Composite Application Guidance for WPF and Silverlight V2 February 2009 is Available

Microsoft has released the Composite Application Guidance for WPF and Silverlight V2 February 2009.

Brief Description (from download site)
The Composite Application Guidance for WPF and Silverlight is designed to help you more easily build enterprise-level Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and Silverlight client applications. This guidance will help you design and build flexible composite client applications.

Overview (from download site)
The Composite Application Guidance for WPF and Silverlight is designed to help you more easily build enterprise-level Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and Silverlight client applications. It will help you design and build enterprise-level composite WPF client applications—composite applications use loosely coupled, independently evolvable pieces that work together in the overall application.

The guidance includes a reference implementation, reusable library code (named the Composite Application Library), documentation, QuickStart tutorials, and hands-on labs.

This version of the Composite Application Guidance is designed to help you build WPF and Silverlight applications that have a single code base.

Get it here.

New Patterns and Practices Application Architecture Training Videos

The Patterns and Practices Application Architecture Team has released a nice set of videos to accompany their Application Architect Guide.

Overview (from Codeplex)
The "How To" videos step through performing key tasks related to Application Architecture. The "Explained" videos provide a short presentation that describe different aspects of Application Architecture. Each video is a few minutes long.

List of videos:

Introduction
Video: Train the Trainer - Application Architecture Guide 2.0 (length: 15:19, size: 8.11 MB)
Video: Introduction to Application Architecture Guide 2.0 (length: 4:01, size: 2.62 MB)

Guide Walkthrough
Video: Introduction to Application Architecture Guide 2.0 (length: 4:01, size: 2.62 MB)
Video: Architecture Meta Frame (length: 3:22, size: 1.70 MB)
Video: Architecture Styles (length: 1:41, size: 1.01 MB)
Video: Canonical Reference Application (length: 6:06, size: 2.96 MB)
Video: Quality Attributes (length: 3:13, size: 1.74 MB)

Video: Presentation Layer (length: 2:27, size: 1.44 MB)
Video: Business Layer (length: 3:11, size: 1.65 MB)
Video: Data Access Layer (length: 2:52, size: 1.65 MB)
Video: Service Layer (length: 2:50, size: 1.51 MB)
Video: Mobile Application (length: 3:49, size: 2.01 MB)
Video: Rich Internet Application (RIA) (length: 3:30, size: 1.68 MB)
Video: Web Application (length: 3:36, size: 1.89 MB)

How To
Video: How To - Design Business Components (length: 5:34, size: 3.91 MB)
Video: How To - Design Business Entities (length: 5:00, size: 4.02 MB)
Video: How To - Design Business Workflow Components (length: 5:58, size: 4.08 MB)
Video: How To - Design Caching for Web Application (length: 5:27, size: 3.75 MB)
Video: How To - Design Data Access Layer (length: 5:35, 4.07 MB)
Video: How To - Design Exception Management (length: 5:16, 3.83 MB)
Video: How To - Design Presentation Layer (length: 6:13, 4.15 MB)
Video: How To - Design UI Components (length: 5:08, size: 3.90 MB)
Video: How To - Structure Your Application (length: 5:04, size: 2.39 MB)
Video: How To - Use the MVC Pattern in ASP.NET (length: 5:34, size: 3.8 MB)
Video: How To - Use the MVP Pattern in ASP.NET (length: 5:20, size: 3.9 MB)

Explained
Video: Explained - Designing Services (length: 5.04, 4.05 MB)
Video: Explained - What is the MVC Pattern? (length: 6:25, size: 3.7 MB)
Video: Explained - What is the MVP Pattern? (length: 6:24, size: 3.7 MB)

Watch them here.

Programming Entity Framework Book Review

This is definitely the book to have by your side if you are programming with the ADO.NET Entity Framework 1.0. The author touches on a ton of subjects that include: Data Binding with Windows Forms and WPF Applications, Using Stored Procedures with the EDM, LINQ to Entities Queries, Customizing Entities, Using the ASP.NET EntityDataSource Control, Using Entities with Web and WCF Services, Using the Entity Framework in n-Tier ASP.NET Applications and n-Tier Client-Side Applications, Handling Entity Framework Exceptions, Performance, Security, Multithreaded Applications, and much more. There is a lot covered in this book. One of the coolest things about this book is the amount of new possibilities it introduces. Many which I would not have considered without seeing them in this book. I also like that the book covers the architectural aspects of integrating EF into several different types of architectures. The author drills into each subject enough to get a thorough understand. With all the material covered, that is rare, but the book is an 800 page whopper. I have been working with the EF 1.0 since its release in August and can say that this book has more information jammed into it than all the other resources I have been using combined. The book includes VB.NET and C# code examples. The book has a support site (http://www.learnentityframework.com/) with the code samples and the database scripts available. The downloaded code is also in both VB.NET and C#. It is well organized and very usable. The book is very well organized and is a good read. The author has a good writing style. All in all, I do not think you can do without this book if you are going to do anything besides play around with the Entity Framework.

Olympus Stylus 1030SW 10.1MP Digital Camera Review

When we go on trips we like to snorkel, hike, sail, go caving, etc.  A lot of things that include water.  We had been using an older version of the SeaLife ReefMaster Underwater 35mm Camera.  It was great for snorkeling, but a little bulky for boating trips, jungle hikes, and caving. We decided to try the Olympus Stylus 1030SW 10.1MP Digital Camera with 3.6x Optical Wide Angle Zoom (Silver).  The other camera we use, the Fujifilm Finepix S6000fd 6.3MP Digital Camera with 10.7x Wide-Angle Optical Zoom with Picture Stabilization is sealed to protect from dirt and sand, but it isn't waterproof.  The Finepix S6000fd is much more powerful than the Olympus Stylus 1030SW, but the Olympus Stylus 1030SW impressed the heck out of us on our first trip with it.  The trip to Turks and Caicos that almost didn't happen, which you can read about here. The battery lasted almost a whole day.  Having 2 charged batteries would be perfect for all day heavy use.  I would order an extra battery and an Olympus STRAP FLOAT ORANGE with the camera. This camera will be great for those adventures that you are sure to get wet and muddy on.  We used to lug our SeaLife ReefMaster around or by a cheap disposible that we could trash.  This would have been a great camera to have on the Maid of the Mist. We met a guy who said he has had his 1030SW camera for several years and that it performed great.  He has had it on over 70 snorkeling and diving excursions. Check out the product description below.  This camera can take a beating. Product Description (from Amazon) The Stylus 1030SW is designed for active people who want a tough camera that can keep up with their on-the-go lifestyles. The Shockproof and Crushproof casing is a durable metal body that has an innovative shock-absorbing construction with a floating circuit board that can protect the Stylus 1030SW from drops up to 6.6 feet and withstand 220 lbs of pressure. If you ever wanted to take pictures of aquatic life now you can, the Stylus 1030SW has Waterproof seals and gaskets that keeps water out so you can take pictures as deep as 33 feet underwater. When you're skiing or snowboarding you will enjoy the Freezeproof and Digital Image Stabilization features that allows you to take perfect photos of fast moving subjects in cold climates up to -10c/14f. With the 10.1 MP setting you can capture high quality images and then easily view it on the 2.7" HyperCrystal II LCD display at extra-wide viewing angles even in direct sunlight. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so I will let them speak for the camera's quality.  The camera also takes great video.  Check out our friendly turtle swimming by below the pictures.. Click the picture to see a larger version...  The last picture has a humming bird in it, which I took about 10 feet away.  Zoomed in much further than I expected. Landscape...   One thing you need to be aware of is the Olympus Stylus 1050SW 10.1MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom (Silver) is the newer release of the Olympus Stylus series, but has poorer specs. It is only water proof to 10 feet versus the 33 feet the 1030SW is capable of handling.