Partner Otaku

.toolbox is a free online training program from Microsoft for designers and developers that focuses on the design and UX aspects of Silverlight using Expression Studio, as well as on User Experience best practices.

This program will be helpful for your designers to ramp up in the use of Expression Blend and become Silverlight-ready, as well as for your developers who want to ramp up on design composition and best UX practices. .toolbox will guide them through 100 to 400 level training modules. The curriculum offers approximately 36 hours of training content around Expression Blend and Silverlight and approximately 12 hours UX principles training content making .toolbox a comprehensive learning program. People on your team will be able to study the modules at their own pace and schedule.

.toolbox is a structured curriculum-based program that features two core learning tracks with materials that increase in difficulty to build individuals’ knowledge and understanding.

· In Design Scenarios, designers and developers learn to create dynamically-rich Silverlight applications using Expression Studio. They learn to add code-free functionality to designs by following step-by-step tutorials that illustrate how to create interactive user experiences.

· In Design Principles, designers and developers learn fundamental UX concepts (e.g., choosing the right colors, alignment, grids) along with tips in how to apply them.

Badges are earned and accumulated in both tracks upon successful completion of the evaluation found at the end of each level.

To Get Started

1. Go to .toolbox and sign up using your Windows Live ID

2. Visit the School section and explore the curriculum.

3. Select a module, watch the videos, and follow along using the provided guide and assets.

4. Take the evaluation for a completed level to achieve a badge.

5. Broadcast your achievements by posting to Twitter and Facebook.

Useful Links

· .toolbox Website | http://www.microsoft.com/design/toolbox

· .toolbox Twitter | http://www.twitter.com/designtoolbox

· .toolbox Facebook | http://www.facebook.com/pages/toolbox/349923567926

· .toolbox YouTube | http://www.youtube.com/designtoolbox

· .toolbox Promo Video in YouTube | http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5JNwiqpGqI

Day 2 at Mix2010 – IE9 Platform Preview is now available at http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/ the preview will be updated every 8 weeks. Some quick highlights.

• HTML 5
• SVG 1.1
• CSS 3
• DOM
• Ecmascript 262
• Graphics and fonts JPEG-XR TIFF ICC Colors

In case you missed this information. Read the overview to get more detailed information about the Facebook SDK Toolkit.  The goal is to provide a Facebook Client Library that is similar to the Client Libraries provided for PHP and JavaScript. There are samples and tools for helping develop Facebook apps on the .NET platform (ASP.NET, Silverlight, WPF and winform).

Link to the Facebook SDK 3.0:

http://facebooktoolkit.codeplex.com/

Facebook Developer Wiki:

http://wiki.developers.facebook.com/index.php/Main_Page

How to Guides:

http://wiki.developers.facebook.com/index.php/How-to_Guides

Right from PDC here’s some news – icanhazcheezburger now hosts a new site called “Oddly Specific” hosted on Azure!

Check out this cool pumpkin carving app.  This was created by Archetype a Microsoft Partner.  http://bit.ly/1glQa2

The Eclipse tools for Silverlight project, aka eclipse4SL, is an eclipse plug-in that enables Eclipse developers to use the Eclipse IDE to create applications that run on the Microsoft Silverlight runtime platform. It also enables collaboration on Silverlight projects between Eclipse (Java) developers, .NET developers, and web designers on both the Windows and MAC operating systems.

http://www.eclipse4sl.org/

Man vs. Food on this particular fast food delight…

If you can’t attend in person, this is great opportunity to get some quality content. 

Check out the event here: http://vepexp.microsoft.com/thenewefficiency

Agenda

Windows 7 Track

9:00-9:45am      Taking Your Application to the Next Level with Windows® 7

9:45-9:55am       Break

9:55-10:40am     Beyond Human Interaction with Windows 7 Sensor and Location    

10:40-10:50am   Break

10:50-11:35am   Building the Next Generation User-Interface with
                            Multitouch Ribbon on Windows 7

11:35-1:15pm    Break

1:15-2:00pm      Windows 7 for the Optimized Desktop

2:00-2:10pm      Break

2:10-2:55pm      Windows 7: Make People Productive Anywhere

2:55-3:05pm      Break

3:05-3:50pm      Windows 7: Enhanced Security and Control

3:50-4:00pm      Break

4:00-4:45pm      Windows 7: Deployment Enhancements

Windows Server 2008 R2 Track

9:00-9:45am      What Developers Should Know About Windows Server 2008 R2

9:45-9:55am      Break

9:55-10:40am    Windows Server 2008 R2: Develop with New 
                           Parallel Computing Technologies

10:40-10:50am  Break

10:50-11:35am  Windows Server 2008 R2: Web and Enterprise Solutions

11:35-1:15pm   Break

1:15-2:00pm     What’s in Windows Server 2008 R2 for IT Administrators:
                          A Technical Overview Part 1

2:00-2:10pm    Break

2:10-2:55pm    What’s in Windows Server 2008 R2 for IT Administrators:
                         A Technical Overview Part 2

2:55-3:05pm    Break

3:05-3:50pm    Windows Server 2008 R2: New Server Deployment & Migration

3:50-4:00pm    Break

4:00-4:45pm    Windows Server 2008 R2 Virtualization Technologies–
                         Saving IT Costs

Exchange 2010 Track

1:15-2:00pm    Introducing Microsoft Exchange Server 2010

2:00-2:10pm    Break

2:10-2:55pm    Voice Mail with Unified Messaging in Microsoft Exchange 2010

2:55-3:05pm    Break

3:05-3:50pm    Exchange 2010 High Availability and Storage

3:50-4:00pm    Break

4:00-4:45pm    Exchange 2010 Archiving and Retention

Well I haven’t geeked out on D&D in a while, but here’s a cool Surface proof of concept from Carnegie Mellon.

This is not exactly PC, but it’s kind of cool to check out… Winchester and Silverlight