Microsoft releases Acropolis for .NET Developers

Microsoft has released a set of components and other tools for the development of client applications in the .NET Framework. The product, code-named Acropolis, was announced at Tech Ed 2007 and is available as a CTP, or community technical preview, from the new WindowsClient.NET page.

Acropolis is part of the '.NET Client Futures' wave of releases, Microsoft's preview of upcoming technologies for Windows client development. With Acropolis, developers can create a set of modules and build them into a business application. These modules can be hosted within the Microsoft Office 2007 suite or as stand-alone applications. Built-in themes are available, but customization using XAML is also possible.

The product caters primarily to Windows Presentation Foundation development. Check this awesome blog on some common Acropolis questions. Acropolis CTP seems like a very finished product even in this preview. It integrates nicely into the Visual Studio "Orcas" preview. There are some really cool controls to explore in the toolbox. These controls include single and multipart navigation managers, components for providing, updating and publishing data, and several UI controls.

Agile Development Methodologies

Agile software development is picking up steam. You have most likely heard about eXtreme Programming (XP). What other Agile methodologies are you familiar with and what do they bring of interest or significance to the table of agility? More important, why should you learn about these different methodologies instead of simply focusing on one?

No one shoe fits all. Any methodology that requires you to follow it in totality and not let you adapt is rather dogmatic, not pragmatic. To be effective we have to take the best of different approaches and apply to our projects based on our specific needs.

Click here to listen to an awesome Podcast on Agile Development methodologies

Sliverlight Learning Guide

Silverlight is Microsoft's framework for building cross-browser and cross-platform rich Internet applications with streaming video, rich text, Ajax functionality and the like. Silverlight 1.1 Alpha also includes a slimmed-down version of the .NET Framework Common Language Runtime and supports Microsoft's new Dynamic Language Runtime. This means developers can build Web applications in familiar languages like Visual Basic and C# and in dynamic languages like IronPython and IronRuby.

Five Windows Vista security tips .NET developers should know

A must read if you are writing applications for Windows Vista

I've linked a SharePoint list to Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 but I don't see any updates when I view the list in Outlook

With both Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, the ability to link SharePoint lists and document libraries to Outlook 2007 is a fantastic feature. It lets you take this information offline and synchronize it back to SharePoint at a later time. If you move or delete the linked list or document Library in SharePoint (which is likely what happened in your case), the link in Outlook 2007 isn't automatically updated; you'll need to update it manually. To do so, you need to delete the link in Outlook, then reattach it if so desired. To delete a link to a SharePoint list or document library in Outlook, locate it in the left vertical folder structure, right-click to open the context menu, and click Delete.