Jacob Sebastian, a SQL Server MVP from Ahmedabad, India has just got his book published - The Art of XSD - SQL Server XML Schema Collections. What’s remarkable is that he’s managed to make the eBook available as a free download for all. A print and Kindle edition is coming up shortly.
The Art of XSD - SQL Server XML Schema Collections is a 485 page book that takes the readers step by step from the basics to advanced topics on XSD and SQL Server XML Schema Collections. Prior knowledge of XSD is not required to start with this book, although any experience with XSD will make your learning process easier.
Jacob has also implemented a group, a forum, and a blog to support the book which would allow him to discuss, answer reader questions, listen to feedback, and provide the readers latest information on the topics discussed in this book.
A post by Anand Khanse, a Windows Desktop Experience MVP from India - Troubleshooting Windows Vista Search & Indexing Errors has been automated into a Fix it MSI package. It is also being recognized as the First MVP Fix It.
This Fix it Solution automates the steps described in Anand’s blog post to resolve the error message - Search Failed to Initialize when you are searching in Windows Vista. To fix this problem automatically now, users would just need to click the Fix it button!
Fix this problem
Also, Anand (popularly known as HappyAndyK on the Web) has recently started a forward looking Windows portal, The Windows Club, moving ahead from his hugely popular WinVistaClub.
Vikram Pendse, an ASP.NET MVP from Pune, India, is a self-confessed Silverlight enthusiast. Though he blogs about all things .NET on his blog, Explore .NET with Vikram Pendse, he went into a Silverlight overdrive after Silverlight 3 Beta was unveiled at MIX09.
We understand the excitement since Silverlight 3 Beta introduces more than 50 new features, including support for running Silverlight applications out of the browser, dramatic video performance and quality improvements, and features that radically improve developer productivity.
Vikram has written an 8-part series on Silverlight 3 (in less than a month!), that could any day serve as a Silverlight 101 guide. Each post covers one topic, and is comprehensive with code snippets and screenshots. The posts are loosely isolated in content, so you can directly jump to the one you want to read.
Following are the links to the eight posts:
S.Somasegar is Senior Vice President of the Developer Division at Microsoft. He joined Microsoft in 1989, and worked on eight different operating system releases before heading up the Developer Division.
He leads the teams responsible for providing tools and developer platform technologies targeted at developers, designers and teams involved in software development. Somasegar is also responsible for the Web server platform and his team also owns MSDN and TechNet online properties to enable a deep connection with the developer and IT professional audience.
Soma was travelling to New Delhi, India, and being a big supporter of technical communities and MVPs, he graciously pulled out some time from his schedule to meet some MVPs and members of community at large. The roundtable was held at Hotel Oberoi, New Delhi on April 16, 2009. There were interesting discussions at the roundtable and the MVPs shared their insights of the community culture in India.
Click here for more photos of the event.
Windows 7 Beta is attracting a lot of buzz recently, and here is your chance to dive in the same. Attend the one-day workshop to gear up on all the necessary skills to get started on Windows 7 efficiently.
Gurgaon (Hosts: Delhi IT Pro): Register here
Mumbai (Hosts: Mumbai IT Pro): Register here
Pune (Hosts: Pune User Group): Register here
Bangalore (Hosts: Bangalore IT Pro): Register here
Chennai (Hosts: Chennai IT Pro)
Siliguri (Hosts WindowsSupport)
Registration for the event is free.
Please obtain your own Product Key by visiting: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/beta-download.aspx
Windows 7’s beta release has been fascinating, and the early adopters have been pleasantly surprised. It’s great to know that apart from the product team at Microsoft, kudos should also be given to members of community who contribute in so many ways.
Recently, Microsoft Connect, the unified portal to provide feedback about Microsoft products and services, awarded an ASUS Eee PC 4G netbook (approx value USD $300) to four users in India - Dileepa Prabhakar, M Rajesh, Vasudev, and Vikram Lakhotia – for sharing specific and important feedback on Windows 7 Beta. Vasudev and Vikram Lakhotia are ofcourse MVPs from India.
It was further exciting for Vasudev, who also won a lot of goodies for providing the ‘Best Suggestion’ in one of the Windows 7 Live Chat with the Windows 7 product team.
The goodies included a Windows 7 branded Notepad, a Bobble Pen and a USB Aquarium.
Last we heard, Vasudev was passionately declaring - ‘I’m a Windows 7 PC’ :)
If you think these were just lucky guys, take this for some statistical trivia:
During a peak week in January we were receiving one Send Feedback report every 15 seconds for an entire week, and to date we’ve received well over 500,000 of these reports. That averages to over 500 reports for each and every developer to look through!
(via Engineering Windows 7 Blog)
Pinal Dave, a SQL Server MVP from Gujarat in India, has founded the Gandhinagar SQL Server User Group with a successful launch event last month.
The event was well-attended and received positive response from over 50 database enthusiasts. At the event, Pinal presented on Joins and Real Life Scenarios; the slide-deck and script of the same can be downloaded from here.
Visit the official portal of the User Group: http://gandhinagar.sqlpass.org/
As announced before on this blog, The Microsoft MVP Award Program invites technical community leaders in India to nominate themselves for the award.
Register Now!
Last date for MVP Award Nominations is April 18, 2009.
For more information about the MVP Award, visit http://www.microsoft.com/india/mvp or send an email at indiamvp@microsoft.com.
Dr. Nitin Paranjape, Founder and CEO of MaxOffice, is an MVP in Microsoft Office System, and shares a passion and specialization in business productivity. He has conducted 1000+ seminars and coached over 45000 professionals worldwide.
Manmeet Chaudhari, another MVP from Mumbai, specializes in Enterprise Project Management, and has implemented and consulted across industries like Government, Telecom, BFSI and ITES.
The two get together for a series of webcasts on Microsoft Office to enhance business productivity. A must-attend whether you are a student, a business executive, or a technical professional.
More details at http://www.microsoft.com/india/webcasts
Top 10 common mistakes in Excel
April 15, 2009 | 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM
Top 10 things you must know in Word
April 22, 2009 | 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM
Top 10 time and task management methods in Outlook
April 29, 2009 | 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM
10 ways to create a successful presentation in PowerPoint
May 06, 2009 | 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM
Why you should not manage projects in Excel (instead use Project)?
May 13, 2009 | 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM
Top 10 features you must use in Project
May 20, 2009 | 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM
Managing multiple projects using Project Server
May 27, 2009 | 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM
It’s wonderful to have more community leaders and technology experts as Microsoft MVPs.
Microsoft MVPs are announced every quarter, though the award is valid for an year, given for the contributions of the individual to technical communities over the past year.
Join me in welcoming the new MVPs:
Shivaprasad
InfoPath
Nalgonda
Anuma
Hyderabad
Raghav Khunger
ASP/ASP.NET
Faridabad
Mudassar Khan
Mumbai
Renuka Prasad
Client App Dev
Bangalore
Rajdeep Chakraborty
Consumer Security
Calcutta
Ganesh Bhat
Windows Desktop Experience
Ashish Mohta
Howrah
Mohd Abdul Muqeet Khan
Internet Information Services
Windows Desktop Experience MVP from Nepal, Allen B. Tuladhar with Microsoft MDP Nepal, organized a two-day blogging workshop - A Journey of Discovery on March 22 - 23, 2009 in Kathmandu, Nepal.
Allen presented on Windows Azure to educate the audience about the OS in the cloud.
The workshop was inaugurated by Ganesh Shah, Honorable Minister of Environment, Science & Technology along with a keynote address on alternative energy.
The event also had sessions and trainings from Ganesh Ghimire ‘Shisir’ from Brain Works Learning Solutions Center and Suran Maharjan from Xplore Intl.
The first day saw a 350 person strong audience of developers, IT professionals, hobbyists, technology enthusiasts, media persons, and students. The second day had 58 enthusiast bloggers as audience, many of whom were Microsoft Student Partners from 30 engineering colleges of Kathmandu. You can read Allen’s detailed blog post on the event here.
BITPro, the Bangalore IT Pro User Group, organized BITPro CTD 2009, on March 14, 2009. The event saw a huge attendance of 166 people.
The keynote was delivered by Kaliyan Selvaraj, an MVP from Bangalore and the UG lead for BITPro, and followed by a session on secure systems session delivered by Ravishankar. There was an interactive Q&A session with the audience, and some fun activities as well.
The audience had a chance to win several prizes that included books, Windows 7 T-shirts, and Microsoft Arc Mouse.
You can download the keynote presentation as well as the event photographs.
Mathrubhumi, a leading Malayalam newspaper, published a feature on MVPs hailing from Kerala, the southern India state.
The feature said that for the average Malayalee, Microsoft means Bill Gates, and the MVPs would be ‘Bill Gates’ own boys’. Through the colorful analogy, the feature talks about what makes an MVP, and the benefits of being one.
It highlights the profiles of eight MVPs from the state: Praveen V Nair, Sreejumon, Anand Narayanamurthy, Hariprasad, Sunil Prabhakar, Jayakrishnan K, Nibu Thomas, and Shyamlal T. Pushpan.
Hat tip to Sreejumon for sharing this and Jayakrishnan (JK) for the translation.
P.S. The feature has some factual and statistical inaccuracies. Please do not consider the piece as valid information on the program. Check http://www.microsoft.com/india/mvp for any information about the MVP Award Program in South Asia.