Channel 9 - Entries tagged with Northeast

Northeast Roadshow: Data at Your Service

Jim O'Neil — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 04:08:00 GMT

Most of the attention of cloud computing is focused on leveraging the elasticity and self-provisioning power of virtual machines in the "cloud," but what about your data?  Windows Azure has several options for hosting your data - Azure tables, Azure blobs, and SQL Azure - what do you use when? And what if you have data privacy or governance requirements, and you don't think you're ready to trust your data in someone else's hands - do you write off the cloud completely? (Hint: no!)

In this session Jim O'Neil, Developer Evangelist, takes you on a tour of the various data options and covers the capabilities as well as the 'sweet spot' for your data storage options. If you'd prefer to jump right to your section of interest, fast forward the screencast based on the outline below:

[00:50] - The storage spectrum
[01:40] - Azure storage overview
[02:27] -     Blobs
[03:30] -     Demo: configuring your Azure storage account
[05:30] -     Demo: accessing Blob storage
[06:23] -     Tables
[07:23] -     Demo: viewing Table storage in VS 2010
[08:02] -     Demo: using the StorageClient API
[08:57] -     Queues
[09:59] -     Drives
[10:41] - Azure Storage vs. relational storage
[11:06] - SQL Azure
[12:32] -     Demo: accessing a SQL Azure Database
[14:38] - Cloud storage concerns
[15:00] - WCF Data Services
[15:54] -     Demo: creating a WCF Data Service
[20:11] -     OData
[20:51] - Wrap-up

For the slides for this and other Northeast Roadshow sessions, check out Code Gallery.

Northeast Roadshow: Introduction to Windows Phone 7 Development

Chris Bowen — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 01:54:00 GMT

This screencast with Chris Bowen is a brief introduction to developing applications for Windows Phone 7. Based on a session given for the Northeast Roadshow, this introduces the design of Windows Phone 7, options for creating applications (using Silverlight and XNA), obtaining developer tools, and working with those tools.

Outline:

Introduction
[0:37] Glanceable Interface
[1:11] Metro Design Language
[1:44] Hubs
[2:56] Learning More About the UI - WindowsPhone7.com
[3:36] Types of Development - Silverlight & XNA
[6:03] Common Capabilities for Applications
[6:34] Getting the Developer Tools
[7:24] Demo - Creating a Silverlight Windows Phone 7 Application with Expression Blend 4 & Visual Studio 2010
[14:52] Demo - Windows Phone Emulator Tips & Visual Studio 2010 Options
[17:17] Resources & Conclusion

Slides for this session, and other Northeast Roadshow sessions, can be found on the Code Gallery.

Northeast Roadshow: Parallel Programming with .NET 4

Chris Bowen — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 01:41:00 GMT

This screencast with Chris Bowen is an overview of writing parallel code using the new classes and features available in .NET Framework 4 and the tools in Visual Studio 2010. Based on a session given for the Northeast Roadshow, this walks through the basics of parallel programming, Tasks, PLINQ, data structures, debugging, and performance analysis.

Outline:

Introduction
[1:40] Parallelism
[3:29] Contention
[5:25] Threads, Thread Pool, Tasks & the TPL
[8:12] Demo - The Task Class
[14:42] Demo - PLINQ
[20:18] Data Structures & Primitives
[21:33] Demo - Barrier Class & CancellationSource/Token
[25:36] The Parallel Class
[27:09] Demo - Parallel Invoke() & For()
[30:04] Demo - Visual Studio 2010 Parallel Stacks & Parallel Tasks Windows
[32:41] Demo - Visual Studio 2010 Concurrency Visualizer
[39:08] Other Tools & Technologies for Parallel Computing
[40:57] Resources & Conclusion

Slides for this session, and other Northeast Roadshow sessions, can be found on the Code Gallery.

Northeast Roadshow: New Language Support in .NET 4

Jim O'Neil — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 12:37:00 GMT

In this brief screencast, Jim O'Neil, Developer Evangelist in the Northeast, walks through a few quick demos of some of the new language features (in both Visual Basic and C#) that were introduced with .NET 4 and Visual Studio 2010.

If you're looking for a particular feature, you can fast forward based on the following timeline:

[0:12] Welcome
[0:40] Visual Basic - multi-line lambdas
[1:20] Visual Basic - the "unemployed underscore"
[1:35] Visual Basic - list initializers
[2:06] C# - default and named parameters
[3:30] C# - dynamic keyword
[4:56] C# - contravariance
[6:00] F# - 'new kid on the block'

Slides for this session and other Northeast Roadshow sessions, can be found on the Code Gallery.

Northeast Roadshow: Introduction to Windows Azure

Chris Bowen — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 05:26:00 GMT

This screencast with Chris Bowen is a brief introduction to Windows Azure from the developer's perspective. Based on a session given for the Northeast Roadshow ("Windows Azure - What, Why, and a Peek Under the Hood") this walks through the essentials of the Windows Azure platform and how to develop Windows Azure applications.

Outline:

Introduction
[3:52] Roles
[5:42] Instances
[7:16] Development Overview
[8:01] Getting the Tools, Web Platform Installer
[9:57] Demo - First Windows Azure Application
[14:44] Demo - The Cloud Service Project, Settings
[16:43] Demo - Running the Windows Azure Application, Developer Fabric UI
[19:38] Demo - Publishing & Deployment Options
[21:26] A Look at the Hardware Behind Windows Azure
[22:38] Windows Azure Architecture, Fabric, Fabric Controller
[24:06] A Deployment Example
[27:36] Storage Options
[29:43] Windows Azure AppFabric
[31:11] Pricing
[33:30] Resources & Conclusion

Slides for this session, and other Northeast Roadshow sessions, can be found on the Code Gallery.

Northeast Roadshow: Silverlight 4

Jim O'Neil — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:22:00 GMT

In this brief look at Silverlight 4 from the May 2010 Northeast Roadshow, Jim O'Neil, Developer Evangelist, confesses he's just looking at the cool stuff here - webcam and microphone support, COM interoperability, printing, and even a bit of rickrolling (shhh! don't give it away). Get a glimpse into some of the new features that Silverlight 4 supports and see for yourself that the Microsoft New England Research and Development Center (aka NERD) has THE BEST views of the Boston skyline.

Slides for this session and other Northeast Roadshow sessions, can be found on the Code Gallery.

Northeast Roadshow: ASP.NET 4 Overview

Jim O'Neil — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 04:20:00 GMT

In this screencast, Jim O'Neil, Developer Evangelist, provides an updated version of a presentation he gave during the Northeast Roadshow in May 2010. In about 15 minutes, he provides an overview of ASP.NET 4, from the core services and IIS 7, through ASP.NET WebForms, DynamicData, and MVC. There's even a little bit of the cloud - namely Windows Azure - thrown in for good measure! This is a great way to get a first look at what's new before you deep dive into whatever areas interest you the most.

Slides for this session and other Northeast Roadshow sessions, can be found on the Code Gallery.

Northeast Roadshow: A Look at Visual Studio 2010

Chris Bowen — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 21:04:00 GMT

This screencast with Chris Bowen takes an all-demo look at what's new in Visual Studio 2010. Based on a session given for the Northeast Roadshow ("Visual Studio 2010 - That's a 10-4, Good Buddy!") you'll see many new features, from editing and debugging to extending Visual Studio itself.

Outline:

Introduction - Comparing Visual Studio 2010 Versions (see Visual Studio Products page)
[1:29] Demo - Start Page, New Project Dialog (Sort, Search, Multitargeting), Web Project Types, Add Item Dialog
[6:26] Demo - Coding Features: IntelliSense, Navigate To
[9:05] Demo - Box Selection/Typing, Identifier Highlighting
[10:56] Demo - Call Hierarchy
[12:29] Demo - Extending Visual Studio: Visual Studio Gallery, Extension Manager
[17:23] Demo - Web Development: Snippets
[20:19] Demo - Web Development: Publishing
[21:18] Demo - Web Development: Environment-Specific Configuration
[23:16] Resource - Visual Studio 2010 & .NET 4 Training Kit
[24:09] Demo - Debugging: Breakpoints
[26:31] Demo - Debugging: Data Tips
[29:44] Demo - Debugging: IntelliTrace
[34:35] Resources & Conclusion

Slides for this session, and other Northeast Roadshow sessions, can be found on the Code Gallery.

Northeast Roadshow: Tales from the Webside - Web Forms, Script and Ajax

Chris Bowen — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 13:20:00 GMT

This screencast with Chris Bowen looks at development using ASP.NET Web Forms, scripting, and Ajax. It's based on a session given on the Northeast Roadshow and walks through Web Forms, adding client-side behavior with Javascript and jQuery, improving UI interaction with the ASP.NET Ajax Library, and concludes with a brief look at what's coming for Web Forms with ASP.NET 4.

Outline:

Introduction
[1:59] Demo - Web Forms, ViewState, ClientIDs
[12:47] Scripting, ASP.NET Ajax Library, and Ajax Control Toolkit
[20:55] Demo - Javascript, ASP.NET Ajax Library, jQuery, IE8 Developer Tools
[41:49] ASP.NET 4 Web Forms
[49:32] Resources & Conclusion

Slides for this session, and other Northeast Roadshow sessions, can be found on the Code Gallery.

Northeast Roadshow: Something WCF This Way Comes

Chris Bowen — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 12:33:00 GMT

Wondering how WCF (Windows Communication Foundation) fits in to your developer life? This screencast, presented by Chris Bowen, is based on a session given for the Northeast Roadshow and introduces WCF for developers, covering the motivation, mechanics of creating distributed applications with WCF, and a glimpse at some related topics and future directions.

Screencast outline:

Introduction
[3:02] Demo: First WCF Service
[6:41] Endpoints (Address, Binding, Contract)
[14:16] Configuration
[16:20] Demo: Adding a WCF Client, WCF Configuration Editor, Diagnostics, Service Trace Viewer
[36:10] Metadata
[38:38] Behaviors
[40:24] Related Topics
[43:30] .NET Framework 4

Slides for this session, and other Northeast Roadshow sessions, can be found on the Code Gallery.

Northeast Roadshow: RIA Window - MVVM, Silverlight, and Expression Blend

Jim O'Neil — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 17:09:00 GMT

Don't look now, but there's a new pattern in town - Model-View-ViewModel or MVVM. Within the last year or so, this architectural model has been building up a significant following among Silverlight and WPF developers. In this session, Jim O'Neil, Developer Evangelist, will cover what MVVM is, where it came from, and why all the cool coders are using it. In addition to the why, this session will explore the how by analyzing a small RSS reader application implemented in Silverlight using MVVM.

Code and slides for this, and other Northeast Roadshow sessions, can be found on the Code Gallery.

Northeast Roadshow: Finding Developer Help

Chris Bowen — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 14:25:00 GMT

There are many places to find help for developers, but there are some programs that aren't widely known. This screencast, based on a session given for the Northeast Roadshow, briefly reviews some of these. From reporting bugs and feature requests, to finding support from Microsoft and the community, these resources will help make your development life easier.

Session Outline:

Introduction
[1:40] MSDN
[2:50] Visual Studio Help
[5:13] Demo: Microsoft Connect
[9:42] Support
[11:36] Forums
[14:37] Channel 9 & Channel 9 Learning Center
[16:15] Microsoft Thrive & RampUp

Slides for this session, and other Northeast Roadshow sessions, can be found on the Code Gallery.

Northeast Roadshow: LINQ De-crypted

Jim O'Neil — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 06:33:00 GMT

It's been over two years since LINQ was released as part of .NET 3.5, but there's still a lot of mystery in terms of how LINQ works. This session, originally delivered as part of the Northeast Roadshow, starts off with a brief overview of the motivation and history of LINQ, and then goes into full demo mode in which an imperative style implementation is replaced by a LINQ query - introducing key concepts such as extension methods and lambda expressions along the way.

Code and slides for this, and other Northeast Roadshow sessions, can be found on the Code Gallery.

PDC09: Tour of Azure IT PAC

Jim O'Neil — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 01:09:00 GMT

One of the highlights of the Big Room floor at PDC 09 was an Azure IT PAC (Pre-assembled container), the unit of deployment within the Azure Data Centers. This particular model is the newest, Generation 4, and built to be deployed outside (versus the indoor models used in the Chicago and San Antonio facilities). The unit on the PDC floor was (of course) a prototype - it's 20 feet long versus the 40-foot standard, and has more glass for viewing than a real unit would have. Regardless, it really made the 'cloud' seem that much more concrete for me!

Northeast Roadshow: .NET Chips - Tidbits from the CLR and C#

Jim O'Neil — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:35:00 GMT

This installment of the Northeast Roadshow screencast series covers a number of core concepts in the CLR. Beginning with a discussion of the differences and nuances between reference and value types, the topics quickly move into concepts such as boxing, immutability, performance of String versus StringBuilder, constants versus readonly variables, and others. These are concepts every .NET developer should be familiar with to build effective code.

Northeast Roadshow: Taskbar Deep-dive

Jim O'Neil — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 03:49:00 GMT

In this episode, Developer Evangelist Jim O'Neil, walks through a example of updating a legacy MDI application to take advantage of most of the features of the Windows 7 taskbar all the while maintaining backwards compatibility to Vista and XP. You'll get a detailed look into using the managed code Windows API Code Pack to adapt your older applications to leverage jumplists, thumbnail previews, and thumbnail buttons.

Slides and source code for this session can be found at the Northeast corner of Code Gallery.

Northeast Roadshow - Data Quest

Jim O'Neil — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 14:10:00 GMT

Microsoft is all about options, and there's no shortage of options when it comes to data access! You've got ADO.NET DataSets and DataReaders, LINQ to SQL, Entity Framework, ADO.NET Data Services just to name a few. Each of these technologies can be used - and abused - depending on the context, so this session is geared toward providing guidance on when and how to use (or not) the various options available to you.

You can find the slides and code samples for this session at the Northeast Roadshow Code Gallery.

Northeast Roadshow - Light Up Your Apps With Windows 7

Jim O'Neil — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 15:06:00 GMT

Jim O'Neil concludes his three part series on Windows 7 for Developers with an overview of the new APIs that allows applications to take advantage of cool new features like libraries, jump lists and thumbnails on the taskbar, multi-touch, sensors, the Windows Ribbon, and native Web Service capabilities.

You can find the slides for this session at the Northeast Roadshow Code Gallery.

Northeast Roadshow - Windows 7 Developer Productivity

Jim O'Neil — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 01:52:00 GMT

Jim O'Neil continues his three part series on Windows 7 for Developers by looking at a variety of features to enhance end-user and developer productivity. He shows how new features such as the window manager's "snap, shake, and peek", libraries, jumplists, federated search, DirectAccess, and HomeGroup make developing applications on Windows 7 easier, quicker, and more fun than ever!

You can find the slides for this session at the Northeast Roadshow Code Gallery.

Northeast Roadshow - Windows 7 Application Compatibility

Jim O'Neil — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 01:46:00 GMT

In this first of a three part series on Windows 7 for Developers, Jim O'Neil discusses the guidance and tools available for smoothly migrating applications from Windows XP and Vista to Windows 7. Included in the discussion is the Windows 7 Application Quality Cookbook, Application Compatibility Toolkit, and the incredibly nifty Windows XP Mode.

You can find the slides for this session at the Northeast Roadshow Code Gallery.

Northeast Roadshow – XNA Game Development

Brian Johnson — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 14:55:00 GMT

Let’s talk games! In this screencast, Chris Bowen (http://blogs.msdn.com/cbowen) tours the world of XNA, from the components of the XNA Framework, the XNA Creators Club Online, and resources for learning to create games. The bulk of the screencast focuses using XNA Game Studio, which can create games for Windows, XBOX 360, and Zune, to create a simple 2D game from scratch. Of course, it isn’t a fancy game (in the least), but you’ll soon have a working understanding of XNA. It’s up to you to take it from there to create the next smash hit!

Slides and code from the session are available on the Northeast Roadshow Code Gallery.

Northeast Roadshow - Top Things Developers Should Know About SQL Server - Execution Plans

Brian Johnson — Sat, 23 May 2009 16:08:00 GMT

Jim O’Neil, Developer Evangelist, closes out his five part series covering topics on SQL Server for developers with an overview of execution plan generation. Using SQL Server Management Studio it’s easy (and fun) to watch how queries are optimized and thereby get a better insight into application performance. The session covers how to read a query plan and offer some general guidelines on what characterizes an efficient query versus an inefficient one.

Northeast Roadshow - Top Things Developers Should Know About SQL Server - SQL Server Profiler

Brian Johnson — Thu, 14 May 2009 22:17:00 GMT

SQL Server Profiler is a tool every developer should have in their repertoire. With the use of frameworks and abstractions, we often lose sight of what is actually hitting the database, and there’s no better way to get that information than SQL Server Profiler. It has a few knobs and dials that we’ll cover here, and we’ll look at a sample scenario to ‘debug’ a faulty Entity Framework expression.

Northeast Roadshow - Top things developers should know about SQL Server - Error Handling

Brian Johnson — Tue, 12 May 2009 13:54:00 GMT

Jim O’Neil, Developer Evangelist, continues his five-part series on what developers should know about SQL Server. In this third segment, he takes a look at the components of a SQL Server error as well as some of their nuances and suggests techniques for handling errors on both the server-side in Transact-SQL and on the client-side in .NET code.

The complete slide deck for the series is available at Code Gallery.

Northeast Roadshow - Top things developers should know about SQL Server - Understanding SQL Injection

Brian Johnson — Sat, 09 May 2009 15:12:00 GMT

In this second of a series on what developers should know about SQL Server, Jim takes a brief look at SQL Injection attacks, how they occur and what types of things you can do (as well as things you shouldn’t do!) to eliminate your susceptibility to them. Also mentioned are a number of third-party applications and tools available to help with assessing the vulnerability of your site to SQL Injection and other attacks.

The complete slide deck for the series is available at Code Gallery.