I read in the paper at the weekend of the untimely death of a friend's son who was brutally assaulted in Dublin. The victim went to the aid of another who was being attacked and as a consequence, the attackers followed him. I feel so much for the family and frustrated.

What is Ireland and the world at large becoming? It is time that we speak up against those who have no respect for human life and promote values in common with peace, love, freedom. We first need to FORGIVE, not seek revenge. This is challenging but if we dont learn to forgive, we only become overcome with anger. We need to make our governments listen to their "bosses" - i.e. the citizens of their country, not to create laws which remove our freedom but to create laws which set us free. Active government sponsored programs should also be put in place in Ireland to integrate all nationalities, allowing us to respect and embrace each others culture. There also needs to be proper rehabilitation of prisoners in Ireland...for most it is just a revolving door.

Finally with all our new found wealth in Ireland, isn't it time the government took a stand to eradicate homelessness? People who are homeless have so much potential. They need to be listened to...they are as much a part of Ireland as any of its citizens. Focus Ireland is one charitable organisation which helps homeless people to get their life back on track.

Singapore Airlines have just announced that their first commercial flight of the Airbus A380-800 will take place on Thursday 25th October from Singapore to Sydney. It will auction tickets on ebaY and bidding will take place between Monday 27th August and Monday 10th September inclusive. All proceeds go to Charity...so spread the word!

So why not bid! For further information click Singapore Airlines A380 Site

...then sign up to AirSpace, a new interactive network dedicated to connecting the aviation industry powered by FlightGlobal.com. To join, click here.

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Embraer rolled out their new VLJ (Very-Light-Jet) - Phenom 100 on June 16, Brazil. The aircraft will comfrotably seat 4 passengers. It also has a refreshment centre, spacious lavatory, in-flight entertainment centre. and generous baggage area...to fit all those golf-bags in ;-).

For more information, check out http://www.embraerexecutivejets.com/english/content/aircraft/phenom100_home.asp

Image courtesy of Embraer.

Check out my hub for the latest upcoming events...

First look at Microsoft Surface - forget keyboards and mouse...welcome to the new touchscreen age! Surface is the first commercially available surface computer from Microsoft.

Developer Benefits:

1. Utilize key 2007 Office System UI features using VSTO and Office
2. RAD Design Expereince for building Office based apps
3. Build OBAs that leverage enterprise resources. The result being a more streamlined approach to tasks and processes. Mike advised how Elite Model Agency in New York created a new Outlook Add-In which allows user to graphical choose and select a model. Once selected, the models schedule appears in Outlook thus streamlining the process.

DEMO's:

1. Making a VSTO Project: EXCEL Add-In

Visual Studio > Create New Project > Office 2007/2003

Select Excel Add-In - this will build the infrastructure

In Excel 2003 and previous editions, by selecting help, a task pane would appear in the right hand side of the screen. Custom task panes can now be created in VSTO.

Create custom task pane > Add New Item > User Control > WinForm Designer appears

Place control i.e. NAME

Now go to Code VB via tab and insert snippet (Code previously saved)

Save > Build > Run Solution

Excel Opens and custom task pane opens

Excel Options > Add-Ins > Enable/Disable Add-Ins

   2.    Creating an OUTLOOK Add-In

In OUTLOOK, in the task list view, the user can create custom fields. If however you open a specific task, there is no user designed field. Office 2007 uses Applet Form Regions and VSTO uses a Wizard.

Go to Trust Centre > Add-Ins and delete previous Add-Ins

Visual Studio: File > New > Project > Outlook Add-In

Right click desired solution > Outlook Add-In > Form Region

Double click the form region and insert snippet

Save > Build > Run Solution

Open Outlook and user designed field appears in the specific task window

   3.    Created a Document Level Solution

Visual Studio: Create Excel Workbook Solution - Excel now appears inside VS

Add New Data Source > Database and choose either Oracle/SQL/Access

For the demo, Mike choose SQL

Click Test Connection

If successful, Retrieve Database Information

On left hand side, you can now choose specific Tables, Fields and Stored Procedures

Drag and drop onto Excel

Save > Build

Data Integrity is crucial so check in SQL to ensure correct data has been extracted into Excel

Insert button onto Excel and in code tab, insert snippet.

Mike created a NEXT and PREVIOUS buttons so that by pressing either, the user can see for example previous Customer ID or the next Customer ID.

These buttons can now be removed and a pane can be created.

Choose Binding Navigator in WinForm tab

Double Click > code tab will open and insert snippet

Set bindingsource=customerbindingsource

Show Custom Actions Pane

Save > Build > Run

The result is that you have now created a custom task pane which allows you to scroll through various customer data via:

< 1 of 90 >

Add Ribbon in Visual Designer in VS:

From Right-hand side, you can drag and drop data sources i.e. Fields or Tables onto EXCEL. Farewell to Pivot Tables! Also if you create a chart and place on a new sheet, as you scroll through the customer orders, it automatically updates :).

Deployment

User must have EXCEL, the DLL and vsto run-time on the machine. The new version of VSTO, enables the user to click one and downloads dll with data

The dll is seperate from Excel. Email the spreadsheet. Once opened it fires up. If you need a new applet in the solution, change the dll where the code is saved and insert new snippet. When spreadsheet is opened again, it will check for changes on the network.

The fact that the code doesnt live with the spreadsheet is important both from a security and maintenance perspective.

VSTO Definitions:

• Doc Level - specific to one doc/spreadsheet - useful in banking - security
• Application Level - custom task pane which applies to any document in the host

Resources:

Download VSTO 2005 SE

Click here for all you need to know on VSTO

Creating Custom Task Panes

Binding Data to User Controls in Excel

Download C# VS2005 Code Snippets

Last night, I attended the Irish Tech Community Launch (http://www.microsoft.ie/techconnection) in Croke Park (where in Ireland we play Gaelic) of Windows Vista™, 2007 Office System and Exchange Server 2007.

Rob Burke, Developer & Platform Group (http://blogs.msdn.com/robburke) presented some really cool demos especially some of the security features

For instance,

Security - You can be secure with Vista by ensuring that no-one can copy files acroos to an external USB harddrive when you are not at your PC. When the device is installing, Vista will not permit the USB to be utilised

Microsoft Office Powerpoint 2007 - For all students out there who are short of time, the greatly enhanced toolbars permit you to turn some of your pure text slides into graphic matrcies with the click of a button

Business - Setting a new user up onto an account in Outlook takes less than 20 secs

Icons - these are just so cool allowing you to visualise from a macro perspective the content in each file without having to open the file

Switch between windows sidebar key - just easier if you are working on multiple files at any one time 

Microsoft Office Groove 2007 (http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/groove/default.aspx) - your PA! Ray Ozzie's baby (http://rayozzie.spaces.live.com/Blog/)

Sidebar is very user appealing - I moved my XP toolbar to the right hand side of my screen 2 years ago and found it easier to work with especially if you have a 17'' notebook ;).

It was also great to see some hands-on-labs...allowing you to put some theory into practice.

For more info for developers, check out http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsvista/default.aspx

Calling all Irish developers:

- the Microsoft Developer and Platform Group will be hosting a number of lectures over the next few months convering Vista and related technologies from a micro perspective. So sign up to Microsoft Tech*connection (http://www.microsoft.ie/techconnection) to know whats happening.

- Also sign up to your local Microsoft Tech User Group via http://www.mtug.ie

As 2006 is the 15th birthday of Microsoft Research (MSR), Microsoft Ireland decided to do something to celebrate. So, with the participation of local universities, they have invited a number of MSR speakers to come over and present locally. The first of these presentations is being hosted by the Interaction, Simulation and Graphics Lab in Trinity College Dublin and is due to happen on Wednesday, 6th of September at 7:30 p.m. in the Ernst Walton Theatre, Arts Building, Trinity College Dublin .

Professor Andrew Blake, one of the senior researchers in MSR Cambridge UK will be coming over to give a lecture entitled "Computer Science and Illusion". He promises to explore some connections between visual perception, geometry, and computer processing of images.

Check out my hub for the latest events news, forum posts and much more!

Due to popular demand, MSDN Ireland have extended their web development competition until after the summmer. The competition is open to everyone from all walks of life to build a site (free-hosting available) using the new free Visual Web Developer tool - download it and register it and you get access to thousands of euro worth of icon suites, royalty-free images, e-books and other resources.

When you have your site hosted - you can enter into the dram for the Xbox 360s! The MSDN Ireland team are also giving away loads of systems between now and July, plus games, plus free software and a high-spec HP laptop. Check out all the details here.

If you are already building an ASP.NET 2.0 website, you might be interested in learning which Irish companies are offering special offers on Windows hosting at the moment – check here for a list.