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Anyone know if I can write a constraint in MSSQL-2005 that will enforce that an nvarchar column should be an empty string or a unique value without using triggers. Thanks, Stephen. More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

http://ms-os.com/ CNET News.com <img alt="" height="1" width="1"> Is Microsoft's 'Singularity' the OS of the future? CNET News.com, CA - 38 minutes ago Given the driver troubles, legacy issues, and compatibility headaches with Vista, that might not be a bad idea. Click this link to view this blog as XML. ... More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

<img alt="" height="1" width="1"> Blog: Vista still looks expensive after cuts New Zealand Herald, New Zealand - 20 minutes ago Microsoft has come out with plans to cut the price of Windows Vista around the world and today revealed the New Zealand price cuts for the operating system ... More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

http://ieblog.members.winisp.net/images/Acid2.png Although we said that IE8 Beta 1 passes the ACID2 test, some of you may be seeing results like the image above; we thought we should explain what’s going on. IE8 passes the official ACID2 test hosted on http://www.webstandards.org/files/acid2/test.html. (Note, this seems to be a popular destination at the moment. You may have trouble reaching the site.)There are also a number of copies of this test around the net. One popular copy that I’ve seen of late is http://acid2.acidtests.org/ IE8 fails the copies of ACID2 due to the cross domain security checks IE performs for ActiveX controls. Since IE does not natively handle HTML content in the OBJECT tag, but rather uses IE’s rendering engine as an ActiveX to display this HTML content, the same cross domain security checks also apply. Given that, let’s take a look at how the acidtests.org copy from above relies on OBJECT fallback to render the eyes. Here’s the snippet of the test for the eyes: IE stops the OBJECT fallback process at the highlighted line above. The team and I involved in this work decided that this is the right thing to do because IE would have to allow navigation to this cross domain content in order to determine if the failed resource is a 404 HTTP error code or any of the other failed resource indicators that are part of the standard. To maintain compatibility and be secure by default we didn’t want to invoke fallback either, as original web authors might not have intended this behavior. We started with the most secure solution and are now looking into whether we can safely loosen this restriction in a future beta. With all that said let’s also take a look at the official ACID2 page hosted by www.webstandards.org: We see: <BLOCKQUOTE>

<img alt="" height="1" width="1"> Asus and Microsoft working an Eee-targeted version of Windows 7? engadget, CA - 3 minutes ago So now that the nine-inch Eee is officially available with Windows XP pre-installed, people are wondering the obvious -- why XP and not Vista, ... More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

<img alt="" height="1" width="1"> Microsoft's Vista Ultimate Woes Continue Appscout, NY - 29 minutes ago "We will be releasing Windows Vista SP1 in two 'waves,'" Microsoft's Nick White wrote in a company blog post on Monday. "The first wave will only provide ... More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

This morning at the MIX conference in Las Vegas, the IE team made eight announcements about IE8. The most interesting for many people is that a developer beta is now available. Download it here. The rest of our talks and demos focused on seven other areas that appeal to developers: Our goal is to deliver complete, full CSS 2.1 support in the final IE8 product. IE8 Beta 1 for developers delivers better interoperability with other major browsers, addressing major pain points (e.g. floats and margins) from previous IE releases. We’re not finished – there’s much more to come in Beta 2. We’ve contributed over 700 test cases to the W3C CSS working group because we think a comprehensive certification test suite for CSS is important for true interoperability and we support the W3C’s effort to deliver such a suite. The CSS spec is good, but contains many ambiguities, and a test suite will help resolve them and benefit web developers and designers. We’re making these available under the BSD License, which is the license that the W3C CSS working group has proposed using for the rest of its test cases. Of course, we will contribute more tests en route to a full test suite, and welcome your feedback on the tests using the W3C's CSS test suite mailing list. We’ve delivered better scripting performance because we heard from developers that they needed it given how heavily the latest rich web experiences rely on script. We’ve started delivering support for HTML5 because we understand that developers want to start delivering richer web experiences, with great interoperability, as soon as possible. We’ve delivered the first installment of great, built-in developer tools. We understand that script, CSS, and layout debugging are crucial today. Again, we’re not finished here – there’s more to come. We’ve delivered a better way for web services to integrate into the user’s workflow with “Activities.” For example, a user can select text on a web page and map it, blog it, look for it, or just act on it without having to copy it, open a new tab, navigate to another site, and paste. We made the OpenService Format specification available under the Microsoft Open Specification Promise and the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike license. We’ve delivered a better way for web services to enable their users to keep an eye on interesting parts of a webpage within the browser with “WebSlices.”Developers can make parts of their pages “subscribable” with just a little mark-up, and users can easily subscribe and keep an eye on information (like their social network, an auction, or a sports score) within the browser, even when users are not at the developer’s site. We’ve made the WebSlice Format specification available under the Microsoft Open Specification Promise and is dedicating copyright in the specification to the public domain using the Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication.The list above is the very short version of what’s in IE8 and does not represent everything that’s in the final product. There’s a lot more. This list details specific investments for developers. As with previous releases, members of the IE team will post to this blog in detail over the coming days, weeks and months. In the meantime, you can find a lot more information at the revamped IE Development Center: http://msdn.microsoft.com/ie. While anyone can download it, this is a developer beta. We released it at MIX for a good reason: great web experiences start with web developers, and we want to engage developers first. We believe that to build a better browser for the people who use the web, we need to build a better browser for the people who make the web. Non-developers are welcome to try it, but they’ll be more interested in Beta 2. One theme I hope developers notice here is interoperability. The team understands how big an impact differences between browsers (and previous versions of IE in particular) have had on developers in terms of wasted time, frustration, and (in some cases) limiting the experience that they deliver to users. We want to deliver a big step forward in real-world interoperability for developers with IE8, and standards are at the core of our approach. This topic deserves a lot more than just this paragraph; expect more soon. The beta is available today for Windows Vista (“Gold” and SP1), Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003 SP2, and Windows XP SP2 and SP3, both in 32- and 64-bit versions. We will release the developer beta in German, and Simplified Chinese shortly. We’re interested in reading your feedback in the beta newsgroup and developer forums. Please try it out – the browser itself, the developer tools, writing an Activity, marking part of your page as a WebSlice – and let us know what you think. Thank you, Dean Hachamovitch General Manager Internet Explorer http://blogs.msdn.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=8053210 More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

It’s exciting when we have a new beta to release! The launch of IE8 developer beta is a huge milestone, and we have set up various mechanisms to collect feedback. Before I list out all of our feedback channels for IE8 betas, I want to explain what we learned from our experience with IE7 feedback. We were thrilled but a little overwhelmed by the amount of input we got in IE7. Frankly, we couldn’t keep up and really do a good job handling the free-form bug entries. So we want to try something new for IE8. We’ve asked our best bug finders from IE7 and other Microsoft beta programs to handle the bug reporting. (Note: We’ll keep evaluating our invite list and add promising new people as we find them -- and removing ones who aren’t delivering). Everyone will be able to see the bugs they enter and vote on the ones they think are most important. There are instructions how to do this at the end of this blog. We also have built ways to help us collect feedback in automated ways from everyone. Some of these are technologies you’re probably familiar with like the Customer Experience Improvement Program, which gives us real world usage data like “how many times people click the back button in a session,” and information when IE crashes or hangs. We have also added a new tool called “Report a Webpage Problem…” to help report website compatibility issues. So here is the more detailed listing of our feedback channels: IE8 Technical Beta - We are inviting a group of beta testers from around the world to do beta testing of IE8 and provide us with bugs. These beta testers commit to spending time with IE8 betas and file bugs when they observe unexpected behaviors. The IE team will be evaluating this set of bugs, looking for the most impactful bugs to all of our users. Public Votes on IE8 Technical Beta bugs – We want to be transparent about the bugs reported by our beta testers, therefore the bug database for the IE8 Technical beta will be available for everyone to view and vote on issues. , You can sign up here: http://connect.microsoft.com to view the Internet Explorer 8 Technical Beta program. (Note: registration on the Microsoft Connect site is required.) Report a Webpage Problem Tool - We have released another tool to help us capture website compatibility issues. The Report a Webpage Problem is a control that can be downloaded and installed in IE8. When you encounter a site that is not rendering correctly, you can submit a report. We use these compatibility reports to populate our compatibility test suite with real site issues seen by users around the world. Automated Customer Feedback – Internet Explorer uses an automated system to collect real-world data about the causes of customers' pain—primarily about crashes and hangs, as well as data that gives us a picture of how IE8 is being used in the real world. The IE8 betas will be opted in by default to Customer Experience Improvement Program, so we can use this automated data to inform us on issues that are affecting beta customers at large. IE Beta Newsgroup – This new newsgroup is the all-in-one place to discuss items about IE8 betas. Our Microsoft MVPs and IE team members will monitor this newsgroup.So, what do you do if you believe you have an issue that the IE team needs to know about? Here are the steps we encourage you to take: Read the IE8 Release notes – we try to outline most of the known issues in this document at the time of release. Visit the Internet Explorer 8 Technical Beta program on Connect (http://connect.microsoft.com) and view bugs in the database. Note: you must register on the Microsoft Connect to search for your issue If you find your issue, please rate it (vote for it). This will help us understand how many people find this issue important If you don’t find your issue, you can visit the IE beta newsgroup and post your issue there. Members of the technical beta will be monitoring this newsgroup and can file a bug about the issue on your behalf in the technical betaIf you want to request being added to the IE Technical Beta, you can send email to: IESO@microsoft.com, Subject: Apply for IE Tech Beta, and tell us why you are a great beta tester. There is a limit to the number of people we will add, so if you don’t make it in, please follow our guidelines above when you encounter issues. Thanks and happy beta! Kellie Eickmeyer Lead Program Manager http://blogs.msdn.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=8043097 More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

Check out some of the new features in Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 in my latest screenshot gallery! More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

I know that it is closed-source but I was wondering if MSFT ever thought about giving the a Linux/Unix hybrid kernel a try.* [H]* Windows 2000 was great! More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

Samsung 30" LCD 305T+*********** $1325 P/N # LS30HUXCB/XAA Intel CPU QX9650*********************$1179 Motherboard EVGA NF680i *** MB-E122-CK-68A1*** *** *** **** $228 XFX video card GF8800GTXXX ** 512M PCI-E*** *** *** *** *** *** *** $329 OCZ 4G DDR2/800 memory*** *** $158 this comes in tomorrow ... so.... - should i prepare c:\ drive to be formatted, backup email etc*... or will Vista boot in and put everything in? - its a new MB, chip, ram and video.. will i have to re-activate? Lastly - the monitor is the new one called the 305t+* ..but i cant find anything different about it from the 305t cant wait...* ill post a before and after of my desktop (actual one) edit: oops thought today was thurs.. so it comes in Thurs (tomorrow) More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

Is there anything new in IE8 that targets add-on writers? Perhaps also allowing us to write add-ons in .NET? Anybody having information on that? More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

once the first page of results is shown, links to other pages always point to http://channel9.msdn.com/Themes/AlmostGlass/Skins/&d=0 More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

I’m working on my first WCF application, and in many ways I am reminded of when I worked with COM+ and before that MTS with VB6.* With VB6 if I made modifications to the code of public method, properties or events, and compiled the COM+ app, then it could be put in place without any problem (assuming of course that I hadn’t made any mistakes, etc).* However, if I added or removed a parameter to any public method, property or event, or if I added a new public method, property or event, or removed a public method, property or event, then it would break what is known as binary compatibility.* Recompiling the COM+ app would generate a new GUID and any other application which used that COM+ component would have to be adjusted to be aware of the change. I am wondering if there is any analogous idea with WCF services.* My normal way of doing development will be to write a few methods for the WCF service, compile it and make it available, and then write some simplistic test bed app to test what I’ve done.* I realize that my question really exposes my ignorance of WCF, but I’ve got to know if compiling a WCF with a set of OperationContracts at one point, and then adding more later, will mean I’ve got a new WCF service which any application using it would have to be updated to utilize it.* Is it somewhat analogous to “breaking binary compatibility”? More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

Idea I had: Windows Live Ultimate Cost: $49 per year for Windows Vista Ultimate owners $79 per year for everyone else Welcome kit with 512MB USB Stick filled with Live Software shipped to house. Hotmail: - Changed from webmail to a MS Exchange 2007 style account - One year subscription to use MS Outlook 2007 included SkyDrive: - Maximum size increased from 5GB to 10GB storage - WebDAV/SFTP upload and downloading Windows Marketplace: - 10% off all Microsoft software and hardware up to $50 per year Windows Live Messanger: - All advertisements removed All Live Websites: - Reduced advertisements or no advertisements while logged on Zune Marketplace: - 10 DRM-free songs included per year - 10% off Zune pass membership Developers: - 10% off all Microsoft events - 20% off Microsoft certification tests - 20% off Microsoft Press books More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

Yes, yes, reliability, I know, I know.* Hence the use of the word bus and not queue, everyone knows you wait ages for a bus and then they turn up three at a time. But, inspired by this (london bridge twitters when it opens, and includes the name of the boat) I thought it would be pretty cool to build a little app that sits on my home PC (I mean Mac) and looks out for tweets from me.* That way I can find out, by sending a quick tweet, how many mails I have waiting, I could tell it to download something for me (in case I am on my iPhone) and could get notifications back based on the success or failure. I've only just started but I've got the basics in place, and it should be pretty flexibuble, but ... ..to get to the point, twitter is pretty flaky, and I don't want to set up my own server so apart from Twitter and Pownce, any other services of a similar natures that have a little more uptime? Oh, and any more ideas for what I could automate at home through twitter would be welcome ;) Oh. Jodrell bank twitters too... More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

Microsoft has shipped a public beta of Internet Explorer 8. I'll have a first look and screenshots available later today, but you can check out my SuperSite Blog now for the download links! More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

<img alt="" height="1" width="1"> Language packs delay Vista Ultimate SP1 PakTribune.com, Pakistan - 9 hours ago "We will be releasing Windows Vista SP1 in two `waves`," said White in a post to the Vista team`s blog. "The first wave will only provide Windows Vista SP1 ... More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

<img alt="" height="1" width="1"> Windows "Workstation" 2008 Clobbers Vista in Benchmark Testing InfoWorld, CA - 1 hour ago You can read all the gory details over at the exo.blog site. Suffice to say that there's a new option for power users who are fed-up with Vista's ... More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

Scott Guthrie sits down with me to dig into and show off some of the features of Silverlight 2 Beta 1. Among other very useful features, there is now design surface*support for Silverlight UI in both VS 2008 and Expression Blend! Scott builds a Silverlight app in VS and Expression Blend with a Silverlight button control named Charles :) Of course, it's not a Channel 9 interview without discussing why we are doing all of this! Enjoy! Low res file here. Listen to the podcast(MP3) Listen to the podcast(WMA) Download the Video Watch the Video More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

Bruce provides the very first basics in using Windows Workflow. This 7-minute screencast shows how*to get started screencast that tells you how to create a workflow project, how to author a basic sequential workflow, how to set breakpoints and debug code, and*how to drag and drop activities. For the next screencast for Workflow, see From Code Activity to Custom Activity by Jared Bienz. More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

I went to install the Expression Studio trial disk that I received at the Heroes Happen {Here} event and I then I noticed that I don’t seem to have the install code anywhere. Has anyone encountered this problem, did anyone else have the key and if so, where was it located? Otherwise, would anyone happen to know how I can go about getting a code? I’d rather install it from the disk than to download a trial from the internet if that’s at all possible. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

Flash Player not suited for iPhone says Apple CEO wow, after this news article... The Trouble with Steve Jobs Though, I like what Techcrunch had to say about all this... "Of course, as Duncan speculates, this provides an opportunity forMicrosoft to swoop in and enable the iPhone with Silverlight. But isthat even imaginable?" More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

<img alt="" height="1" width="1"> Windows "Workstation" 2008 Clobbers Vista in Benchmark Testing InfoWorld, CA - 37 minutes ago You can read all the gory details over at the exo.blog site. Suffice to say that there's a new option for power users who are fed-up with Vista's ... More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

At the Sharepoint Conference 2008 and CeBit earlier this week we announced the Silverlight Blueprint for Sharepoint which allows building rich user experience Silverlight 2 applications (written in XAML+C# or XAML+VB.NET) which can interact with Sharepoint back-end data services such as lists, documents, contacts, and pictures. In this video Michael Lehman talks with Rob Barker the Technical Evangelist who has been driving this cool functionality and see some cool demos of what you can do with this code! The Silverlight 2 SDK was announced today at MIX08 and so we are now releasing the video walkthroughs and sample source code downloads for the Silverlight Blueprint for Sharepoint at http://www.ssblueprints.net/sharepoint In the coming weeks we will also be releasing the full Silverlight Bluepring for Sharepoint in S+S Blueprint format via either the S+S Blueprints Manager (a free Visual Studio add-in) and on Codeplex. To download the S+S Blueprints Manager and check to see when the Silverlight Blueprint for Sharepoint is release visit http://channel9.msdn.com/blueprints If you already have the S+S Blueprints Manager installed, you can use the S+S Blueprints --> Update... menu selection within Visual Studio to download the blueprint when it becomes available. Listen to the podcast(MP3) Listen to the podcast(WMA) Download the Video Watch the Video More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds