ever wonder what the heck a microsoft certified architect was? think it is a test you can take at prometric and add MCA to your business card? think again. i've often wondered the process, what it is and how it works. i've heard stories, but never bothered to investigate.
well, here it is, distilled for you in some reading. my colleague, joe shirey, has just posted some very good information on what is a certified architect and what the process is. if you are interested, these are must read information.
he's organized it for us non-architects to better read it ;-)
thanks joe for putting this out there!
i found this very interesting site at ny times today which titles itself as 'analyzing the details' of the republican debate (the recent youtube one).
aside from the video transcript interface (being able to select a topic and have the video and text jump immediately), there is the transcript analyzer which presents this visualization below:
very cool experience. i'm able to visualize the time blocks and highlight the large blocks to see the topic/text that is taking that area. additionally, you can see how much time each candidate actually talked. it looked like guliani and romney capitalized the time...interesting.
anyhow, a pretty cool/different view on looking at information that is primarily media and presenting it in a different way.
this morning, scottgu posted details on the roadmap for the .net web platform. it is an exciting roadmap to me, so let me hit some of the highlights:
- ASP.NET 3.5 Extensions - this will include the MVC framework, AJAX improvements, dynamic data support, asp.net and silverlight support, and ado.net data services (entity framework). this release is expected to be available for download on the web next week in the first preview mode.
- silverlight: because of the significant effort being made and features building in to the vNext version, we are changing the name going forward to reflect that effort -- thus silverlight 1.1 --> silverlight 2.0. we plan on releasing a beta of silverlight 2.0 in the first quarter of CY08 with a "go-live" license in limited scale. this silverlight 2.0 will include:
- WPF UI framework
- rich controls: core+some good stuff
- networking support
- rich base class library support
- final release of IIS7 will be shipped as part of win2008 release early next year...for .net this is awesome as we (developers) will be able to better write code that sits closer to the pipe
i think all of these are great news. of course i'm particularly excited about silverlight 2.0 changes/additions as i'll be finally able to start talking/showing things i've been holding back on because of the impending changes. stay tuned to this blog for more tutorials that will encompass silverlight 2.0 features -- and of course, The Code Trip will feature silverlight and all of the above!
i'm surprised how much is going on in the month of december...usually it is pretty idle...but this is my largest travel month.
after just visiting the tucson .net user group and the denver visual studio user group (thanks to both for hosting), i'm off tomorrow to redmond for the silverlight firestarter event. i come home just in time for our annual festivus party which i'm super excited for. i've been storing some prizes that i've gotten throughout the year and am stoked for this weekend. i'm pissed at myself for not getting t-shirts made this year...argh...oh well, i hope everyone enjoys themselves nonetheless.
after that i'm heading to los angeles all next week to chill with the Phizzpop Design Challenge folks. i just got a new hd camera and am hoping to talk to some design folks throughout the week (side note: any suggestions for software for vista that can edit hd content from an xh-a1 are appreciated). i hear master chief might even make an appearance out there! in the middle of the week i'm heading down to irvine i think to hang with woody for their installfest.
i won't be at the phoenix barcamp, but if you are in the area and want to share something, you should head over to the barcamp phoenix...a great group of peeps putting that free event on as well!
i then come home for the weekend, breathe (maybe), hug my kids, wash some clothes and then head out to riverside for the inland empire .net user group for some silverlight chatting. i hope you all show up for this one and heckle me...i'll be tired enough so my guard might be down ;-) -- i am also bringing a new zune to give away -- perfect timing for the holidays.
i'll have some downtime after that and then we have a full day of .NET-ness in phoenix on 20 DEC with the MSDN power series event and another installfest. whew! just maybe i'll have some time -- in between that i have some "use it or lose it" vacation time i need to squeeze in.
if you are in any of these areas the same time i am, let me know and maybe we can hook up a nerd dinner or something.
the team over at discountasp.net have just launched .net 3.5 hosting platforms in their offerings! that's right, you can host your .net 3.5 web apps with them! if you need a space just head on over there and they'll give you 3 free months as well.
in addition, they've enabled cardspace integration so you can login to your control panel using one of your personal information cards. pretty cool, i'm going to have to check that out. thanks to discountasp.net for continued support to user group communities as well as being an early adopter hoster so that early adopter developers can benefit!
