Microsoft News
A list of specific news items (predominantly Microsoft related) that have caught my eye...
Microsoft 2008 Server released 
(added 17 February 2008)
The latest version of Microsoft's Server has been released. Microsoft 2008 Server is now available for download on MSDN. We've already started moving servers over to the new version, and our initial testing with IIS7 is showing amazing speed improvements.
Microsoft offers to buy Yahoo (added 1 February 2008)
Microsoft has made an offer to aquire Yahoo for $44B.
.NET Framework Source code available (added 20 January 2008)
The .NET team have released parts of the .NET framework source code, available for download. This includes parts of the core framework, ASP.NET, WPF and Windows Forms. Further details are on Scott Guthrie's blog.
Microsoft Volta (added 10 December 2007)
The recently released Volta CTP is an example of how Microsoft is helping desktop client developers build web applications. Promoted as a 'tier splitting' technology, the compiler helps spread out the application to client and server tiers, tied together with Volta created 'glue'. Download available here. Requires .NET 3.5 and VS2008.
Microsoft Search Server 2008 Express (added 15 November 2007)
Catching many by surprise, this powerful (and free) search product from Microsoft is welcome news. Offering big business enterprise search functionality at a small business price point is an unusual tactic, but points to Microsoft's strategy of closing the search gap. The product includes all the main ticket items found in SharePoint and other offerings including relevancy tuning, localisation, federated search connectors and extensibility. Full feature listing here.
Article: CTO Checklist (added 03 November 2007)
Covers the main software, hardware, 3rd party tools and general concepts that Chief Technical Officer in a small to mid size technology company needs to cover. It is focussed on Microsoft based software companies.
Microsoft Oslo (added 31 October 2007)
Claiming to be the vehicle by which Model Driven Development will go mainstream, Oslo is a set of practices to be delivered through product services and the various developer tools such as Visual Studio, BizTalk and System Centre.
Microsoft Visual FoxPro Service Pack 2 released (added 14 October 2007)
Microsoft has released the long awaited SP2 for Microsoft Visual FoxPro 9. The Service Pack adds increased Vista support and fixes a number of bugs. Download available here.
Visual FoxPro - special event (added 30 September 2007)
We are excited to announce a special Sydney Visual FoxPro User Group event. Nick Neklioudov, 3 time Microsoft MVP, will be presenting a special session on 'Drag & Drop in VFP' on Wednesday 17 October 2007. Further details are here on the Sydney Visual FoxPro special events page.
Microsoft PerformancePoint Server 2007 (added 24 September 2007)
Positioning itself as the performance monitoring tool for enterprises, PerformancePoint Server can be helpfully summarised using the MAP formula: M = Monitoring, A = Analysis (or Analytics) and P = Planning. The product includes ProClarity 6.3 following its acquisition by Microsoft earlier this year.
Microsoft BizTalk 2006 R2 launched (added 15 September 2007)
Microsoft has launched BizTalk 2006 R2 with its focus on RFID, Business Process Management (BPM) and EDI. R2 builds on these parts (although the RFID support is new) and reaffirms BizTalk as an enterprise proven connected systems enabler (Comments on the BizTalk launch).
Microsoft Acropolis (added 28 August 2007)
Acropolis is a high level 'framework' (tools and components) that eases development of .Net client applications (particularly business focussed), particularly when incorporating WPF, workflow and Office hosted features. (August CTP released that works with VS2008 Beta 2)
Article: Importing VFP into SQL Server (added 15 August 2007)
Covers how to use SQL Server 2005 Integration Services to import VFP data into SQL Server. Includes details on setting up the package, handling errors, and using SQL Agent to automatically run the task on a defined schedule. Finishes with details of a real world implementation.
OzFox 2008 Survey (added 04 August 2007)
We're starting to think about the next OzFox conference and we'd love your input. If you are interested in attending, or perhaps just giving us your opinion please take the OzFox 2008 survey.
Article: SharePoint Beginners guide (updated 01 August 2007)
An overview of how to get up and running with SharePoint, with an overview of mindset, links to books, resources, blogs and building a VPC.
Microsoft Windows Server 2008 (added 28 July 2007)
Windows Server 2008 (previously codenames Longhorn) will finally be available in February (when it will released along side Visual Studio 2008 and SQL Server 2008). Whilst security is a big part of the new server's offering, and PowerShell is getting much attention, I am personally most interested in the virtualisation abilities - virtualisation has been built into the operating system core. (Update: RC0 released)
Microsoft Dynamics CRM Live (added 17 July 2007)
Dynamics CRM Live is Microsoft's hosted online CRM offering, competing with Salesforce.com, WebEx Office and others such as Zoho CRM. Only available via early adopter access at present, with a full scale roll out expected in 2008.
Article: Being Better Software Managers (updated 04 July 2007)
Some of my thoughts on how to avoid common mistakes in a software manager role. Includes my basic philosophy on life and our roles as software managers, then analyses 5 mistakes, before finishing with two tips.
Microsoft Sedna (updated 17 June 2007)
Sedna is the next update to Microsoft Visual FoxPro - slated for release in 2007. It concentrates on .Net and Office 12 integration. The official name for this next update has not been advised - I like to refer to it as Microsoft VF.Net because it has a big focus on the .Net 2.0 framework (and I think VFP needs some re-branding anyway). You can download the Sedna Beta (June 2007) from Microsoft.
What the Hell is Visual FoxPro?
Microsoft Surface (added 30 May 2007)
A piece of hardware (similar in size to a coffee table) with a 30 inch display, no keyboard or mouse, and all touch screen, that allows users (potentially multiple users simultaneously) to work on digital content (e.g. photos, folders, documents). The site has a number of movies outlining possibilities.
UPDATE: Ars Technica interview with the Surface team, explaining product components.
Microsoft Popfly (added 19 May 2007)
Popfly is a means of using Microsoft's online visual tools to create mashups and web sites. It is only in Alpha, and requires the Silverlight Beta to be installed.
Microsoft Astoria (added 01 May 2007)
Astoria is a Microsoft Labs project that aims to enable easy exposure of data as a data service via the web (or intranet).
Update 11 Dec 2007: Astoria is now named ADO.Net Data Services.
Microsoft Silverlight (added 22 April 2007)
Silverlight is a plug-in for IE (and other browsers, including those that op
erate on the Mac) that is designed to allow rich content to be experienced and interacted with. It has been compared to Flash (from Adobe), however the vision for Silverlight is much bigger than Flash.
Silverlight aims to open up extensive programmer interaction via a number of Microsoft tools. Currently these include the next version of Visual Studio (currently codenamed Orcas), plus some of the new Expression Suite (including Blend and Design). Silverlight is currently in Alpha of v1.1 (and of a Beta of v1.0)