MS has released the Kinect for Windows SDK beta…nice!  Go here http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/projects/kinectsdk/

Also, there’s some ‘get you started’ stuff out there :

Setting Up Your Development Environment (http://channel9.msdn.com/Series/KinectSDKQuickstarts/Getting-Started)

Kinect Toolkit (http://c4fkinect.codeplex.com/)

Kinect Mouse Cursor (http://channel9.msdn.com/coding4fun/projects/Kinect-Mouse-Cursor)

In case anyone else ever needs this…

System.IO.Directory.GetFiles(@\\.\pipe\) will return an array of named pipes.

and…

the named pipes for SQL user instances always contains @"\tsql\query"

so,…

You can get to something like @"Data Source=\\.\pipe\XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XX\tsql\query; Integrated Security=True;Connect Timeout=30;";

and..

“SELECT * FROM sysdatabases” will return all the attached databases from that ‘user instance’ of SQL

Windows Azure SDK and Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio (November 2010) available for download    http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=7a1089b6-4050-4307-86c4-9dadaa5ed018

Food and conversation is free…beer will cost you ;-P

NashDotNet

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• MSDN Unleashed - Tuesday, November 18, 2008 1:00 PM - Tuesday, November 18, 2008 4:00 PM Central Time (US & Canada)
  Session 1 - What’s New in SQL Server 2008 for Developers
  Session 2 – Build next generation applications with Silverlight 2.0
  https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?culture=en-US&eventid=1032391568&flag=1
  
  
• Microsoft Executive Briefing-Nashville, TN - Tuesday, November 18, 2008 8:30 AM - Tuesday, November 18, 2008 11:30 AM Eastern Time (US & Canada)
  In an effort to provide visibility into our software roadmap as well as deeper integration with the local Microsoft team, we will be hosting a monthly invitation only executive briefing series for our enterprise and select agreement customers.
  https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?culture=en-US&eventid=1032395341&flag=1
  
  
• Microsoft ArcReady: Professional Patterns On The Job - Tuesday, November 18, 2008 9:00 AM - Tuesday, November 18, 2008 11:45 AM Central Time (US & Canada)
  Session 1: Mastering the Soft Skills
  Session 2: Organizational Dynamics
  https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?culture=en-US&eventid=1032391707&flag=1
  
  
• Join Microsoft and Compuware for a Developer Tools and Platform Roadmap Presentation - Thursday, December 11, 2008 6:00 PM - Thursday, December 11, 2008 9:30 PM Central Time (US & Canada)
  Welcome Time: 5:30 PM
  Topics for this presentation include: · What is coming in Visual Studio Team System 2010 ·  .NET 4.0 and C# futures · Azure and Software + Services
  https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?culture=en-US&eventid=1032396380&flag=1
  
  
• Connect + Share Summit - Tuesday, January 27, 2009 8:30 AM - Tuesday, January 27, 2009 12:00 PM Eastern Time (US & Canada)
  The Microsoft Connect + Share Summit is an executive-level event designed for business and technical decision makers, that will demonstrate how leveraging Microsoft solutions can help overcome costs, optimize the organization, and respond to changing needs. This innovative executive session is designed to showcase the benefits of the full integrated Microsoft platform.
  https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?culture=en-US&eventid=1032393582&flag=1
  
  

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This hotfix rollup fixes several issues in the WPF Designer. This hotfix rollup applies only to the computer that has Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1 installed.

•When a resource in an external resource dictionary is updated, Visual Studio 2008 crashes.

•WPF Designer cannot load read-only attached properties, such as the VisualStateManager.VisualStateGroups property.

•If users or codes set a data binding locally, and then the users or codes clear the data binding, WPF designer reports the following error message:

'System.Windows.Data.Binding' is not a valid value for property

•If a Win32 project is set as the startup project, WPF Designer cannot load solutions in Visual Studio 2008 or in Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1.

•When you set and then delete the Source property of a WPF WebBrowser control, Visual Studio crashes.

•When you move a control that uses the MultiTrigger class or the DataTrigger class in the Style class, WPF Designer may generate an InvalidCastException exception.

KB Link - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/958017

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A few people in conversation over the weekend had no idea about this...so I'm posting for the 'fashionably late' crowd ;-P

Link : Microsoft Pre-release Software Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.0 Community Technology Preview (CTP)

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Another excellent year at TechEd!  After all these years, I still enjoy the lengthy, opinionated and inebriated conversations over technologies, implementations, products, etc.

I did make it to a few interesting sessions and spoke to a few 'official' types about various things ASP.Net MVC, Velocity, Unity, Oslo, etc...  The presentation I actually enjoyed the most was Andrew Connell's 'Don't be a Tool...' SharePoint dev talk...really good stuff from an outstanding presenter.  I was just happy to hear someone actually tell developers to be developers again and quit whining...this could turn in to a <rant/>...I'll stop now.

As usual, the most interesting stuff happens after hours ;-P  Every year I say I'm going to capture more evidence, but I always forget to take pictures...here's the few I ended up with this year.  It was great to see all my old friends and meet quite a few new ones.  I love all of you nerds.  Big props to the Fl crew for organizing the ]inbetween[ event.  And oh, btw, before I forget....SHAREPOINT NATION!!!

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