Greg's Cool [Insert Clever Name] of the Day

Monday, January 18, 2010

Visual Studio TFS Branching Guide 2010, aka Team Foundation Server Branching Guide III, released (by guess who? Yep,the ALM Rangers…)

CodePlex - Visual Studio TFS Branching Guide 2010

“Project Description
The purpose of this project is to build some insightful and practical guidance around branching and merging with Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2010. The new release focuses on Hands on Labs and includes lots of lessons learnt from the community Q&A.

Visual Studio Team Foundation Server Branching Guide 2010
Branching and merging of software is a very large topic. It is an area where there is a lot of maturity in the software industry. This Ranger solution focuses on applied and practical examples of branching that you can use right now. The 2010 release includes discussions around branching concepts and strategies but also focuses on practical hands-on labs.

Visual Studio ALM Rangers
This guidance is created by the Rangers who have the mission to provide out of band solutions for missing features or guidance. This content was created with support from Microsoft Product Group, Microsoft Most Valued Professionals (MVPs) and technical specialists from technology communities around the globe, giving you a real-world view from the field, where the technology has been tested and used.

What is in the package?
The content is packaged in 8 separate zip files to give you the choice of selective downloads but the default download is the TFS_Branching_Guide_2010_Complete_Package_v1 if you are interested in all parts.

TFS_Branching_Guide_Main_2010_v1.zip --> Start here

TFS_Branching_Guide_Scenarios_2010_v1.zip

TFS_Branching_Guide_Scenarios_2010_Poster_v1.zip

HOL_Quick_Start_Basic_Branch_Plan_2010_v1.zip

Lab_Files_HOL_Quick_Start_Basic_Branch_Plan_v1.zip

TFS_Branching_Guide_Q&A_2010_v1.zip

TFS_Branching_Guide_Diagrams_2010_v1.zip

TFS_Branching_Guide_2010_Complete_Package_v1

…” [Project Description Leach Level: 95%]

Visual Studio TFS Branching Guide 2010 - Visual Studio TFS Branching Guide 2010 v1

“…

Recommended Download

TFS_Branching_Guide_2010_Complete_Package_v1.zip
documentation, 7143K, uploaded Sun…

Other Available Downloads

TFS_Branching_Guide_Main_2010_v1.zip
documentation, 702K, uploaded Fr…

TFS_Branching_Guide_Scenarios_2010_v1.zip
documentation, 767K, uploaded Fri…

TFS_Branching_Guide_Scenarios_2010_Poster_v1.zip
documentation, 3730K, uploaded Fri

HOL_Quick_Start_Basic_Branch_Plan_2010_v1.zip
documentation, 1695K, uploaded Fri…

Lab_Files_HOL_Quick_Start_Basic_Branch_Plan_v1.zip
documentation, 29K, uploaded Fri…

TFS_Branching_Guide_Q&A_2010_v1.zip
documentation, 99K, uploaded Fri…

TFS_Branching_Guide_Diagrams_2010_v1.zip
documentation, 124K, uploaded Fri…

…”

Branching is an area I’d like to focus on in my work code repository. It’s just not working as easily and seamlessly (cough… to say the least… cough) as I want it to, due to how its laid out. But finding the time to re-org it is also something of a concern.

Maybe the move to TFS2010, and its cooler/faster branching (and cool visualization, etc) will be the logical time to change how we branch and there’s no way I’m going to re-invent the wheel…

Here’s some snaps from some of the contents;

(via In search of simplicity, quality and tranquility in software engineering - Rangers – Visual Studio Team Foundation Server Branching Guide 2010)

Sunday, January 17, 2010

A Feed You Should Read #20 – blogs.msdn.com

Actually this week’s Feed is only for the very hard core. The true Microsoft news hound will delight in the extreme number of posts delivered via this arrogated feed. All others will be quickly overwhelmed.

Yet this is likely the one MS feed to rule them all.

blogs.msdn.com

Background:

As of January 17, 2010 @ 10AM PST according to the OPML, blogs.msdn.com hosts 4,760 blogs. Yes, nearly five thousand blogs… All of which you can subscribe to via this single arrogated feed.

Insane is one way of putting it. Or an outstanding means for taking the pulse of the MS development community. Or helping fulfill an insatiable need for MS news, another.

“Drinking from the fire hose” is a term that many Microsofties use. For those like me without access to internal MS lists (cough… or even MVP lists… cough…) this one feed is our main “fire hose.” Yet like drinking from a fire hose, it can feel like an extreme workout, or an almost impossible task, keeping up with it. I mean, come on, how could following five thousand blogs not be hard?

Yet if you are developing for/with, or a power user of, MS tech, this is a feed that’s hard to beat…

Why do I like this feed and think you might also?

I’m actually torn in recommending this feed.

It is likely one of the best MS new and information sources available, but the shear number of daily posts arrogated here will overwhelming. I can do it, but then again doing so is actually something I kind of enjoy…(This is just one of the many feeds I subscribe too… yeah, crazy… I SO need a life…lol ;)

You want to keep on MS dev news and like details, and you’re a hard core reader? This is a feed to consider. If you find the thought of this feed just too much, then your best bet is to check out the other outstanding curator blogs I’ve posted about in the past

Important Note: If you do take the plunge, never be afraid to “Mark all a Read.” Miss a day and there will be hundreds of unread posts (you ARE subscribed to 4760 blogs…) Remember this isn’t email, marking them as read is just fine, expected and accepted.

Snap of the latest post(s):

Blog Information:

Name:	Microsoft Developers Network (MSDN) Blogs
URL:	http://blogs.msdn.com/
Feed:	http://blogs.msdn.com/MainFeed.aspx
Post Types:	Pretty much all things Microsoft, with a development focus

Related Past Post XRef:
A Feed You Should Read TOC

Political News IQ Quiz – It’s humbling to know how little we know…

Pew Research Center - Pew Research News IQ Quiz

“What's Your Political News IQ?

Take the Quiz

To test your knowledge of prominent people and major events in the news, we invite you to take our short 12-question quiz. Then see how you did in comparison with 1,002 randomly sampled adults asked the same questions in an October 2009 national survey conducted by the Pew Research Center.

…”

My results;

Not bad… But I find it somewhat shameful that I didn’t know how many troops we have in Afghanistan (i.e. the one I got wrong)… :(

(via Todd Bleeker - Pew Research News Quiz)

Saturday, January 16, 2010

27 pages of Team Foundation Server 2010 upgrade information from the team in the know, the Visual Studio ALM Rangers

CodePlex - Visual Studio 2010 TFS Upgrade Guide

“Visual Studio 2010 TFS Upgrade Guide
Welcome to the Team Foundation Server (TFS) 2010 Upgrade Guide. This guide covers scenarios which may be encountered during and after the upgrade process. It provides examples of most common and potential issues. It covers scenarios related to general Upgrade Process, Work Item Templates, Reports, and Enterprise TFS Management (ETM). Although this guide refers to TFS 2008 scenarios, almost all the concepts apply also to TFS 2005.

Visual Studio ALM Rangers
This guidance is created by the Rangers who have the mission to provide out of band solutions for missing features or guidance. This content was created with support from Microsoft Product Group, Microsoft Most Valued Professionals (MVPs) and technical specialists from technology communities around the globe, giving you a real-world view from the field, where the technology has been tested and used.

What is in the package?
A single document with the following contents:

1 Introduction
2 Upgrade Process
3 Scenarios
3.1 Upgrading Projects from Multiple TFS 2008 servers into one TFS 2010 server
3.2 Upgrading severs when SQL Mirroring is enabled
3.3 Recovering system if upgrade fails midway
3.4 Updating Team Project Portal for an existing Team project
3.5 Splitting Team Project Collection into Multiple Collections
3.6 When I move a Team Project Collection, how do I move the reports?
3.7 Bringing Workgroup Machine inside Domain
4 Frequently Asked Questions
4.1 Can I use a TFS2008 Process Template to create team projects in TFS 2010
4.2 How can I enable Agile Workbooks in upgraded Projects
4.2.1 Enabling the Product Backlog Workbook
4.2.2 Enabling the Iteration Backlog Workbook
4.3 How can I enable Test Case Management in upgraded project
4.4 How can I enable Branch Visualization in upgrade projects
4.5 How can I enable Lab Management in upgrade projects
4.6 What is WIT Admin Tool
4.7 What happens to my custom reports created in TFS2008 post upgrade?
4.8 Will my old TFS2008 reports work post upgrade?
4.9 Can I add a new Database to my existing TFS 2010 farm?
4.10 Error bringing cloned Team Project Collection online
4.11 Move Team Project Collection Database from one Database server to another Database Server
4.12 How to enable the TFS reports if the WSS server is upgraded to MOSS server?
4.13 How to Move Team Projects from one Team Project Collection to another
5 References

…” [Project Description Leach Level: 90%]

Visual Studio 2010 TFS Upgrade Guide - Visual Studio 2010 TFS Upgrade Guide v1.0

“…

Recommended Download

Visual Studio 2010 TFS Upgrade Guide v1
documentation, 1361K, uploaded Tue…

…”

With the awesome that is TFS2010, upgrading is something many of us will be doing in the coming year…

Here’s a snap of the Guide;

(via MyALMBlog - Rangers release Visual Studio 2010 TFS Upgrade guide)

“SQL Server 2008 Upgrade Technical Reference Guide” – 486 pages of SQL Server 2008 upgrade guidance

Learning to LINQ, provider that is – Writing a LINQ To Wikipedia provider walkthrough

Michael Ballhaus (MCPD + SCJP) - LinqToWikipedia - A walkthrough to creating your own .NET Linq provider

“This article is a two-part series regarding the LinqToWikipedia provider. The first article will cover the basic concepts of Linq as well as the client usage of this particular provider while the second article will explore the inner workings of the LinqToWikipedia provider to give you an understanding of what it takes to create your own IQueryable provider.

NOTE: You should download the latest build from Codeplex so you can follow along with the code samples.

What is Linq?
Let's spend a moment and talk about what Linq is all about from a high-level.

…

Part II - Explore the inner workings of the LinqToWikipedia provider to create your own IQueryable provider. (coming soon)

…”

CodePlex - Linq to Wikipedia

“Project Description

LINQ to Wikipedia is a custom LINQ query provider implementation for the Mediawiki API that translates LINQ queries into HTTP requests to access Wikipedia information. …

Be sure to visit my Blog for more information including an explanation of the LinqToWikipedia provider (coming soon)

Features

Custom query provider that translates LINQ queries into HTTP requests that interact with the Wikipedia API.

Supports two query types:

OpenSearch - Support for the OpenSearch protocol

Keyword Query - Allows for querying Wikipedia using multiple keywords

LinqToWikipedia Blog with documentation and tutorial

Support for proxy configuration for use behind a firewall

Live Demo site

OpenSearch Demo

Keyword Search Demo

Ships with full Visual Studio 2008 solution with source code and samples (demo sites above included)

…

…”

Got to love LINQ, primarily because it’s so extensible. I mean LINQToWikipedia? That’s cool and that it’s being used as a means to teach us all how to write our own LINQ providers is even cooler…

Related Past Post XRef:
LINQ to * – Cool lists of LINQ links

Friday, January 15, 2010

The PDC09 Trip Report Kit – Let DaveDev do the slides so you can focus on the sharing…

DaveDev - PDC09 Trip Report Kit available for download. Taking out the drudgery so you can focus on the fun

“It’s about Sharing

One of the favorite things in my role at Microsoft is going out to local usergroup meetings (you can check out the full listing in the blog sidebar to the left). The environment of sharing and enabling others to grow never ceases to impress. Maybe it is the fact I am just getting older but in recent years the relationships I build with people have come to mean more to me than the technology I learn. These groups offer a healthy portion of both with various technical presentations and dedicated networking time to get to know one another.

Having spent most of my career in large enterprises a trip report is something I just made a habit of doing. Especially, when I got the rare opportunity to attend a big conference. Those on my team have seen some of the twenty page trip reports I have put together but how can I share that with the community?

I see the traffic on twitter and know many are busy doing giving briefings now to their own workgroups on what they saw at PDC09. I thought about it and here is how I think I can help…

A PDC09 Trip Report Kit

I often do summaries of my trips to major conferences or announcements but I wanted to get something out to you this time you could use for your own presentations.

The idea behind this kit is to put together a starting point for your meeting. Whether that is at your workplace, or at your local usergroup, you can take this presentation and demos and modify as you see fit.

…

This PowerPoint is available here and runs about 90 slides. Depending on how much Q&A you get you should allow for 90-120 minutes. It does not cover everything from PDC and is meant as a starting point for your audience to follow-up with more in-depth hands on technical labs.

…

…”

If you want or need to share PDC09 with friends, family, co-workers, people you meet on the street, etc, why go through the pain of building your own slide deck when you can steal (…errrr… um… borrow… yeah… that…) someone else’s? I mean do you really want to build the deck? Really?

Anyway, I thought this cool, both intent and content, and since it’s my blog… lol :)

Amazon Clouding it - “Architecting for the Cloud: Best Practices” Whitepaper

Amazon Web Services Blog - New Whitepaper: Architecting for the Cloud: Best Practices

“I am very happy to announce our new AWS whitepaper "Architecting for the Cloud: Best Practices."

For several years, software architects have discovered and implemented several concepts and best practices to build highly scalable applications. Today, these concepts are even more applicable because of ever-growing datasets, unpredictable traffic patterns, and the demand for faster response times. This paper reinforces and reiterates some of traditional service-oriented architectural concepts and discusses how they may evolve in the context of cloud computing. It will also discuss some unprecedented concepts such as elasticity that have emerged due to the dynamic nature of the cloud.

This paper is targeted towards cloud architects who are gearing up to move an enterprise-class application from a fixed physical environment to a virtualized cloud environment. The focus of this paper is to highlight concepts, principles and best practices in creating new cloud applications or migrating existing applications to the cloud. Most importantly, the paper discusses some specific strategies on how to architect your application to leverage the benefits of the cloud benefits and some specific tactics on how to use different AWS features and services

…”

A nice high level technical whitepaper on building/architecting to take advantage of Amazon’s cloud offerings.

VS/TFS Virtualization, Ranger Style - Visual Studio 2010, Team Foundation Server Virtualization Guidance and VM Factory

CodePlex - Visual Studio 2010 and Team Foundation Server 2010 VM Factory

“Welcome to the Visual Studio 2010 and Team Foundation Server 2010 Virtualization Guidance Community Site!

The purpose of this project is to build prescriptive guidance around the virtualization of the Visual Studio 2010 and guidance for full automation of the creation of virtual machines. The goal is to help users with the installation and configuration of virtualized environments with least effort and maximum automation.

Visual Studio ALM Rangers
This guidance is created by the Rangers who have the mission to provide out of band solutions for missing features or guidance. This content was created with support from Microsoft Product Group, Microsoft Most Valued Professionals (MVPs) and technical specialists from technology communities around the globe, giving you a real-world view from the field, where the technology has been tested and used.

What is in the package?
The download package consists of two ZIP package downloads:

Rangers Virtualization Guidance

Focused guidance on creating a Rangers base image manually and introduction of PowerShell scripts to automate many of the configuration tasks.

Virtualization guidance looking at the “why” and “how” to use virtualization for Team Foundation Server and Visual Studio, including planning, pre-requisite software, use of non-Microsoft virtualization technologies and introducing use case scenarios.

Rangers Factory Package and Guidance

Reference walk-through documentation on how to install, configure and support a Microsoft internal or an external factory to automate the installation of Team Foundation Server and Visual Studio environments.

Microsoft Deployment Toolkit metadata and PowerShell scripts used to create a Rangers factory.

Our Objectives
Our project objectives include the

Consolidation and delivery of best recommendations and limits for the ...

Deployment of Visual Studio

Deployment of Team Foundation Server

… in virtual environments

Automation of

Team Foundation Server virtualization

Visual Studio virtualization

Inclusion of non-Microsoft Virtualization technologies in the guidance

…”

Visual Studio 2010 and Team Foundation Server 2010 VM Factory - Rangers Virtualization Guidance

“…

Recommended Download

Virtualization Guidance for Visual Studio 2010
documentation, 2631K, uploaded Dec 17 2009…

Other Available Downloads

Virtualization Visual Studio ALM Rangers Base Image Guide
documentation, 2690K, uploaded Dec 24 2009…

Team Foundation Server Planning Guidance Poster Capacity Planning
documentation, 1040K, uploaded Dec 17 2009…

Release Notes

Rangers Virtualization Guidance

Focused guidance on creating a Rangers base image manually and introduction of PowerShell scripts to automate many of the configuration tasks.

Virtualization guidance looking at the “why” and “how” to use virtualization for Team Foundation Server and Visual Studio, including planning, pre-requisite software, use of non-Microsoft virtualization technologies.

…”

Visual Studio 2010 and Team Foundation Server 2010 VM Factory - Rangers Factory Package and Guidance

“…

Recommended Download

Virtualization Guidance for Visual Studio ALM Rangers Factory
documentation, 2944K, uploaded Dec 17 2009 - 3 downloads

Other Available Downloads

Factory Deployment Configuration Package
source code, 145K, uploaded Thu…

Release Notes

Rangers Factory Package and Guidance

Reference walk-through documentation on how to install, configure and support a Microsoft internal or an external factory to automate the installation of Team Foundation Server and Visual Studio environments.

Microsoft Deployment Toolkit metadata and PowerShell scripts used to create a Rangers factory.

…”

Here’s a snap of Virtualization Guidance for Visual Studio ALM Rangers Factory;

And a snap of Virtualization Guidance for Visual Studio 2010

In short, tons of great information if you are considering VM’s for VS 2010 or TFS 2010…

(via The Caffeinated Geek - Visual Studio 2010 and TFS 2010 VM Factory Ships)

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Kodu, the Microsoft Research visual game programming language targeted at beginning programmers, now available for PC’s (Tech Preview)

Channel 10 - Larry Larsen - Kodu Now Available for PC

“You may remember seeing the Microsoft Research project Kodu for Xbox last year. The game allows programming novices to develop robust games on the Xbox and control interactions between the characters. Now the PC version is available in beta form which is great news as most schools don't have Xbox 360's.

With Kodu, the idea is to give kids a way to accomplish something they didn't think they would be able to do while strengthening their design, math, and problem-solving skills. …”

KODO Game Lab

“What is Kodu?

Kodu is a visual programming language made specifically for creating games. It is designed to be accessible for children and enjoyable for anyone.

Key Features

Kodu provides an end-to-end creative environment for designing, building, and playing your own new games.

High-level language incorporates real-world primitives: collision, color, vision

Runs on Xbox 360 and PC

Interactive terrain editor

Bridge and path builder

Terrain editor - create worlds of arbitrary shape and size

20 different characters with different abilities

…

Announcing: Technical Preview of Kodu for the PC

Kodu for the PC incorporates several features that have been requested by schools in our early access program:

Mouse and Keyboard user interface – game controller no longer a requirement

Key improvements to the programming language

A game export feature which allows users save games as documents that can be emailed or placed on servers for sharing

Support for a broad range of hardware (an objective of the technical preview is to find hardware configurations that need additional work)

Easy installation process for lab environments

The programming environment also runs on the Xbox, allowing rapid design iteration using only a game controller for input. Kodu Game Lab can be found in the Xbox Marketplace in the Indie Games channel.

…

…”

Sounds like something fun to play with during those long meetings… err… um… I mean… um… on the weekends at home… yeah, that… ;)

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

“Can you tell me about VS2010 in 5 Minutes?” The Visual Studio Quick Reference Guidance project can…

CodePlex - Visual Studio 2010 Quick Reference Guidance

“Visual Studio 2010 Quick Reference Guidance
Welcome to the Visual Studio 2010 Quick Reference Guidance! Steven van Niekerk (Technical Lead / Architect, BB&D South-Africa) initiated this project with his question “Can you tell me about TFS and VSTS in 5 minutes?”

The Visual Studio 2010 Quick Reference Guidance consists of compact cheat sheets for Team Foundation Server (TFS) 2010 and Visual Studio (VS) 2010, addressing the core problem of teams in the field who are unaware of Visual Studio and Team Foundation Server capabilities or have little time to invest in detailed education.

The artifacts include an overview document and poster that allows you to quickly focus on individual areas like testing, by providing crisp and compact guidance sheets and quick reference posters. You can take these to your 5-min coffee break discussions or use them as a stepping stone to the more detailed and in-depth guidance you will find on MSDN.
…

What is in the package?
The download package consist of three ZIP files containing a number of quick reference posters and quick reference sheets in XML Paper Specification (XPS) format:

Visual Studio 2010 Quick Reference Guidance – Overview

An overview of the guidance and focus areas, contained in one index table and overview quick reference poster.

Visual Studio 2010 Quick Reference Guidance – Basic Guidance

A collection of basic guidance sheets, focusing on the “what” are the key features and “why” to consider them.

Visual Studio 2010 Quick Reference Guidance – Supporting Guidance

A set of documents and quick reference posters, supporting the basic guidance sheets.

Our Objectives
Deliver a set of 5-minute 101 reference for each topic area of Visual Studio covering:

A "What is" section

A "What are the new and important features“ section

A "Quick Reference Poster” section

Where feasible, we elaborate on features using quick reference posters and whitepapers, or refer to more detailed documentation and guidance on MSDN or other sources.

…”

Visual Studio 2010 Quick Reference Guidance – Overview

“…

Recommended Download

Visual_Studio_2010_Quick_Reference_Guidance_-_Complete_Guidance.zip
documentation, 12156K, uploaded Today …

Other Available Downloads

Visual Studio 2010 Quick Reference Guidance – Overview.zip
documentation, 1516K, uploaded Tue …

Visual_Studio_2010_Quick_Reference_Guidance_-_Basic_Guidance.zip
documentation, 4580K, uploaded Today …

Visual_Studio_2010_Quick_Reference_Guidance_-_Supporting_Guidance.zip
documentation, 6063K, uploaded Today …

Release Notes

The guidance is available in one complete download (recommended download) which contains all three packages (overview, basic and supporting).
Alternatively you can download each package separately, i.e. overview, basic and supporting.

…”

Snap of the extracted “Complete” zip;

Some snaps from some of the included XPS’s;

All in all lot’s O cool stuff… ;)

(via WindowsVJ.com - Download : Visual Studio 2010 Quick Reference Guidance)

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Free in person day long Silverlight/Blend Training - “Silverlight Design Days – Free Blend Training on Tour”

Adam Kinney on Silverlight and Expression Blend - Silverlight Design Days – Free Blend Training on Tour

“Silverlight Design Day is opportunity to learn about Silverlight and Expression Blend from a design and interface developer perspective.

The first half of the day will start out with a short poll, asking these three questions:

How many of you write code?

What technologies do you use today?

Is there anything specific you want to cover?

The tools and the platform will then be introduced by accomplishing designer tasks based on the earlier poll as much as possible.

The second half of the day will be your opportunity to get your hands on Blend and Silverlight. PCs will be available already configured to run through tutorials, made especially with designer and UI tasks in mind.

SWAG and giveaways will be saved till the end of the day, for those hardy souls that can make it all the way through.

Where and When:
The events will be held in training centers with pre-configured PCs available. Feel free to request during the second half of the day, help configuring your own laptop. Once the Event Schedule (shown above) is complete we should end up with an even number of US and non-US locations.

Cost:
This event is free of charge. However, attendees are responsible for booking and paying for their own travel and accommodation. Both breakfast and lunch will be provided.

…

Event Schedule

Jan 29 – Mountain View, CA, US

Feb 9 – Irvine, CA, US

Mar 15 – break for MIX10

Mar 24 – London, UK

May 4 – Chicago, IL, US

May 7 – Austin, TX, US

May 11 – New York, NY, US

More to come…

[GD: Click through for the Facebook and registration links]

…”

I guess it Training Blog Post Day… :P

Even more free learning (Digital photography, Home Office, Microsoft Office and Adobe, Business basics, PC security and maintenance, IT professionals, Graphic arts), this time from HP – The HP Learning Center (+ tips on upgrading from 32 to Win7 64)

Windows Enterprise Desktop - Upgrading from 32- to 64-bit Windows (7, mostly)

“I’ve been an online instructor for HP at their online Learning Center for over five years. There, the company offers free, short courses on a whole range of computing topics, including numerous items focused on Windows 7 (the following snippet is cut from the all courses listing there).

…

Note the various Windows 7 courses available here

Of the items listed, I’m currently teaching the Windows 7 tune-up and migrating from XP to Win7 courses, with a very active bunch on the former, and a reasonably active bunch on the latter.

…”

HP Learning Center

HP Learning Center – All Classes

This was a training resource that I wasn’t aware of. Considering the source, HP, there are some pretty interesting topics. Who would of thought to learn about Photoshop from HP? Or Web design? Or Word & Excel?

Gobs of Azure Blobs – A walkthrough for storing and retrieving blobs in Azure (in Nov 2009 CTP/V1)

Cloudy in Seattle - Walkthrough: Windows Azure Blob Storage (Nov 2009 and later)

“Similar to the table storage walkthrough I posted last week, I updated this blog post for the Nov 2009/v1.0 and later release of the Windows Azure Tools.
This walkthrough covers what I found to be the simplest way to get a sample up and running on Windows Azure that uses the Blob Storage service. It is not trying to be comprehensive or trying to dive deep in the technology, it just serves as an introduction to how the Windows Azure Blob Storage Service works.
Please take the Quick Lap Around the Tools before doing this walkthrough.
Note: The code for this walkthrough is attached to this blog post.
After you have completed this walkthrough, you will have a Web Role that is a simple ASP.NET Web Application that shows a list of files that are stored and can be downloaded from Blob Storage. You can use the Web Role to add files to Blob storage and make them available in the list.
…
…”

I’ve got a hankering to do some Azure development and storing “stuff” there is one of the things I’ve been thinking about…

Free Developer Training for Visual Studio 2010, .NET 4 – On Demand from msDev

US ISV Developer Community - Free Developer Training for Visual Studio 2010, .NET 4

“ A new series of on-demand videos covers some of the new features in Visual Studio 2010, as of the Beta 2 release, and some of the new language features in .NET languages including C#, Visual Basic.NET, and F#, as of version 4 of the .NET framework. The videos are available from MSDEV today.

Topics available today include:

Parallelism

ADO.Net Data Services

F#

Office Programmability

Topics available next week include:

ASP.NET AJAX

ASP.NET MVC

ASP.NET Web Forms

Managed Languages

To see the videos, see New Features in .NET Framework 4 and Visual Studio 2010, Beta 2.
…” [Post Leach level: 99%]

Nice thing about on demand sessions is that,well, you can view them on demand. ;)

Again I must say, the msdev site is a great resource and one that should be closely watched in the coming year…

Related Past Post XRef:
A Feed You Should Read #8 – msdev

“Everything You Need to Know About Azure as a Developer” 18 part course on msdev.com updated to include four new Windows Azure AppFabric sessions
How about 716, or so, free live and on-demand development training courses/web sessions? Then head on over to msdev.com…
An official “bunch” free of SQL Server 2008 R2 / SQL Server 2008 Express web sessions and how-to’s videos coming starting in September

“Zero to XAML in 4 hours” - Free in person training from Microsoft and Paul Sheriff

Veni, Vidi, Velcro... - Zero to XAML in 4 Hours with Paul Sheriff (RD SoCal)

“MSDN Events Presents: From Zero to XAML in 4 Hours

Learning XAML for use in Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) or Silverlight can be a little daunting. This seminar with Paul Sheriff of PDSA, Inc will introduce the basic concepts of XAML and show you how to get started quickly and easily. You will be given an overview of XAML tools such as VS.NET 2010 and Expression Blend. If you are new to Silverlight and WPF you need to attend this seminar to see how to move to these powerful new platforms. The focus on this seminar is using XAML to build business applications.

After the initial XAML introduction we will then dive deep into the data binding features of WPF. We will explore the many ways to retrieve and present data using data binding in WPF. You will see examples of loading data into combo boxes, list views, and the WPF DataGrid. You will learn how to populate WPF controls using a DataTable, Collection Classes, XML, LINQ to SQL and the Entity Framework.

The next deep dive we will do will focus on creating standard Login and About dialogs, menu systems, toolbars, status bars, etc. At the end of this seminar you will walk away with tons of samples that you can put into use right away.

You will Learn:

1. Introduction to XAML, WPF and Silverlight

2. XAML Controls used in Business Applications

3. Introduction to Styles

4. Data Binding Techniques in WPF

5. Building standard business forms, dialogs and tools

More about Paul Sheriff:

Paul D. Sheriff is the President of PDSA, Inc. (www.pdsa.com), a Microsoft Partner in Southern California. Paul acts as the Microsoft Regional Director for Southern California assisting the local Microsoft offices with several of their events each year and being an evangelist for them. Paul has authored several books, webcasts, videos and articles on .NET, SQL Server and SharePoint. Paul can be reached via email at PSheriff@pdsa.com or at Paul Sheriff's Inner Circle (www.PaulSheriffInnerCircle.com).

Who Should Attend
Developers, Architects and stakeholders who wish to gain a better understanding of Windows Presentation Foundation.

Welcome Time
12:30 PM Local Time

Event Time
1:00 PM – 5:00 PM Local Time

Denver, CO, January 28, 2010

Portland, OR, February 2, 2010

Bellevue, WA, February 4, 2010

Mountain View, CA, February 9, 2010

Irvine, CA, March 16, 2010

Los Angeles, CA, March 18, 2010

Phoenix, AZ, March 23, 2010

…”

I’m still fighting the WPF/XAML learning curve, and can use all the help I can get… Signed up for the LA event ;)

Monday, January 11, 2010

[So I can find it in the future] SQL Server to the Max - “Maximum Capacity Specifications for SQL Server”

Notes from SQL Server Premier Field Engineer - Maximum sizes and numbers for SQL Server

“While working with SQL Server you've probably heard certain restrictions like 'There can be at most 1,024 columns declared in the table' or 'There can be only 8,600 bytes per row'. Some are urban legends and travel by the word of mouth others are hard to keep in the head even for people who constantly work with SQL Server. In case you wondered what these limits are, Microsoft has a complete list of them here . …”

Microsoft TechNet - Maximum Capacity Specifications for SQL Server

“The following tables specify the maximum sizes and numbers of various objects defined in SQL Server components.

…”

Every so often I need to look up something in the list and can never seem to craft my search right. Capturing this so I can easily find it in the future… ;)

“How does licensing work for SQL Server in a Virtual Machine environment?” Answer:Microsoft SQL Server Licensing Guide (63 Page PDF)

Rob’s TechNet Ragg… - SQL Server Licensing in Hyper-V Environment

“I received a question a few days ago about how to license SQL (per processor) within a Virtual Machine on a Hyper-V server (or other hypervisor based host). There has been a lot of confusion on this, at least I’ve been confused, so I wanted to dig into this and see what I could find. I found the SQL 2008 Licensing Guide. It can be found on the SQL 2008 Licensing page here.

The problem with SQL licensing when you look at the per processor licensing option is, “How do I license SQL in a virtual environment? Do I have to license every processor on the Hyper-V server?” So I’m going to point out a few pages of this SQL licensing document that will help you understand how to work this out.

The SQL 2008 Licensing Guide can be downloaded from the page above, or it can be downloaded from here. This document does a great job of working through the licensing scenarios. Chapter 4 is where it actually gets interesting with respect to virtualization, but you need to read Chapter 3 first to understand the licensing models. I’m going to focus on the per processor licensing, that is the one that is less obvious in a virtual environment. Page 25 is where we get started, let’s first take a look at the introductory explanation.

…”

Virtualization is starting to take off in my day life and virtual SQL Servers are a popular topic. The question has come up as to how the licensing works. This guide seems to be tailor made for me. :)

Microsoft SQL Server Licensing Guide (PDF)

Free eBooks of the Day – Science Fiction novels by Jeffery A. Carver

WiredPrairie - Free Jeffrey A Carver Science Fiction E-books

“Jeffrey Carver has provided a number of his science fiction books for free on his web site here. I’ve just completed reading the free Chaos Chronicles series (books 1-4) and enjoyed them quite a lot. Each book isn’t very long, so it’s easy enough to get through the series without drowning in sci-fi tech details.

…”

Science Fiction Worlds of Jeffrey A. Carver - Ebooks!

Science Fiction Worlds of Jeffrey A. Carver - Downloads!

I’ve enjoyed a number (many… most?) of Jeffery A Carver’s novels over the years so when I saw I could some of them free, well that’s just to hard to pass up.

But remember, free is rarely free, so if you do grab a free book and enjoy it, please support him by buying a book or more directly via the PayPal tip jar on his site.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

A Feed You Should Read #19 – The Posse List/eDiscovery Reading Room’s “Our weekly ‘Top 10 … plus’ : a compendium of e-discovery articles and links”

This week’s Feed is for a pretty limited audience and everyone in the IT/Legal industries, both at the same time.

If you’ve been reading my blog for any length of time you know I have an ongoing “EDD/Electronic Data Discovery/ESI/Electronically Stored Information/eDiscovery/etc “thing” (funny that given that’s what I do in my day life ;) You know that I tend to preach about being ready for eDiscovery, that everyone in IT needs to be ready for “the day” when the lawyers come to you and ask you for “everything on our network about XYZ for the last 5+ years from all employees, current and past”. If you haven’t had this happen yet, you’re lucky, but it’s just a matter of time (unless you work in a place that doesn’t use computers/email and never gets involved in any legal matters… um… yeah… ).

Today’s feed is a resource that will keep up on this industry and it’s main/parent site will also help you get up to speed on eDiscovery in general…

The Posse List - The eDiscovery Reading Room - “Our weekly ‘Top 10 … plus’ : a compendium of e-discovery articles and links”

Background:

The “Top 10+” are link curation posts, providing easy to scan/read posts. I’ve found this site and their posts are a great summary of information related to the legal technology and eDiscovery news of the week. While the site/posts are from an industry player (and competitor) they do a good job of keeping their posts independent.

Why do I like this feed and think you might also?

Work in a place that might be involved in any sort of legal matter?

Use computers at that place?

Then you/your work place are candidates for eDiscovery requests. The more you know, the easier it will be to respond and handle when it happens…

Snap of the latest post:

Blog Information:

Name:	The Posse List – The eDiscovery Reading Room “Our weekly ‘Top 10 … plus’ : a compendium of e-discovery articles and links”
URL:	http://www.ediscoveryreadingroom.com/
Feed:	http://www.ediscoveryreadingroom.com/?feed=rss2
Post Types:	eDiscovery, Legal Technology

Saturday, January 09, 2010

Office Professional Enterprise Edition 2003 to be removed from US MSDN/TechNet Subscriber Downloads Today, Saturday, Jan 9 (?? Unconfirmed)

ActiveWin - Microsoft Office 2003 Pulled from MSDN and TechNet

“Due to a United States court ruling related to a custom XML markup implementation in Word 2003, MSDN, TechNet, and Expression Subscribers in the United States will not be allowed to download Office 2003 starting tomorrow, Saturday January 9, 2010. This does not affect subscribers in other countries.

All 36 languages of Office Professional Enterprise Edition 2003 are affected. See below for a complete list of affected files. Starting on January 9, 2010, MSDN subscribers in the countries/territories listed below will not be allowed to download Office 2003 Enterprise/Professional. At this time, we do not have a date for when this restriction will be removed.” [Post Leached in full]

At this moment (January 9th 2010 8:45AM PST) I can still download “Office Professional Enterprise Edition 2003 (English)” via my MSDN Subscribers Download (I’m downloading it as I write this.. just incase).

I’m not able to find any additional information or details as the original post that ActiveWin is quoting doesn’t seem to be available anymore and everyone else is pointing at ActiveWin, so this may be nothing, inaccurate, under a different time frame, etc.

Yet it seems like something that reasonably happen, so… Download it soon if you need it…

Friday, January 08, 2010

Windows Live for Windows Mobile – Messenger, Hotmail, Photos and What’s New for WinMo 6.x Standard and Pro

Microsoft Downloads - Windows Live for Windows® phone (Pro)

“…

Overview

Now you can stay connected to those that matter most with Windows Live™ for Windows® phone. Windows Live Messenger, Hotmail®, Photos and the “What’s New” feed are now all available on your 6.x Windows® phone. Windows Live™ for Windows® phone (Pro) is for use with a touch phone. [GD: Emphasis added]

Alternatively you can browse to http://wl.windowsmobile.com using Internet Explorer on your device to install using direct download.

System Requirements

Supported Operating Systems: Windows Mobile 6; Windows Mobile 6 Professional; Windows Mobile 6.1 ; Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional; Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional

…”

Microsoft Downloads - Windows Live for Windows® phone (Std)

“…

Overview

Now you can stay connected to those that matter most with Windows Live™ for Windows® phone. Windows Live Messenger, Hotmail®, Photos and the “What’s New” feed are now all available on your 6.x Windows® phone. Windows Live™ for Windows® phone (Std) is for use with a non-touch phone. [GD: Emphasis added]

Alternatively you can browse to http://wl.windowsmobile.com using Internet Explorer on your device to install using direct download.

Top of page

System Requirements

Supported Operating Systems: Windows Mobile 6; Windows Mobile 6 Standard; Windows Mobile 6.1 ; Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard; Windows Mobile 6.5 Standard

…”

Now if only I had a WinMo phone… One of these days… ;)

Free (reg-ware) Training/Content/Information from Wintellect – Wintellect’s Free Tech Focus Series

Wintellog/Flirting with Technology – Ring in the New Year with our free Tech Focus Series

“I hope that everyone had a very happy holiday season! 2010 is underway and I wanted to let each of you know that Wintellect is launching its NEW Tech Focus segments. The goal of our Tech Focus segments is to provide developers, all of you, with exclusive, free content straight from Wintellect experts that will help you in your day-to-day work. Each Tech Focus segment will be offered in a bi-monthly format and will showcase a specific technology that is a core part our training and consulting services. Tech Focus members will have access to articles, blog posts, live/free webinars, technical tips via social media, discounts, and much more covering topics like - Silverlight, Azure, Debugging/Performance, Threading, WPF, and ASP.NET.

Our Silverlight Tech Focus series is underway and Jeff Prosise will be providing Silverlight 4 content this month. To learn more or to register simply click here.

…” [Post Leach Level: 99%]

Wintellect - Wintellect’s Free Tech Focus Series

You all know how much I like free training… And this looks different and interesting. And come-on… It’s Wintellect! :)

100 geek-compatible quotes, from Books, Movie, TV and even Real Life

GeekDad - 100 Quotes Every Geek Should Know

“One thing that every geek can do is quote their favorite geek-culture media, whether it’s movies, books, television, theater or music. The GeekDads have tried to compile a list of such quotes for your enjoyment. This list is certainly not definitive. Indeed, it’s only the beginning! Feel free to add your own (clean) ones in the comments below.

…

…”

Some of these had me feeling my age… Others, good memories and some scratching my head. :p

(via A Continuous Learner's Weblog - Links (1/7/2010))

Thursday, January 07, 2010

Visual Studio 2010 editions and “The Ultimate offer” – If you’re buying Visual Studio in the next three months, information you MUST know

Visual Studio business news - Visual Studio 2010 transition benefits: “the ultimate offer” – What you need to know

“Visual Studio 2010 is about to come in few months (March 22nd) and I have been receiving many, many, many questions around the new product family and the transition benefits.

I’ll answer some of them in this post and will probably update it later if I have additional recurring questions.

So before jumping on the product capabilities I want to spend 1 minute on Why Microsoft is changing the line-up.
As you already know, Visual Studio is the main developer tool to build software applications on the Microsoft platform. At the end of the day, we don’t really care about the IDE but more about the solution you are building, Visual Studio will come automatically if you have decided to use part of the Microsoft platform (from .NET to C++, Office to Sharepoint, embedded to Azure….).

People were a bit confused between the different editions of Visual Studio. As an example, does a developer need Visual Studio professional (the main IDE to write code) or a Team Developer? A developer may need some testing or modelling capabilities only available in the Team Test or Team Architect edition, so what is the recommended SKU ? As Visual Studio 2010 is extending the capabilities (test management, code visualisation ….) the right move was not to add more editions but to simplify the product family. We’ll have 3 levels of Visual Studio

Visual Studio 2010 Professional – the basic one

Visual Studio 2010 Premium – the standard one

Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate – the advanced one

You can notice that no edition contains “Team System” in the description or a job role (like Developer, Tester …).
The idea is that any edition can suit your needs. It’s up to you to look at the capabilities, what you want to achieve and your team maturity to point out the right level.

…

This "Auto upgrade" means you will get an edition with many more features than you have with your current Visual Studio edition for the duration of your subscription.
Different scenario to optimize this “Ultimate offer” - transition benefits

…

…”

If you’re planning on purchasing any editions of Visual Studio in the next few months this is information you MUST know. In short, I hate to say it but IMHO only a… um… cough… sucker… cough… would buy Team Suite VS2008 right now.

Review the above post and contact your MS rep to make sure your making a good licensing decision

Tuesday, January 05, 2010

Enable any file type to Run As Administrator on Vista/Windows 7

How-To Geek - Add "Run as Administrator" to Any File Type in Windows 7 or Vista

“Have you ever tried to unzip a file to the Program Files directory in Windows 7 or Vista? You’ll get all sorts of permission denied errors, and generally be unsuccessful. So how do we open up the zipfile as an administrator? For that matter, how do you open any file as administrator?

There’s a simple registry tweak that will let us specify the action to run as administrator for a file type. Unfortunately you’ll have to make the tweak manually, but we’ll walk you through it.

…

…”

Found this tip in the comments in Jason’s, Open .sln File as Elevated User post. I was about to blog about that post but in reading the comments liked this solution and its broader scope (sorry Jason! ;)

(via Jason Haley - Open .sln File as Elevated User)

Entity Framework links, links and more links - 100+ Delicious EF Links

Tony and Zuzana’s World - 100 EF4 Links

“As part of my DevelopMentor Entity Framework course, I put together a delicious web site containing over 100 links to Entity Framework 4.0 topics.

http://delicious.com/tonysneed_elinq

…” [Post Leach Level: 99%]

Delicious - tonysneed_elinq's Bookmarks

I’ve started playing with EF4 and so this list will come in handy…

Monday, January 04, 2010

SQLPSX v2 – PowerShell for SQL Server has been PowerShell 2’ed

CodePlex - SQL Server PowerShell Extensions

“…

The primary goal of SQL Server PowerShell Extensions (SQLPSX) is to provide intuitive functions around the SMO objects which are backward compatible with SQL 2000. A secondary goal is to provide an application which reports flatten/effective security settings for logins, users, roles, and permissions.

Installation

SQLPSX consists of a library file of PowerShell functions and several PowerShell scripts, if you've downloaded the files through Internet Explorer you'll need to unblock all Powershell files after downloading by right-clicking each PowerShell file in Windows Explorer and clicking the Unblock button. Using SQLPSX requires you've installed the SMO libraries which are included with SQL Server Management Studio.

News

See the two-part article series on SQLServerCentral describing installation and usage of SQLPSX:
SQLPSX Part1
SQLPSX Part2

…”

SQL Server PowerShell Extensions - 2.0 Production

“Released: Dec 31 2009

Updated: Dec 31 2009 by cmille19

Dev status: Stable

…

SQLPSX_2.0.zip
source code, 1268K, uploaded Dec 31 2009 …

Other Available Downloads

readme.txt
documentation, 23K, uploaded Dec 31 2009 …

screenshots_SQLPSX.docx
documentation, 1315K, uploaded Dec 31 2009 …

Release Notes

Release 2.0 re-implements SQLPSX as PowersShell version 2.0 modules. SQLPSX consists of 7 modules with 132 advanced functions, 2 cmdlets and 7 scripts for working with ADO.NET, SMO, Agent, RMO, SSIS and SQL script files. In addition an optional component of a backend database and SQL Server Reporting Services 2008 reports are provided. See readme file for details.

…”

From the readme.txt;

“…

What's New
    Version 2.0
        Converted function libraries and snapins to modules
        Created comment-based help for all functions
        Made helper functions private through use of module manifests (psd1 files)
        Converted functions to advanced functions with parameter bindings
        Refactored code to use Powershell V2 features:
            try/catch
            valuefrompipeline
            validatescript
            validateset
            new-object -property hashtable
            add-type
        Renamed Set-SqlScriptingOptions to New-SqlScriptingOptions
        Renamed Get-ReplScriptOptions to New-ReplScriptOptions
        Removed scriptopts and replscriptopts text files in favor of script option objects
        Moved Get-InvalidLogins.ps1 and Get-SessionTimeStamp.ps1 into SQLServer module
        Removed Init-SqlParser.ps1 script (not needed since SQLParser is now a module)
        Added new ADO.NET module
        Added format file for SSIS packages
        More rigorous testing was performed using PSUnit testing framework
        Fixed issues discovered in testing
        Added 5 aliases for Information_Schema and sysdatabases functions. These functions were renamed with a Get-Sql* prefix
        All parameters are strongly typed where possible

…”

A cool project gets a major upgrade…

(via Richard Siddaway's Blog - SQL Server PowerShell Extensions)

DBA’s & PowerShell? Yep, PowerShell is not just for your IT brethren, you can have PS fun too!
PowerShell and SQL Server 2008 Whitepaper
More details about SQL Server 2008 and its PowerShell support
SQL Server 2008 & PowerShell - Better Together
SQL Server Provider/Namespace for PowerShell (Think "Easy Command Line/PowerShell Access to SQL Server Data")

GodMode, Windows 7 Style (no joke) – One folder, all admin settings

Geek In Disguise - Enable GodMode On Windows 7

“I thought this was a joke when I read it, but evidently not. If you want a quick way to get to all the settings on Windows 7, GodMode is it. How?

Add a new folder to your desktop and name it GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C} - you will now see the icon above on your desktop and a pretty long list of items. Below is just a small sample.

…”

Awesome… It really IS real!

Here’s a snap from my test system;

(via @HilaryP – tweet)

Update #1 1/4/2010 @ 9:45AM PST:
God Mode revealed by Windows 7 Hacker, The Secrete “Windows 7 Hacker” Mode Revealed –> How To Geek - Stupid Geek Tricks: Enable the Secret "How-To Geek" Mode in Windows

In short, a shell extension CLSID. Shell extension CLSID’s have been around for forever, but this one is new (I think) and one that I’m going to be putting on all my Win7 machines…

A Feed You Should Read #18 - F# Discoveries This Week

F# is a programming language that will be included in VS2010 and may result in a few brain explosions. It’s a different way of coding for many of us, one that while could result in effectively solving problems that we consider almost impossible to solve in our current languages, but as with all new “shifts” there’s a good bit of a learning curve.

Today’s Feed is one that should give you the resources to help working up that curve…

Rick Minerich's Development Wonderland - F# Discoveries This Week

Background:

It’s been said by many this it is important that developers break out of their programming language comfort zones and learn new languages on a regular basis. That learning new languages not only broadens your exposure and keeps your brain cells fresh but also makes you a better developer in the languages you already know.

I’ll buy that…

Now to put that in practice is the hard part.

Why do I like this feed and think you might also?

When trying to get up to speed on a new tech or language getting the zen of it can be hard. Rick’s F# Discoveries This Week series provides links/summary curation of F# related news (funny that given the title), which is a great way of getting a feel for the community.

At first you don’t know what you don’t know. That’s where a blog of this kind if perfect. It casts an wide net which will help you catch tidbits you might have missed otherwise…

If you’re interested in the F# thing you’ve heard about recently, or are a F# Zen Master, this blog will very likely contain content you’ll find useful and will become one that you look forward to every week.

Snap of the latest post:

Blog Information:

Name:	Rick Minerich's Development Wonderland - F# Discoveries This Week series
URL:	http://www.atalasoft.com/cs/blogs/rickm/default.aspx
Feed:	Full http://www.atalasoft.com/cs/blogs/rickm/rss.aspx, series http://www.atalasoft.com/cs/blogs/rickm/rss.aspx?Tags=roundup&AndTags=1)
Post Types:	F# link curation and F# dev/code posts

Essential F# DZone Refcard by Chance Coble & Ted Neward

DZone Refcardz - Essential F#

“Overview

F# is Microsoft's most recent language for the .NET platform. This DZone Refcard will lead you through the basic essentials so that you can quickly move on to using this Functional Programming Language for creating some mind-bending code.

…”