Over the past year, I've been discussing some of the various technologies found inside SQL Server 2005. Three of these technologies are CLR integration, HTTP endpoints, and Service Broker. (Articles on these topics were published, respectively, in the November 2005, March 2006, and November 2006 editions of the DNDJ.) Each of these is a powerful tool in its own right, and can be used to great effect in almost any SQL installation. When used together, however, they become much more powerful.

Scott and Carl talk about digital identity and related technologies. Hanselminutes is a weekly audio talk show with noted Web developer and technologist Scott Hanselman hosted by Carl Franklin. Scott discusses utilities and tools, gives practical how-to advice, and discusses ASP.NET or Windows issues and workarounds.

A lot is changing in .NET this year, but it all feels like progress. Now that Vista is released, we get to stop using Community Technical Previews (mostly) of things like WPF, WF, and WCF. The ASP.NET group has been busy bringing us AJAX tools that take a wild technology and pretty much turn it into point and click. I recall doing presentations shortly after Google Maps came out when the world was just discovering what AJAX meant and still wondering how it could be leveraged. In the demonstration on custom control development, I walked through the steps needed to build a control that updated behind the scenes with AJAX.

Infragistics, the world's largest publisher of reusable presentation layer development tools for Windows Forms, ASP.NET, Tablet PC and Java, has today released the highly anticipated NetAdvantage for .NET 2007 Volume 1. NetAdvantage for .NET 2007 Volume 1 allows developers to quickly build applications and style user interfaces powered by NetAdvantage controls, providing both standardized UIs, such as the new Office 2007 UI, as well as the ability to create professional custom styles. A new NetAdvantage AppStylist tool is now provided for rapidly styling ASP.NET applications, while the NetAdvantage AppStylist tool for Windows Forms now includes Express Styling. Significant enhancements have been added for both Windows Forms and ASP.NET controls, inclusive of US Section 508 Compliance across the entire toolset, 64-bit system support for Windows Vista, and the new Vista Aero (Glass) style.

Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, Ajax for short, is a Web development technique used to aid the creation of interactive Web applications. Instead of needing to reload an entire webpage with each update from the server, Ajax allows a JavaScript engine to exchange data with the server behind the scenes as well as update parts of the existing webpage within the user's browser. Ajax allows webpages to be more responsive, usable, and interactive.

Skyway Software, the award winning provider of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) design and delivery solutions, and GT Software, a leading provider of rapid SOA development tools for mainframes, today announced a formal partnership encompassing sales, marketing, and product integration. The combination of Skyway SOA Platform and GT Software's Ivory product offers a new element to the SOA marketplace -- a solution that can build new services, assemble existing services, while managing and governing reuse across multiple platforms from any type of data source, including mainframes.

Microsoft has announced at the Interoperability Summit in Brussels that its virtualization format technology will now be available under its Open Specification Promise (OSP), an irrevocable promise from Microsoft to every individual and organization in the world to make use of this patented technology for free, now and forever when implementing specified open standards.

Microsoft's Vista-optimized Virtual PC 2007 is out. Microsoft imagines people using it to run legacy Windows environments on Vista as well as use it for software development and testing. Remember now, Microsoft says low-end versions of Vista and Vista's data encryption mustn't be virtualized. Otherwise, the company's Software Assurance licensees can run four virtual machines. The widgetry supports 64-bit Vista.

Microsoft released SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 on Monday, saying the thing will connect and integrate with Vista and Office 2007. Microsoft also said it was lifting its bar on virtualization and letting licenses of the Enterprise Edition of SQL Server 2005 run an unlimited number of virtual instances.

SkillSoft PLC , a leading provider of e-learning and performance support solutions, is presenting its latest approaches for open learning services today at the Aviation Industry CBT (Computer-Based Training) Committee (AICC) meeting in Phoenix, Arizona. An international association of technology-based training professionals, the AICC develops guidelines for the aviation industry in the development, delivery, and evaluation of CBT and related training technologies.

Microsoft Corp. today announced the availability of six new deployment tools that will help expedite businesses' migration to Windows Vista(TM). The recently released tools are the Microsoft(R) Solution Accelerator for Business Desktop Deployment (BDD) 2007, the Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) 5.0, Windows Vista Hardware Assessment 1.0, the Volume Activation Management Tool, the Key Management Service for Windows Server(R) 2003 and Virtual PC 2007.

Global 360, a leading provider of business process management (BPM), intelligence and optimization solutions, today renewed its commitment to providing customers with tightly integrated BPM and process intelligence solutions through the utilization of Microsoft's .NET environment and industry-leading Microsoft applications which include extended support for Office 2007 targeted for May 2007.

IBM has announced the next generation of tape virtualization solutions, with the introduction of the IBM System Storage TS7700 Virtualization Engine, a mainframe virtual-tape offering designed to improve tape processing while also supporting business continuity through Grid connectivity and automated replication.

AccuRev Inc. has announced that Alaska Airlines has standardized on AccuRev for process-centric software configuration management (SCM). Known for embracing innovative technology to improve the customer experience, Alaska Airlines chose AccuRev to be at the center of its best-of-breed application lifecycle management (ALM) strategy.

Wyse Technology, the global leader in thin computing, today announced the availability of the first in a series of Thin Computing Reference Platforms designed for major industry players looking to incorporate thin-computing technology into their product portfolios. The first Thin Computing Reference Platform from Wyse is targeted at supporting VMware's Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), called The Wyse Reference Platform for Enterprise Desktop Virtualization. Wyse also announced that NEC will be the first co-development partner leveraging this new reference platform. In a related announcement, NEC is introducing the NEC US100 desktop terminal powered by Wyse Thin OS.

Novell and Intel say they have the drivers that will let Windows run unmodified in a Xen virtual environment on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 on Intel servers fitted with Intel's Virtualization Technology. They said the paravirtualized network and block device drivers work with Windows Server 2000 and 2003 and XP. Novell is sponsoring a virtualization pilot program supporting customers that want to fully virtualized Windows on SUSE. The new drivers will be available to them first then made generally available later this year.

across the multiple applications and serversthat are often involved in composite SOA applications. Intersperse 6.0delivers a readily customizable user interface to provide a visual,role-based display of the wide range of information needed for managing SOAdeployments. And with this release, Intersperse 6.0 now supports Tomcatand SAP NetWeaver and offers expanded coverage for WebLogic, WebSphere,JBoss, and .NET.

Exigen Services, one of the largest application outsourcing firms in Central and Eastern Europe, and StarSoft Development Labs, a leading provider of software development outsourcing services in Russia and Ukraine, today announced their merger. The combination of Exigen Services' EU operating base, expertise in technology- driven application outsourcing and solution delivery services for large enterprises, and StarSoft's access to Russian talent pool as well as world- class expertise in Agile software development, forms a next generation outsourcing partner with a comprehensive portfolio of offerings for Global 2000 clients across Europe and North America.

Sun said Wednesday to stand by because the first part of its OpenDocument Format (ODF) plug-in for Microsoft Office 2003 should be available - God willing and creek don't rise - in the next few days. The thing is called the StarOffice 8 Conversion Technology Preview because it's early access widgetry and currently only works with Word (.doc/odt). Office spreadsheets and PowerPoint should be convertible by April.

Red Hat says the Swedish Armed Forces, which hasn't taken the field since the early eighteenth century, is going to join the Red Hat-Microsoft skirmish and migrate its servers from NT to Red Hat Linux for security reasons. Red Hat has so far taken almost 200 servers and is running applications developed in-house. Software compatibility and ease of migration were also cited as reasons. Meanwhile, Red Hat has named Gery Messer president of Asia Pacific, a new position reporting to CFO Charlie Peters and executive VP of global sales Alex Pinchev. Messer, who's been running the oriental arm of EMC's Technology Solutions Group, launched SAP Korea then joined Deloitte Consulting in 1996 and ran its operation in South East Asia, before taking on Deloitte Korea.

Infragistics, the world leader in presentation layer development tools, is pleased to announce the immediate availability of their ASP.NET AJAX Extensions Release Candidate compatible tools. The fully supported download of

Microsoft has today made SaaS architectural guidance available through a sample application, aimed at illustrating the key architectural principles behind SaaS. The application is an implementation of the guidance that the Microsoft Architecture Team has been publishing over the past year into a reference application and accompanying source code.

webMethods has joined the Interop Vendor Alliance, designed to better connect people, data and diverse systems through enhanced interoperability with Microsoft technology. The organization serves as a collaborative forum for developing and sharing common technology models, facilitates scenario-based testing of multi-vendor solutions, and works to communicate additional best practices to users.

Google's threat to Office is supposed to be unleashed 'soon' according to a story in Monday's Boston Globe. Google VP and general manager of the enterprise David Girouard in town giving a speech to the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council said that Google's packaging up a suite of web-based software products to sell to businesses that includes e-mail, calendar, word processing, spreadsheet, instant messaging and voice-over-IP.

By working closely with Microsoft to ensure constant compatibility in anticipation of the official release of ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX RTM, Infragistics successfully positioned itself to be able to announce today the immediate availability of its ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX RTM compatible tools.

Infragistics, the world leader in presentation layer development tools, is pleased to announce the immediate availability of their ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX RTM compatible tools. The fully supported download of NetAdvantage for ASP.NET with ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX compatibility was announced on January 23 at 12:20 EST, 2007.

telerik announced the availability of Service Pack 1 for radControls for ASP.NET Q4 2006. With of this volume update telerik offers complete interoperability with the Official release of ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 just one day after it was shipped.

Servigistics, the leading strategic service management solution provider, announced today that its Strategic Service Management solutions are integrated to Oracle(R) E-Business Suite using Oracle Fusion Middleware. This combined solution will enable companies across diverse industries to significantly enhance the performance of after- sales service operations and provide unrivalled visibility into the service network. Servigistics is a member of the Oracle PartnerNetwork.

Wal-Mart is gonna be taking some of those SUSE Linux Enterprise Server subscription certificates that Microsoft agreed to pass out as part of its alliance with Novell. It's unclear whether Wal-Mart, a big Microsoft user, the alma mater of Microsoft's COO Kevin Turner, and a new account to Novell, is paying for them.

Platform Solutions Inc. (PSI), the mainframe wannabe whose Itanium-based servers can run IBM's z/OS mainframe operating system as well as Windows, Unix and Linux, has sued IBM for antitrust, charging Big Blue with, among other things, tying the sale of z/OS to the sale of its mainframe hardware, a serious antitrust no-no and something IBM is specifically forbidden to do under the lingering terms of its now-dissolved 1956 consent decree with the United States government.

On a roll after its détente with Intel, Sun Tuesday came in with respectable numbers for a change and announced that - for some illusive reason - Guernsey-based KKR Private Equity Investors LP had put $700 million in the company in the form of convertible notes. Sun, which has close to $3.5 billion at hand, said it would use the money for growth. Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz described the investment as 'an opportunistic transaction.'

Steve Marx, Technical Evangelist for ASP.NET AJAX at MIcrosoft shipped the first public release of his own product to coincide with ASP.NET AJAX 1.0. The project is called PHP for Microsoft AJAX Library, a small library to help PHP applications make use of the Microsoft AJAX Library. The current release supports creating web service proxies in PHP code such that the Microsoft AJAX Library (a free download from http://ajax.asp.net) can call them from client-side code.

Adobe Flex and Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX (previously code-named ?Atlas?) were rated tops in security when rated by users of these popular languages, according to Evans Data Corporation's newly released 2007 Scripting Languages - Developers Choice Report. The research is based on developers ranking scripting languages that they use across thirteen distinct attributes.

Microsoft's Scott Guthrie announced the ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 release in his blog. Guthrie said,'It will dramatically simplify adding rich AJAX functionality to ASP.NET 2.0 applications, and is going to significantly improve user experience for customers.' ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 delivers a rich client-side AJAX library that provides cross platform, cross browser support for a core JavaScript type-system, JSON-based network serialization stack, JavaScript component/control model, as well as common client JavaScript helper classes.

Microsoft today announced the official release to Web of ASP.NET AJAX 1.0. This tool provides Web developers with the essential tools to simplify building next-generation, AJAX-style Web applications through what it calls 'seamless integration with the .NET Framework and Microsoft platform.'

Microsoft Corp. today detailed three new methods for customers looking to buy, upgrade or license multiple copies of Windows Vista(TM), the new operating system that will be available worldwide on Jan. 30. Windows(R) Anytime Upgrade, Windows Vista Family Discount and Windows Marketplace will provide customers with greater flexibility in obtaining the new operating system and will ensure they have the edition of Windows Vista that matches their needs.

When a project like Mono approaches a major release like version 1.2, the code is forked: copied into a separate branch in version control. In one copy, the 'main' branch, work continues normally, while the code in the other 'release' branch goes through a series of freezes leading up to its release.

Don Ferguson, who guided IBM's strategy and architecture for SOA and Web services, and co-authored many of the initial Web service specifications, has been hired by Microsoft. He is now Microsoft Technical Fellow in Platforms and Strategy, in the Office of the CTO.

Intel came out at the Consumer Electronics Show with its first mainstream quad chip, a part branded a Core 2 Quad for the occasion and made immediately available. There are also two other new quads, giving Intel a total of nine versions of the widget for the desktop and enterprise markets. AMD has none yet but is expected to have a superior design when its Budapest chip arrives in a few months with the four cores integrated on a single sliver of silicon rather than two dual-cores soldered together and so have lower latency and require less power.