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June 2006 - Posts

Friday, June 30, 2006 9:11 PM

Demystifying Microsoft .NET Development Platform - free seminar

The good people at Dimension Data Learning Services (DDLS for short) have a free seminar coming up. This seminar provides a high-level overview and an introduction of multiple aspects of .NET, pointers to career development and other resources that give
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Friday, June 30, 2006 1:56 PM

TechTalkBlogs : +126 days

We're at the end of financial year and TechTalkBlogs , has been around for 126 days . I didn't do a healtch check last week. It's time to move from a weekly snapshot to a monthly one. The system is chugging along nicely now - time to let go of the reins
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Friday, June 30, 2006 11:18 AM

My Network of Trusted Professionals

Back in May, I posted my LinkedIn stats It's the end of the month of June - how's "My Network of Trusted Professionals" looking? You are at the center of your network. Your connections can introduce you to 1,418,700+ professionals - here' s how your network
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Friday, June 30, 2006 10:29 AM

Some User Created Flair for Tech.Ed

Following my post about the 'official' flair for Tech.Ed , a number of folks left me comments/trackbacks with flair they created. Hey, we can jump on the UGC bandwagon too! Here's a selection... Long Zheng Roger the life prodactor Geoff Appleby Let's
Posted by frankarr | 1 Comments
Friday, June 30, 2006 10:11 AM

Keeping Tabs on the Team

One of the benefits I find with blogging is that it gives me a way to not just communicate with 'the outside world', but also a way to keep my team members informed. The reverse of this is quite interesting too - it allows me to see what each of my team
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Thursday, June 29, 2006 3:44 PM

Ambushed!

I got a call from Cameron Reilly yesterday while he was recording a recent Gday World Podcast . It was a classic ambush . He had Mike "Fang" Seyfang as special guest, and they asked me questions about WinFS amd Windows Vista . Anyways, let me repeat --
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Wednesday, June 28, 2006 9:42 PM

Blogbeat is temporarily offline. Sorry for the interruption.

I headed over to BlogBeat this evening to check on some stats and got the following..... Blogbeat is temporarily offline. Sorry for the interruption. Too funny! The computers are on the footpath, on the street. LOL UPDATE: the photo is gone, but now there
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Wednesday, June 28, 2006 8:43 PM

Another lost stylus

Today I lost *another* stylus from my i-mate K-JAM. That's the 6th one I have lost. I even wrapped sticky tape around my latest stylus to make it fatter and it still dropped out. Is it a design flaw? or am I just a bad enduser?? grrrr - off to expansys
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Wednesday, June 28, 2006 4:57 PM

Show some Tech.Ed Flair

We've got over 1,700 folks registered for Tech.Ed 2006 in Sydney so far. That's just outstanding! Show the world that you are going with some TechEd flair. Right now, we have 3 lovely ones to select from Or, if these don't take your fancy, design your
Posted by frankarr | 10 Comments
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Tuesday, June 27, 2006 10:26 PM

SWMUG new website : Coming up Windows Mobile Developer Day (Sydney)

James' lets us know that SWMUG has finally got their new website up and running. Cool! Another Community Server 2.0 implementation. Don't forget the SWMUG developer day to be held @ Microsoft in Sydney on the 5th Sept. I'm sure an agenda will appear on
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Tuesday, June 27, 2006 10:04 PM

Hubdog : Didn't pass the 7 day test

I've removed Hubdog from my K-Jam . It didn't give me anything over my existing RSS reader. Sure, it had some nice things about using certain connections, and using the storage card for items, but the overall experience was less than expected. I'll stick
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Monday, June 26, 2006 8:48 PM

Day 33 of the Global Corporate Challenge

We've past the first month of the Global Corporate Challenge . Update time! Let's see how we're doing We're in position 1,252. Last time I posted an update we were in position 1,436 We're averaging 8,315 steps per day. I wanted to average at least 10,000
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Monday, June 26, 2006 7:43 AM

WinFX may now be in .NET Framework 3.0, but I have the WinFX foam blocks

Kleefy sent me these cool blocks from his recent trip to Boston Thanks Kleefy !! We all know that WinFX joined the rest of the family and is part of .NET Framework 3.0 But I still have the WinFX Blocks !!!
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Sunday, June 25, 2006 4:29 PM

Giving Thanks : A Meme Grows

Darren Rowse started a little meme, in which we give thanks to our top referrers . I got a ping from Trevor Cook, who included me in referrer post . So, this prompt me to peruse my referrers. It's relatively easy with BlogBeat So, my top 10 referrers
Posted by frankarr | 7 Comments
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Saturday, June 24, 2006 1:05 PM

More Stories from Media Reviewers Workshop

I've spotted a few stories online that came from the Windows Vista and 2007 Office System Beta 2 Reviewers Workshop Image and Data Manager : Microsoft Goes For Records APC Magazine : Please Bill, offer expert mode in Vista ZD Net Australia : Office no
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Friday, June 23, 2006 9:48 AM

Hubdog : a new product / service for Pocket PC users

I got a note during the week about a new app/service called Hubdog . I like the slogan .. fetch : share : play .:.: -----Original Message----- From: patrick.hanchay at radio-numerique.ca Sent: Wednesday, 21 June 2006 12:20 PM To: Frank Arrigo Subject:
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Friday, June 23, 2006 1:57 AM

Cavemen for Pocket PC has been released!

Congrats to the guys from Lightworks game. Their game is now released. From: newsletter@lightworksgames.com Sent: Friday, 23 June 2006 9:47 AM Subject: Cavemen for Pocket PC has been released! The subject says it all; we've released Cavemen and we want
Posted by frankarr | 2 Comments
Thursday, June 22, 2006 10:11 PM

The Future of FrontPage

One of the questions asked during the Media Briefing held earlier this week , related to Frontpage. (I think it was Dan Warne who asked) I chimed in and said that it had evolved into two different products - Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007 and
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Thursday, June 22, 2006 10:28 AM

An issue with Windows Live Local for Outlook and MS CRM for Outlook client

I got the following email last night about an issue with Windows Live Local for Outlook and MS CRM for Outlook client . I looked in the Windows Live Local for Outlook Readme file to see if this was mentioned, but there was nothing there. I've spent a
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Wednesday, June 21, 2006 11:18 PM

jPod

I got myself a new book last week – jPod by Douglas Coupland . It is a story about a group of computer programmers living in Vancouver, British Columbia facing issues of today: "Global piracy, boneheaded marketing staff, people smuggling, the rise of
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Wednesday, June 21, 2006 5:40 AM

Media Workshop Done!

Ok, I am back at my desk following the Media session this morning I had a chat with Steve Polack, who had interviewed me earlier this year , about Parental Controls in Windows Vista . It was nice to see some familiar faces, such as Mark Jones , Peter
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Wednesday, June 21, 2006 3:30 AM

Blogging from within Word 2007

Oh, I didn’t mention this before. All my posts are now coming directly from Word 2007, thanks to it’s inbuilt blogging support
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Wednesday, June 21, 2006 12:40 AM

Windows Vista and 2007 Office System Beta 2 Reviewers Workshop

I’m sitting in a room with a bunch of journalist, who are attending an event here at Microsoft today (the shortest day of the year) Some of the journos here include Mark Jones , Angus Kidman , Dan Warne , Alex Zaharov-Reutt , Steve Pollack, Brendon Chase
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Tuesday, June 20, 2006 11:46 PM

Winter Solstice : Shortest Day of The Year

Today, for us in the Southern Hemisphere, it’s the Winter Solstice , aka the shortest day of the year. All I can say, is thank goodness!!!
Posted by frankarr | 0 Comments
Tuesday, June 20, 2006 10:52 PM

Beta Release of GP Ruby.NET Compiler

Got this email from Wayne yesterday. Excellent News. Great to see this project moving along, and it looks like it has a new name too -----Original Message----- From: Wayne Kelly Sent: Tuesday, 20 June 2006 4:19 PM To: Frank Arrigo Subject: Announcing
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Tuesday, June 20, 2006 3:51 PM

Another Cool Date : 20-06-2006

I was reminded about this as I was driving into work this morning, and Dugie beat me to the punch I can't wait until 8:06 pm tonight!!! [ Currently Playing : She's an Angel - They Might Be Giants - Severe Tire Damage (03:20) ]
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Tuesday, June 20, 2006 11:08 AM

Attack of the Robots

The Aussies won the World Cup over in Berlin - The Robot World Cup! The Newcastle NUBots beat the University of New South Wales' rUNSWift team 7-3. How cool is that! Speaking of Robots - have you seen the Robot Invaders competition or the new Microsoft
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Monday, June 19, 2006 10:44 AM

Long is at it again - New Windows Vista and Word 2007 Screencasts

I found the following email in my inbox over the weekend. -----Original Message----- From: Long Zheng Sent: Friday, 16 June 2006 11:15 PM To: Frank Arrigo Subject: New screencasts Hey Frank, Just posted some new screencasts. Vista screencasts part 2 -
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Friday, June 16, 2006 11:37 PM

We have an Australian winner of the Imagine Cup

Today I got to see the three Australian finalists in the Imagine Cup . The 3 teams strutted their stuff in front of the judging panel, made up of myself, Ben English , and our boss Norbert Haehnel . Each team had 20 minutes to present the solution, and
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Friday, June 16, 2006 11:16 PM

numb3rs

Mitch asks if I am into numerology I'm not. But I do like numbers. Like today's date - 16/6/6 . Almost as cool as 6/6/6 I don't have a favourite number. More like a set of numbers. 42 of course. Especially this year Pi . The Golden Ratio 19 has a special
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Thursday, June 15, 2006 1:22 PM

Judging the Australian Final of the Imagine Cup

Tomorrow (Friday June 16, 2006) I have the honour of being on the judging panel for this year's Australian leg of the Imagine Cup for 2006. I also had the opportunity to do this last year . The theme of this year's Imagine Cup, "Imagine a world where
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Thursday, June 15, 2006 12:11 PM

TechTalkBlogs : +111 days - 1 Vision, 1 Feed, 1 Site

Today, TechTalkBlogs , hits its 111th day. 111 is a nice little number . My title has me channelling "nelson" Here's this week's quick health check of TechTalkBlogs : System Summary Jun 15 6/6/6 Jun 1 May 25 May 18 May 9 May 3 Apr 10 Apr 3 Mar 27 Mar
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Thursday, June 15, 2006 11:39 AM

New Book - Pro WCF: Practical Microsoft SOA Implementation

Prolific author, Solutions Architect, Cricket fan, and all round good guy, Chris Peiris has a new book coming out - Pro WCF: Practical Microsoft SOA Implementation : Pro WCF: Practical Microsoft SOA Implementation Part of Microsoft's radical new WinFX
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Thursday, June 15, 2006 9:13 AM

Vista Screencasts by Long Zheng

I got the following email recently From: long.zheng Sent: Tuesday, 13 June 2006 9:25 PM To: Frank Arrigo Subject: (frankarr - an aussie microsoft blogger) : Vidcast of Vista on M400 tablet Importance: High Hey Frank, My name's Long and I'm an aussie blogger.
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Wednesday, June 14, 2006 2:59 PM

What apps can I use to follow the World Cup 2006

Over the weekend, I wanted to find an app for my i-mate K-JAM to allow me to follow the World Cup 2006 results wherever I am. I found a bunch of apps. Most of the descriptions were woeful and many didn't have trials, so I bought them all to test. $30
Posted by frankarr | 3 Comments
Tuesday, June 13, 2006 7:24 PM

Gary Wisniewski : Use Linux as the Next Microsoft Platform

In all the excitement this weekend , I missed the latest post from Gary Wisniewski on his plans for Microsoft and Windows TNG. Let's revisit his 2 earlier posts :- Microsoft's New Win-Win Strategy Windows TNG: Scrap The Windows Codebase So, his latest
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Tuesday, June 13, 2006 6:46 PM

APCMAG : It’s a Windows world: deal with it

James Bannan from over at APCMAG has written a provocativly entitled piece - It's a Windows world: deal with it and he is coping heaps of abuse from the anti-Microsoft brigade. Last time I looked there were 77 comments (not many positive) His last paragraph
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Tuesday, June 13, 2006 6:37 PM

Tech.Ed Early Bird offer extended to 20 June

The title says it all. The cutoff date for Tech.Ed 2006 Early Bird Group Discount tickets is now 20 June. Until then, there are substantial savings on the cost of providing your team with three days of exceptional training. Tech.Ed is an excellent investment
Posted by frankarr | 0 Comments
Tuesday, June 13, 2006 6:29 PM

Been back to work for 12 months

I just realized that today marks an inportant milestone for me. It's been 12 months since I returned to work following my operation . Phew, talk about time flying! I must admit I feel so my better these days, than I did a this time last year! [ Currently
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Tuesday, June 13, 2006 10:27 AM

Be part of TechEd 2006 in Boston

Tech·Ed 2006 is happening in Boston, at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center (BCEC) , as I type. Some of my team have made the trip over to be part of the event , to pick up some ideas to help make TechEd in Australia so much better. I may not
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Monday, June 12, 2006 8:19 PM

Visions of Vista on TechTalkBlogs

Darren Neimke is on the road with the Innovations Tour , which will be in Melbourne and Sydney this week. He's editing the group blog over at TechTalkBlogs , and has posted a bunch of Vista Visions , which are little cool nuggets which highlight a feature
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Monday, June 12, 2006 7:00 PM

Windows Live Dev : Now Open for Business

The Windows Live Team are starting to bring together all the platform information for developers. They kicked off the beta of Windows Live Dev over the weekend Windows Live Dev is your one-stop shop for the Windows Live Platform, including information
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Sunday, June 11, 2006 5:30 PM

Scoble leaving Microsoft for another grand adventure

The blogosphere rumor mill has been buzzing with the news that Robert Scoble is leaving Microsoft , with Chris Pirillo the most adamant . Robert then posted his response, Correcting the Record about Microsoft . For me, this is both sad news and happy
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Friday, June 09, 2006 8:56 PM

DPE Team supporting ACS NSW activities

I got the latest ACS NSW e-News newsletter (Issue 70) this evening, and was delighted to see two members of my team ( Anna Liu and Jeff Alexander ) as guest speakers in some upcoming sessions in June. Our Enterprise Solutions Development SIG next Thursday
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Friday, June 09, 2006 8:46 PM

The Vista Vibe Continues

Darren Neimke is on the road with the Innovations Tour , which kicked off in Canberra today . He's editing the group blog over at TechTalkBlogs , and has posted a bumch of new Vista Vibes (but what's with the numbering scheme Darren?) Vista Vibes #10:
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Friday, June 09, 2006 8:32 PM

New Stuff : Get Your own Beta 2 of Windows Vista & Office 2007

Want to get your hands on the betas of Windows Vista and Office 2007, but can't be stuffed downloading. Head over to the shiny new site , where you can order your own DVDs and have the bits will come to you . This is called the Beta Experience everywhere
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Friday, June 09, 2006 8:20 PM

New Stuff : MSDN has a Wiki

Rob Caron had been hinting about it , then Soma broke the news MSDN Wiki is live -- http://msdnwiki.microsoft.com Go on, add some code samples. [ Currently Playing : Luxurious - Gwen Stefani - Love, Angel, Music, Baby (04:24) ]
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Friday, June 09, 2006 11:18 AM

Global Corporate Challenge : 15 Days Update

Ok, so last week I posted my Global Corporate Challenge : " Hall of Shame" . How's team this week? Well, we're now ranked 1,436th (as of June 09) If we drill down a bit more, we can see the current stats and how we compare overall How we going againsts
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Thursday, June 08, 2006 5:19 PM

Top 20 Posts for May

I've been using Blogbeat for a while now , to give me some insights into my blog stats . It's been chugging along nicely, so I thought I would revisit the stats and see what's going on. Here's my top 20 posts for May 2006 (I've removed the links directly
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Thursday, June 08, 2006 11:47 AM

Thoughts on the Office Move

Last week I packed up and moved from one office to another , in our building I've had a week in my new home, so here's some of my ponderings It's noiser on this side of the building People keep stopping in for a chat, as I am a friendly and amiable host
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Thursday, June 08, 2006 11:31 AM

APC : Why Adobe is the new enemy

Dan Warne has published an interesting article over at A PCMag - Why Adobe is the new enemy , in which he looks at the latest brouhaha regarding PDF support in Office 2007 Dan is the last person to give Microsoft a free kick (as he says) but he goes to
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Wednesday, June 07, 2006 8:35 PM

ASP.NET Guru Dino Esposito is coming to Australia!

I got a note from the good people at Solid Quality Learning , telling me that Dino Esposito is coming dowunder. Don't know Dino (and it's not the guy who was evicted from Big Brother ) Dino is a prolific author and speaker, and many of his books are considered
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Wednesday, June 07, 2006 3:40 PM

Adventures with EWD from the trenches

Daniel Crowley-Wilson posts about his experience with Expression Web Designer. The quote I like " The development team has really added features that are useful to Web Developers ". Actually, his recent posts have a consistent theme of User Experience,
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Wednesday, June 07, 2006 10:50 AM

Collections of Errors in Windows Live Local Aussie Maps

Ok, my call for apps and collections generated a lot of comments with people pointing out errors and omissions with the Windows Live Local Aussie Maps . This got me thinking. How about a collection of mistakes/errors/omissions. At least this can help
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Tuesday, June 06, 2006 6:07 PM

websites as graphs : the latest meme

All the cool kids are doing it ( Digg , Milkandcookies , Reddit ), so I do too. Here's my blog, as seen using the funky HTML DOM Visualizer blue : for links (the A tag) red : for tables (TABLE, TR and TD tags) green : for the DIV tag violet : for images
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Tuesday, June 06, 2006 2:23 PM

TechTalkBlogs : +102 days on 6/6/6

Well, we past 100 days of TechTalkBlogs , and since today's date is so special ( 6/6/6 for those of you who haven't noticed), here's a quick health check. System Summary 6/6/6 Jun 1 May 25 May 18 May 9 May 3 Apr 10 Apr 3 Mar 27 Mar 20 Mar 13 Mar 6 Feb
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Tuesday, June 06, 2006 11:48 AM

Congratulations to David & Yil : Tied the Knot 3/6/6

Over the weekend, David Lemphers tied to knot and married his true love, Yil. Berno had a sneak preview of the cake I wasn't able to get along for the wedding - I hope the karaoke went well. Dave's off on his honeymoon , but don't that stop you sending
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Tuesday, June 06, 2006 11:18 AM

Application Infrastructure behind the Global Corporate Challenge Site

I got an comment from the folks who developed the site for the Global Corporate Challenge A new Comment has been posted to In 2 weeks the Global Corporate Challenge Begins!. Author: Ross Richard / Matt Watson http://www.reactive.com Glad you're liking
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Monday, June 05, 2006 2:39 PM

Latest FLASH was late - Sorry

The latest MSDN Flash came out this morning. We were almost a week late. Sorry! I know, it's inexcusable really. It's funny re-reading the editorial, as I wrote it 10 days ago. Things move so quickly. [ Currently Playing : Talking Bout My Baby - Fatboy
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Friday, June 02, 2006 5:34 PM

Anyone doing Mashups using Virtual Earth Map Control?

I'm seeking Aussie mash-ups using Virtual Earth Map Control v3 Anyone tried this yet? Who is going to be the first to do it ? Leave me a comment if you have done something cool. How about collections? Anyone created some interesting Aussie Collections??
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Friday, June 02, 2006 1:52 PM

Talking to Designers - We have a lot to learn

Yesterday we hosted a session on Microsoft's web technologies to a group of "Interactive Designers". The Agenda looked a bit like this Frank Set the Scene Chuck Expression Web Designer ASP.NET v2 Personalisation Windows Forms (ClickOnce) Andrew Atlas
Posted by frankarr | 3 Comments
Friday, June 02, 2006 12:01 PM

17 June - Victoria.NET Regional Conference - University of Ballarat

The folks from Victoria.NET are putting together a conference in regional Victoria . The venue is the University of Ballarat , the date is the 17th of June. Damian "Tech.Ed" Edwards will be there, along with a range of talented and entertaining speakers,
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Thursday, June 01, 2006 10:13 AM

gnoos.com is live

UPDATE: Gnoos on SMH : Aussie blog search tool launched Just got an email from BB Subject: gnoos.com is live ! www.gnoos.com.au : Stage 1 of Project 1 of Feedcorp is now live : gnoos.com is the Aussie (+global) Blog (+media) RSS Search Engine. Have a
Posted by frankarr | 1 Comments
Thursday, June 01, 2006 9:28 AM

TechTalkBlogs : +97 days

We're getting close to 100 days of TechTalkBlogs . That's quite exciting. Let's do a quick health check of the system - please close your eyes and cough.... System Summary Jun 1 May 25 May 18 May 9 May 3 Apr 10 Apr 3 Mar 27 Mar 20 Mar 13 Mar 6 Feb 27
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