Check out SQL Server 2008 White Papers. The following white papers are for developers.

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 and Microsoft Data Platform Development

What's New for XML in SQL Server 2008

Managing Unstructured Data with SQL Server 2008

SQL Server 2008: Delivering Location Intelligence with Spatial Data

Recently Microsoft released couple of guides which basically target IT Professionals who are responsible for installing and managing infrastructure (web servers, Active Directory, Terminal Services, etc). Some of the technologies such as Active Directory, IIS 7.0, Terminal Services, etc are covered in those guides. Check them out @ the following URL Infrastructure Planning and Design.

If you are a Software Architect then I am sure there are times when you are asked for some recommendations, ideas, and suggestions about the hardware and overall system architecture which will run the applications that you architect. Since most of us are developing web applications these days, hence IIS is the backend technology that we should learn, explore and play with whenever we get a chance. One of the guides available @ the above URL is on IIS 7.0 and I think every Architect should read it in order to get some idea about the factors involved while taking decisions about the architecture for IIS 7.0 environment.

Updated technical libraries (in .chm format) for Office Servers (MOSS 2007, Performance Point Server 2007, Project Server 2007) are available from the following links. Please note that these are not the SDKs, rather these are the technical libraries which are located on the Technet Web Site.

MOSS 2007 Technical Library

Performance Point Server 2007 Technical Library

Project Server 2007 Technical Library

If you are like me then you prefer to download videos, pod casts, web casts, etc from such conferences, burn those on DVDs and refer to them time-to-time without referring back to the web site that initially hosted those files. The benefit, you ask? You got all the stuff and you are not dependent on anyone or anything in order to learn from those artifacts in your own time.

I normally use GetRight for my downloading needs and right now I am downloading PDC 2008 sessions using the same tool. So what would you do if you want to download all of the files from PDC 2008? One way is to go to each and every session on the PDC Sessions Web Site, right click on the download link and click Save As. There has to be a better solution.

I am making the GetRight PDC 2008 Sessions List available for you all to download all of the sessions. So no more right clicking on each session's download, no more renaming files from ABC123 to the actual session name, etc. I have also made sure that the file name also specifies if the file is high quality WMV (WMV HQ), or normal quality WMV (WMV), or if the file is for Zune (Zune). Everything is done for you.

Just install GetRight, import the GetRight PDC 2008 Sessions List and you are done!

Do let me know if I am missing any sessions; I will update the file accordingly.