Gulfskyscraper is up!

New look Gulfskyscraper is up and running!
Thanks to Imran Sami for the design and art work. Feel free to provide your feedback, comments and critiques.

Gulf's Architect Community

Tomorrow we will be launching first Architect Community of the Gulf during gulf geek event. I am waiting to hear on the exact time for the introduction slot. We will be running an introductory video and then a small slide deck during architect track. If you plan to attend Gulf Geeks then do drop by and say hello. Its always great to meet you all!

VSTO and VSTO SE compatability issues

I was working on few demos based on VSTO so that I can present them during GulfGeeks conference later this week.
I am using VSTO/VSTO SE on top of VS 2005. All the add-in projects are working absolutely fine. The problem comes when i want to use VS 2005 project templates for document level office projects. I am unable to have a design time experience even on the projects that I created before installing VSTO SE. But the interesting thing is that I am able to run old vsto based solutions, that means that run time is behaving fine. I have posted query on a private MVP new group.
I believe all such issues will be taken care of by the time Orcas is released!

The NextGen UG Podcast

Gosh! I forgot to put this podcast link on my blog. I met Dave & Richard of NextGenUG @ MVP summit and they did a podcast recording on an informal discussion with us four Gulf MVPs (myself, Mustafa, Bashar & Loye). It was nice little technical conversation over the dinner table.
You can download the podcast here

Gulf Geeks Conference

I will soon be working on slide deck as well code demonstrations for Gulf Geeks Conference. Scheduled for next week in Dubai, UAE. I believe it will be a very exciting experience. I have fond memories of last years event and i am hoping that this time it will be even bigger and better.

.Net 3.5 with Orcas!

It wasnt too long ago that I was talking about .Net 3.0 being a new offering from Microsoft's technology stack. Guess what? Now Microsoft is ready with .Net 3.5 that is going to be released with Visual Studio Orcas later this year. I would not go in the details instead will let you download the CTP bits from MSDN.

If you are wondering whats included in technology stack with .Net 3.5. Then i will suggest you to read this blog post by Thom Robbins.

Amazing stuff! Lets get started!

Connected Systems Group @ MVP Summit 2007

Connected Systems group @ MS Campus Building 43 during MVP Summit 2007. You can see Shy Cohen on my left side, Dennis & John Shu are in the back row towards right side. Marjan is standing behind me.

MVP Summit Update

It has been really great attending Microsoft MVP Summit 2007 here @ Seattle, USA. Hearing Bill Gates deliver a key note was a real exciting experience. Over all community experience as well as interaction with product teams has been awesome. Today all the connected system/Biz Talk MVPs spent a day on campus with the product team it self. It was really great to hear on technologies ranging from WCF & BizTalk to RFID.

MVP Global Summit 2007

I am attending MVP Global Summit 2007 in Seattle, Washington, USA. I reached here last night and today was the first day of the conference. I am done with the registration and just came back from the regional team dinner. Its been great so far. I am really looking forward to Bill Gates key note tomorrow morning. Its going to be an amazing experience.

Seattle is great with cool weather, comfortable and easy going people and a serene environment. It really reminded me of Geneva, Switzerland.

I Will post more updates. for now you can check out some pictures @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/hammadrajjoub/