Monday here at PDC in Los Angeles, Sara Ford will be doing a book signing of her new book with coppies available at 20% discount and proceeds going to a great cause.

[ You can get the book HERE ]

[ You can read about Sara's book related scholarship charity HERE ]

I've been working hard to get more security related work back into my schedule.

And so..... I'm starting a new "season" of the Digital Blackbelt webcast series.

If we get enough interest I'll do some give-a-ways and such !

SIGN UP NOW !!!! Here are the first 3 dates !

11/3/2008; 11:00 AM (PST)
Convincing Management: The Business Case for Adding Security to the Development Life Cycle
[ Click HERE to Register ]

11/10/2008; 11:00 AM (PST)
Security Development Lifecycle: Building an Intentionally Secure Development Process
[ Click HERE to Register ]

11/24/2008; 11:00 AM (PST)
Threat Modeling for Software Developers
[ Click HERE to Register ]

It's getting close!!!!!!

The nature of software development is radically changing.

At PDC2008 Ray Ozzie will lay out Microsoft’s vision for cloud computing and building applications that seamlessly bridge the gaps between PC, Web and mobile devices.

In our first keynote Ray will talk about the new world of Software Plus Services, with Bob Muglia joining him, to unveil our new Cloud Computing platform.

In a second keynote, Ray will return to talk about building immersive user experiences and introduce Steven Sinofsky, who will give developers a first look at the next version of Windows, Windows

Scott Guthrie and David Treadwell will join Ray and Steven to dive deep on the latest Win32 and .NET platform advances that enable a next generation of user experiences spanning multiple devices, including a look at the latest developments in .NET, Silverlight, “Live Mesh”, and the rest of the client platform.

In keynote three, we turn the microphone over to coders extraordinaire Don Box and Chris Anderson, who will look at Microsoft’s latest technologies through the eyes of working developers.

And finally, in our fourth keynote, Rick Rashid will talk about how Microsoft research is helping to shape the future of computing.

I'll be spending much of the week in the MS Open Source Area and the OpenSpaces talks !!!

And remember the 160GB PDC2008 hard drive that will be given to every attendee.

http://www.microsoftpdc.com/

I go to ALOT of developer events.

Usually, they are work - meaning I probably wouldn't go if I were a retired Millionaire.

DevLink was AWESOME. It was kind of link that perfect summer back in school when all the right people were in the right place and the right mood and the sun was shining and the VIBE was just happening.

The basics were all there, Tennessee was very sunny but not too hot, the people are very nice, the MTSU campus is super (and the Sororities were pledging while we were there).

John Kellar (DevLnk Chairman) and all the folks with the DevLink organization did a simply AMAZING job and because the event is SO cool the speaker pool is a "WHo's Who".

I went to some great session like Sara Ford's session on Open Source at Microsoft and Todd Anglin's session Silverlight (who thought 3 a three hour session would seem too SHORT.)

There was some fun interpersonal stuff too.

I spent most of the event sparing with Ted Somebody :)

Actually I'm talking about Ted Neward - who's not only really smart but also really fun. (Thanks Ted for being a good sport and for giving as good as you get. I hope they don't have you do the closing keynote next year, I'd have to wear a helmet.)

And, like many of us, we spend the event waiting for Sara Ford to do something REALLY outrageous. (We're STILL waiting :)

I got to be a guest on Deep Fried Bytes, which will be available soon. (http://deepfriedbytes.com/)

GRATUITOUS PLUG - DeepFriedBytes is just getting up too speed and they need sponsors. Have a look and see if you can help them out !

Of course, Carl Franklin and Richard Campbell were there and they event did a DNR episode from the after-party.

[ Click HERE to listen to the show. ]

But the HIGHLIGHT for me was the OpenSpaces.

Alan Stevens organized ad managed the OpenSaces and they were OFF the hook. (Thanks Alan for an AMAZING job).

I'd been to OpenSpaces before and had a less than great experience. Alan did a GREAT job of facilitating without controlling the flow.

And if you were an attendee.....

$50

Next year - I'm going to fly out and take the BUS !!!! (http://netcave.org/GetOnTheBusYrsquoall.aspx)

Also, I declare a contest for next year - who can come from the farthest distance away.

It's a real gem of a weekend !! Hope to see you at the next one

I'm home from TechEd Developer 2008 (for a few days anyway.) I have to admin, I've been on the road more than every other week since early March and I'm feeling very burned out.

I arrived at TechEd a bit less enthusiastic than I usually do, but it ended up being a great trip.

I arrived Monday afternoon and headed down to the convention center where I immediately started running into old teammates, partners, and friends.

The conference sessions started Tuesday morning with a keynote by non other than Bill Gates (his last as a full time  Microsoft employee.)

Check out the BillG's last day video HERE.

Then Soma joined him to show off the latest from DevDiv !

John Galloway has an interesting summary of the Keynote HERE.

Though I spent much of the week meeting with partners and various DevDiv team members, I did get to see some GREAT talks.

David Chappell did a session entitled  - Choosing Communication Styles: SOAP/WS-* vs. REST

I've seen David present many times over the years and he is absolutely one of the best speakers in Technology. His talks are not only full of facts and useful opinions as well as very entertaining, but he's the kinds of speaker that you hear and then spend days brain storming about what you heard.

Read more about David HERE.

Jeff Prosise did great talks on ASP.NET Asynchronous Programming and ASP.NET AJAX internals. (Though after seeing his talk I had to come up with new demos for my AJAX talk :( 

Tom Gallagher (co-author of the super Developer Security Book, Hunting Security Bugs [ Click HERE ] ) gave an awesome talk - Making Security Testing Part of Everyday Development.

All I can say is - keep this guy away from your network :)

On Thursday I gave a talk on developing applications with the Microsoft AJAX stack. I had 360 attendees, which was great since Jeff did his MS AJAX talk earlier in the same day, and many folks stayed around for over an hour of Q&A after the talk.

On Friday I did a FishBowl session on Developer Security with Georgeo Pulikkathara (it will be available on line is a week or so and I'll post the link on SecureDeveloper.com)

Later Friday I did a talk on PHP on the Windows / IIS 7 Platform !

I arrived home EXHAUSTED - home for a week and then off to South Africa for Re-Mix in Johannesburg and Cape Town.

THEN - I'm home to CODE FOR THE SUMMER !

WUX315 - PHP on Windows: Not an Oxymoron!
Session Day/Time: 6/6/2008 10:15AM-11:30AM
Room: S230 A

Is it a well kept secret? From Microsoft Internet Information Services, to AJAX, to Microsoft .NET, Windows is a viable platform for your existing PHP based applications. In this session, see how to configure PHP on Windows for performance and reliability and how you can take PHP applications to the next level by leveraging .NET and Windows.

WUX314 - AJAX Programming with the Microsoft AJAX Technologies
Session Day/Time: 6/5/2008 4:30PM-5:45PM
Room: S320 C

Microsoft AJAX Developer technologies are a collection of offerings that make AJAX programming slick and productive, but have you wrapped your head around all the pieces? This session provides a soup-to-nuts explanation of the Microsoft AJAX Technology Stack and demonstrates how to use Microsoft Visual Studio for AJAX, The ASP.NET Extension for AJAX, The AJAX Control Toolkit, and non-Microsoft third-party AJAX Libraries to develop true RIAs.

AJAX World was a great confirmation for me. AJAX, RIA, or whatever term you use to describe this "new" way of building web applications is here to stay.

Relative to Microsoft, here are a few of my big take-a-ways.

• Security matters even MORE than it has to date.
• Web Development frameworks like ASP.NET that facilitate secure development are crucial.
• Interest in Microsoft Silverlight is reaching a feverish level !
• Alpha Geeks (even the ones who aren't exactly MS fans) are digging the new stuff in IE 8, especially the developer features. 

Thanks to everyone who attended my sessions. Having spent so much of the last 10 years focused on web security it's great to see the interest and awareness continue to grow.

Below are links to both my PowerPoint decks and all my code, including all the security code I showed you. I don't think I've ever released the security stuff before.

WARNING: This code is NOT finished code. I don't even suggest it's "good" code. It's stuff I assembled for illustrative purposes. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK and don't include it in your production applications. All standard disclaimers apply ! :)

ASP.NET AJAX Security [Demo Code] [PowerPoint Deck]

ASP.NET AJAX Patterns [Demo Code] [PowerPoint Deck]

Please joind me for these 2 webcasts this Thursday and Friday. VWG is a cool FREE set of tools to accelerate your ASP.NET AJAX and Silverlight Web Development. Guy Peled, CTO of Visual WebGui is joining me and he will build applications live during the webcats.

Click below to register - attendance is FREE !

Live From Redmond: Visual WebGui: An Enterprise AJAX application in 20 minutes.

It is all about simplicity: Simplicity in programming next generation complex AJAX application that makes the productivity difference.   In this Webcast we will demystify Visual WebGui. We will build a fully blown application in less than 20 minutes, and strip off the covers, showing you how you can cut your development cycle by as much as 90% .   Visual WebGui is open source, so you can dive into the code. Throughout the webcast we will demonstrate that while VWG enables rapid application development (RAD) , the developer is free to create custom controls, wrap third party controls , invoke HTML resources and interop with standard ASP.NET applications like DNN and others, all in a matter of minutes.

3/27/2008 11:00 PM Pacific Time (US & Canada)- 3/13/2008 2:00 PM | Duration:60 Minutes

Live From Redmond: Visual WebGui: Silverlight for line-of-business application.

In this webcast we will "light up", in minutes, the fully blown line-of-business application that we built in our previous webcast adding the rich look and feel of Silverlight as well as its enhanced performance. You will see how we accomplish this by a "push of a button". We will demonstrate how to make WinForms controls available to your web application and  how you can style your UI by using fully enabled Expression Blend. The outcome is a very light footprint client, unaffected by application size and weight, and as a bonus, secured by design.  You will be shown how you  can, extend, invoke, interop and customize your application using Visual WebGui. 

3/28/2008 11:00 PM Pacific Time (US & Canada)- 3/14/2008 2:00 PM | Duration:60 Minutes

-----

About the Live From Redmond series. This series of Live Meeting presentations are designed specifically for the community by members of the Microsoft product teams. The presentations are all done by actual team members working on the specific technology, and are a great way to hear from and ask your questions directly to the product team.

Wanna jump-smart your .NET expertise ?

Keith is one of those rare smart guys who can also communicate !

™

Course: Applied .NET 3.0 with Keith Brown

When: February 12-15th, 2008

Where: MicroTek facility Broad St. New York, NY

Cost: Special Microsoft Rate - $2,395 (hotel accommodation not included)

Register: 781.749.9238 or bill@pluralsight.com, Bill Williams (Pluralsight)

Highlights:

· Windows Communication Foundation

o Programming WCF

o Hosting and activation

o Contracts

o Bindings and behaviors

o Security, reliable messaging, transactions

· Windows Cardspace and Federated Identity

o Claims-based systems and ADFS

o Cardspace-enabling a web site or service

· Windows Workflow Foundation

o Programming WF

o Developing activities

o Runtime and services

o Persistence and tracking

o Communications

· Windows Presentation Foundation

o Programming WPF

o Controls and layout

o Graphics and templates

o Data binding

Summary Outline:

http://www.pluralsight.com/courses/AppliedDotNet3.aspx

Who should attend:

Experienced .NET developers who are new to .NET 3.0 and want to ramp-up quickly.

Prerequisites: Experience with .NET Framework 2.0. In addition, the labs are written in C#, so a reasonable comfort level with C# will be very helpful.

Next steps:

For additional information, or to register to attend, please contact Bill Williams (Pluralsight) 781.749.9238 or bill@pluralsight.com.

Bill Gates Live !

6 Tracks !

I wish I could be there !

There is still time to register !

http://www.odc2008.com/

I'll be joining the fine folks at AJAX World again this year and giving the following talks.

ASP.NET AJAX Design & Development Patterns

AJAX is not about Eye Candy. AJAX is about building functionality that is difficult or impossible with conventional web development technology. Done right your web applications ROCK, but it it’s done wrong and your infrastructure pays the price. This session will expose a collection of design and usage patterns that will help you understand ASP.NET AJAX under the covers and design efficient, interactive AJAX Applications using Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX Technologies.

http://ajax.sys-con.com/read/483595.htm

The Digital Black Belt's Guide to Building Secure ASP.NET AJAX Applications

You think your ASP.NET AJAX application is secure, but how do you know? Are you SURE? Would you bet your career on it?

Secure application design is 1/3 Architecture, 1/3 Code, and 1/3 Operations. You can’t retro-fit a secure architecture. In this Digital Black Belt crash session you’ll get a whirlwind tour of how to write secure web applications with ASP.NET AJAX. You can’t learn it all in a day, but you can get started with secure development techniques and learn what questions you need to be asking each day in your development process.

Speaker Bio: Joe Stagner is a senior program manager in Microsoft Corporation’s Developer Tools and Platform Group and has been with Microsoft since 2001 focusing on highly scalable and performant Web application architectures, multiplatform interoperability and software security. Stagner brings 30 years technical and business strategy experience to Microsoft which affords him a unique experiential perspective.

http://ajax.sys-con.com/read/483596.htm

I Love NY !!!

Hope you will come say hello !