The next version of Visual Studio, Microsoft® Visual Studio® code name “Orcas”, will provide an industry-leading developer experience for Windows Vista, the 2007 Microsoft Office system, and the Web. In addition, it will continue in the Microsoft tradition of development language innovation. To enable early feedback, this page provides links to Community Technology Preview (CTP) and Beta releases of Visual Studio code name “Orcas”, and for technologies that we plan to include in it. As previews of additional technologies become available, we will make them available from this page.

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/aa700831.aspx

They even have the VS express editions (CTP) for Orcas here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/future/default.aspx 

Today is a good day. I find out that Microsoft is giving us free the MSDN lib free for april 2007 and fixes for Visual Studio 2005 for compatibility problems with its newest OS (Vista). 

MSDN Library April 2007 

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=b8704100-0127-4d88-9b5d-896b9b388313&DisplayLang=en

 Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Update for Windows Vista

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=90E2942D-3AD1-4873-A2EE-4ACC0AACE5B6&displaylang=en

Conference for the Next Generation Web

Webinale 2007 provides a platform for networking and knowledge exchange about Web 2.0. Conference tracks will include the following topics: AJAX, Web Security, Web Business, Web Know-How and Enterprise Web.

The conference will disseminate business and technical know-how related to Web development, Design, Optimisation, and Web Security, besides informative sessions on how to efficiently market Web sites. Webinale 2007 offers a number of parallel sessions for you to choose from. It also provides ample opportunities for exchange of ideas, networking and staying abreast with the latest trends on the Web! 

Go to the below website for registration details.

http://www.webinale-asia.com/

Today I discovered what extended property in sql server is useful for...<grinz>

it is for comments. When u create a table, u can add extended property for the columns as comments. Then you can use a tool to generate a data dictionary.

For details on extended property, please look "Using Extended Properties on Database Objects" in SQL Books Online. 

Code Snippet of using extended properties:

USE AdventureWorks;

GO EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'MS_DescriptionExample', @value = N'Minimum inventory quantity.', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = Production, @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = Product, @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = SafetyStockLevel;

 Url for the tool to generate the data dictionary:

http://www.elsasoft.org/