My first brush with SQL was in 1996, with SQL 6.5. It was known as the “mickey mouse” database for some reasons i couldn’t understand then (well, i was still a student u know). I had huge respects for DBA (Database Administrators) and earned my first DBA Certification (MCDBA) from Microsoft in 2002. And subsequently upgraded my certifications several rounds. Yes, i’m on my next round of certification updates. This time i’m eyeing on SQL Server 2008 R2. From a simple database server to now, it has grown so much (Felt like my brains are swelling from picking it up). I just wanted to share a very cool set of resources that i picked up on Channel 9. It is a Developers Training Course for SQL Server 2008 R2. Supposedly to be meant for developers, but i felt IT Pros benefits from understanding the information too. (Warning to IT Pros: Might be a bit too developer focused. Good for DBAs to know the capabilities). To make it easy, i’m listing the topics here. But do visit the main page for a collection; ...

Session 1: 7.15pm to 8.30pm Abstract for Exchange 2010 High Availablity for CAS and Hub Transport Server by: Speaker: Shaji Firoz This month we are going to touch on recommended way to deploy CAS / HUB servers with HA in mind to provide various Exchange services like OWA, Outlook Anywhere, Autodiscover, Free Busy, etc. Also Shaji will discuss on the importance of implementing Reverse Proxy technology and the need to place hardware Load balancer in the architect design and certificate requirements for various Exchange services. This will offer load balancing across CAS/Hub Servers to overcome the native Windows Network Load Balance shortfall. He will share with us on how users get to use 2 factor authentication when they access company mail using OWA from Public places. About Shaji Firoz: Shaji Firoz is a Senior Consultant working for IT Outsourcing company in Singapore. Shaji works mostly on Microsoft Technologies - with keen on messaging environment. He leads the development & implementation efforts in Exchange & Active Directory environments. He authors MS Exchange based technical articles in this site and spends time on blogging about Hosted Exchange in msexchange.org blog section. In recognition of his knowledge of Windows & Exchange Servers and his willingness to share the information and help to community, Microsoft recognized him with MVP in Exchange Server. Session 2: 8.45pm to 10pm Abstract for Exchange 2010 High Availability for Mailbox Server (DAG): Speaker: Triston Wan This topic will share with you on how Exchange 2010 High Availability for Mailbox role (DAG) was architected. How this new HA solution will help companies achieve its highest availability with the lower cost. The speaker will discuss how simple it is to implement DR solution as compared to the early versions of Exchange server. You will also learn DAG designs based on different scenarios that Enterprises could consider and why backup is not required with Exchange 2010. We will also deep-dive into DAG solution with more details. About Triston Wan: Wan Ziyang (Triston) is Sr.Consultant with a System Integrator based in Singapore. He is MCSE since year 2005 and MVP in Exchange Server. Triston leads Singapore MessagingTalk User Group activities where folks interested in Microsoft Messaging Technologies gather for learning and networking. He has done several implementation on various versions of Exchange Servers. He is also Redhat Certified Engineer on EL4. Registration For registration, please email to tristonwan@gmail.com.com with the following: ...

*IMPORTANT UPDATE* For those who have received confirmation for Day 2 training, we are moving to Avantus Training. Address below: Avantus Training 79 Robinson Road CPF Building 068897 ==== Developers! Want to learn how you can create games for Windows Phone 7 using XNA? We have just the session for you. We have limited seats so start registering here! Creating Games for Windows Phone 7: Jump Start Day 1 (Maximum 60 seats) July 29, 2010 9.00am – 9.15am ...

Microsoft Image Composite Editor is an advanced panoramic image stitcher. Given a set of overlapping photographs of a scene shot from a single camera location, the application creates a high-resolution panorama that seamlessly combines the original images. The stitched panorama can be shared with friends and viewed in 3D by uploading it to the Photosynth web site. Or the panorama can be saved in a wide variety of image formats, from common formats like JPEG and TIFF to the multiresolution tiled format used by Silverlight’s Deep Zoom and by the HD View and HD View SL panorama viewers. ...

Microsoft provides Virtual Earth Integration Kit for PHP to integrate Bing Map Applition into PHP pages. Microsoft’s Virtual Earth is an example of an element of the Microsoft platform which can be consumed by and integrated into PHP web sites. The Virtual Earth API is exposed through a Javascript library making it straightforward to integrate into any web based application. There are multiple choices for environment set up: Linux/Apache, Windows/Apache or Windows/IIS. Both IIS and Apache use port 80 as default port. Therefore, if you have both server running on your machine, you may want to change one of the port to avoid conflict. Also, you will need PHP 5.2 and MySql for set-up. ...

Good news everyone! Last night at the Worldwide Partner Conference 2010 in Washington, DC, we have released the Beta version of the Windows Phone Developer Tools. You might remember that our last update prior to this was the April CTP version. So what does this mean to you developers? If you are currently building on the April CTP version, you may want to uninstall that and install the Beta version from http://developer.windowsphone.com/ . For those who have not downloaded it yet, now’s the good time to install. It’s important to go through the breaking changes listed in the release notes, but you can also check Jaime Rodriguez’ “Migrating apps from Windows Phone April CTP Refresh to the beta build” for easier reading. Everyone’s been asking us where they could attend a WP7 training. Well aside from the Training Kit, forums, and other resources to help you skill up on WP7 development, you can register for these free virtual WP7 Jump Start trainings scheduled from July 20 – July 22. Click here to register! A lot of you also inquired if they can get their own device to test on. That’s a bit of a challenge right now. But through the WP7 Call for Proposal which we ran recently, we were able to identify companies who are serious in building WP7 apps, and pick out the ones who will be prioritized for these devices. We are now engaging with most of them on a 1-to-1 basis. Take note: ...

 Singapore SharePoint Community Date 08 July 2010 Time 06:45 PM – 9:30PM Location Microsoft Singapore Level 22 CF-12 Scalable SharePoint Infrastructure Management William Tay, Microsoft Singapore Come by and enjoy a highly-interactive session with William as he talks about the latest and neatest trick in the Microsoft Business Intelligence stack called PowerPivot and how it fits into the entire Microsoft Business Intelligence solution – and more importantly, how it democratize Business Intelligence in the enterprise with the Microsoft belief of BI for the Masses. Introduction to Claims Authentication in SharePoint 2010 Chyan Yee Goh, Microsoft Consulting Services When it comes to identity management intensive applications, it’s hard to top SharePoint. Whether you are signing in a portal, accessing a document or using a webpart for reaching out to external web services, your identity is going to be the factor that drives it all. In this session, we will give an overview of how claims based authentication is used in SharePoint 2010 and how this opens up opportunities for authentication scenarios that were not possible before. Refreshments will be provided, courtesy of AvePoint Singapore. Please RSVP to ssofian@mvps.org to confirm your attendance. And reserve your SharePoint 2010 shirt. Whilst stocks last.

July UG MeetingJuly UG meeting will be held on 8th July 2010 Thurs, at Level 21 Auditorium from 1845hrs – late. Light Refreshments will be served before the session. Schema (XSD) Based WCF Service using Entity Framework Senthamil Selvan 1900hrs – late For developing a XML based Business Models XSD plays a major role in exposing the business entities. WCF Operation Contract can be validated against the xsd using Message Inspector without even entering into the method call. Also primitive data type and the mandatory field validation can be performed at the xsd level. These validation can be changed without changing a code. EF will be used to save the business object from XML to DB. Speaker Profile ...

The day has finally arrived. The Singapore contingent is headed to Poland tonight for the Imagine Cup 2010 worldwide finals. How many people this year are traveling to Poland to represent Singapore besides myself? 7 students and 2 faculty. We also have a judge from Singapore (Gwendolyn, from Thymos Capital and SGEntrepreneurs) who has reached there today for pre-event briefings. The excitement and anxiety is at its peak, and we all hope to give it our best! If you would like to follow what’s happening to us over there during this week, we will be posting updates at our Imagine Cup Singapore Facebook Page as well as tweeting on our Innovative Singapore Twitter feed. Make sure you follow us! There will also be LIVE streaming of the awards ceremony on July 8th at 4 pm GMT on the Imagine Cup homepage, so you can experience everything as it happens. For those of you who are timezone-challenged like myself, it’s 12 midnight here in Singapore on July 8th. :) Wish us luck! ...

Microsoft announced last week the Beta release of Windows Live Messenger Connect. It enables websites and rich-client applications to enhance the social appeal of their experience by “connecting” to Windows Live. If you can’t wait and just want to get started, visit the Windows Live Developer Center. Messenger Connect is a collection of APIs and controls that allow you to build applications so people can communicate, and share with their Messenger friends. Applications build with Messenger Connect provide seamless social experience that combines your content with popular Windows Live features such as chatting with friends, sharing status updates and activity streams. ...