GUESS WHO IS BIG

I recently installed Windows 7® Ultimate on my machine and found it more soothing and reliable in terms of preformance than Windows Vista® Ultimate. As a tech enthusiast, I do some serach on the internet and found two links from Microsoft website that will allow developers to develop applications specifically for Windows 7. The Windows API code pack allows developers to develop those features which are not available with .NET Framework. So to get started visit:

1. Windows® Code Pack API for Windows 7 & Windows Vista


2. Windows Training Kit

The training kit includes the demos and presentations, hand-on labs for developers. I haven't yet started with Windows 7 development. But as soon as I get started I will blog some demo for Windows 7.

If your are using Windows Azure for storing files here are the tools you should love to use to manage your Azure cloud storage.

Azure Storage Explorer - Codeplex

And

Cloud Storage Studio

If you don't have an Windows Azure account, then have one HERE

We all know about Windows Live® SkyDrive® and definitely all the user would like to have a tool which would help them in organizing and managing their folders. But unfortunately I am unable to find any tool which helps us to deal in this. And as usual if you want to develop something or need an API just jump to Codeplex. Download the SkyDrive API from here (Codeplex) or from the below. But hey! I got another application with me, exactly can't remember where I got this from but really appreciate Scott's (author of this app) effort for this. It seems to be just a protoype, as it only allows you to view and download the files. Download the application and give a try and don't forget to download the SkyDrive® API also.

Download SkyDrive Application:LiveIDSkyDriveApp.zip (419.12 kb)

SkyDrive® API from Codeplex:SkyDriveWebClient.v0.8.7.zip (72.50 kb)

Microsoft promised that they are going to provide user a next level of gaming experience. Take a look of what Microsoft has planned for all the gamers out there......This is a jaw-dropping technology

I attended the Microsoft developers event at NCUI auditorium in New Delhi on Windows Mobile® 6.5 and .NET Framework 4.0. Abhishek Baxi was a key speaker on Windows Mobile® 6.5. You can read his blog here. He demonstrates all the new features that Win Mob provides to the end users. How do we sync our data using cloud (Windows Live Mesh), configuring Outlook (Exchange ID) and even configure your live and other IDs, access internet using IE and develops gadgets and other application using VS2008 and 2010 on your phone. He also tells us about Microsoft Marketplace and how do we developers get benefits from the marketplace.

There is lot more to tell about Microsoft Windows Mobile® 6.5, but recently I bought Sony Ericsson phone but now after having a close look on Windows Mobile® I feel really bad. My phone don't have those features....that's not good...but it's too late now. I can't do anything about it...but I am not going to stuck with this phone forever

Resources for Windows Mobile® 6.5:

• http://www.windowsmobile.com
• http://developer.windowsmobile.com
• http://twitter.com/windowsmobile
• http://twitter.com/wmdev
• http://www.winmo.in

After this we have a half-an-hour break time and then we get back in to attend Bijoy's Singhal's .NET Framework's session. Bijoy is a Developer Evengelist at Microsoft. You can read his blog here. So, he started up to make all the developer's aware of the new features of .NET Framework 4.0 provides. He continues to talk about parallel computing and parallel computing, PLINQ, DLR, enhancements in CLR, MVC, MEF, MAF and other tons of features...which is totally outstanding.

In the end we move to the round-table session where we all developers start with a short introduction of ourselves and end up with a feedback on Microsoft Technologies / Events / Cons / Pros and how can we make more and more people aware of the fact on how Microsoft Technologies affect their lives. Moving further we also discussed on how do we get more and more people especially students at the events so they know about the new technology and eventually this will help them as a fresher to choose a domain / technology to move on. Even personally I have seen students that they are very confused about on what they have to choose .....the technology they want to work in. They just think should I choose Java or .NET but they find it hard to decide. So it's better that someone from Microsoft or on behalf of Microsoft can guide them to choose what's best for them. All other developers also put questions regarding Microsoft certifications and the black market associated with it. Bijoy guarantees that he will be informing Microsoft regarding the same and will definitely take a serious action against this. After all this is about software giant's reputation.

Finally, we decided to get connected once again and we will make our best efforts to promote Microsoft Technologies at every level as we can. I myself is a DieHard Microsoft Fan and I personally will make every possible effort to make people / students aware / beleive in the power of technology Microsoft provides.

Microsoft introduces yet another way to present you image collection online and its not only limited to present your huge photo collection but can also help you in your presentation (well I mean jaw-dropping presentation). After Microsoft Photosynth® it is another way to represent the collection of your picures. One thing is good for that you don't even have to download the huge/high resolution images from a website instead you can zoom in/out to get it all done at one place with this great technology. Here is how you can get a quick look and start.

To get started visit: http://livelabs.com/seadragon This is an official seadragon link where you get to know more about seadragon and DeepZoom . One good thing I found is that you can use Seadragon with AJAX and in Silverlight both and both supports APIs for developers to develop and leverage DeepZoom functionality. You can download the AJAX library and documenations to guide you throughout your own development process.

If you want to have a quick look on how this in actual works then visit: http://www.seadragon.com. Here you just have to give the URL of the photo you want to view with Seadragon viewer as shown in the below screenshot:

Once you provide the URL of your image just click Create and you can see the image withing the viewer above and other option to View, Embed and Share. Similarly here you can choose here from different images available.

In the coming posts I will describe how to use DeepZoom composer to create our own custom DeepZoom views. And atlast here is the outcome of the above.

Download PDF: Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0 Architecture.pdf (259.20 kb)