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Filed under: Developer, Internet, Windows, Microsoft

Microsoft .net dev tools CTP released

Microsoft OrcasThe project codenamed "Orcas" is now available for download. The developer tools release is Microsoft's September customer technology preview (CTP) for the .net framework 3.0. You must have the .net framework and September CTP software development kit (SDK), not to mention a non-express version of Visual Studio 2005 already installed to run the tools in this release. At under 4MB (not quite a whale), the development tools include XAML intellisense support, project templates for Windows Presentation Foundation and Windows Communcation Foundation. The dev tools also features the Visual Designer (codename: Cider) for Windows Presentation Foundation, but is sadly not supported by the express editions of Visual Studio 2005. If you understood anything I just said, and it interests you you will be happy to know that it is now ready to be downloaded and I suppose anything else you want to do to it.

Filed under: Design, Developer, Internet, Utilities, News, Windows, Microsoft, Commercial

Microsoft to release CTP of Expression Web Designer

windows expression web designer ctp todayThe million-dollar question: will Microsoft's Expression package (which includes Graphic, Interactive, and Web Designer flavors) dethrone Adobe as king of multimedia creation? Today, according to Techworld, Microsoft's Expression Web Designer will be released as a Community Technology Preview today. The big difference between this tool and Adobe's Dreamweaver? According to the one guy quoted in the article, it's deep support for ASP 2.0. I'll admit, Dreamweaver's pretty lame when it comes to working in ASP (although to be honest I'm still stuck in ASP 1.1 land myself). But the question is really: will consumers upgrade to Vista fast enough for Windows Presentation Framework to be relevant? In other words, just buying Expression won't guarantee clients or customers can see your coolio new content. Granted, WPF can be installed across a variety of machines that don't need Vista (they released an OS X version, in fact). But with an installed user base for Flash hovering around 98+ percent, are consumers going to download yet another framework? Anyone remember the Great Code Hope that was .NET? We'll see. I still think Adobe and Macromedia were smart to merge before Vista hits though... Just for the record though, I am actually pretty excited about Windows Presentation Framework. If nothing else, it'll force Adobe to continue making Flash better.

Filed under: Developer, OS Updates, Windows, Microsoft

Vista, Build 5308

vista ctp build 5308It's been a day. Hands up, all of you who haven't slept, opting instead to play all night with the mostly-locked-down Vista build released yesterday. PCMagazine has already been playing with it nonstop, and they like the changes they see. I'll let you read the full article, but this version should be pretty darn close to the one we'll see in a few short months. I do hope Windows Explorer is being made more robust, as it fails pretty regularly on my XP machine as well. I doubt it'll crash as often as PCMag is saying here, but it is a little worrisome that it's still flaky...

Featured Time Waster

Graveyard Shift - zombie-busting Time Waster

With Halloween fast approaching, it's a great time to get in some practice defending your territory against zombies. In Graveyard Shift, you take aim at zombies and other creepy-crawlies, blasting them into splatters of cartoony green guts. It's a casual first-person shooter, and it's very easy to get the hang of - use the mouse to aim, click to fire. Graveyard Shift has at least 15 levels, and it might even have some secret stages I haven't unlocked yet. They key to getting good at Graveyard Shift is learning to use ...

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