Microsoft has launched BizTalk Server 2004. For me, the biggest deal is the integration of the schema mapper into VS.NET, which lets me build an XSLT document interactively with a coupla schemas (and I can come up with schemas from instances via Microsoft’s schema inference tool).

Ryan Dawson posts a nice sample showing the basics of a drawing program in Avalon, including a floating toolbar and the ability to draw and select lines, rectangles and circles. He also provides the source.

BTW, Ryan’s pretty darn prolific on Longhorn and I recommend his blog in general. Also, if I remember correctly, he’s 19, so you’re getting pure enthusiasm and uncensored truth. Recommended.

Markus Mielke, one of the guys making Avalon go just as fast as possible, posts his guidelines and goals for Avalon performance.

Sometimes I get aspiring programmers stumbling onto my web site and asking me how to get started having no programming background. I can't really tell them to do what I did, i.e. spend 4 years programming Applesoft Basic, so instead I recommend “The Visual Basic .NET Coach,” which is supposed to introduce .NET programming from the ground up, assuming no previous programming experience. Does anyone have any experience with this book or other similiar titles?

Here.

My co-author for the 2nd edition of Windows Forms Programming, Michael Weinhardt, doesn’t have enough to do to with the new features in Whidbey or all of the stuff that I wished that I added to the 1st edition but didn’t. No, he wants more, so he asked me to ask you nice folks what you’d like to see.

The goal of the 2/e edition of the book is to cover the features of WinForms Whidbey as well as related .NET features that are important to WinForms programmers. Also, we’d like to continue to encapsulate WinForms community best practices. What did I miss in either of these categories that you’d like to see in the 2/e?

Ian Griffiths has a very nice piece about the new drawing model in Avalon and how it differs from the drawing model that's we've known and loved since 16-bit Windows. It also includes such tidbits as a reference for the currently under-documented Path.Data attribute. Highly recommended.

Here. Oh man! I *need* a SmartPhone. Imagine "Find Nearest Starbucks." Dude!

Since it’s inception, I’ve been a big fan of the .NET Show and I’ve seen most of the episodes. Now, the host, Robert Hess, has got himself a .NET Show-related blog. Subscribed.