Tom Hollander left MS P&P and went back to Australia. Thankfully he is still blogging great content: http://blogs.msdn.com/tomholl/archive/2007/06/16/the-seven-deadly-sins-of-reusable-asset-development.aspx

Last week I presented WCSF at the Software Developer Event. Get the slides here: http://www.sdn.nl/Default.aspx?tabid=265

During the presentation I mentioned the next version of WCSF. Today the latest Release Candidate has been released:

http://blogs.msdn.com/blaine/archive/2007/06/08/wcsf-june-2007-release-candidate-available-on-codeplex.aspx

https://connect.microsoft.com/SQLServer/content/content.aspx?ContentID=5395

Mission critical platform for all

Beyond relational

Redefining pervasive insight

Dynamic development for data management solutions

So true...

http://blogs.msdn.com/steverowe/archive/2007/05/23/right-wrong-and-software-design.aspx

The technology code named Astoria is a technology that enables applications to expose data as a data service that can be consumed by web clients within corporate networks and across the internet. The Astoria data service is reachable over regular HTTP requests, and standard HTTP verbs such as GET, POST, PUT and DELETE are used to perform operations against the service. The use of web-friendly technologies make Astoria ideal as a data back-end for AJAX-style applications, Rich Interactive Applications and other applications that need to operate against data that lives across the web.

http://blogs.msdn.com/davbosch/archive/2007/05/10/project-code-name-astoria.aspx

Project Codename “Jasper”, aka Dynamic ADO.NET is a set of extensions to the ADO.NET Entity Framework designed to enable iterative (repeated loops) and agile development of powerful, real world data driven applications. Built atop the ADO.NET Entity Framework, Jasper supports rich queries and complex mapping, and allows users to interface by naming controls according to their models without worrying about binding code.

I did the beta in february. Results are out and I passed it.

The following list includes the topic areas covered on this exam. The percentage indicates the portion of the exam that addresses a particular skill.

http://blogs.msdn.com/bharry/archive/2007/03/26/microsoft-acquires-teamplain.aspx

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/teamsystem/bb407307.aspx

Most recently, a group of Avanade and Accenture colleagues collaborated to publish their expertise on the Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) in their book, Pro WCF: Practical Microsoft SOA Implementation, released this January. The work explains WCF from an SOA perspective, and illustrates the importance of WCF to web service development and architecture. The development of the book was a truly collaborative effort that included:

§  Avanade UK Senior Solution Architect Amit Bahree http://desigeek.com/weblog/amit

§  Avanade US Solution Architect Shawn Cicoria http://www.cicoria.com/cs1/blogs/cedarlogic

§  Avanade Netherlands Senior Principal Consultant Dennis Mulder www.dennismulder.net

§  Avanade Australia Solution Architect Chris Peiris http://www.chrispeiris.com/

The authors of Pro WCF: Practical Microsoft SOA Application will conduct two webcasts with Microsoft. The first, scheduled for April 10 at 2 p.m. PST, is targeted at the technical audience. The second, scheduled for April 11 at 2 p.m. PST, is meant for CTOs and the tech-savvy business audience. Both are open to the public.

§  To register for the technical webcast, go to http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=6440184, click the Registration link, and an email with further instructions will be mailed to you.

§  To register for the CTO webcast, go to http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=6455035, click the Registration link, and an email with further instructions will be mailed to you.

Note: A Microsoft Windows Live ID account is required to view all Microsoft webcasts. If you do not have an account you can set one up now at login.live.com.