Chrome 2 and VS 2010 support in SP2

In case you missed the news in this week's SP2 announcement, Telerik is now the first component vendor offering "official" support for Chrome 2 and "official" compatibility with VS2010 Beta 1. Let me be quick to clarify that "official" compatibility for a beta product like VS2010 means that we've tested our controls to ensure there are no major issues with the new release, but it is still possible that some bugs exist. We will continue to address these bugs as VS 2010 evolves and we appreciate your feedback along the way to ensure there are no hidden problems when VS2010 officially ships. When VS2010 does ship, our "official beta compatibility" will become "official support" with the next regularly scheduled release. For Chrome, we have continued our dedication to being the fastest component vendor to support new official browser builds with SP2. We know you can't control when your users upgrade their browsers (in many cases) and that you need controls that are ready when new browsers ship. As such, our dev team worked extra hard to test the RadControls against Chrome2 and fixed several issues that the new browser introduced. If you need to support Chrome, make sure you download and install Q1 2009 SP2 or greater. We hope this fast attention to new releases continues to give you the competitive advantage when using Telerik RadControls in your projects by enabling you to rapidly adapt to a changing environment. We don't stop working to make your lives easier- as always, let us know if you think there is anything we can do even better to make your lives even easier.

Skinning Deep Dive Webinar Follow-up

Miss today's fun skinning webinar? No worries- I've got the on-demand resources ready for your immediate enjoyment. As promised, today's webinar covered a wide range of skinning topics for the RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX. We discussed skinning basics and highlighted how the "OTBE" (Out-of-The-Box Experience) for the RadControls makes it very easy to get started with professional skins. We moved on and gained a deeper understanding of how the RadControl's skin CSS is structured and how it can be very easily customized. We took a deep look at how you consume customized skins. And we even spent some time looking at ways to optimize your skin performance. Thanks to everyone that turned-out for the live event! I hope you enjoyed the content. For everyone else, the session recording is available above and on Telerik TV. Slides and demo code used in today's presentation is below. No go forth and be confident Telerik skin masters! Skinning Deep Dive for the RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX [Slides (pdf)] [Code (zip)] [Full-res Video on Telerik TV (online)]

Join me Saturday for the Austin Code Camp

Do you live in Texas? Then make plans to travel to Austin this Saturday, May 30th for the 2009 Austin Code Camp. I'll be making the trek over from Houston to Austin early Saturday morning to partake in the fun, and I'll be presenting two sessions:

• ASP.NET MVC: Blue Pill or Red Pill? (9:00 AM) A fun session that provides a good overview of ASP.NET MVC and gives you the information you need to make the decision between WebForms, MVC, or a blend of both.
• Building Business Applications with Silverlight 3 (2:45 PM) A new session that highlights the new features in Silverlight 3 Beta 1 that makes it easy(er) for developers to build business applications with Silverlight.

The event gets started at 8:30 AM and runs 'til about 5:00 PM, so it's a full day of .NET fun in the Texas capital. Besides yours truly, there will be many familiar .NET speakers doing sessions throughout the day, including Jeffery Pallermo, Eric Hexter, and John Teague, covering topics ranging from MVC to jQuery to C# 4.0. The Code Camp is free, so register now, grab some coffee, and we'll see you early Saturday morning! P.S. If I spot anyone sporting their favorite Telerik t-shirt at the event, there just may be some prizes flowing their direction. So do your laundry and sport Telerik for a chance at some good prizes!

New Simple CSS Skin skin in SP2

One of my personal favorites from the recent Q1 2009 SP2 release is the brand new "Simple" skin for the RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX. This brand new "common" skin (that means it's available for all RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX) lives-up to its name: Simple is a set of skins that use almost entirely CSS- no fancy background images. The only images used are those absolutely required by controls, such as toolbar icons in RadEditor and sort/filter icons in RadGrid. Otherwise, pure CSS. This is a skin I've been waiting for for a long time. Why? When skins are made entirely of CSS, it is super easy to customize them to match any color scheme you desire. You don't need to modify any gradient images- just CSS hex color values. Simple CSS-only skins also enable you to give your site that nice "minimalist" look-and-feel that Google has popularized (though even Google is now getting more "gradient" with new Gmail revisions). Professional skins like "Vista" and "Office2007" are cool, but sometimes a website needs a clean, simple presentation. I'd also say that the new "Simple" skin is also ideal for customization in the new Visual Style Builder, but really any skin is ideal with the new skin tool. Since the VSB can easily customize skin images to make the color scheme of your custom skin CSS, it has really changed the game for skin customization. Still, CSS is "pure" and a bit easier to change, so you should easily be able to take the default "Simple" skin and produce a custom CSS skin that matches any color scheme you can throw at it. The new Simple skin is available for the Q1 2009 and later RadControls. It's available in the SP2 downloads now and you can see live demos of the skin in the Online Demos. Enjoy the new skin!

Second round of Q1 2009 service packs now available

While I'm busy preparing for tomorrow's skinning webinar (it's going to be fun- don't miss it), the product teams are busy delivering the last wave of fresh bits to you before the big Q2 2009 release arrives. Earlier today, Telerik shipped the Q2 2009 Service Pack 2s for the RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX and the RadControls for XAML (Silverlight/WPF). Each of these SPs rolls-up a lot of hotfixes (as you would expect), but they also go a step further and deliver some pretty compelling "enhancements:" RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX (2009.1.527)

• Official support for Chrome v2
• Early support for VS 2010 Beta 1
• New Skin! Simple (CSS "mostly")
• Improved Visual Studio Extensions
• New support for rendering RadControls in MVC/client-side scenarios

RadControls for XAML (Silverlight/WPF) (2009.1.526)

• Localization support added for many controls
• Many new properties and events added to RadGridView
• Bug fixes accross the suite

You can download the new bits now in your Client.net accounts on Telerik.com and enjoy the improvements right away. Stay tuned for more details about some of the features in SP2 (and some yet to be seen features coming in Q2) in the coming days. 'Til then, enjoy SP2!

Skinning Deep Dive for ASP.NET AJAX this week

This week's "Weekly Webinar" is diving deep on the topic of skinning for the RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX. It will not be a "super advanced" webinar- we'll just be covering lots of topics related to skinning the RadControls. In other words, you don't need to be a CSS Guru or Photoshop Master to attend (or enjoy) this webinar. In fact, we'll be spending a lot of time talking about how you can be a master of Telerik RadControl skins without being a student of CSS or graphics programs. Among the topics planned for this webinar:

• RadControl skinning basics
• Skinning controls (RadSkinManager, RadStyleSheetManager, RadFormDecorator)
• Customizing skins (including new Visual Style Builder)
• Advanced skinning techniques (web.config settings, ASP.NET Themes)
• Skin Optimization (CSS sprites, embedded resources, etc.)

This week's webinar will be at the "standard" time: 11:00 AM Eastern this Thursday, May 28th. To save your seat and join the live event- where you can ask questions- register now! And since I will be your presenter this week, I'll see you in a couple of days! Register now for the free skinning webinar

Google Chrome v2 now "official"

Well that was fast. As if running from the beta zombie that has kept Gmail in "beta" for more than 5 years, Google Chrome has just officially released the sophomore version of its first-party Internet browser. For those not keeping-up with Chrome's crazy release schedule, let me bring you up to speed:

• September 2008: Google introduces Chrome beta
• December 2008: Chrome v1 is officially released
• March 2009: Chrome v2 beta is introduced
• May 2009: Chrome v2 is officially released

But while this schedule is unusual by browser market standards, it seems to be on par with Google's approach to software. In Chrome's debut blog post, Sundar Pichai (VP Product Management) explained that Google's mantra is, "release early and iterate." It seems they've taken that to heart with Chrome. The Chrome Team further elaborated on their approach to "versions" in this week's Chrome 2 announcement: "Finally, a note on version numbers: we're referring to this as Chrome 2, but that's mainly a metric to help us keep track of changes internally. We don't give too much weight to version numbers and will continue to roll out useful updates as often as possible." So, by tracking the Chrome Team's current trajectory and combining that with their apparent willingness to "version" Chrome at will, I would guess that we'll have Chrome 3 before the end of the year. For out part at Telerik, we will of course work hard to ensure the RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX are always compatible with (at least) the latest "official" Chrome version. And based on their release cycle, it's a good thing that we have three releases per year to keep up!

Telerik Watch Minute: Visual Style Builder News

It's back! After a long break due to travel and a steady stream of other content items, I've finally stepped back in-front of the camera to bring you a new Telerik Watch Minute. This quick update hearkens back to the original format- quick news updates from Telerik- so no demos this time (though I promise demos will be back in some future Telerik Watch Minutes). What you will find is a host of updates that should tell you everything you need to know to keep up with Telerik news. Upcoming service packs, webinars, and, of course, the new Visual Style Builder are all covered. Enjoy! Watch in full quality on Telerik TV

Telerik Visual Style Builder for ASP.NET public preview

This is an exciting week to be a web developer. It's a really exciting week if you're a web developer working with the RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX. Today we unveiled the long, long desired (dare I say dreamed of) tool that enables you to visually design custom skins for the Telerik RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX. Let that sink in for a minute. You no longer need to learn the CSS of the RadControls, or pop-open Photoshop, or call that "mythical" designer in your shop to create a custom skin for your RadControls that matches your site's look-and-feel. With the simple, web-based Visual Style Builder, you can have a custom skin ready to go in minutes. Here's how it works:

1. You visit the hosted Telerik Visual Style Builder tool (why should you have to install desktop software to design a skin for the web)
2. Decide if you want to "Customize a Custom Skin" or Design a New Skin (the typical choice)
3. On the next screen, you do three things:
1. Give your custom skin a name
2. Select the "base" skin you'll customize (from the 12 Telerik common skins)
3. Select the controls you want to generate custom skins for
4. Next, you'll be presented with tools to customize each control skin (including the gradient images in the skins!)
5. After applying changes to each control, be sure to press the "Apply Changes" button (switching controls without clicking this will lose your changes)
6. When you're done customizing, click the "Download" button on the upper right of the page
7. Save the ZIP archive that contains everything you need for your custom skin and copy the files to your web project's App_Themes directory
• If you are not using App_Themes, you will need to manually add the CSS resources to your page by adding CSS <link /> tags to your page head
8. Finally, set the EnableEmbeddedSkins property on your RadControls to "False" and set the Skin property name to your custom skin name
• TIP: If you want to apply your custom skin to your entire app, add these keys to your web.config AppSettings: <add key="Telerik.Skin" value="YourCustomSkinName" /> <add key="Telerik.EnableEmbeddedSkins" value="false" />

It's really a very cool tool. All of your colorization changes not only effect the CSS colors, but also the colors of the CSS sprite images. For a few controls (currently, Grid, PanelBar, and Window), you also have a "Fine Tune" option to really tweak the look and feel of the skins. By the Q2 2009 release, all RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX will have a Fine Tune option. On top of all of this, all exported skins are completely cross-browser ready (including IE6)- so no fussy CSS debugging. Creating a CSS skin (with optimized CSS sprites) has never been so easy. And that's not "marketing speak." As a long time web developer, I can't point to any other tool that's ever made custom skinning this easy. And this is just the Beta. Enjoy the beta preview. Send us your feedback. Have fun creating custom skins (I know that's two ideas that don't usually go together). And watch for more great enhancements to this tool as we approach Q2! Try the Visual Style Builder now

More OpenAccess ORM training opportunities

If the OpenAccess ORM webinar in a couple of weeks is not enough training for you, there are even more options now available from Falafel. Announced last week, Falafel will be offering complete OpenAccess ORM training courses, beginning this June. These 2-day instructor-lead courses will literally teach you everything you need to know to effectively work with OpenAccess ORM to build real applications. A complete course outline is avaialable on Falafel's website, but needless to say, it covers just about everything from getting started to optimization.

The course is available in three flavors:

• Open Class - 2-day, hosted in beach-front training center in Capitola, CA. Best for individuals and small teams. $799/person. Next open class is June 11th - 12th.
• Online - 3-day, virtual GoToMeeting training. Personalized attention. Custom scheduling/pricing for your team.
• On-site - 2-day, at your offices. Perfect for larger teams. Personalized for your organization. Custom scheduling/pricing.

There is no better way to get up-to-speed with OpenAccess than one of these classes, so I encourage you to register now for the open class or give Falafel a call for a custom class if your team is going to use OpenAccess ORM in a project. Enjoy!

Advanced Disconnected API with OpenAccess ORM webinar

Looking for more Telerik OpenAccess ORM in-depth training? Your next chance is coming-up: on June 2nd, the expert trainers at Falafel will do a special 2-hour webinar covering advanced techniques for using the disconnected API with OpenAccess ORM. Specifically, the webinar will demonstrate how to build an application using a real-world architecture with OpenAccess, and in the process it will cover the following topics:

• Options for moving data across the wire
• ObjectContainer vs ObjectScope
• Using ChangeSets
• WCF Example
• N-Tier Example
• Resolving Exceptions

This will be a free webinar! This is a great time to come see how you can use OpenAccess in a more "real world" setting than simple demos can convey, so definitely make plans to attend this webinar if you've been looking for examples showing OpenAccess in n-tier scenarios. Things get kicked-off at 12 noon Eastern Time (9AM Pacific) on Tuesday, the 2nd.

Register now to reserve your seat at the live event

Developer news from TechEd 2009

As you may have gathered from my live keynote coverage on Monday, TechEd 2009 is not shaping-up to be a great conference for developers. With zero (zip, nadda) coverage of developer topics in the big TechEd keynote, the tone was set for a conference that would continue to prove heavily biased to the IT Pro. So, news from TechEd for developers: Uh... Well... There's... I've really got nothing. There is no beta for .NET 4 or VS2010. There is no new Silverlight 3 beta. There is no preview of ASP.NET 4 features in the Microsoft booth (I know- I'm working there). There's no update for Azure or SQL Data Services. There's not even new info about possible release dates for any developer technologies. It's really a conference devoid of much exciting content for developers. The general feeling at the conference amongst developers (the few that are here) seems to be clear: MIX and PDC are the events to attend and TechEd is now an IT Pro event. Sad, but unavoidably true...

LIVE from TechEd 2009 Keynote [update]

Welcome to TechEd 2009 coverage on Telerik Watch! This is your place to watch the TechEd 2009 Keynote unfold. I'm here in beautiful LA (ehem...) and ready to bring you the most complete live keynote coverage available on your RSS Reader dial. With so many Microsoft technologies in beta (or soon to be beta), there are bound to be some interesting announcements during the Day One keynote. And if you're tuned-in here, you'll get the announcement details as soon as they're made. All the action starts tomorrow morning, so bookmark this post and tune-in at 10:00 AM Pacific Time for the fun! 9:33 AM: Almost time for things to get started. I've grabbed a TechEd MountainDew, settled-in to my seat, and am enjoying the Microsoft electronic music in the morning. Room is probably 1/4 to 1/3 filled now, but people are streaming-in.

Click here to continue reading live keynote coverage

9:53 AM: Just got the Five Minute Warning. Looks like things will be starting right on time.

10:02 AM: Lights-dim, video starts- time to get started (a little late because everyone was still trying to find seats). “X Lives Here” is the slogan for this year (such as “Innovation Lives Here,” “Potential Lives Here,” etc.).

10:03 AM: Bill Veghte, Senior VP Windows Business, is taking the stage. Just basic “welcome” speech and some TechEd facts and figures. Claims about 7000 at this year’s TechEd. Rolling another video- interviews that look like they were shot at MIX with developers asking “What keeps you up at night?” “What are your pain points?”

10:08 AM: Tepid response from crowd to video (“courtesy” claps). Bill’s energy is a little low, too. Lots of pausing- not sure if he’s trying to create drama or if it’s just “his style.”

10:10 AM: Bill says Microsoft intends to support the community in these turbulent times by “inventing in you, driving value, and innovating together.” Says MSFT will grow R&D this year, despite other cut backs. “Pedal down” behavior, as he puts it.

10:12 AM: Talking about “Dynamic IT.” Just remarking about how far we’ve come since 2003.

10:14 AM: Wants to call attention to 3 things (or “key themes”) MSFT is doing to watch for this week: 1) Virtualization (and how much MSFT is doing across products and platforms to support virtualization), 2) End-user access, Greater support for end-user mobility, 3)…

10:17 AM: Announcing a SQL Server 2008 R2 CTP will ship in H2 2009. No response from crowd, Also showing on screen a July 2009 tech preview of Office 2010.

10:19 AM: Just added that Office 2010 preview will be private- invite only. First dibs go to TechEd attendees. Again, no crowd excitement for this announcement.

10:21 AM: Running another video, this time talking to Windows 7 engineers. Making the case that Windows 7 is really listening to people and trying to build the best OS possible. Trying to provide some transparency for the Windows development approach.

10:23 AM: Flashed a website at end of video: talkingaboutwindows.com. Encourage you to “join the conversation.”

10:24 AM: Bill is now talking about the “Making of Windows 7.” Key points: Microsoft listened & learned before building Win7, Quality & Fundamentals are key, MSFT wants to “enable you,” and finally MSFT wants to “excite” end-users.

10:27 AM: Now talking Win7 and the Ecosystem. Talking about how MSFT is working hard to ensure ecosystem is better prepared for Win7 than they were for Vista. Slide is saying some “Intel Announcement” is coming.

10:29 AM: Two “announcements” regarding Intel: MSFT and Intel worked together to deliver better power management in Win7 and better OS support for hyper threading. Yeah, no crowd reaction…

10:31 AM: Bill is moving on to talk about new features in Windows7 release wave- specifically, features that help address the balance between “Control” and “Flexibility.” Examples: branch cache, direct connect (i.e. VPN-client-less VPN), etc.

10:33 AM: Bill is encouraging audience to compare Win7 RC performance to Vista to see proof that new release is already better performing than previous releases- even in RC.

10:35 AM: Demo time! I think the audience is relieved- Bill’s part was getting a little long. Bill is doing first demo- made the big “name mistake” and called Win7, “Windows Vista.” Finally got some audience laughter!

10:36 AM: Bill is demoing the “basic” UX improvements in Win7 (jump lists, reordering apps on task bar, etc.)- stuff you’ve probably seen before.

10:38 AM: More interesting than Bill’s Win7 demo is the fact that he’s got Office 2010 running on his demo machine! The UX is changing in office- no more big “Office Button” globe.

10:39 AM: Moving on to show-off Direct Connect. Requires WinServer 2008R2. And now we’re on to look at Branch Caching, and integrated Open Search (in Windows Search), and so on. Lots of quick little demos of Win7 features.

10:44 AM: Bill says he’s doing last demo- showing BitLocker ToGo. Don’t think people really got this last demo.

10:46 AM: Mark Russinovich, Tech Fellow at MSFT, is taking the stage to do Win7 demos for the IT Pros.

10:49 AM: Showing-off AppLocker- essentially a new “whitelist” for apps that an user is allowed to install that also enables you to filter at different levels of specificity (i.e. you can approve a publisher, a specific app, a specific app version, etc.)

10:51 AM: Demo snag. Mark was trying to show AppLocker group policy change in action, but something broke. First time I’ve seen a TechEd keynote demo stall for that long. Fortunately, the “magic behind the curtain” (i.e. the guys in back frantically trying to fix the problem) fixed the issue and Mark recovered.

10:53 AM: Big recovery! Mark just got the biggest crowd reaction so far showing-off the feature in Win7 that enables users to record the steps they took to hit a problem (complete with step-by-step) screen caps. People applauded this feature more than anything else so far.

10:56 AM: Moving-on to talk about PowerShell v2. Talking about using PowerShell to manage group policy settings.

10:57 AM: ASIDE: Mark suggested that one of the cool new features in IE8 is InPrivate Mode- for “personal reasons.” I see…

11:00 AM: Now on to MEDV (pronounced “Med-Vee”)- Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization, the set of tools MSFT is shipping that enables admins to easily manage end-user VMs.

11:03 AM: And now “AppV” (pronounced “App-Vee”), Microsoft’s application virtualization solution. Mark says this feature will help support the idea of the “replaceable PC,” or a scenario where all user settings (including apps) can quickly be re-initialized on a new box if their first PC dies.

11:07 AM: Last thing for Mark- demoing the new VHD support in Win7 (ability to managed VHDs from Disk Manager and even boot directly from a VHD).

11:11 AM: Bill’s back. Mark’s gone. No developer love so far in this year’s keynote (last year you may remember that there was a fair amount more for devs).

11:13 AM: Bill wants to talk about “two elephants in the room:” App Compat and Ship Date. Bill also seems to be much more amped-up on his return to the stage. Must have had some caffeine back stage…

11:13 AM: First App Compat. Essentially, MSFT is doing a lot to make sure all apps run: App Compat Kit, Guidance, Virtualization Tech, XP Mode, App Compat Factory, and ISV Engagement.

11:15 AM: Second, Ship Date. Bill is ready to announce something. Announcing that Windows 7 will ship for this holiday season. No reaction from crowd- think that shocked Bill.

11:16 AM: Telling people who don’t have Vista installed yet to start testing with Win7 RC instead.

11:17 AM: Time for another demo. Ian McDonald, General Manager of Windows Server Group, taking stage to do some Windows Server 2008 R2 demos.

11:21 AM: Talking about the focus of the Server Group: Consistent Delivery, Accelerating Technology Adoption, and Commitment to Value.

11:25 AM: Ian is now addressing how Windows Server focuses on four areas: Web, Management, Virtualization, and “Foundation for Business.” After that, he says there’ll be some demos. Looks like the keynote may run long…

11:29 AM: Keynote is definitely dragging. Ian is high energy, but I think people realize that this is going to run in to lunch and we’re not going to get any more interesting announcements as things go along. Just review of the RCs and Betas we’ve already seen. Ian is still talking to his key points slide.

11:30 AM: Take it back. There are some new announcements: 1) HyperV will now support up to 64 virtual processors (no reaction – Ian had to beg for applause), 2) [Something nobody understood], 3) New “Compat Mode” coming to HyperV to enable running on older hardware. Yeah…that did little to get the crowd back in this one…

11:33 AM: Another new thing: File Classification Structure. [OBSERVATION: People are really streaming-out of the keynote now. It started with a trickle and it’s turning in to a stream.]

11:35 AM: Ian is now starting his demos. They better be impressive to save this keynote. But they are “just” server admin demos, so…unless you’re a domain admin…this info isn’t likely to interest you.

11:37 AM: Ian got some demo applause! Apparently Windows Server now has some OCR features built-in. That’s cool, I suppose.

11:40 AM: Ian is now rambling on about Exchange 2010. Stream of people leaving is about to become a river.

11:43 AM: Ian is now demoing Outlook 2010 (another sneak peak of the Office14 UX). Showing some type of integration with something- demo problems. Demo failed. Apparently the demo was to make some joke about Mary Jo’s “MSFT Code Name” list.

11:48 AM: “And finally I’m going to get on to the headline artist of the night: virtualization in Windows Server,” says Ian as people continue their march out of the keynote. Apparently there’ll be one more demo today showing virtualization.

11:53 AM: Ian is still demoing some Windows Server 2008 R2 features. Actually, now he’s wrapping-up his time. [River is no turning in to flood of people leaving.]

11:54 AM: Bill is re-taking stage to wrap-up the keynote. I think people cut him short. Quick thanks for Bill and that’s it!

I know they practiced this keynote, but it’s not clear if any amount of practice have saved it. With the Windows 7 RC already released, the keynote just lacked any good announcements. It’s almost like MSFT forgot to save anything-up for this big keynote. Good thing Bill Gate’s last TechEd keynote is already in the books.

Either way, hope you enjoyed the extended coverage. Stay tuned for more from LA as TechEd continues!

Survey Says: You would save food first

Many, many months ago, a disaster hit the area where I live. Hurricane Ike slammed in to the Texas coast and brought me closer to the destruction of a hurricane than I'd ever been in the past. My family was fortunate and we escaped the storm with no major property damage, but we did lose power for more than a week. And that inspired the last Telerik Watch poll. You never realize how much steady, easily available electricity affects your quality of life until it's gone- and gone for more than a couple days. You lose more than you think (or at least more that I thought I would, originally). Your fridge and freezer full of food? It all gets trashed. Addicted to the Internet? Sorry. Live in a hot climate and depend on your AC to breathe? Prepare to sweat yourself to sleep. So I asked you, if you could power only one device in a long-term power outage, what would it be? The results were interesting. More than half of you would go for the food and keep the fridge and freezer running. For the other half that is content to live off of canned food heated over gas stoves (or fires) and warm beer, the number-one saved device is your computer. I suppose that's a smart move since the computer can also be a source of light and- assuming you have the ability to get a reliable 3G internet connection- a good source of entertainment and news. Still another full 8% of you would save nothing and enjoy the stillness and "back to the basics" life that a power outage brings. Perhaps most (least?) surprising is that no one would save their TV! Now, I'm assuming you all would make the argument that the computer is like TV+ (you can get your news, entertainment, and still have a computer to use), but it's still revealing. The tech crowd definitely recognizes the non-necessity of the TV in a disaster. Again- almost 10% of you would rather save nothing than save your TV. Telling... Thanks for sharing your input. I hope none of you find yourself in a long term power outage anytime soon, but if you do, you'll be going with the crowd if you choose to save your fridge- and food- first.

New Survey! VB vs. C# Part II

I know, I know. What's the point of a blog poll if you stop updating the question?! It seems that after the last poll (created shortly after Hurricane Ike hit here in Texas) the poll fell off my radar, so it is with great pleasure that I "re-open" the polls and re-commit to running new polls every couple of weeks. And we're getting started with a fun one! About a year ago, I asked you a simple question: Which .NET language do you use primarily use when programming? As expected, most respondents answered either VB or C#, with C# "slightly" edging-out VB's popularity 63% to 34%. In isolation, the results really don't mean much, though. What makes me curious is the trend. In other words, is interest in one language increasing while interest in another is declining? Is interest remaining flat? So this year's ".NET Language Survey" is really going to be interesting since we'll finally have two data points and we can start to define our trend. To make your voice heard, vote now (poll is on right side of the Telerik Watch landing page)! You've got two weeks to vote before the polls close. Which language will reign supreme? We'll find out in a couple weeks. P.S. For those of you looking for a summary of the last poll, it will be coming very soon. Stay tuned.

Join Telerik at TechEd next week

While the global economic recession has definitely hit big tech events this year- including TechEd- the event is still going down next week and Telerik will be there to meet you. And while we won't be bringing a booth to this year's decidedly smaller event, you will still have many ways to interact with Telerik:

1. Microsoft Web Experience Experts Area- You can find me in this area of Microsoft's "Experts Area" throughout the week. I'm happy to talk Telerik, talk Microsoft, or talk whatever is on your mind. Stop on by and say hi.
2. BOF Sessions- As I've previously mentioned on this blog, I will also be hosting two BOF sessions on Thursday, so if you're interested in the topics (Telecommuting and Building Great Web Apps), don't miss what should be good discussions.
3. TechEd Sessions- Telerik CSO (Chief Strategy Officer) Stephen Forte and Microsoft RD will have a huge presence at TechEd delivering a voice-killing 11 sessions throughout the week. Be sure to check-out his sessions and send Telerik questions his way.
4. Parnter Booths- While Telerik's booth won't be on the floor, we have many great partners that will be at TechEd this year. You'll be able to find me at both the Novel booth where the fine folks from the Mono Project will be showcasing Telerik's RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX on Linux. You can also find me at our great training partner Falafel's booth, too, showing-off the incredible Learning Guides they have produced.

So, lots of opportunities to interact with Telerik at TechEd this year. We look forward to talking to many of you next week and to having a great time at TechEd. And for those of you not there, keep your RSS Readers locked-in here where I'll try to bring some live coverage of various keynotes and events.

RadControls for Silverlight in ASP.NET

For those of you that missed today's Weekly Webinar, you missed a fun topic! We looked at how you can use the RadControls for Silverlight in ASP.NET. Specifically, we looked at how you can use RadChart, RadGauge, and RadUpload for Silverlight in an existing ASP.NET application by utilizing the DOM Integration features of Silverlight. There were lots of demos and we covered a lot of ground, but hopefully everyone that attended live (thanks, by the way, for watching today!) feels like they have the knowledge they need to start leveraging Silverlight controls in ASP.NET. For everyone else, all resources from today's session are now available online. Below you can download the slides and demo project code, and above you can watch the recorded session (or you can watch it on Telerik TV, of course). Enjoy and watch for more follow-up resources soon! RadControls for Silverlight in ASP.NET [Slides] [Code] Watch recorded webinar in full resolution on Telerik TV