Videos
Created by Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals and other independent consultants, these short videos focus on specific tasks and show you how to accomplish them, step by step. Subscribe to the TechNet RSS feed to learn about new videos.

User Group Support Services has posted new content for you to use at your user group events!
Below are the new titles for the month of May include Virtual Earth Deep Dive, Tips and Tricks with the Visual Studio Debugger, VB6 Migration Strategies, and a multipart series on Business Intelligence for IT Pros. Please visit the Event Content tab at www.ugss.codezone.com for more details. The content library is growing… check in monthly to see what’s new!

How are you, your team, and organization thriving during these times? Find out more!
In tough times, the good will survive, but only the best will Thrive! Are you thriving? Visit the Thrive site and learn how to enhance your technical skills, advance your career, and elevate IT as the business leader. These strategies and skills will not only help you succeed now, but place you in a position to excel during the brighter times ahead. Now is the ideal time to rise to the top. Seize the moment - find out how YOU can Thrive at the Thrive site!

With the public release of the Windows 7 RC1 bits on May 5th, Microsoft indicated that the newest and possibly the most exciting version of the Windows operating system is nearing its final stages of development. With the public disclosure that it will be available before the 2009 holiday season, we all need to build our awareness of what’s new and exciting in Windows 7 and be ready for it.

First and foremost, if you haven’t already downloaded and installed Windows 7 RC1, do so as soon as you can. You can download both the 32- and 64-bit versions of Windows 7 using your MSDN account or from the public Windows 7 web site. The RC1 is incredibly stable and should give you an excellent feel for what to expect in the final release.

So without further ado, here is the hotlist of features that are really getting people excited about Windows 7:

• High performance, even on older hardware. One of the chief complaints about Windows Vista was that it often required significant hardware enhancements or a new machine altogether to perform properly. Not so with Windows 7. It was specifically designed to work on medium grade machines and to leverage the same hardware driver architecture as Vista, so you can be confident your internal hardware as well as your peripherals will still work after upgrading.
• User interface improvements. The most obvious enhancements to Windows 7 are in the much improved user interface. As it isn’t radically different from Vista, users will feel familiar with it right away while still being able to take advantage of new features like thumbnail previews and jump lists on the highly customizable taskbar, automatic window docking (side-by-side mode is a God-send), window hiding and previews, consolidated network management via the system tray icon and much, much more. Microsoftie Tim Sneath wrote an excellent blog post a couple months back providing an exhaustive “bumper list” of UI tips and tricks in Windows 7—it’s definitely worth the read!
• Application compatibility with “XP Mode.” One of the coolest features of Windows 7 also helps address the frustration felt by users who found that their applications that worked in Windows XP didn’t work in Vista by offering the ability to load applications into a virtual instance of XP from the Windows 7 start menu. What’s more, this won’t require the user to have intimate knowledge of virtualization. Rather, once installed and configured, it will simply launch their XP applications into a virtual instance for them without leaving the shell of Windows 7. This feature is in beta right now and can be downloaded from the Windows 7 web site. Also in the area of application compatibility, be sure to check out the Windows Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) 5.5 and the Application Verifier 4.0 to make sure your applications are Windows 7 ready.
• Internet Explorer 8. Beyond the many performance, usability and programmatic enhancements that shipped with IE8 earlier this year, it is also the most secure web browser on the market, and it installs by default with Windows 7. ‘Nuff said.
• Improved security, both on your machine and external storage devices. Windows 7 is the first version of the OS developed completely under the Secure Development Lifecycle initiated by Bill Gates in 2002. The Windows 7 Action Center consolidates system alerts from ten existing Windows features, including Security Center, Windows Defender, Windows Update and Network Access Protection. User Access Control (UAC) is still fully present in Windows 7, but the alerting mechanism has been “right-sized,” providing users the same level of protection without getting in their way of using their PCs. Users can even adjust the level of notifications they get from UAC. Finally, the BitLocker feature is back in the Enterprise and Ultimate versions of Windows 7 and has been extended into “BitLocker on the Go,” letting users encrypt and protect data on their USB storage devices the same way they do on their PCs.
• Multi-touch. Windows 7 will have native support for multi-touch interfaces like the HP TouchSmart desktop and notebook that support the user’s ability to zoom, manipulate and control a user interface with their fingertips.

These features just begin to scratch the surface of what’s available in Windows 7. Want to learn more? Here is list of helpful resources that will get you ready for Windows 7.

• Windows 7 on Microsoft.com (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/default.aspx)
  
  
• Engineering Windows 7 Blog (http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/)
  
  
• Windows SDK for Windows 7 and .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 (ISO) (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=6db1f17f-5f1e-4e54-a331-c32285cdde0c&displaylang=en)

Denny Boynton
Senior Architect Evangelist, Microsoft Corporation
Blog: http://blog.dennyboynton.com | Twitter: http://twitter.com/dboynton

Upcoming Conferences

Code Camps and Other Events

• PHP SDK for Windows Azure
  As part of Microsoft’s commitment to Interoperability, this open source project is an effort bridge PHP developers to Windows Azure. PHPAzure is an open source project to provide software development kit for Windows Azure and Windows Azure Storage – Blobs, Tables & Queues
  
  
• Windows Azure Management Tool (MMC)
  The Windows Azure Management Tool was created to manage your storage accounts in Windows Azure. Developed as a managed MMC, the tool allows you to create and manage both blobs and queues. Easily create and manage containers, blobs, and permissions. Add and remove queues, inspect or add messages or empty queues as well.
  
  
• Bid Now Sample
  Bid Now is an online auction site designed to demonstrate how you can build highly scalable consumer applications. This sample is built using Windows Azure and uses Windows Azure Storage. Auctions are processed using Windows Azure Queues and Worker Roles. Authentication is provided via Live ID.

• Geo-Location support. Starting in May, a new option was added to the portal to support geo-locating your code and data. Read more about this feature here and see a complete provisioning walk-through.
  
  
• Storage API updates. Three new features to Windows Azure’s storage capabilities
1. The long awaited batch transaction capability for tables as well as a new blob copying capability were released. Additionally, the GetBlockList API was updated to return both committed and uncommitted blocks in blob storage.
2. A new versioning mechanism has been added. New features will be versioned by a new header (“x-ms-version”). This versioning header must be present to opt-in to new features. This mechanism is in place to prevent breaking changes from impacting existing clients in the future. It is recommended that you start including this header in all authenticated API calls.
3. Changes to how property names are stored in table storage as well as the size for Partition and Row keys. Unicode chars and up to 1K key sizes are now supported, respectively. Finally, the timeout values for various storage operations were updated as well.
• 
  New capabilities for Visual Studio 2010 beta testers
• Support for Visual Studio 2010 Beta 1 (templates, local dev fabric, etc.)
• Updated support for Visual Studio 2008 – you can now configure settings through the UI instead of munging XML files.
• Improved reliability of the local dev fabric for debugging
• Enhanced robustness and stability (aka bug fixes)

• http://blog.smarx.com/posts/sample-code-for-new-windows-azure-blob-features
  
• http://blogs.msdn.com/jnak/archive/2009/05/28/may-ctp-of-the-windows-azure-tools-and-sdk-now-supports-visual-studio-2010-beta-1.aspx
  
• http://blogs.msdn.com/jnak/archive/2009/04/30/windows-azure-geo-location-is-live.aspx
  
• http://dunnry.com/blog/CreateAndDeployYourWindowsAzureServiceIn5Steps.aspx

Ramp Up (www.MyRampUp.com) is a free online learning program for developers. We've just launched three ASP.NET tracks: “Web Development with ASP.NET”, “Move from ASP to ASP.NET”, and “Move from PHP to ASP.NET”. These tracks, along with the other currently offered ones (e.g., Windows Mobile 6, SharePoint for Developers, Visual Studio 2008), teaches the important skills in a guided path, making the learning process easier and more efficient. 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 (article, v-lab, codecast and slidecast). Check them out now at www.MyRampUp.com, and see how Ramp Up can help you become more employable by learning important and marketable skills.