Out Performed!

Okay, Okay, so the NxtGen EVO launch is the spectacle that become NxtGen normal. Okay, so Alun Rodgers transport rules, well, rules. Okay so I came last. I dont really care when you are out performed by the one man singing techie that is THE Dave Mahmon doing the ReadyBoost song live on stage. Just dont tell him I said so, his ego is big enough! Read more about what went on here.

Windows Home Server

I sent some time looking details for Windows Home Server beta, as the marketing fluff sounds really cool. I came across a blog entry by Barry Dorrans that talks about what its been like to spend a week with it.

Adding Holidays Automatically

While checking out dates for a holiday, I noticed that Outlook 2007 hadn't included UK bank holidays. After checking in Tools -> Options -> Preferences -> Calendar Options -> Add Holidays I saw that the UK was already selected. I unchecked this box and checked it again. Now I got the message says the holiday dates were imported. Checked the calendar and all are there.

Flying Awards Dinner

On Friday night, I was invited to an awards dinner by Almat Flying Club. I turned up and the Quicken Tree in Filongley expecting to find it a room at the back of a pub. Turns out I was wrong! It was fully blown, star studded (the walls had little light glistening like stars) evening to rival the oscars.

I collected a certificate for night flying, while others had awards for first solos, IMC ratings, best progress made, and even a category for those that had been awarded few airline jobs.

It was a most enjoyable evening. I think its something that the local aviation community is seriously lacking. Well done Almat!

Making Movies

Over the weekend, put together a few videos for a NxtGenUG presentation on Monday. I reached for my trusty Camtasia and it didnt work under Vista!

After some hunting around, I found this posting to a Beta version of Camtasia that does work. being a beta, theres a few issues, such as the screen quality suddenly dropping for a few seconds, or audio being recorded very quietly on occasions, but overall it got me sorted.

Service Pack 2 available for SQL Server and Server Express

Microsoft have released SP2 for SQL server and express additions. This is the version that fixes some compatability issues running on Vista, as well as includes a whole host of new goodies.

As well as the traditional host of fixes, the new service park offers compression for some data warehousing applications, and other performance boosts. Theres a number of improvements in management for DB administrators and a new database wizard for better reporting.

Installing SP2 is straight forward, after agreeing to the UAC prompt and the licence agreement, you are presented with a list of which components you already have installed. Click Next a few times and it happens without any fuss.

You can download SP2 for SQL Server from here, or for SQL Express from here.

Begging For Money

On Monday, 26th February, I'm doing a set of 6 90-second presentations to 'sell' some of the best new features of Vista, Office 2007 and Exchange as part of the NxtGenUG EVO launch.

The idea is to complete with Richard Costall, Dav Mcmahon and Alun Rodgers for play money, Dragons Den style!

You can read more at http://www.nxtgenug.net/ViewEvent.aspx?EventID=35

NxtGen launches are usually something special and this event is lining up to carry on with the same trend.

WOOO HOOOO. What a GRRRREAT Event its gonna be!

The NxtGenUG boys are pleased to announce their very first One-Day Event. We’re not calling it a conference, as we want it to be more than that! We want it to be a day to remember, and another annual highlight for the UK Developer Community.
It’s called NxtGenUG Fest 07 and the initial details are at http://www.nxtgenug.net/fest07. The event will take place at Microsoft UK Headquarters at Thames Valley Park (TVP) on Wednesday 23rd May 2007 and starts at 0900. Food will be provided and we want everybody to go home with a decent amount of quality 'swag'.
The day has a theme: 'Into the future'. We start the day looking at current technologies such as Vista, then we move into the 'Orcas' timeframe, then to 12 months hence or so, probably taking a look at dynamic languages and then really moving out into 'who knows' with a session from Microsoft Research. There will be a keynote, with an appearance from UK DPE manager Kevin McDaniel and words from the NxtGenUG crew and finally the day will finish with a new ‘Game Show’ style session courtesy of NxtGenUG featuring an awful lot of swag!
We’re absolutely chuffed to bits to announce that the headline speaker is top TechEd speaker Rafal Lukawiecki and we will also be joined by Daniel Moth and Mike Taulty (perhaps) of the UK DPE and also by Lorna Brown from Microsoft Research. We have one more speaker to announce too, which we hope to do next week.
At lunchtime there will be Grok talks presented by NxtGenUG members, on a variety of subjects to be announced.
This event is FREE to all fully paid-up NxtGenUG members and a mere £54.99 for non-members until 1 March 2007, check out the URL for more details. Numbers are strictly limited (we know ... everybody says that … but we really mean it this time - 230 tops!) so register early is my advice!

Want to print to PDF?

If youre using any of the office 2007 programs and want to print to a PDF file then, instead of installing a third party printer driver to do this, Microsoft have released an addin to Office to allow you to save your documents in PDF format.

Heres the link.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=4D951911-3E7E-4AE6-B059-A2E79ED87041&displaylang=en

It can only happen at NxtGen

Put 3 developer community leaders in a car, what do you expect to happen in a traffic jam?

http://www.nxtgenug.net/NewsArticle.aspx?ArticleID=144

Windows Mobile 6 announced

The mobile operating system that was codenamed "Crossbow" has finally been officially announced as being Windows Mobile 6.

There are some significant improvements for developers, such as the inclusion of the Compact Framework 2.0 SP1 and SQL (compact Edition) being included in the ROM and not having to take up valuable storage memory.

Changes like the built in certificate installer will make securng these devices eaiser.

Screenshots of the cosmetically enhanced interface, along with more details can be found on engaget, on PocketPCThoughts and on the Mobile Development Teams Blog.

Finally, a blog that works!

After many attempts to get some open source blog software to work, I've finally given up on the idea and switched to Blogger. It doesnt give me the control I had before, but at least it doesnt lose posts all the time and IE7 will actually let me log into it to post!