Brenton House

Kevein Dente - VMWare 5.5 supports Virtual PC images - sweet!

VMWare 5.5 supports Virtual PC images - sweet!

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VMWare just released the beta of VMWare 5.5, which is capable of opening and directly working with Virtual PC images. Very cool! Now that Microsoft has taken to releasing pre-installed VPC images for various products, I was considering installing VPC just to be able to use them.  Now I won't need to. Of course, VMWare has had a converter tool for a while, but directly working with VPC images without converting them is much nicer.

It looks like you can't directly change the native VPC image - changes are accumulated in a separate VMWare-specific file. But I think I can live with that limitation. For now, anyway. ;)

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This is cool!  VMware always seems to be at least one or two steps ahead of Virtual PC.  As most people that are close to me know, I am a huge Microsoft guy, but this is one of the few products that Microsoft just can’t seem to catch up to (or surpass) in features.

Steve Eichert's Blog - Thoughts on DLINQ

Steve Eichert's Blog - Thoughts on DLINQ

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Now let’s talk about DLINQ.  I’m a big fan of attribute based programming.  I’ve long resisted giving into the xml mapping crowd that has been growing stronger and stronger in the O/R Mapping community.  I’ve conceded to them, having mappings defined in an external mapping file is a better approach.  Microsoft, you should concede to them as well.  Change DLINQ to use a mapping file rather then embedding everything within attributes. 

LINQ is amazing, make DLINQ equally as amazing.  Don’t make DLINQ just another mapper.  Make it something revolutionary.  Start thinking in more generic terms.  Don’t think of the mappings as Databases, Tables, and Columns.  Do think in terms of data stores, entities, and properties.  Make it so we can persist our objects to more then just a SQL Server database.  Give me persistence providers, allow me to persist to more then just SQL Server.

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I agree.  I think that if they are going to use an attribute based approach to O/R mapping that they should also support an external mapping file.

I am very excited about LINQ / DLINQ / XLINQ but then again, I was very exited about ObjectSpaces at the last PDC and we all know what happened to that…   I agree with Steve and I hope that they do something revolutionary here and not create yet another O/R mapper.

Breakout sessions I would probably attend if I was at PDC 2005

• ARCSYM01  Architecture Symposium: Connected Business, Connected Systems
• DAT312  "WinFS" and ADO.NET: Future Directions for Data Access Scenarios
• DAT321  XML Tools: Future Directions for Leveraging Advanced XML Tools and Building Custom XML Solutions
• DAT323  Using the .NET Language Integrated Query Framework with Relational Data
• DAT324  Using the .NET Language Integrated Query Framework with XML Data
• DAT408  ADO.NET 2.0: Advanced Data Access Patterns
• DAT405  SQL Server 2005: Deep Dive on XML and XQuery
• COM202  Windows Communications Foundation ("Indigo"): A Lap around the Windows Communications Foundation
• COM307  Windows Communications Foundation ("Indigo"): Writing Reliable and Transacted Distributed Applications
• COM308  Windows Communications Foundation ("Indigo"): Developing Manageable Web Services
• COM311  Developing P2P Applications Using Windows Vista and the Windows Communication Foundation (“Indigo”) PeerChannel
• COM312  Windows Communications Foundation ("Indigo"): Writing Secure Distributed Applications
• COM318  Developing Rules Driven Workflows
• COM326  Windows Communications Foundation ("Indigo"): Web Services for XML Programmers
• COM328  Extending Workflow Capabilities with Custom Activities
• COM415  Windows Communications Foundation ("Indigo"): A Deep Dive into Best Practices Using the Windows Communications Foundation
• COM416  Windows Communications Foundation ("Indigo"): Under the Hood of the Windows Communications Foundation Channel Layer
• COM417  Windows Communications Foundation ("Indigo"): Under the Hood of the Service Model Layer
• COM429  Windows Communications Foundation ("Indigo"): A Deep Dive into Extending the Service Model Layer
• COM430  Windows Communications Foundation ("Indigo"): A Deep Dive into Extensions for Security and Identity
• PRS324  Windows Presentation Foundation ("Avalon"): Using Data in Your Windows Presentation Foundation ("Avalon") Applications: XML, Windows Communications Foundation ("Indigo"), ADO.NET and More
• PRS305  Windows Presentation Foundation ("Avalon"): A Lap around the Windows Presentation Foundation
• PRS321  Windows Forms: Integrating Windows Forms and Windows Presentation Foundation ("Avalon")
• PRS334  Windows Presentation Foundation ("Avalon") + Windows Communications Foundation ("Indigo") = Magic
• PRS327  Windows Presentation Foundation ("Avalon"): Optimizing Applications for Performance
• PRS329  Windows Presentation Foundation ("Avalon"): Building User Interface with Advanced Layout Techniques
• PRS330  Windows Presentation Foundation ("Avalon"): Creating Rich Content Experiences in Your Applications
• PRS407  Windows Forms: Occasionally Connected Smart Clients
• TLN205  Future Directions: Building Customizable Applications in the .NET World
• TLN301  VSTS: Behind the Scenes of Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server
• TLN306  The .NET Language Integrated Query Framework: An Overview
• TLN307  C#: Future Directions in Language Innovation from Anders Hejlsberg
• TLN311  Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Software Architects and Future Directions in Modeling Tools
• TLN312  VSTS: Building More Reliable and Better Performing Web Applications with Visual Studio 2005 Team System
• TLN317  CLR: Leveraging Dynamic Language Features
• TLN319  Windows Presentation Foundation ("Avalon"): Adding Rich Design-Time Support to Your Custom Controls
• TLN402  MSBuild: Architecting a Customized Build System
• TLN404  Visual Studio: Extending Visual Studio with Add-ins and Packages
• TLNL06  Tips & Tricks: Scrubbing Source Code for Common Coding Mistakes (FxCop and PreFast)
• FUN421  CLR: Garbage Collection Inside Out

Due to the proprietary nature of the content, learning is now suspended

Two minutes into the keynote webcast of Bill Gates at PDC, we get this message:

Due to the proprietary nature of the content being broadcast, we must temporarily suspend the audio and video portion of this telecast. 

Normal program will resume in a few moments.

———————————-

Man, I wish I was there!

Custom source control block for CruiseControl.NET

I am interested in building a custom source control block for CruiseControl.NET but I don’t see a lot of information on their site.   Unless someone has already built one, I would like to create one for VSTS source control.

Has anyone done this before? 

Thanks!

** Update **

Vivek Vaid has pointed me to a SourceForge Project: VSTSPlugins
http://sourceforge.net/projects/vstsplugins/

It is only a few weeks old, but looks very promising.  I will post more as I try to get involved with the project!