February 2008 - Posts
Andy Wigley came over to BM Towers to present on Windows Mobile Development using Visual Studio 2008.
Huge thanks again to Andy for coming over to do the event.
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Wow Matt and I have just finished our presentation on Microsoft Volta Live Labs at the Irish Web Technology Conference , it is being held at the Cineworld complex in Dublin. Yes we did get to present on the Big Screen :) , it is totally surreal seeing your caricature displayed so big it is bigger than you ( Lauren's designs look even better 10' high , not that they don't look great when they are smaller , errr , I think my next caricature will be suddenly less flattering <sigh> ).
The presentation went well bar a technical failure necessitating laptop change midway through. I think we got the message that providing architectural level tools to match developer tools is as much a part of Volta as the JavaScript / il / browser implementations.
And with a short break , we also managed to fit in , LINQ , code quality and some other live coding demonstrations.
now off to attend some sessions and prepare to head home :)
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Mat and I will be speaking at the Irish Web Developers Conference in Dublin , Friday Morning at 9.15am.
The subject is Microsoft Live Labs Volta, which is just fantastic.
See you on Friday.
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Anybody who has met me knows how passionate I am about teaching people to program and getting them to use their minds, Well Microsoft has excelled themselves , Any student in higher education can get
Visual Studio Pro 2008 , SQL Server 2005 , Expression Studio , Windows Server 2003 (Not sure on this one , but hey why not) , XNA Game Studio and XNA
Read More Here
I must say I think this is fantastic.
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Everyday I wake up, I love the world we all live in even more , Technology marches on giving us the vital tools we have needed since the 1970's. Until today I wasn't looking for a new car but come to think of it although I have a newish car I feel the desperate need for a new one and a safari suit , curious.
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A new release of the Power Tools for the Database Edition to work with Visual Studio 2008 adds several new features
a new set custom unit test conditions
a new Data Generation Wizard
MSBuild tasks to support running TSQL Static Code Analysis from the command line,Schema and Data Compare and a TSQL Static Code Analysis feature
The power tools also include new refactoring types, a dependency viewer, additional data generators and editors,
Visual Studio Database Edition Power Tools
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The Visual Studio team are already working on the next release and they want to hear from you. If you are using the Architect or Team Suite editions of Visual Studio help define the next version by filling out this survey. It's worth filling it out if you use any of the Team products as you can make a difference, I've done mine have you?
Click Here to take survey
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Fresh and hot foot from the Office Dev conference the first of the Software + Services Blueprints is out. It looks like there are more blueprints on the way , the first one is using Outlook to be a S + S client. The experience is much like Glide which as it looks like the PM is Michael Lehman it is not surprising.
If you have not looked at the Arch Guidance before , You MUST run visual studio after install, start a S + S project and it will start the S+S Blueprints Manager which in turn will offer a RSS down load , once this is started ( I suggest trusting the RSS feed to save time ) more Guidance packs will arrive when they are published.
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Technorati tags:
S+S,
Blueprint,
Microsoft
I am not suggesting that we cross to border to crush any impending revolt ( but now that I think of it ;) ) , Nope it's Developer Developer Scotland , the first of the Developer Developer events to happen in the North is underway with a great set of sessions to choose from, DDS will be help in Glasgow on Saturday 10th May 2007 from 9.00am to 5.00pm.
DDS is being run by Scottish Developers and they need your help , it is community after all. The choice of sessions is not yet set and you need to Vote for the ones you want to see and lo they will be done.
I understand the Sessions on Enterprise Service Bus and Volta will be fantastic , so you should make sure you vote for both of them ;)
So Register and Vote Here or click the picture
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During conversations over the last few months with people about ESB , SOA and BizTalk. It became quite apparent that there was information on the subject for people who knew what all the TLA's were but no first step primer, so Wrox press commissioned me to produce an E-Brief to help IT managers , Architects and developers gain a foundation on how SOA , ESB and BizTalk fit together. I am really pleased to announce that the E-Brief is finished and should be available soon from all good retailers :)
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I have just had it confirmed that I will be talking with Mat at the Irish Web Developers Conference in Dublin at the end of the month on Live Labs Volta.
if you want to know more about Live Labs Volta come to the session.
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Our January Event with Ed Gibson ( Microsoft UK's chief security advisor ) went really well and everybody thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Ed has a very specific set of ideas he is keen to share , one of them is that all parents should spend 10 minutes speaking to the little people ( children) and I agree , I also know that children don't always listen to their parents and I was lucky enough that I could take my eldest child to our talk and listen to and meet Ed in person. Whilst tired and poorly , I think the overall effect was a good one on the child. My deepest thanks go out to Ed and the attendees for a great night.
Ed and I are back on the road on the 20th visiting Sheffield and Huddersfield Universities and if you are a student at either of these fine universities please come and here us speak.
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The big Microsoft launch is nearly upon us , Windows Server 2008 , Visual Studio 2008 and SQL Server 2008. We have run Windows Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008 events in the last 6 months to get everybody up to speed and ready to go , but we haven't run a specific visual studio event. If all goes well over the next day or two I hope that we will be running an event at Black Marble to do just that ;)
Microsoft have provided a pre-launch video for your delectation
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Well Vista is one and what an un remarkable year , not many patches , no problems with hardware , no problems with wireless networking. While it may lead you to think that there is nothing to celebrate , I think not , it just works. bar my hate hate relationship with UAC kindly telling me it is turned off , I like Vista.
But wait there is more , I am writing this on a newly patched SP1 version of Vista ( there is nothing like the smell of a fresh service pack in the morning )
SP1 has Better Application compatibility , improved battery life ( woo hoo ) , security enhancements , Reliability and Performance Improvements. You will see SP1 on Windows Update in the next few weeks and on new machines around April.
Microsoft released an hotfix rollup which solves a lot of performance and usability issues.
you can find the link along with the rest of my Visual Studio 2008 master links list here
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