Post-VB.NET road show "debriefing"
Wednesday, March 31, 2004
7:16 PM
Stuart suggests we get together for a "debriefing" at the Cornelius Pass Roadhouse after the VB .NET road show on Thursday night. See http://snowstormlife.com/wiki/default.aspx/MyWiki.UserGroups for more info.
Sounds like a plan to me!
Tuesday, March 30, 2004
11:55 AM
I was just reading Eric Sink's latest entry on Eric.Weblog().
http://software.ericsink.com/SourceSafe to Vault.html
In it he does some "blatant merchandising" (his words) for Vault, a version control tool that’s meant to replace Visual SourceSafe.
I love one of the features that's in the product:
"Blame: New in 2.0: Displays an annotated view of a file, showing which user last modified each line."
I just love that.
Monday, March 29, 2004
11:53 AM
That's right! The VB .NET team will be in Portland on Thursday to show off all the new and exciting things that are coming in Whidbey.
Also the team is bringing goodies: they're going to hand out media containing the Tech Preview version of Whidbey to everyone who attends!
You must register to attend:
http://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/EventDetail.aspx?culture=en-US&EventID=1032248130
It's this Thursday evening, April 1.
Be there and be square.
See you there.
Paul Cornell blogs about "Understanding security and deployment for Visual Studio Tools for Office." http://weblogs.asp.net/vsto/archive/2004/02/05/68400.aspx
It's amazing how much easier it is to use VSTO that it was to use Office Developer. Well, maybe it's not that amazing, because Office Developer sucked. Anyone out there ever try to use Office Developer? I did. Spent about 20 hours with it. Had to be one of the crappiest products any software company ever published.
That said, VSTO is a really good product. And it's getting better. Better integration with Visual Studio.
Anyway, take a read over at Paul's place.
Interesting point of view on Test Driven Design…
Saturday, March 27, 2004
10:29 AM
From Udi Dahan: http://udidahan.weblogs.us/archives/017367.html
The TDD gurus will tell you that TDD is not about writing every possible test for every bit of code. BTW, studies have shown that testing is an inferior technique for reducing defects in code than code inspection. Of course, XP has pair-programming for constant code inspection for exactly this reason.
:
:
Final point: if you're doing TDD, but not XP, you're missing out. XP covers TDD's ass.
Developer productivity...
Saturday, March 27, 2004
8:33 AM
In our DevDays keynote, Paul Murphy and I gave a demo of how productive developers can be using InfoPath and BizTalk Server 2004. A number of people came up to me after the talk and said they want to learn more about BizTalk Server. Here's your chance.
The BizTalk Server team is going to have another round of WebCasts in April.
MSDN Webcast: Adding Business Activity Monitoring your BizTalk Server 2004 Projects - Level 200
April 07, 2004
1:00 PM - 2:30 PM Pacific Time
John Ballard, Program Manager, Microsoft
Building BAM into your BPM applications provides real-time business level information to your users. Learn how to use the Excel Wizard, Tracking Point Editor, the deployment infrastructure and also the BAM API.
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=25939
MSDN Webcast: Real-World BizTalk Server 2004 Editing and Mapping Techniques - Level 200
April 08, 2004
1:00 PM - 2:30 PM Pacific Time
John Ballard, Program Manager, Microsoft
This session is a deep dive on the BizTalk Server Editor and Mapper. Learn how to model flat-files and EDI-files. Learn how to detail with complex mapping scenarios including embedding your own XSLT, using .NET components in maps, performing cross-referencing and exercising the table extractor functoid.
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=25940
MSDN Webcast: Building on BizTalk Server 2004 Human Workflow Services for the Visual Studio .NET developer - Level 200
April 12, 2004
1:00 PM - 2:30 PM Pacific Time
Imran Aziz, Program Manager, Microsoft
HWS provides an infrastructure for human based workflow built on top of the orchestration technologies. In this session learn how to build actions, use the HWS web service API, combine actions into activity models and finally interface workflow with InfoPath SP1.
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=25941
MSDN Webcast: BizTalk Server 2004 EDI with and without the Covast Accelerator - Level 200
April 14, 2004
1:00 PM - 2:30 PM Pacific Time
Ravi Vedula, Test Lead, Microsoft and Gijsbert in ‘t Veld, Chief Technology Officer, Covast Corporation
Understand the base level support in BizTalk Server 2004 with an example, then understand when to leverage the Covast EDI Accelerator functionality.
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=25945
MSDN Webcast: InfoPath SP1 and BizTalk Server - Level 200
April 19, 2004
1:00 PM - 2:30 PM Pacific Time
Scott Woodgate, Lead Product Manager, Microsoft
InfoPath is to BizTalk Server what Outlook is to Exchange. In this session learn how to interface InfoPath to BizTalk Server for scenarios that include message routing and transformation, orchestration and business rules. Use a variety of transports including file and web-services and take advantage of the HWS integration and Sharepoint integration.
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=25947
Previously recorded BizTalk Server WebCasts are available, too…
MSDN Webcast: Extending Mainframe Applications using BizTalk Server 2004 and Host Integration 2004
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032247147&Culture=en-US
MSDN Webcast: Integrating BizTalk Server 2004 with SharePoint
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032247146&Culture=en-US
MSDN Webcast: BizTalk Server 2004 Business Rules for the Visual Studio .NET Developer
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032247093&Culture=en-US
MSDN Webcast: Using Web Services with BizTalk Server 2004
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032247091&Culture=en-US
MSDN Webcast: BizTalk Server 2004 Performance and Early Adopter Experiences - Level 200
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032247090&Culture=en-US
MSDN Webcast: Biztalk Server 2004 Architecture - Level 300
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032247089&Culture=en-US
MSDN Webcast: Biztalk Server 2004 Orchestration for the Visual Studio .NET Developer
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032247088&Culture=en-US
MSDN Webcast: Getting up to speed with BizTalk Server 2004 for the Visual Studio .NET Developer - Level 200
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032247084&Culture=en-US
MSDN Webcast: Business Workflow and BizTalk – Level 300
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032245095&Culture=en-US
March 25, 2004
Dear Grandmama of Rory,
It has come to the attention of the geeks at Northwest Evening Blend that you are an up and coming, uh, nerd. This distinction is by no means intended to be derogatory. It is a badge of honor that we fellow nerds wear proudly (unless there are muscle-bound jocks or pigtailed little girls in the area – then we duck our heads and tremble in fear, lest we be picked on… but that’s another story for another time).
As a result of your rise to the status of nerd, we would like to encourage you to blog about your nerdiness. Your grandson (Rory – the guy who moved across the country so he could talk to you through your computer – yeah, him) has a lovely web site capable of hosting your blog. He probably wouldn’t charge you very much each month to host it either.
We’re sure that other nerds would love to hear what you have to say, so get that blog up and running as soon as you can.
And, since you live in the Pacific Northwest, once you start your blog, please head over to the Northwest Resources section of Northwest Evening Blend and create a link to your blog. You’ll instantly be on the radar of hundreds of developers across the region. Uh, well, at least one developer.
Sincerely,
The caring folks at Northwest Evening Blend
bliz, the stand alone, external, GUI-based debugger for .net assemblies is located in the sdk GuiDbg folder… as in:
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\SDK\v1.1\GuiDebug\dbgclr.exe on my hard drive.
whew.
(everyone else: whatareyoulookingat?)
I used Windows Search today and it actually found the document I was looking for.
Really. I’m not kidding! I was floored.
Granted, I knew which directory the file was in, and there were only ASCII text files in the directory, but I didn’t know which file contained the phrase I was looking for.
Whammo! Worked like it’s supposed to (but never has in the past). I can’t believe I even gave it a try.
Man, what time is it? Since I’m no longer running my computer as Administrator the system clock doesn’t correct itself anymore. Heh. I’ve even removed the clock from the system tray because it’s always wrong. I know that it’s late (or early) but how late (early)? Ah, it’s only just after 1 AM. I’ve been fiddling with my new Northwest Evening Blend wiki and I completely lost track of time.
A train passed by a minute ago. (I live about a mile from the Columbia River. There’s a train track that runs along the river.) The train blew its horn. A nearby coyote howled back. Cool, and not so cool. One of my cats was nearly eviscerated a couple of months ago by a coyote. Not a pleasant event. Nope.
The howl in the middle of the night also gave me chills for another reason. At tonight’s (last night’s) Portland Nerd Dinner Chris said that Dawn of the Dead is a must see. On par with 28 Days Later. Haven’t seen the former; have seen the latter. OK. I admit I’m a scared little puppy. Where’d I put my blankie?