I rarely visit Microsoft Office Online to download templates because they’re usually quite bland. However, I’m a programmer (not a designer) so I’m forced to scour the Internet in search of templates to use because I would spend an inordinate amount of time arranging things in PowerPoint or Word.

I’m not exactly sure of the timeframe, but something has changed on Microsoft’s site. There are now tons of great templates! Microsoft opened up a Community section and allowed people to start submitting their own. This is a live saver for non-designers like myself!

Microsoft has released extensions to the XNA Game Studio 3.1 for the Zune HD. The add-on will allow you to take advantage of the Touch APIs and the new Accelerometer. Included in the download are documentation and examples on how to leverage the new APIs.

SQL Server 2008 R2 CTP2 is availabe for download for MSDN subscribers! Non-subscribers can get it on August 12th.

New features in this CTP:

Application & Multi-Server Management
Report Builder 3.0
Scale Up with support for up to 256 logical processors

I had the pleasure of being in the audience for Russ Fustino's "It's All About The Tools" recording at the South Florida Code Camp. Here's the video from that session.

SharePoint Designer 2007 is now available as a free download!

This can be disappointing to someone who has already purchased it, and it's disappointing to me as a user group leader who has a copy to give away. However, if you have SharePoint Designer 2007 Software Assurance current as of April 1st, 2009, you will receive upgrade rights to Expression Web for the lifetime of their SA agreement.

IE8 has been officially released and the download is available.

So why should you download IE8? Well, out of all the new features, accelerators are the best! No, it isn't some trick to load web pages faster. Instead, accelerators accelerate your own web browsing experience. For example, just yesterday, I had to find the meeting location where I was giving a presentation. I also need to pull up directions. After I found the address, here's what I would have to do in other browsers to get directions:

Click 1: highlight and select the address information
Click 2: copy that information (ctrl-c)
Click 3: open a new tab or window
Click 4: enter maps.live.com in the address bar
Click 5: paste the address information into that new site
Click 6: enter, and then view the results

Here's what I do in IE8:

Click 1: highlight and select the address information
Click 2: right-click and hover over "Map with LiveEarth" accelerator, click on directions.

This definitely accelerates my browsing experience.

Microsoft has made improvements on SyncToy and released the beta for public consumption. Like the name suggests, SyncToy lets you keep your files syncronized between folders and computers.

Here are the new features for the 2.0 beta release:

Dynamic Drive Letter Assignment: Drive letter reassignment will now be detected and updated in the folder pair definition.

True Folder Sync: Folder creates, renames and deletes are now synchronized for all SyncToy actions.

Exclusion Filtering Based on Name: File exclusion based on name with exact or fuzzy matching.

Filtering Based on File Attributes: The ability to exclude files based on one or more file attributes (Read-Only, System, Hidden).

Unattended Folder Pair Execution: Addressed issues related to running scheduled folder pairs while logged off.

Folder Pairs With Shared Endpoints: Ability for folder pairs associated with the same or different instances of SyncToy to share end-points.

Command line enhancements: Added the ability to manage folder pairs via the command line interface.

The SyncToy engine has been rearchitected to provide scalability and the ability to add significant enhancements in future releases.

Sync engine is also more robust insomuch that many single, file level errors are skipped without affecting the entire sync operation.

Sync Encrypted Files: Sync of Encrypted files works when local folder and files are encrypted, which addresses the common scenario involving sync between local, encrypted laptop PC folder and remote, unencrypted desktop PC folder.

64-Bit compatibility

Folder pair rename

Sub-folder Exclusion Enhancements: Descendents creates under excluded sub-folders are automatically excluded.

Folder Pair Metadata Moved: Folder pair metadata removed from MyDocuments to resolve any issues with server-based folder pair re-direction setup.

Removed combine and subscribe actions.

Add another weapon to your Kodefu arsenal. Jospeh Albahari has released LINQPad, the easy way to LINQ!

Can't wait for C# 3.0 and LINQ? Well you don't have to! Dynamically query SQL databases today in LINQ: no more struggling with antiquated SQL. Download LINQPad and kiss goodbye to SQL Management Studio: LINQPad supports LINQ to objects, LINQ to SQL and LINQ to XML—in fact, everything in C# 3.0 and .NET Framework 3.5. LINQPad is also a terrific learning tool for experimenting with this exciting new technology.

It does require an installation of .NET 3.5 beta 2, but at least you don't have to install the full Visual Studio 2008 to start using LINQ. If you really want to build your chops, Joseph's issued the LINQPad Challenge.

If you think that you understand LINQ—or would like to—then I invite you to take the LINQPad challenge. The rules are simple:

1. Locate the shortcut for SQL Management Studio on your Start Menu and move it some place else.
2. In its place, insert a shortcut to LINQPad.
3. For the next week, perform all your ad-hoc SQL queries using only LINQPad.

At the end of the week, you will actually think in LINQ, rather than thinking in SQL and translating to LINQ. (LINQPad also allows old-fashioned SQL queries for tasks are genuinely impossible or clumsy in LINQ. You'll feel an unpleasant sense of failure, though, should you cheat and use this feature frivolously :)

This is a great way to stay ahead of the curve. Begin your training today!