Hello, I'm   Jason

Was talking with Plip earlier about the new code-name “Spang”. It seems like it will definitely increase productivity. I can’t discuss any of the fine details but I can’t wait for it to come out. I’ll try to keep everyone up to date on this topic!

Day 1

Well, not much has happened today except for meeting some new people, seeing some old friends again, and picking up some swag. We’re about to head out for our regional dinners which should be a good time to meet many others.

Day 2

It was cool to see the executive presentations by Steve Ballmer and crew. They talked about the direction of the company, various products, and licensing.

Day 3

The product group presentations were interesting. It was neat to see some of the new improvements in the .NET platform and what lies ahead for developers with Avalon.

Day 4

The demos of Atlas and Quartz were awesome. To see the same demos that we did, check out the videos online from the PDC this year.

This morning at the Microsoft PDC in Los Angelas, California (USA), Microsoft released its first beta of the Atlas project. Atlas is the code-named project for Microsoft’s AJAX (Asynchonous Javascript and XML) project. This means that you can use the tools and make server callbacks without refreshing the browser window to provide “live” updates to your pages, etc. Check it out at http://atlas.asp.net!

September 13th, 2005 at Sallie Mae in Wilkes-Barre - Attendance is limited, reserve your seat today!

Join your peers for a Real-time InfraStruXureTM Award Dinner. APC customers around the country are opening their doors to your IT community.

Enjoy a peer-to-peer discussion while viewing first-hand the industry’s only on-demand architecture for network-critical physical infrastructure (NCPI). The demonstration of APC InfraStruXure™ to be followed by a networking event at a local restaurant.

“I learned a lot during this educational evening. The unit being demonstrated was the same model as we will be installing in the next couple of months, so it helped me to understand how it will be used better.” –Attendee: APC Real-time InfraStruXure Award Dinner

“This event was above any existing expectations that I had. The real kicker was being able to interact with the host IT-Department’s personnel, and really getting a feeling about how pleased they were with the move to APC InfraStruXure__TM__. The APC rep was top-notch, and gave sincere, direct answers to all my questions.” –Attendee: APC Real-time InfraStruXure Award Dinner

_“_It was an incredible display of how in less than a year you can go from a horrible server room to a beautifully ran data center, both clean and professional. I was very impressed.” –Attendee: APC Real-time InfraStruXure Award Dinner

The demonstration is of an actual live system at one of our InfraStruXure customer’s locations.

Plus, all attendees will receive a free Professional Surge Arrest from APC!

Check-In 5:00 pm
Tour and Discussion 5:00 - 6:30 pm
Dinner at nearby upscale restaurant- 6:30 pm (location TBA)

In order for us to reserve your place in the discussion, we ask that you call the registration hotline at 888-215-4542 at your earliest convenience.

Well, I’m nearly 100% moved in and unpacked. Some of the walls still look bare, but for the most part, I’m moved in. I’ll be posting pictures sometime this week. Next week I’m heading on vacation. When I return, I’ll have 2 hard weeks of wrapping up all loose ends before heading to Redmond to visit the gang at the Microsoft MVP Summit and ASPInsiders Summit. I hope to meet all of the MVPs that I have not yet met and can’t wait to see all my ASPInsider friends again.

The Microsoft Professional Developers Conference has officially sold out. There is now a waiting list. If you’re interested in attending and have not yet made reservations, visit http://www.microsoft.com/pdc for more details.

The XBox 360 pricing and features have been announced. The XBox 360 Standard will sell for US $299 while the XBox 360 Premium will sell for US $399. The difference between the two is that the Premium will come standard with a wireless controller, 20 GB removable hard drive, XBox Live Silver subscription, XBox Live headset, HD-AV Cables (instead of standard cables), and a Windows Media Remote Control with DVD playback. Both systems will have high definition capabilities. Other items will include removable faceplates (est US $19.99), wired controller (est US $39.99), wireless controller (est US $49.99), HD-AV Cables (est US $39.99), 64MB Memory Unit (est US $39.99), Play & Charge Kit for wireless controllers (est US $19.99), rechargeable battery pack for wireless controllers (est US $11.99), wireless networking adapter (est US $99.99), XBox Live headset (est US $19.99), Universal Media remote with Windows Media and DVD capabilities (est US $29.99), S-Video AV cables (est US $29.99), and VGA HD cables (est US $39.99). The launch date is still on track for Christmas time this year.

More Details…

Brian Goldfarb posted a link to one of the lists regarding a new read about the ASP.NET 2.0 Security Enhancements. It’s pretty interesting. Check it out here.

I’ve been using IE 7 now for over a week and noticed a few bugs.

1. Visiting some web sites that utilize the browscaps.ini file can cause unusual 500 errors for the sites. I’ve seen this while visiting www.skmmenu.com. This has been documented on the skmmenu project board at http://www.gotdotnet.com/workspaces/messageboard/thread.aspx?id=a8ee64df-8f2a-483f-8594-10aaa66988ce&threadid=29bb6250-e618-4b99-b382-942ae04d18d1. It appears that IE 7 has a version listed as 7.0b. The final release will drop the ‘b’.
2. IE has always stored the URL history in IE. It still does with IE7 unless you disable it. However, if you use the URL drop-down box and choose URLs, at random (and speed of clicking), you will receive error messages like ‘“www.msn.com” is offline’.
3. When using add-ins like the Google Toolbar, when popups are blocked, the browser changes to the second tab.

I’ll be moving in next week and will not be online. I’ll be back online the week of August 14th.