May 2005 - Posts
After I "discovered" that the System.Data.SqlClient and System.Data.SqlServer namespaces are now unified, I found this white paper from Pablo Castro at Microsoft.
Managed Data Access Inside SQL Server with ADO.NET and SQLCLR
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnsql90/html/mandataaccess.asp
Guy
TechEd Secret #2
How to save 100% at the TechEd Store
If you're new to TechEd, you might be surprised to find a store, right in the convention center, that sells books and more important, tons of things with either the Microsoft or the TechEd logos. Before maxing out your credit card with all those overpriced items, you might want to wait a little bit. Like Yoda says: patience my friend, patience. A TechEd alumni knows that on Thursday afternoon, the TechEd store start pricing down some of the items and on Friday, everything is on sale. But how can you save 100% you might ask? Easy. That nice shirt you saw with that cool Microsoft logo that will be the envy of all your co-workers, well, they have only 3 of your size. Remember that there are about 14000 people attending TechEd. What are the chances that more then 3 guys will want that same shirt in that same size? Impossible! The dark side in you will say that you must get that shirt but the light side will remind that it's so expensive! Here the trick: just wait at the end of the conference, it will be half price or better, none will be left saving you a whopping 100% on your purchase.
So now you know how to save at the TechEd store but please, don't spread the word ;-)
Time to reveal some of the most secrets facts about TechEd. If you are going to TechEd for the first time, make sure to read these insiders tips, they will make you look like you attended TechEd for at least the last 20 years. However, don't spread the word, it's a secret!
TechEd Secret #1
The mysterious disappearing Häagen-Dazs ice-cream bars
A alumni know that there are Häagen-Dazs ice-cream bars in the afternoon at TechEd. Not only that, he also knows that there are about only 1000 of them. That's not bad you might say but do you know that there are about 14000 people at TechEd? So in the afternoon break, you see attendees with Häagen-Dazs all around you and of course, you want one. Hey, it's free! Free Häagen-Dazs? I want one. So you go to the frozen food carts located all around the convention center and there's not a single Häagen-Dazs to be found, only frozen fruit bars. Each day, the same ritual repeats: people eating Häagen-Dazs and not you, you're stuck with fruit bars! BTW, the same fruit bars are following us from TechEd to TechEd because no one eats them.
Here is the secret: in the afternoon, right in the middle of a session, convention center employees take the carts away to fill them with frozen goods. Wise attendees listening to some talks do not sit in the room, they stand right before the door making sure it's stays open just a little so they can see the convention center employee returning back with a cart full of frozen fruit bars and about a dozen Häagen-Dazs. At this point, the employee is being followed by about 50 attendees and he his pushing hard on the cart. Basically, he his running for his life! In a frantic move, he leave the cart in it's spot and leave the scene. What follows next is very graphical: attendees fighting for some Häagen-Dazs. It's ugly. At the same time, the afternoon sessions end and you go straight to the frozen food carts while watching people eating Häagen-Dazs. Guess what's left in the carts? FRUIT BARS!!!
So now you know how to get Häagen-Dazs but please, don't spread the word ;-)
(Richard Campbell and I had so much fun with that running gag last year. He even bought a dozen of Häagen-Dazs bars to give away at his SQL Server session. Maybe he will do it again this year.)
While prepping my DevTeach talk on the SqlServer provider, I found out that my pre VS Beta 2/SQL April CTP code was not working anymore. I could not create a Command object. A few searches releaved that the SqlClient and SqlServer were merged in the VS Beta 2/SQL April CTP . It simplify the code and it mean that I have to simplify my slides too ;-)
More info here:
http://blogs.msdn.com/dataaccess/archive/2005/03/22/400459.aspx
Guy
It's been a while since I posted. Man, just way too busy. OK, I was in Vancouver for a week teaching the last Ascend class for ObjectSharp. Things went smoothly, I had a nice group. Strangely, most of them were also coming from out of town: 5 from Edmonton, 2 from Calgary and a few from the Vancouver island. This time, my wife took a week off and came with me on the road. It was fun. We had dinner with the Vancouver RD, Richard Campbell (of Dot Net Rocks fame). It's always a pleasure to talk to Richard. Thanks for that great dinner Richard!
Coming back to Montreal, I took a plane to Atlanta for a kick-off meeting with a customer at our office over there.
What else? The rainiest, greyest, ugliest and coldest spring in Montreal in 40 years they say. Yark!
Bought a new toy at Costco this weekend, a D-Link MediaLounge DS-320 Wireless Media Player. Not bad. Not perfect but not bad at all. It's fun to stream the music, look at the pictures and the videos wirelessly.
I wish it could play .MOV, .WMV and DivX 5 files. I used the included MediaServer software and Microsoft Media Connect. Media Connect is more stable and doesn't require a complete directory scan when you're adding just one file to a directory. However, it does not display the folder hierarchy, just a bunch of folders all at the same level.
Just bough the new Gorillaz album. Crazy music. Refreshing.
Hey, did you knew that they did a new Captain Scarlet series. No puppets, it's CGI!
Next? Architecting two projects at the same time, prepping for TechEd, prepping my 3 sessions for DevTeach.
Guy
Have you see this?
http://webaccelerator.google.com
I see two problems here:
1-Looks like Google will act as a proxy and you'll get Google IP address as the referer.
2-By pre fetching pages, stats will be screwed up because we will have hits on pages that might not have been visited.
What do you think?
Guy
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