Create and share Visual Studio color schemes

As developers we often spend a large part of our day staring at code within Visual Studio.  If you are like me, after awhile the default VS text color scheme starts to get a little boring.

The good news is that Visual Studio allows you to completely customize the editor background and text colors to whatever you want – allowing you to tweak them to create the experience that is “just right” for your eyes and personality.  You can then optionally export/import your color scheme preferences to an XML file via theTools->Import and Export Settings menu command.

Luke Sampson launched the http://studiostyles.info/ site a week ago (built using ASP.NET MVC 2, ASP.NET 4 and VS 2010).

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Free ebook: Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2

I am really thrilled to let you know about another free ebook: Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2, by Ross Mistry and Stacia Misner!
The book contains 10 chapters and 216 pages, like so:

PART I   Database Administration

CHAPTER 1   SQL Server 2008 R2 Editions and Enhancements 3
CHAPTER 2   Multi-Server Administration 21
CHAPTER 3   Data-Tier Applications 41
CHAPTER 4   High Availability and Virtualization Enhancements 63
CHAPTER 5   Consolidation and Monitoring 85 

PART II   Business Intelligence Development

CHAPTER 6   Scalable Data Warehousing 109
CHAPTER 7   Master Data Services 125
CHAPTER 8   Complex Event Processing with StreamInsight 145
CHAPTER 9   Reporting Services Enhancements 165
CHAPTER 10   Self-Service Analysis with PowerPivot 189

Here’s more info about the book:

Introduction

Our purpose in Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 is to point out both
the new and the improved in the latest version of SQL Server. Because this
version is Release 2 (R2) of SQL Server 2008, you might think the changes are
relatively minor—more than a service pack, but not enough to justify an entirely
new version. However, as you read this book, we think you will find that there are a
lot of exciting enhancements and new capabilities engineered into SQL Server 2008 R2
that will have a positive impact on your applications, ranging from improvements
in operation to those in management. It is definitely not a minor release!

You can download the ebook in XPS format here and in PDF format here.

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Linux on the iPhone: Android running on iPhone!

Planetbeing has announced that he has got Android running on the iPhone.

"Finally breaking radio silence to bring you Android on the iPhone. :)"

I've been working on this quietly in the background. Sorry about the initial video quality, but YouTube promises that the quality will get better as the video gets processed more. The back part of the version I uploaded to Vimeo was cut off.

In the video below Android is demonstrated on an iPhone 2G; however, it should be pretty simple to port forward to the iPhone 3G. The 3GS will take more work.
Read the complete story and view the video...

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SQL Server 2008 R2 update finally ships

 Microsoft today released to manufacturing Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2, the new version of its relational database management system software.

The software, a major update of the SQL Server 2008 code base, has been in development for almost two years. Thus far, the developer version of the software has been downloaded more than 300,000 times, the company said on Wednesday.

The R2 version updates the SQL Server 2008 in a number of ways, said Mark Linton, director within Microsoft's application platform group.

One notable feature is the scale. A single SQL Server 2008 instance can now be run on up to 256 logical processors. Previously, a SQL Server instance could only scale up to 64 logical processors. It will also run on as much as two terabytes of working memory. This will pave the way for more large scale, enterprise deployments, Linton said.

The software also has been updated to work better in Microsoft's Hyper-Vvirtualized environments. For instance, the virtualized instance of the software can be migrated from one server to another while continuing to run.

The software's administration software has been updated as well. A new feature, called Utility Control Point, enables database administrators to manage the policies of entire farms of SQL Servers from a single console. "Through one control point, you can administrator your entire infrastructure through a standardized set of policies and tools," Linton said.

The software also helps other Microsoft products in providing users with "self-service business intelligence," Linton said. The software can provide live data for a new Microsoft Excel data analysis add-on call PowerPivot, which was designed to manipulate "millions of rows of data" quickly.

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Long awaited Cydget Element finally here!

The long awaited Cydget element that important information such as your e-mail, text messages, missed calls, weather and calendar on the lock screen displays your iPhone is finally here.

 The functionality of the Element was outlined in September 2009 by the design firm Teehan + lax, but the busy schedule of Saurik (the creator of Cydia) was the major project delays. The further implementation of Element is taken over by Elias Limneos we know from SBRotator. At first it seemed to have a late April 1st joke, but the big moment has now come really anyway.

Here are the widgets available:

Weather: The weather of one or more cities. A tab also allows you to adjust the range (or the number of seconds) of rotation.

Missed calls: This section can be enabled or disabled. You can decide to call a contact directly by clicking on its name (we recommend disabling this feature to prevent calls). You can also choose the number of missed calls to view.

Calendar: events for your calendar

Email: Watch the latest e-mails received. You can choose to display the number

SMS: Allows you to decide if you want to display messages as they arrived and how many to display.

Facebook: Show all notification of your account

Stock: Display titles in the native application

The modification of options is in Settings> Element.

Cydget Element is available for free on Cydia, and activated in the options Cydget.

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Silverlight Training Course (Silverlight 4)

A Free 8-part Silverlight 4 training course from Microsoft is established. The Training Course includes a whitepaper that explains all of the new Silverlight 4 features, several hands-on-labs that explain the features, and a 8 unit course for building business applications with Silverlight 4. The business applications course includes 8 modules with extensive hands on labs as well as 25 accompanying videos that walk you through key aspects of building a business application with Silverlight. Key aspects in this course are working with numerous sandboxed and elevated out of browser features, the new RichTextBox control, implicit styling, webcam, drag and drop, multi touch, validation, authentication, MEF, WCF RIA Services, right mouse click, and much more!

http://channel9.msdn.com/learn/courses/Silverlight4/

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.NET4 Complete List of Breaking Changes

.NET4 Complete List of Breaking Changes (remember it's sidebyside: apps don't break when you install). This topic describes migration issues between the .NET Framework version 3.5 Service Pack 1 and the .NET Framework version 4, including fixes, changes for standards compliance and security, and changes based on customer feedback. Most of these changes do not require any programming modifications in your applications. For those that may involve modifications, see the Recommended changes column of the table. 

This topic describes notable changes in the following areas:

• ASP.NET
• Core
• Data (ADO.NET)
• Windows Communication Foundation (WCF)
• Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF)
• XML

For information about new features, see What's New in the .NET Framework 4.
Read the entire article here...

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Screenshot Gallery of iPhone OS 4.0 New Features

A collection of screenshots showing features of the iPhone OS 4.0 beta firmware.

MobileMe: Notes Syncing


Safari: Search Suggestions


Camera 5x Zoom


SMS Character Count


Multi-Tasking


Folders




Mail: Unified Inbox


Mail: Image Attachment Scaling


Mail: Threaded Messages


Location Services: Allow List & Indicator


IPv6


iPod: Create Playlist


Spotlight: Search Web or Wikipedia


Photos: Rotate


Photos: Albums, Events, Faces




Game Center




Settings: Passcode Lock



*Thanks to iLounge and Neowin for a couple missing screens

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iPhone OS 4.0 Beta Now Available for Download

Developers can now download the beta of iPhone OS 4.0 from the Apple Developer Connection. Both the firmware and SDK are available. The SDK is build 10M2236a and the firmware is build 8A230m.

Access to iPhone SDK beta
However, You must be enrolled in the iPhone Developer Standard or Enterprise Program to access the development resources for iPhone SDK beta.
Not enrolled in the iPhone Developer Program? Learn More

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