"Hi guys! HAPPY THANKSGIVING! :-) I hope things are going well.

I am trying to staff a long term role (3 years) for an Application Development Consultant - - this is would be a Microsoft blue badge employee dedicated to App Dev Support at Wal-Mart in Bentonville, Arkansas.

Just thinking that in your community of developers there may be someone especially strong that you might be able to recommend. There's a good relocation package, MS is a great company to work for and Wal-Mart does very well in recessions.

Here is the link for the job description: http://members.microsoft.com/careers/search/details.aspx?JobID=7EF5FA4B-AAC7-4DF4-A52D-7455559AB409&start=1&interval=10&SortCol=DatePosted&SortOrder=Desc

Thanks and I will see some of you next month :) - Randy"

If the job description fits you like a glove, then good luck! And tell them LearnVisualStudio.NET sent you. :)

Hero Membership allows you to easily manage a large database of website subscribers or community members through the ASP.NET Membership API.  It fills a void left by Microsoft who made the Website Administration Tool work only locally during development time.  Hero Membership is a re-packaged version of the software we use (actually, customer service rep extraordinaire, Jason Carr) uses on all of our web sites.  We're following the 37signals mantra ... we built it for ourselves, and we thought others might need it, too.  David Findley is putting the final touches on our second product -- again a repackaging of tools we currently use -- for updating content on our website.  No, it's not a CMS ... it's actually an anti-CMS.  Hopefully, that piques your interest until our next major announcement.  :)

We are also offering an additional 20% off the price of Hero Coder to all of our LVS members. You can click on any link in this post or the banner on the right to get the discount.

Subscribe to our new site devoted to SQL Server 2005 and SharePoint 2007 and save 25% off a Lifetime membership. 

http://www.trainingspot.com

Use this exclusive coupon code to save 25% off a Lifetime membership:  LVSLMED1

This offer will expire in 30 days.  This coupon code can be used in conjunction with out introductory pricing ... so NOW is the time to buy.

We're launching with the following video series:

• Reporting Services 101 (Over 4 hours ... WOW, I learned a TON from this alone!)
• T-SQL 101
• Relational Database Design 101
• SharePoint 2007 End User Training

We currently have almost 100 videos, and over 14 hours of content.

Within the next year the site will include more SharePoint 2007 development, SQL Server 2008 new features, SQL Server Integration Services, Biztalk, IIS 7 and more.

Long Story:

One of the most often requested things I hear is for SQL Server.  So this past spring I contacted Robert Penn, a former colleague and SQL Server expert to gauge his interest in creating a site devoted to SQL Server 2005 and 2008.  Robert worked with David and I at Mary Kay several years ago, and since then he has gone on to work at the New York Stock Exchange and United Healthcare ... he definitely has "skins on the wall", so to speak.  We've worked hard to get to this day, and we hope you love the new site as much as you love LearnVisualStudio.NET.

While Robert has been recording videos, David has been hard at work architecting the software we're using to power this new site.  We considered just cloning the LearnVisualStudio.NET site code, but saw an opportunity for improvement.  We're also taking the model of 37 Signals -- that we're building it for ourselves because we needed it, and hopefully someone else will need it too -- and will be soon announcing several software products for sale.  TrainingSpot.com is the testbed to help us work out the kinks, so to speak.  Its written in Visual Studio 2008 Beta with LINQ and MS Ajax ... we did this so that we could gain a competence and "lessons learned" and pass those on to you in future training endeavors.  We'll have more to say about a beta program before the end of the month for those who might be interested.

Looking forward, TrainingSpot will have additional content authors working on Biztalk, IIS 7 and other Windows 2008 related topics ... those are not ready for release, but will be added to the site as soon as possible.  Enjoy!