Windows PowerShell 2.0 Now Available

Windows PowerShell 2.0 is available for download. Technically, it was available earlier for the Windows 7 RTM, but for those of us with XP, Vista, and Server 2008, it is now downloadable.

PowerShell, despite the puffed-up name, is a neat idea--an object oriented command-line shell. Built on the .NET Framework, PowerShell is appropriate for IT staff and developers. Scripting tutorials for everything from database management to cyber security to cloud computing are also available from the Microsoft TechNet site.

Erhan J. Kartaltepe, PMP
erhan.kartaltepe-at-utsa.edu

Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 Released

Today Microsoft announced the much anticipated release of its second beta version of Visual Studio 2010. The release is available today for MSDN subscribers, and will be available to all on Wednesday. Along with Visual Studio's release beta comes the second beta to .NET Framework 4.0.

Besides a new GUI, Some of its most promising features are in parallel programming and its cloud computing tools for Microsoft's  Azure project (which we recently covered). .NET languages like C# and F# are in heavy use at the Institute for Cyber Security, and we look forward to testing it out in more detail.

Erhan J. Kartaltepe,
erhan.kartaltepe-at-utsa.edu

PowerPoint with SmartArt, and Other Videos from "Office Casual"

At the Institute for Cyber Security, our architects and developers have the opportunity to present their ideas to a in a number of venues, whether it's for our security startups in incubation, meetup groups and conferences, and even internal project updates. Suffice it to say, we present a lot of PowerPoint slides, and maybe you do, too!

While checking out blogs.msdn.com I came across this video from Office Casual on how to translate your ideas to slides better and thought it was worth passing on to my staff. The videos are short and a little zany, but Doug Thomas from Microsoft covers everything from slides to resume building to SharePoint, generally using Microsoft Office as a platform in a unique way, and it's definitely worth checking out.

Erhan J. Kartaltepe,
erhan.kartaltepe-at-utsa.edu