Jackie Goldstein's Weblog

July 2008 Meeting of Israel Visual Basic User Group

Jackie Goldstein — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 20:42:00 GMT

SQL Server 2008 is almost here – the first release candidate was just released – do you know what it offers for application developers?Dubi Lebel, from Microsoft Israel, will fill us in on the more important benefits for developers, in this 2-session presentation. We will start with an overview of what is new in Manageability, Availability, Security and Performance and thendrill down into specific new Database Features Introduced in SQL Server 2008 such as:

Spatial Data support
Filestream storage
New Data Types
Direct Hierarchy support
Sparse Column support
Combined with filtered indexes, filtered statistics
Change Tracking
LINQ and Entity Framework

As always, we'll have our special "Hatzilu" session at our meeting. So please come prepared to discuss your most frustrating problems (or at least some of them!) and to share some of your own techniques and solutions that you have found useful in your applications.

Please confirm your attendance.

See you there !!

The July meeting of the Israel Visual Basic User Group
http://www.renaissance.co.il/ivbug:

July 2, 2008

Location: Microsoft Israel2 Hapnina St,
Ra'anana(09) 7625-100Floor 0 , Dekel Room It is the building across from Amdocs.Turn right at the first traffic circle and then there is an area for (free) parking on the left. 17:30 - 18:00 Assembly
18:00 - 19:15 “SQL 2008 - What in it for me as developer – Part 1”
Dubi Lebel, Microsoft Israel
19:15 - 19:30 Break
19:30 – 20:30 “SQL 2008 - What in it for me as developer – Part 2”
Dubi Lebel, Microsoft Israel

About the Speaker:
Dubi Lebel is a Technical Specialist and the Data platform Technologies Manager for Microsoft Israel.

Please be sure to email me to confirm your participation or for more information.

Renaissance May 2008 Newsletter now available

Jackie Goldstein — Fri, 30 May 2008 01:24:00 GMT

The May 2008 edition of the Renaissance Computer Systems Ltd. newsletter is now available at

http://www.renaissance.co.il/newsletters/NewsMay08.pdf

This newsletter discusses some of the new projects we've been working on, including a White Paper we did for Microsoft Corp. on SQL Server 2008 and Visual Studio.

June 2008 Meeting of Israel Visual Basic User Group (IVBUG)

Jackie Goldstein — Fri, 30 May 2008 01:22:00 GMT

One of the most important new technologies for .NET, that we haven’t really covered in any of our IVBUG meetings, is WPF – Windows Presentation Foundation. WPF is the next-generation presentation sub-system for Windows applications. It provides both developers and designers with a unified programming model for building rich Windows smart client user experiences (and is the basis of Silverlight for Web applications) that incorporate UI, media, and documents. In the first part of his presentation, Eyal Vardi will present/review some of the fundamentals of WPF, and will move on to real-world development in part 2 of his presentation. Over the course of the evening, we will explore the main features of WPF, including XAML, Template & Style, new Controls, Resources, Animations, Routed Events, Commands, Dependency Properties and more. As always, we'll have our special "Hatzilu" session at our meeting. So please come prepared to discuss your most frustrating problems (or at least some of them!) and to share some of your own techniques and solutions that you have found useful in your applications.

Please confirm your attendance.See you there !!

The June meeting of the Israel Visual Basic User Group
http://www.renaissance.co.il/ivbug:

June 4, 2008

Location: Microsoft Israel2 Hapnina St,
Ra'anana(09) 7625-100Floor 0 , Dekel Room It is the building across from Amdocs.Turn right at the first traffic circle and then there is an area for (free) parking on the left.

17:30 - 18:00 Assembly
18:00 - 19:15 “Building Applications with WPF – Part 1”
Eyal Vardi, Experts 4D
19:15 - 19:30 Break
19:30 – 20:30 “Building Applications with WPF – Part 2”
Eyal Vardi, Experts 4D

About the Speaker:
Eyal Vardi is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional – MVP. Eyal lectures at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzelia, Israel and has participated in many Microsoft technical conferences and discussion groups. Eyal has participated in cutting-edge software industry projects: he co-founded R-U-Sure (managed by Yossi Vardi of ICQ), TreeWay and VCI, where he has held several senior positions. managing development,- and product and business development. Blog: Http://www.Experts4D.Co.il/Eyal

Please be sure to email me to confirm your participation or for more information.

Visual Basic Makes it to Prime Time TV (CSI New York)

Jackie Goldstein — Mon, 26 May 2008 20:21:00 GMT

Check out this short scene from last week’s CSI New York !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ni_rAamVP2s

And they say that VB gets no respect...

Some Interesting Developer Resources

Jackie Goldstein — Fri, 02 May 2008 18:26:00 GMT

Here's a list of some interesting developer resources that I have had lying around for a while.

What do you think? Do you use any of them on a regular basis?

· http://www.universalthread.com/
· http://www.experts-exchange.com/
· http://www.annoyance.org/
· http://www.codeguru.com/
· http://www.ddj.com/
· www.php.net
· Trillion http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerulean_Studios
· www.gimp.org
· http://www.bugzilla.org/

Notes on TechEd Israel 2008

Jackie Goldstein — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 15:42:00 GMT

Last week was the (now) semi-annual TechEd Israel conference. This was my sixth time participating in this event - I have given presentations at all six TechEds here. The conference is an amazing experience and has come a long way from 2000/2001 when we had to lobby Microsoft Israel to put on such an event. There were about 3,500 participants - about half the amount of TechEd EMEA for all of Europe!

The attendees enjoyed most of the sessions/speakers and the speakers enjoyed the interactions and challenges of the attendees.

A particularly interesting observation for me was when I asked the attendees at my session (Sync Services for ADO.NET) how many of them were VB developers. At VSLive last month I got about 80% VB developers. Here I got only one (1) !! and even he was only after I promised SWAG to anyone who admitted to it. Wow...

An extra treat for me personally was getting/seeing some of my Redmond friends to come over for the conference, including Pablo Castro, Matt Winkler, Lisa Feigenbaum, and Shy Cohen. The attendees really enjoyed their great sessions as well. An extra thanks to Matt, for staying in Israel an extra day to be the guest speaker at a special joint VB/C#/Architects User Group meeting.

Observations from VSLive! San Francisco 2008

Jackie Goldstein — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 02:13:00 GMT

I recently (OK, 10 days ago) returned from my annual pilgrimage to San Francisco, to speak at the main VSLive conference. My presentations this year are described here.

I'd like to share with you two observations / surprises from this conference:

(1) It is well known that I am a pretty big fan of DataSets - but I realize that it is not necessarily the most popular position to take. At VSLive, I gave 2 sessions on DataSets (Intermediate and Advanced). Image my surprise (if not shock and horror) when I realized that there were at least 2 or 3 other sessions covering much of the same content on DataSets. Could DataSets be making a comeback...?

(2) In one of my DataSet sessions, I asked the audience how many of them were developing with VB vs. C#. While one would expect a high percentage of VB developers in a data-centric session, I was still surprised that the audience was easily at least 80% VB developers. Could VB be making a comeback...?

April 2008 Meeting of Israel Visual Basic User Group (IVBUG)

Jackie Goldstein — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 02:15:00 GMT

Note the special date of April’s meeting and the special registration requirements.

This month’s meeting will be a joint meeting for IVBUG, IVCUG, and .NET Architects User Groups, so that we can all take advantage of a special guest speaker – Matthew Winkler from Microosft Corp (Remond). Matt is a Workflow Foundation expert and will be sharing his expertise with these 2 sessions: WF+WCF IntegrationWCF and WF are like two siblings separated at birth. They are two powerful technologies, but until .NET 3.5, did not know about one another. We’ll talk about how and why these two technologies have come together, how to take advantage of both from your code, and walk through some basic patterns that highlight how these two technologies fit together. Creating Custom Composite ActivitiesOne of the benefits of WF is that it allows for the creation of new patterns of control flow, you don’t just have to use state machine and sequence. Working with customers, I’ve seen a lot of people do some pretty weird things to fit their process into a sequence. We’ll walk through the mechanisms required to build new types of control flows, and then implement a few. Do to the expected great demand and limited seating, you MUST register in advance for this event at http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032374675&Culture=he-IL

See you there !!

The April meeting of the Israel Visual Basic User Group
http://www.renaissance.co.il/ivbug:

April 9, 2008

Location: Microsoft Israel2 Hapnina St,
Ra'anana(09) 7625-100Floor 0 , Dekel Room It is the new building across from Amdocs.Turn right at the first traffic circle, there is a new area for Microsoft parking on the left. 17:30 - 18:00 Assembly
18:00 - 19:00 “WF+WCF Integration” Matthew Winkler, Microsoft Corp.19:00 - 19:15 Break19:15 - 20:15 “Creating Custom Composite ActivitiesMatthew Winkler, Microsoft Corp.

One More Time - Awarded Microsoft MVP for Another Year

Jackie Goldstein — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 01:49:00 GMT

Well, spring is in the air, which for me means, among other things the renewal time for my Microsoft MVP award. I am proud to say that once again this year I have proven to be worthy of the award - thanks Microsoft !

Unfortunately, I won't be able to attend the MVP Summit in Redmond later this month :-( But at least I had the chance to talk with some of the VB PMs at the VSLive Conference this week.

Connecting to Microsoft SQL Server 2008 from Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 and 2008

Jackie Goldstein — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 01:27:00 GMT

My article on this topic just went live on MSDN at http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc440724.aspx

Since both VS 2005 and VS 2008 were released before SQL Server 2008, most of the designers and tools don't work with SQL 2008. To address this, MS has released CTP updates and will be releasing final versions of these updates in the future. This article discusses the various issues and summarizes what featues will be made available in the various releases and where to download he current CTP updates.

The WideOpen Web - Confessions of a Rich-Client Bigot

Jackie Goldstein — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 15:59:00 GMT

OK - I am not really a Rich-Client bigot and these are not really confessions.

However, until recently, my default choice for an applications UI was a rich-client (i.e. WinForms) interface. Of course, we had many cases where a client's requirements quickly changed my mind so that the right choice was a browser-based application. However, as Microsoft, as well as its partners and competitors, keep coming coming out with better tools and technologies for browser apps, the choice becomes "less obvious" than ever before.

AJAX toolkits and controls allow developers to easily develop web pages that are both "pretty" and responsive. While Silverlight 1.0 was cool and promising, it was still "less than easy" to develop with. Silverlight 2.0, however, with the power and simplicity of the .NET framework combined with the richness of WPF all inside the browser - is absolutely compelling ! I've now found myself often thinking about browser-based apps as my default choice, until proven otherwise by client requirements.

Of course, the Rich Client is not dead (it is just working offline) - but that is a topic for another post...

VSLive San Francisco in Less Than 3 weeks

Jackie Goldstein — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 22:50:00 GMT

Yes, it is that time of year again (and I say that most happily!) to go out to San Francisco to speak at the VSLive Conference. This year I am focussing on real-world use of DataSets, both with VS 2005 and VS 2008. But don't attend just for that - there are many other great sessions and speakers that you will really enjoy and learn from.

In order to make it easier (i.e cheaper) for you to attend, you can receive a $695 discount on the Gold Passport if you register using priority code SPGOL. More at www.vslive.com/sf - be sure to ping me if you are going to be there!

Here are the descriptions for the sessions I am doing:

Using and Extending the Typed DataSet and TableAdapter
Are you using the VS 2005 DataSet designer to design your data access code usign Typed DataSets and Table Adapters? You should be - because doing so allows you to build better data access code much faster. This session will be mainly demos that cover both the basic uses of these tools and objects, as well as techniques to extend the standard classes to meet your own specific needs. We will also take a look at some of the improvements in Visual Studio 2008.

VS Tools and Techniques for Distributed Data Access in VS 2008
This session will discuss several challenges facing developers developing distributed data access applications. These issues include hierarchical updates, use of VS tools/wizards to generate truly N-tier applications, and separation of data entity and data access objects. We will demonstrate what tools and techniques can be used and take a look at what new solutions are offered in Visual Studio 2008.

Looking for Flex/Java Developers and .NET Developers

Jackie Goldstein — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 18:13:00 GMT

Note that for both positions:

The job is on-site in Israel
High level of English verbal and written skills required
Exceptional students or recent graduates will be considered.

Flex/Java Developer

We are ideally looking for an experienced Flex Developer, but...
...are willing to consider an experienced Java developer with some flair for graphics and design
Ability to quickly learn new technologies
Ability to work as part of an interactive development team

.NET Developer

1-3 years of experience developing with VB.NET and/or C#
Solid knowledge of .NET Framework and Visual Studio tools
Understanding of common software design patterns
Ability to quickly learn new technologies and application domains
Ability to work as part of an interactive development team

If you think you fit the bill and want to work on some new projects, please email me at careers "at" renaissance.co.il

March 2008 Meeting of Israel Visual Basic User Group (IVBUG)

Jackie Goldstein — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 18:54:00 GMT

Sharepoint is big. Very big. It is actually made of two different downloads (WSS & MOSS), a large set of reusable components and an SDK to accompany it. And Dan Amiga, VP of R&D for Semantinet, is just the one to explain to us how to take advantage of it. This talk is about understanding - from a developer's perspective - the architecture, internals and usages of Sharepoint. It's not just for the Sharepoint developer. It's also for developers that want to integrate powerful components to their custom applications, including: search, single sign-on, workflows with office and InfoPath, connecting to legacy systems, implementing fast visual provisioning of sites and views, flexible authorization systems, change log, document management & much more. This will be a session with a lot of demos and plenty of real-world examples of architectures and how developers are basing their solutions on sharepoint both as a web front end and as an application server. As always, we'll have our special "Hatzilu" session at our meeting. So please come prepared to discuss your most frustrating problems (or at least some of them!) and to share some of your own techniques and solutions that you have found useful in your applications.

Please confirm your attendance.See you there !!

The March meeting of the Israel Visual Basic User Group
http://www.renaissance.co.il/ivbug:

March 5, 2008

Location: Microsoft Israel2 Hapnina St,
Ra'anana(09) 7625-100Floor 0 , Dekel Room It is the building across from Amdocs.Turn right at the first traffic circle and then there is an area for (free) parking on the left. 17:30 - 18:00 Assembly
18:00 - 19:15 “Creating cutting edge applications with Sharepoint 2007 – Part 1”
Dan Amiga, Semantinet
19:15 - 19:30 Break
19:30 – 20:30 “Creating cutting edge applications with Sharepoint 2007 – Part 2”
Dan Amiga, SemantinetAbout the Speaker:Dan Amiga, is currently the VP R&D for Semantinet, a young Israeli startup that will revolutionize and boost the way you experience the internet. Prior to joining SemantiNet, Mr. Amiga was a senior solution architect in the Microsoft Technology Center in Israel (MTC). During his work in the MTC, Mr. Amiga successfully held various positions as a CTO, solutions architect and development team leader for various organizations. Mr. Amiga has extensive and proven experience implementing and deploying technological solutions successfully in diverse environments; from startups to large government institutes, from ISV's to SMB's.

Mr. Amiga is also a leading instructor and speaker in Microsoft conferences for new .NET technologies, wokring with DevelopMentor an award winning developer training company. He has delivered numerous seminars and presentations all over the globe. Prior to his positions in the private sector, Mr. Amiga was a technology guru in an elite intelligence unit in the Israeli Defense Forces, specializing in developing state of the art security products. Dan holds a BA in computer science from the Interdisciplinary Center and is currently finishing his M.A. in Law in the Bar-Ilan University.

10 Years of IVBUG (Israel Visual Basic User Group) Meetings !

Jackie Goldstein — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 20:59:00 GMT

Earlier this month, at our monthly meeting, the Israel Visual Basic User Group celebrated its tenth (10th) birthday !

When I first started bouncing this idea off other VB developers and people at Microsoft Israel, I never could have imagined that ten years later we would still be going strong with monthly meetings and that many other User Groups would be formed and follow in our footsteps.

Thanks to all of you who attended, spoke, and helped out at these meetings. And thanks to Microsoft Israel for their ongoing support.

Here are a few pictures from our celebration: