IE8 Activities look cool. They're almost like favlets from where I stand, but they offer a very simple way for users to access online services and pass simple parameters. I decided I wanted to play, and we use SharePoint heavily here at Black Marble. The obvious thing to do was to create an activity which would allow …

Well the secret that never was, is out Silverlight 2.0 beta is now out along with a full complement of expression tools in beta , IE 8 has also made a welcome appearance. The visual studio update for silverlight in my Visual Studio list here I will try and do a full breakdown in the next few days, but at the minute too …

I can't spend much longer playing with IE8 or my wife will skin me. However, from my cursory browsing experience I'm worried. Either the devs have a good deal of work to do or I'm going to be very busy with CSS rules for a while. Here's the University of Bradford site in IE8: And to try to compare apples with oranges, …

Well, as expected, the public beta of IE8 appeared on the web pretty much straight after the Mix08 keynote mentioned it. I managed to grab it within mere moments and I now have it installed on my trusty laptop. As announced only a day or two ago, it defaults to the new rendering mode, with a big toolbar button to …

In a change from the usual venue in Leeds, the next meeting of the Extreme Programming club will be at Black Marble's office in Bradford. I will be giving a updated version of my DDD4 presentation on Cruise Control .NET. The fun starts a 7pm on Wednesday the 12th of March, it is free and open to all, see you there.

I was at SQLBits II in Birmingham yesterday, a great venue and great sessions. I particularly enjoyed András Belokosztolszki's session on transient data in SQL, giving an insight on when as a developer it is appropriate to use different techniques to manage data. My session on Visual Studio for Database Professionals …

Andy Wigley came over to BM Towers to present on Windows Mobile Development using Visual Studio 2008. Huge thanks again to Andy for coming over to do the event. b. Technorati tags: Windows Mobile, Community Events

Wow Matt and I have just finished our presentation on Microsoft Volta Live Labs at the Irish Web Technology Conference , it is being held at the Cineworld complex in Dublin. Yes we did get to present on the Big Screen :) , it is totally surreal seeing your caricature displayed so big it is bigger than you ( Lauren's …

Mat and I will be speaking at the Irish Web Developers Conference in Dublin , Friday Morning at 9.15am. The subject is Microsoft Live Labs Volta, which is just fantastic. See you on Friday. b. Technorati tags: Irish Web Developers Confererence, Volta, Live Labs

I have been doing some Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO) development in Word of late, not exactly a pain free experience. First thing to say is that even given all the marketing spiel, VSTO is not that different from VBA in older versions of Office. To get going I create a new VSTO 2008 Word 2007 Template project …