News, Happenings, Opinion

• Visual Studio Extensibility Contest Winners: We’ve announced the winners of our Visual Studio Extensibility Contest! Congratulations to Don Demsak and Dave Donaldson, for winnning the Package and Add-In categories, respectively. They will be coming with us to TechEd Barcelona as part of their prize package. If you’re going to be in Barcelona for TechEd, be sure to stop by and say hi!
  
  Permalink Oct 20, 2006
• Working on a new Lynda.com Release: Now that we’ve released Beta 1 of Expression Web, I’m recording my next training video for Lynda.com for the product. Look for the video to be released sometime next year.
  
  Oct 16 , 2006
• TechEd Barcelona Session : I’m going to be presenting a session on Visual Studio extensibility and the VSIP (Visual Studio Industry Partners Program) at TechEd Barcelona on November 7, 2006 at 2:15 PM. If you’re there, please stop on by and learn about all the things we’ve got going on for the coming year for VS Extensibility and how to join and get the most out of VSIP!
  
  Sep 20, 2006
• Web Design World Seattle Files Posted: I’ve posted my Seattle WDW session files and presentations to the Downloads section of the site. Enjoy!
  
  July 21, 2006
• New XML DVD Released via Lynda.com: My latest publication, XML Essential Training, has been released by Lynda.com. It contains almost 6 hours of XML instruction, from the basic syntax rules to real world examples. If you’re a member of their Online Training Library then you just get it as part of your subscription, otherwise it’s US$99.95. You can, of course, view the first several movies free of charge.
  
  Jun 16, 2006
• Visual Studio Extensibility Contest : We recently kicked off the Visual Studio Extensibility Contest, hosted by devx. The Top Prize for the winning Package integration is $5000, for Add-ins it’s $1000. It’s not too late to get started – if you have an idea that you always wanted to see get implemented in Visual Studio, why not do it yourself and make a few bucks while you’re at it?
  
  [Correction]: Actually, it’s $5000 and a trip to TechEd in Spain, along with an interview in VisualStudio magazine. Yowza!
  
  Jun 6, 2006
• New Position at Microsoft : I’m really excited to be moving to a new position here at Microsoft, taking on the role of Group Product Manager for the VSIP (Visual Studio Industry Partners) program. I’m really looking forward to applying my years of experience building great developer platforms to this new role, and taking the VSIP program in new directions and expanding its reach. If you’re a VSIP partner or would like to become one, or are otherwise interested in how you can extend Visual Studio, then please feel free to contact me. We’ve got great things planned for this program, so stay tuned…
  
  Apr 8, 2006
• Web Design World 2006 Files have been uploaded: My Web Design World San Francisco 2006 files are now up in the Downloads section.
  
  Feb 8 , 2006
• Developing AJAX Applications Presentation Uploaded: My Introduction to Developing AJAX Applications presentation from the Boston Web Design World show is now up in the Downloads section.
  
  Dec 12, 2005
• Rules of Internet Debating: I’ve been a BIG Scott Adams fan for as long as I can remember, and his "Rules for Internet Debating" are as funny as they are true. Having been on the receiving end of many of these rules during my often futile attempts to have reasonable discourse with folks about such apparently incendiary topics as software and Microsoft, I can honestly say that I read these rules with a certain sense of having been there, been flamed by that. My personal favorite is Rule #3: Turn factual statements into implied equivalents. That one seems to get a LOT of play these days.
  
  Dec 4, 2005
• OK, so it’s been a while since I’ve posted: Sorry about that. My wife and I just recently had twins, and it’s been pretty busy around the Marini household lately. I’ll have some new material to put up soon.
  
  Dec 3, 2005
• Microsoft launches Virtual Earth: And, of course, provides a developer kit to go along with it. You can see the Virtual Earth site here, and then check out Via VirtualEarth to see how you can include interactive maps on your page. Dr. Neil Roodyn has a couple of great articles on how to easily add the Virtual Earth control to your pages using some JavaScript code – and it works across all modern browsers.
  
  Permalink Jul 27, 2005
• Combining vectors with pixels : Great example of what can be done when you combine vector-based art with pixel capabilities of a modern drawing program. This example was created with Microsoft’s drawing tool code-named Acrylic.
  
  Permalink Jul 25, 2005
• Some people have a LOT of time on their hands : This one via Chris Anderson – Lemmings, a game I spent a lot of time on in the early 90s, has been rewritten entirely in JavaScript for the Web. This is actually really cool!
  
  Permalink Jun 24, 2005
• Is Free Trade All it’s Cracked Up to Be? Maybe not: This story on Marketwatch’s site by John Dvorak got my attention: it turns out that Paul Samuelson, 89-year-old Nobel Prize winner for economics, says that free trade isn’t necessarily a great idea when it comes to things like offshoring work to places like India. As you might expect, this opinion didn’t go unnoticed over in Delhi.
  
  Permalink Jun 24, 2005
• Mobiform Releases Aurora Beta : Mobiform has released version 4.7 of their XAML design tool, Aurora.
  
  More information about Aurora is located on this page of Mobiform’s site.
  
  Permalink Jun 17 , 2005
• What Do You Mean, My Mac is Vulnerable?: A few days ago Symantec released a report indicating that yes, Virginia, there are security issues with Macintoshes. Of course, anybody who knows anything about security could have told you this, and many of them did. For some time now, in fact.
  
  Permalink Mar 31 , 2005
• Web Design World Sessions Uploaded : Session materials from Web Design World have been uploaded to the Downloads section. You can find all the materials from my sessions here, along with the code examples.
  
  Permalink Mar 29 , 2005
• XAML Samples Updated : Well, it took long enough, but I’ve updated my samples showing DataBound UI, XAML Property Triggers, Data Styling, and of course the Blog Reader to work with the November CTP Build of the Avalon system. If you’ve been having difficulties getting these samples to run, then download the newest versions.
  
  Permalink Feb 15 , 2005
• The US Patent Office Has Lost its Mind: Apparently, Google has been awarded a patent for – get this – highlighting search terms in a result page. No, I am not kidding you. Here’s the actual link: System and Methods for highlighting search results. Not that I expect too many people to complain – I mean, this is, after all, Google, and not Microsoft.
  
  Permalink Jan 26 , 2005
• Honey, Does This Website Make Me Look Fat? I have to start being more serious about watching what I eat. Want to know how I know this? I was perusing Fawcette’s site the other day and came across a video of one of my presentations. Take a look at the screenshot of me, and my half-dozen or so chins. Yikes.
  
  Permalink Jan 25 , 2005
• New Tutorial – XAML Interactivity: I’ve posted a new tutorial showing how to achieve some basic interactivity in XAML applications using PropertyTriggers. These are markup constructs contained within styles that define how an object responds to property changes. This example, like the others before it, requires no script code.
  
  Permalink Jan 25 , 2005
• One for the Street Smart Gang: Am I the only one not surprised that the High School grads beat the College Grads on the first Apprentice task? After all, they had a huge advantage: they were all probably working in fast food not too long ago.
  
  Permalink Jan 22 , 2005
• Xamlon releases Compact Edition: Xamlon has released a version of their XAML programming environment for mobile devices, such as PocketPCs and Smartphones.
  
  Permalink Jan 14 , 2005

More Stuff In The Archives

XML Essential Training

Available now at lynda.com — takes you through the basic rules of XML, discusses suggested tools, explains XML syntax, and more. From integrating XML into your site to creating style sheets and Schema Definitions, XML Essential Training covers everything you need to not only get started, but to really get working with XML. Exercise files accompany the training, allowing you to follow along and learn at your own pace.

The Document Object Model

Available now at Amazon.com — examines real-world applications of the DOM, including exclusive case studies of DOM-based browsers and applications and provides a comprehensive, language-neutral examination of the DOM and its related applications.

My Upcoming Appearances

• Microsoft TechEd, Barcelona, November 7-10, 2006
• Web Builder 2.0, Las Vegas, Dec 4-6, 2006
• Web Design World, Boston, Dec 11-13, 2006

Previous Appearances

• Web Design World, Seattle, July 10-12, 2006
• EclipseWorld, Boston Sept 6-8 (attendee)
• Microsoft TechEd, Boston, June 11-16
• MIX06 Conference, Las Vegas, Mar 20-22, 2006
• Web Design World, San Francisco, Jan 30-Feb 1, 2006
• Web Design World, Boston, Dec 12-14, 2005
• Web Design World, Seattle, July 18-20, 2005
• Web Design World, San Francisco, March 21-23, 2005
• Web Design World Boston, Dec 6-8, 2004
• Digital Design World Seattle, July 21-23, 2004
• Digital Design World, San Francisco, Feb 18-20, 2004
• Web Design World Seattle, July 28-30 2003
• TODCON: MXNorth, Toronto March 14-16 2003
• Web Design World Boston, November 18-21, 2002
• Web Design World Seattle, July 21-24, 2002
• Macromedia Web World San Francisco, January 15-18, 2002
• TODCON: Orlando Orlando, October 1-5, 2001

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