Feb
15
2013
Elevate! Electrify!
Jeremy Foster and I had no idea what kind of response resulted from presenting our free training course to prepare for the 70-480 exam. For example, who knew that our shirts (purchased from the Microsoft Store the day prior) would become so popular, people contacting both of us wondering where they could buy one?
That said, the real story is in the successful outcomes of those who watched the videos and then subsequently passed the exam. Even more impressive to me personally is that some already have apps submitted to the Windows Store! (Do you have an app in the store? If not, consider 30,000 reasons why you should submit your app now!)
A Jump Start to the Jump Start
I want to give a Matthew Hughes in the United Kingdom recognition for his outstanding coverage of this course. He took meticulous, detailed notes on every topic. I have organized his blog posts below:
Part 0 Getting Started
Part 1 Semantic Markup, Forms, Media and SVG
Part 2 Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
Part 3 Advanced Layouts and Animations
Part 4 JavaScript Core Capabilities
Part 5 Manipulating the DOM
Part 6 Advanced Topics
Dec
21
2012
I have recently acquired GameMaker by Yo Yo Games for cross-platform game development. Among the supported platforms are Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8!
This gaming tool allows anyone with decent computer skills to develop a game rapidly. I recently lead a group of students (many who had never written a single line of code before) to create a simple game in one hour. I could not believe how much the students accomplished in such a short period of time.
I highly recommend GameMaker, and suggest you start creating your game today! There is a free version of GameMaker available to download now. However, I strongly suggest that you buy GameMaker:Studio Professional while it is 50% off (offer ends January 4th 2013).
Jul
27
2012
What happens when you get the brainpower behind Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft IE together? You get something very FoxIE! I value this type of discussion going on at this new series on debuting on Channel 9. If you have anything to do with web development, you should pay a visit!
Jul
20
2012
The release of Windows 8 is on the horizon, and soon millions of people will be looking for Windows 8 apps. Now’s the time to make sure your app is ready for them.
Begin your 30-day journey to create a great Windows 8 Metro style app. Get started at www.generationapp.com and receive:
· Insider tips and tricks on Windows 8 application development.
· Personal on-the-phone access to a Windows 8 architect*.
· An exclusive one-on-one Metro style design consultation*.
· An opportunity to get expert help from a Microsoft Services Engineer at an App Excellence Lab.
Your new Windows 8 app could be mere days away.
* Offer good only to legal residents in the 50 United States & D.C., age 18 or older to hobbyists, professionals or developers in the field of software tech who sign up for building a Windows 8 application on www.generationapp.com. Offer limited to 250 design consultations per month and 500 technical review consultations per month, on a first come first served basis. Limit of one session of each offer type per person. This offer is non-transferable and cannot be combined with any other offer. This offer ends when supplies are exhausted, and is not redeemable for cash.
Apr
20
2012
On April 23rd 2012, the Microsoft Evangelism team on the West Coast will join together and present on the topic of Windows 8 and how to start developing for the new platform. Be sure to follow all the action with this twitter hash-tag #win8appdev.
For more information about this event, check out this blog post from Scott Kerfoot.
Mar
22
2012
Congratulations to all the Microsoft MVPs of the Year!
Two of the MVPs are based right here in Arizona.
Joseph Guadagno was awarded MVP of the Year for C#. Joe has been an ongoing contributor to the community through is efforts with the Southeast Valley DotNet User Groug (SEVDNUG), Desert Code Camp, AZGiveCamp, and as President of INETA North America (just to name a few).
Joe works full time (like most of us) and still manages to contribute so much to the community. Congratulations to Joe for being recognized by Microsoft and by his peers a “leader by example” among MVPs.
Scott Cate was awarded MVP of the Year for ASP.NET. Scott is well known in the Arizona community. Scott is a long-time user group leader, and is the founder of AZGroups.org, a site dedicated to listing all the technical user groups (regardless of platform) in Arizona as a service to developers. Last year, Scott was awarded the title – Microsoft Regional Director. Scott has been quite active in the southwest region of the USA promoting the Windows Phone Unleashed events. He is a regular speaker at many technical events locally, nationally, even internationally.
Despite his busy schedule, Scott is devoted family man – always beaming with pride over his children. Kudos to Scott for being recognized with such a high honor (though no surprise for those who know him).
If you have benefited from the hard work of either of these gentlemen, please enter your comment below!
Mar
19
2012
The most anticipated movie of the year hits theaters this Friday, March 23rd – The Hunger Games. If you have read the book (or trilogy), you are probably giddy with excitement to see your favorite characters come to life on screen in a somewhat morbid view of a fictional world of the future.
If you are a fan, you are invited to take the Capitol Tour! Sign in today to see which district you belong to. Myself? Of course I was assigned to District 4.
Jan
5
2012
The year 2011 was my first full year as a Microsoft blue-badge.
In looking back on all my blog stats, I unraveled a humorous irony as to what became my number one blog post of the year. Would the top blog of the year have something to do with HTML5? Would it be regarding a technical article? Would it be a blog post that stirred heated discussions? Would the top spot be a post of free resources such as online videos? Nope. Stay tuned… the number one blog post is revealed at the end.
For now, please join me in a walk down memory lane as I reveal my five most popular blog posts in descending order:
5 Camtasia Recorder Error: “Failed to start recording: Temp Folder Uninitialized”
No surprises here. Anytime I blog about a technical error with a product it usually ends up being found by the search engines.
4 A .NET Love Story
For a post that was originally written in 2005, it still remains my most viewed blog post of all time. Doesn’t that make sense? It is about love…
3 To MVP, or not to MVP…
This was a blog post in response to an ex-MVP who felt the MVP program at Microsoft had no value in his eyes. It was not the most viewed blog post, but it claims the prize for the most comments.
2 HTML5 “Web Camp” Videos
Confession time. I really was hoping this would post would land at number one. Coming in at number two is not bad considering I posted it in the latter part of 2011. Nonetheless, recording industry super-stars sharing secrets about HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript techniques still took a back seat to my number one blog post of the year…
1 How to Fix/Repair iPhone With Water Damage
Seriously? In my first year at Microsoft, my number one blog post is about how I fixed my wife’s iPhone? *sigh*
Oct
7
2011
I am returning to Africa this month for the fourth year to speak at Tech-Ed in Durban at the ICC. I look forward to seeing everyone again!
[Speaker profile and sessions]
Oct
6
2011
It has nearly been a year since I joined Microsoft, and the adventure has been amazing. I love developing, playing with the latest technologies, and speaking about things I have learned in front of crowds.
Do you have similar interests? Do you live in Seattle or LA? Are you looking for an exciting challenge and want to explore a new career opportunity? If you have answered yes to all the above, you owe it to yourself to look into the Microsoft Developer Evangelist positions now open in Seattle and LA. Click on one of the links below for more information.
Seattle: http://bit.ly/deinseattle
LA: http://bit.ly/deinla
A little detail about the position…
The Developer Evangelist position is a technical role with the mission of engaging the broad community of developers in a designated geography and driving excitement around developer tools and platform technologies. The successful candidate will have an established reputation within the region for significant technical achievement, superior presentation skills, effective and visible community participation, and a strong command of online and social networking tools. This position will report to the US West Region DPE Audience Director.
Please contact me if you would like more information 