Microlau's Blog

Uncle Bob – Principles of OoD

During my recent conversation with fellow mate, Icelava, we were discussing about development practices and design philosophies. He pointed Uncle Bob – Principles of Ood as a good guide for inexperienced developers to understand the fundamentals of a Object Oriented design. Definitely a worth-while read even if you’re a seasoned developer – We all know that our brain doesn’t retain all the information it has absorbed over time ;)

SGDN June 2009 UG Meeting

Date of Event: 4th June 2009
Venue: Level 22 CF-12
Time: 1845 – 2030 hrs (Light snacks will be served before the session)

Parallel Computing in Visual Studio 2010(beta 1)

Dewi Maya, C# MVP
1900 – 2030 hrs

Microsoft's Parallel Computing Platform (PCP) is providing tools enabling developers to leverage the power of Multi core processors in an efficient, maintainable, and scalable manner. Parallel Extensions to the .NET Framework brings several important concepts into this toolset. In this presentation, you will see how to parallelize an existing algorithm by using the static Parallel helper class, create and run Tasks, use the Future class to create and run Tasks that return a value and use Parallel LINQ (PLINQ) to optimize LINQ queries to execute in a parallel environment.

To register for the event, drop an email to microlau_at_sgdotnet_dot_org with the subject: [SGDN] Register me for June UG Meeting

Winners of CTU 2009 MSDN Subscription – Please ping us

This post is going out to the 4 winners who’ve won the MSDN Subscription from CTU 2009 – Kindly contact us (look inside your envelope) in order to ‘redeem’ your MSDN Subscription. As the expiry date to register the MSDN Subscription is drawing near (31st May 2009, I think).

So far, 3 of the 4 winners have responded. There’s one more winner out there… Please contact us asap.

Extreme Overnight and CTU

So you survived Microsoft { one } Nation 2009

Can you survive Community Technology Update?
http://ctu.geeksengaged.com

Seats are filling fast!

22^nd May 2009 & 23^rd May 2009

From the Communities to the Communities

FEATURING:

• 3 sessions of Extreme Hardcore (Code Extreme, Lab Extreme, VSTS Extreme)
• 4 Tracks of Contents (IT Pro, Developers, MOSS, SQL)
• 20 Sessions to hear and learn from the Experts
• Windows 7 Load Festival
• Special bundle offers!

It's an event no IT professional or Developer should miss! Join Microsoft User Communities in Singapore, following { one } Nation 2009, in a 1 day event to learn about new and future technologies. You will unlock the full power of the Microsoft server platform.

This is your chance to register! Don't miss out!

Register at http://ctu.geeksengaged.com

‘Better’ Practices on SQL Server Reporting Services

I’ll be presenting about SSRS on coming Thursday’s SGSQLUG User Group meeting on the following topic:

Ever felt that SSRS is behaving slightly below your (or your customer's) expectations? Come and join me in sharing some of the 'better' practices of using SSRS. Don't just listen to me, chip in with your very own good practices, tips or tricks

To sign up for the event, send an email to sqlugsingapore_at_mvps_dot_org with the subject: RE: [SGSQLUG] April User Group Meeting.

Learn, Network and Party with Singapore's User Groups at Microsoft { one } Nation 2009!

First time in Singapore, 5 DAYS only! 18th – 22nd May 2009

Come down to Microsoft Singapore and celebrate the birthday of Singapore's favorite server! The Microsoft User Communities in Singapore have put together an awesome week-long event to help you unlock the full power of the Microsoft server platform - culminating in a spectacular Microsoft { one } Nation celebration on the final day!

It's a festival that no IT professional or Developer should miss! Take part in live training, hands-on labs, demonstrations, and sessions to prepare you for your certification exam. Then, it's time to kick back, relax, and celebrate with the Singapore IT community! There will be contests, prizes, special discounts on products and training, and lots of giveaways!

Don't miss out! Seats are limited!

18th - 21st May
(Mon - Thu)
Hands-on Labs, Demos, Seminars, Training, SERVER showcase
9am - 4pm

22nd May (Fri)
USER COMMUNITY GRAND CELEBRATION
6:30pm till late!

FEATURING
Training and Networking opportunities!
Unbelievable SERVER hardware and software discounts!
Special bundle offers!
Lots of prizes and giveaways!

To register, click here

To find out more about the event, click here

Using Web service to get data from SQL Server and updating the local database cache

Some time back, my long time pal Apurva presented creating occasionally connected applications (aka Smart Clients). While he was preparing some materials for another purpose, he’s kindly uploaded his video and a pdf document which shows you step by step on how to build such an application.

Be sure to check it out!

Possibilities for Surface

I was at the newly renovated Liang Court and saw the interactive mall directory which understands some flicking actions. The first thought that came to me is 'Surface'? But after interacting with it, I could firmly saw that it is not - There's no 'throwing' action, no zooming (and un-zooming), and the flicking reaction is sluggish. Surface came to my mind, and I thought about how it can be combined with a bunch of Microsoft technologies to give shoppers a more interactive experience. 

Imagine this, a shopper comes to the interactive mall directory, and looks up for the product or service that he/she wants. Before actually going into the shop, the shopper can take a 3D look of the product, look up for reviews and comments (from online services such as HungryGoWhere for food), all before stepping into a shop.

Flipping back into my own world context, I can see how Surface (when pricing is economical) will bring endless possibilities for the household. Just imagine having it as a coffee table, and being able to entertain your family and friends right in the heart of your house - Music, videos, games and even surfing, all within Surface.

However, I simply cannot imagine how Surface can replace my good old keyboard when it comes to basic computing needs such as churning proposals, writing code and drawing diagrams.

Photos of my Phuket Trip

My family of 3 recently went on a short trip to Phuket. Here's the online photo album.

SuperPreview in Blend 3

I seldom discuss about design tools (Expression Blend 3), but something which I saw during MIX09 keynote really caught me attention - And it's called SuperPreview. It allows you to preview your HTML/CSS on IE6, IE7, IE8, and even Safari.

Visiting Caleb

Here's the link to photos taking during a recent outing by a few fellow MVPs to visit Kitkai's new born son - Caleb.

MSDN Virtual TechDays - 1 April 2009

Microsoft is organizing a Virtual Event with speakers from all over the world, covering tracks as belows, on 1st April. - Windows Development and Frameworks - Windows Mobile Development - Office and SharePoint Development - Developer Tools, Languages & Practices - Web Development and User Experience Registration is free. Find out more about the event at http://www.msfttechdays.com/public/home.aspx

Mix-It-Up Event: Visual Studio 2010 and ASP.NET 4.0

This session will uncover the cool and new features of ASP.NET 4.0 and Visual Studio 2010. Attend this session to learn about ASP.NET AJAX 4.0, Dynamic Data, MVC Web Forms, and many other enhanced features for the web application development.

Lastly, the speaker will also discuss the new deployment feature in Visual Studio 2010, designed to ease the release of your application to various environments - Staging, UAT, Production.

The speaker for this event is Maung Maung, a community hero, fellow MVP and fellow colleague of mine

Mix It Up Exclusive Promotion
Come and attend the Mix It Up event and you get to enjoy 20% discount on MSPRESS books! This special promotion is exclusively available at Mix It Up! Don’t miss it!

Web deployment tool with VS2010 and IIS

Tracking back to MVP Global Summit 2008, the ASP.NET team was trying to get ideas from a bunch of ASP.NET MVPs around deployment painpoints. I'm very honored to have contributed my $0.02 in the web deployment tool which got baked into VS2010. Here's a great article from the PG about the tool.

Installing IE8 RC1 on Win7 Beta

For those of you who're trying to installing IE8 RC1 on your Win7 Beta (Build 7.000), you'll have to wait for a while longer. Apparently, the current release of IE8 RC1 doesn't support Win7 (even if you try using Vista version). IE8 will be supported in the RC build of Win7 though.