Smarter Geek

Microsoft have just release another free eBook called “Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2, by Ross Mistry and Stacia Misner!”. This is a good sign that SQL Server 2008 R2 is also getting very close to RTM…

The book contains 10 chapters and 216 pages, like so: 

PART I   Database Administration

CHAPTER 1   SQL Server 2008 R2 Editions and Enhancements
CHAPTER 2   Multi-Server Administration
CHAPTER 3   Data-Tier Applications
CHAPTER 4   High Availability and Virtualization Enhancements
CHAPTER 5   Consolidation and Monitoring

PART II   Business Intelligence Development

CHAPTER 6   Scalable Data Warehousing
CHAPTER 7   Master Data Services
CHAPTER 8   Complex Event Processing with StreamInsight
CHAPTER 9   Reporting Services Enhancements
CHAPTER 10   Self-Service Analysis with PowerPivot 

As myself am an IT Pro but I have not used SQL Server since SQL 2005 however but the Part 1 of this book looks like it will be brilliant for me to get up-to speed on the new features of SQL Server 2008 R2.

Download the book for yourself from here Microsoft Press : Free ebook: Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2

Charles Petzold has just released a draft preview of his MSPress eBook called “Programming Windows Phone 7 Series” for public download.

The chapters offered in the free download of the book are:

Part I   Getting Started

• Chapter 1   Phone Hardware + Your Software
• Chapter 2   Hello, Windows Phone

Part II   Silverlight

• Chapter 3   Code and XAML
• Chapter 4   Presentation and Layout

Part III   XNA

• Chapter 5   Principles of Movement
• Chapter 6   Textures and Sprites

I hope that this will help add some more advanced functionality to my first Windows Phone 7 application (see video below).

Download the book from Microsoft Press : Free ebook: Programming Windows Phone 7 Series (DRAFT Preview)

Microsoft Press have another bargain for everyone, this time they are giving away a eBook called “Understanding Microsoft Virtualization R2 Solutions”. This book pretty much give an overview of all the Microsoft Virtualisations technologies and how they can be used in your environment.

Here is a chapter overview of what you get in the book.

Chapter 1: Why Virtualization?
Chapter 2: Server Virtualization (Hyper-V)
Chapter 3: Local Desktop Virtualisation (Med-V & App-V)
Chapter 4: Remote Desktop Virtualization (VDI & RDS)
Chapter 5: Virtualization Management (SCVMM)
Chapter 6: Cloud Computing (Azure)

What is really nice is that you don’t need to register to download the books so to download all 466 pages of this virtualisation goodness click the links below.

PDF Version
XPS Version

Source: Microsoft Press : Free ebook: Understanding Microsoft Virtualization R2 Solutions