You probably heard by now that several Microsoft products were updated to the “2008″ version a couple of weeks/months ago, and 1 is still pending. The launch campaign was called Heroes happen {here} worldwide, “Magicienii prind viata {aici}” or “Magicians come to life {here}” in Romania, for the pros community and “Ideile prind viata {aici}” or “Ideas come to life {here}” in the academic sector.

The launch started in Bucharest, hosted by a team of MVPs and MS employees, shortly followed by the “student version” in Unibuc. I say “student version” because it was hosted for the students by the students, that is by fellow MSP colleagues. Of course, events like this soon took place in every major university in Romania, hosted by local members.

Along with Adi Muresan, Cornel Rat, Ioan Lazarciuc aka ‘Cretz’ and Mihai Hudea, I had the opportunity to be part of one of these teams. Actually we were more than lucky because we got to be present in 3 other major universities in Sibiu, Brasov and Tg-Mures, we were invited by the UBB team to do a joint operation at their CS faculty and also in our home university, UTCN.

Agenda

We had a lot of presentations and demos, more exactly:

  • Visual Studio 2008, Cornel Rat
  • LINQ, Cornel Rat
  • ASP 3.5, Adrian Muresan
  • IIS 7, Adrian Muresan
  • Silverlight, Ioan Lazarciuc (”Cretz”)
  • Popfly, Ioan Lazarciuc (”Cretz”)
  • Opensource on the Microsoft Platform, Tudor Vlad
  • SQL Server 2008, Tudor Vlad
  • Windows Server 2008, Mihai Hudea

    • Thoughts

    Although the main focus of this article is the resource section, I want to presents my impressions.

    First of all, it was a great experience! We got to visit Sibiu, Brasov and Tg. Mures, all with great istoric heritage, as you can see in the pictures below:

    Sibiu
    Sibiu Brasov
    Brasov Tg. mures

    we got to interact with a lot of students and some professors, and had fun overall.

    Sibiu Brasov

    Also, as you may know, it’s not easy to speak in public, even more in front of a unfamiliar audience; well, this experience also helped us to improve our professional skills, i.e. presentation skills most importantly. Once again, we thank you for the feedback!

    [View all AT4.5 photos here]

    Resources [DRAFT - list in progress]

    As promised, we uploaded our presentations on the registration site. However, we were asked by several students for more resources (books, articles, webcasts). Next, I will present a list of links I used to learn from or heard are very good.

    One thing though: this list is still a draft, I will continue to update it as I find better resources. Hopefully, it will be a good start.

    .NET Framework 3.5

    1. .Net Framework 3.5 Whitepapers Published
    2. VS2008 and .NET 3.5 Training & Demo Kit

    Visual Studio 2008

    1. Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 - Learning Portal
    2. Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 - Webcasts
    3. Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 - Podcasts
    4. Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 - Virtual Labs
    5. Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 - Free E-Learning

    C# 3.0

    1. Overview of C# 3.0
    2. Introducing Microsoft LINQ - free ebook
    3. 101 LINQ Samples
    4. LINQ to SQL - ScottGu
    5. Extension Methods

    ASP 3.5

    1. Introducing Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX - free ebook

    Silverlight

    1. Introducing Microsoft Silverlight 1.0 - free ebook
    2. Silverlight Links and Resources
    3. Learn Silverlight
    4. Silverlight Resources
    5. Dan Wahlin’s Latest Silverlight Articles
    6. Silverlight Screencasts
    7. Silverlight2 Presentation, Resources, and Rehab…

    Popfly

    1. www.popfly.com

    Opensource on the Microsoft platform

    1. Codeplex
    2. Open Source Software in C#

    SQL Server 2008

    1. Microsoft SQL Server 2008 - Learning Portal
    2. Microsoft SQL Server 2008 - Free E-Learning
    3. Microsoft SQL Server 2008 - Learning Resources
    4. Overview (SQL Server 2008)
    5. What’s new (SQL Server 2008)
    6. LINQ to SQL support for SQL Server 2008
    7. SQL Server 2008 Webcast Series
    8. 24 hours of SQL Server 2008
    9. [RO] SQL Server 2008 - Backup Compression
    10. [RO] Integrarea Powershell cu SQL Server 2008
    11. [RO] Business Intelligence in SQL Server 2008

    Windows Server 2008

    1. Windows Server 2008 - Webcasts
    2. Windows Server 2008 - Virtual Labs
    3. Windows Server 2008 - Podcasts
    4. Windows Server 2008 - edge.technet.com

    Miscellaneous

    1. -