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Hey SoCal Developers, this is something that you don’t want to miss.  If you are looking to get up to speed on Microsoft’s Cloud Services – Windows Azure, then this is the event for you!!  Its FREE!!

This is  3 Day class that is absolutely FREE!!  Tuesday, December 15th – Thursday December 17th – 9am to 5pm each day. This is a instructor led / hands-on event.  (You will need to pay for parking. Parking is NOT validated)

Description :

The Microsoft Developer & Platform is pleased to announce a Metro Instructor Led Training event focused on Developers covering the Windows Azure Platform, for Microsoft Partners and customers. Delivered through workshop style presentations and hands-on lab exercises, the workshop will focus on three key services of the Windows Azure Platform – Windows Azure, SQL Azure and .NET Services.

This event is targeted at partners and customers who have projects that they are potentially looking to deploy to the Windows Azure Platform.

Attendee Prerequisites :

This workshop is aimed at developers, architects and systems designers with at least 6 months practical experience using Visual Studio 2008 and C#.

Agenda Topics

× An introduction to Windows Azure

× Working with Windows Azure storage

× An introduction to SQL Azure

× Building applications with SQL Azure

× An introduction to .NET Services

× Building solutions using the .NET Service Bus

Date/Time/Location:

Tuesday, December 15, 2009 9:00 AM – Thursday, December 17, 2009 5:00 PM Pacific Time (US & Canada)

Microsoft Technology Center – Irvine

3 Park Plaza
Suite 1600 TBC Irvine California 92614
United States

To register please use the following link :

http://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/EventDetail.aspx?culture=en-US&EventID=1032428626&IO=He5wNESuIe2vbmj2%2bI%2bSiw%3d%3d

Or go to http://msevents.microsoft.com and use Event ID : 1032428626

Did I mention its FREE!! See you there!!

A funny thing happened on the way to my home page…. They changed it!  Well, kind of-sort of.  When I open up MSN.com on my development PC, this is what I see. It’s much brighter than its predecessor and easier to navigate. In addition, it has added some cool social media integration into the lower right hand corner.

Not only will it show my Windows Live, Facebook, and Twitter feeds, but it will also let me post from here as well.  I know this is not terribly new, but I did not expect it from MSN.com. It was a welcome surprise. 

Here is the funny part, not every user gets to see the new site. As a matter of fact, I get the old MSN page on every other computer in my house. In addition, when I do a Bing Search , I cant find anyone talking about it’s “New Design”. 

Finally, after searching every place I could think of, I found this one reference to it on its Wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/msn.com , at the bottom of the page is this one line :

“On November 5 2009, Microsoft released a preview of their homepage and new logo. It’s expected to be widely available to over 100 million U.S. customers early next 2010.^[21][22]”

So, if unlike me, you don’t get the preview and want to see what it looks like, head over to http://www.msn.com/preview.aspx

Let me know what you think.

Daniel

It’s that time of year again, where the annual migration of the animal know as Geekus Sofecteus (or Geek to you and me) visits the warm sunny weather of Southern California. They come from far and wide (or is it wide and far) to see what will be revealed at the PDC (Professional Developers Conference). 

While I am attending the conference I will be blogging about the sessions I am in and the people that I meet, so stay tuned for PDC information overload.

Along with the great sessions that are delivered at the conference itself, there are always great parties during the week. Here is a list of the ones that I am aware of right not.

Monday ——-

Party with Palermo – 7pm-10pm – They Mayan – http://bit.ly/gBWXX

PDC09 TweetUP  – 7:30- ???  – Hotel Figueroa  – http://bit.ly/2dsveD

Visual Studio Documentary – PDC Attendees only – http://bit.ly/30LhxV

Tuesday ——–

INETA Community Roundtable – 7:00 PMLA Convention Center – http://bit.ly/30LhxV

Wednesday —–

PDC Underground – 7pm – 1am – Conga Room LA Live – http://bit.ly/4d5Jod

There will be more that I find out about as the week gets going so I will update hear about them.

I have finally reached Paris. After 2 planes 15 hours, 3 naps, and a chicken dinner, we landed in Paris in the oui hours of the morning (6am to be exact).  We area staying in the 6th district near Notre Dame and on the way to our apartment, one of the funny things I noticed was how small the cars were, not an SUV in sight. This made a lot more sense once I saw the size of the street were were saying on

When we finally reached our destination, we started getting settled in and when I popped open my laptop, I discovered that the Sensor and Location platform, or more specifically my IP location provider was able to determine I was in Paris and automatically changed my weather gadget to show me the local weather.   The sensor and location platform is one of the cool new things developers can use as part of Windows 7. Although it is very useful for gadgets, it can be used for any type of application that wants to be aware of its surroundings.  Go check it out, you will like it.

This week I traveled through the Southland (LA, Orange County, San Diego) talking about some cool new things coming out from Microsoft. (Windows 7 Multi-touch, Silverlight RIA Services, SketchFlow). Below you will find the slides and demos for the talk.  Enjoy.   ~Daniel

You can find the files for the demos HERE. For the RIA Services Demo,  you will find the step by step snipits in the Presentation folder. 

Let me know if you have any questions.

Daniel

Image via Wikipedia

Join me for one of the coolest things to come out of the dev community in quite a while. I will be doing a seminar on Windows 7 Multi-Touch, and SketchFlow.   You can see the Agenda below, but you will really want to see the MultiTouch and SketchFlow stuff.  See you there.

Irvine
September 9, 2009

1:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Click here  to register

Event ID: 1032423014

Los Angeles
September 10, 2009

1:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Click here  to register

Event ID: 1032423015

San Diego
September 10, 2009

1:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Click here  to register

Event ID: 1032423016

MSDN Presents: The Next Generation Client Experience

Windows 7 for Developers (MULTI- Touch) = Cool

Windows 7 is almost here! With it are numerous improvements and new features to take advantage of in your applications. Watch and learn as we demonstrate how to utilize the new taskbar, multi-touch support and more.

IE8 for Developers ( Showing how to create an accelerator)

IE8 makes your web better… faster, safer and easier.  This is true for developers too.  In this session, we will illustrate how developers can take advantage of some new technologies in IE8 such as accelerators to enhance a user’s web experience.  We will also illustrate the built-in developer tools in IE8 and how to take advantage of them.  These tools include a powerful CSS tool, script debugging and a script profiler.

Building Business Applications with Silverlight 3 and RIA Services

Silverlight 3 has launched.  In this session, we will illustrate how you can build powerful line of business (LOB) applications with Silverlight 3 and Expression Blend 3.  We will begin with illustrating how you can build powerful prototypes with SketchFlow in Blend 3.

I am training for the Disneyland 1/2 marathon in September and have been running 4-5 times a week. This will be my longest run in training for this race as I will be dialing it back the next few weeks in preparation for the big day. I found this real cool Social Network site (Which is why I am posting it on here) called MapMyRun.com. You can see the path that I will be running below. It gives me exact mileage and elevation and lets me note where hazards and places to get water are located. I am going to contact the owners of the site to see if I can get a mini interview with them about how they started and what technology they are using. Anyway, I have to get on the road now…. long run ahead.

See you socially (or running) — Daniel

If I am not mistaken, I believe that Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (@villaraigosa) declared this DigitalLA month.  With events on the 5th, 10th, 12th, 13th, 18th and 27th, founder Kevin Winston (@kevinwinston) has been a very busy promoter of all things social.  
Last night I was able to attend the DigitalLA Entertainment Goes Social panel held at the Writers Guild of America @ Third and Fairfax (Yes, I used an “@” without a twitter handle behind it).

Before the event I met up with K.W. Low (@KW) and Jacob Nahin (@JacobNahin) for coffee at the Farmers Market.  I think Jacob was happy to see me, but it was only because I was carrying the XBox 360 Elite he won from the Microsoft booth at the TwiistUP event a few weeks back.  It was nice to relax and wind down after sitting in the traffic on the 110 freeway.

The Entertainment News Goes Social Panel consisted of some of Hollywood’s most prolific social media go-to’s (aside from Ashton Kutcher of course). They included :

- Andrew Wallenstein, Hollywood Reporter, Editor, Digital Media THR.com @THR
- Abe Burns, Variety.com, Director, Online Marketing @variety
- Andrew D. Nystrom, LA Times.com, Sr. Producer, Social + Emerging Media @latimesnystrom
- Alexia Tsotsis, LA Weekly, tech/business lifestyle reporter @alexiatsotsis 
- Moderator: Kevin Winston, Digital LA, founder @kevinwinston

It was a great discussion of how some of LA’s best known entertainment outlets are utilizing social media to further reach their user base and hopefully attract new users.  There were the normal questions about the types of analytics used to track ROI, and how Social Media is, and can be used in an unprofessional way, but what really intrigued me about this panel was the amazing interaction with the LIVE audience via Twitter.  It all started with Alexia commenting on the following twitter post.

She gave a quick shout-out to @johnayers to thank him, and it had a real dynamic effect on the event. As soon as she said this, it seemed to give the other panelist the “OK” to check the #DigitalLA twitter feed as well. As a society, we are programmed to believe that it is unprofessional to check your phone, especially when you are sitting on a panel for crying out loud. 

The crowd, no longer able to hide themselves behind their Twitter feed, and for some maybe not the type to raise their hand in a panel discussion, were now completely intertwined in the discussion whether they wanted to be or not.  There were many quotable moments throughout the night, as you can see if you follow the #DigitalLA twitter feed, but the best was near the end of the night.

The room erupted when Andy Wallenstein commented on @MikeSlebodnik‘s tweet:

I don’t think Andy was very amused at the comment   ( But yes Andy, you do sound like him)

It was a great panel and a very lively discussion.  During the mixer part of the event (and after at Dupar’s) I was able to meet and talk with some very interesting entrepreneurs. Among them was Babette Pepaj the founder and CEO of BakeSpace.

BakeSpace – http://www.BakeSpace.com is a social networking site that centers on the sharing of recipes. It has a very vibrant and thriving 50,000 member base and it is interesting how they weave this into the media world with tie-ins to both Television and Movies. As we sat at Dupar’s having coffee and pie, I was fascinated at the story of how it got its start ( a little elbow grease and a little luck) and the bumps they had to steer around along the way.  It is a great site developed and run by very passionate founders.

PhoneSheet.com http://www.PhoneSheet.com – I talked to Jan Zands from PhoneSheet.com about their online phone messaging system written with Microsoft Technologies. They had just released their BlackBerry version, so we took some time to talk about creating a windows mobile version as well as dive a little deeper into the technical aspects of creating sync applications.

SperryMedia – http://www.SperryMedia.com – While I as at the mixer, I was able to speak with Scott Perry, President of Sperry Media about the current state of cloud computing and using rich internet applications like Silverlight. He has a project coming up and is evaluating different solutions. We spent some time discussing RIA Services and all the new features of the Silverlight 3 Release.

I also had some great discussions with the following attendees:

Peter Chen -  Writer-Director http://AbsolutelyAmericanMovie.com

Chris Tolles – Vice President/Marketing topix

John Marchesini – Consultant

Patrick -  GetListed.org and Seoish.com

Larry W. Johnson  Producer/Manager Crescendo Entertainment, Inc

Steven R. Gilson – Consultant

See you Socially  -  Daniel

View Full Album

Last night I attended the DealMakerLA Panel on Angel Investing for Startups held at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips in Los Angeles.  The panel consisted of 4 current Angel Investors working and looking for Southern California based startups. 

Jarl Mohn, Investor (former CEO, Liberty Digital. Created E! Entertainment Television)
Dan Gould, VP Technology Fox Interactive Media
Rob Hayes, Partner, First Round Capital  *Silicon Valley Seed-Stage Investor
Thomas McInerney, Angel Investor, TGM
Scott Sangster, President, OrganicStartup (Tech Coast Angles).

It was a round table discussion led by Deal Maker Media with plenty of questions and discussion points coming from the attendees.  It was a lively group and it was interesting to see the different levels of Angel investment ranges (from $25K to $4m), as well as the different types of investors’ strategies, from personal investor Tom McInerney to pooled money at Tech Coast Angels (Scott Sangster).  If you are a start-up in the LA area, these events should be on your calendar as MUST ATTEND.

Since we were a sponsor at the event, I was able to talk for a few minutes about Microsoft’s BizSpark program which helps startups with the software they need to get up and running in this competitive environment without incurring the costs associated with it. (Read More about BizSpark).  After the meeting, I was able to talk to many entrepreneurs that were interested in finding out more about BizSpark, and along the way, I learned about a few real cool companies.

  Apple Tree – http://www.AppleTree.com – Apple Tree is a website that creates a family tree for EVERYONE. The single global family tree.  It allows you to search the famous (or not so famous) to see their tree. It is currently using Microsoft’s SeaDragon for its functionality, but Scott Mueller (The founder of Apple Tree) is interested in porting it over to Slivlerlight 3 in the near future. We talked about how that could enhance the experience of his site and then segued into how adding multi-touch support would be really cool.

Players Club Golf – http://www.PlayersClubGolf.com – This was one of the more interesting groups that I talked to. Mostly because I want to use their facilities. Players Club Golf, located in Santa Monica, is a INDOOR Golf club using state-of-the-art hi-def full swing golf simulators to allow people to play with friends in the area or around the world. In addition, they are planning a full gym and restaurant/bar to make it a one stop shop for weary LA workers that want to get in some golf but don’t have the time to drive to a public course. Can’t wait to try it.

text a day – http://www.TextADay.com – I then talked to Greg Lambrecht from textaday.com about his work with church groups that allows pastors (through textaday.com) to keep in touch with their parishioners easily by sending personalized text messages throughout the week. It was a simple concept but quite powerful since it is an opt-in type of service. As opposed to a “verse a day” or “quote a day” which are generic, these allow the pastors to create specialize messages just for their parishioners.

kidthing – http://www.kidthing.com – Kidthing.com is a real exciting service and I had the opportunity to talk to the CEO, Lawrence Hitchcock, after the meeting.  kidthing is a downloadable player written with Microsoft technologies that allow kids to to download books like the “Cat in the Hat” and view them on their PC’s.  It is loaded with parent and teacher controls to keep them safe from the internet. They are targeting the K-3 demographic and have already been used by many school districts. He was very interested in finding out how he could make it compatible with the ZUNE for future releases.

In addition to the above, I had a great time talking to many different companies at the event :

• Albert deQuay – ExportDesk
• Kevin Mendelson – Murano Software
• Rik D. Middleton – Sage Cadre
• Dave Waldman – twistbox
• William Marks – Comcast Entertainment Group
• Brad Parker – Muzlink
• Jonny Sabbath – William Morris Endeavor Entertainment

Make sure you don’t miss the next Dealmaker Event.  Great People, Great Technology, Great Food, Great Drinks.

See you Socially  – Daniel