* IE 8 adoption increasing

Below are the stats of my Blog over last 4 months.

IE Legend:

March

 

April

 

May

 

June

* bing : reviews out

Microsoft Bing: Much better than expected

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10251432-2.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

Hands On With Microsoft’s New Search Engine: Bing, But No Boom

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/05/microsofts-bing-hides-its-best-features

* bing it !

Microsoft has released the information about its new search engine or decision engine as Microsoft calls it.

It will be available worldwide by June 3 @ www.bing.com 

Official Press Release : http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2009/may09/05-28NewSearchPR.mspx?rss_fdn=Press%20Releases

Live Search Blog : http://blogs.msdn.com/livesearch/archive/2009/05/28/the-sound-of-found-bing.aspx

Virtual Earth Blog : http://blogs.msdn.com/virtualearth/archive/2009/05/28/rebranding-microsoft-virtual-earth-to.aspx

* See you at tech.ed

* Technology Learning Snacks delivered using Silverlight

Microsoft Learning has released another set of free content called ‘Learning Snacks’.

“Learning Snacks are short, interactive presentations about popular topics created by Microsoft Learning experts. Each Snack is delivered by using innovative Microsoft Silverlight technology and includes various media, such as animations and recorded demos. At the end of each free presentation, you can view more Snacks, learn more about the topic, or visit a related Web site.”

Videos for following categories are available as of now:

Core Infrastructure Optimization

Microsoft Silverlight

Virtualization

Web 2.0 Development

Windows 7

Windows Server 2008

Windows Vista

Highly Recommended.

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/snacks/default.mspx

* Microsoft BizSpark launched in India

Microsoft BizSpark™ is a global program designed to help accelerate the success of early stage Startups by providing these resources:

Software	Development Tools, Platform Technologies and Production Licenses • All the software included in the Microsoft® Visual Studio® Team System Team Suite (VSTS) with MSDN® Premium subscription • Expression® Studio Version 2 • VSTS Team Foundation Server (standard edition) • Production use rights to host a “software as a service” solution (developed during participation in the BizSpark Program, on any platform) over the Internet, with regard to products including: – Microsoft Windows Server® (all versions up to and including Enterprise) – Microsoft SQL Server® (all versions) – Microsoft Office SharePoint® Portal Server – Microsoft System Center – Microsoft BizTalk® Server This information is representative and not comprehensive. Products, versions, availability and additional benefits are subject to change.
Support	Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) The Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) is a set of online services designed to help developers write applications using Microsoft products and technologies, including Web developers, hardware developers interested in the operating system, developers standing on the various operating system platforms, and developers leveraging the API and scripting languages of Microsoft’s many applications. The information is presented through assorted media: Web sites, newsletters, developer conferences, trade media, blogs and software distribution. MSDN Library A library of official technical documentation content intended for developers developing for Microsoft Windows®. MSDN Premium Each of your registered developers will get access to a MSDN Premium subscription. Technical Support Support for two incidents per Startup. This doesn’t literally mean just two phone calls: Your two incidents are attended to by Microsoft until they are fixed, no matter how many calls it takes. Customer Support Unlimited program support for non-technical issues to ensure your startup never misses a beat. Global Community Enrollment in Microsoft BizSpark connects you to a global community of peers, the Microsoft BizSpark Network Partners; they will provide you with an exclusive array of world-class legal and financial services, catered to Startups, to help guide you through all the dilemmas that entrepreneurial ventures face. And you’ll get priceless visibility with potential customers, partners and investors. Expect to network and mingle with some of the hottest contacts in the industry.
Visibility	Raising Your Profile You have the opportunity to profile your company in the online Startup directory, BizSparkDB.com, on the Microsoft Startup Zone, giving you exposure to potential investors, partners and customers. Every day, Microsoft features Microsoft BizSpark Startups on the Microsoft Startup Zone Web site — just let us know about your innovation and you could be featured.

Catch all the details @ http://www.microsoft.com/bizspark/default.aspx

* Free Microsoft Software for Indian Students

Bill Gates recently launched the DreamSpark initiative which provides free Microsoft software to students in India.

It can be downloaded from Internet or DVD can be collected from partners after verifying the student status.

Following products are available :

• VS 2008 Professional Edition
• Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition
• SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition
• Expression Studio
• Virtual PC
• Game Studio 2.0

DreamSpark

* MSDN blogs email alerts not working - Update

Anyone still receiving email alerts from msdn blogs… I haven’t received any since yesterday.

Anyone else facing same issue ?

<update> I just got all the alerts of last 2 days :-)

* AutoCollage from Microsoft Research

AutoCollage 2008 has been released by Microsoft Research which can take your photos and create a beautiful collage out of them.

At first you may think what has research to do in it but after you see the collage, you will realize its quite brilliant.

The research areas which it covers are following ;

• Face Detection
• Image Segmentation
• Image Blending

AutoCollage Website

* Convince boss for your PDC sponsorship using this letter

Need to convince your boss to approve your PDC travel and attendance…

Here is a letter which can do work for you.

Dear {Enter Your Manager’s Name Here},

I enjoy my job and have always appreciated how well you manage me. As you know, I don’t ask for much. I am a humble employee with simple needs, and I would like to attend Microsoft’s Professional Developer’s Conference in Los Angeles, October 27th-30th.

Wait! Before you respond, let me explain. This is not the typical conference that is more boondoggle than substance. The PDC (which is what the kids on Facebook call it) is where the best and brightest come together with the technical geniuses of Microsoft.

The PDC is where the speakers are not marketing folks, but actual developers … read full

* TechEd 2008 : New Releases Announced

• Internet Explorer 8 beta 2 will be available this August in 20 languages worldwide : http://dotnetwithme.blogspot.com/2008/05/i-am-using-internet-explorer-8-beta.html 

• Availability this week of Silverlight 2 beta 2 : http://dotnetwithme.blogspot.com/2007/06/silverlight-360-degree-overview.html

• Latest community technology preview (CTP) of the Microsoft Sync Framework, Microsoft Sync Framework will be released in the third quarter of 2008 with full support for the FeedSync open protocol format on devices. A CTP for Windows Mobile support will also be available in the third quarter 2008. 

• The first CTP of the Microsoft project code-named “Velocity,” : http://dotnetwithme.blogspot.com/2008/06/announcing-project-codename.html

• Microsoft code-name “Oslo.” : http://dotnetwithme.blogspot.com/2008/06/what-pdc-2008-session-list-reveals.html 

• A new version of Visual Studio 2008 extensions for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 v1.2. http://dotnetwithme.blogspot.com/2008/06/sharepoint-content-for-developers.html

* Why we don't have these Microsoft events in India ?

India has one of the largest base of developers who work on Microsoft Technologies but still some of the major events have no presence here .. why ?

• PDC
• Sharepoint Conference
• Office Developer Conference
• SOA & BPM Conference
• VS Live !
• Financial Services Developer Conference
• TechEd
• MIX

Is someone listening @ Microsoft ... we want these events in India also.

Some of the events which take place in India are :-) :

• TechMela ( similar to TechEd)
• Architecture Days
• Architecture Summit
• Security Summit

Hope to see more events coming to India.

* Video content from Microsoft - Channel 8,9,10, edge

8 - Microsoft to Students   http://channel8.msdn.com/

9 - Microsoft to Developers   http://channel9.msdn.com/

10 -  Technology     http://on10.net/

Edge - TechNet   http://edge.technet.com

* Day of double celebrations

It was a day of double celebrations.

Firstly, Microsoft community celebrated the launch of 2008 wave of products Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 & Visual Studio 2008.

All attendees got Heroes welcome and MVPs & UG Leads got a ++ treatment :-).

The most interesting part of the event was keynote from Soma. He is a Senior VP in Visual Studio team and come down from Redmond for this event. It was a great opportunity to meet him.

Secondly, India won a cricket tri series first time in Australia defeating Australia in finals by 2-0. Well done guys.

* Appearing for .NET Interview ?

If you are planning to appear for .Net Interview or want to keep yourself updated .. Here is a list you can start with.
It lists the skills based on role and years of experience. 

Microsoft.NET Skills

* New Year Wishes 2k8 :-)

* Unix & Oracle T100 certified

As part of my orgainzation's policy, i had to complete atleast one technical certification this year and the only option i had was Unix & Oracle T100. I moved from UNIX & ORACLE to managed world of .NET some 5 years back.. and so passing the certification now was little tricky .. but i did it :-).

Well that explains silence on my blog whole of last week ;-). In my next few posts ... i will catch up with releases made in last few days.

* Microsoft 2.0

Microsoft 2.0: How Microsoft Plans to Stay Relevant in the Post-Gates Era

This will be an interesting read. Authored by Mary Jo Foley (Zdnet). Its available for pre-order at Amazon.

* www.vikasgoyal.net (beta) goes LIVE

I just completed the basic structure of my site @ http://www.vikasgoyal.net

While I will continue blogging on current url ... new site is mainly to host sample .NET Apps, publish the larger size content and also organize the contents of my blog in better way.

Silverlight version of my site coming soon ....

Pls send me all the feedback and suggestions you have.

* Completed 200 posts on this blog

As I have completed 200 posts on this blog .. here are the few statistics for date range when the number of posts grew from 101 to 200 :

Date Range : 19/March/2007 --- 23/Sep/2007

Visits : 38, 591

Page Views : 64,959

(Above data collected using Google Analytics)

Thanks to all readers for the encouragement and kind words.

Read analysis of first 100 posts.