I was not having many classes last week. In fact, I just had two evening classes to teach for the whole of last week. But I managed to keep myself busy and productive.
I managed to take 2 exams, one on last Thursday morning and another on Friday afternoon.
YES!!! I passed both exams but not with flying colors. Who cares anyway?
They don't show up in my Microsoft transcript.
If you are wondering what exams I have taken, here is the answer.
(070-553) UPGRADE: MCSD Microsoft .NET Skills to MCPD: Enterprise Application Developer by Using the Microsoft .NET Framework: Part 1
(074-132) Designing a Portal Solution with Microsoft® SharePoint® Products and Technologies
I passed both exams with my first attempt, although I didn't study much. Hey, I am not trying to be braggy here, mind you. Taking these exams without much preparation is quite a challenge for me. Of course, I felt satisfied at the end of it.
How do I pass the exam without putting much effort?
The answer would be...
a) maybe I am lucky to have encountered questions which I knew the answer...
b) maybe my random picking of multiple choices skill is good...
c) maybe I have been teaching Visual Studio 2005, .NET Framework 2.0, and SharePoint courses many times for pass one year... or
d) All of the above
Anyway, in my next post, I will be sharing more about my exam experience on 070-553 for those who are planning to upgrade their certification from MCSD to MCPD Enterprise Application Development. Don't worry, I won't turn SgDotNet to another braindump site. I will try to keep my discussion on the area of exam structure, objectives and, of course, the tricky parts. I will also be criticizing on how 074-132 exam questions mismatch the study resources stated in Microsoft Learning site. So stay tuned!
For the meantime, I will start to prepare myself for another upgrade exam 070-554, from what I heard, one of the killer exams for many upgraders. I plan to give myself a month or two for this Mission Impossible 4.
Good luck to all exam takers.
After having waited for more than an hour, finally my turn came up! (to present Web Part Development Part Two for SgDotNet 26th User Group meeting)
I sincerely appreciate the crowd for staying back to join me in my session and putting up with me to the end of the session although it ended only at 10:00pm+++. I am glad that I didn't have to talk to the empty seats. 
As promised during my session, attached is the slide deck for my presentation (PM for document password) and the demo code will be sent to you upon request.
So what's next? Web Part Development Part Three, "WebParts in SharePoint 2007"?
Recently, GotDotNet has come up with a project on ASP.NET Internet Security Reference Implementation.
For those who are wondering how to architect and implement secure ASP.NET 2.0 web applications, this is a sample that should not be missed out.
"Extracted from Reference Implementation Walkthrough (GotDotNet)"
This solution architecture illustrates and implements security guidance as it applies to an Internet facing ASP.NET 2.0 web application. The guidelines in this document are based upon “Security Guidelines: ASP.NET 2.0” and “Security Guidelines: .NET Framework 2.0”, however they are specific to the Internet scenario and are placed within the context of a full sample application in a development environment. See, “Scenario and Solution: Forms Auth to SQL, Roles in SQL” to view this guidance as it applies to the Internet, Forms Authentication scenario.
This solution architecture uses the Pet Shop 4 sample application as a baseline. Pet Shop 4 has been updated in order to represent a reference implementation for ASP.NET 2.0 security best practices. These implemented security best practices are commented in the code and described in detail below.
The site provides code installer file (MSI) as well as reference implementation walkthrough discussing why certain decisions are made in the project.
Happy reading...