Jack @ ASP.NET

WebsiteSpark – that Microsoft is launching today.(http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2009/09/24/announcing-the-websitespark-program.aspx)

WebsiteSpark is designed for independent web developers and web development companies that build web applications and web sites on behalf of others.  It enables you to get software, support and business resources from Microsoft at no cost for three years, and enables you to expand your business and build great web solutions using ASP.NET, Silverlight, SharePoint and PHP, and the open source applications built on top of them.

What does the program provide?

WebSiteSpark provides software licenses that you can use for three years at no cost.  Once enrolled, you can download and immediately use the following software from Microsoft:

• 3 licenses of Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition
• 1 license of Expression Studio 3 (which includes Expression Blend, Sketchflow, and Web)
• 2 licenses of Expression Web 3
• 4 processor licenses of Windows Web Server 2008 R2
• 4 processor licenses of SQL Server 2008 Web Edition
• DotNetPanel control panel (enabling easy remote/hosted management of your servers)

The Windows Server and SQL Server licenses can be used for both development and production deployment.  You can either self-host the servers on your own, or use the licenses with a hoster.  WebsiteSpark makes it easy to find hosters who are also enrolled in the program, and who can use your licenses to provide you with either dedicated or virtual dedicated servers to host your sites on.

In addition to software, WebsiteSpark provides partner opportunities to grow and build your business (including customer referrals through our partner programs).  It also includes product support (including 2 professional support incidents) and free online training for the products.

you can visit http://www.microsoft.com/web/websitespark/ for detail information

Windows 7/VS 2010 stuff

• VS2010 Beta 1 – It’s Better on Metal, Julie Lerman
• Windows 7 RC Training Kit for Developer, Robert Muehsig

PowerShell stuff

• Windows Event Log in PowerShell – Part II, PowerShell Team

Software

• TestDriven.Net 2.22 RTM – What’s New? – Jamie Cansdale announces the RTM release of TestDriven.NET 2.22 which includes support for VS2010, NUnit 2.5, TypeMock, NCover, F#
• NSyntheis 0.1.1 has escaped! – Stuart Caborn announces his first release of NSyntheis, a port of the Ruby project Syntheis which aims to provide a means of joining tests which call mock expectations with tests which call actual implementations. This release works with Nant, NUnit 2.5 and Rhino Mocks.
• VS Addin: Fast Add Reference Dialog – No more Coffee Break! – Tuna Toksoz shares a new Visual Studio Add-in which aims to provide a much faster Add References dialog. This is something I will be checking out, as despite the efforts made by the VS team the dialog in 2008 is still far too slow

asp.net

• ASP.NET MVC and SOLID Programming Principles June 2009, Steven Smith
• An easy way to hack unvalidated web input, Tim Stall