To view this email as a web page, click here. Visit the Microsoft Australia MSDN Site | Sign up for other newsletters | Unsubscribe |  Update your profile  Scott Guthrie, David Campbell and Mark Russinovich at the Cricket Happy New Year! As some of you may have spotted, I'm a certified cricket tragic. In fact, I'm writing this from the top deck of the M A Noble stand, waiting for play to start on day 2 of the Sydney test. I've had plenty of time to kill since I started queuing at 4am both today and yesterday and apart from the good-natured and very knowledgeable banter with my fellow tragics, I've been whiling away the hours watching recordings from the Learn Windows Azure event that was held in Redmond and online on December 13 last year. The event features some of the top technical brains at Microsoft including Scott Guthrie, David Campbell and Mark Russinovich. We made some interesting announcements at the event including: • Support for NodeJS, as well as a number of other Openness initiatives for Azure; • A new 90-day trial subscription model that guarantees you won't get charged for the trial • A tripling of the maximum database size in SQL Azure to 150GB, along with built-in support for federation of SQL Azure databases There are some great presentations that were recorded at the event itself, as well as a bunch of supporting interviews and webcasts that area available from the event landing page. My favourites so far are: • Scott Guthrie's Getting Started with Windows Azure (including an awesome demo of Node.js on Windows Azure); • Dave Campbell's Cloud Data and Storage (check out the Hadoop on Azure piece!); and • Jay Schmelzer's Developing Windows Azure Applications with Visual Studio (although he had more than his fair share of issues associated with doing live demos to a world-wide online audience) I've not yet watched, but am very much looking forward to: o Steve Marx and Wade Wegner's Channel 9 Cloud Cover Show Live; and o the Expert Panel Q&A featuring Scott Guthrie, Dave Campbell, and Mark Russinovich Of course, these sessions are all available to watch streamed, but I suggest you do yourself a favour and download them so you can watch them in half the time. Andrew Coates ausmsdn@microsoft.com http://linkd.in/aussiemsdn Get Started with LightSwitch Beth Massi pulls together a set of entry-level articles to get you started with the most important concepts you need to build any LightSwitch application. Part 1: What's in a Table? Describing Your Data Part 2: Feel the Love - Defining Data Relationships Part 3: Screen Templates - Which One Do I Choose? Part 4: Too Much Information! Sorting and Filtering Data with Queries HTML5: Responsive Web Design The ever-changing landscape of devices, browsers, screen sizes, and orientations can be addressed by creating flexible and fluid layouts that adapt to almost any screen. HTML5: Integrating Geolocation into Web Applications According to the W3C specification, geolocation is an "API that provides scripted access to geographical location information associated with the hosting device." Because geolocation is a built-in API, all you need to get started is a browser that supports it. Develop Windows Phone Applications and Games Today The latest release includes all the necessary tools you to need to develop applications and games for Windows Phone 7.0 and 7.5 devices, and includes productivity enhancements such as an app profiler and an improved emulator. Going Native, a Microsoft technical event for hardcore C++ developers. GoingNative 2012 is a 48 hour technical event for hardcore C++ developers. Distinguished speakers include the creator of C++, Bjarne Stroustrup, C++ Standards Committee Chair, Herb Sutter, C++ template and big compute master, Andrei Alexandrescu, STL master Stephan T. Lavavej, and more! The event will be held on the 2nd and 3rd of February at the Microsoft Campus in Redmond. Content from the event will also be streamed to global audiences who are unable to travel to the US. Friday, 13 January 2012 Download Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Release Candidate Experience the full value of SQL Server 2012 now. The release candidate is a production-quality release that gives you the chance to download, preview, and deploy the full marquee capabilities being delivered in SQL Server 2012. Andrew Coates Arabind Coomaraswamy Andrew Parsons AUSDEV - Andrew Coates Catherine Eibner Dave Glover Michael Kordahi Jorke Odolphi   Received MSDN Flash from a Friend? The MSDN Flash is full of pointers and in-depth technical information and we encourage subscribers to forward it to friends and co-workers. If you've received this issue from someone via e-mail and would like to receive the free MSDN Flash newsletter bi-weekly, all you have to do is register.     Microsoft respects your privacy. To learn more please read our online Privacy Statement. If you would prefer to no longer receive this newsletter, please click here. To set your contact preferences for other Microsoft communications click here. Microsoft Corporation 1 Epping Rd North Ryde, NSW, Australia 2113