Tag: Announcements

Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 Deliver Beta 2 in Final Stretch to March 22 Launch

Post author By M3 Sweatt
Post date 19/10/2009

As Mary-Jo Foley reported and (as noted on twitter) just announced on Microsoft PressPass, Dave Mendlen discusses availability of Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 Beta 2, the March 22, 2010, launch date, and the simplified product lineup for Visual Studio 2010, including the Ultimate Offer.

"Microsoft Corp. today announced the immediate availability of Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 and Microsoft .NET Framework 4 Beta 2 to MSDN subscribers; general availability will follow on Oct. 21. The company also outlined a simplified product lineup and pricing options for Visual Studio 2010 as well as new benefits for MSDN subscribers, including the Ultimate Offer, available to all active MSDN Premium subscribers at the official product launch on March 22, 2010.

Ultimate Offer?

"With the Ultimate Offer, active MSDN Premium subscribers will be transitioned to a higher-level Visual Studio 2010 with MSDN subscription at launch. This provides access to an unprecedented amount of resources, including test and development rights for Microsoft server software (including Windows Server 2008 R2 and Microsoft SQL Server 2008), Microsoft Office, and premium Visual Studio tools.

“The 2010 wave is not only about innovation but about helping our customers get significantly more for their investments,” said Dave Mendlen, senior director of developer marketing at Microsoft. “The Ultimate Offer and new MSDN subscriber benefits combine to give developers access to high-quality tools, training and community support while at the same time providing organizations with an immensely better value for their money.”

As Scott Hanselman noted in his blog today…

"You may notice a few things in the new Splash Screen above. There’s a new Visual Studio logo that goes nicely as well as a new logo for MSDN. You probably heard that we launched a new MSDN this weekend and today we add the new logo and background. This new MSDN is the beginning of a more agile, community focused MSDN and you should expect to see and hear of cool stuff coming from the team, often, in the months to come. Of note will be the new MSDN Lightweight view, soon to be the default view for the library.

"In the coming weeks I’ll dig into more details on the these new things and how they work together:

Visual Studio 2010 and .NET 4

Windows 7

Microsoft Developer Network

"Enjoy! Also, be sure to check out Soma’s blog post and go get Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 Beta 2 as soon as you can!"

For more information on the new packaging, licensing, and pricing of Visual Studio 2010 and MSDN, visit http://microsoft.com/visuastudio.

If you’re interested in downloading Beta 2, visit http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx for the latest details.

Tags: Microsoft, Visual Studio, VS2010, Beta, MSDN, developer, development tools.

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Tags Announcements, Developer, Microsoft, Visual Studio

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A couple of choice items benefitting the Microsoft Giving Campaign this year

Post author By M3 Sweatt
Post date 15/10/2009

As I noted in my post yesterday, this year’s Microsoft Giving Campaign activities kicked off this month. In addition to the items I mentioned in my previous post, I also posted a couple of special items. (If you don’t know about our campaign, see this link for more info: http://bit.ly/1ajgA0.) Although this is only open to Microsoft employees, I wanted to thank many of the folks who have been kind enough to provide some interesting items. (I checked with our auction and PR team to ensure I could mention the items here. 😉

One of my favourite items is my Samsung NC20 mini notebook PC with Windows 7, autographed by the Windows 7 management team, including Jon DeVaan and Steven Sinofsky. This is an awesome portable, and combines the small size (11.5" x 8.5" x 1.2") and light weight (3.3 pounds) of a mini notebook with an excellent screen. The 1,280 x 800 resolution makes you feel like you’re using a full-size notebook, compared to the cramped 1,024×576 or 1,024×600 of typical small notebooks.

The keyboard is also large and comfortable to type on, with the same key spacing as full-size notebooks. The PC has 2GB of memory, a 160GB hard drive, slip case, charger, and two batteries (standard 6-cell unit for 5-6 hours and a 9-cell for 7-9.5 hours) battery, making this perfect for extended time away from sockets.

My thanks to our management team for taking the time to sign this computer!

Also up for auction is this new-in-the-box, never used, limited edition Pink Zune 30, courtesy of my wife (this was her original Zune, but she preferred a smaller 4GB Zune).

I purchased it at the initial release of the model and then obtained autographs from Robbie Bach, Steve Kaneko, J Allard and Bill Gates.

In all, the donations raised from the sale of these items will go to a good cause.

Tags: articles, what I read, twitter, Microsoft, Windows 7, Giving Campaign.

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Tags Announcements, Microsoft, Microsoft culture, of interest, Windows 7, Zune

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Wonder what’s up at the Microsoft Giving Campaign? Here’s a look at few auction items generating interest

Post author By M3 Sweatt
Post date 15/10/2009
1 Comment on Wonder what’s up at the Microsoft Giving Campaign? Here’s a look at few auction items generating interest

As I noted here, this year’s Microsoft Giving Campaign activities kicked off recently. In support of the charity auction we run, I posted a few items of interest. (If you don’t know about our campaign, see this link for more info: http://bit.ly/1ajgA0.) Although this event and the items are only open to Microsoft employees, I wanted to highlight some of the items I’ve listed and thank the folks kind enough to provide them. (I went ahead and checked with our auction and PR teams to ensure I could discuss them here ;) Please note that I don’t personally benefit from the listing of any of these items; funds will benefit the local United Way and other charities.

Award-winning technology journalist and author Ed Bott graciously offered to provide a personally inscribed and signed copy of his new book, “Windows 7 Inside Out” to the winner of one of this auction. The new 1056-page book also includes a CD with a fully searchable eBook, downloadable gadgets and other tools for customizing Windows 7. I may just bid on this item myself.

Internationally renowned artist Natasha Wescoat has graciously agreed to donate a signed original painting, to be created and personally inscribed for the high bidder. Natasha’s passion for community and social media has helped propel her work onto a global scale via her presence on social media sites like Twitter (@natasha) and her blog, http://NatashasArtCandy.com.

Natasha’s art graces over 1,000 private and corporate collections worldwide, garnering a devoted following that has enabled her to work with television shows (Extreme Makeover Home Edition) and movies (Marley and Me). A new transplant to Seattle, it’s nice that Natasha has offered this custom piece and I’m sure that it will garner a lot of attention.

The good folks over at TechFlash and Kroll Map Co. have kindly provided a local geek treasure: a truly limited edition of the popular TechFlash Geek’s Guide to Seattle poster (http://bit.ly/PAYOM), autographed by the TechFlash team. Measuring 36 by 28 inches, the popular poster was redesigned for our Giving Campaign auction as a one-of-a-kind piece to show more of the map surface on much bigger scale.

The poster highlights some interesting locations, including some well-known sites but also many of the region’s most interesting tech locations and hidden gems, ranging from the former rental house where Jeff Bezos started Amazon to an extremely cool, little-known communications technology museum south of the city. (Many thanks to Todd Bishop at TechFlash and Kroll for this donation.)

Prolific Seattle artist David Hoang (on Twitter @DavidHoang) has graciously donated his talent to create a custom, one-of-a-kind Hand Drawn Avatar to the high bidder for use as a social media (or other) "avatar" on Twitter and other services. David explores the foundations of popular culture, de-contextualization, re-contextualization and convergence. In a world of "instant-uploads" and automatic avatar creations, David takes a step back and spends 20-30 minutes on a high quality drawing for the user. David also records the experience and presents the final YouTube video as a music video: see an example of the finished work at http://bit.ly/P3Q7E.

Tomorrow I’ll post details on a couple of items that should appeal to the techie in all of us (I know I think they’re quite cool ;).

Tags: articles, what I read, twitter, Microsoft, Windows 7, Giving Campaign.

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Tags Announcements, art, Microsoft, Microsoft culture

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The Microsoft Giving Campaign kicks off!

Post author By M3 Sweatt
Post date 05/10/2009

For those FTEs who read this blog, a quick note to let you know that I have posted a few items of interest on this year’s Microsoft Giving Campaign auction. (If you don’t know about our campaign, see this link for more info: http://bit.ly/1ajgA0.)

A couple of very choice items will be posted this week that you will not want to miss. Unfortunately, I am unable to discuss them here.

But, I can say that geeks will love 2145 and 2197, and art lovers will enjoy 2159. A few new items will be added this week, so keep watching.

Tags Announcements, art, Microsoft, Microsoft culture

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Free download: Microsoft Security Essentials suite available now

Post author By M3 Sweatt
Post date 30/09/2009

Now available (US and Canada) is the new Microsoft Security Essentials suite, available for free, providing protection from viruses, spyware, and other malicious software for your PCs at home. Just installed the release version on my home PCs today. (Security Essentials will replace Windows Live OneCare, as I noted here this summer.)

Microsoft Security Essentials is a free* download from Microsoft that is simple to install, easy to use, and always kept up to date so you can be assured your PC is protected by the latest technology. It’s easy to tell if your PC is secure — when you’re green, you’re good. It’s that simple.

Find information, definitions, and analyses of all the latest threats that Microsoft Security Essentials can help protect you against in the Microsoft Malware Protection Center.