Joel From Canada

Tech Behind Live Earth

2008-05-25T01:33:34Z

Some of the 3d views in Live Earth are stunning (especially if you live in a major US city). Mark Brown talks about the camera technology that sits behind it. Very cool.

http://blogs.msdn.com/markbrown/archive/2008/05/23/cnet-article-on-google-capturing-3d-data.aspx

A bit about the cameral

216 mega-pixels with a panchromatic image size of 14,430 x 9,420 pixels, capturing data at over 3 GBits/sec, 13 CCD's - 7 pan and 4 color (RGB + Near IR) and 14 CPU's to process the raw images and data in real-time. The data units for the camera hold 1.7TB, enough for about 4,700 images

How the heck can I get me one of those 216 Mega-pixel cameras? I'm sure in 15 years Canon will come out with a consumer model ;-)

Free Webcast on Process Template Customization...and more...

2008-05-13T02:13:29Z

Over the next few weeks, Imaginet will be hosting a series of public Webcasts on various different topics...The first of this series is Steve Porter on process template customization for Team System.

Here are a few more Webcasts we're putting on:

http://www.imaginets.com/news--events/spring-2008-webcast-series.aspx

Windows Communication Service Gateways with C#3.0 and Linq-To-SQL
An overview of a simple Gateway data accessing pattern exposed via WCF, using LinqToSql for data access. Also includes a brief look into handy uses of new C# 3.0 and .NET 3.5 features including Lambda expressions, LinqToEntities, and more.
May 28 - 2008
https://www119.livemeeting.com/lrs/8000153370/Registration.aspx?pageName=0ggc1605gzxfjkkf&FromPublicUrl=1

NHibernate: An Entry-Level Primer
A look into getting started creating Data Access Layers with NHibernate.
June 25 2008
https://www.livemeeting.com/lrs/8000153370/Registration.aspx?pageName=cjqnm4lgfrcz3wr9

Customizing Team System Process Templates
Learn how to customize Team System's process templates to allow you to align your organization's unique processes to those processes managed by the Team Foundation Server.
May 14 - 2008
https://www119.livemeeting.com/lrs/8000153370/Registration.aspx?pageName=73fdz3q11vj4s4hl&FromPublicUrl=1

Dependency Injection with StructureMap
Learn how to decouple your application and drive it towards a cleaner and more testable design by using dependency injection.
June 18 - 2008
https://www.livemeeting.com/lrs/8000153370/Registration.aspx?pageName=g22s2bs6wzh759g7

Creating Real world applications with CSLA 3.5
I'll do a quick walkthrough of creating a Point of Sale system using Parent-Child-Grandchild relationship using the new features of CSLA 3.5. These include Linq-to-SQL, better property management and persistence management through the chain.
July 2 - 2008
https://www.livemeeting.com/lrs/8000153370/Registration.aspx?pageName=l6p0t81q6lm23pml

Introduction to Software Factories
This web cast will introduce developers to Software Factories. We'll focus specifically on those published by Microsoft, including the Web Client Software Factory, the Smart Client Software Factory, and the Services Software Factory. We'll demo how the factories work and examine what they produce.
May 21 - 2008
https://www119.livemeeting.com/lrs/8000153370/Registration.aspx?pageName=8gprzl6j2tz2skv5&FromPublicUrl=1

Customizing Software Factories
This Webcast will walk developers through what is involved in customizing the software factories published by Microsoft. We'll discuss the Guidance Automation Toolkit (GAT) and the Guidance Automation Extensions (GAX), and will discuss the dos, don'ts, and pain points involved in working with these technologies.
Familiarity with Software Factories is recommended.
June 11 - 2008
https://www.livemeeting.com/lrs/8000153370/Registration.aspx?pageName=699ps56b6hdjqx90

MVC vs MVP smackdown
This Webcast will compare and contrast 2 presentation layer design patterns, the Model View Controller (MVC) design pattern being baked into the the ASP.NET MVC Framework and the Model View Presenter (MVP) design pattern that is currently baked into the Microsoft Software Factories. What's the difference? Which is better? Find out!
July 9 - 2008
https://www.livemeeting.com/lrs/8000153370/Registration.aspx?pageName=dnr4zf5th6xp8cnl

Testing out the MVC: Routing
One of the most difficult parts of an application to test is the User Interface. With the impending release of the ASP.NET MVC framework, this will become a lot easier for web based applications. This webcast will take a Test Driven approach to exploring the new MVC Framework focusing on the URL Routing.
June 4 - 2008
https://www119.livemeeting.com/lrs/8000153370/Registration.aspx?pageName=j8l7d1rddtq7sjm3&FromPublicUrl=1

Creating a Web Video Player Using Silverlight
A brief introduction to creating silverlight applications for websites, and a demo of creating a video player.
July 16 - 2008
https://www.livemeeting.com/lrs/8000153370/Registration.aspx?pageName=tb930khj51nfpgp2

Live.com changed...

2008-05-11T23:27:34Z

I noticed today that live.com has changed. My first experience - silly fast! I was impressed. My second experience was impressive as well - I performed a vanity video search - up popped a few results - simply hover your mouse over the video thumbnail - and it started playing. That feature actually gave me a startle, since I wasn't expecting it and all of a sudden my computer was talking to me.

Requirements Management with Team System White Paper

2008-04-08T03:11:00Z

Requirements Management is something very near to my heart. So, is Team System. Wouldn't you know that there is now a white paper out from Microsoft that talks about both!!!

FolderShare finally getting integrated into Live.com

2008-03-12T02:53:38Z

Nice....

https://www.foldershare.com/

Ray Ozzie at Mix08

2008-01-31T14:46:23Z

Just heard that Ray Ozzie will also be talking at Mix this year. If you don't know, Ray Ozzie is Microsoft's Chief Architect - taking over after Bill Gates. I've followed Ray's career for a very long time - since the days of Lotus Notes (which he created) and Groove (which is still ahead of its time... even though Microsoft has done absolutely nothing with the product since they purchased it - which is sad).

I have to admit, Ray Ozzie isn't the most exciting presenter in the lineup - however, I think along with Guthrie, he'll be the most profound. With the speakers that they have lined up - I truly hope Microsoft drops some huge news on our laps...something that will really blow us away and keep us excited.

Behaviour Driven Development Video

2008-01-28T20:08:39Z

Good watch...

Silverlight in Winnipeg

2008-01-28T17:44:49Z

Miguel Carrasco is speaking at the Winnipeg .NET UG on Jan 29th about Silverlight and WPF. You should check it out if you are in the area.

For more info - www.dotnetwired.com

Tool for Code Reviews

2008-01-28T17:42:25Z

Check out this tool from SmartBear

http://www.smartbearsoftware.com/codecollab.php

I can see this being a great tool for remote teams. If you have experience with it, let me know.

I'm speaking at DevTeach-Toronto May 12-16

2008-01-28T17:38:42Z

DevTeach is a world class conference (I'm not just saying that because I'm speaking at it - really) that originally was held in my favourite Canadian city - Montreal. This year, DevTeach has branched out to Vancouver and Toronto.

This year I'll be giving two sessions:

1. How to make Scrum Really Work

2. Using Excel, the BDC, Dashboard Web Parts, and TFS

This conference is JAMMED with some amazing speakers and sessions. Mike Diehl, who works with me at Imaginet, is also speaking (Unit Testing with Team System - don't miss this..).

Mix is almost here

2008-01-28T17:25:00Z

I've heard a lot of great things about MIX from other MS RD's who have gone in the past. This year I decided I'm checking it out for myself.

http://visitmix.com/2008/default.aspx

The conference is from March 5-7 (which is perfect since it doesn't blow an entire week - or weekend for that matter) in Vegas at the Venetian. There are a bunch of sessions that I'm going to try to attend - likely more than I'll have time for. Will be interesting staying at the Venetian as well....

Cheers!

Automated Acceptance Testing Video

2008-01-18T15:59:21Z

Elisabeth Hendrickson provides a lightning talk regarding how important automated acceptance testing is.

For what it's worth, I agree with her. Automated acceptance tests are very important. So, why don't more teams do this? It has been my experience that many teams evolve quickly to perfect a developer centric view of testing - focusing on the testing of interfaces, classes, methods, etc. Teams work hard to integrate these tests into automated builds and really rally around making "tests" first class citizens during the development process. This is absolutely necessary; however, the evolution of an automated testing mindset should not stop there. In too many teams, any form of automated testing begins and ends with developers. When the development team releases the software to the acceptance phase they hand it over to the BA's who run through scores of manual tests (or simply perform exploratory testing) to find defects. Of course, this is a lot of work - and because of this I have often seen organizations provide for this by creating a really long QA "phase" of a project - where all acceptance testing is done at the same time. All of a sudden, this seems very "waterfally" in nature - which kinda blows the entire point.

The problem with automated acceptance tests is that they are relatively hard to create and, more significantly, hard to maintain. I have seen many projects attempt to fully automated all functional tests - using large teams of QA specialists to create and maintain the tests. This was EXTREMELY hard work and in many cases did NOT provide the expected results. In fact, on many projects test case maintenance added an enormous amount of effort and time onto the project - and resulted in an extremely NON-AGILE attitude about requirement change (small changes in requirements may be simple to code however result in a lot of work for those maintaining the automated acceptance tests - therefore the "cost of change" becomes quite significant and thus change is discouraged).

When I look to the future, I want to see a much improved emphasis on a fully integrated experience for creating and maintaining automated acceptance tests.

I'm still an RD!!

2008-01-03T23:54:59Z

Just like Guy (congrats Guy)

Check me out on The Region

I can't even remember how long I've been an RD - I think it is 5 years now. Being a Microsoft Regional Director has been extremely rewarding - mostly because of the peer network I've formed through the group - not to mention the amazing treatment we get from Microsoft and the influence we get to have on new and emerging technologies and products.

Microsoft Regional Directors rock!

Cynergy Labs: Project Maestro (wireless glove interaction with WPF)

2008-01-03T22:18:20Z

Very cool - check it out

Team Based Development Video from TechEd

2008-01-03T20:08:57Z

Last year I presented on Team Based Development at TechEd - I found a link to the recorded presentation today. You will be prompted to download the video.