Today the world’s most popular browser just got a whole lot better.

IE8 launched in English, German, Simplified Chinese and Japanese, and then follow with another 21 languages in mid-September.  You can download IE8 Beta 2 now at http://www.microsoft.com/ie8.

 

What does this have to do with you? 

It starts with you, a Microsoftie.  You are passionate about what software can do for people.  You use the web A LOT.  I want to make sure you (a) had an opportunity to use the beta and enjoy the benefits, (b) make the product the very best it can be through your usage/feedback; and (c) evangelize it to your friends, family, and customers. 

 

The bottom line is that IE8 is faster, easier and safer.  To get a feel for the new IE8 experience, check out the videos here, download the product, and try it out.   Here some new features:

 

·         Accelerators - Highlight an address, click the blue button and hover over “Map” or try Right Clicking a Page and Choosing Translate with Windows Live. Check out the new IE Gallery that has cool accelerators and slices from Digg to FaceBook to Ebay

·         Web Slices - Visit Live Search, search for “Seattle Weather” (or major city relevant to your region), hover over the rich search result and click the green button.  Click it to add a Weather Web Slice to your Favorites Bar.

·         Search Suggestions - Go to your Instant Search Box (top right) and type a search to see search suggestions in action.

·         Navigation - Use the new Smart Address Bar to quickly find sites you’ve visited before.  The Smart Address Bar searches your history, favorites AND feeds for pages that match what you’re typing.

·          Security:  IE8 has the best security features in the market today from its updated Smartscreen phishing and malware filter to domain highlighting to the industry leading cross-site scripting filter so I feel my machines, my identity and my family will be safer on the Internet.

Download link: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/beta/worldwide-sites.aspx

We, people from various Microsoft User Groups in Kerala , decided to move all MS communities under one brand. Hence we will be moving to a new site with more actions ( such as in person sites and launches). Because of this decision, we will be shutting down the t-mug site soon.

New site is : http://k-mug.org

You can download the service pack 1 from below links:

Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1

Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 SP1

Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Express with SP1

Microsoft Team Foundation Server 2008 SP1

I published my latest book reivew in my website. The book title is “MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-502): Microsoft® .NET Framework 3.5—Windows® Presentation Foundation”. You can read it at http://www.ninethsense.com/content/view/60/49/

Today, I reached 1000 points by crossing 100 posts list and reached ‘Senior Dev’ level.

Happy to see kidoos.net - Technology Portal is a success.

Here got two exciting resource galleries for developers:

MSDN Code Gallery

Visual Studio Gallery

Download and share sample applications, code snippets, and other resources with the developer community.

Read my article about LINQ at Kidoos.net

URL: http://kidoos.net/content/StartLINQ.aspx

I posted my latest article Employee’s Manual of Communication in kidoos articles section. Please read and tell me suggestions.

You can read the article with URL: http://kidoos.net/content/EmployeeCommunicationManual.aspx

The wait is over. SQL Server 2008 has been released and is ready to deliver a rich set of integrated services that enable you to do more with your data, such as query, search, synchronize, report, and analyze.

Click here for more details.

A good page on architecture comparison between asp.net and struts framework.


Read here.

Summary: Learn about the similarities and differences between ASP.NET on the .NET Framework and Struts on Java 2 Enterprise Edition; and the features that each provides to solve common developer problems. Learn about the advantages and disadvantages of each, and the utility that they bring to next-generation Web development.