The Code Room – Pilot Episode

A must watch for every one interested in .NET development !

In this new reality show, three MSDN event attendees are taken to an inner-city warehouse, equipped with a partially-charged laptop, and tasked with designing and developing an e-commerce Web site.

Workshop at SCONEST

I will be conducting a workshop on "Developing Real World XML Web Services" at SCONEST 2004 (www.ieee.org/sconest).

.NET Security Presentation @ PakCon 2004

On December 23rd I was invited to speak at PakCon2004 (www.pakcon.org). They defined PakCon as
Pak Con – where security matters!

Pak Con is an exclusive cyber security convention, the first initiative of its kind in the history of Pakistan IT scene. Pak Con is the brainchild of a group of capable security professionals who have employed their genius and aptitude to provide an overall extensive and comprehensive experience of information security in the form of a wide-ranging convention on information security. We at Pak Con aim to highlight all the issues related with information security and the problems faced by IT professionals, accurately and in depth. Our objective is to examine flaws with new and current technologies, finding their solutions, covering unique and interesting developments. We are well aware of the fact that there is a high probability to the level of certainty that technology can be converted from a tool of progression into a tool for repression. We intend to curb all the threats of such a nature by developing a sound and effective information security defense system that in turns daunts all hazardous actions. Our strategy is of a bold nature, instead of hiding our face from the reality of the situation, we are willing to confront all the dangers facing the IT community and provide them definite resolutions.

I was there to speak on .NET Security and How to develop enterprise scale secure applications. I had 50 minute time slot followed by 10 mins Q/A, the session went well and I belive audience enjoyed it. I focused on some of the core functionalities in .NET Security API, like Authentication/Authorization and CAS. I also showed a sample code snippet using IIdentity interface.

Code

and presentation are made available at PakCon web Site.

Imagine Cup Launch event at Karachi University

Event at CSKU INETA went fine. We introduced Imagine Cup to the audience and received a positive response from them. The presentation can be found in the Content Repository section of this website. We are also able to distribute goodies (PDC KIT bags, CodeZone magazines and couple of Content rich CDs) to the audience (thanks to Microsoft Pakistan and DotNetWizards).

Imagine it and win!

Another cool reason to enter Imagine Cup!
.
Register for Imagine Cup and get free downloads of VS.NET 2003 and Microsoft Office One Note 2003.

IMGINation continues.....

.

More On Imagine Cup

Want to know how to sign up for IMAGINE CUP visit:
http://thespoke.joshland.org/

Can you IMAGINE it!

Imagine cup is a premier programming competition sponsored by Microsoft. This year we are introducing Imagine Cup to Pakistan.

About Imagine Cup
Imagine Cup is a technology contest that provides an outlet for students to explore their technological and artistic interests outside the classroom. Throughout this year Imagine Cup will recognize and celebrate student achievement in technology and art. There are nine very different categories that will give every student a change to participate. The finals are in Yokohama, Japan, an intriguing and stimulating destination for the top student minds from around the world to engage in conversation, debate and competition at the Imagine Cup finals.

This Year’s Theme:

“Imagine a world where Technology Dissolves the Boundaries Between us”
The Imagine Cup 2005 is about dissolving the boundaries between us. Boundaries keep us safe, but we also use them to hide behind in the face of an unfamiliar situation. By dissolving these boundaries- physical, metaphorical, emotional, or intellectual people can unite in a more open-minded world. That’s why we offer this challenge to you, the leaders of tomorrow.

The registration process has already begun from November 1st, 2004. Contest details, rules and regulation and calendar are attached to this email. Please navigate through the documents thoroughly, which contains complete information on this contest. I hope students from your institute will participate in this software competition with full enthusiasm and devotion and we are very much willing to guide and assist you in this world wide technology contest. Microsoft Pakistan had announced to give raffles to all the participants who make into the second round. Feel free to ask any question. Please send all your queries to (your email address here) or visit the following websites for details:

http://www.imaginecup.com
http://www.inetapakistan.org
http://mea.ineta.org

Guest Speaker Session at MAJU

Recently I was invited at Mohammad Ali Jinnah University as a guest speaker. The audience mainly comprasied of final year students. My talk focused around Distributed Computing and how it can be done with XML Web Services. I also discussed the history of legacy technologies like DCOM/CORBA/RMI etc and the problems associated with their use. I discussed information systems interoperability related scenarios and told the audience that there is a lot of business value associated with developing applications that are based on open standards like http,xml and soap.
I also told them that how XML Web Services makes sense for enterprise scale applications and how do they solve the problems posed by legacy systems. Overall the audience was good and i recieved a couple of good responses.
In the end i was presented a boquet and a table clock as a token of appreciation from two students (one who asked the best question and the other one i forgot).

Dr. Abdul Wahab (ex. Director,IBA) was also present there and offered kind words and refreshments. It was great to talk to him and listen to what he had to say about the current state of affairs in HEC.

ps: The presentation is available here :

EmpowerISV Launch at Karachi

On November 26th Microsoft Pakistan launched its EmpowerISV program in Karachi. I was invited as an MoC of the event. I accepted this invitation becaue it gave me an oppurtunity to introduce and promote INETA Pakistan. Event was attended by number of reprsentatives from local ISV community as well as , Mr. Jawwadur Rehman- Microsoft Pakistan Country Manager, Mr.Vaqar Khamisani - ISV Manager Microsoft Pakistan, Ms. Jehan Ara -Presdient PASHA and Mr Butt of PSEB.
The event was well covered by local media and I was told the footings were also run on GEO TV.

BBC NEWS | Technology | 'Blog' picked as word of the year

BBC NEWS | Technology | 'Blog' picked as word of the year: "
'Blog' picked as word of the year
Blogs proved useful to many during the US election
The term 'blog' has been chosen as the top word of 2004 by a US dictionary publisher. "