Our good friends at EPS Software are hosting a FREE event during the month of December in both Dallas and Houston, focused on what’s happening with the .NET platform.  Of special interest to most is that there is some Silverlight 4, Windows 7 and Visual Studio 2010 content included!

Here’s the full info:

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Two Locations – Dallas & Houston:

• Dallas:   Thursday, December 3, 2009  1:30 – 4:30 PM
  Microsoft Dallas Office -  7000 SR-161 (George Bush Turnpike), Irving, TX 75039
• Houston:   Thursday, December 10, 2009  1:30 – 4:30 PM
  Microsoft Houston Office – 2000 W Sam Houston Pkway S, Houston, TX 77042

Brought to you by Microsoft, CODE Training & EPS Software, this free afternoon event presents an unbiased look at the current and future development with .NET. Join Markus Egger, for an afternoon of free and independent information about current Microsoft development technologies! What is the state of .NET today? Which of the many .NET technologies have gained traction? Which ones can you ignore for now? What is new in .NET 3.5 and the coming .NET 4.0? What other Microsoft technologies should you include in your development efforts? This event is completely free of charge and is designed for developers as well as IT decision makers. Specific prior knowledge is not required. Attendees of this event will come away with a clear understanding of which technologies to use for various technical challenges. This is NOT Microsoft marketing hype – this is based on our real-world development experience with varous techologies.

Topics include:

• Silverlight 3.0 and 4.0
• WPF 3.x and 4.0
• Expression Blend
• Windows 7
• Windows Azure and Cloud Services
• Techniques and Paradigms
• ASP.NET MVC
• WCF & SOA
• Visual Studio 2010

Dallas Signup Link – December 3, 2009  1:30 – 4:30
Houston Signup Link – December 10, 2009  1:30 – 4:30

Questions? Please e-mail info@eps-software.com or call 832-717-4445 x32.

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I’ll definitely be at the Dallas event, and Zain will be at the Houston event.  If you come, please make sure to stop by and say Hello to us!

The November version of the Windows Azure SDK and Tools was just released. Download them here.

New in the November 2009 SDK:

• Windows Azure Service Runtime managed library: The latest version of the Service Hosting Runtime API includes support for enhanced communication between roles and for runtime notification of service configuration changes. Direct communication between role instances enables new application development scenarios, including applications that distribute state across role instances. Service configuration changes include an increase or decrease in the number of request role instances and changes to the values of configuration settings.
• Windows Azure Diagnostics managed library: The new Diagnostics API enables logging using standard .NET APIs. The Diagnostics API provides built-in support for collecting standard logs and diagnostic information, including the Windows Azure logs, IIS 7.0 logs, Failed Request logs, crash dumps, Windows Event logs, performance counters, and custom logs.
• Certificate Management: Enhanced support for SSL certificates in Windows Azure and in the Windows Azure SDK enables the secure automated deployment of certificates to services hosted on Windows Azure.
• Variable-size Virtual Machines : Developers may now specify the size of the virtual machine to which they wish to deploy a role instance, based on the role’s resource requirements. The size of the VM determines the number of CPU cores, the memory capacity, and the local file system size allocated to a running instance.
• External endpoints for worker roles. A worker role may now define any number of external endpoints for HTTP, HTTPS, and TCP, and specify the desired port number for any external endpoint.
• Persistent local resource storage: Developers can now choose to persist data written to a local storage resource at runtime when the role is recycled.
• Windows Azure Storage Client managed library: The Storage Client library provides a .NET API for accessing the Windows Azure storage services.
• Improved Development Storage: Development storage provides a high-fidelity simulation of the Windows Azure storage services in the cloud. Tables can now be created dynamically in the development storage Table service and are no longer required to be generated in advance.
• Updated samples: The samples included with the Windows Azure SDK have been updated to demonstrate new features. The samples now include both C# and Visual Basic versions.

TechNet & MSDN Events Present:

Highlights from “the New Efficiency” Launch

Join us as we explore how Windows® 7, Windows Server® 2008 R2 and Exchange Server® 2010 deliver on the new efficiency where cost savings, productivity and innovations come together. At this free event we’ll cover the “best of” content and deliver highlights from “the New Efficiency” Launch events taking place nationwide.

ATTEND this special event and learn about these exciting new products and discover how:

• Windows 7 simplifies everyday tasks, improves productivity and works the way you want. 
• Windows Server 2008 R2 delivers new functionality and powerful improvements to the core Windows Server operating system to help organizations increase control, availability, and flexibility for their changing business needs.
• Exchange Server 2010 achieves new levels of reliability, reduces cost and drives productivity.

Sign up today before they sell out!