Free Second Shot

Microsoft is offering a free Second Shot on certification exams through Prometric. To register for a free second shot, go to http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/offers/secondshot/default.mspx. After registering, you will receive an e-mail with a link providing a voucher #. Please note this link will produce a unique voucher # every time it's clicked. This offer is valid through January 30, 2008.

Wi-Fi T-Shirt

I normally wouldn't blog anything about T-Shirts, but this is just over the top that it leaves me speechless. Thanks to the ingenious ThinkGeek robot monkeys you can display the current wi-fi signal strength to yourself and everyone around you with this stylish Wi-Fi Detector Shirt. The glowing bars on the front of the shirt dynamically change as the surrounding Wi-Fi signal strength fluctuates.


For more info or to order, go to http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts/generic/991e/?cpg=cj.

Cool Articles

Listed below are a few articles that I thought were very interesting, courtesy of CodeProject.

Windows Presentation Foundation
A Simple WPF Explorer Tree - Sacha Barber
A Simple WPF Explorer TreeC# (C# 3.0); Windows (WinXP, Vista), .NET (.NET 3.0); Win32, VS (VS2005, VS2008), WPF; Dev

C# Database
SQL Server Network Instance Detector - Syed Mujtaba Hassan
A simple, ready-to-use control for C# beginners to detect all SQL Server instances in a network and then list all the databases hosted on the selected serverC#; Windows, .NET (.NET 2.0); Win32, VS, ADO; DB, Dev

Silverlight
Silverlight Alien Sokoban - Daniel Vaughan
A fun Silverlight implementation of the game Sokoban. Contrasting Silverlight 1.1 and WPF, while showcasing some new features of C# 3.0, Expression Design, Expression Blend, and Visual Studio 2008.C# (C# 3.0); Windows, .NET (.NET 3.5); ASP.NET, Win32, VS (VS2008), XAML, WebForms; Dev, Design


C# Programming
Simple Vector Shapes - acontoli
A 2D vector shapes and RTFcontrol editorC# (C# 2.0); Windows, .NET (.NET 2.0); Win32, VS; Dev

Writing Your Own GPS Applications - Jon Person.
What is it that GPS applications need to be good enough to use for in-car navigation? Also, how does the process of interpreting GPS data actually work?


Microsoft Office
Outlook 2003 Style Navigation Pane - Muhammed Sahin
Outlook 2003 Style Navigation Pane (Almost 2007 Style)C# (C# 2.0); Windows, .NET; Win32, VS (VS2005); Dev

System Programming
Detecting USB Drive Removal in a C# Program - Jan Dolinay
An article on detecting insertion and removal of removable drives in C#C# (C# 2.0); Windows,
.NET (.NET 2.0); Win32, VS (VS2005); Dev

Microsoft Search Server 2008 Software Development Kit (SDK)

Yesterday, I made a blog entry on Microsoft's recent release of Search Server 2008. To go along with that release, an SDK is also available. The Microsoft Search Server 2008 Software Development Kit (SDK) includes documentation for Microsoft Search Server 2008. Its object models are based on the Enterprise Search object model in Office SharePoint Server 2007 with some additional members in the search-related namespaces for federated search.

To read more about the SDK or download it, go to http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb931107.aspx

Search Server 2008

Microsoft recently released a product called "Search Server 2008". The list of features include:

Search Center
No Pre-Set Document Limits
Extensible Search Experience
Relevance Tuning
Continuous Propagation Indexing
Federated Search Connectors
Indexing Connectors
Security-Trimmed Results
Unified Administration Dashboard
Query and Results Reporting
Streamlined Installation
High Availability and Load Balancing

This list of features represents features included with the Enterprise Client Access License version of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. Some features will shortly be released as part of an Enterprise Search feature pack. Essentially, Search Server 2008 uses the same search engine used in SharePoint 2007. However, with SharePoint 2007 you also get the following features:

People and Expertise Searching
Business Data Catalog
SharePoint Productivity Infrastructure

The Express version and a trial version of the Enterprise version are available as free downloads from http://www.microsoft.com/enterprisesearch/default.aspx

Microsoft Presence Sample for Smart Client Applications

Microsoft recently released an updated version of it's presence controls. It includes two managed code user controls to display presence status and provide real-time collaboration options in .NET applications.

One control presents an interactive presence icon next to a control on a form that contains a name. The second control is derived from a ListView control to display the presence status icon next to names in a list. Both controls provide tooltips, a context menu, and events for contact status changes.

To download samples of the presence controls, go to http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=C812FD72-1E3A-4321-8503-C904921C291D&displaylang=en

November .Net Events

Listed below is a summary of the .Net events scheduled for this month. Attend a few and increase your .Net knowledge!

Nov 8th: SQL User Group Meeting
http://www.bennettadelson.com/technicalresources/sqlsig.aspx

Nov 13th: .Net User Group Meeting
http://www.bennettadelson.com/technicalresources/sig.aspx


Nov 27th: C#/VB.Net User Group Meeting - "Configuring MOSS 2007" http://www.clevelanddotnet.info/

Brulant Games & Brains Event

You're invited for our Brulant Game Night & Information Session, a chance for us to meet you (or get to know you better!), and for you to learn a little more about Brulant, all while enjoying the latest video games, free food and shooting hoops! Games will include:
- Playstation 3: "The Bigs"
- Nintendo Wii: WiiSports- Indoor Basketball Chess, Foose Ball, Cornhole and...
- Xbox 360: Halo 3, released just two days before the event!

Topics will include a variety of presenters from Brulant experts in Microsoft and Java. Food and Drinks will be provided, and all attendees will be entered to WIN AN XBOX360 and copy of HALO3!!

When: Thursday, September 27, 5:30-8:30PM

Where: Brulant HQ, 3700 Park East Drive, Suite 300, Beachwood, OH 44122

Cost: Free, just bring your "A" game! Look forward to seeing you there!

To sign-up, click REGISTER

Using VB Script to display part of an IP address

Q: How can I use VB Script to display the first 3 octets in a TCP/IP address?

A: Since IP addresses are not fixed length, you will have to count the number of separators before you can extract the octets. With that said, listed below is the sample VB Script code.

strIP = inputbox("Enter an IP Address for testing to extract the first 3 Octets:")

intLastDecimal = 1

For intCounter = 1 to 3
intLastDecimal = InStr(intLastDecimal, strIP, ".") + 1
Next

iNewLength = intLastDecimal-2
strNewIP = Left(strIP, iNewLength )
MsgBox "strNewIP=" & strNewIP

To run this code, simply copy and paste it into a flat file and name it with a .VBS extension.

For more resources on VB Scripting, please visit the following links:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/3ca8tfek.aspx
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms974570.aspx
http://www.w3schools.com/vbscript/vbscript_ref_functions.asp

Silverlight 1.0 Released

Yesterday Microsoft announced the release of Silverlight 1.0, a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in to help you deliver the next generation of .NET-based media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web. In addition, Microsoft will work with Novell Inc. to deliver Silverlight support for Linux, called Moonlight, and based on the project started on mono-project.com.

Silverlight essentially creates JavaScript that is stored on the server but executed entirely on the client. To help expedite this process, Microsoft Expressions can be used to create the graphics and animation. Although SilverLight version 1.0 does not include .Net APIs, version 1.1 is expected to have it.

To learn more about Silverlight, check out the following links:
Download: http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/default_ns.aspx.
News: http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/news-pr.aspx
Community: http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/community.aspx
Resources: http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/downloads.aspx

XML Schema Designer

Microsoft recently released XML Schema Designer Community Technology Preview (CTP). This is the first Community Technology Preview (CTP) of the XML Schema Designer. It is a graphical tool for working with XML Schemas. This CTP introduces XML Schema Explorer - a tool that helps you navigate, search and work with schema sets. XML Schema Explorer will automatically come up when you open or create an xsd file in Visual Studio. It is docked with the Solution Explorer tool.

To download v1(beta) of this new tool, go to http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=4DE12C98-1221-4A0E-B5AA-BFC7DAF02550&displaylang=en

SharePoint Server 2007 SDK Released

Recently Microsoft released the SharePoint Server 2007 SDK. The Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 SDK contains conceptual overviews, “How Do I…?” programming tasks, developer tools, code samples, references, and an Enterprise Content Management (ECM) starter kit to guide you in developing solutions based on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. To learn more about this, or to download the SDK, go to http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=6d94e307-67d9-41ac-b2d6-0074d6286fa9&displaylang=en

Description of the "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet"

If you ever accessed the help features in Word and came across the phrase "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet" and wondered what it meant, you've come to the right place.

Although the phrase is nonsense, it does have a long history. The phrase has been used for several centuries by typographers to show the most distinctive features of their fonts. It is used because the letters involved and the letter spacing in those combinations reveal, at their best, the weight, design, and other important features of the typeface. A 1994 issue of "Before & After" magazine traces "Lorem ipsum ..." to a jumbled Latin version of a passage from de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum, a treatise on the theory of ethics written by Cicero in 45 B.C. The passage "Lorem ipsum ..." is taken from text that reads, "Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit ...," which translates as, "There is no one who loves pain itself, who seeks after it and wants to have it, simply because it is pain..."

To read more about this, go to http://support.microsoft.com/kb/114222