We are merging all Microsoft Users Groups in Kerala under one umbrella. We had some discussion with MS folks regarding this, and got green signal. Regarding the UG sessions, we will have sessions in various cities, based on members demand. Current plan is to concentrate more on Trivandrum, Kochi and Kozhikode in terms of in person session. But online discussions and support will be there for all members.  Expecting your support!

We have started a new Microsoft Users group in Calicut today (22-06-2008). We didn’t get much time for advertising before the meet, still we got 13 members for the first meeting. Thanks to viable technologies for providing meeting venue with LCD projector and tea

I started with the introduction of Users Group and it needs. Based on the feedbacks from members, I didn’t take the sessions which I planned. Instead I took sessions on introduction to Expression Studio, Bled, Design, Media, Encoder etc and demo of silverlight application.

Later we had Q&A sessions, and created some sample projects related to Web services and its usage in win forms.
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T-Mug is coming with new look and feel. Last weekend I was totally occupied with this assigment. We have taken back up of the old forum, but we couldnt migrate the users (Snitz forum) to new site. But members can access the old forum as well, and we don’t encourage new posts to old forum. So I would request all t-muggers to join the new site and support the community.  Please share your comments in t-mug site itself.

The .NET Framework 3.5 Enhancements Training Kit includes presentations, hands-on labs, and demos. This content is designed to help you learn how to utilize the .NET 3.5 Enhancement features including: ASP.NET MVC, ASP.NET Dynamic Data, ASP.NET AJAX History, ASP.NET Silverlight controls, ADO.NET Data Services and ADO.NET Entity Framework.

Download

WPF Localization can be achieved via the following steps.

1. Add UICulture node to project file. ( <Project><PropertyGroup><UICulture>en-US</UICulture> … )
2. Create Localization IDs for the resources (msbuild /t:updateuid TestProj.csproj )
3. Create CSV file from en-US resource (LocBaml /parse TestProj.g.en-US.resources /out:en-US.csv)
4. Create new satellite assembly (LocBaml /generate TestProj.resources.dll /trans:fr-CA.csv /cul:fr-CA)

I have received the MVP award for 2008 and it is my sixth consecutive  award.  Here is my profile on Microsoft site.

https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Sreejumon

Silverlight v2.0 (previously known as Silverlight v1.1) public release will have the following new features.

• Rich Controls: The next Silverlight release will add support for core form controls (textbox, checkbox, radiobutton, etc), built-in layout management controls (StackPanel, Grid, etc), common functionality controls (TabControl, Slider, ScrollViewer, ProgressBar, etc) and data manipulation controls (DataGrid, etc).

• WPF UI Framework: The next public Silverlight will add support for the higher level features of the WPF UI framework. These include: the extensible control framework model, layout manager support, two-way data-binding support, and control template and skinning support. The WPF UI Framework features in Silverlight will be a compatible subset of the WPF UI Framework features in .NET Framework 3.5 release.

• Rich Networking Support: Silverlight release will add support for REST, POX, RSS, and WS* communication. It will also add support for cross domain network access.

• Rich Base Class Library Support: Silverlight will include a rich .NET base class library of functionality (collections, IO, generics, threading, globalization, XML, local storage, etc). Silverlight release will also add built-in support for LINQ to XML and richer HTML DOM API integration. Read more »

If you are trying to debug the ASP.NET application with Visual Studio 2005 (VS 2005) and Windows XP, and getting the following message,

Unable to start debugging on the web server. Debugging failed because integrated Windows authentication is not enabled. Please see the help for assistance.

Then do the following settings under IIS.

• Open control panel–>Administrative tools–>Internet Information Services
• In IIS, select the website in left tab, right click ‘Default Website’ under it and click on properties.
• Under the ‘Directory Security’ tab, click on Edit under ‘anonymous access and authentication control’
• Check on ‘Enable Integrated Windows Authentication’.

Prior to this ensure, ASP.NET and IIS is mapped. If not, goto VS.NET command prompt and type the following command

aspnet_regiis –i

Happy debugging

Exciting news for all .NET fans! You don’t have to use the reflectors (disassemblers) to explore the internals of .NET libraries.

Microsoft is planning to release the source code of .NET framework. Microsoft will begin by offering the source code (with source file comments included) for the .NET Base Class Libraries (System, System.IO, System.Collections, System.Configuration, System.Threading, System.Net, System.Security, System.Runtime, System.Text, etc), ASP.NET (System.Web), Windows Forms (System.Windows.Forms), ADO.NET (System.Data), XML (System.Xml), and WPF (System.Windows).  We’ll then be adding more libraries in the months ahead (including WCF, Workflow, and LINQ).  The source code will be released under the Microsoft Reference License (MS-RL).

You’ll be able to download the .NET Framework source libraries via a standalone install (allowing you to use any text editor to browse it locally).  MS will also provide integrated debugging support of it within VS 2008. 
Please refer Scott Guthrie’s blog  for more details.

Nokia and Microsoft Corp. have joined together to provide customers with a new suite of Windows Live™ services specifically designed for Nokia devices.

Nokia customers in 11 countries with compatible S60 devices can download the new suite enabling access to Windows Live Hotmail^®, Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Contacts and Windows Live Spaces. Starting next year, customers who purchase compatible Nokia Series 40 handsets will also have access to these popular Windows Live services.

Nokia customers who own the Nokia N73, N80 Internet Edition, N95, N76 and the N93i can get the Windows Live services via the Download! application in the following countries: Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Read more »