VS2008/.NET 3.5 SP1

Don't run away... I know the title of the post looks a bit... well... tekkie. But hopefully, with luck, we can steer a safe course through to the end of this without any palpitations, hot sweats or brains turning to mush. So what's this all about? Why the weird sim name: VS2008/.NET 3.5 SP1? It seems this code is Microsoft's way of communicating with microsofties and microserfs around the globe, who will immediately recognise this as meaning: Visual Studio 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1. If you are non-the-wiser (and why should you be?), suffice it to say that this is all about developing solutions for Microsoft platforms. And that's pretty much as far as I go with the technobabble, I hope.

This sim is far from complete, but already there is one corner where people who actually understand anything about the above can go and start picking up information. There's a video by Scott Guthrie, author of the blog linked above, giving an introduction to the use of dynamic data in ASP.NET, and a number of presentations (see pictures below) on other such gubbins - with a bunch of links to pertinent pages, such as the thrilling ADO.NET Entity Framework Overview. (hehe... more technobabble... sorry!)

You will also find a link to Project Manhattan. No... not that one... this one. This is "a community based effort to explore the OpenSim virtual world software. OpenSim is free software that can be downloaded and used by anyone to create their own simulators and grids. This effort is supported by Microsoft... " News of the project is distributed via Twitter. If you hanker for more on the whole OpenSim thang then you should take a deep breath and dive into Tish Shute's Ugotrade blog.

Anyway - this island will presumably grow and develop. But for now, here's some snaps to look at:


Now it's getting technical...