From time to time, I need to lookup chinese translation in MDBG. And because I’m using IE8 more and more lately, I’ve decided to create an accelerator for that.

After reading Writing IE8 accelerator in 15 minutes, I’ve spent said 15 minutes to create it. All it takes is a very basic knowledge of xml and html. So, here is it, a completely unofficial MDBG accelerator:

Add ‘Translate with MDBG’ to IE8

Warning: this IE8 accelerator will obviously only work in an IE8+ browser.

After installation, it looks like this:

Strangely enough, the official web site of upcoming PDC09 doesn’t allow to bookmark interesting sessions on-site, so I’ll gather all interesting stuff in this article hoping that the pages behind the links will feature video recordings of the sessions after the conference.

There are only sessions interesting to me, somewhat sorted accordingly.

Directly related to my job

• REST Services Security Using the Microsoft .NET Access Control Service
  ^ at last they do something on this topic
• Building Live Media Viewing Experiences Using Internet Information Services (IIS) Smooth Streaming and the Smooth Streaming Player SDK
  ^ ok, now there is an SDK…
• ADO.NET Data Services: What’s New with the RESTful Data Services Framework
  ^ by Pablo Castro! don’t miss that one
• Scaling Your Data Tier with Microsoft Project Code Name “Velocity”
  ^ hopefully news about Velocity
• Evolving ADO.NET Entity Framework in .NET 4 and Beyond
  ^ hopefully news about EF
• Extending Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.x
  ^ hopefully, they’ve at last understood that deploying of a web app cannot be done with XCOPY (like they’ve said some years ago) and did something on this topic
• Custom Behaviors for Advanced Microsoft Silverlight UI Effects
  ^ already doing that stuff, but let’s see how to do it ideologically correct
• Microsoft Silverlight 3: Advanced Performance and Profiling Techniques
  ^ its Seema! –> must see

Interesting stuff that can be helpful

• Making Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Fly
• Introduction to Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 StreamInsight
• Networking and Web Services in Silverlight
• SketchFlow: Prototyping to the Rescue
• Power Tools for Debugging
• Application Server Extensibility with Microsoft Project Code Name “Dublin” and Microsoft .NET Framework 4
• Microsoft Visual Studio Lab Management to the Build Setup Rescue
• Microsoft Expression Blend 3 for Developers: Tips, Tricks and Best Practices
• Rx: Reactive Extensions for .NET

To better understand general roadmaps of Microsoft technologies

• Microsoft Silverlight Roadmap and Futures
• The Future of Database Development with SQL Azure
• Building Amazing Business Applications with Microsoft Silverlight and Microsoft .NET RIA Services
• Advanced Topics for Building Large-Scale Applications with Microsoft Silverlight
• A Computing Platform That Scales
• Bridging the Gap from On-Premises to the Cloud

Just some random fun

• DirectX11 DirectCompute
• Building Data-Driven Applications Using Microsoft Project Code Name “Quadrant” and Microsoft Project Code Name ”M”
• Managing Development to Inspire Innovation and Create Great User Experiences
  ^ despite of the lame title, it is Seadragon Group Manager Bill Crow who will talk about it. I hope he’ll tell us how they allowed the DeepZoom API to go to RTW (because it looks extremely alpha-ish and not thought through enough.. ough…  ugh… gh… English language is sometimes funny too).
• Microsoft Perspectives on the Future of Programming

I like the format of “personal victories” when describing milestones of self-improvement in some area. I first stumbled upon it in the post about learning Chinese.

So I want to compile my own list of 15 small personal victories in a life of a software developer.

Continue reading “Developer’s Personal Victories”