Microsoft released some updates for Visual Studio 2010 today to MSDN subscribers with the public release on March 10th. The following updates are out today:

Visual Studio 2010 SP1:

You can learn more about how Microsoft is improving Visual Studio 2010 on Jason Zander's blog and Scott Guthrie's blog.

TFS-Project Server Integration Feature Pack:

Also available for Visual Studio Ultimate with MSDN subscribers via Download Center today is the TFS-Project Server Integration Feature Pack.  Integration between Project Server and Team Foundation Server enables teams to work more effectively together using Visual Studio, Project, and SharePoint and coordinates development between teams using disparate methodologies, such as waterfall and agile, via common data and metrics.

Visual Studio Load Test Feature Pack:

Available to all Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate with MSDN subscribers.  With this feature pack, you can simulate as many virtual users as you need without having to purchase additional Visual Studio Load Test Virtual User Pack 2010 licenses.  For more information regarding this new Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate with MSDN benefit, visit the Visual Studio Load Test Virtual User Pack 2010 page.

Visual Studio LightSwitch Beta 2:

Visual Studio LightSwitch offers a simple way to develop line of business applications for the desktop and cloud.  In the coming weeks, Microsoft will make available Visual Studio LightSwitch Beta 2.  With this second beta, Microsoft will also enable you to build line of business applications that target Windows Azure and SQL Azure. 

You have been hearing a lot about the new Window Phone 7 lately.  Did you miss the bubble with iPhone development because you didn’t want to learn a whole new language and framework?  Then you're invited to a hands-on event for Windows Phone 7. 

Get some help getting your Windows Phone 7 app into the marketplace. You’ll receive everything you need to develop an app—including some good community fun, sample code and templates. You can work individually or collaborate with others as a team.

Chris Koenig, Senior Developer Evangelist with Microsoft will be joining me for this fun, fact filled, dare I say Lab filled event.

Attendees will also receive a special entry card for a chance to win a Windows Phone 7, after your app has been submitted to the marketplace.

Be there!

Get started

Download the Toolkit

Register at the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace

Download the Windows Phone Mobile Advertising SDK to monetize their app

Date: March, 8th, 2011 

Time: 6:00 P.M. – 9:00 P.M. 

Place:

Technology 101 

105 SE 22nd St, Suite #7 

Bentonville, AR 72712

Please RSVP: nwadnug032011.eventbrite.com

Microsoft released ASP.NET MVC 3 earlier this morning at the CodeMash conference. ASP.NET MVC 3 is a framework for developing highly testable and maintainable Web applications by leveraging the Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern. The framework encourages developers to maintain a clear separation of concerns among the responsibilities of the application – the UI logic using the view, user-input handling using the controller, and the domain logic using the model. ASP.NET MVC applications are easily testable using techniques such as test-driven development (TDD).

The installation package includes templates and tools for Visual Studio 2010 to increase productivity when writing ASP.NET MVC applications. For example, the Add View dialog box takes advantage of customizable code generation (T4) templates to generate a view based on a model object. The default project template allows the developer to automatically hook up a unit-test project that is associated with the ASP.NET MVC application.

Because the ASP.NET MVC framework is built on ASP.NET 4, developers can take advantage of existing ASP.NET features like authentication and authorization, profile settings, localization, and so on.

A ASP.NET MVC 3 Application Upgrader has also been released on Codeplex. This standalone application upgrades ASP.NET MVC 2 applications to ASP.NET MVC 3. It works for both ASP.NET MVC 3 RC 2 and RTM. The tool only supports Visual Studio 2010 solutions and MVC 2 projects targeting .NET 4.

It will not work with VS 2008 solutions, MVC 1 projects, or projects targeting .NET 3.5. Those projects will first have to be upgraded using Visual Studio 2010 and/or retargeted for .NET 4.

The tool will:

• Create a backup of your entire solution
• Update all Web Applications and Test projects to reference System.Web.Mvc v3.0
• Add references to System.Web.Helpers.dll and System.Web.WebPages.dll (new libraries required by MVC 3)
• Upgrade web.config files to reference System.Web.Mvc v3.0 and add configuration and settings to support the new Razor view engine
• Add or upgrade JavaScript files that ship with ASP.NET MVC 3 (jQuery 1.4.4, jQuery UI 1.8.7 jQuery Validation 1.7, Microsoft AJAX)
• Add stylesheets and image assets to support jQuery UI

You can download these releases from the links below:

• ASP.NET MVC 3 RTM
• ASP.NET MVC 3 Application Upgrader
   

Light up your Silverlight skills with the all-new Global Silverlight Firestarter!

What is the Silverlight Firestarter?

• An Event: A one day, global, live streamed and on demand event keynoted by Scott Guthrie
• Training: New self-paced labs and walk through videos
• Interactive: Got questions? Get your answers! Watch live and ask the Silverlight product team questions during the event.
• Why Silverlight? Silverlight is Microsoft’s strategic development platform for building interactive applications across desktop, phone, and the browser.

Something for Everyone

• Just starting out with Silverlight? Watch our On-Ramp sessions and work on hands on labs to get you started.
• Already Building business applications? Watch the event live and learn how to create compelling business applications with Silverlight.
• Got questions? Engage with the Silverlight product team live or in person with our interactive chat.

When - Register - How Much?

December 2, 2010 8am to 5pm PST
Register Online, Now!
Nothing! This is a free event

After the live event keep fueling the fire!

Dive deeper with additional hands on labs and videos that build on the live session content, accelerating you ahead of the crowd.

• Watch the entire event on demand!
• Plus, new self-paced labs and walk through videos
• On Ramp Labs (100 level)
• Hands on labs specifically focused on helping new developers get up to speed quickly on Silverlight
• Do you know WinForms? HTML? ASP.NET? Want to learn Silverlight? We have a lab for you!
  • Building Better Business Apps (200-300 level)
• Hands on labs focused on taking advantage of Silverlight to build real world business applications
• Apply Data Strategies, Patterns, Out of Browser, RIA Services, and much more using Silverlight
• Turnabout is fair play! Watch a video of our experts doing the labs themselves.

FIRESTARTER LIVE AGENDA (PST)

8:00 am
Silverlight Firestarter Keynote
Scott Guthrie

9:00 am
Masterful Data Strategies with Silverlight and WP7
Jesse Liberty

10:00 am
15 minute break

10:15 am
Roll Out Your Business Apps Today with RIA Services
Pete Brown

11:15 am
MVVM: Why and How? Tips and Patterns using MVVM and Service Patterns
John Papa

12:15 pm
Lunch break

1:00 pm
Silverlight Today and Tomorrow (Special Guest Panel)
Panel

1:30 pm
Building Real World Silverlight Apps
Tim Heuer

2:30 pm
15 minute break

2:45 pm
Tune Your Application: Profiling and Performance Tips
Mike Cook & Jossef Goldberg

3:45 pm
Killer Performance Tips for Silverlight Windows Phone 7
Jaime Rodriguez

5:00 pm
After Party!

*** Sessions are subject to change

Spread the Word!

• Blog and tweet to spread the word about the Firestarter!
• Ask people to add the Twitter hash tag #slfs10 to their tweets
• Use the banners and blog bling (attached)

Questions

Got questions? Ask slfs@microsoft.com

Northwest Arkansas CodeCamp 2010

Connect | Learn | Teach

FREE 1-Day Developer Conference in Springdale, AR!

Saturday October 23^rd, 2010

The Northwest Arkansas CodeCamp is a yearly regional developer and technology focused event that is focused on three things Connecting, Learning and Teaching. 

Connect with your peers! Knowing who knows is almost as important as knowing.  Attending local and regional conferences is a great way to interact and expand your circle of influence. 

Learn, by attending topical sessions presented by national and local speakers can help you stay up to date on the mountain of new topics coming out each year.

Topics will include iPhone, Android, ASPNET MVC, Object Oriented Programming, Test Driven Development, Web Design, CSS, JQuery, Entity Framework, and Version Control.

Teach what you know, share your experiences with others.  Teaching and presenting is also an awesome way to learn.  By putting yourself out there and letting others hear what you have learned you gain incredible feedback and learn other approaches to the problem.

When and Where October 23, 2010 at the Tyson Corporate Headquarters located at 2210 W. Oaklawn Dr. Springdale, AR 72765.

Register online at http://nwacodecamp.com.

The Northwest Arkansas CodeCamp is organized by members of the Northwest Arkansas .Net User Group, Inc..  The Northwest Arkansas .NET User Group is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to the promotion, education and adoption of Microsoft .NET Technologies. They strive to provide an environment for professionals to network in Northwest Arkansas and foster the free exchange of ideas and information.

They hold monthly meetings with presentations that allow you to keep up to date on the latest emerging .NET technologies as well as provide practical skills you can use immediately. To find out more about the Northwest Arkansas .NET User Group visit them online at http://nwadnug.org.

The next Northwest Arkansas .Net User Group meeting will be held on October 12th, 2010 5:30 PM. Jay Smith will be show everyone how to estimate tasks using Planning Poker.

Get your Ticket for the meeting here! Remember his is how we figure out how much food to get so please help us make sure we have enough for everyone.

Announcements:
Houston TechFest 2010 - October 9, 2010
Northwest Arkansas CodeCamp - October 23, 2010 - Registration Open
Tulsa Techfest - November 12, 2010 - Open Call for Speakers
Northwest Arkansas GiveCamp - January 14-16, 2011 - More Info

Northwest Arkansas Code Camp
The Northwest Arkansas CodeCamp is less than 20 days away. Registration is still pretty low so please help get the word out. There will be 6 tracks of sessions covering everything from mobile to ASP.NET development. Check out http://nwacodecamp.com/ to register and plesae forward this event information to anyone you feel would be interested.

This Months Meeting Information

Title: Planning Poker is a consensus-based estimation technique for estimating, mostly used to estimate effort or relative size of tasks in software development . It is a variation of the Wideband Delphi method. In this session you will learn not only what planning poker is but how to facilitate it with your team. Using Planning Poker to estimate task on your project is not only accurate its fun.

Presenter:
Jay Smith is an ASP .NET MVP and works for Tyson Foods, Inc. as a PMO Architect and Evangelist where he works with teams to test bed processes and technologies. Jay is also one of the founding members of the Northwest Arkansas .Net User’s Group and host of User Group Radio - The Community Leadership Podcast. Jay often presents to the community on various topics including Agile Software Development, Object Oriented Principles, and Application Architecture.

Agenda
6:00 PM - 6:15 PM - Welcome and News, Sign-in and Food
6:15 PM - 6:30 PM - Lightning Presentation
6:30 PM - 6:40 PM - Intermission - Presenter switch over
6:40 PM - 8:10 PM - Main Presentation
8:10 PM - 8:30 PM - Closing and Prize give-a-ways

Where
Technology 101
105 SE 22nd St, Suite #7
Bentonville, AR 72712

Hope to see you there!