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Amazon is now accepting preorders for Microsoft's Visual Studio .NET. Customers must wait until January 17 for the shipped product, almost a month earlier than the official launch slated for February. Pricing in the Amazon online catalog is set at $999.99 USD for the professional edition of the programming suite. Other variants are available through the site including a January 10 release of Visual Basic .NET 2002, Visual Studio .NET Enterprise Architect, Visual Studio.NET Developer Enterprise 2002, and upgrade releases.

Visual Studio .NET and Visual Studio .NET Enterprise Architect introduce three significant new features: software modeling, database modeling, and development frameworks and templates. Over 20 different programming languages -- including Microsoft's latest implementation of Java -- are supported. It also yields support for Web standards such as XML, SOAP, and UDDI to extend interoperability across platforms.

Beta 2 was released on June 19, coinciding with the tenth anniversary of Visual Basic - a language that stood as the basis for an entire generation of Windows applications.

A Microsoft spokeperson was not available for comment.

News source: BetaNews
View: Visual Studio .NET Professional Edition | $999.99 USD - Amazon
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In December, the ethics board of the International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium -- the not-for-profit corporation that created the certification program in 1989 -- verified Merchant's three years of pubescent work experience, and granted him the CISSP credential. A frankly flabbergasted review board member told Merchant in an email that the investigation had been prompted by the organization's desire to "maintain the stature of the certification."

"I don't have the statistics handy, but I suspect the median age of CISSPs is over 30," wrote Bill Cambell in the email. "The certification was never conceived as something within reach of teenagers!"

"Obviously he's very extraordinary, and he seems to be very sincere about his interest in information security and going somewhere in the industry," says consortium spokesman Mike Kilroy. "We really congratulate him on his achievement."

In addition to the $450 test fee, the young security pro will now be responsible for annual dues, and is bound to the earnest CISSP code of ethics -- a kind of Ten Commandments of computer security work that includes such injunctions as "protect society," "act honestly" and "advance and protect the profession."

Merchant, who plans to attend a university when he graduates high school, will also have to renew his CISSP certification in three years, and retake the exam -- which he describes as challenging but "too theoretical." "There should be more practical knowledge," says Merchant. By then, he'll be nineteen years old, and may even have a driver's license to show at the door.