Special discount for Pune User Group members for TechEd India 2009(13-15 May 2009) Hyderabad.

Culminis, INETA APAC and PASS, have worked along with Microsoft to secure a unique discount for our user group members. TechEd is happening in after a period of 3 years. http://www.microsoft.com/india/teched2009/.  With Steve Balmer, CEO of Microsoft giving the Keynote, and illustrious speakers presenting. 
Tech.Ed-India 2009 is all about getting yourself ready for the next wave of technology innovations and trends. In today's economic scenario, more than ever before, it has become pertinent that we stay ahead of the curve so as to establish ourselves as the future trend- setters. Tech.Ed-India 2009 - with its offering of sub-events - offers you this opportunity to interact with some of the leading lights in the business and technology space globally, talk to Microsoft product development teams directly, and get in-depth hands-on-trainings and certifications in some of the most coveted and anticipated technologies of our time. 

Special Discount for Pune User Group Members 
If you are attending Tech.Ed, as a member of "Pune User Group" you can get a 25% discount. This discount is available to the first 25 people to respond via an email to techedindia2009@puneusergroup.org  The first 25 people to respond will receive instructions on how to avail the discount.

You are requested to Share your User name and email id which you use to sign in to Pune User Group Website while submitting your request.
If you are not a member then don’t worry, you can still join PUG, membership is FREE.

Service Pack 2 for Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS 2007) and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (WSS 3.0)

Today Microsoft announced the release of Service Pack 2 for MOSS 2007  (Office SharePoint Server 2007) and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

Both Packs are available now for download at Microsoft download center. Ref. following links to download Service Pack 2 for Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0.

Service Pack 2 for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, x64
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=148404

Service Pack 2 for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, x86
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=148403

Service Pack 2 for Office SharePoint Server 2007, x64
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=148351

Service Pack 2 for Office SharePoint Server 2007, x86
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=148352

As mention by Jie Li on SharePoint Product Team Blog Service pack 2 includes following enhancements

• Performance and Availability Improvements

Service Pack 2 includes many fixes and enhancements designed to improve performance, availability, and stability in your server farms, including:

• New Timer job automatically rebuilds content database index to improve database performance.
• When a content database is marked as read-only, the user interface will be modified so users cannot perform tasks that require writing to the database.
• Performance enhancement across nearly all the components.
• Improved Interoperability

Service Pack 2 continues to improve SharePoint interoperability with other products and platforms.

• Broader support of browsers
  Internet Explorer 8 is added into Level 1 browser support.
  FireFox 2.0/3.0 is added into Level 2 browser support.
• Provide improved client integration user experience with Form Based Authentication. Now the client application can store user credentials instead of asking for them every time. For more technical details please refer to the updated articles on TechNet.
  Configure forms-based authentication (Office SharePoint Server
  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262201.aspx
  Configure forms-based authentication (Windows SharePoint Services)
  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc288043.aspx
• Getting Ready for SharePoint Server 2010

A new preupgradecheck operation is added to stsadm tool. It can be used to scan your server farm to establish whether it is ready for upgrade to SharePoint Products and Technologies "14". It identifies issues that could present obstacles to the upgrade process. It checks for several SharePoint Products and Technologies "14" system requirements, including the presence of Microsoft® Windows Server® 2008 and a 64-bit hardware, and provides feedback and best practice recommendations for your current environment, together with information on how to resolve any issues that the tool discovers. 

The full explanation of SP2 benefits can be downloaded here:
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=148551

 

Source: http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2009/04/28/announcing-service-pack-2-for-office-sharepoint-server-2007-and-windows-sharepoint-services-3-0.aspx

Microsoft Tech.ed India 2009 at Hyderabad

Learning resources for Visual Studio Team System 2010

finally we are done with Windows 7 day and i got some free time, so i was going through some of my favorite blogs, i found very interesting and helpful post on Jeff Beehler's Blog.

Jeff Beehler posted link to a video podcast series known as 10-4, which I found very interesting and helpful to learn and understand about VSTS 2010. As said by Jeff, 10-4 means VSTS 2010 and .NET 4

here are those links…

10-4 Episode 14: Sentient DSLs

10-4 Episode 13: No More Late Surprises

10-4 Episode 12: Simplifying Your Code With C# 4.0

10-4 Episode 11: Bi-Directional Routing with ASP.NET WebForms 4.0

10-4 Episode 10: Making Web Deployment Easier

10-4 Episode 9: Visual Basic 10

10-4 Episode 8: Pure Client-Side Development with ASP.NET AJAX 4.0

10-4 Episode 7: No More Planning Black Box

10-4 Episode 6: Parallel Extensions

10-4 Episode 5: Code Focused in Visual Studio 2010

10-4 Episode 4: No More Parallel Development Pain

10-4 Episode 3: ASP.NET WebForms 4.0

10-4 Episode 2: Welcome to Visual Studio 2010

10-4 Episode 1: Working with the Visual Studio 2010 CTP VPC

PUG Windows 7 Day – IT Pro : An exclusive in-depth one-day workshop

Welcome to Windows 7 Day - IT Pro Microsoft Windows 7 another major revolution in Microsoft's most cutting edge technologies is here to get your work done the easy way.Check out the latest news and views on Windows 7 from the experts this season on An exclusive in-depth one-day workshop for getting started on Win7

Attend Windows 7 day and Win exciting prizes. and What more you can get your laptops with latest Windows 7 beta installed !!! So do not forget to carry your laptops

Entry FREE !! Registration Required. For more information and Registration , Please visit : http://www.puneusergroup.org Hurry up and Register Today !! For any queries/suggestions,Please contact us at : windows7day@puneusergroup.org Venue: Capgemini India A-1, Technology Park, MIDC Talwade, Pune - 412 114 Free Bus Service available by PUG.

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SharePoint Designer available as a free download

Today i was going through my RSS feeds in outlook and Came to know very surprising and shocking post on SharePoint Team blog.

Yes, they mention on their blog that “SharePoint Designer available as a free download”. first thing came in mind that this must be April fool post but when checked download link and actually tested it then i believe that this is a real GIFT from Microsoft to all SharePoint Designers.

its really a good news for all. but its more shocking news also since till now this SharePoint designer was not even included in Office Suite with word, excel etc as free. you need to get it separately  and now they directly made available as FREE.

anyways here is link to download it free of cost.

Free Download SharePoint Designer 2007

there are some other resources also which you must see…

a) Letter to our Customers

b) Frequently Asked Questions

Also, make sure to watch this video where Tom Rizzo and J.R. Arredondo discuss these changes and provide some insights into what is coming in the future (pick the appropriate version for your bandwidth).

· Small size video (6MB)

· Medium size video (17 MB)

· Large size video (83 MB)

 

so download SharePoint Designer and enjoy !!!

 

Source: Microsoft SharePoint Team Blog