Bosses on Black Marble

Business Process Automation and Integration in the Cloud

Robert Hogg — Wed, 30 Dec 2020 20:35:10 +0000

Organisations are facing increased, and unprecedented, pressure from the market to transform digitally, and as a result, they need to think how they can become more attractive in their specific market space. The most common area to concentrate on is becoming more efficient, and this can be thought of in discrete parts: streamlining internal, often complex, business processes, making the organisation easier to work with for suppliers or customers, having better cross business views on information, improving service delivery, or saving on manual processing. All these efficiencies are brought to bear by automation, whether this is person to system data sharing, system to system, business to business; the same principles apply but different techniques may be used.

Sponsoring DDD 2020

Robert Hogg — Tue, 01 Dec 2020 09:58:29 +0000

A few weeks back, I wrote about how we aren't asking for sponsors for our online Developer Day, as there aren't any significant costs to cover. Instead, we were directing people towards making a donation to The National Museum of Computing, an organisation which does great things for our industry, but has been finding this year challenging. And many thanks to those of you who have already donated.

However, some organisations, who usually sponsor DDD, have been in touch about still sponsoring DDD in some way, as they want to show their support.

Positively Impacting your Organisation with Collaborative Working

Robert Hogg — Sun, 22 Nov 2020 20:18:31 +0000

Collaboration has been and will continue to be one of the important business advantages that the Cloud can deliver to an organisation. Collaboration can be thought of as not just connecting people to one another and improving their day to day working practices, but also enabling and encouraging collaboration between people and data.

Black Marble can support your move to the cloud for collaboration services between people and data. We can help your organisation realise the full potential of people to people collaboration using services such as SharePoint and, in particular for this white paper, Microsoft Teams. Our approach will help you identify how Microsoft’s collaboration solutions can improve your ways of working, whilst helping you visualise your end goal.

Successful Software Delivery with DevOps

Robert Hogg — Thu, 12 Nov 2020 01:03:59 +0000

With DevOps best practices and Microsoft’s DevOps tooling, Black Marble can deliver agile planning, source code control, package management, build, testing and release automation to continuously integrate, test, deliver and monitor your application.

It is crucial to not only have the right people in place for your cloud adoption journey, but also to use the right processes and the right tools. A typical DevOps approach consists of cross-functional teams provisioning their own infrastructure, with high degrees of automation using templates, codified rules for security controls and cloud-native architecture.

Delivering AI in Policing

Robert Hogg — Thu, 12 Nov 2020 00:52:54 +0000

Over the last few years, I've spent a great deal of time working with police forces in the UK, and regularly have conversations with them about AI, and the potential impact on policing. More and more police forces are looking at AI in order to take advantage of the services available to drive insights from existing data, to produce the next generation of artificial intelligent applications. AI can be thought of as the pinnacle of data comprehension, analysis and insight, as a destination and a focused target for police forces to maintain their responsibility for huge amount of personal data which they hold. It needs quality and connected data and relies on solid governance and best practices to achieve reliable and good quality outcomes.

Delivering an Enterprise Cloud Operating Model

Robert Hogg — Wed, 11 Nov 2020 11:16:07 +0000

There have been some major paradigm shifts in the history of computing with some of the most notable being marked, not only by changes in technology, but by changes in staffing that technology. When the computing standard for mainframe shifted to client/server, the staff model moved from computer operator to system administrator.

The same is true with a move to the cloud.

The cloud fundamentally changes how businesses procure and use technology resources. Traditionally, having had ownership and responsibility of all aspects of technology from infrastructure to software with the cloud, this allows businesses to provision and to consume resources only as needed. Moving to the cloud can bring increased business, agility, and significant costs benefits.

Time to Give Something Back

Robert Hogg — Sat, 07 Nov 2020 23:08:00 +0000

Due to the unusual circumstances of 2020, the 15th Developer!Developer!Developer! Day will take place virtually. That means no catering or venue costs to meet, costs that are usually met via sponsorship, as we keep the cost of entry free. And I'll be covering any incidental costs incurred.

However, we are still looking for support and sponsors, with the aim of using the funds to support TNMOC (The National Museum of Computing) - it's a tough time for TNMOC right now, and they do such great work preserving our industry's heritage, we wanted to make sure we put something back. So if your organisation would normally sponsor DDD, please consider making a donation, it would be deeply appreciated. Or if you are a member of our community who wants to support the museum, please do so here: TNMOC.

The Return of Developer!Developer!Developer! for 2020!

Robert Hogg — Sat, 07 Nov 2020 16:45:15 +0000

DDD Logo

We had planned to run a DDD in October, but due to illness, this didn't happen (we are all well now, phew!). With Christmas so close, hadn't expected to have time to run a DDD, but with the world being as it is, we wanted to do something to bring some cheer to the Dev and IT community.

Therefore we are running DDD (virtually) on 12th December! We are still formalising the details, but wanted to get the message out there, and looking forward to all the submissions!

Back to blogging...

Robert Hogg — Sat, 07 Nov 2020 16:25:38 +0000

I have been wanting to return to this blog for some time, but a combination of things kept me busy. Not least of which, was a period of illness for me at the beginning of Spring, and for family at the start of September. All good now, and glad to be OK!

Plus, I've been keeping myself busy producing articles over on LinkedIn, as well writing a series of White Papers (6 down, more to come!), but I'll blog more about those over the next few days.

DDD North is Go

Robert Hogg — Mon, 14 Jan 2019 21:42:39 +0000

I am super happy to announce that DDD North 2019 is Go.

Apologies for the slight false start but DDD North 2019 will be hosted in the fair city of Hull at the University of Hull on the 2nd of March

Submissions for sessions is open now on the DDDNorth site http://www.dddnorth.co.uk/

Please submit a session and build an amazing developer day

DDD North is Coming

Robert Hogg — Tue, 06 Nov 2018 10:51:26 +0000

I am super happy to announce that DDD North is set to appear on February the 9th in the Sunny Northern City of Hull

The Amazing people at Hull University have arranged the venue and we will be shortly announcing call for sessions and dates for ticket availability.

We had hoped to have DDD this side of Christmas but with such a great opportunity available we felt we could wait a bit

Extending the DDD 13 Deadline to 16 May!

Robert Hogg — Tue, 08 May 2018 19:57:44 +0000

So as there has been some issues with submission, and because we are still keen to drive some Designer sessions to DDD 13, we have decided to extend the submission deadline for 1 week, to the 16th May. Please take this opportunity to get some great content in there, so we can build the best DDD we can. Submit here: http://developerdeveloperdeveloper.com/Sessions

DDD Submission Issues

Robert Hogg — Sun, 29 Apr 2018 19:28:21 +0000

Some people have reported issues submitting sessions for DDD. if you do have a problem, please tweet us a message and we will get in touch

DDD is coming up fast: things you might want to know

Robert Hogg — Sun, 29 Apr 2018 19:25:29 +0000

DDD is winging its way to Reading in June, We already have some great sessions submitted but it would be great to get even more. If you have something to say we would love to hear it.

Also we are still looking for designer orientated sessions.

If you are a new speaker let us know and we are trying to get some speaker mentoring and presentation training organised before the event to help you shine on the day.

DDD is now live for Session Submission!

Robert Hogg — Fri, 02 Mar 2018 09:40:26 +0000

I am delighted to announce the DDD site is now live for session submissions! Get in early to make sure you don't forget. Always a great opportunity to get in front of an enthusiastic crowd. Please do submit, and we would welcome first-timers. The audience is friendly, and so many speakers, that are now on the international circuit got their start at a DDD event. We hope to be able to do something more to support first-time speakers, so let us know if you fall into that category. Once again DDD is free for all to attend, thanks to some great sponsors – if you would like to be sponsor DDD, please email ddd@blackmarble.com. Every bit of sponsorship helps make this a great event.

Smarter Cities Summit

Robert Hogg — Mon, 05 Feb 2018 01:30:12 +0000

I am delighted to be joining SixPivot, our amazing Australian partner, in taking part in the Safer Cities Summit in Brisbane this week. We are launching tuServ, our award-winning policing solution at the event, into the Australian market, as the first step to taken it global!

I'll be joined by Faith Rees, SixPivot's CEO, and I am so excited to share with the Australian public sector the transformation that tuServ makes possible inside an organisation.

DDD (South) is back again

Robert Hogg — Mon, 29 Jan 2018 14:30:47 +0000

After last year’s successful DDD, it will be in Reading for its thirteenth outing, on Saturday, 23th of June.

Once again DDD is free for all to attend, thanks to some great sponsors – if you would like to be sponsor DDD, please email ddd@blackmarble.com.

As ever I would love to see new speakers and new topics in the DDD line up, so please submit a session, this year for new speakers we will be trying to get support before the event to ensure they are super successful.

o7 is back in Store

Robert Hogg — Mon, 08 May 2017 12:50:01 +0000

Several years ago, for the launch of Windows Phone 7, we built a game based on work we did on helping teaching AI with .NET.

o7 was born. A great game, and now it is back in glorious UWP for Windows 10.

Try it out and let us know what you think.

Get it here.

Regional Director

Robert Hogg — Mon, 08 May 2017 12:48:48 +0000

Once again I am so very proud to announce I have been selected to continue as a Regional Director for Microsoft for another two years.

The Regional Directors are a truly extraordinary set of individuals and I am humbled every time I’m in their company. Not only for their extraordinary depth of knowledge and level of technical skills, but also for a passion as deep as mine for helping and supporting the community of developers across the world.

DDD is Back for the 12th Time

Robert Hogg — Mon, 08 May 2017 12:48:30 +0000

After last year’s successful reboot, DDD is back in Reading for its twelfth outing, on Saturday, 10th of June.

Again DDD is free for all to attend, thanks to some great sponsors – and if you would like to be considered, please email ddd@blackmarble.com.

Our aim is to make DDD accessible to all, making it free is key to this but also leaves us limited budget for the nice to haves but we will always try.

Policing and HoloLens

Robert Hogg — Mon, 08 May 2017 12:47:03 +0000

Recently we had a great day demonstrating the great innovations we have made with HoloLens for the Police to a room full of jaded but ultimately enthusiastic, technology journalists.

It was great to see their responses to the solutions we have put together, and heartening to read some of the things they had to say.

Alice Bonasio (Tech Trends) produced this great piece on how MR CSI isn’t SciFi anymore! It was great to see how she could see the potential in what we had produced, “With tuServ you can effectively have a fully functional portable Command and Control Centre.”

Back Again and HoloLens

Robert Hogg — Mon, 08 May 2017 12:46:10 +0000

I have been a bit quiet on the blogging front for a while as I have been deep in planning for community events and steeped in the joys of HoloLens.

The results, two more DDD community events on the way (Reading and the North), and Black Marble has been made one of Microsoft’s HoloLens Agency Readiness Partners. So few companies have achieved this, it’s great recognition for all the hard work we have put in, and I’m looking forward to what we can achieve.

NDC London 2016 (Post 5 Raspberry PI, Fez Cream and Windows 10)

Robert Hogg — Mon, 18 Jan 2016 05:00:00 +0000

One of the things I showed at NDC was a Raspberry Pi 2 with a FEZ Cream Hat (I know that sounds just so wrong, but that is its name). The FEZ Cream offers Gadgeteer ports out of the Pi, which is just awesome. What this means in reality is you get objects to program against not ports and lines which is mush easier; for time, teaching children and me.

NDC London 2016 (Post 4 Intel Edison )

Robert Hogg — Mon, 18 Jan 2016 04:00:00 +0000

The Intel Edison unit is great for building IOT, people have been asking where to get the bits and for more general information

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/do-it-yourself/edison.html

I would suggest getting the Arduino kit to get started with. I enjoy the Xadow(below) much more but I struggled to get the Edison updated first time on the Xadow but not the Arduino (but that could have been me).

Intel IOT https://software.intel.com/iot

NDC London 2016 (Post 3 IOT Security )

Robert Hogg — Mon, 18 Jan 2016 03:00:00 +0000

I strongly recomend you watch a great security talk on IOT by

Clemens Vasters and Dan Rosanova

https://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Build/2015/2-625

NDC London 2016 Talks (Videos not up yet, will update as soon as they are ready)

Barry Dorrans + Troy Hunt

NDC London 2016 (Post 2 Books on IOT )

Robert Hogg — Mon, 18 Jan 2016 02:00:00 +0000

This is the list of recomended books on IOT I shared in my session

Enterprise IOT O'Reilly http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920039433.do

Abusing the Internet of Things O'Reilly http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920033547.do

I will update this as I find and approve of new books

NDC London 2016 (Post 1 thanks)

Robert Hogg — Mon, 18 Jan 2016 01:00:00 +0000

I had a great time at NDC 2016. It was a very well organised event, everybody enjoyed the event, content and the food.

Huge thanks to the great and efficient organisation by the NDC team.

Also thanks to the great people with clearly great taste who attended my talk.

I am separating the post into a few areas so I can keep updating them without people having to read long lists and work out what has changed.

Wraps are off - patterns & practices Architecture Track at Future Decoded!

Robert Hogg — Wed, 07 Oct 2015 13:08:00 +0000

I am delighted to announce that I am hosting the Azure patterns&practices team in a dedicated invite-only track on Day One of Future Decoded!

I've been pushing to bring the patterns&practices team to the UK for a few years now, and it's excellent that it's finally happening at the Premier UK Microsoft event this November.

We have Christopher Bennage and Masashi Narumoto travelling in from the patterns&practices team in Corp especially for the event. The p&p team demonstrate how to bring together architecture best practices for the diverse Microsoft technologies into a unified and holistic solution. They are passionate about discovering, collecting and encouraging best practices, delighting in software craftmanship, helping developers be successful on Microsoft platforms and bringing joy to engineering software!

Driving Windows 10 for Developers using the Keyboard

Robert Hogg — Sun, 23 Aug 2015 15:19:27 +0000

Key Summary

I have split the key Summary into Essential the essential keys are key combinations you NEED to know and Nice to know. I have left the Win+arrows in the Windows 8 section, while the Windows 10 version is vastly better with snapping, essentially the functionality is the same.

I will be posting later on Cortana and other joys of Windows 10.

Essential Keys (new)

Win
Toggles between the start and the current application if in tablet mode

Back in the Saddle

Robert Hogg — Sun, 23 Aug 2015 14:45:10 +0000

After many months travelling and spending a lot of time planning, I have now got many posts backed up to send, I am currently touching up and posting my back log.

so expect to see a flurry of posts over the next week or so

My Latest and Indeed Greatest Award

Robert Hogg — Wed, 18 Feb 2015 22:23:10 +0000

Today I was lucky enough to present one of Rob Miles legendary “Rather Useful Seminars”

For my talk on “Being Disruptive for Fun and Profit” I was awarded an award, hand carved by Rob from a much bigger award.

Rob assures me there is no other one in the world apart from the second one he gave me.

Thank you to everybody who turned up and I hope if you attended you got a lot from it.

Windows 10 Update2 is Here (build 9926)

Robert Hogg — Fri, 23 Jan 2015 18:48:10 +0000

The Windows 10 update has just been made available,

Make sure you have all updates before Installing. The Windows team have especially highlighted

KB302380 https://support.microsoft.com/kb/3025380

as a patch to have installed before you update, i.e. if you don't the install will not work as expected.

if you want the ISO’s look here http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/preview-iso

Living with Windows 10 and a Surface Pro 3

Robert Hogg — Sun, 11 Jan 2015 01:51:18 +0000

I have been running Windows 10 on my pro 3 since the preview was first available. Truth being told there have been at least two occasions where taking it off seemed to be the best option but in both cases updates fixed the problem.

Being a developer I don’t always think before upgrading to new technology but in general it works out well as it has in this case.

To lay my stall out I like Windows 8, the concepts of live tiles, applications exposing search APIs etc. was/is a genuine change for the better, having taught developers the ins and outs of Windows 8 more and more I realise how good the concepts are. Windows 8 is a step change, unfortunately the press who slam Microsoft for not changing and when they do slam again seem to be winning out.

Moore’s Law – Deciphering Falsehood’s and Prophecies

Robert Hogg — Sun, 11 Jan 2015 01:49:59 +0000

Several times over the last few months I have encountered people who have misquoted/used Moore's law to justify a solution for a problem they are avoiding or more often are failing to comprehend to any real level. At a base level it is used as a reason not to do anything at worst used to justify the reasons not change poor or degrading solutions.

After far too many of these encounters I thought it was about time I posted my view of and at the same time debunked some of the many falsehoods I have seen Moore's law used to justify, but I also wanted to give a view of what the change over time of the Computing Industry actually means.

M is Dead, Long Live M

Robert Hogg — Sun, 11 Jan 2015 01:45:04 +0000

Years ago I had the privilege of doing some SDR’s with the team developing a toolset code name “Oslo” using a new language named ‘M’. The concept was to bring modelling of data and visualisation of data to all. Sadly the retirement of Oslo the day before a presentation I was to give was a sad day and the passing of the visualisation tool Quadrant sadder still.

However all is not lost, Data visualisation is a keen topic for me and recently I have been spending more and more time with the awesome PowerBI tools for Excel. As it turns out a chance meeting with some of the original team hinted that I should look at Power Query. The Power Query Formula Language used to allow Queries built by the user to be both repeatable and sharable. As this was the key tenant of the M language, it shouldn't really come as a surprise that the PQFL is really M.

First Band Update

Robert Hogg — Thu, 08 Jan 2015 11:19:10 +0000

The first firmware update is out for Microsoft Band. To get the update you will need to update your Microsoft Health app. In the UK this means the set region to US, go to the store, check for update.
Run the Health app and it should offer a firmware update to the Band. The update is done over Bluetooth and so I made sure my power was connected to the Band and that the Band and Phone were a few Cm apart.
The first time I tried it failed, but closing the Health App and restarting the app Second time was the Charm.

IT Pro New Year’s Honours List 2015

Robert Hogg — Tue, 06 Jan 2015 00:41:28 +0000

The lovely people in the IT Pro team have announced their IT Pro Honours list and I am privileged to be on it.

http://blogs.technet.com/b/uktechnet/archive/2015/01/05/new-year-s-honours-list-2015.aspx

A great set of professionals and Me and Rik.

Me an IT Pro who would have thought.

I suddenly feel the urge to help Rik fix his laptop .

Seriously there is a steady merge between Dev and IT pro in the DevOPS world and what a great world to be in.

Microsoft Band

Robert Hogg — Tue, 06 Jan 2015 00:18:37 +0000

I have been very fortunate to get hold of a Microsoft Band. Bands are currently in short supply, but thanks to an Angel in Minnesota I have one. Currently there is no expected release date for the UK, but a quick look at EBay will turn up enough units to buy, remember the retail price is $199. CAUTION – Check

The Band is Microsoft’s first foray into the wearable's market and first impressions is that they did a good and quite an extensive job. Where most wearable focus on one or two areas, Microsoft Band covers pretty much everything.

Lumia Denim

Robert Hogg — Thu, 18 Dec 2014 23:59:48 +0000

Don’t worry, Nokia are not planning to revive 70s nostalgia aftershave, Denim is the new update for Lumia's providing better low level support of the hardware.

Denim offers several key updates

Camera – for the 830/930/1520 updates specifically for HDR, Dynamic flash and 4k video and speed fixes for the 1520. as a user you will see this surfaced in the new Lumia Camera application update.

Image Quality – Denim also comes with a new generation of image processing algorithms which “should” improve picture quality.

Give a Hoot, Learn to Code

Robert Hogg — Mon, 08 Dec 2014 22:31:55 +0000

This week is Computer Science Education week (CSEW) and I am really exited that Computer Science is being seen for what it is, A gateway to an amazing future.

The Hour of Code is upon us and urge everybody to look at helping children and adults do their first hour.

Microsoft have been promoting the Hour of Code and the importance of Teaching Children to program, http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/news/press/2014/Canyoumakeonehourlas.aspx

(Quotes from the good and myself)

DDD North and IOT

Robert Hogg — Sun, 19 Oct 2014 23:53:30 +0000

Yesterday was the ever great DDDNorth. Huge thanks to everybody who came,helped, spoke and organised a great event, what a great bunch of people.

I must also thank the University of Leeds for their support in providing accommodation for the event.

A greater bunch of people where the self selecting bunch who came to Iain and my talk “The Internet of Things ,Thought about it? Now try it.”.

Thank you to everybody who came and congratulations to the people who won an Intel Galileo kit.

Windows 8.1 update 1 _KB2919355 Error: 0x80070070

Robert Hogg — Wed, 09 Apr 2014 01:34:04 +0000

While I have been pootling about updating machines at home I received an Error: 0x80070070 for _KB2919355 patch. After some digging the problem and a bit of trial and error was the need for 4.5 Gb of free space to be available which on some of our smaller tablets was a challenge.

But simple enough, clear the space and you are set to go

Build Day One Recap and Analysis

Robert Hogg — Thu, 03 Apr 2014 18:15:55 +0000

Day one at Build brought a lot of anticipated announcements with a great mix of surprises and totally awesome demo’s.

The main overall push was the One Microsoft, in essence Microsoft has managed to bring all of their eco-systems into sync, the bottom line developer code can be used and reused across Windows 8, Windows Phone 8 and Xbox One. While this may not seem a major thing to happen and to some a question of why it wasn't like this to start with, either way it means that the entry for corporate customers to deliver Windows and Windows Phone applications is now MUCH lower and I predict the support costs will be much lower as well.

Renewed as MVP

Robert Hogg — Tue, 01 Apr 2014 14:42:00 +0000

Just been renewed as an MVP once again!

Great way start Build :)

Black Marble's Azure-based Virtual Pet Sanctuary

Robert Hogg — Tue, 01 Apr 2014 09:51:00 +0000

I am pleased to announce details of the Black Marble Virtual Pet Sanctuary!

It has been estimated that in the EU alone over 2.1 billion virtual pets/avatars or other cyber creatures, are rotting away due to neglect.

Soon to be enacted EU Regulations, the European Virtual Pet Law (2014) about the long term treatment and care of virtual pets, will mean software manufacturers and users will have a legal obligation to provide long term care of their virtual pets long after they have finished 'playing' with them.

Learning the Microsoft Platform Succinctly

Robert Hogg — Sun, 23 Mar 2014 18:44:19 +0000

The good people over at SyncFusion have taken it upon themselves to provide the Microsoft development community with a great set of books to bootstrap you into different Microsoft development technologies.

To find these little gems head over to http://www.syncfusion.com/resources/techportal/ebooks

you have to register but since doing so i have had no email or hassle from SyncFusion unlike other “free” resources on the net.

Here are some of the Titles

Visual Studio 2013 Succinctly

F# Compiler as a Service

Robert Hogg — Mon, 13 Jan 2014 14:00:41 +0000

With the interesting move for compilers to become services, it is a natural and welcome follow on that F# is now available as a compiler as a service.

The Package contains

F# Language tokenizer – tokenizer service
Processing untyped AST service
Using editor (IDE) services – components needed to build an IDE
Hosted F# interactive - allows F# to be embedded as a scripting language
Hosting the F# compiler

if F# is your thing (and it should be) or if you are interested in Compiler as a Service as a general idea, you really should check it out.

Nokia Update 3, Nokia Black and Apps

Robert Hogg — Fri, 10 Jan 2014 10:20:20 +0000

A nice surprise today the Nokia Black update appeared on my Nokia 1020. The update brings some great new features but also a hidden fix for those of us running the GDR3 developer preview which now allows correct use of the PlayTo feature.

Updated Nokia Glance

Glance now includes other notifications from apps similar to the lock screen also now in fetching blue and green.

Camera

The Nokia Pro Camera and Smart Camera are have been merged, for 1020 users Raw DNG is now supported and updated imaging algorithms, including a new oversampling algorithm for photos.

Update for Windows Phone Developers

Robert Hogg — Thu, 09 Jan 2014 18:35:06 +0000

In a wrap from last year I am posting some summary's of key information from the last few months that people may have missed.

Since the Windows Phone team made the update 3 available to developers there is now a new set of Images for Update 3

These images allows you to test on Update 3 at the same resolutions as Update 2 but also at 1080 x 1920 resolution screens for phones such as the Lumia 1520. Get Update 3 for the Windows Phone 8.0 SDK Here

Tech Update

Robert Hogg — Tue, 07 Jan 2014 13:24:38 +0000

It is that time of year, our Annual Tech Update is upon us.

if you are an IT manager or IT pro come to the morning and find out what happened in 2013 and see a roadmap for all Microsoft Technologies for 2014 from Windows to SharePoint, from SQL Server to Azure

if you are a Development Manager or Developer come to the afternoon and see the update and Roadmap for developers and development technologies

Teaching kids to Program

Robert Hogg — Sun, 27 Oct 2013 00:18:10 +0000

The guys over at Microsoft Research Gadgeteering.NET have produced a really good guide on teaching programming to kids using Visual Basic and Gadgeteer.

it is aimed at 14-19 year olds, you can get it free from Here

Feeling the Microsoft Developer Love on Phone 8

Robert Hogg — Mon, 14 Oct 2013 22:23:23 +0000

it has been a general gripe in the developer community that preview updates for Windows Phone are carrier dependant and to say the least the Windows Phone team rarely allowed early access.

But this has changed, the latest update (Update 3) is available as a preview for developers (FEEL THE LOVE) through the new developer program

i) You need to have a developer account on dev.windowsphone.com

(if you don't have one, you should coz they are fab)

Typescript 0.91 Released

Robert Hogg — Fri, 09 Aug 2013 11:10:46 +0000

With the 0.91 release the loss of performance going from 0.83 to 0.9 has been redressed.

there are general improvements including better ASP.NET support.

The Typescript site has all of the documentation and download packages for Visual Studio and Node.js

http://www.typescriptlang.org/

Microsoft Mathematics 2013 for Word and OneNote

Robert Hogg — Thu, 08 Aug 2013 14:49:47 +0000

Every now and again I post about the great tooling for kids and geeks that Microsoft product, the latest update in this set is the Microsoft Mathematics 2013 update for Word and OneNote.

The add in allows you to

• Compute standard mathematical functions, such as roots and logarithms
• Compute trigonometric functions, such as sine and cosine
• Find derivatives and integrals, limits, and sums and products of series
• Perform matrix operations, such as inverses, addition, and multiplication
• Perform operations on complex numbers
• Plot 2-D graphs in Cartesian and polar coordinates
• Plot 3-D graphs in Cartesian, cylindrical, and spherical coordinates
• Solve equations and inequalities
• Calculate statistical functions, such as mode and variance, on lists of numbers
• Factor polynomials or integers
• Simplify or expand algebraic expressions

Kinect 1.7 update now out

Robert Hogg — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 15:43:00 +0000

Kinect for Windows has just had a update to version 1.7. The Kinect team are calling it "our most significant update to the SDK since we released the first version"

And they are right, it is just awesome , will be talking a lot about Kinect 1.7 over the next few months.

The new version includes

Kinect Fusion - 3D object scanning application creates live 3D models

New recognisable gestures - push-to-press buttons, grip-to-pan

Windows 8 Developer Rewards (free phones,games)

Robert Hogg — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 13:45:02 +0000

The great people over in the Windows Team have set up a rewards program to thank developers for producing great Windows 8 Applications

if you are developing or want to develop for Windows Look at and Register with

http://www.appbuilder-rewards.co.uk/

for some great rewards.

The amount and value of the rewards are staggering, from Xbox Subscriptions to Samsung TV’s

There are added bonus for early adopters such as free Windows Phones, copies of Halo.

TypeScript 0.83 update

Robert Hogg — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 00:12:07 +0000

Wow the typescript guys are busy the new version has a bunch of compiler improvements and fixes especially around large project compilation speed and consistency in the visual studio experience.

Great improvements in the Visual Studio delivery allowing direct connection to projects not in scope, allowing debugging of files which are not in the current project.

Get it Here

TypeScript– Application grade JavaScript

Robert Hogg — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 16:21:42 +0000

During Decembers Architect Forum I talked about TypeScript and some recent updates have prompted a post.

So what is the rational behind Yet another JavaScript language, when there are already a few out there. Microsoft's motivation was to produce an Application grade version of JavaScript which would not impede only improve existing JavaScript development.

The design choices made in TypeScript which make it so appealing is that it is built as a set of Optional extensions to JavaScript so in effect all JavaScript code is also TypeScript code. Combined with the TypeScript implementation which compiles the Typescript down into JavaScript (EC3 or EC5) means that it will run on all platforms where JavaScript runs with out the need of any additional runtime. These give key advantages in both adoption which can be done at the start or during a project and also it does not preclude any existing user libraries which is the classic stumbling block for any new language.

Hilo : Developing an End-to-End Windows Store app using C++ and XAML

Robert Hogg — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 10:32:00 +0000

I have been a massive fan of the work the Microsoft Patterns and Practices team for years and in the past year I have been lucky enough to be able to help out as a reviewer on a couple of projects.

What makes the P&P team stand out is the fact that their aim is to make your life easier and you to look better by helping you delivering better products faster.

Thinking about Printing a House

Robert Hogg — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 00:21:55 +0000

Now is the time to start thinking about projects for the year and by recent posts it should be clear that 3D printing is on my mind as is building a house and so when the worlds collide, I suspect fear will be striking the hearts of anybody who knows me

A Company called D Shape are moving ahead with the concept of Printing Buildings http://www.d-shape.com/index.htm

it looks at a R&D stage but here is an article of Enrico Dini in Action, what an Awesome concept. He is planning to build a Mobius Strip House using the printer.

Print your own case for the Nokia Lumia 820–Awesome

Robert Hogg — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 00:10:32 +0000

I love it when worlds collide, in this case my world of mobile phone development and the world of 3D printing.

In a great move to encourage users to embrace the Lumia platform, Nokia have released, all of the 3D assets needed to enable users to print their own cases using 3D printers.

Looking at the 820 with the back off, external batteries can be built in as can the most excellent wireless charging unit, however what would have been the icing on the cake would be the ability to interface devices into shells. There are two pins not related to battery or charging which I still have not be able to identify when the back case is off so here’s hoping ( i suspect they are case off detection )

Developing Secure Applications for Health

Robert Hogg — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 12:23:35 +0000

As many people know I am a huge fan of Microsoft’s Security Development Lifecycle. There are a set of guides which are well worth knowing about one of which deals with Health

The paper is designed for anybody developing Software and Software Interfaces in Health (specifically HIPPA) in the US but it is just as applicable in the UK.

So if you are in the Health software market Download it and read it from here

Teaching Children to Program with Small Basic[Updated Jan 2013]

Robert Hogg — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 22:10:39 +0000

Many years ago Black Marble undertook to help people to program, not with the aim of turning out large numbers of developer minions but to show how learning to program teaches people how to break down and solve problems.

Lynn Lagit and LLewellyn Falco have produced a series of videos based on the workshops they are running for children as well as some extensions for Small Basic.

For convenience here are links to the videos, but I urge you look look at Lynn’s blog for more details

Windows 8 Store Certification 2.2 Update

Robert Hogg — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 11:21:53 +0000

I have been discussing Windows 8 development with several developer groups this month and it seems that only a few developers were aware that in November update to the Windows App Certification Kit (ACK) was posted, it offers several bug fixes and more importantly new tests which came into force in the middle of December.

In fact many are not using the ACK at all, I urge all Windows 8 developers to run the ACK before submission as it will help you find any store validation errors !!!!!

What’s New in Azure

Robert Hogg — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 16:06:28 +0000

Just before Christmas a number of enhancements were released, the continual growth combined with the short release cadence is showing Azure to be an amazing platform for development and delivery.

Included in the update:

Mobile Services
- CRON – a well built job scheduler for routine maintenance (tutorial here)
- CLI Support – The azure command line tool now has mobile service support
- European Locations – now Europe is a Service location
Web Sites
- can be run across 6 Shared or 10 Reserved Instances
- Publish from Source Control (TFS/Git)
Portal Enhancements for
- SQL Data Sync
- ACS Management
Media Services
- Job and Task management
- Adding content from a Windows Azure storage account
- Scaling to increase encoding concurrency
Virtual Network enhancements (thank goodness)

to learn more come to a BM Azure event check out www.blackmarble.com/events

TFS 2012 Update 1 Hotfix

Robert Hogg — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 19:07:45 +0000

There has been a hot fix that fixes some issues in Update 1 some from the RTM.

Issues Addressed

Collections that are attached to a server that is running TFS 2012 Update 1 may lose permissions
Group scopes may incorrectly cause permission errors
Severe decrease in performance after TFS 2012 Update 1 is installed
Identity sync jobs may fail repeatedly
Warehouse is not updated correctly, or fields that represent a person are not filled
Users can see names of collections of which they are not a member

the full KB Article is here

Life with the Nokia Lumia 920

Robert Hogg — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 13:01:56 +0000

I have had a Nokia 920 with Windows Phone 8 for several months and I thought it worth the effort to put some notes down

Good Bits

The screen is large and clear, pinning apps in small and large format allows me all of the configuration I need.

Nokia Drive + is just awesome, maps for the whole world, all available offline. what more could you ask for.

The main camera is one of the best cameras I have used, I am not a camera head but the pictures make me look good which is a feat in itself. The lens plugins like Cinemagraph and Smart Shoot.

BizTalk 2013 Update

Robert Hogg — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 15:39:06 +0000

The BizTalk team recently announced that the next version of BizTalk is to be a major release not R2.

Feature Updates

ESB Toolkit integration – ESB Toolkit is now fully integrated with BizTalk Server and the ESB Toolkit configuration has been simplified.
Dependency tracking - The dependencies between artefacts can now be viewed and navigated in Admin console
Improvements in dynamic send ports
Improvements in mapping engine performance
Ordered Send Port improvements – increased performance of ordered send port scenarios.

Adapter Updates

Driving Windows 8 for Developers with the Keyboard

Robert Hogg — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 17:22:31 +0000

For most developers the ability to drive applications with just the keyboard is as much instinctive as it is productive and Windows 8 allows it. Following on from my previous post this post covers how to navigate and use the touch interface of Windows 8 with the Keyboard

The key to effective Windows 8 keyboard mastery is the the Windows key, the Windows key will bring you back to the start screen and act as a short cut to most Windows 8 key (groan) features. The short version is navigate with the arrow keys, Windows Key +Z or the List Key will display the app bar and return complete the action.

Windows 8 Essential Developer Tools

Robert Hogg — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 22:23:03 +0000

Obviously the most important tool is Visual Studio 2012 which is available as Express and the various wonderful SKU’s but along side these there are some great toolkits which will help your Windows 8 escapades no end.

this list will be updated regularly

Calisto

The Calisto Toolkit developed by Tim Heuer adds helper functions and XAML controls, must useful are the controls to help deliver the settings fly out.

https://github.com/timheuer/callisto/tree/master/src/Callisto

Or you can download and install Callisto from Visual Studio Gallery

Windows 8 Application submission error 4.1

Robert Hogg — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 22:15:01 +0000

I am just pushing applications through into the Windows 8 Marketplace. On checking the progress of an application it had the word “Failed”, being unfamiliar with this word I looked it up and it turns out to be some form of non success. Rushing to find out why this was the case I was presented with

Your app doesn't meet requirement 4.1. Learn more

hummm, the basis of this error is apparently my failure to provide notification and opt in of sharing personal information, hold on a minute my app is a game which hold NO user information whatsoever.

Boost your Windows 8 C++ application

Robert Hogg — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 22:12:00 +0000

As an out of band Windows 8 post for many of us C++ is somewhat a hidden shame, but not really a shame just hidden out of sight while we dream of closer to the metal coding.

With the joys of Windows 8, C++ is once again back to the fore, I thought a couple of notes on how to get things moving might help

Boostis regarded as one of the best written and comprehensive libraries for C++

Developer Quick Guide (101) to Using Windows 8

Robert Hogg — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 22:11:09 +0000

In many of my presentations on Windows 8 over the last year, there has been a raft of standard questions on how to use Windows 8 effectively, so here is the first of a set of using Windows 8 posts. This aim for this post is to clarify terms and show the main Windows 8 features to allow future posts a frame of reference.

First of all Windows 8 is simple to use, but there are a few gotchas for developers as there is a need to use both desktop and “Modern UI (MI)”. Needless to say that having multiple screens makes the work easier, but knowing how to drive Windows 8 using keyboard and mouse will make development/test/release much faster.

Back Online

Robert Hogg — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 21:23:46 +0000

Due to much travelling and many machine rebuilds, I have not been blogging as much as I ought.

It looks like a hectic and exciting few months in the Merry world that is Microsoft and so I plan to start of with a set of posts on effective Windows 8.

There will be the mandatory Widows 8 101 (boy do I dislike that phrase), but then practical quick guides to help you find what you need quickly and efficiently to develop windows 8 applications.

StyleCop 4.7 now with VS 11 support

Robert Hogg — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 16:33:36 +0000

The great guys on the StyleCop project have now released StyleCop 4.7.4.0 which now has VS11 preview support.

It also gives support for new templates which unlike the visual studio supplied templates are StyleCop compliant and it also supports the Async CTP.

Get it here

BizTalk state of the Union for 2012

Robert Hogg — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 21:31:03 +0000

it has in general the past year has been quiet for BizTalk but it looks like 2012 will be quiet different.

The BizTalk Team have announced that during 2012 BizTalk 2010 R2 will be out however its release will be dependant in VS 11 and Windows Server 8 and so no dates just yet

New Platforms and Infrastructure

Windows Server 8*
SQL Server 2012*

Increased Developer and IT Productivity

Visual Studio 11 and Windows 8 to develop solutions
In-place migration from BizTalk Server 2010

Extended Platform Integration

Zune Lament

Robert Hogg — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 10:13:01 +0000

Well it looks like Microsoft has killed off the Zune Hardware, although only available in the US, many of us had Zune’s. I have to say the Zune devices are/were great.

if Microsoft have decided not to make the hardware, it must be said it puzzles me why they don’t license the software to other vendors, a model I think they might already be quite familiar.

so come on Microsoft find it in your hearts to rescue this rather wonderful bit of kit and maybe make some money with some great hardware vendors.

Developers Guide To AppFabric (free)

Robert Hogg — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 08:50:36 +0000

My great friend Alan Smith has recently released a really great guide to AppFabric, Alan is well known for his BizTalk Bloggers guide and I expect that this volume will enjoy as much if not more success.

The guide is well written and comprehensive, saying that my understanding is that Alan plans to keep updating it over time.

if you are into AppFabric at all get it here

Cumulative update package 3 for BizTalk Server 2009

Robert Hogg — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 08:37:54 +0000

Microsoft have just released CU3 for BizTalk Server 2009 get it here , it contains a bunch of fixes. Installation is straightforward (stop the services, install and reboot)

Zune HD (still going)

Robert Hogg — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 23:57:22 +0000

On the long road to Windows Phone 7, Zune and Zune HD laid a solid foundation, now in many peoples eyes these really excellent devices have been side-lined. I must admit being somewhat fond of my(now my daughters) Zune HD.

But this week a new set of free games and tools have been launched for the Zune HD adding just a bit more life to the platform.

Go to your Zune Desktop, plug your Zune in and look for the new apps and games

Enterprise Library now with added Silverlight goodness

Robert Hogg — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 22:02:44 +0000

A series of updates are available for Enterprise Library and Unity and a few other bits of general interest

There is an update for the Enterprise Library 5.0 which is only required if you are using the Silverlight Integration Pack and need WCF RIA Services Integration or configuration tool support. get it here

However the most interesting development is a version of the Enterprise Library for Silverlight developers get it here it contains Caching Application Block, Exception Handling Application Block, Logging Application Block, Policy Injection Application Block, Validation Application Block, and Unity Application Block allowing you to develop best practice effectively.

BizTalk General Updates and Updated Resource List

Robert Hogg — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 22:01:40 +0000

New

BizTalk 2009 and Adapter Pack 2.0 as recently had some rollup updates

Cumulative Update Package 1 for BizTalk Server 2009 (KB 2429050) contains 60 fixes get it here

Cumulative Update Package 1 for BizTalk Adapter Pack 2.0 (KB 2444952) contains 11 fixes get it here.

More great news, There is now a poster available for the ESB Toolkit. You can get it here.

for people looking to draw up BizTalk for architecture diagrams, Sandro Pereira has produced a Visio 2010 stencil for BizTalk 2010 get it here

July update

Robert Hogg — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 20:54:45 +0000

I looked back and realised I had missed a few updates to post ( I blame Microsoft for bringing out lots of great things all at once )

Light switch Beta 2 is out get it here, the site now suggests that a July 26th launch date is on the cards

StyleCop 4.5 has now been released get it here , if you haven’t tried StyleCop, its main aim is to help deliver standards of code style and standards across an organisation, but it is in fact a perfect pair to FxCop (see the Windows 7.1 .net 4.0 SDK) as FxCop analyses binaries , StyleCop analyses source code.

Microsoft goes Manga for Azure and Powershell

Robert Hogg — Thu, 05 May 2011 21:17:19 +0000

Spelunking through the internet I came across a project at Microsoft to engage people with various Microsoft Technologies using comic form. Black Marble have been producing Xmas comics over the last few years and the results have been great.

The series of comics follows “Squishy” the stress ball, Leah and Zach in a Manga inspired view of IT and development

In "Climbing Mt. PowerShell" the heroes learn PowerShell and the power of scripting to save the day, get it here

Developer Update for April

Robert Hogg — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 13:42:04 +0000

Microsoft as ever have been busy with new drops and SP1 refreshes of technology for us all to embrace and here is a summary update for this month

The Microsoft F# (2.0.0.0), April 2011 Community Technology Preview is available here

While not all new if you are looking at F# I would suggest keeping an eye on

F# PowerPack

F# Samples

F# Developer Center

For learning F# check out the Try F# tutorials here

Mix 11 delivers a slew of interesting updates across the board

Robert Hogg — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 23:10:49 +0000

across the two keynotes of the 2011 Microsoft have demonstrated and released a

IE10 Preview is now out, it has a nice set of enhanced features (faster etc). more importantly Microsoft are continuing with dev preview and a sensible cadence of 8-12 weeks, get it here

The ASP.NET MVC 3 Tooling Update which contains lots of new features including Modernizr a JavaScript library that delivers auto down grade browser support get it here

Silverlight 5 Beta is now out, check out its features here get it here also the CHM is available here remember to Service Pack both Visual Studio 2010 and Expression Web before trying out the new tools.

Windows Phone 7 Dev Kit Jan Update

Robert Hogg — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 07:47:10 +0000

The anticipated January Developer kit update for Phone 7 is available here , it includes the October update as well as Emulator updates for Cut and Paste ( How to: Test Copy and Paste in Windows Phone Emulator. )

The cut and paste will only work on end user phones after they have received the actual phone update (available soon).

NOTE: this is an update and you MUST have the Phone 7 dev kit already installed.

Windows Phone 7 Training Kit Update

Robert Hogg — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 22:15:57 +0000

Microsoft have released an update for the Phone 7 Training Kit get it here

Windows Phone Toolkit(update)

Robert Hogg — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 09:36:11 +0000

A new toolkit for Windows Phone 7 has been released on Coding4Fun. The toolkit includes Controls,Converters and Helpers.

(update) Get it here

With Controls such as

About Prompt
Input Prompt
Progress Overlay
Round Button
Round Toggle Button
Memory Counter
TimeSpan Picker

I suspect that most WP7 developers should look at this kit

Microsoft Math

Robert Hogg — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 12:54:46 +0000

Microsoft has had a good but generally unknown history of producing really quite remarkable Mathematics additions to its OS’s and Applications

Microsoft has just published a new version 4.0 get it here

Math contains

Graphing calculator
allows 2D and 3D colour graphing.
Formulas and Equations Library
more than 100 commonly used equations and formulae.
Triangle Solver
teaching tool for triangles and their parts.
Unit Conversion tool
convert units of measure, including length, area, volume, weight, temperature, pressure, energy, power, velocity, and time.

User Manuals for most Consumer Products

Robert Hogg — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 18:44:55 +0000

I was searching for a manual for my US Blu-Ray Player and I stumbled across Retevo which has a very large collection of manuals for consumer products.

Phone 7 Hacks

Robert Hogg — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 22:18:23 +0000

as the phone 7 hacks start rolling in, I thought I would keep a list, still no HTC hacks

Samsung Hacks http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/11/easy-hack-enables-usb-tethering-on-wp7-phones/

http://www.liveside.net/2010/11/11/windows-phone-7-supports-tethering-for-samsung-focusomnia-7-anyway/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+liveside+%28LiveSide%29

http://www.liveside.net/2010/11/11/windows-phone-7-supports-tethering-for-samsung-focusomnia-7-anyway/

Using the Phone as a USB device

http://www.intomobile.com/2010/11/18/windows-phone-7-usb-mass-storage-mode-discovered/

StyleCop Compliant Code Snippets

Robert Hogg — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 21:58:13 +0000

For all of you who know that I am a big big fan of StyleCop, I am super pleased that Doug Holland has released is a new update of a set of really good code snippets

Get them here

I would recommend reading Doug's blog posts for the last two updates, well worth the effort.here and here

Doug also has some StyleCop compliant project templates which are well worth a peek

Get them here

Kinect Structured Light

Robert Hogg — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 10:26:21 +0000

The Kinect works by projecting infrared dots and mapping the distortion to find out what is happening in the world

Audrey Penven a photographer has taken some stunning pictures with an infra-red camera of how this works

http://www.flickr.com/photos/audreypenven/5197391931/in/set-72157625454305998/

Just keep pretending to yourself that you really look that cool when you are playing on Kinect

Windows Phone 7

Robert Hogg — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 23:31:45 +0000

Having had a phone 7 for a few days now and I thought I would share some thoughts on the platform, My overall feeling is 99% good, the office integration is great and the UI is delightful. The developer experience is fantastic.

The LG offer of free applications is amazing and Flowers is just a great game.

but as ever with a new device some nice to have features or oddities.

Windows Phone 7 SDK update for October

Robert Hogg — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 12:08:09 +0000

There is an October update for the Windows Phone 7 Developer kit get it here

It includes two new utilities, the Windows Phone Capability Detection Tool which allows you to work out which phone capabilities you need to register and a tool to allow connection to a phone without Zune for debugging , it also includes update for Bing Maps

Thoughts on Kodu

Robert Hogg — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 20:17:30 +0000

The Kodu team have an introductory video on teaching children to program with Kodu see it here

The Consolarium have released a set of videos as an introduction to Kodu , see them here. They are a Centre for Games and Learning, established by Learning and Teaching Scotland to explore the world of computer games and help teach programming. It is great to see centralised generation of quality teaching material for consumption across all the schools in a region, inspired. Just a shame we don't have this in England, luckily they are happy to share.

Dublin-bound

Robert Hogg — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 23:39:44 +0000

I am all packed and ready to head off to sunny Dublin with some of the Black Marble Design group to see the good folks at Microsoft Ireland and present on some of the great things Black Marble and Microsoft are up to. Expect two days of Expression, Phone 7 and Windows 7 goodness with Black Marble flair

EPICenter 2010 : Software Development War Stories

Robert Hogg — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 19:19:46 +0000

Recently I had the pleasure of speaking at EPICenter Ireland at Trinity College Dublin with my great friend and colleague Steve Spencer on our experiences over the last few decades

This blog contains many of the links and subject information from this talk however here is a useful quick summary of some of the resources mentioned.

I think the summary I would like to pass on is, treat people well, don’ let them take advantage, provide good opportunities for training. One person what is the killer sign to watch out for, my answer “we will have to start from scratch”.

EPICenter 2010 : Microsoft Phone 7 Summary

Robert Hogg — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 18:29:19 +0000

Recently I had the pleasure of speaking at EPICenter Ireland at Trinity College Dublin

This blog contains many of the links and subject information from this talk however here is a useful quick summary

The Tools for developing Microsoft Phone 7 applications are free (see below), Applications are either built as Silverlight or XNA however a lot of the components are common. The phone chassis is set by Microsoft allowing us all to receive updates and have a consistent platform. The phone screen size is 800x480 or 480x320, Capacitive touch:4 or more contact points,Sensors: A-GPS, Accelerometer, Compass, Light, Proximity, GPU: DirectX 9 acceleration, Camera 5 mega pixels or more.

EPICenter 2010 : SQL Modelling Service Summary

Robert Hogg — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 17:27:55 +0000

Recently I had the pleasure of speaking at EPICenter Ireland at Trinity College Dublin

This blog contains many of the links and subject information from this talk however here is a useful quick summary

Repository Database

Built on SQL Server 2008

Stores model definitions (structure)

Stores model instances (data)

“M” language

Declarative text-based modelling language

Aimed at “curly-brace” programmers

Can be used to define models for repository database

Speaking at SQLBits The 7 Wonders of SQL

Robert Hogg — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 13:04:28 +0000

I am really pleased that I will be speaking at SQL Bits The 7 Wonders of SQL on SQL Modelling Services. SQL bits 7 is running from 30th September - 2nd October 2010 at the Heslington Campus of York University

You will have the first chance to see features from the next release of SQL Server – Denali. The first two days have a nominal charge and day three is free.

Outlook Social Connector

Robert Hogg — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 22:08:27 +0000

Earlier today I was trying to use the Outlook Social Connector for Linked-in Facebook and live but it would not display the View/People Pane

the answer was odd after ensuring the add in was selected in File/Options/Addins, I changed the registry

HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftOfficeOutlookSocialConnector key=RunOSC, from the value 0 to 1

after some checking on the web it looks like this is a problem a lot of PDC Acer users are having.

hope this helps

Managing SQL Azure Databases with Houston

Robert Hogg — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 18:37:03 +0000

SQL Azure Labs have released Project Houston a lightweight web based Database management tool for SQL Azure. Houston allows you to develop, deploy, and manage SQL Azure and includes support for basic database management tasks like authoring and executing queries, designing and editing a database schema, and editing table data.

Bill Clinton@WWPC

Robert Hogg — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 17:18:28 +0000

It must be said that Microsoft has provided me with some of the most memorable and sometimes surreal opportunities in my life. Today was most certainly one of those occasions. I was privileged to see former President Bill Clinton deliver a powerful and passionate speech about the world in which we live and the work that he is doing to help. His message was one of realism and hope, kindness and practicality, stark warning and insight. A portion of Bill’s speech focused on partnering by encouraging businesses to help people and other business, even though helping other businesses grow might not always make immediate sense to a hard nosed business leader.

Teaching Programming with Kodu

Robert Hogg — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 23:23:43 +0000

The awesome team at Microsoft responsible for Kodu have now now released a new technical preview which has a load of enhancements including save and publish for games

get it here

They have also released a Classroom kit which is VERY VERY good, it would be great if there was an update for UK Teaching but I am sure they will do that at some point.

get it here

also recently a new version of Small Basic (0.9) is out

Want a free great book on Windows Azure

Robert Hogg — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 19:10:02 +0000

Well in that case the ever fantastic Eric Nelson is your man, if you join the fans of Windows Azure http://ukazure.ning.com/profiles/blogs/free-100-page-windows-azure

I am sure Eric will find it in his heart to send you the password to download this masterpiece.

Visual Studio 2010 is just out the door and there is more

Robert Hogg — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 12:03:15 +0000

The Visualization and Modelling Feature Pack for VS2010 Ultimate is now available from here it is only available for MSDN subscribers.

The Feature pack allows you to generate code from UML class diagrams,create UML class diagrams from code,Generate dependency graphs and layer diagrams for C, and C++ projects and more.

The Visual Studio 2010 Pro Power tools are also now available here.

Windows Server App Fabric RTM’s Hurrah

Robert Hogg — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 21:13:20 +0000

At TechED one of the many important announcements is the release to manufacture of Windows Server App Fabric

I will be running some events on App Fabric later in the year so keep watching.

get App Fabric from here

BCS EGM

Robert Hogg — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 23:30:24 +0000

Following Richards lead, I have decided to post on my thoughts about the BCS AGM. While I don’t quite agree on some of Richards points. I think that the reasons behind the call EGM are valid. It certainly seems to me that the governing body has thrown a funded PR machine against the EGM and has not spent anytime listening to the members on the issues raised.

The actions of Len who has as far as I can tell used the skills we treasure as a part of the computing community namely of asking questions and analysis to look at our society and conclude in my opinion correctly that there are massive flaws, this “thinking” of the membership seems to have come as a bit of a surprise to the BCS management and their response of “PR flannel” has not made me any happier.

DevExpress and Microsoft do it again

Robert Hogg — Wed, 19 May 2010 08:04:30 +0000

This time for Visual Studio 2010, CodeRush Xpress is a great developer productivity tool from DevExpress. Microsoft has made arrangements with Developer Express to make its CodeRush Xpress product available as a free download to any customer with a full Visual Studio license (i.e. not express). CodeRush Xpress includes a sub set of the full CodeRush features, CodeRush Xpress fully supports all language features of Visual Basic and C#

download it here

Silverlight tools for VS 2010

Robert Hogg — Mon, 17 May 2010 19:34:46 +0000

The new Silverlight 4 tools are now baked and fresh out of the oven get them here

StyleCop 4.4 Beta 1

Robert Hogg — Fri, 07 May 2010 12:37:58 +0000

As noted a while ago, StyleCop 4.4 was due about now and many of you know I am a huge fan of StyleCop which has become open source under the MS-PL license, by means of a CodePlex project. Microsoft will continue to manage the StyleCop project, and Microsoft will be responsible for creating and releasing official signed builds. However, they will also take code submissions from the community.

So StyleCop 4.4 Beta 1 is now available as an installer and source code for download from here. This release provides full support for C# 4.0 syntax, and also provides integration into VS2008 and VS2010. StyleCop 4.4 comes with a number of improvements over 4.3, but also introduces a few breaking changes. Please NOTE all existing custom rules will need to be redone for 4.4.

Windows Phone 7 bits are ready for Visual Studio 2010 RTM[UPDATE]

Robert Hogg — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 18:13:33 +0000

get them here , there is also a slight update to the Expression Blend 4 RC here which is needed to stop problems with the Expression Blend Add-in Preview for Windows Phone (April Refresh) . I would suggest also installing the Blend SDK for phone get it here

Windows Server AppFabric Beta 2 Refresh for VS 2010 RTM

Robert Hogg — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 23:44:55 +0000

for everybody who is now steeped in the last leg of the upgrade trail here is AppFabric for 2010 RTM

get it here

StyleCop for C# 4 and the move to CodePlex

Robert Hogg — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 12:06:34 +0000

As many of you know I am a huge fan of StyleCop and so when Microsoft announced that StyleCop will soon have a C# 4.0 version (StyleCop version 4.4) but that it will also become open source under the MS-PL license, by means of a CodePlex project, and all future development on StyleCop will be done from that CodePlex site. Microsoft will continue to manage the StyleCop project, and Microsoft will be responsible for creating and releasing official signed builds. However, they will also take code submissions from the community.

The Taste of Coca Cola

Robert Hogg — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 21:58:35 +0000

I am nearly back up and running after Mix in Vegas, I managed to dislocate my shoulder at the end of the trips (show girls are heavier than they look). During the visit, Lauren and I revisited the Coca Cola shop/bottle on the strip to retry the taste of Coca Cola.

The Winners were:

Inca Cola – Peru

Sunfill Mint – India

Stoney Ginger Beer – Africa

Sunfill Blackcurrent – Mauritius

Soylent#.NET the new multipurpose language from Microsoft

Robert Hogg — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 00:25:12 +0000

Today Scott Guthrie VP in the developer division at Microsoft announced Soylent# the new "composite" language from Microsoft. Scott said in his announcement that developers were tired of a wide choice of languages that allowed them to tackle a wide variety of problems and instead wanted a single development surface that allowed them to write what they wanted when they wanted it.

Microsoft Technical Fellow H.Harrison who has led the Soylent# project from its inception said that the other languages must Make Room, Make Room for the future of Poly-lingual languages such as Soylent#

Virtual PC for all

Robert Hogg — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 14:03:08 +0000

Windows 7 is a great bit of software, the only major downside was the support for virtual PC which until now only ran on a hardware assisted virtualisation (HAV) processor and supported hardware that is also enabled in the BIOS ( like the PDC tablet I am typing this on ). However for people without this blessing virtual pc and XP mode are out of reach UNTIL NOW

Microsoft have released an update to remove the prerequisites required to run Windows Virtual PC and XP mode. The prerequisites include a processor which supports hardware assisted virtualization (HAV) which is also enabled in the BIOS. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer.

Windows Phone Series 7 Resources [Updated June 12th]

Robert Hogg — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 11:19:18 +0000

At last Microsoft has released a new generation of phone for a new generation of applications, This post is my up-to-date resource list for Windows Phone 7, I will keep this list up-to-date with new and interesting pieces of Information.

Resources

The Developer pages for Windows Phone 7 here

The Windows Phone application icons are available here

Toolkits

The Phone team have arranged that everything you need is available in one download free of charge, I would advise installing components such as visual studio and blend first and then running the phone install as it will download will be smaller and more reliable.If you just want an easy install jump to step d and continue on.

Visual Studio 2010 pre order offer

Robert Hogg — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 10:45:41 +0000

Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Professional will launch on April 12 for an estimated retail price of £484.99.

If you use a previous version of Visual Studio or any other development tool then you are eligible for this upgrade. Along with all the great new features in Visual Studio 2010 (see www.microsoft.com/visualstudio) Visual Studio 2010 Professional includes a 12-month MSDN Essentials subscription which gives you access to core Microsoft platforms: Windows 7 Ultimate, Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise, and Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Datacenter.

Oslo also gets a new name SQL Modelling Services

Robert Hogg — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 19:06:46 +0000

At the PDC uncle Doug gave birth to a new name for the product formally called Oslo, SQL Modelling Services.

While we have all knew the relation to SQL was strong, I do get the feeling that all products will at some point will be a part of SQL. I am now looking forward to Microsoft SQL Server flight simulator.

NOTE, in all the documentation there are notes about the sample data being in the download directory where you downloaded the CTP , this is incorrect

Kodu for the PC

Robert Hogg — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 19:02:27 +0000

The amazing Kodu Game Lab from Microsoft is now available on the PC for trial download, get it here

BizTalk 2006 R2 SP1

Robert Hogg — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 15:28:40 +0000

Microsoft has released Service Pack 1 for BizTalk 2006R2, it includes a rollup of all of the hotfixes issued so far as well as

Get it Here

ESB 2.0 White Paper

Robert Hogg — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 15:18:36 +0000

I recently had the great pleasure in reviewing Jon Flanders great white paper on ESB 2.0. Jon has a knack of nailing things down and ignoring the fact I am a fan of ESB 2.0 I think you should read this as soon as possible,better still print a copy off and give it a gift to a loved one who has not had the joy of knowing ESB

Get it here.

Visual Studio Tip of the Day (NextGen)

Robert Hogg — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 20:14:36 +0000

The next generation of visual studio tips of the day are here courtesy of Zain Naboulsi, a Developer Evangelist at Microsoft who is stepping into some very big shoes (metaphorically,eep) of Sara Ford.

read Zain’s posts here, but wait there's more he is also providing videos as well :)

StyleCop Beta for Visual Studio 2010

Robert Hogg — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 23:29:33 +0000

A Beta version of Stylecop for Visual Studio 2010 is now available here, the only change is the integration with the Visual Studio 2010 shell.

obviously not for “Real Programmers” but for us mortals it is a great new year gift.

Real Software Engineers don’t eat Quiche

Robert Hogg — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 20:10:32 +0000

Michael Stal has written an excellent post on why Real Software Engineers don’t eat Quiche ( I added the eating Quiche, but you get the drift of the article )

he did miss out a few important facts on Real Software Engineers,

i) They always have a new type of hammer that they are looking to try out after hearing about it at a conference and any project nail is suitable for the task of finding out how hard the hammer can be used. Strangely the hammer always resembles a silver bullet!

Teaching Children to Program with Small Basic[Updated Feb 2010]

Robert Hogg — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 17:26:32 +0000

As hopefully many of you know I am a huge advocate of teaching children to program, not to turn them over to the geek side but to teach them the life skills of problem solving and analysis. On a personal side I have been championing My First Programming Language a tool to get children a step up to programming in Basic by providing graphical tools as a precursor to coding.

mmmmm new keyboard

Robert Hogg — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 16:46:29 +0000

most people know I am a bit of a sucker for a new mouse or keyboard, the new Arc keyboard while not being ergo is still quite cute

http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/mouseandkeyboard/ProductDetails.aspx?pid=120&active_tab=overview

I am hoping nobody will notice if a new/second keyboard is added to my desk with the scant number of mice I have.

Virtual Labs for AppFabric and .Net 4

Robert Hogg — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 22:57:25 +0000

Ten labs for AppFabric and .Net 4 are available on MSDN virtual labs.

These labs cover .Net 4 Beta 2 and AppFabric Beta 1.

Simple Console Workflow

Introduction to Workflow Services and AppFabric

Implementing More Complex Control Flow and Logic with WF4

Activity Designers and Designer Re Hosting in WF4

Building a Complex Workflow Service-based Business Process

Managing Your Workflow Service with AppFabric

Introduction to the Windows Server AppFabric Cache

AppFabric 1.0

Robert Hogg — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 22:42:20 +0000

AppFabric has a release today, get it here

Windows 7 and Office 2010 Overview and Tips

Robert Hogg — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 22:11:29 +0000

VJ has released a free book with hints and tips for Windows 7, it is full of useful information and a must read for any windows 7 geek user.

Microsoft Press have made First Look: Microsoft Office 2010, by Katherine Murray free for a LIMITED time get it Here

When in Edinburgh

Robert Hogg — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 19:33:26 +0000

Over the weekend the family where in Edinburgh we stumbled into an extraordinary Kurdish and Iranian restaurant called Hanams it just off the royal mile near the castle.

if you are near, just go in and try it, my recommendation is the Kulicha

Dublin gets a cool new Name App Fabric

Robert Hogg — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 02:02:31 +0000

Microsoft’s WF/WCF host server codename “Dublin” now has a new cool name and a promise of a great future.

Windows Server App Fabric as it is now known since it has been merged with the product formally known as “Velocity” is to be the foundation for internal hosted scalable application farms, with the ability to migrate projects (Hinted, not yet promised) to the cloud (Azure)

I have been waiting a long time for Microsoft to see the light over service hosting, what makes this step so good is the tooling and monitoring provided.

The Joy of Access

Robert Hogg — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 12:35:19 +0000

Well the title says it all, a sentence I thought I would never utter but its true, Access is great, specifically Access Services in SharePoint. We have been deep and dirty with Access Services in SharePoint for sometime, before it was announced getting some demo’s built of our planned release products based on SharePoint 2010.

When Andy and I were at the SharePoint 2009 conference and we had a chat with Ryan McMinn and you can see some of it here on Channel9’s The Access Show.

Snippet Editor

Robert Hogg — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:59:54 +0000

The new version of the Snippet Editor now supports Visual Studio 2010, if you are doing demo’s or like snippets get it here

IRON*.NET (CTP) for .NET 4.0(Beta2)

Robert Hogg — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:39:25 +0000

Those good people at Microsoft have just released updated versions of IronPython and IronRuby CTP’s for .NET 4.0 ( Beta 2 ) to sync up with the Visual Studio release last week

IronPython 2.6 CTP for .NET 4.0 Beta 2.

IronRuby (no rev number so lets say 1.0) CTP for .NET 4.0 Beta 2

enjoy

SDL lifecycle tools

Robert Hogg — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 21:39:19 +0000

have been built in compliance with requirements and recommendations

Microsoft has a link to a set of Microsoft’s Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) Tools, get them here. The tool set includes great products such as FxCop. A SDL Thread Modelling Tool allows non-security specialists to enter already known information, including business requirements and application architecture , the tool then produces a threat model, A SDL process template for integrating SDL into VSTS. The tool set also includes an Anti-XSS .NET library.

(Free) Microsoft Security Essentials

Robert Hogg — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 23:40:51 +0000

Microsoft has released its Security Essentials package of free Virus,Spyware and Malware tools.

Get it here

OOMPH2

Robert Hogg — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 20:14:28 +0000

The chaps at M$ have released a new version of OOMPH, imagintivly titled OOMPH2.

OOMPH is designed to make micro formats more accessible to dev’s and designers, but is is just a great tool to have installed in IE, try it and see.

get it here

Sharepoint

Robert Hogg — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 19:32:32 +0000

A contingent of the Black Marble staff will be heading to Las Vegas in less than two weeks to attend the Microsoft SharePoint 2009 Conference. if you are going please look us up, I will be presenting on a subject jet to be announced so keep tuned.

BizSpark

Robert Hogg — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 13:05:13 +0000

I would like to thank everybody who came to our first BizSpark event, I understand that everybody enjoyed themselves and are signing up to either Biz or Website Spark. I would also like to thank Business Link Yorkshire for attending and offering solid business advice.

We will be announcing follow-up BizSpark events soon including a quarterly Technical / Business all-in Q&A session.

once again thanks for all those who attended.

SDL Verification Tool

Robert Hogg — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 21:51:11 +0000

Everybody knows I like a verification tool as I think they are a solid way to enable a solid basis for quality, the argument against is that they do not get every case and so the argument goes we should settle for 20% MK1 human eyeball standards. I am a firm believer in both and so I was made up when Microsoft released the BinScope Binary Analyzer which analyzes binaries to check that they are in compliance with Microsoft’s Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) requirements and recommendations.

BizTalk 2009 Performance Webcast

Robert Hogg — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 16:57:31 +0000

At 9.00pm GMT, Ewan Fairweather will be running a webcast on Performance of BizTalk 2009 both on Hyper-V and Physical Deployments.

Register for the upcoming TechNet Webcast: BizTalk Server 2009 Performance on Hyper-V and Physical Deployments (Level 300)

for those of you who don’t know Ewan he co-authored the successful Professional BizTalk Server 2006 (Wrox,Press 2007) and has written many white papers for Microsoft including the "Microsoft BizTalk Server Performance Optimization Guide and has been the technical editor on other fine Wrox Press books.

Tuva – Feynman Lectures for all.

Robert Hogg — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 13:47:42 +0000

I have been a long standing fan of Richard Feynman and so I have spent the last few days watching some of his best lectures, Uncle Bill in conjunction with Microsoft Research has made ( both technically and financially ) the Messenger Feynman lectures available under the banner Project Tuva

The MSR team has spent a lot of time and effort to make Project Tuva special, adding timelines , extra information and connections out to external sites, with an end result of a fitting tribute to a great man.

AIC 2009

Robert Hogg — Sun, 10 May 2009 01:30:01 +0000

Black Marble was down at AIC yesterday, not only were we proud to sponsor such an event but we also ran some sessions and breakouts.

Thanks to everybody who attended sessions I was involved in.

For those of you who attended the discussion on Architecting Quality, I thought it was a good session with a set of fairly solid outcomes

i) Good reliable tooling is essential, but it should not be the answer to everything

Channel 9 is 5

Robert Hogg — Mon, 04 May 2009 00:24:57 +0000

no this is not some strange kind of maths statement, a bit late (oops) but it is just that the first social media sites that exited me is now the ripe old age of 5.

if you feel the need to celebrate as well you can hear Don Box and Chris Anderson serenade (in a oh so disturbing way) the Channel 9 Guy here

if developers singing to a foam logo is not your sort of thing, go here to join Channel 9 anyway.

WCF Champ ( Round 3 now up )

Robert Hogg — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 23:13:01 +0000

The ever lovely people at the Microsoft CSD have launched a site to promote learning WCF. The site has a couple of overview videos to help you understand why WCF takes producing quality connected services easier and faster. The site also collects a great bunch of material to get you started or improve your existing WCF skills.

Look at the champ web site

Although I have been trying to contact them to complain about using the designs for our remodelled developer pits for the video.

Architect Insight Conference 2009

Robert Hogg — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 22:41:37 +0000

I will be speaking at the AIC on the 8th of May on Modelling with Oslo for Architects. There are some truly great speakers at the event however I have just head that it is already full.

I hope to see some of you there

Brain Burps for the Tech Savvy

Robert Hogg — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 20:09:50 +0000

Oliver Sturm and Gary Short have recently started their new podcast, called “Sod This”. Only the surface it is Oliver and Gary randomly talking, but underneath is some in depth solid information and insights in interviews from some interesting people. They promise to deliver the podcasts on a fixed timetable of whenever they finish one.

From their own blurb they describe themselves as

not equally sized
lazy
extremely handsome

I would add 1/3 deluded but very tech savvy, my advice is to listen to them.

More Free Book Madness

Robert Hogg — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 22:50:26 +0000

Microsoft Press have just announced that they have made some books available for free during April

Windows Small Business Server 2008 Administrator's Companion

Microsoft Visual Basic 2008 Express Edition: Build a Program Now!

P==NP

Robert Hogg — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 22:55:07 +0000

I spent too much of my misspent youth looking into optimization techniques and scheduling problems and I would always come up against computationally intractable solutions and then looking for a more practical solution. I think that these experiences have made me the pragmatist I am today (best effort is better than not achieving perfection).

Doron Zeilberger has published a proof that P=NP, you can read his paper here. While on paper this could revolutionise computing and specific areas of optimization, the author has expressed that the solution presented is certainly not practical for the foreseeable future.

MVP III

Robert Hogg — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 15:20:06 +0000

I am so pleased to be renewed as a MVP this time for the Connected Systems Division (CSD). My deepest thanks to the great guys in the CSD group and the UK MVP team for making this happen. This is my third year as a MVP and during the last two years (and a day) , I have been a BizTalk MVP twice and an Architect MVP twice and now a CSD MVP. I think it is time to settle down with the CSD group :)

Architect

Robert Hogg — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 00:37:05 +0000

I am no longer an Architect MVP, I have been an Architect MVP twice now and my passion for architecture is still strong but I am spending more time with M(Oslo) and engineering presentations in my community work than Architecture.

I am still an Architect by day but by night I still fight as an developer.

For I am a jolly good fellow ( twice over )

Robert Hogg — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 23:30:40 +0000

Today I was told by the BCS that I have been awarded Fellow of the Society (FBCS) , I so very proud of the work the BCS is doing to improve the community and I feel that I am pushing to do my bit in the North of England (and the rest of the country given the opportunity occurs)

I was waiting for some pictures (yet to be taken) to announce that I have also been appointed as a Honorary Fellow at The University of Hull, I am tremendously grateful to the great people at Hull for this honour.

Top Architects , Top Conference , Top Speakers

Robert Hogg — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 23:12:32 +0000

The 4th annual Architect Insight Conference has just been announced and this year I am happy that Black Marble is helping make it happen.

I will be presenting on Microsoft's Vision of modelling using “M” , I think M has a huge future in architecture and while it is only available in it base level , it is important to understand the potential.

I look forward to seeing everyone down in London.

More Bad Apples

Robert Hogg — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 00:35:33 +0000

Over the last week I have received many comments on my recent post about bad apples, it seems to have resonated with a lot of people in the industry ( many of whom already read the great coding horror blog ). The two common questions have been, i) how do you spot it? , ii) what do you do?

The first is easier than the last, in general people will go dark and that becomes noticeable in communication skills, lack of documentation and general mood of self-despair. the less common variant is the supreme antagonist where the person will constantly pick fights which ironically they loose as their arguments are borne out of frustration with themselves not reality.

Marketing Speak

Robert Hogg — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 00:27:47 +0000

I love travelling and going to conferences, seeing friends both new and old. Normally the kind events that I attend are technical , architect and developer focused.

Now and again I bump into the wonder that is Marketing and Sales who take our beloved technology and add their own terminology, very occasionally I end up in an off wall non-technical presentation and sometimes a mix of the two.

I was very happy to attend a session on Eco Computing and implications for Architecture, it was deeply interesting (no really) which I hope will be made more generally available to the public.

MVP summit

Robert Hogg — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 00:25:22 +0000

I am just back from the MVP summit, this is my second time and interestingly I am attending sessions by both the ever lovely Connected Systems Division and the Architects group. it was great to see friends and colleagues both new and old.

Mike Nash has posted a “I’m a PC with MVP video” taken at the summit , if you look real careful in the first shot of MVP’s you can make out Richard, Rob Miles and myself.

Bad Apples

Robert Hogg — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 15:42:16 +0000

One of the interesting pieces of work we get involved in are rescue projects. Rescue projects can be thought of projects that aren’t delivering or won’t deliver either to timescales, feature requirements or quality.

In a rescue project there are many areas that normally need addressing: Project Management, Documentation, Process and Quality. The one common theme in rescue projects is people; when we are brought in to help on a project people start to worry about losing their jobs, but more often than not are un-accepting of the situation they are in.

BizTalk Hotrod

Robert Hogg — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 12:31:31 +0000

If you are in the BizTalk world, I would recommend reading the BizTalk Hotrod. it looks like Todd has stepped down from BizTalk Hotrod , he mentioned he was moving when we were at TechED US last year. Rajinder has taken over and it looks like he is off to a cracking start.

Get it here

[Resource] Oslo and Dublin

Robert Hogg — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 22:33:34 +0000

As promised in several of my sessions here are a good list of useful resources to use when looking at Oslo and Dublin.

The first port of call should be the Oslo dev centre on MSDN

Microsoft have a Mg resource centre for grammars here

Downloads

The January Oslo CTP can be downloaded from Here

The most current spec can be downloaded from Here

Videos

Models Remixed a set of overview videos on modeling

Security given the Ed Gibson edge

Robert Hogg — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 15:15:00 +0000

Microsoft's CSA Ed Gibson returned to Black Marble on the 21 January to impress the importance of security on another roomful of IT professionals and developers. Another excellent presentation, raising some key points that everyone needs to address.

Another Successful Technical Update

Robert Hogg — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 14:36:00 +0000

The usual suspects of Black Marble speakers presented on the Microsoft technologies from 2008 and the forthcoming developments for 2009. A rapid fire run through covered everything from Oslo to Windows 7 through Azure and Performance Point to System Centre. All the news, and milestones for Microsoft releases in 2009 and beyond.

Good lunch too.

Business Process Management presented to an Enthusiastic Room

Robert Hogg — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 14:12:00 +0000

PNMSoft joined us at our day of events on the 21st January, to speak on Business Process Management. A fascinating presentation by Gal Horvitz was greeted enthusiastically by the room. All in all, a successful session.

Azure Briefing is coming to Black Marble HQ

Robert Hogg — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 12:21:00 +0000

The Developer & Platform Group at Microsoft are pleased to announce a series of technical briefings, targeted at ISVs and Start-ups, focused on the cloud based Azure Services Platform (first announced at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles in October 2008). Black Marble are delighted to host the Bradford leg of this event on 13 February.

This event will cover:

· Windows Azure – The operating system for the Cloud

Free CodeRush ( and bits of Refactor Pro ) Xpress for C#

Robert Hogg — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 23:45:09 +0000

One of the great announcements at the PDC was that Microsoft and DevExpress have done a deal to giveaway a version of CodeRush which includes some of the more popular features of CodeRush and Refactor Pro

For those of you lucky enough to come to our evening event with the legendary Oliver Sturm, you will have already got it or its fully featured versions. I would not endorse this product if I really didn’t believe in it. To answer someone's question at our event, every developer at Black Marble is given a copy (full) of CodeRush and Refactor Pro.

More Free Books

Robert Hogg — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 23:38:46 +0000

You can get a free copy of the excellent Vista Edition of “Writing Secure Code” Here

Black Marble and Microsoft Architecture in the North

Robert Hogg — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 20:52:08 +0000

At the start of December Black Marble was very proud to co-host Architecture in the North with Microsoft.

I would like to thank everybody who came and to the great Microsoft speakers who came to educate us all.

Session Decks

Sustainability from Data Centre to the Cloud - Matt Deacon

Architecture Guidance - Simon Thurman

Making Sense of Windows Azure -Simon Davies

Oslo,Microsoft's vision for the future of Modelling - Robert Hogg

[Resource] Visual Studio tools, utilities and add-ons

Robert Hogg — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 20:51:30 +0000

as a part of my collected sets of links here is a set of useful tools and links for Visual Studio

Languages

IronPython 2.0 can be downloaded from here

Tools

Microsoft Code Analysis Tool .NET (CAT.NET) v1 CTP - 32 bit - here

-CAT.NET is a snap-in to the Visual Studio IDE that helps you identify security flaws within a managed code (C#, Visual Basic .NET, J#),V1 contains rules to detect - Cross Site Scripting - SQL Injection - Process Command Injection - File Canonicalization - Exception Information - LDAP Injection - XPATH Injection - Redirection to User Controlled Site

Free Book

Robert Hogg — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 20:49:49 +0000

Yes that's right Microsoft Press are celebrating 25 years and giving away free books, this months is Joseph Davies’s book on IPV6

Get it Here

the offer runs out in a few days so get downloading if you want it.

BizTalk 2009 and ESB 2.0

Robert Hogg — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 20:28:51 +0000

BizTalk 2009 CTP is now out along side ESB 2.0 CTP and RFID(Mobile)

BizTalk 2009 supports visual studio 2008 , SQL Server 2008 AND TFS with some great new tooling for development and application lifecycle management.

BizTalk RFID Mobile enhances BizTalk Server RFID by offering device management and offline processing capabilities using Windows CE based machines. BizTalk RFID Mobile is free to all BizTalk Server with Microsoft Software Assurance. With 2009 BizTalk RFID Mobile will be available as part of the license.

DDD7, OSLO Microsoft’s Vision for the future of Modelling

Robert Hogg — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 00:08:55 +0000

On Saturday I was pleased to have been chosen to present on Microsoft “Oslo” at Developer Developer Developer 7. The event was a runaway success and there will be more.

I would like to thank everybody who attended my talk and especially those who were kind enough to provide feedback ( good and bad ). The only downside was my Quadrant demo did not work too well as it was running especially slow and I did not demonstrate half of what I had intended but it turned out that my laptop had decided to run in extra slow power saving mode!!!

Back From a Long Few Weeks of sitting in a flying bus

Robert Hogg — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 23:36:06 +0000

I am back from a few long weeks away both at the PDC in Los Angles and TechED IT in Barcelona, it was been great fun out at the PDC finally seeing “Oslo” out in the wild but the week at TechED talking to lots of great people about the joy of BizTalk brought me firmly back to reality.

Microsoft has started to put information out about some ground breaking technologies , Azure, Oslo and of course Windows 7. Now I am back and in one place I will be putting time aside to keep a solid set of Oslo information coming your way.

[Resource]Developer and Architecture Guides (Updated 26th April)

Robert Hogg — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 16:05:20 +0000

With the slew of great Developer and Architecture Guides appearing I have decided that a central list of them all is in order. I am now marking my resource lists to help people find them in the slew of “interesting” comments in my blog.

Enterprise Library is up to 4.1 get it HERE

Windows 7 Developer Guide – A guide for developing Windows 7 - get it here

Acceptance Test Engineering Guidance Guidance book - get it here

Rob Miles marches on to more world wide fame

Robert Hogg — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 14:13:58 +0000

The ever so great Rob Miles has released his most excellent C# Course for all. It is already spreading to the far east. The big question is where next?

Enterprise Library 4.1

Robert Hogg — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 14:49:49 +0000

The P&P group have updated the Enterprise Library to 4.1 get it HERE

Microsoft Arc

Robert Hogg — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 01:14:14 +0000

I am a bit partial to trying out new Microsoft hardware :), Over the weekend I received a Microsoft Arc

The Arc Mouse’s is a full size mouse which has a brilliant folding back plate its foldable shape allows it to easily half in size and a natty carrying bag . Its micro transceiver clicks into the underside of the mouse using a magnet. The micro transceiver is super small (< 1cm) so it can be left in the laptop while travelling.

MicroFormats are here to stay with OOMPH

Robert Hogg — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 02:30:15 +0000

I was looking into Micro Formats earlier in the year and so I was really interested to see that the Mix team have produced a MicroFormats Toolkits to help create , consume and use MicroFormats.

There is a IE component to help identify MicroFormats.

A Live Writer Plugin to help create hCards

CSS styles for MicroFormats

check it out below.

Physical Security just got a bit harder

Robert Hogg — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 02:28:39 +0000

Normally when I talk about security I am discussing security about developer , IT or personal ( social engineering ). However this article took my fancy about UCSD Scientists furthering the high tech nature of lock picking by producing a system that makes a working copy of a key based solely on a photograph.

patterns & practices Application Architecture Guide

Robert Hogg — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 02:37:03 +0000

A new version of the Application Architecture Guide ( v2.0 ) has been released to beta.

Part I, Fundamentals of Application Architecture
Part II, Design
Part III, Layers
Part IV, Quality Attributes
Part V, Archetypes - Design and Patterns

Get it Here.

CodeRush and Refactor XPress for C#

Robert Hogg — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 20:14:31 +0000

Developer Express and Microsoft now are shipping a limited free copy version of CodeRush and Refactor! Pro. The free edition is available for C# developers using Visual Studio 2008.

A list of features :

Find any File or Symbol...
Tab to Next Reference
Expand/Shrink Selection
Intelligent Declaration Based on Usage
Professional Grade Refactoring
Editor Features
Navigation Features

Get it Here

If you want to know more about the greatness of the free tools come along to one of our evening events where the near legendary Oliver Sturm will be presenting on [Developer Productivity](http://www.blackmarble.co.uk/events.aspx?event=Enhancing Developer Productivity with DevExpress CodeRush and Refactor! with Oliver Sturm)

PDC – Home – TechED

Robert Hogg — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 18:53:10 +0000

I am just back from the PDC and all the great news ( post to follow ) and I am just off to TechED IT all though Rik seems to have forgotten me :(

if you are at TechED IT pop over to the BizTalk booth and say hello.

Patterns and Practices : Acceptance Test Engineering Guidance

Robert Hogg — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 18:28:50 +0000

The P&P team have released the Acceptance Test Engineering Guidance Guidance book. The guide is designed to help groups meet customers expectations of delivery.

How to Plan for Acceptance Testing
What Kinds of Acceptance Tests to Run
How to Create and Run Acceptance Tests
Defining What “Done” Means ( this is the important one from my observations )

Get it here

I can’t say enough how much the P&P team are making a difference in quality to the whole of the development and IT industry, if you haven't had the privilege of looking at the exceptional set of knowledge the P&P team put together look here

PDC Day 1 , Azure

Robert Hogg — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 16:32:39 +0000

Microsoft Azure is the name of Microsoft’s Cloud Operating system, a new service based operating platform

Windows Azure ( cool logo to come ) is Microsoft’s core web tier capability for virtual computation with automated service management
using a fabric controller for the provisioning with its design based on a balance based on existing windows dev skills + code , allowing develop

It turns out the the legendary Dave Cutler has been working on Azure for a while, all of the azure team were
touting Red shoes , presumably as a nod to the original working title of Red Box(I think that is right)

(Black Marble) Founders Day

Robert Hogg — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 15:38:53 +0000

Every now and again the founders of Black Marble meet up to discuss the future directions of the computing industry to help plan the road ahead for Black Marble. This year we chose Newport Beach south of Los Angeles.

Although I can’t imagine why people would like to live near here. Andy has suggested that our next catch up should be in Hawaii, while I think that might happen, it is more likely to be at the Hawaii lounge in Cleckheaton, south of the M62

The PDC is nearly here

Robert Hogg — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 15:30:03 +0000

A bunch the pride at the black marble are here ready and waiting for the PDC, we are all registered ( with the less than amazing shopping bag issued, better things to come ;) ), Robert , James and Richard

look in awe at the future

of thinking outside of the box

here’s looking to tomorrow.

DDD7 is now full

Robert Hogg — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 18:17:56 +0000

well it is a testament to the strength of the developer community that only hours after being open for registration DDD7 is now full. there is a waiting list and if you are at all keen on development I would urge you to add yourself to the wait list as this will greatly increase your chance of seeing me present on Oslo :)

Microsoft CRM 4.0 adapter for BizTalk 2006

Robert Hogg — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 22:15:53 +0000

Microsoft have just released the Microsoft BizTalk® Server 2006 adapter for Microsoft Dynamics® CRM 4.0, the adapter has the same functionality as the 3.0 adapter plus :-

• Support for both 32-bit and 64-bit deployments of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0

• Support for form-based authentication

• Support the joy that is multi-tenancy

Best of all the adapter is free.

Download Here

Microsoft Dublin ( Microsoft WCF/WF Application Host )

Robert Hogg — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 19:57:33 +0000

WOW, I was expecting this in a few weeks but Microsoft have just announced that .NET 4.0 will include new versions of WCF and WF , with new stateful and conversational services and significantly improved designers.

The new version of WF includes a 10 times performance increase , new flow control models including a large number of built in activities ( including but not limited to power shell , db and messaging ) , compos able rules and the ability to debug XAML

ReMix in Colour

Robert Hogg — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 12:55:40 +0000

Two weeks ago I was delighted to be at ReMix in Brighton. On the last day I was asked to be a Judge in the finals of Speaker Idol. The speakers did a great job in entertaining and informing the attendees , taking there own valuable time at the conference to share more information with others.

One chap presented on RGB to HSL , which is an important topic certainly for me as I spend some of my life doing that same work.

ReMix 2008

Robert Hogg — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 09:16:01 +0000

I am with a contingent from Black Marble at REMIX UK in Brighton, if you are here say hello.

Bill Buxtons keynote is both engaging and inspirational, if you are in the land of design I suggest trying to watch it.

Microsoft and the Object Management Group

Robert Hogg — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 18:26:30 +0000

While it might sound like a rather dull sequel to a set of “Microsoft does adventure” books, in fact Microsoft has joined the OMG and it is a very significant direction change for Microsoft to make, I have been following and commenting on the OMG’s work since the early 90’s, I really am pleased, as I think it will benefit our industry as a whole.

Read the press release here.

BizTalk 2009

Robert Hogg — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 18:25:40 +0000

Microsoft has just updated it’s BizTalk Roadmap , the key change in the roadmap is the introduction of BizTalk 2009. BizTalk 2009 replaces the planned 2006r3 release. The 2009 release should be with us early in 2009 with some great features including development in Visual Studio 2008 :), I have summarised the features below

Updated Platform – Support for Windows Server 2008 including virtualisation using Hyper-V & SQL Server 2008.

Developer & Team Productivity – Support for Visual Studio 2008 , .Net 3.5 and improved application lifecycle mgmt support including TFS with integrated source control, bug tracking and MSBuild automation.

The Cops are in at Work

Robert Hogg — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 21:34:10 +0000

New versions of my favourite Cop(that’s police to you and I) Duo, FxCop and StyleCop are out.

FxCop 1.36 is out including but not limited to 200+ bug fixes over Beta2, new globalisation rules (I smell a Guy at work), half the memory requirement.

StyleCop 4.3 is out also including great features such as better VS integration, a bunch of new rules which you can’t live without and the final changes to make StyleCop its name :)

251 ways to help the community and learn visual studio

Robert Hogg — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 17:07:48 +0000

I have been consistently impressed by the blog/efforts of the ever lovely Sara Ford. for those of you who do not know who Sara is, she is a SDE/T on the Visual Studio Core team at Microsoft and via her blog provides us time strapped developers with visual studio hints in bit size easy to understand chunks almost everyday. if you don’t read her blog shame on you, subscribe now.

Sara is the author of the upcoming book Microsoft Visual Studio Tips. Sara has compiled 251 tips from her Tip of the Day series, to help on your way to Visual Studio enlightenment.

Visual Studio 2008 SP1 is here

Robert Hogg — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 17:21:40 +0000

Visual Studio 2008 SP1 is now available on MSDN subscriber downloads. or from Microsoft download.

Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1 (exe)

Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1 (iso)

there are a good number of fixes and new features in the service pack (including TR1 for you C++ philes out there)

you MUST read the readme to make sure there are no problems and with the Silverlight 2 beta 2 tools you will need to download and run the new installer

Visual Studio 2008 themes

Robert Hogg — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 16:10:51 +0000

there are some nice themes for Visual Studio 2008 but if you want your own try this online tool to get that colour scheme you have always wanted.

WPF Performance

Robert Hogg — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 22:32:17 +0000

When I was at DDS a nice chap asked me if I knew about WPF performance and the answer was no but I did do some digging and just for the record this is what I found , comments welcome.

Perf in WPF

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa970683.aspx

Perf tools for WPF

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa969767.aspx

the most important bit could be .NET 3.5 SP1

http://blogs.msdn.com/jgoldb/default.aspx

you need to make sure that the problem is not poor code performance ( your code )

Virtual BizTalk -

Robert Hogg — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 10:44:02 +0000

The BizTalk CAT/UE team have just released the “Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006 R2 Hyper-V Guide”.

It covers Deploying, Evaluating and Testing BizTalk with Hyper-V. if you are even thinking of virtualizing BizTalk read this guide.

Richard is an MVP

Robert Hogg — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 22:57:01 +0000

I know it is on his blog but Richard is an MVP, it couldn’t happen to a nicer person. I am also pleased that Kevin Ball was renewed and Andy Westgarth is also now an MVP. it was nice to see all of the above at our event today.

congratulations to all the new and renewed MVP’s

TechED 2008 IT in Orlando

Robert Hogg — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 23:23:32 +0000

I am just back from a week on the BizTalk Stand at TechED IT in Orlando, it was great to have the opportunity to chat to so many great people and to meet other BizTalkers.

I was privileged to meet some great people to name but a few

Mark Beckner author of the classic Apress BizTalk 2006 EDI book.

Todd VanNurden co editor of the legendary BizTalk Hotrod

Clint Huffman Microsoft PFE

Silverlight 2.0 Beta 2 is here

Robert Hogg — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 03:17:55 +0000

As promised you can get silverlight 2.0 beta 2 here and the june preview of blend and zoom here.

The SDK is available here or with the Visual Studio 2008 tools here.

Windows SideShow for Windows Mobile Developer Preview

Robert Hogg — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 22:02:33 +0000

I like the concept of SideShow and I think one of its flaws is not enough devices NOW , they are slowly coming on stream but not quickly enough for me. So along with all of the other items arriving this week I was pleased to see this a windows mobile version of side show and I have spent the day controlling my PC from my phone :)

Live Writer Preview

Robert Hogg — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 22:01:14 +0000

I will say it now and I will say it again , Live Writer rocks. A new tech preview with some cool user features and even more developer features are available here.

User Features include:

Video and Image enhancements : Soapbox support , Better Image support (cropping , tilting , effects )

Editing: Word count , smart quotes , auto linking

UI:

tabs for view switching

Bugs:

many UI WSIWYG faults fixed ( scripts and objects :) )

TechED Developers Announcements

Robert Hogg — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 21:58:30 +0000

I am not at TechED Dev in Orlando ( I am going to IT Pro next week , see me at the BizTalk ATE stand ), but there are some important announcements to cover off.

Microsoft Project Codename “Velocity” CTP

**“**Velocity” allows high availability to data by integrating Large clusters of machines _s_eamlessly into a single cache, making it easier to develop scalable, high-performance applications.

Visual Studio 2008 extensions for Windows Sharepoint Services 3.0 v1.2

Microsoft Source Analysis for C#

Robert Hogg — Sun, 25 May 2008 22:03:45 +0000

Phew what a name, well if you want consistent style across developers this is the tool for you. Previously known as StyleCop inside Microsoft. Microsoft Source Analysis is pretty much a mandatory addition to any team development toolkit.

In the same way the FxCop helps "focus" developers towards consistent better quality code , StyleCop does the same with code style. But also like FxCop , StyleCop will make a lot of developers gnash their teeth, while they get used to it.

Visual Studio 2008 SP1 Beta is out

Robert Hogg — Mon, 12 May 2008 22:27:59 +0000

Visual Studio 2008 SP1 Beta is out for testing.

Scott has a great blog post on SP1, but the highlights (which are numerous)

- Classic ASP intelisense and debugging is back

- Faster application startup time

- Better client side rollout

- New Windows Form Controls

- WPF Performance Improvements

- WPF Extensible shader effects

- WPF Direct3D interface

- WPF Design surface improvements in VS2008

- ADO.NET Entity Framework included

The Microsoft Telepathic™ Interface is finally here

Robert Hogg — Wed, 07 May 2008 19:04:25 +0000

After years of discussions with clients that their ever and rapidly changing requirements could only be met if we implemented a telepathic interface to read their users minds, Microsoft have done the decent thing and released Microsoft® ESP™. Now Microsoft are saying that ESP is a toolkit to allow developers to build realistic simulations and models that are rich and easy to use, but we know the truth ;)

if you want to find out more here is a video you must watch.

Happy Star Wars Day

Robert Hogg — Sun, 04 May 2008 22:06:05 +0000

I hope you all had a great Star Wars day, May the 4th be with you.

BizTalk 2006 R2 Management Pack

Robert Hogg — Sun, 04 May 2008 21:23:07 +0000

The BizTalk Server Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007 is a management pack for discovery and monitoring of BizTalk Server components and applications. This new management pack includes monitoring for most of the new R2 Features

Suspended Message Alerts
Alert Suppression Policy
Native EDI
BAM Technical Assistance Alerts
BizTalk Message Boxes and Hosts
Orchestration Failures
Service Monitoring
Application Monitoring
Monitoring of various aspects of RFID

Extra announcement on BizTalk 2006 R3

Robert Hogg — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 15:24:38 +0000

Burley Kawasaki has just announced at the Microsoft Insight 2008 conference that in BizTalk 2006 R3 that Microsoft has Acquired from Covast some of their advanced B2B functionality specifically around new vertical industries ( details to come ) , this will be a no cost addition to BizTalk 2006 R3.

Architecture Insight 2008

Robert Hogg — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 15:24:00 +0000

Matt Deacon (Microsoft) runs a significant set of Architecture events certainly in the UK. Over the last two days several of the Black Marble architects and seniors have been at the Microsoft Insight Conference 2008. There has been a great range of topics split roughly into Infrastructure , Solutions , SaaS and Enterprise. I will update this post with links to available content when it is available.

Burley Kawasaki provided the closing Keynote on The Road to Oslo :), if you missed Burleys talk we will be running a SOA event at Black Marble in the next month or so

BizTalk 2006 R3

Robert Hogg — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 00:49:10 +0000

To coincide with the release of SQL Server 2008 Microsoft plans to release an updated version of BizTalk Server. The update will cover compatibility with Windows Server 2008, .NET Framework 3.5, Visual Studio 2008 , and SQL Server 2008.

This allows BizTalk Server users to improve on: scalability for mission-critical workloads, improved support for next-generation web and service oriented applications and improved virtualization support.

The R3 release also includes enhancements for

Ramp Up to .Net 2.0 for Java , VB6 , .NET 1.1 and Novice Developers

Robert Hogg — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 04:31:12 +0000

Microsoft have made a series of training packs available for free for developers wanting to skill up to .NET 2.0 and Visual Studio.

when you have finished Microsoft will give you discounts on exams and further training.

Returning from Seattle

Robert Hogg — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 05:45:15 +0000

I am sat in the departure lounge at Schipol (Amsterdam) waiting to head for the sunny north of England. I have had a great week at the MVP summit and best yet I already know I can go next year :) ( ray for all the April MVP's ).

Seattle has provided us with what can only be described as "mixed" weather , High Summer on Saturday (last) , Hail and snow (today). I think this level of random weather explains a lot about how the people in Seattle behaviour ( wild eyed and big smiles ).

As I was saying to the Dalai Lama

Robert Hogg — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 02:30:10 +0000

On Sunday I bumped into the Dalai Lama in my Hotel. When I say bumped into the Dalai Lama , I mean bumped into a solid wall of Seattle's finest motorcycle cops who were stood in front of the Dalai Lama. He obviously was sad that we did not have time for a chat but I had to head off with Rob Miles to get some food ( mmmmm ham and hash browns ) , but he did wave which was nice.

I am sitting in on the Oslo Software Design Review

Robert Hogg — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 13:49:19 +0000

I am currently attending the Microsoft Connected Systems Divisions , Olso Software Design Review and I am looking at the future and it is so bright it hurts, not to mention the amazing talent in the room , Juval Lowy, Sam Gentile, Brian Loesgen, Brian Noyes, Michele Leroux Bustamante, Roman Kiss, Don Box, Chris Anderson , Chris Sells , Alan Smith just to mention a just a few.

I think Brian Loesgen has put it best , It is nice to see we have all been betting on the right horse

Thoughts on Open Space

Robert Hogg — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 23:11:48 +0000

I am attending a set of "Open Space" sessions, I think the idea of getting people together on like minded topics is great. But the "Philosophy of Open Space" suffers from the same problems of any other "Purist" self help/focus/delivery solutions i.e. it works great if the mediator is strong or in some cases where the attendees are strong. At other events I have attended sessions where "provided" mediators have been less than useless.

Sunny Seattle

Robert Hogg — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 23:08:37 +0000

I at the MVP summit in Seattle and so far have seen the hottest and chilliest days I have seen this year. it has been great to catch up with old friends

:) only 20 minutes in and Barry Dorrans is up running loud and true to make the world right with the goodness that is card space (don't ask what the subject actually being discussed , as it is not relevant to Barry's ability to promote card space) , while simultaneously trying to offer a radiant Michele Leroux Bustamante a box of chocolates. I love this world :)

The Rise of the Phoenix

Robert Hogg — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 14:59:08 +0000

Microsoft Research have been working on the next generation of compiler optimisation and analysis tools for sometime, if this is your area I recommend looking at the Phoenix Connect Web Site. I saw Jim Hogg ( with a surname like that , how great must this guy be :) ) , present on Phoenix a few years ago and it promises to be a great step in the fundamentals of development. This version of Phoenix supports visual studio 2008 and as a sample has a lisp compiler!

[Resource] Useful BizTalk Links ( Updated 11th December 2008 )

Robert Hogg — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 13:54:37 +0000

I thought it would be useful to keep my links for BizTalk in my blog, I will keep updating this list when new BizTalk items ( or old ones I have missed ) present themselves.

Tools

BizTalk Server 2006 Best Practices Analyzer V1.1

BizTalk LoadGen 2007 Tool

BizTalk Undeploy Tool

ESB

ESB Guidance

ESB Installation - Currently My Notes , but there is a set on its way from MSDN , I will update this shortly.

Irish Microsoft Technology Conference (IMTC) is over and follow up

Robert Hogg — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 13:22:54 +0000

Well the IMTC has finished , it was great fun and it was really nice to see so many great presenters presenting on a wide range of great subjects.

I managed to see some of the slots but I was busy preparing for my two sessions.

Overview of Microsoft Live Labs Volta

Well the writing was on the wall as soon as I had finished my 4th perfect run through of slides and demo's. for some reason my laptop refused ( despite a lot of coaxing ) to duplicate the screen and so I ended up coding over my shoulder onto the large cinema screen making a lot of typo's. I think the presentation part of Volta went well but the coding demo's were not great.However the audience were great and very understanding.

I am No Longer a MVP for Visual Studio Architect :(

Robert Hogg — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 14:56:15 +0000

But I am now a MVP for BizTalk , Hurrah.

My thanks for the support the VS team has given me in the last year and I look forward to working with the BizTalk chaps and chapettes over the next year even more than I have this year.

Also many thanks to the MVP support team as I know due to the broad areas of the community I work in, can make it hard to place me in the program.

Irish Microsoft Technology Conference 2008

Robert Hogg — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 00:56:00 +0000

Both Richard and I are presenting at the Irish Microsoft Technology Conference (IMTC) 2008 on the 3rd and 4th of April l, in Dublin. Richard is presenting on BI in SQL 08 and I am presenting on Overview of Business Process Automation and implementing an Enterprise Service Bus using Microsoft BizTalk 2006. The agenda can be found at http://imtc.firstport.ie/agenda.aspx, there are some great speakers lined up. What is noticeable is my title is somewhat longer than Richards and so by the time I have got past my title slide I suspect he will be on his first demo. In my talk I will be giving an overview of collaboration in the Microsoft Sphere , BizTalk and the ESB Architectural guidance package, if practice timings permit I will also be giving some demonstrations of the great tools BizTalk and ESB offer Business Process Automation.

Windows Server 2008 , SQL Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008 Launch event

Robert Hogg — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 00:38:50 +0000

Richard and I headed down to Heroes Happen Here event in Birmingham in preparation for our launch events in a few weeks time. Due to external pressures and Richards driving ( he won't spring for a helicopter ) we didn't arrive until a bit after the event had started ( I know , I thought they would wait , but its ok they have recorded the whole event so we did miss anything and I don't think they will mind if anybody else has a look ;) )

Stay at Home server

Robert Hogg — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 00:14:18 +0000

if you read my post on Home Server well a video that having a server at home is not shameful ( more than 3 is though , hint Barry )

Watch the Video

Vista Service Pack 1

Robert Hogg — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 23:35:58 +0000

Incase you haven't seen , Vista Service Pack 1 is out and already available from Windows Update. well I am five machines through and not a hitch.

Service Pack 1 adds more than fixes , it offers significant performance and reliability improvements. it also adds a set of general improvements which I don't think are well announced

There are new cryptographic and random number generation algorithms , IIS is the same as its Server version and most importantly UAC has taken a bit of a kick and now behaves a lot better , HURRAH

Code Analysis (FxCop)

Robert Hogg — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 23:51:23 +0000

if you have listened to me talk about code quality and engaging with developers about the need to produce quality code from the get-go, you will not be surprised at the deep pleasure that a new release of FxCop brings to me. if you haven't had the pleasure of such a gripping conversation ( or rant as most people would call it ) and plan to talk to me at some point in the future , do your self and your company a favour download and use FxCop , improve your code quality and in the process make me smile.

Silverlight A-go-go and IE8 Hurrah

Robert Hogg — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 23:53:21 +0000

Well the secret that never was, is out Silverlight 2.0 beta is now out along with a full complement of expression tools in beta , IE 8 has also made a welcome appearance.

The visual studio update for silverlight in my Visual Studio list here

I will try and do a full breakdown in the next few days, but at the minute too busy smiling :)

Mobile Community Event

Robert Hogg — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 11:48:36 +0000

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.

Technorati tags: Windows Mobile, Community Events

The Faint Smell of Popcorn, mmmm Popcorn

Robert Hogg — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 11:45:07 +0000

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 ).

See you at the Irish Web Developers Conference on Friday

Robert Hogg — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 19:27:00 +0000

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.

Technorati tags: Irish Web Developers Confererence, Volta, Live Labs

Microsoft DreamSpark

Robert Hogg — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 23:54:10 +0000

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

I love this world

Robert Hogg — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 01:20:14 +0000

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.

Technorati tags: Cars

Visual Studio Team System 2008 Database Edition Power Tools

Robert Hogg — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 14:14:43 +0000

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 2008 Architect Survey

Robert Hogg — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 10:26:33 +0000

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

S+S Blueprint Manager

Robert Hogg — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 00:59:08 +0000

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.

Your Community Needs YOU! in Scotland

Robert Hogg — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 23:50:00 +0000

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.

Implementing SOA and ESB with BizTalk

Robert Hogg — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 01:35:16 +0000

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 :)

Irish Web Developers Conference

Robert Hogg — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 01:29:24 +0000

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.

Technorati tags: Irish Web Developers Confererence, Volta, Live Labs

Security Events with Ed Gibson

Robert Hogg — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 01:11:55 +0000

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.

Heroes Happen Here

Robert Hogg — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 00:59:54 +0000

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 ;)

Happy Birthday Vista and Hello SP1

Robert Hogg — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 00:56:42 +0000

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 )

Visual Studio Updates

Robert Hogg — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 13:44:03 +0000

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

Technorati tags: Visual Studio 2008, Hotfix

Lego Turns 50

Robert Hogg — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 18:12:11 +0000

One of the most important toys of our time has turned 50 , I am a huge fan of learning and development tools and Lego is one of the greatest out there. There isn't a Christmas or Birthday that I don't provide the mandatory educational ;) set of Lego to some random child/niece/nephew or developer.

GizModo has a cool timeline ( I had the Galaxy Explorer , the car and the train when I was younger. The Mindstorms NXTis sat on my desk :) ) of Lego's history.

Web Site Disaster

Robert Hogg — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 23:53:38 +0000

It looks like the Black Marble Web Site is a bit of a disaster today, I am sure it will be fine by tomorrow.

I guess this is what the web is all about, but there are limits ;)

Technorati tags: Web Site, Disaster, Netdisaster

When a Mummy and Daddy love each other very much

Robert Hogg — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 21:44:57 +0000

It has come to the point when I have to explain that facts of life to my youngest daughter , luckily Microsoft have come to the rescue with a rather useful book to help explain the issues at hand. It is only available online but do hope they do a print run of this deeply educational book.

Technorati tags: Home Server, Stay at home server, microsoft

Windows CE Wifi Router

Robert Hogg — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 12:21:25 +0000

if you are out and about and need a WiFi to GPRS router look here

Technorati tags: WIFI routing GPRS

Developers Highway Code v2.0

Robert Hogg — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 22:58:20 +0000

For anybody who has been to one of our Developer or one of our hosted MSDN events you will most likely have a copy of the developers Highway Code, if not don't worry read on. There is a New Version with added Security goodness. But how much is the new copy £1000, £2000 , no its free. It turns out according to my good and learned friend Guy it is written by Paul Maher, a Technical Evangelist at Microsoft UK but wait there's more , download it now ( December 24th at time of writing ) and enter a prize draw for a copy of Vista Ultimate.

Christmas Chaos Parts III,IV,V,VI

Robert Hogg — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 19:07:23 +0000

Its like all of star wars in one go (and one more) See BizTalk Boy in Action and more

Technorati tags: Xmas, Black Marble, Comic, BizTalk Boy, Sharepoint sprite, Graphics Girl, Coding Ninja, CSS Avenger, Black Marble Brigade, The Architect, Black Marble Comcs

Python of Iron Studio

Robert Hogg — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 01:57:08 +0000

Iron Python hosted in Visual Studio 2008 shell is now available

Technorati tags: python, ironpython, visual studio 2008

Christmas Chaos Part II

Robert Hogg — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 21:57:55 +0000

Part II of this gripping serial ( I can't believe I am writing this , but hey its Xmas ) , is up this time only online

See the Amazing CSS Avenger and Sharepoint Sprite , wonder at the wonderness , marvel at the marvelness , you get the idea

Technorati tags: Xmas, Black Marble, Comic, BizTalk Boy, Sharepoint sprite, Graphics Girl, Coding Ninja, CSS Avenger, Black Marble Brigade, The Architect, Black Marble Comcs

ESB Guidance Setup Walk through (DRAFT)

Robert Hogg — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 21:53:01 +0000

prerequisites:

SETUP BAM
SETUP UDDI on SERVER 2003

install updates.
install entlib 3.1
install dundas web chart

PROCESS:

1. UNPACK THE SOURCE
2. CREATE THE TWO DATABASES USING THE SCRIPTS (ADMIN AND EXCEPTION) in "SourceSamplesManagement PortalSQLesb.administration database.sql" and
"SourceException HandlingSQLESB.ExceptionHandling.DatabaseCreate ScriptsEsbExceptionDb_CREATE.sql"

3. OPEN THE PROJECT SOLUTION, NEED TO MAKE CHANGES TO LINES 1088, 1233 IN ProcessFault.cs, and LINE 316 in ExceptionMgmt.cs to allow the ALL.Exceptions SEND PORT HANDLE NON-STANDARD DATE FORMATS. (ref http://www.codeplex.com/esb/WorkItem/View.aspx?WorkItemId=4430))

Christmas Chaos

Robert Hogg — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 00:08:44 +0000

Its 13 days to Xmas , its snowing ( well nearly ) and the Christmas Carolers are about to destroy Santa's list.

Can anybody Save Xmas from the corrupt Christmas carolers find out in this limited edition 7 part mini series from Black Marble Comics.

The first edition is also available in print and is winging its way to lucky people up and down the land :)

Cor lummie.

PDC 2008 , We will be there , will you

Robert Hogg — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 12:28:05 +0000

Another PDC is on its way the 2007 PDC was cancelled due to early announcements at Mix 07 and now is set for October 2008. The last PDC brought us LINQ and WF , which blew us all away. if this one is anyway close to the last one, the only thing I can do is sleep the week before to make sure I can cope ;). So if you are going to the PDC 2008 let us know and we can try to catch up.

The Start of the Visual Studio Avalanche (Updated April 21 2008)

Robert Hogg — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 09:15:27 +0000

The Avalanche of add-on's for Visual Studio 2008 has started. I thought it would be useful to keep a list so here it is.

Latest Addition : VSTS Model Power Tool : CTP

Visual Studio 2008 SDK

Web Deployment Project (RTW)

ASP Ajax Control Toolkit

Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX Templates for Visual Studio 2008

Key Additions

Guidance Automation Toolkit ( Needs the GAX below to install )

Guidance Automation Extensions

Visual C++ 2008 Feature Pack the feature pack extends the VC++ Libraries shipped with Visual Studio 2008 and also includes an implementation of TR1

Mandatory Visual Studio 2008 has been released blog post

Robert Hogg — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 09:06:44 +0000

Well Visual Studio 2008 has been released either a few days early ( the money was on thursday ) , or a few days late ( the rest of the money was for the TechED Dev Keynote ). Which every way it is a good sight , Microsoft has put on extra download ability to help with all the eager developers who need the power NOW NOW NOW ;)

Soma has the official word on the subject.

ESB Guidance Updates

Robert Hogg — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 19:32:00 +0000

The Microsoft ESB Guidance for BizTalk 2006 R2 has been released. Interestingly it has moved from CodePlex!.

The first thing to do is read the manual, it is included in the installer but you will find it useful to read the manual first.

The ESB Guidance has some prerequisites that need downloading and I have gathered them all here to make life easier.

Enterprise Library 3.1

2) Debug View ( for tracing )

Hard Choices at TechED

Robert Hogg — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 18:09:53 +0000

Well I knew that presenting at TechED would be hard but this week has been one of the hardest I have ever faced. During the week we had been struggling with getting the demo of the prerelease ESB working. We had practiced a good two person rotating handover presentation which looked and ran great and all in all we were generally ok, until Ewan received a phone call from his family and had to leave for home and would not be able to present.

SOA Conference Wrap up

Robert Hogg — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 18:33:12 +0000

The conference has been great , even though there has been some amazing announcements people don't seem to have grasped the gravity of what has happened. I suspect that it is a mixture of lack of comprehension and "it pie in the sky" , but it looks like OLSO will be coming hard and fast and you will see a lot on it in this blog over the next year or so.

SQL Server 2008 Event in Leeds/Bradford

Robert Hogg — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 17:56:30 +0000

Mike Ormand is super exited to be coming to Leeds and Bradford on our next event day (22nd of November). Mike is a great speaker and if SQL is your thing come along. if SQL isn't your thing we also have Sessions on Windows Server 2008 and in the evening we are running a community event where we will be Mix 07 in the North

Technorati tags: Microsoft Events, Mike Ormand, SQL Server 2008, leeds, bradford, black Marble

Day 3 at the SOA conference

Robert Hogg — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 17:39:14 +0000

Probably one of the best session so far with Clemens Vasters and Steve Swartz on Software + Services in the Cloud. I think it is really important that speakers relate both to the audience and between themselves and Vasters and Swartz do it in spades. if you ever get the chance I recommend hearing these knowledgeable and brilliant speakers.

Marty Wasznicky presented on ESB and he gave one of the fastest presentations I have ever seen, he also over ran , all in nearly a full day of presentation in an hour and what an hour :) , it was great. However Marty's presentation has made me change ours for TechED and I think I will cut a lot as my session as it is a 200 session.

My Pay

Robert Hogg — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 20:48:05 +0000

I have just read Scott Adams blog as he has a strong insight into the mind of corporate mind and politicians well errr motives. He has an Interesting Post on how to predict the success of a company. Fundamentally a happy CEO/MD gives good direction and miserable staff work hard. As person keen on good idea's , I will be looking to follow his advice to the letter and make sure that BM should take heed. As far as I can see there is no downside. So lashings of bonuses for me , reduction of staff benefits to no broken glass or gravel in the coffee should promote huge growth in the business. What could possibly go wrong ;)

Day 2 at the SOA conference

Robert Hogg — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 20:38:27 +0000

There has only been one major problem for both Richard and myself at the SOA conference has been that the prize for filling in the evaluations is a

hp-officejet-l7780.jpg

An officejet not even a small one , most people here flew here and errrr. Don't get me wrong the idea and feeling is great but not the strongest sense of practicality.

we have been filling in the forms just not our names and I think I am doomed to explain to the attendants on each room that it is a really nice prize , but I don't want one .

Day 1 at the SOA conference

Robert Hogg — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 03:33:00 +0000

We are at the Microsoft SOA conference in Redmond , we have been meeting up with old friends and bumping into people who only exist on our bookshelves in the office. Compared to the last time I was here there is a LOT more interest in BizTalk and SOA. We have see running versions of Oslo Microsoft's vision of beyond BizTalk 2006 R2 and it is a very significant vision at that. I will be blogging more on OSLO over the next few months.

In Redmond for the SOA conference

Robert Hogg — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 04:06:39 +0000

Richard and I are currently in Redmond for the SOA conference at the Microsoft conference. if you are at the SOA conference come over and say hello

Imagine Cup 2008 is upon us already

Robert Hogg — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 13:22:54 +0000

The Imagine Cup Software Challenger 2008 has opened with a new format for 2008. You will need to get your idea in by December the 14th and then (hopefully) onto an innovation accelerator and then to the final UK round. I think the new format will help level the field a lot allowing teams to shine with innovation not just coding. BUT after the idea comes the coding so ....

Mark Johnston is super exited about the cup, if you have questions I am sure he will answer them.

TechED 2007 Developer Here I come

Robert Hogg — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 19:10:22 +0000

Well it can be told I have been offered a speaking place at TechED Barcelona, I am very chuffed. I am presenting with Ewan Fairweather who is a Premier Field Engineer at Microsoft on Implementing ESB using the Microsoft best practices. It looks, even though I say so myself to be a great talk.

if you are at TechED 2007 Developer and you are interested in finding out more about ESB and BizTalk then pop into our session on Friday.

Visual Studio 2008 update

Robert Hogg — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 18:42:32 +0000

I had been quietly predicting that visual studio 2008 would be available around the time of TechED 2007 Barcelona ( 5th-9th November ). But today a patch for Beta 2 has been released which would suggest otherwise The Patch covers faults with C# and intelisense.

Update: Having run the update on some machines it is producing an error HotIron !!!

Technorati tags: Visual Studio 2008

Only Egg could get Egg on their face

Robert Hogg — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 19:02:46 +0000

In a recent post I discussed the feelings I had about Egg's poor telephone Security, with a follow up that in writing ( this is important to the plot ) that I thought their telephone security was poor and I wished a) to only be contacted in writing and b) close my account. With the predictability of an A-Team episode , Egg dutifully called ( from a withheld number , but a human not a machine , there's progress for you ) and demanded that I go through a security check !!!!

Mildly Miffed

Robert Hogg — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 22:39:34 +0000

In a previous Post I discussed Name space collisions inside BM, I am quite upset that nobody has been paying attention to this problem and it is still getting worse.

In the last week Paul hired Paul to work for him and Steve hired wait for it , Steve to work for him. if this continues , everybody will will either get issued a GUID or get sub-dermal RFID implants and all references will involve using a scanner.

EGG's Training Program for Cyber Criminals

Robert Hogg — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 14:57:24 +0000

This morning as I was finishing breakfast with the children, I received a call which was an automated call from EGG ( a UK credit card provider ) stating that there had been unusual activity on my credit card. This in itself is not unsurprising as I have just come back from South Korea (see past posts) , the deeply deeply worrying part was the automated call then demanded Security information from me. Some of you may know that I regularly speak on Software and Application Security and more so on How easily people can be manipulated into handing over Secure information and how this can be mitigated. In my opinion the single biggest problem in opening people up to manipulation is large organizations showing users poor security.

Should you go to Korea , Should you do the Imagine Cup

Robert Hogg — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 11:57:31 +0000

The empathic answer to both of these is YES. Several people have commented that after reading my blog they felt that I did not have a great time in Korea with the Imagine Cup, nothing could be further from the truth. It was great , weird but great, I think any down fall in enjoyment ( and there wasn't much ) was entirely down to lack of preparation on my part and so I have included some thoughts on both the Imagine Cup and visiting Korea.

Imagine Cup Days 4 and 5

Robert Hogg — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 16:42:00 +0000

Day 4 was well like a normal day , sleep (some) , food (mostly edible) . we saw some great presentations and had a normal day with out the need to work.

Day 5 started early 8.00 and the Seedlings did 3 hours on the stand as did all of the other competitors, doing the rounds when there is no competition was great as everybody was relaxed and happy.

Andy Sithers was Extra Super Exited to be with us

Korea (Imagine Cup) Days 3 - 78

Robert Hogg — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 14:44:00 +0000

Today was a very bizarre experience. we set off at 8.00am (midnight UK time) in a thunderous downpour to see the sights.

After several uncomfortable days in transit in the bus , we were issues a pastel colored umbrellas and fans! The first visit was to the national museum , much time was taken by the organizers to organizes themselves, reorganizes themselves , double check their organization skills and think about synergies the plan over future events, while we waited on the bus.

Korea (Imagine Cup) Day 2

Robert Hogg — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 09:47:00 +0000

And onto Day 2 , the presentation was at 9.00am. it went very very well.

Just after the presentation some of the Argentinean team came over for a chat

During the chat a Mexican film crew came around and started talking about the UK and Argentina , in my deep subconscious all I could hear was one of my school teachers saying just before a school trip to Germany "DONT MENTION THE WAR, BOY" only to hear the word "Malvenas" from the film crew and feel a very tight feeling in my stomach.

Korea (Imagine Cup) Day 1

Robert Hogg — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 09:44:00 +0000

Well here we are Day 1 , it already feels like Thursday.

Set up has gone well , everything is working on the initial pass.

the booth looking nice and tidy

then we filled the booth with some riff-raff

and then the first presentation

The presentation went will, the QandA was a bit hairy more due to tiredness than anything else

Korea (Imagine Cup) Day 0 - Addenda

Robert Hogg — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 09:43:00 +0000

There small set of minor interesting points have happened today so there they are in no order

Coke but not as we know it

the cans are smaller ( 250Ml ) which is just wrong. Taste is well odd, but nice.

General consumption of personal body weights in coke has continued.

One of the nice finds is Grape Fanta - YUM

The W has a rather spiffy wooden mirror ( a camera controlled set of rotating wooden blocks ).

Korea (Imagine Cup) Day 0

Robert Hogg — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 09:41:00 +0000

I am in Korea with the UK Imagine Cup team and I thought a small picture journey would help

here is the team with a rangy stranger in Paris CDG

in Seoul Airport mmmm Noodles

What says Oriental efficiency more than a ride on Mop :)

the chaps on our transport bus ( Luxury ), Jim seems to be having some tummy trouble.

Visual Studio Rosario

Robert Hogg — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 04:25:10 +0000

I think the guys in the VS team have outdone themselves, not only has Visual Studio 2008 beta 2 just been released , BUT the preview of the version of visual studio to follow is now available here. Mine is on its way down :)

Technorati tags: visual studio, visual Studio rosario

Boss on Tour

Robert Hogg — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 04:21:02 +0000

Well after leaving home Friday lunchtime , now Sunday at 11.00am I am in Korea with the Seedlings for the World Wide Final of the Imagine Cup. Tired does not even come close to describing how I feel.

Technorati tags: imagine cup 2007, korea

Sysadmin Deep Doo Doo

Robert Hogg — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 11:07:03 +0000

I was out of the office on Friday and a little birdie has just reminded me that I missed partaking in the celebrations that are Sysadmin day. On Sysadmin day legend has it Sysadmin's demand more ego massaging than normal to such an extent that it take days for their swollen egos to return to normal and they can actually fit through the door of the machine room.

I am concerned that my failure to partake could end up with my laptop being exchanged with a commodore pet and my phone replaced with something made of Bakelite, so if all of our Sysadmin's out there are reading this , presents have been ordered and will be with you shortly.

Name Space Collisions

Robert Hogg — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 08:01:25 +0000

We have been suffering some staff problems recently, everybody we hire has a name that is already in use elsewhere in the company. So we have decided to reorganise the Black Marble name space, initial thoughts included post name numbering , but nobody could agree if the numbering base should be zero or one and Richard 0 was not complementary (Rik however liked the idea of being No 2) . The usual list of server/workstation naming suggestions came and went but in the end the solution came when clearing out the freebies cupboard and some of the devs took some old BM Red polo shirts. So next time you are visiting say hello to some of our interns Ensign's Disposable,Expendable and Der Trihs , you will be able to find them crawling around in the Jefferies tubes before being send out as part of a customer landing party.

Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2 is out

Robert Hogg — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 07:51:58 +0000

Incase you haven't found out already Visual Studio 2008 beta 2 is out for download , ours has just finished downloading and I will update on new features over the next few days.

Technorati tags: Visual Studio

Living with IT Managers

Robert Hogg — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 07:31:26 +0000

Rik sent me this to illustrate the pain of not having a new server within the last week and has suggested that we may need to move to this if his demands of a bi-weekly addition to the server farm is not met.

Technorati tags: Humour

Testing , Testing , 0 , 1 , 10 , 11

Robert Hogg — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 07:23:19 +0000

Well it was bound to happen , we have split my blog posts off on its own. As ever BM Blogger's is the aggregate blog. I feel all alone in a big empty space , no doubt I will fill it up soon.

enjoy.

Technorati tags: Black Marble