Speaking Schedule

One of my favorite things about technology is having the opportunity to speak about technology.  For whatever reason, it always seems like this time of year always keeps me busy.  Here is a list of speaking engagements I’m scheduled for over the next few months:

• October 21st – presenting on Silverlight 3 at an internal user group within Farm Credit Services of America (my employer)
• November 3rd – presenting on VSTS 2010 – What’s in it for me? at the Dubuque, IA .NET User Group.  I gave this presentation for the Omaha Team System User Group last month and am looking forward to giving it again.
• November 7th – presenting at Tulsa TechFest on TBD (something related to VSTS, I’m sure :-)
• November 13th – presenting on C# and Team Build at an internal .NET Developer’s Conference for Tyson Foods in Springdale, AR.

The last two events in November are all within about an hour of my sisters and parents so I’m really looking forward to the trips.

Omaha Team System User Group RSS Feeds

Due to a recent server failure/web site makeover, the RSS feeds from the Omaha Team System User Group web site have changed.  The new RSS feeds are as follows:

• Announcements – OTSUG announcements
• Events – OTSUG and other events

As always, please contact me if you have any questions regarding the Omaha Team System User Group or if you are interested in presenting a topic at an upcoming meeting.

Omaha Team System User Group Site is Back!

If you have visited the Omaha Team System User Group site within the past couple of weeks, you’ve probably noticed one of two things - the site was either down or the site looked a lot different than it used to.

A couple of weeks ago, the server that hosts the OTSUG web site crashed and took everything with it.  Although I had various backups of various files, I did not have any (recent) backups of the entire partition.  After bringing a severely out of date backup on-line (it was four years old!) I had quite a bit of configuration to take care of.

The OTSUG web site was originally hosted within Microsoft SharePoint utilizing the Community Kit for SharePoint (CKS): User Group Edition.  In fact, this was the only site on this server that made use of SharePoint.  Rather than install SharePoint and CKS to host a single site, I decided to look for something simpler and easier to maintain.  I decided to give DotNetNuke a look.

DotNetNuke has a little bit of a learning curve, but once you get past that, it’s very quick and easy to add and configure new pages to the web site.  Specific functionality, such as support for Announcements, Document Management, Links, etc., are provided via DotNetNuke Modules.  There are quite a few of these modules readily available for download with the ability to create custom modules if so needed.  In my case, I was able to get by with the modules currently provided.  Another great thing – it’s open source (under the MIT license).

So, I’ve learned (at least) two things with this experience:

• Sometimes, simpler is better.
• Backup, backup, backup!

At least I got to learn something new from this experience!

VSTS: What’s in it for Me?

I just completed a presentation on “VSTS 2010: What’s in it for Me?” for the Omaha Team System User Group and Omaha .NET User Group (original post).  The venue was once again sponsored by Farm Credit Services of America and the food and give-aways were sponsored by QCI – thanks Jodi!  I haven’t reviewed the sign-in sheet yet to get the exact count but we had somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 to 60 attendees for tonight’s talk – a great turn out.

There are so many new features in VSTS 2010 that it was a challenge keeping the presentation within the time constraints of the meeting.  I managed to squeeze it into about an hour and twenty minutes.

Here’s a quick overview of the features covered in tonight’s session:

• TFS Installation & Administration
• Scalability Options
• Branching and Merging Visualization
• Gated Check-ins
• Hierarchical Work Items
• Query Folders
• Excel-based Reporting
• New TFS Reports
• Dashboards
• Microsoft Test and Lab Manager
• Manual Test Runner
• Test Lab Management
• Unit Test Improvements
• Historical Debugger
• Test Impact Analysis
• Database Features
• Architecture
• Layer Diagram
• Architecture Explorer
• New UML Diagrams
• Activity Diagram
• Use Case Diagram
• Logical Class Diagram
• Component Diagram
• Sequence Diagram
• Other Miscellaneous Items

As you can see, the list is pretty long.  Great stuff!  A big “THANKS” to all that attended.

If you’re interested in the PowerPoint slide deck, you can grab it here.

Windows 7 – Free Copy for Beta Testers!

This just in…  For those of you (myself included) that were involved in the Windows 7 Technical Beta program (available on Microsoft Connect), you will now be able to download a full (i.e. non-upgrade), not-for-resale, copy of Windows 7 Ultimate for your own personal use!  Thanks Microsoft!

More details are available via this post.

Omaha Team System User Group

I have been somewhat behind posting lately (I hear new babies in the family will do that ) so it only seems right that I post about the next Omaha Team System User Group meeting 12 hours before it starts.

This month, the Omaha Team System User Group and the Omaha .NET User Group are combining their efforts into a single meeting.  Tonight, I will be presenting on “VSTS 2010: What’s in it for me?”.  This will be a presentation that covers the major, new features that have been added to Visual Studio Team System 2010.  There are a LOT of new features to cover so it will be a challenge getting through them while still spending enough time on each of them to do them some justice.

As a side note, the server hosting the Omaha Team System User Group site, www.otsug.org, crashed last week so the site is currently down.  My goal is to have the site restored by the middle of next week.  In the meantime, please visit Omaha .NET User Group for details concerning the Omaha Team System User Group.

Here are the details for tonight’s meeting:

Please RSVP via the Omaha .NET User Group web site if you plan on attending.

Location:
Farm Credit Services of America
5015 South 118th St
Map

Time:
6:00 PM

Microsoft Thrive

I recently heard about a new site from Microsoft called “Thrive” and finally checked it out.  Here’s a quick blurb from the site:

We’ve heard from lots of developers that times are tough. You’re doing more with less, applying your skills more broadly, and maybe even learning new tools. That’s why we created Thrive – a one-stop community hub that offers job postings, technical content, and community resources. So whether you’re seeking new ways to differentiate yourself on the job, or you need to re-tool your skills for that next big role, Thrive has the resources to help you get there faster.

There is quite a bit of information available on this site and the jobs listing seems to have quite a few available positions listed.  If you’re looking for a job or simply looking for developer-related information to help you maintain your edge, this site is worth a look.

At first glance, this seems like a nice attempt to provide developers (who make use of Microsoft-based development technologies) with a single site for information.  If I were to have any criticism, it would be that the “Community” section of the site doesn’t seem to provide any (obvious) way to actually communicate/collaborate with other developers.  Maybe this is coming down the road or maybe that’s not the intent.

Not that I’m complaining because any source of reliable, useful information is a good thing :-)

Silverlight 3 Ships

I don’t normally post about Silverlight since I tend to focus on Team System so much.  However, lately I have been spending a lot of time with Silverlight since I will be doing a presentation on it at our internal user group later this fall.  As such, I noticed that Silverlight 3 has officially shipped.

Here’s a short list of new features available in v3.0:

• Ability to run Silverlight applications “out of browser”
• H.264
• Navigation Framework
• DeepZoom
• SaveFileDialog (yeah!)
• WriteableBitmap
• Pixel Shaders
• ClearType (again, yeah!)
• Hardware Acceleration
• New Controls
• UI to UI Binding (third yeah!)
• New REST Networking Stack
• Mouse Wheel Support
• And much more…

You can read more about the details here.

Quick Links:

• Developer Runtime (pc, mac)
• SDK (link)
• Visual Studio Tools (link)
• Expression Blend RC (link)
• July Toolkit (link)
• What’s New In Silverlight 3 Wiki [update]

Omaha Team System User Group

Yesterday was a long day that ended on a great note – the Omaha Team System User Group meeting.  Mike Douglas, from Deliveron Consulting Services, presented on Installing and Configuring Team Foundation Server 2008.  Here is the synopsis:

This presentation provides an overview of TFS 2008 and demonstrates best practices, lessons learned, and “gotchas” installing and configuring TFS 2008.  The overview explains the architecture and components of Team Foundation Server 2008 and recommended server configurations.  The demonstrations will include using the Best Practice Analyzer, setting user permissions and using the TFS Admin Tool, and creating and configuring a team project from start to finish.  The configuration process will include recommended settings, source control folder structure, and creating appropriate notification.  The presentation will conclude with techniques and lessons learned for troubleshooting problems with installations.

Mike covered a lot of information in an hour and 45 minutes answering lots of questions along the way.

The meeting was co-sponsored between Farm Credit Services of America and Deliveron Consulting Services.  Deliveron provided the food and some great giveaways (including an Xbox 360, TFS books, and some gift certificates).

The slide deck from last night’s presentation is available here.

Visit the Omaha Team System User Group web site for more information or contact me if you have any questions.  We hope to see you at the next meeting!

Visual Studio 2010 - Beta 1 Available

As of today (May 18th, 2009) Visual Studio 2010 Beta 1 (various SKUs) and .NET Framework 4 Beta 1 have shown up on the MSDN subscriber site. Here is a quick list of what shows up for the Enlish language (I'm not sure what other languages, if any, are yet available):

• .NET Framework 4 Beta 1 (ia64)
• .NET Framework 4 Beta 1 (x86 and x64)
• .NET Framework 4 Beta 1 (x86)
• .NET Framework 4 Client Profile Beta 1 (x86 and x64)
• .NET Framework 4 Client Profile Beta 1 (x86)
• Visual Studio 2010 Professional Beta 1 (x86) - DVD
• Visual Studio 2010 Remote Debugger Beta 1 (x64)
• Visual Studio 2010 Remote Debugger Beta 1 (x86)
• Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2010 Beta 1 (x86 and x64) - DVD
• Visual Studio Team System 2010 Team Suite Beta 1 (x86) - DVD
• Visual Studio Team System 2010 Test Load Agent Beta 1 (x86)
• Visual Studio Team System 2010 Test Load Controller Beta 1 (x86)

I do not know when the beta will show up on the public download site but I wouldn't think it would be too far behind. I am looking forward to seeing what changes/features have made their way into the beta (and what features were left out/removed).

Now, off to download...