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]