Announcements

Merry Christmas

2008-12-24T15:21:04Z

Merry Christmas to everyone at Vista Squad. Thanks to all that made 2008 a fantastic year for us as a user group. We have a great lineup for next year which will all be published shortly so stay tuned for a cracker 2009!

Mission to Moscow - 21st January 2009

2008-12-23T18:48:00Z

A chance to see the best in XNA and Windows Mobile all in one. We have two stellar speakers lined up for January's meeting. Paulo Barone has kindly volunteered to present on XNA game studio followed by Jason Langridge demonstrating the latest in Windows Mobile.

Directions to Microsoft

Agenda

6pm - 6.30pm: Arrive and introductions
6.30pm - 7:30pm: XNA Game Studio (Paulo Barone)
7.30pm - 8:15: Break, food and drinks
8:15pm - 9:15: Windows Mobile (Jason Langridge)
9:15pm: Vista Ultimate Giveaway, Wrap up!

Please leave a comment in the blog post to let us know you are coming. Hope to see you there! :)

Hyper-V Video Available

2008-11-29T10:04:03Z

Jeremy Pack's presentation at this month's Vista Squad is now available for your viewing pleasure.

Hyper-V by Jeremy Pack By Vista Squad
View in HD Download 360p Version Visit Vista Squad's ExposureRoom Videos Page

Slides Available from Visual Studio 2010 Talk

2008-11-26T19:50:00Z

Jason Zander has kindly made his slides from his presentation at this month's meetup. This goes well with the video we posted earlier. Keep your eyes peeled as I'm busy uploading the video from Jeremy Pack's talk as I write this.

Slides download

Video from Visual Studio 2010 Presentation

2008-11-25T08:51:28Z

Ian Smith has kindly edited and produced a video for the talk given by Matt Carter and Jason Zander. Much appreciated!

Visual Studio 2010 By Vista Squad
View in HD Download 360p Version Visit Vista Squad's ExposureRoom Videos Page

Jeremy Pack Slides

2008-11-24T20:11:22Z

Jeremy kindly sent over his slides from the Hyper-V talk he gave at our last presentation. Thanks again for a great talk!

Slides download

Vista Squad in 2009

2008-11-20T15:52:00Z

It's fast approaching that time of year where we at Vista Squad start to discuss the future direction of Vista Squad and top of the "to-do" list is to start putting together a list of topics that we'd like to find speakers for. We already have a great line up coming together for the early part of 2009 but given that we are a user group community it seems only right to reach out to you, dear member, to find out what floats your proverbial boat?

Over the last 6 months we've really started to mature as a user group, we're frequently pulling in great speakers and with that our community has grown.

What will keep you coming back in 2009?

Is there a particular technology that you want to hear about?
Do you think we covered something this year that you would like to hear more about?
Do you want to present to us at Vista Squad next year? Please get in touch if you think you have something you would like to share with the community.
Do you think there is something that perhaps you think we don't do so well? Well... now's your chance to get your voice heard!

We'd love to hear from you - Either drop a comment into this blog or, if you would prefer, please feel free to message me.

Thinking about how we've come on in 2008, I for one am really looking forward to 2009, I think it's going to be a great year for Vista Squad and I hope to see as many of you there with us!

And that's all folks (for 2008)!

2008-11-20T15:34:00Z

Wasn't last night a great session? A fantastic insight into Visual Studio 2010 followed by a great presentation on the benefits and pitfalls of Microsoft Hyper-V, What a great way to sign off 2008!

Just a quick reminder that there is no session in December. We recognise that everyone, including ourselves, has so many other things to be getting on with over the festive period that we'll be taking a break. But rest assured we will be back!

January 21st is the first session of 2009, details to be confirmed nearer the time!

Vista Squad - 2010: A Rosario Odyssey - 19th November

2008-10-16T12:21:00Z

Exciting times at Vista Squad these days - This month we've got a treat for the developers among us!

Last month we gave you robots, this month Microsoft Corp's Jason Zander (General Manager of the Visual Studio Developer Division) will be popping in to discuss the 2010 road map for all things Visual Studio "Rosario" and .Net Framework 4.0 related - cool!

For the IT Pros, Jeremy Pack from HP will be in to discuss Hyper-V and System Centre Virtual Machine Machine 2008. He has the distinct advantage of being a Microsoft partner and developing solutions in this field and should be a compelling talk.

Directions to Microsoft

Agenda

6pm - 6.30pm: Arrive and introductions
6.30pm - 7:30pm: Visual Studio Roadmap
7.30pm - 8:15: Break, food and drinks
8:15pm - 9:15: Hyper-V and System Centre Virtual Machine Manager 2008
9:15pm: Vista Ultimate Giveaway, Wrap up!

Please drop a comment below (you have to be signed in) to let us know you're coming - we're expecting a big crowd for this one!

Vista Squad "Rise of the Machines" 15th Oct 2008

2008-09-18T09:49:00Z

Hey Everyone! The next Vista Squad meeting has been booked! 15th of October at the London Victoria offices of Microsoft with two great talks lined up.

Topics this month:

Software. Services. Robots: Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio by Paul Foster
To UAC or not to UAC by Aaron Parker & Ray Booysen

Directions to Microsoft

Agenda

6pm - 6.30pm: Arrive and introductions
6.30pm - 7:30pm: Software. Services. Robots
7.30pm - 8:15: Break, food and drinks
8:15pm - 9:15: To UAC or not to UAC
9:15pm: Vista Ultimate Giveaway, Wrap up!

Please drop a comment below (you have to be signed in) to let us know you're coming :)

Silverlight Beta 2 by Mike Ormond Video

2008-09-08T20:45:23Z

What's New in Silverlight 2 Beta 2 By Ray Booysen
View in HD Download 720p HD Version Visit Ray Booysen's ExposureRoom Videos Page

Live Mesh Video Uploaded

2008-09-08T20:43:21Z

Live Mesh By Ray Booysen
View in HD Download 720p HD Version Visit Ray Booysen's ExposureRoom Videos Page

Vista Squad "First Blood Part II" Wednesday 17th September

2008-08-21T13:57:00Z

Vista Squad "First Blood Part II" Wednesday 17th September

Hey Everyone! The next Vista Squad meeting has been booked! 17th of September at the London Victoria offices of Microsoft with two great talks lined up.

Topics this month:

WPF/Silverlight Application Deep Dive
(Richard Godfrey, iPrinciples)

TBC
(James Senior, Microsoft)

Directions to Microsoft

Agenda

6pm - 6.30pm: Arrive and introductions
6.30pm - 7:30pm: WPF/Silverlight Application Deep Dive
7.30pm - 8:15: Break, Pizza and drinks
8:15pm - 9:15: XBox After Dark
9:15pm: Vista Ultimate Giveaway, Wrap up!
SIGN UP HERE!!!!

Vista Squad Photos

2008-08-10T09:50:59Z

Due to hosting constraints we've decided to be a little more proactive about our assets (videos, pictures etc.) and try get more content but also move the burden off our little server that hosts Vista Squad.

So we've bought a Flickr account specifically for Vista Squad. Head on over to http://www.flickr.com/photos/vistasquad/ for all our photos from events, interviews and wherever we get ourselves to. If you've taken some photos and want them included, either tag your photos as "Vista Squad" or email them over to me at ray@vistasquad.co.uk and we can get them uploaded! With attribution of course. :)

Windows Server 2008 Video

2008-08-04T07:57:06Z

Hey guys, the video from Matt McSpirit's talk is now available thanks to our brilliant videographer, Ian Smith! I've embedded it below, but head over to the actual video page if you want to watch it in HD or download it in it's entirety.

Main Video Page

Matt McSpirit on Windows 2008 Server from Vista Squad on Vimeo.