I have been spending quite a bit of time lately working with Silverlight 3 and SharePoint. One of the first big shifts for me is that Silverlight Development is Client development. Silverlight runs in the browser, but it runs on the client, so no SharePoint Object Model code. You have to access all of the goodness that is SharePoint through its web services.

Once you get started on your project you add a Service Reference and point at your desired SharePoint Web service. You will immediately run into the Visual Studio Warning:

I will be speaking at the 2009 SharePoint Conference in October. I cannot publish all the details but my topic is:

Developing Social Applications with SharePoint 2010

This lecture focuses on the developer interfaces for the API and Web services for SharePoint 2010. Social Computing with SharePoint involves creating people aware applications that take advantage of User Profiles, People oriented data, and Personalization built into SharePoint. This session will demonstrate development techniques for:

Central Texas SharePoint User Group: “Building Scalable Enterprise Applications with MOSS 2007”

September Program Description:

There are techniques that organizations with experienced .NET developers should use to develop scalable, distributed, high performance applications for SharePoint Server 2007. Successfully delivering SharePoint applications should involve programming techniques that focus on optimal code execution and efficient application delivery. We will discover proven methodologies for eliminating performance bottlenecks, reducing resource utilization, preventing memory leaks, improving render times, making efficient use of caching mechanisms, and avoiding common API mistakes that can negatively impact performance. We will also discuss tools and techniques that are available to measure application performance, isolate under-performing objects and enforce optimal programming practices. Presented by Eric Shupps.

I have been running Windows 7 for a few months now. I have to say, I am addicted. I was never a huge fan of Vista, but I saw the potential. I saw the need for revamping much of the OS to support administration, security and deployment. That does nothing for me as an end user, other than give me a little peace of mind. Windows 7 is a whole ‘nother story (as my niece puts it). I see productivity gains all the time. Here are a couple of my favorite productivity enhancers.

The sneak peek agenda for the SharePoint Conference has been announced.

• SharePoint 2010 Overview and What’s New
• Upgrading to SharePoint 2010
• SharePoint 2010 Capacity and Performance Planning
• SharePoint 2010 Security and Identity Management: What’s New
• Visual Studio 2010 Tools for Office Development
• SharePoint 2010 Ribbon, ECMAScript and Dialog Framework Development
• Developing with REST and LINQ in SharePoint 2010
• Upgrading SharePoint Server 2007 Code to SharePoint 2010
• Building Composite Applications with the Microsoft Application Platform
• What’s New in Business Connectivity Services (The Business Data Catalog Evolves!)
• FAST Search for SharePoint – Capabilities Deep Dive
• Advanced Dashboard Creation with Performance Point Services for SharePoint 2010
• Overview of Visio and Visio Services for SharePoint 2010
• SharePoint 2010 Web Content Management Deep-Dive
• If You Build It, They Will Come – Driving End User Adoption

The word is that about 80% of the content will be related to SharePoint 2010. So go register for the conference and start practicing your card counting!

If you are looking for PowerShell resources to get yourself up to speed look no further than “Mastering PowerShell”. 20 Chapters of what appears to be (I honestly have not read the whole thing) a comprehensive work on the topic. The book is available Online and for download as a PDF. From the generous makers of PowerShell Plus.

The table of contents:

• Chapter 1. The PowerShell Console
• Chapter 2. Interactive PowerShell
• Chapter 3. Variables
• Chapter 4. Arrays and Hashtables
• Chapter 5. The PowerShell Pipeline
• Chapter 6. Using Objects
• Chapter 7. Conditions
• Chapter 8. Loops
• Chapter 9. Functions
• Chapter 10. Scripts
• Chapter 11. Finding and Avoiding Errors
• Chapter 12. Command Discovery and Scriptblocks
• Chapter 13. Text and Regular Expressions
• Chapter 14. XML
• Chapter 15. The File System
• Chapter 16. The Registry
• Chapter 17. Processes, Services, Event Logs
• Chapter 18. WMI: Windows Management Instrumentation
• Chapter 19. User Management
• Chapter 20. Your Own Cmdlets and Extensions

Now you cannot claim that the economy is keeping you from learning PowerShell.

August Program Description:

Are you confused with how to change the user interface in SharePoint? Do you have concerns about how to go about making those changes? If so, then come to the August 12th meeting where Heather Solomon will be answering any SharePoint branding questions you have and discuss common issues you may have encountered.

Heather Solomon is the Director of Creative Services at SharePoint Experts, Inc. and author/trainer of the SharePoint Branding Bootcamp. She will highlight a diagram, demo and pros/cons of a SharePoint branding method. She will also share with the members real life’ experiences and discuss the best methods to implement for your site.

So I have done several SP2 upgrades. Depending on the size of the farm and number of databases it can take anywhere from 15 minutes to about an hour. Then I decide to upgrade our internal corporate farm. Two hours after I start I get it going but here is the lesson. Always, always, always have a backup plan. That way you can calmly work through the issues without fear of having to roll back.

I noticed the yesterday that I had a HUGE number of duplicate contacts on my phone. I also noticed that I had all sorts of contacts that just did not belong. I sync my iPhone from our company Exchange Server from Outlook so of course I blamed my updated iPhone.

Then I took a closer look at the Contact Groups that were being synchronized with my phone. I noticed a new group Suggested Contacts.

I have been using Office 2010 for about a week now and here are some first impressions of Outlook 2010.

Installation

The installation was a breeze. You have the option to run 2010 along side 2007 as long as you use the 32 bit version of 2010. I opted for the 64 bit version so I had to uninstall all of my Office 2007 applications before beginning the installation. Following the installation I launched Outlook and it picked up all of my 2007 settings including the 5 PST files that I use for filing my email.