Join me at my PDC BOF session today

In all the hustle and bustle of running from the Tulsa TechFest, to DevConnections (didn't even have time to blog this event!), to now PDC, and working hard to prepare for last night's JustCode introduction, I have simply failed to have time to bring you my usually timely announcements of upcoming events. So while I have a couple of minutes this morning, let me try to play catch-up. Today I'll be hosting a PDC Birds-of-a-Feather (BOF) session at 2:00 PM in room 309. The topic of this BOF: Should I use Silverlight, MVC, or WebForms for web UI development? If you're a .NET web developer, you are probably faced with this challenging question from time-to-time, and sometimes it can be hard to really make a "good" decision about which technology to use. The goal of today's BOF is to extract from the community the real world lessons, guidance, and "rules of thumb" can help make this decision earlier. When you leave this BOF, you should be armed with the knowledge you need to confidently plot the course for your next project without hesitation. So, whether you're full of questions or full of answers, make sure you find room 309 today at 2:00 PM and take part in the conversation! P.S. Ben Hoelting was originally scheduled to co-host this event, but due to circumstances out of his control he was unable to make it to PDC. Apologies to all of Ben's fans hoping to see him at this BOF!

Telerik introduces JustCode at PDC 2009

After months of speculation, we have lifted the "veil of secrecy" surrounding our new product. Last night at PDC, we introduced to the world JustCode. JustCode is a Visual Studio productivity add-in, designed to help you just write code faster. For Telerik, this really completes the "circle of productivity" for many application developers. For UI productivity, we offer all our UI components for all major Microsoft platforms. For data layer productivity, we offer OpenAccess ORM. For testing productivity, we offer WebAii Framework and WebUI Test Studio. What we failed to offer any help for was writing the code that really creates value for your apps- your domain logic code. JustCode now closes that gap and delivers support for all of your coding tasks. When we set-out to create JustCode (and I should mention, we started by acquiring a company that's invested 4+ years of effort and PhD academic research in to building the core engine in JustCode), we defined three key goals for our initial efforts:

• We need a productivity tool that is fast! It cannot be allowed to slow down Visual Studio in the slightest. It needs to load fast (even with large projects). It needs to execute its anlaysis fast (across entire solutions). And it needs to install and update fast (the plug-in is auto-updating).
• We need a productivity tool that provides assistance across all languages modern .NET developers are working with, especially C#, VB, XAML, ASPX, HTML, and JavaScript! Our JavaScript support is where we really think you'll find a new level of productivity in this early release. You can finally use a tool that analyzes your JS code, highlights errors, provides quick code navigation (like GoToSymbol), and quick JS refactorings.
• We need a tool that doesn't interrupt "normal" coding. We need an unobtrusive tool that helps us "just code" without constantly bombarding us with dialogs or distracting animations. The whole idea of JustCode is that it "invisibly" blends in to your development process, providing things like in-line refactoring without breaking your mental train of thought. Less is more with JustCode UX.

There are obviously lots of details we look forward to talking more about now that the product is public. Stay tuned to Telerik Watch and the Telerik Blogs for much more over the coming weeks. You can also already check-out a host of videos covering JustCode on Telerik TV. For now, download the beta on Telerik.com and give it a try. Our team will be working hard to respond to all feedback between now and the official release in Q1 2010, and you can expect to see regular updates every few weeks leading-up to the official release (which the auto-updating plug-in will make it easy for you to install). We're excited to bring this new product to you and we hope you enjoy being even more productive as you just write code...with JustCode!

Build an application with Telerik RadControls, Win a pass to PDC

Now here's a deal for those of you looking for a budget friendly way to get to PDC in LA this November. INETA is running a new contest called the "INETA Component Code Challenge: Building .NET Applications with Reusable Components" and two lucky winners will get complete "scholarships" to PDC 2009 (including airfare, hotel, and conference passes)! All you have to do for your shot at the prizes:

1. Build a .NET application using at least 2 components from at least 2 different approved vendors (such as Telerik and /n Software)
2. Create a 3 - 5 minute WMV video of your app showing how you used components and why your app is cool
3. Submit your video by August 25th to codechallenge@ineta.org

That's it! Winners will be announced on September 14th, and even if you don't snag the grand prizes, 8 additional lucky runners-up will get "prize packs" full of licenses for .NET tools and components. For complete judging criteria and rules and all that biz, be sure to visit the official INETA Code Challenge website. So let's review:

• Build a cool app with Telerik's components
• Create a short video
• Very good chance at winning airfare, hotel, and pass to PDC 2009

And to up the ante even more, I'd love to give you more reason to build a cool app using Telerik's tools. If you win the contest and build an app using Telerik's components, I'll personally take you out to dinner at PDC 2009 and feature your app on Telerik TV and Telerik Watch. If you record a video for this contest and use Telerik controls, be sure to send it to me, too. We'll award the best submission that we receive with a $50 iTunes gift card. PDC, prize packs, iTunes gift cards- what are you waiting for?! Build your cool app today and get those videos submitted.

New Telerik WPF charting and gauges on Channel 9

While at PDC last week, Vladimir Milev and I had the chance to spend about five minutes with Adam Kinney from Microsoft to show-off Telerik's new 2D and 3D charting engine for WPF. Adam caught the entire exchange on video and that video is now live for your viewing pleasure on Channel 9. If you haven't been paying attention, as part of Telerik's Q3 release, Telerik shipped a brand new charting engine for WPF that enables you to do some pretty cool data visualizations. You can animate your chart loading, build 3D charts (even using your own 3D models), and, of course, render all of the different chart types you typically need in an LOB app. We also shipped new XAML-based RadGauges for WPF and Silverlight that enable you to easily add gauge visualizations to your projects. You can download all of this stuff now by visiting the new Telerik.com. A video is worth 10,000 words, though, so check out the video on Channel 9 or catch an embedded version after the break!

Telerik Watch Minute: OpenAcess ORM Fetch Plans

In this third and final (for PDC) interview with Jan Blessenohl (OpenAcess ORM Team Lead), I ask Jan to show us how we can optimize the SQL queries OpenAcess produces. One feature that many ORMs provide, including OpenAcess, is Lazy Loading- or the concept of only loading objects when you need them in code. This is great for many scenarios as it saves you from loading more data than you need, but there are scenarios when you want to tell your ORM to load more agressively (for instance, when displaying data in a grid). In this video, Jan demonstrates how to create OpenAcess ORM Fetch Plans that enable us to easily optimize the SQL queries OpenAcess generates without requiring us to change the actual code of our query or object at all! So if you already understand the basics of forward mapping and reverse engineering, this video will help you go to the next step of optimization.

Telerik Watch Minute: OpenAccess ORM reverse engineering

Here's another great introductory video to Telerik's new OpenAcess ORM product. In this special edition of Telerik Watch Minute, I sit down with Jan Blessenohl (OpenAcess ORM Team Lead) and take a look at how you can use OpenAcess ORM to reverse engineer an existing database in to business objects (vs. the forward mapping approach we looked at last time). In this 13 minute video, Jan shows us everything from creating a new project to reverse engineering your database to merging database changes to existing objects to using your reverse engineered objects in an ASP.NET application. It's a great primer on the subject so I hope you enjoy! [Production Note: I regret that I have to keep making these "production notes." I guess it's more difficult than I anticipated to staff a booth, attend sessions, and shoot videos at PDC. As such, this video was recorded with a heavy "light filter," producing a grainy looking, dark video. Apologies. The next video fixes the problem and I promise I'll try to ensure these mistakes don't happen at future events!]

Telerik Watch Minute: Augmented reality WPF demo

Every now and then, our developers like to build something that's just "cool". Something that pushes them to learn and implement new technologies. For the PDC 2008 Show Off competition, the crafty WPF developers at Telerik built a very interesting "Augmented Reality" demo. Much of the demo simply shows-off the cool interaction between physical world and virtual WPF-based assets, but it also gives us a chance to highlight a few RadControls for WPF in action. Hope you enjoy the quick demo and more importantly enjoy the RadControls!

Telerik Watch Minute: Interview with Jan Blessenohl, OpenAccess ORM

While at PDC 2008, I had the fun opportunity to sit down with some of the Telerik product team guys and put them on camera for you to meet. First up for your viewing pleasure is OpenAccess ORM Team Lead, Jan Blessenhol. In this short(ish) 20 minute interview, Jan explains to us what OpenAccess ORM is, why it's unique, and then does a live demo showing us how OpenAccess' basic Forward Mapping features work. If you're interested in knowing more about Telerik's new ORM product, this is a great place to start. And I also need to make a quick production note. We had a couple of "glitches" in this recording that I reget. First, the audio for much of the video is much poorer quality than it should be because I forgot to record the microphone in my hand. Second, the lighting was bad and I forgot to pull-out the 'ol camera light. Finally, the HDD recorder battery died during the shoot so we had to "append" the ending- as such, it looks a little different that the rest of the video. I apologize for all the tech trouble and hope you can still enjoy the video. Expect better quality next time!

Telerik Watch Minute: Special PDC Edition

I only have a few minutes before running to the next PDC party, but I wanted to share with you a quick video live from PDC 2008. We've got a lot more video content on the way, but for now, enjoy the introductions to the Telerik Evangelism crew and even the Team Lead for Telerik's new OpenAccess ORM product. Plus, don't forget you can watch PDC live at Telerik's booth during the show's expo hours!

LIVE from PDC 2008 Keynote 2 (Sinofsky, Guthrie, Treadwell)

Welcome back for another live blow-by-blow account of a PDC 2008 keynote. Today's keynote promises to be much more interesting and developer friendly than yesterday's as ScottGu, Steven Sinofsky, Ray Ozzie, and David Treadwell take the stage. We're in our seats and things should get started soon, so settle-in and get ready for the updates. 8:29: Things are about to get started. They're making the announcement and dimming the lights. 8:32: Here we go. Exciting .NET and Windows video is playing. Much higher energy than yesterday already! Video is showing-off a lot of MS partner apps built using .NET, WPF, WF, etc. 8:35: Video's over, Ozzie is taking the stage. Already promising some "surprises" today. Also reviewing what was introduced yesterday and reminding us of yesterday's announcements. Calling yesterday a look at MS "backend" innovations, today will be a look at "frontend" innovations. 8:37: Ozzie is reflecting on how important "personal PCs" have become to everyday life and business. Starting to build the case for how WIndows has always been able to flex and adapt to the times. Saying Windows is ready to adapt to the Internet focused era. 8:40: "It's our objective to make the connection of the PC, Phone, and Web more valuable than the sum of their parts." Ozzie is now describing the advantages of PCs for delivering applications. Says real value has been delivered b/c PCs enable people to combine their apps for increased functionality. "The advantage of the PC will always be it's ability to enable consumers to richly create and consume information." 8:42: Now moving on to describe the advantages of the web for delivering applications. "The web's unique value is it's ability to assemble the world's people...and enable people to connect and share." 8:43: Finally, the advantage of the phone. "The phone is always with you and ready for your spontaneous actions." "The phone's most unique value is it's ability to handle your spontaneity." 8:45: Ozzie is saying the next gen MS services and platforms will tie all three platforms together to deliver a better unified experience. "We're investing to make Windows the best way to build applications for PC, Phone, and Web." Talking about Windows taking on a more "appliance like behavior" for downloading and handling applications. 8:47: Saying we're going to see today how MS is going to make web apps "installable" and enable devs to take web apps offline. That should be cool. "We're proud of where our Windows platform is going." Ozzie is wrapping-up his intro and getting ready to hand-off to the other keynote speakers. 8:50: First up, Windows 7! Steven Sinofsky is now on stage. Showing us the outline for his segment. Includes path to RTM at the end. Stay tuned! "We're going to show you how Win 7 brings you a personalized experience, how it's enables you to find and organize data, and then how it enables you to connect to devices." 8:51: Julie Larson-Green is now on stage with Steven to do the first demo of Windows 7. Everybody just perked-up! 8:53: Julie is showing us the new Windows taskbar and new way Windows manages windows. Similar to VS toolbar docking but for actual application windows on the desktop. You finally have the ability to re-order applications on the taskbar! Finally. 8:55: Now showing the new Windows Explorer. Content is now organized in "Libraries." Libraries can span USB drives, external drives, other computers, internal storage, etc. Explorer more tightly integrates search (looks a lot like Firefox inline search). 8:57: New networking tech called "Home Group." Enables all Win 7 and printers in your house to automatically connect. Just connect to your network and you'll be automatically connected to all devices on the network. Sounds a bit like Bonjour from Apple. 8:58: One observation: searching for files is happening lightening fast. Not the same search and wait experience of Vista. Wonder if that will be the case with "real" non-demo files. 9:00: Julie is now showing us some integration between a Motorola phone and Win 7 using the new "Device Stage." It's like the Vista "Welcome to Vista" window customized/tailored for specific devices. Explorer now shows unique icons for each device type (like showing an actual Motorola ROKR icon in the explorer). 9:02: Showing new theming mechanism for Win 7. Just an enhanced version of what exists in Vista. Also adds support to save and export themes to share with others. 9:04: Next, System Tray. Win 7 gives you complete control over System Tray. Only icons you put in Sys Tray will be displayed. You can rearrange, remove, etc. Pop-up alerts now all routed to Windows Action Center. You control which alerts you want to allow to be displayed in System Tray. 9:05: Now showing Windows 7 touch support. Using an HP Touchsmart PC. Win 7 automatically translates touch in to mouse features for programs that don't understand touch commands. Programs that are programmed to recognize gestures can do more with touch commands. IE 8 supports touch "flicks" for navigation, for example. The new Windows 7 Paint (the one with the RibbonBar) also supports touch for "finger painting." 9:10: Showing the globe multi-touch app (seen before on Surface). Looked very jumpy. Not sure if that's the HP fault or if Win 7 is still struggling to accurately process multi-touch. Guess we'll find out soon. 9:11: Julie is done. Back to Steven. Introducing the new Windows Live Services concept. Guess we'll hear more later from David. 9:14: Sinofsky is starting to talk about the transition from Vista to 7. "We got a lot of feedback at the RTM of Vista. A few blogs. Some news. Oh yeah, and some commercials." That got a light chuckle from the audience. 9:15: Still defending that MS was pleased with progress of VIsta, but acknowledging they've learned some key lessons: Ecosystem readiness (didn't give 3rd party enough time to prep for Vista)- not a problem in 7 b/c it's compat with Vista Standards- Talking about work MS has done to embrace standards in IE8, WordPad (OpenXML), etc. Compatibility- Talking about UAC. Says MS went too far (at least as far as developers are concerned). Says even though transition was hard, it moved the ecosystem forward. Scenarios- Trying harder in Windows 7 to make "key scenarios" better (like home networking) 9:20: Listing new features in Win 7 for developers: Ribbon UI, Jump Lists (right-click menus in new taskbar area), Libraries, Multi-touch/Ink/Speech, DirectX (what Sinofsky calls MS' modern view of GDI) 9:24: Time for a video! Showing Autodesk case study and how they've used multi-touch to enhance their software. Pretty short. Pretty bland. Just showing reverse-pinch zoom and multi-touch rotation. 9:27: Windows 7 is focusing on "fundamentals." Decrease memory footprint, disk I/O, and power consumption. Increase speed, responsiveness (especially in Start menu, Taskbar), and scale (ability to use up to 256 processors). Steven is now going to do his own demo. Starting by showing us he can run Win 7 on a net tablet (note: demos are not running on the PC he showed). 9:31: Can now use BitLocker protection on removable memory sticks. Showing that you can create VHDs natively from within Windows Disk Manager (that got a big applause from the audience). Can even mount and boot from VHDs (again natively) with Win 7. 9:33: Improved support for managing multiple monitors and high-DPI screens. Very tepid audience applause. You can now use shortcut to zoom Windows (similar to ZoomIt utility). Improved support for connecting to projectors (via WindowsKey + P shortcut). Support for multi-monitor Remote Desktop (huge applause for this feature). 9:37: Time for path to RTM talk! First, pre-beta for everyone in audience today. Pre-beta is "M3" build. Path from M3 is M4, Beta, RC, RTM. Beta is going to ship early next year (2009). Will be broadly distributed. Will be looking for lots of feedback (via Feedback tool). 9:41: Sinofsky is not committing to -any- new info about when Win 7 will ship. Just repeating "3 years after Vista GA." That's a bummer. Wrapping-up the Win7 talk now. Leaving us with the "Window's 7 Seven Calls to Action." 9:45: That's all for Sinofsky. He's handing things of to The Gu who is now taking the stage. 9:46: Starting with interop talk. Saying that they're making it easy to blend managed .NET code and native C++ code. Releasing an update for MFC in Win 7 and better support for large code bases and parallel processor programming in VS 2010 (now the official name). 9:48: Reviewing the .NET 3.5 SP1 and what that shipped. Saying .NET 3.5 SP1 will be built-in to Windows 7. Not .NET 4? 9:50: Scott is now doing a demo. It's a photo viewer application (a la Picasa). He's going to add more functionality to it taking advantage of Windows 7 features. Starting by adding a ribbon (this is a WPF app, by the way). MS is shipping a new WPF RibbonBar control this week, too. Not sure how this is Win 7 specific. Really just looks like a WPF demo, so should work in Vista or even XP. 9:53: Okay, here's some Win 7 specific functionality. Adding "Jump List" support. Simply requires defining tasks in your App.xaml file. The tasks show-up when you right-click your program in the Windows Taskbar. Seem very easy to implement. Just as some contextual short-cuts for your app. 9:54: Now showing some WIndows multi-touch. Again, multi-touch looks very jumpy. Starting to look like multi-touch (at least on the HP) is not nearly as smooth as on the iPhone or on Surface. Just showed multi-touch support working in photo app. Didn't show any code for how you handle custom gestures. Simple gestures (like finger clicks) work for free. 9:57: Shipping new WPF toolkit today. Includes a WPF data grid (finally!). RibbonBar shipping this week will be CTP. Will work on XP, Vista, and Win 7. 9:59: Starting to talk .NET 4. Going to ship Deep Zoom support for WPF (didn't see that coming). Going to enable you to run multiple versions of CLR code at the same time. More talk about strong interop support in .NET 4. A nod to MEF (the Managed Extensibility Framework). Finally, much improved tooling in VS 2010. And for those that haven't yet heard, VS 2010 will be built in WPF and support multi-monitor setups. 10:02: Scott is going to do a VS 2010 demo now. All PDC attendees are getting a VS 2010 CTP this week. Demo is showing how you can leverage new VS 2010 WPF rendering to create a richer visual experience in the code editor. By simply creating a class, he can extend VS with WPF to make the formatting of code comments much richer. Pretty good audience reaction to the comment formatter (or "ScottGu Mode" as he's now dubbed it). People are loving this new customizability of VS. 10:05: The extensibility framework that makes the extensibility of VS 2010 possible will be part of .NET 4 (MEF). Can be used in your own apps. 10:07: Time for a partner demo. Nick Lansley from Tesco (a large global grocery company) is going to show a "Next Generation Grocery Shopping" experience. Demo is running on HP Touchsmart PC again. All touch interaction. 10:09: It's really not (just) a grocery shopping app. It's being described as a "family hub" application. Share calendars, notes, -and- build grocery lists. Showed how you can use the web cam to scan a product bar code and find products. While it looked a little demo slight of hand, people loved the idea and gave it huge applause. 10:13: ScottGu is back on stage. Talking about improvements coming in IE8 and ASP.NET. Most of this you've already seen or heard about (like Dynamic Data, MVC, jQuery, and REST support). He's spending a little time now talking about jQuery. Announcing the official release of the jQuery Visual Studio IntelliSense support. Download it today. 10:15: Talking next version of ASP.NET. Most of this was covered in yesterday's ASP.NET 4 break-out session, and most of this content is not new. You've seen a lot of this online before (like the new ability to control ControlID, improved ViewState handling, better CSS support, etc.). Says the Velocity distributed caching support will be provided in .NET 4, too.

10:18: On to Silverlight. Announced this morning a new IIS feature called IIS Smooth Streaming (a video feature). Netflix launched today their new Instant View feature running on Silverlight that works on both Mac and PCs (good news for all you Netflix users out their on Macs). Shipping Silverlight Toolkit this week, too (includes Chart, Treeview, and about 10 more basic controls).

10:21: WYSIWYG Silverlight editing coming to VS in VS 2010. Scott also just dropped the bomb that they're about to show (later today) how you can run Silverlight outside of the browser (start the Adobe Air comparisons).

10:23: And with that, Scott is done. David Treadwell is now on the stage to talk about Windows Live Services (which I think will really focus on Live Mesh). He's starting with an overview of what Live Services are and the different Live Service types (like Identity, Directory, Search, etc.).

10:27: David's content is dragging a bit (especially after the excitement of Steven and Scott's presentations). People are starting to stream out of the keynote. Plus, it looks like the keynote is going to run long (supposed to be over in 2 minutes). We'll stick through it all to bring you full coverage.

10:32: Finally we get to Live Mesh. Says this week MS will start talking a lot about how devs can use Mesh Services to enhance their own applications (basically providing sync support). Today they're also announcing the "Live Framework," the way you'll access all Live Services (including Mesh). David's inviting Ori Amiga from Live Services team at MS to show us a demo of enhancing a Windows app (same photo app from the GuNote) with Live Services.

10:35: Ori is showing some C# code for using Live Services. Seems straight forward enough. Even showing some LinqToLiveServices. The root is a reference to an instance of the "LiveOperatingEnvironment" class. People are mildly impressed with the demo.

10:37: Showing how syncing automatically syncs data between two PCs (in this case, changing some meta data on a photo object) and from his phone to the PC (in near real time). Pretty cool- audience was pretty impressed. Ori definitely saved this segment of the keynote.

10:39: Next up, Anthony Rose, Head of BBC Online Media is taking the stage to show us how to "Live Enable" a web application. Showing the BBC iPlayer and a new proof of concept version that uses Silverlight and Mesh to deliver media content to all your devices automatically.

10:42: iPlayer using integration with Live to get Live Messenger friend list and Mesh infrastructure to deliver content, share preferences, notify friends of new content you're watching. Basically, Mesh enables BBC to focus on the content experience and leaves the complicated networking tasks of distributing content and notifications to MS and the Mesh layer. Mesh will even remember how much of a video you've watch on your phone and sync the video on your PC to that point so you can resume watching. People liked that idea.

10:45: BBC is done. David is back. Keynote is now running 15 minutes late. David is quickly wrapping up. Download the Live Framework CTP later today at http://azure.com. Mac version of Mesh client launching today, too.

10:47: Another (!) demo. This time a guy from the MS Office team. Going to show us how Office 14 is using Live Services to enhance the Office experience.  Announcing today that MS will be shipping Office Web apps with Office 14. Will be lighweight versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoin, and OneNote.

10:49: Office Web Apps will make it easy to view and collaborate on Office docs online. Changes made in Office (proper) automatically sync (again in near real time) to the Office Web version.

10:52: It's not clear if Office Webs will enable you to create new content. Also not clear what they're using to build Office Web Apps (Silverlight? ASPNET AJAX?). Office Live Workspace look a lot like Google Docs dashboard (and SharePoint). And some clarification arrives- they -are- using Silverlight and they are enabling (at the very least) document editing online.

10:55: The Office Web Apps really do look a lot like the desktop counterparts. Pretty impressive.

10:58: Office Web App demo is done. Ray Ozzie is back to wrap things up and end this fun (but long) keynote.

I think that's most of what's going to be covered today. I hope you enjoyed the coverage!

Visit the Telerik PDC booth...online!

I said last week that we'd be bringing PDC to you in a way we've never done before, and today we've flipped the switch. We know many of you can't make it to LA for PDC, but we don't want you to miss out on the fun at the Telerik booth. So for the entire PDC Expo, we'll be streaming LIVE video from our booth! It's almost like you're at PDC in the Expo Hall hanging out with us in our booth...almost. Okay, so it's not as good as being here, but we think it's a cool way to help you experience PDC 2008 and kill some time at work (not that any of you would do that...of course). Enjoy the live stream from PDC and watch for some more video updates soon.

Watch the live stream from PDC

LIVE from PDC 2008 Keynote

It's finally here! After being cancelled last year, Microsoft has put together a PDC show that promises to make-up for lost time. With some people calling the new technology that Microsoft is introducing this week as big as .NET was back in 2000, there is no question that the developer excitement at this event is high. So sit back and get ready for a week's worth of live PDC coverage, starting with today's keynote. We're settled-in with the 6500 other PDC attendees and they're getting ready to start the show. Enjoy the coverage and stay tuned for more updates as the week goes on!

8:33 AM: People are still streaming-in. They've announced that we're about start. Some very bland electronic music playing- no Guerillas here.

8:37: Here we go! Ray Ozzie is on stage to get things kicked-off. Talking about how transformational the tech Microsoft is introducing is going to be. And now thanking us for being here, blah, blah...

8:39: Ray is trying to relate with the audience. Talking about how he used to be "one of us." Making the case for choosing Microsoft. Essentially, an elegant way of saying "no one ever got fired for picking Microsoft." Covering all of the things MS has done over the years in response to new tech/platforms (i.e. devices, mobile, etc.) and building the case for how MS is going to do it again for the era of services. Very clear the key message for PDC is going to be Software + Services (with heavy emphasis on services).

8:44: Ray is painting the picture for how the web has become central to business (foundation for buying in to services and the cloud). Trying to suggest that in today's global, connected environment, it's just too expensive (for many companies) to build the infrastructure they need. Main point: the cloud is a significantly new approach to infrastructure and is not some trendy term being assigned to the way things are already being done today.

8:50: Now saying MS has accumulated lots of experience and expertise in building and managing services in supporting their own global business. Point is to suggest even though MS is new to providing "external IT" services to devs, they're not new to managing them.

8:53: Wow! A keynote mention and nod to Jeff Bezos and Amazon for their cloud services. Ozzie says MS and others will be standing on Amazon's shoulders as they move in to cloud services.

8:54: And the first "announcement"! Windows Azure. A new cloud OS, i.e. Windows in the cloud. Tepid reaction from the crowd. I think people didn't know how to react.

8:55: Azure will be like Windows in the sense that MS will treat it like a platform and embrace 3rd party development on top of it. Ray just suggested the groundwork being laid for cloud computing today is going to set the stage for the "next 50 years" of software development.

8:57: You do not run Azure on your own PC/servers. Runs in MS datacenters (it's a service). Being released today as a CTP. Looking for feedback to buildout service features going forward. Ozzie says Azure will be the "highest availability" and most "globally friendly" version of Windows.

9:00: The Azure Services Platform is made-up of Live, .NET, SQL, SharePoint, and Dynamics CRM Services, all built on top of Azure. New .NET logo, by the way! Looks like a blue wave or spiral, or something abstract like that.

9:02: Demo time. Amistad (something incredibly hard to say and spell) from MS is now on stage to go in to more details about how Azure works. People are cracking-up at his bright red shoes.

9:07: Amistad (sp?) is still covering Azure detail. Too much detail for a keynote if you ask me. He's also just reading his cue cards- not very well prepared to be a keynote speaker (at least that's the what it sounds like).

9:08: So, while Amistad is still covering the ins and outs of how MS has built a network capable of delivering the Azure service, let me make a programming note and mention that I'm low on laptop batt (forgot to charge last night after the PDC parties). So if live updates stop, fear not. I'll keep writing and post the updates as soon as we get back to the booth. Now back to listening to Azure details...

9:11: Okay, now a demo! Stephen (something) from MS is on the stage and is showing us a "Hello World" app for the cloud. It's an ASP.NET app that he's going to run on the cloud.

9:13: There will be a "offline" replication of the cloud that can run locally on your dev boxes for testing/debugging (with all services available in the cloud). Enables familiar VS debug experience. When ready to publish, you "Publish" in VS (creates some meta data and a code package) and then deploy via a "Development Portal" MS website. http://hellocloud.cloudapp.net for a live demo.

9:16: Jonathan Greensted is now on stage to how off a new app his company has built running on Windows Azure: bluehoo.com. It's a Silverlight app that enables you to track people via bluetooth (I think). It's not clear yet how they're using Azure.

9:19: Okay- a web service layer is running on Azure that all Bluehoo clients communicate with. Showing us how easy it is to scale service. Just "upgraded" Bluehoo from 2 instances to 20 via a simple configuration file change. Says that's all they need to do to handle the PDC load that's about hit (we'll see)! You can download Bluehoo later today.

9:22: Amistad (I know that's not his name) is now back on stage. Summarizing Azure and wrapping up his segment.

9:24: Bob Muglia (from MS) has taken the stage to talk about the Services stack on top of Azure. Starting with another history lesson of computing...

9:28: Okay folks- hit the battery wall. Check back soon for more updates. I promise I'll get a full charge for the next keynote!

12:05 PM: Recharged, so let me fill you in on the last portion of the keynote (you really didn't miss much):

• Shawn Davison, VP at Red Prairie, demoed a new Contoso app that was running on Azure and consuming Microsoft Workflow Services. The demo was okay, but not particularly impressive for a keynote.
• Microsoft made it clear they're EYODF (Eat Your Own Dog Food) with their new services offering. Showed a demo of a new version of System Center (codenamed "Atlanta") using some of the MS services. You can see a live demo at http://atlanta.cloudapp.net
• More MS guys going on and on- Oslo was only mentioned in passing. Someone compared the significance of the launch of Azure to the launch of Windows NT in 1992.
• Key theme of Software + Services is "Power of Choice"

Really, it wasn't a great keynote. Many of the MS speakers were reading directly off of the teleprompters (literally waiting for their next line before talking) and overall there wasn't much energy in the keynote presentations. A bit of a slow way to start the big PDC week. Tomorrow's keynote should be better, though, with ScottGu and Steven Sinofsky taking the stage to (presumably) talk .NET 4 and Windows 7 (among other topics). Keep it tuned here for the live coverage.

Sneak Peek Telerik PDC Badge: i am .NET Ninja

If you're attending PDC this year, one way you can participate in the fun is by collecting and sporting "custom badges." Adam Kinney announced the new Microsoft "initiative" (technically called "PDC Badges") on his blog a few weeks ago and described it like "Xbox Achievments" for a conference. Basically, it goes like this:

• Your PDC badge holder has room for an extra badge below your name tag
• You can collect badges from different places for doing different things during PDC
• You can display your badge of choice proudly in your PDC badge holder
• At the end of PDC, you have a cool collection of badges to show-off on Flickr

Telerik has decided to get in on the fun and offer a very exclusive PDC badge, only for the most worthy of PDC attendees. Based on the popular Telerik ".NET Ninja" t-shirt (which we will also be giving away at PDC), the "i am .NET Ninja" badge will truly be the badge to collect and show-off in your PDC badge holder. To get yours and tell the world your are a .NET Ninja, stop by the Telerik booth (#401) and we'll welcome you to the dojo!

Join Telerik at PDC 08

Your next chance to meet with the Telerik crew is just around the corner in the sprawling metropolis of LA. Telerik will be in full force at PDC 2008 and we'd love to meet some of you at the event. Telerik is a Gold Sponsor of PDC 08, so we'll have another big booth on the expo floor. We'll be located in booth space 401, but you can just look for the booth where all the .NET Ninjas are gathering and you'll be able to find us. At the booth, we'll be showing demos of many of our Q3 release features, demos of our new OpenAccess ORM product, and we'll be playing some games to give away 5 full subscription licenses! For my part, and the part of my Evangelism Team, we'll be working hard to bring you live updates from the show. I'll try my best to bring you some more keynote live blogging, shots from the expo floor, early reactions to all of the big MS "announcements" (Olso, .NET 4, Windows 7, etc.), and even some regular video updates. We also have a very special tool in the works that is going to put you at PDC like we've never done before, so stay tuned for the reveal and keep your RSS readers locked-in here for all the latest news from PDC!