The future of computing is here and On September 13th at //build/ in Anaheim, CA we will be taking a look at what the future holds as we discuss the details of Windows 8.

If you’re a developer interested in knowing more on the future of Windows, the Keynotes on Tuesday and Wednesday will be available live each day and sessions from the conference Tuesday through Friday will be available to view online within 24 hours of the session.

Keynote Agenda:

Tuesday Keynote	9:00 AM to 11:30 AM PST 5:00 PM  to  7:30 PM GMT
Wednesday Keynote	9:00 AM to 11:00 AM PST 5:00 PM  to  7:00 PM GMT

More Information on Windows 8

Windows 8 Team blog https://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/

Full announcement at The Official Microsoft Blog.

We have had an overwhelming interst in developing Kinect applications for Windows and we have already seen some really strong local examples too from the academic community. At reMIX Dublin we promised we would put together a half-day on this topic before the summer was over - so here it is!

The format of this event will largely centre around shared learnings from teams and individuals who have experience of developing applications for Kinect both since the SDK beta was released, and prior to the release.

The plan is to open the event with some context and direction from the local Microsost developer evangelists, taking a look at the power of Kinect with some of the more imaginative application examples we've seen from across the world. Then we ope to recruit some of the local developers who have some nice Kinect demos they can show off, along with sharing their learnings.

Final agenda with speakers etc. tbc.

Where: Microsoft Ireland Building 3, Carmanhall Road, Sandyford Industrial Estate, Dublin 18
When: 2pm-5.30pm 6th September

Register here.

Accelerating Startup Growth

This lunchtime event is the ideal opportunity for you to further develop your knowledge and skill set surrounding the Microsoft Azure platform, learning from both Microsoft professionals and existing customers, who will share some of their experiences.

Networking with experts

Amongst the speakers at this lunch time seminar will be Josh Holmes and Wilbour Craddock, both of whom are Architect Evangelists for Microsoft Ireland.  We will also have John Dennehy (Zartis) and Ciaran McGowan (Staff Balance) speaking on their BizSpark and Windows Azure personal experiences and the benefits the programme has delivered to their business.

Date: July 28th, 2011

Location: DCUBS, Dublin City University, Dublin 9

12pm - Registration, light lunch & refreshments

12.15pm - Speakers

Wilbour Craddock - Architect Evangelist, Microsoft

John Dennehy - Zartis

Ciaran McGowan - Staff Balance

Josh Holmes - Architect Evangelist, Microsoft

1.45pm - Q&A followed by networking

Register here.

Follow the discussion about the event on LinkedIn: BizSpark Start-ups and Network Partners, Ireland/Northern Ireland

Follow us on Twitter to get updated with this and other events: MSIrlTechEvents

Hashtag for the event: #bizsparkworkshopdublin

Last month, attendees at the D8 Conference, saw the next generation of Windows demonstrated for the first time. Internally code-named “Windows 8”, the next OS from Microsoft is a reimagining of Windows, from the chip to the interface. A Windows 8-based PC is a new kind of device, one that scales from touch-only small screens through to large screens, with or without a keyboard and mouse.

Microsoft’s Professional Developer Conference (PDC) is being replaced this year by a one-off developer event focused on Windows, BUILD. BUILD is taking place in Anaheim in California from September 13th to 16^th and although registrations have only been open for a relatively short time, it is due to sell out within the next few days. If you are interested in learning about the future of Windows, then do not miss your opportunity and register right away!

 BUILD will show you that Windows 8 changes everything!

Register early for these free developer and UX seminars to avoid disappointment (running in Dublin on 9th June).

Unplug from your day job. Be inspired at reMIX.

reMIX Dublin brings you the best of Microsoft’s premier web & devices conference (MIX) at no cost to you. All you need to do is register and get yourself down to the RDS in Ballsbridge on June 9th!

Join the conversation at reMIX Dublin – see the latest tools and technologies and draw inspiration from a professional community of your peers and experts.

PREVIEW THE NEXT WEB

 MIX is where you’ll learn about the future of web, from the diversity of devices and interaction models on the front-end, to the tools and technologies that power the user experience, to the services that make it all possible.

GET REAL ANSWERS FROM THE EXPERTS

MIX isn’t just about getting a first look at the latest technologies and trends – it’s an opportunity for you to have your questions answered by industry and Microsoft experts.

Register for this free event.

 See you there!

  

Monday 11^th April to Thursday 14^th April 2011
€750 per seat
Email patherl@microsoft.com with any questions regarding registration and logistics.

This is a four day developer course which will be delivered by Combined Knowledge. This is a local redelivery of their acclaimed SharePoint 2010 developer track and is primarily aimed at .Net developers who wish to learn SharePoint 2010.  The full course syllabus is available here: https://combined-knowledge.com/Courses/Classroom/Developer_2010/index.html?showUK

The following are the main components of the course:

Two things happened on Monday:

1. Pi Day 2011 -- March 14th, or 3.14.2011 – took place. I celebrated by calculating the circumference of a circle with a radius of one.
2. Internet Explorer 9 was released!

You played a vital part of the process of getting IE9 up and running. Unlike previous versions of the browser, IE9 was made available to the public quite early with the Platform Previews, which were made available quite early: almost a year before launch. About every 8 weeks, we put out a new Platform Preview of IE9 for you to try, stress-test and develop for, and we took your feedback with each one. We got truckloads of suggestions, comments, kudos, complaints and bug reports, and IE9 is a better browser because of your input. For your help, we thank you – IE9 isn’t IE9 without you.

Before I continue, may I suggest that you get your hands on IE9?

There were four major goals in building IE9. The browser had to be…

Fast. The browser isn’t just a document-viewing application any more; it’s a full-on platform for applications of all sorts. As Jeff “Coding Horror/Stack Overflow” Atwood puts it, all programming is web programming. JavaScript is now the most important programming language in the world, and IE9’s got Chakra, a brand new JavaScript engine that runs like snakes on ice.

While JavaScript speed is important, it’s not the only contributing factor. There’s also page, graphics, SVG and Canvas rendering, and IE9 does that well too, thanks to hardware acceleration. If you need proof, go play Pirates Love Daisies on IE9 and then on the Esteemed Competition’s browsers.

Clean. The browser should be like the perfect English butler – doing its job, but staying out of the way as much as possible at the same time. IE9 provides as little user interface as possible so your screen real estate is all about the sites and applications you’re using, and the taskbar integration through pinning and jump lists mean that using web apps feels more like using desktop apps.

Trusted. Let’s face it; the web is full of jerks (I might even be one of them). But seriously: malware and phishing are profitable criminal activities and while most sites are on the up-and-up, there are some that are out to get you, whether it’s to hijack your computer to run a botnet or con you into handing over valuable banking information. Between Microsoft’s secure development practices (you would’ve laughed at that idea a few years ago, but now the Security Development Lifecycle gets mucho respect) and features like SmartScreen and Tracking Protection, IE9’s got you covered.

Interoperable. As in “plays well with others”. HTML5, CSS3 and all the goodies you’ve come to expect from a browser but wish earlier versions of IE had. The phrase that’s been bandied about at Microsoft is “same markup”, and that means that the HTML5/CSS3/JavaScript that you wrote should work on IE9 just as well as it does on Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera and what-have-you.

It’s great, it’s out and it should be on your computer. Go get IE9 now!

* Irish Open Spaces Coding Day: https://codingday.org/
Andrea from https://dublinalt.net has put together the third Irish Open Space Coding Day on this coming Saturday, September 11th from 11am at the Enterprise Ireland Offices in Clontarf. Register here.  I’m sending along a couple of phones for people to test out their apps on.

* Windows Phone 7 Deployment Lab (Sandyford):
Lab session in the Microsoft offices in Sandyford Industrial Estate.  You’re welcome to drop by from 9am-4pm to test out your app.  Please bring either your .xap file or your laptop with your application/game on it and we will test it and video it so that you get some feedback on how it works on a device.
- Wednesday September 15th 9am-4pm
- Thursday September 23rd 9am-4pm

If you’d like to attend one of our deployment labs, please drop me an e-mail beforehand at martharo @ microsoft.com or send me a message on Twitter at https://twitter.com/martharotter to let me know what time so that we can expect you and give you directions.  Our offices are an easy 3 minute walk from the Sandyford Luas stop inside Sandyford Industrial Estate.

I don’t have quite the setup that the UK team does but my colleague Dave Northey and I will get your app up and running on a phone and help you to debug any issues you’ve run into. 

See you at an upcoming Deployment Lab!

There’s more information at https://codingday.org, and you can register your attendance here.

To find out more about events like this, follow https://twitter.com/dublinaltnet.

Despite being serenaded by an ice cream truck, deafened by alarm sirens and evacuated from the building due to the faulty alarm, I think the evening went fairly well!  There were some fantastic questions which I’m working on getting answered for folks. 

I’ve received several e-mails today asking about the content we didn’t cover due to the evacuation.  What we didn’t get to cover before we were so kindly evacuated basically consisted of three things: 1) Building applications using Expression Blend (instead of Visual Studio), 2) How to get your app deployed and/or tested (in other words, “I NEED A PHONE!”), and 3) How to make money building apps in the next month.

1) BUILDING APPLICATIONS USING EXPRESSION BLEND:
I’d like to do a short video on this, but in the interest of time I’m pointing you towards some other folks’ material:

• “Video Tour of Expression Blend 4 for Windows Phone” --  https://www.microsoft.com/expression/windowsphone/ 
• “MIX10 Talk: Authoring for Windows Phone, Silverlight 4 and WPF 4 with Expression Blend” -- https://live.visitmix.com/MIX10/Sessions/CL02

2) HOW TO GET YOUR APP DEPLOYED AND/OR TESTED -- (“MARTHA, I NEED A PHONE!!!”):
Phones are in short supply, there’s no way around it.  Today you have three options.  You can:

1. Send me your app to deploy.  E-mail me the .XAP file, send me a link to a Dropbox folder or Skydrive folder, point me to a public share, whatever you have.  I will deploy your app onto a phone here, video it & send you a link to the video so that you can see the functionality and how it looks and behaves.
2. Attend a deployment lab.  Keep an eye on this blog – I’ll shortly be announcing several dates in September where we’ll be standing by with phones for you to test.  You can simply e-mail me or send me a message on Twitter to let me know you’ll be attending.  Bring your code & your own laptop and we’ll deploy your app to a phone for you to test.
3. Request a phone.  If your app really needs a lot of testing, e-mail me and let me know what you’re working on and when you’ll be ready for a phone.  I can loan them out for a couple of days, but the requirement is that if you borrow a phone, you’re committing to having an app built for the Windows Phone 7 launch in mid October.  It may sound harsh, but as I said phones are in short supply so this is how we’re trying to reward developers who are building great apps at the moment.

3) WHERE CAN I GET SOME SWEET CASH FOR A GREAT WINDOWS PHONE 7 APP?:
Glad you asked!  We’re shortly launching an app contest for developers in Ireland & Northern Ireland with prizes including cash, Xboxes, and more!  Again, keep an eye on this blog and we’ll have more on this in the next couple of days.

My slides are below if you’re interested, and I’ve also included several links which would be of interest to individuals building apps for Windows Phone 7.  Tomorrow I’ll post answers to the questions, and in the meantime if you have any other ones please leave a comment or e-mail me. 

Windows Phone 7 Slides:

Windows Phone 7 Links for Developers:

• Developer Starting Point (Marketplace Registration, Tools download, forums, etc.): https://developer.windowsphone.com/
• Channel 9’s Windows Phone 7 Developer Training Kit: https://channel9.msdn.com/learn/courses/WP7TrainingKit/
• Channel 9 Windows Phone 7 Jump Start Videos with Andy Wigley & Rob Miles: https://channel9.msdn.com/posts/egibson/Windows-Phone-7-Jump-Start-Session-1-of-12-Introduction/
• Windows Phone 7 Jump Start by borntolearn: https://borntolearn.mslearn.net/wp7/m/classresources/default.aspx
• Consumer Introduction to Windows Phone 7: https://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/en-ie/default.mspx
• Windows Phone 7 Video Resources: https://www.windowsphone7.com/multimedia/media20