Do you have a big .NET framework poster or some other post showing objects and methods hanging someplace? I do I am a total geek that way but I also thing that it helps to visualize the objects you work with. Well the Office dev group has out done that and created the Office Interactive Developer Map, it's a WPF application that lets you explore the Office object model. Way geeky!

OK maybe not so much but it was kind of spoke to open my copy of the MSDN Flash today and see my own ugly mug staring at me. This was the first time that I submitted content to the Flash news letter so I did not know what to expect (ok so I did not submit it my boss did for me as I was disconnected when this content was due). But from the first day reactions I think I will keep this up, I have received a lot of email from my community and friends saying this is a good thing so look to see my face looking at you if you have customized the Flash for SoCal.

If you are new to this blog (from the Flash or not) welcome, you will note that I am quite inconstant on posting here but I consider it reducing the amount of noise on the web ;).

This is the fist post have done it quite some time, there has been many reasons for this (death in the family, being sick, traveling too much and more excuses) but I will be keeping up some constant blogging for a while if not here that on thecodetrip.com. I am about to get on a "Rock Star" buss with other geeks on my team for a 40 day code trip (d'oh). We will be going all over the western states and talking to people about the latest technology that Microsoft is announcing at MIX 08 in Las Vegas. We will have a lot of activities in the places we will visit and we will be posting a lot of content to the web site. If you want to know what we are up to go to the web site and subscribe to the RSS feed.

If you have anything you would like to see in future issues of the SoCal edition of the flash please let me know but the lead time is quite long 2 to 3 weeks so let me know sooner than later!

Microsoft Learning just released some new resources for all of us who are starting to get up to speed.

Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 – Learning Portal is the place to learn more. I am quite excited by the availability of the free e-book that is posted there.

I had not seen this until today but if you want to have an online meeting with up to 15 people here is a great way to do it. It's almost like LiveMeeting but free!

Microsoft SharedView Beta

I found this way too funny not to pass on!

UPDATE: looks like there a some "issues" with the photos used in this video so YouTube has removed this video but for now you can still see it here. If you want to know the issue around the content Scott Beals has a good blog post about here.

UPDATE #2: The video is back up on YouTube, I don't know the back story of it getting back up but I changed my link above to link to it again.

Lynn (my local counter part) did a great blog post about the Visual Studio 2008 InstallFest that I put on on Wednesday night in Irvine, CA. It was a hot night (no I am serous the air conditioning could not keep up) but much fun was had!

Thank you to all the user groups in SoCal for getting there members out to the event, I am just sorry we did not have more room, we could have had double the people if we had more room.

I hope to have more events in late January and early February.

Contagious Curiosity : Visual Studio 2008 InstallFest - Irvine, CA

The Expression team just released the Dec Preview if Blend 2 to see what's new check out the teams blog to download go here.

If you have not figured it out I live the MSDN Virtual Labs, they are a quick easy way to lean about stuff with little impact to your system. A few new labs were recently released, use them in good health.

What’s new in C# 3.0?
What’s new in Visual Basic 9?
Building Web Applications with Visual Studio 2008

I was at SliverLight training all last week with a group of Developer Evangelists and we could not stop laughing about the xkcd.com comic below. I know it's way geeky but wow I had no idea how geeky, after half an hour of trying to explaining it to my wife it finally sunk in just how geeky.

I have not read the entire document yet (I will save that for the flight home today) but this is an interesting report. This shows why I have a job, MS has made huge investments in security at all levels but the worlds perception is that we still are not secure, my job to help show the world what the investments we have made mean for users of our products.

Download the report here: Internet Explorer and Firefox Vulnerability Analysis