Microsoft has made Visual Studio 2010 and .NET 4.0 Beta 2 available for download to MSDN subscribers, with general availability soon. VS10 includes a lot of really nice features over VS2008, and I’m personally very excited to see the Beta 2 release.

I’ve made a pre-alpha CSLA .NET “4.0” available for download as well. This is really just the version 3.8.0 code (somewhere between beta 1 and beta 2) that I’ve updated to build under Visual Studio 2010 with .NET 4.0.

• Download for Windows
• Download for Silverlight

Over the next few months I’ll continue to release updates to version 4.0 that take advantage of the .NET 4.0 features, but I wanted to make sure there was a version online that builds with VS10 as soon as possible, so this is it – enjoy!

I have the first three segments of the CSLA .NET for Silverlight video series available now, and so I'm extending a special pre-purchase offer to anyone who wants to get access to the content as it becomes available.

Buy now and save $100 off the regular purchase price. This special offer gives you immediate access to the first three video segments, and will give you access to the remaining video segments as they become available. You can be among the first to have access to this great content!

You can get an idea of the video style with this promo:

• Full wmv (7 mb)
• Zune wmv (2 mb)

Here is a summary of all seven video segments:

Introduction
In this video you will become familiar with the CSLA .NET framework's vision, goals and overall scope. You will be introduced to the various architectures supported by CSLA .NET for Silverlight, and the requirements necessary to build Silverlight and CSLA .NET for Silverlight applications.

The Basics
This video details the basic steps of creating a CSLA .NET business object that interacts with a server-side web service to get its data. The process of using data binding to connect the object to the Silverlight UI is also covered. At the end of this video you will understand all the basic steps and coding structures necessary to build a simple CSLA .NET for Silverlight application.

Client-only Architectures
This video covers the various client-only scenarios supported by CSLA .NET for Silverlight, including true client-only applications and “edge” applications that interact with remote services. This video builds on The Basics to dive deeper into the various options for building client-only applications.

N-tier Architectures - coming soon
In this video you will learn how to build 2-, 3- and 4-tier applications using CSLA .NET for Silverlight. CSLA .NET allows your UI, business object and data access code to remain the same in all these configurations, but there are numerous configuration options and choices you can make to optimize how your application works in each of these scenarios.

Business Object Types - coming soon
In this video you will learn how to implement each of the business object stereotypes supported by CSLA .NET. These include editable objects, lists of objects, read-only objects, read-only lists, name/value lists, command objects and more. At the end of this video you will understand the purpose behind each stereotype, and the coding structure to use when building business objects for each stereotype.

N-tier Data Access - coming soon
This video details the various options supported by CSLA .NET for data access in n-tier scenarios. You will learn how to put data access code into your business class, or into a separate data access assembly, along with the pros and cons of each technique. You will also learn about the ObjectFactory attribute and base class, that can be used to create pluggable data access layers for an application.

Authentication and Authorization - coming soon
In this video you will learn about the various authentication and authorization techniques supported by CSLA .NET for Silverlight. Authentication options include Windows, ASP.NET Membership Provider and custom authentication. Authorization is the same as CSLA .NET for Windows, and includes per-property and per-type authorization, along with Silverlight UI controls to simplify the creation of your interface

Microsoft is hosting a recap of key MIX09 content in Minneapolis (really Plymouth) on May 8.

ugMIX: .NET User Group & Silverlight User Group

The really cool part? This is at a theater and everyone will get to see the new Star Trek movie after the technical content.

How cool is this??? See some cool Silverlight and other tech content, and then watch a private screening of the new movie?

And I know that a lot of local Microsoft experts will be attending as well – you know, the people that live in the area and organize our user groups, write books and do a lot of speaking. So this is also an opportunity to hang out with “people in the know” :)

See you there! Live long and prosper!

(though I still wonder if I’ll get past seeing Syler every time Spock is on screen…)

Leveraging the Multi-Core Revolution

April 21, 11:00 PT, 1:00 CT, 2:00 ET
CPU Speeds are not doubling every 18 months anymore. Are we stuck? Not at all! Learn how you can increase your processing speed using systems, languages, and tools. We will cover how functional development techniques can deliver a competitive advantage to companies who are smart enough to see these changes coming. read more ...

Planning for Successful Outsourcing

April 30, 11:00 PT, 1:00 CT, 2:00 ET
Outsourcing is a popular strategy for decreasing the cost of supporting and maintaining business applications. Done right, it can be a successful strategy. Join Magenic as we discuss and dissect why outsourcing has gained the attention and approval of business and IT managers and how to navigate a pain-free transition.  read more ...

CSLA .NET 3.6.2 is now available for download.

• CSLA .NET for Windows
• CSLA .NET for Silverlight

This is the second point release of CSLA .NET 3.6, and it includes a number of bug fixes, but more importantly there are a number of new features and enhancements based on feedback from users of version 3.6 over the past four months.

Highlights include:

On a related note, the first segment of my CSLA .NET for Silverlight video series is complete, and I’m nearly done with the web infrastructure for the download site. You can get a summary of the video series content on the CSLA .NET for Silverlight video download page.

Once I get the store and download site complete, you’ll be able to purchase “early adopter'” access to the series – which means you’ll get access to each video segment as soon as it comes online. Look for this in the next couple weeks!

I have released version 3.6 of CSLA .NET for Windows and CSLA .NET for Silverlight.

This is a major update to CSLA .NET, because it supports Silverlight, but also because there are substantial enhancements to the Windows/.NET version.

To my knowledge, this is also the first release of a major development framework targeting the Silverlight platform.

Here are some highlights:

• Share more than 90% of your business object code between Windows and Silverlight
• Powerful new UI controls for WPF, Silverlight and Windows Forms
• Asynchronous data portal, to enable object persistence on a background thread (required in Silverlight, optional in Windows)
• Asynchronous validation rules
• Enhanced indexing in LINQ to CSLA
• Numerous performance enhancements

This version of CSLA .NET for Windows is covered in my new Expert C# 2008 Business Objects book (Expert VB 2008 Business Objects is planned for February 2009).

At this time there is no book covering CSLA .NET for Silverlight. However, most business object code (other than data access) is the same for Windows and Silverlight, so you will find the Expert C# 2008 Business Objects book very valuable for Silverlight as well. I am in the process of creating a series of training videos around CSLA .NET for Silverlight, watch for those in early 2009.

Version 3.6 marks the first time major development was done by a team of people. My employer, Magenic, has been a patron of CSLA .NET since the year 2000, but with this version they provided me with a development team and that is what enabled such a major version to be created in such a relatively short period of time. You can see a full list of contributors, but I specifically want to thank Sergey Barskiy, Justin Chase and Nermin Dibek because they are the primary contributors to 3.6. I seriously couldn't have asked for a better team!

This is also the first version where the framework code is only in C#. The framework can be used from any .NET language, including VB, C# and others, but the actual framework code is in C#.

There is a community effort underway to bring the VB codebase in sync with version 3.6, but at this time that code will not build. In any case, the official version of the framework is C#, and that is the version I recommend using for any production work.

In some ways version 3.6 is one of the largest release of the CSLA .NET framework ever. If you are a Windows/.NET developer this is a natural progression from previous versions of the framework, providing better features and capabilities. If you are a Silverlight developer the value of CSLA .NET is even greater, because it provides an incredible array of features and productivity you won't find anywhere else today.

As always, if you are a new or existing CSLA .NET user, please join in the discussion on the CSLA .NET online forum.

This is a cool site, that I hope takes off. In the words of its creator:

I wanted to drop you all a note about a project I’ve been working on called Community Megaphone . Community Megaphone is a web site I started building about a year ago to fill what I saw as a need in the local community: simple, low-friction promotion and discovery of developer events, particularly community-run events. Initially, the site was limited to a portion of the east coast, but this week I’ve opened the site up to events from the entire United States.

The need for some central location where you can find community events is high. While it is good that each event has its own web site for details and discussions, the value of a central index would be incredible! Please support Andrew's initiative!

Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2, along with Microsoft .NET 3.5 Beta 2, is available for download. Here's Soma's official announcement.

I find that downloading such huge sets of files requires a bit of help. My recommendation: Free Download Manager. This tool is awesome - indispensable in fact - if you do any downloads beyond small text files :) It does queued downloads, resumed downloads and throttling. Perhaps best of all, it does multi-threaded downloads, so it maximizes the use of your bandwidth when running at full throttle.

Update: Apparently there are some things you must do/fix before using VS 2008!! Read ScottGu's blog post about it!

Update 2: According to Juval Lowy, the svcutil.exe program in Beta 2 is broken. A workaround is to copy an older (Beta 1?) version of svcutil.exe over the top of the Beta 2 version.  Instead, Justin Smith says that you need to run "sn.exe -Vr svcutil.exe" - apparently then you don't need to copy an older verison over the new one.

Strangeloop is one of the coolest products I've seen (not as cool as Surface, but that's hard to top :) ).

This product is an ASP.NET-aware device that does intelligent caching for web sites. It can do things that seem virtually impossible - it is that cool! Here's Richard Campbell's blog entry with more background.

If you have the need for a nearly transparent boost in performance for your ASP.NET web site, Strangeloop is something you should look at!

We're really not that far away from some major new technology. Visual Studio "Orcas" is slated to ship this fall, and will include .NET 3.5; which includes new compilers. And new compilers always means fun! :)

The VB team is running a series of webcasts to bring everyone up to speed on the language changes and the resulting capabilities.

Dunn Training has done a great job with the CSLA .NET 3 day training class, and the feedback so far has been very positive!

In November Dunn Training held the first ever official CSLA .NET three day class. It was a smashing success, and resulted in a lot of great feedback and comments. Here are a couple quotes from attendees of the November class:

"At first, I was not sold on the need for CSLA.  After attending this class and seeing the examples and proof, I'm on the bandwagon.  This class proved the usefulness of CSLA and sold me on giving up writing all the plumbing myself."

"Miguel and Mark have provided one of the best ways to get up to speed using CSLA."

"The best career enhancing training investment I have made in the last 10 years.  Rocky is lucky to have the DUNN team doing this training.  Great stuff - solid, professional and accurate."

The next class is coming up soon: January 29-31, in Atlanta, GA. If you are looking for three days of intense and practical CSLA .NET training this is your chance!

The long-awaited release of VS 2005 SP1 is finally here.

Perhaps most importantly, SP1 rolls up a number of hotfixes that many people have been using for a long time to improve the stability and performance of Visual Studio 2005. I know this is one service pack I'm installing immediately!!

I was recently interviewed by Craig Shoemaker for polymorphicpodcast.com, and that interview is now online for listening.

CSLA .NET version 2.1 is now available for download from www.lhotka.net/cslanet/download.aspx

Please make sure to read the Change log for this release, as there are substantial changes to validation, authorization and other parts of the framework. There are a limited number of breaking changes that may affect your code, so please review the document before attempting to upgrade from 2.0 to 2.1.

The vast majority of the changes in version 2.1 are due to the community feedback from the great members of the online forum. I would like to thank everyone who provided feedback and input into the process!

I submit that this is a good move by Microsoft: making the MSDN Library available for free download.

Some may argue that this devalues the MSDN subscription - but frankly that's silly. The vast majority of the Library is available online anyway, all Microsoft has done here is provided a more convenient way to access the data. It isn't like they decided to give away the software for free! Personally I haven't installed the Library on my machine for well over a year, because I find the web access more convenient.

Dollar per bit, an MSDN subscription is an unbeatable deal for a developer. The ability to get almost every OS, server and development tool for the purposes of development at just over the cost of Visual Studio alone is really quite amazing when you think about it.

Other people will likely argue that this is in response to government actions (the EU in particular). If so, then so be it. I think the EU is out of control and will likely do serious harm to European consumers, and maybe to Microsoft. But the upside for me is that I work for a consulting company, and the more variations on the OS the more time it takes us to build even simple software. Since we charge by the money, it merely means that software for use in the EU will make us more money that software for use in the US or elsewhere. So perhaps I should be rooting for the EU, because in some perverse way they're likely to make me more money?

Regardless, even if Microsoft is releasing the Library free to help mitigate some "openness" issues in the EU, that is only good news for developers who (for some reason) find it hard to get the content over the Internet.

My view is this: I've worked with IBM software, and the lack of an MSDN-equivalent is devastating to productivity. And I've worked with (and continue to work with) open source software, where the lack of decent documentation and organized support materials is infamous. The investment Microsoft has always made around supporting developer productivity through documentation and MSDN is one of its key success factors - at least in the development world. To me, this is just another small step in Microsoft's continuing support for developers on their platform.