when technology is a part of the whole!

Microsoft has released its latest development tool, Visual Studio LightSwitch . LightSwitch is aimed at application developers who want to build applications rapidly. I personally think this is a good application for freelance developers who are looking to develop applications in record times. This super fast development ability of Lightswitch is provided by including a variety of prebuilt templates and tools to build business applications that target Windows Client or Windows Azure. LightSwitch simplifies attaching to data with data source wizards or creating data tables with table designers.It also includes screen templates for common tasks so you can create clean interfaces for your applications without being a designer. In addition, LightSwitch users can build forms from existing templates and populate them with data from data sources including SQL Server, SQL Azure, SharePoint and others. There also is integrated support for working with Microsoft Office for tasks such as ex...

“Native” developers – well this isn’t a reference to any ethnic developers . In the .NET world, native developers are the ones whose choice of programming language is the C++. C++ is used in many computing scenarios. When the might of Microsoft is behind .NET, these developers sometimes feel left out of all the buzz going around. And now they don’t have to. GoingNative is a monthly show on Channel 9 focused on native development with an emphasis on C++. It’s brought to you by Charles Torre (C9), Diego Dagum (C++) and Tony Goodhew (VS). The goal is to provide entertainment, education, conversations with native developers across the company and beyond. From newcomers to seasoned C/C++ vets, the goal is to provide content and code that matters to them with the primary goal of expanding minds. This show will focus on a variety of scenarios where going native makes the most the sense when maximum power and performance are key ingredients in your computational recipe. In episode 0 , ho...

Today Microsoft reported its annual earnings. And the no. is USD 70 bn (a growth of 12%). In an environment of slowdowns across the world this double digit growth for such a large company is encouraging for the software industry. The real winner in the last year seems to be the XBOX 360 which has been breaking all records of device sales and earning revenue handsomely for MS. The STB division is lurking close to the Windows division in terms of revenue and may overtake them in an year or two. Read on for some more details. These days large corporations tend to mint money not only from their core businesses but also from their treasury operations – hence I prefer to look at their operating income. In this area, MS again outshines with growth of 13% to USD 27.16 bn. This also reflects a healthy margin of 39% on the business (Whew!!) So where did the growth come from? MBD:   This division earns the max. revenues (22 bn) for the company and is home to Office, Exchange and Dy...

MSDN forums has been the go to place for .NET developer queries forever. Every .NET developer has used the extensive documentation available on MSDN and posted queries the forums to receive community support. Taking the support to the new age, Microsoft has now enabled developers with a gadget that makes access to MSDN forums easier from their desktop. Christened as “MSDN Forum Assistant”, the feature allows users to access MSDN Forums and receive updates directly to their desktops. The Forum Assistant is delivered as a desktop gadget that resides on your desktop. You start by defining your favourite forums via the settings of the gadget. The features of the gadget include: Ask a Question: The gadget bookmarks the links to your favourite forums so that you can reach them quickly. Clicking on the forum link takes you to the forum page, where you can post your query. Forum Search: You can search using keywords right from the gadget and the results open up in a new Window. T...