Archives
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Zune Y2K9
Looks like all Zune 30GB got bricked today. If you have one and did not already powered it today, don't and wait for a fix.
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Supporting Wikipedia
Wikipedia main page is showing a link to this appeal from Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia:
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate/Letter/en?utm_source=2008_jimmy_letter_r&utm_medium=sitenotice&utm_campaign=fundraiser2008#appeal -
Free your avatar
If you have an Xbox 360, you may have installed the New Xbox Experience and created an avatar. Microsoft UK has created a cool site that let you free your avatar and create pictures that you can export: http://www.xbox.com/en-GB/freeyouravatar
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Happy Holidays / Joyeuses Fêtes
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Critical SQL Server vulnerability
Microsoft issued a security bulletin for a vulnerability that could allow remote code execution:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/advisory/961040.mspx -
SQL Server 2005 SP3 is now available
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Wired Magazine's Ray Ozzie Article
The latest issue of Wired Magazine (December 2008) has a great article on Ray Ozzie. I was so surprised that the author "got" what Azure is and was able to explain it in simple words. Great read.
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TechEd DVDs Glitch
Those who got the TechEd 2008 DVDs at TechDays or DevTeach may have found that there's a glitch with the sessions browser made with a pre release version of Silverlight. Check for a workaround here:
http://blogs.msdn.com/cdndevs/archive/2008/12/12/a-quick-word-about-the-tech-ed-2008-north-america-dvds-from-techdays.aspx -
DevTeach Badge
The badge I had at DevTeach was a riot!
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Communauté .NET Montréal - Last Meetings of 2008
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Visual Studio Talk Show #88 is now online (French)
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DevTeach Montreal 2008 Pictures
I uploaded my DevTeach Montreal 2008 pictures here:
http://cid-13e3fe758c3a4f06.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/DevTeach%20Montreal%202008 -
Communauté .NET Montréal - Special DevTeach Meeting - Tonight
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Visual Studio Talk Show #87 is now online (French)
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Free WCF Training
Someone emailed me looking for some free WCF training. There are numerous free resources available. Here are a few:
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Audacity Crash Recovery
I'm using Audacity has my audio recording tool when I'm recording podcasts. Recently, Audacity crashed on me while saving at the end of the recording session, failing to save the .aup file, however all the raw data was still intact. I first tried to edit the .aup file (it's XML) but that didn't worked. I then tried to copy an existing .aup file and change a few values to no good. A quick search lead me to this page:
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The best and the brightest
I can’t believe that DevTeach Montreal is almost upon us. What I like about this event is the fact that I’ll meet old friends that are amongst the best and the brightest minds in the .NET world. People like...
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Communauté .NET Montréal - @Lunch Meeting - Nov 26th 2008
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TechDays Montreal Pictures
Some TechDays Montreal pictures by Barnaby Jeans:
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Montreal MVPs vs Apple store
Here are a few Montreal MVPs showcasing the latest fashion trend in front of the Apple store.
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Mix09 Contest: Inspire the world with just 10K!
MS has launched a new contest for Mix09.
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Infragistics WinGrid Sort
I was trying to sort an Infragistics WinGrid automatically after each row insert or update by the user so in the AfterRowUpdate event, I added the following code:
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WCF: The maximum nametable character count quota (16384) has been exceeded
Today I came across and interesting WCF problem. A dev in our team added a new method to a WCF service and tried to update the service reference from the client app but got this error:
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Unlock Windows 7 Features
Warning: Use this at your own risk. Not sure about the legality of the whole thing.
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DevTeach Specials: Register 3 people for the price of 2 + Save $350
DevTeach is just a couple of weeks away and in this uncertain economy, the conference owner, Jean-René Roy, wants to make sure that each developer can attend the event. Check these specials:
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Communauté .NET Montréal - Nov 17 2008 Meeting - SQL Server 2008 – New Features for Developers
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Visual Studio Talk Show #86 is now online (French)
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PDC 2008 sessions are available online
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Do no evil
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Visual Studio Talk Show #85 is now online (French)
Bernard Fedotoff: PDC 2008: Les nouveautés annoncées au Microsoft Professional Developer Conference
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TechDays TechEd DVDs Issues
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Silverlight Sessions at DevTeach Montreal 2008
With Silverlight 2 just being released, you may be looking for training. Check out the Silverlight sessions that will be presented at DevTeach Montreal 2008. BTW, for US folks....the Canadian dollar is at around 78 cents US. That's saving you 22% over any purchases in Canadian dollars!!! If you use this promo code when registering, you'll also save $50: G0005GUVSM.
Building Silverlight Controls
David J Kelley - SLV467
Designed primarily for Developers. This technical presentation walks through a number of senerios for building Silverlight Controls including user controls and custom panels. The usage of properties, dependency properties, events, reusability, and encapsulated control architecture is reviewed in detail. In the presentation we will build a custom chart control based on a user control and built custom panels and review dispatch timer and multi threading in the context of controls.
Comparing Silverlight to ASP.NET
D'Arcy Lussier - SLV301
With Silverlight, web developers now have a new option for delivering browser-based applications. But does Silverlight negate HTML-based web development? Should we put aside traditional web development for this new paradigm? In this session we’ll compare Siilverlight and ASP.NET, not to prove one as better than the other but to show why you might consider one over the other for your next web application.
Data Visualization with WPF and Silverlight 2.0
Tim Huckaby - SLV202
Building Data Visualization Applications with the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) & Silverlight 2.0
This session will be heavily demo focused to accentuate how the power of the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and Silverlight 2.0 can be used to visualize data. WPF is the next-generation presentation sub-system for Windows. It provides developers and designers with a unified programming model for building rich Windows smart client user experiences that incorporate UI, media, and documents. WPF uses vector based graphics rendering, which results in better graphics and presentation for an application. WPF also has other features such as layout, styling, and data binding, which, when you mix with interactivity, enables scenarios such as interactive data visualization. When you put all this together, you have a unified API for various presentation components, such as 2D and 3D documents and declarative programming through XAML, which is a powerful platform for data visualization that can be used to really “light-up” you enterprise applications.
Designing Interfaces with Expression Blend
Markus Egger - SLV333
Silverlight and WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) are powerful UI technologies, and XAML represents a fascinating new way of programming WPF and Silverlight. However, without tools, XAML gets tedious quickly, and a good designer is needed. Microsoft offers a whole set of such tools. This session focuses mostly on MS Expression Blend (used in combination with Visual Studio). This session provides an overview of the goals, features, and characteristics of this tool and shows how to create a small next-generation application using it. This session also shows developers how good looking interfaces can be created using a few simple and repeatable tricks.
Hacking Silverlight 2.0
David J Kelley - SLV469
Hacking Silverlight 2.0 for designers and developers
Designed for Designers and Developers. This engaging presentation gets the audience involved in bridging the gap between design teams and software development using Silverlight and the Silverlight toolablity story. The presentation is full of audience participation and skits that get audience members up out of their seats and excited about Silverlight. The basics of team work using Microsoft tools for design and development are used and the audience is shown some of the coolest Silverlight hacks that can make Silverlight applications really shine. With the “Coming out of the closet” skit the audience is shown sexy UI using Silverlight, learning about speed of development and why we care about Sexy engaging Web 2.0 experiences.
Silverlight 2 Controls: Data on Board
Dave Campbell - SLV355
Learn how to populate your Silverlight controls with data, and how WebServices are your friend. This will be done using LINQ and WCF webservices, in addition to more traditional code-behind and asmx.
Silverlight 2 Controls: Your Controls, Your Way
Dave Campbell - SLV389
Learn how to use the Parts and States model and VisualStateManager to your benefit in your environment. Starting with existing controls through modification using VS2008 and Blend to produce a Custom Control that is then consumed.
SilverLight 2.0 Achitectural Best Practices
David J Kelley - SLV421
Designed Developers and Architects or people wanting to understand Silverlight archtecture. This presentation startings with a detailed technical review of Silverlight control, application architecture and design patterns. Design patterns as applied to Silverlight application development and general best practices are reviewed in detail. The presentation includes learning from the trenchs of building Silverlight apps on a large scale including horror stories and ‘Anti-Patterns’ or things ‘not to do’ are reviewed.
Silverlight Development: Lessons from the Trenches
D'Arcy Lussier - SLV349
So what’s it like creating a line of business application using Silverlight? What are the differences in developing a Silverlight application compared to a Winform or ASP.NET based application? In this session I’ll share with you my experiences in creating a real-world Silverlight based application and what you should expect /look out for when developing with this exciting new technology.
Silverlight: Business Oriented App. (In French)
Laurent Duveau - SLV321
You've already heard a bit about Silverlight? You have some knowledge of this technology which is now available?
Come discover how to create a business oriented application: that means manipulate data and build a rich UI with Silverlight! During this session I'll use Visual Studio 2008 and Expression Blend to build an application that retrieves SQL server data through a LINQ model and exposes it to Silverlight client via a WCF service. I’ll use a grid to display the data and asynchronously update the model as users edit the grid. Finally I will show you how to place the data in local cache on the client to optimize network traffic.
Turning on the Silverlight – A Silverlight Intro
Markus Egger - SLV201
Microsoft Silverlight is the latest generation of Microsoft UI technologies for web browser applications. It is based on (and a sub-set of) WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation). It enabled developers to create next-generation user interfaces in web browser applications that work not just on Windows systems, but other environments such as the Apple Mac or mobile devices. This is a radical departure from previous .NET development, which was limited to Windows systems. Silverlight applications enable developers to run .NET code on non-Windows Systems. This session also compares Silverlight to other technologies such as Flash. Attendees of this session will get a good feel for what it is like to develop real life applications in Silverlight.
User Controls, Customization, and Styling
Dave Campbell - SLV312
Silverlight 2 Controls: User Controls, Customization, and Styling
Get your Silverlight application Stylin’ with out-of-the box techniques for making your UI to not only look like it was all written by the same company, but also matching your corporate identity. This will be showing VS2008-only concepts, so no design knowledge or interest is necessary. -
TechDays Reminder
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Mix09 Registration is Open
OMG!!! I haven't packed my things for PDC next week and now Microsoft has just opened registration for Mix09!
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Farewell and Welcome!
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TechDays Montreal - Special Offer
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Visual Studio Talk Show #84 is now online (French)
Arnaud Cleret: Serveur Biztalk
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Windows 7 to be called Windows 7
Mike Nash announced on Monday that Windows code name 7 will be officially called...Windows 7.
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ADO.NET Data Services - Resources
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Silverlight 2 RTM
Microsoft has announced that Silverlight 2 has RTM'ed today and will be available tomorrow (Oct 14th).
Read about it here:
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/oct08/10-13Silverlight2PR.mspx
Listen to ScottGu's teleconference here:
mms://wm.microsoft.com/ms/presspass/2008/10-13SL2_RTW_TeleconferencePlayback.wma
Download it here:
http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/
Another interesting announcement is that Microsoft is funding an Eclipse project in order for Eclipse developers to be able to develop Silverlight applications.
http://www.eclipse4sl.org/ -
Canucks at PDC
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The breakpoint will not currently be hit
I was hit with the dreadful "The breakpoint will not currently be hit" problem this week. Searching the Web, looks like it is a common problem both with VS 2005 and 2008 however, it was the first time I experienced it.
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Communauté .NET Montréal Next Meeting: ASP.NET Dynamic Data and ADO.NET Data Services
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Mario Cardinal on ARCast.TV: Layer Module Injection Pattern
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Visual Studio Talk Show #83 is now online (French)
http://www.visualstudiotalkshow.com
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Visual Studio 2010 First Previews
Microsoft has published some information about Visual Studio 2010 and the .NET Framework 4.0 today.
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Visual Studio Talk Show #82 is now online (French)
James Lapalme: Le Web sémantique
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Microsoft to ship and support jQuery
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Acer Aspire One First Impressions
I grabbed an Acer Aspire One this weekend. The Windows XP model was on sale at FutureShop for $299.
Here are some random first impressions:- The form factor is very cool. Not too small but very light.
- FutureShop (Canadian reseller) only sells models with bilingual (English or French) keyboards.
- The Canadian models allow you to select XP in English or French.
- The whole setup process takes less then an hour (didn't timed it).
- The color choice I had was between sapphire blue and sapphire blue.
- Sapphire blue is a fingerprint magnet.
- The power supply is very tiny.
- Deinstalled Office Student 2007 trial and Mcafee.
- Installed Free AVG, Spyware Doctor and Picassa (both from Google Pack).
- I had an old 5.25" external USB enclosure so I stuffed in there a DVD drive to install Office Ultimate 2007 and Visual Studio Team Suite.
- Installed SQL Server Express 2008.
- Some dialog boxes have a height of 600 pixels.
- Copied some files to the netbook using an external 2.5" USB drive.
- Wifi works without problems.
- External VGA can output more then 1024x600 if the netbook screen is disabled. The driver can go up 2048x1536 however I wouldn't dare go as high. I tested it with an output of 1280x800. Nice!
- If you want to use it as a presentation machine, you must have a podium like setup where you see the output from an external monitor and the projector.
- XP boots fast.
- A fresh boot leaves me with 500MB free memory. Shocking!
- Visual Studio takes about 8 seconds to start.
- Doing presentations that don't require a virtual machine or not CPU intense.
- On a plane to watch a movie or work on a document or presentation.
- As a photo viewer when I go see family and friends.
- Bringing a laptop with me just in case.
- Bringing a backup presentation machine.
- On vacations to dump the daily pictures.
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The Ultimate Steal - Office Ultimate 2007 for $60
If you're a student or know one, do you that students can get a heavily discounted copy of Office Ultimate 2007? In the US, the price is $59.95 US and in Canada it's $64 CDN. The offer is available in about a dozen countries around the world.
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PDC 2008: Ask the Brain
I didn't knew that the PDC brain had a name: Brianna. You can even ask her some PDC related questions:
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System.Transactions Timeout
When debugging code that creates database transactions using TransactionScope, you may have an odd error when commiting. That's because the default transaction timeout is 1 minute. You can increase the timeout value in the TransactionScope constructor or in the config file like this:
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TechDays Registration - Now Open!
Looks like Mario was wrong. Christian Beauclair has the correct date.
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TechDays Registration
Many people asked me when they'll be able to register for TechDays. I think that in this picture, Mario Cardinal is telling us something ;-)
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Silverlight 2 RC Now Available
Silverlight 2 Release Candidate is now available. Check all the details, breaking changes and more in this blog post from ScottGu:
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Dell M409WX Projector
I was looking for a projector for our user group. My top criteria were: lightweight, widescreen and of course, lowest cost possible. After a little shopping, I found that the Dell M409WX would fit the bill.
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PDC 2008 - Attendees to get Windows 7 Pre-Beta bits
PDC 2008 attendees will get Windows 7 Pre-Beta bits
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Communauté .NET Montréal - 1st @Lunch Meeting - Sept 24th 2008
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Countdown to PDC 2008
News from PDC 2008 Central...
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PC Pride
Some PC pride to go along the new Microsoft ad campaign:
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Communauté .NET Montréal - Sept 22th 2008 Meeting - SQL Server Auto Maintenance Kit
More info at www.dotnetmontreal.com
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Speaker Idol - INETA wants to send you to DevTeach Montreal 2008
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Who Are These Guys?
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Zune 3.0 Software Now Available
Zune 3.0 client software is now available.
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Communauté .NET Montréal - Sept 17th 2008 Meeting - Team System for DB Pro
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Save $50 on your DevTeach Montreal Registration
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Register for DevTeach Montreal
Register for DevTeach Montreal at the early early bird special price before it goes up.
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Microsoft Canada's Conferences
Microsoft Canada has started it's own series of conferences called TechDays Canada.
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Ignite Your Career Webcast Series
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Microsoft Canada Align IT Tour
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Communauté .NET Montréal - Sept 8th 2008 Meeting - Silverlight
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Visual Studio Talk Show #81 is now online (French)
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NumberFormatInfo
I was recently confronted with this problem:
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Shoe Circus - Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates
Is this the first video of the new Microsoft campaign with Jerry Seinfeld?
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Google Chrome EULA - Oooops
Doh!
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Google Chrome - Random Thoughts Part Deux
More random thoughts...
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Google Chrome - Random Thoughts
Thinking about it, it makes no sense for Google to release a Web browser just for the sake of releasing one. Why hurt FireFox? Why risking releasing a product that will be scrutinized for security flaws? It just doesn't make any sense.
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Browser War 2.0
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Visual Studio Talk Show #80 is now online (French)
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PDC Brain World Tour - New Zealand
Looks like the PDC Brain has embarked in a world tour and visited New Zealand's RDs.
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Web 3.0 Conference
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Site that generates Ajax Gifs
Found this while browsing: AjaxLoad.info, a site that generates Ajax circling animated Gifs like these
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Mojave Experiment Now in Silverlight
Scott Stanfield and his amazing team at Vertigo has
convertedtransformed the Mojave Experiment Website from Flash to Silverlight. Simply stunning! -
Communauté .NET Montréal
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RedGate aquires Reflector
RedGate has aquired Reflector, a must have tool for every .NET developer. They promise that a free version will be available but didn't they made the same promise for SQL Prompt?
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Trainer Bingo
[From Richard Hundhausen]
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Visual Studio Talk Show #79 is now online (French)
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Live Mesh is now available in Canada
Live Mesh Tech Preview is now available in Canada.
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Amazing Surface app
Tim Huckaby and his team at Interknowlogy has created an amazing app for the Microsoft Surface.
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WPF Datagrid
Microsoft has released a WPF Datagrid. What's interesting is that both binaries and source code are available on Codeplex.
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Visual Studio 2008 SP1 is now available
On your mark, get set, download!
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GoDaddy now offers .CA domain names
I buy my domain names at GoDaddy.com mostly because I have total control on the DNS and MX records, not for their somewhat questionable ads. However, I had to buy my .CA domains from someone else because they didn't offered them but yesterday, I found that they are now offering .CA domains. Nice!
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SQL 2008 Requiring VS 2008 SP1 - KB article explaining the whole thing
Here's a KB article explaining clearly the SQL 2008 won't install unless VS 2008 SP1 situation:
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SQL Server 2008 requires VS 2008 SP1
If your installing SQL Server 2008 on a box that already has Visual Studio 20008 pre SP1, you need to apply VS 2008 SP1 before installing. If not, you'll get this message:
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SQL Server 2008 is Shipping!
Microsoft has released SQL Server 2008 today! MSDN subscribers can download it right now.
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Creative Commons Add-in for Microsoft Office 2007
Here's a nice Office 2007 add-in that let you insert in your Word, Excel and PowerPoint document a Creative Commons license like the ones found here: http://creativecommons.org/about/license/
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P&P Improving Web Services Security eBook
Rob Boucher just informed me that the Patterns & Practices group has just released "Improving Web Services Security: Scenarios and Implementation Guidance for WCF", a free eBook available here:
http://www.codeplex.com/WCFSecurityGuide -
Vista offline folders - How to delete a dead sync
I use offline folders in Vista to sync a set of folders located on my server so I can use the files when I'm not connected to my network. What's great is that these folders are part of a nightly backup plan so I don't have to worry about backing them from my laptop.
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Traveling to (or back) to the US with laptops, hard drives, flash drives, cellphones, iPods?
Are you traveling to (or back) the US with laptops, hard drives, flash drives, cellphones, iPods? Well, read this:
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BIOS update blues
I recently wanted to upgrade the BIOS on one of my PCs and I used the ASUS BIOS update Windows utility.
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DevTeach 2008 Montreal call for speakers ends today
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Upgraded to dasBlog 2.1
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LINQ to SQL Dynamic Mapping
The problem
You have SQL Servers for each of your environments (development, test, pre-prod, production) and in each one, the table names are different. In fact, it’s not the table names that are different but the schema names but since the schema name is part of the table name, it must be specified.
Ex : dev.ZeTable et prod.ZeTable -
Wireless Presentation Remote
I was looking to replace my old wireless presentation remote (PowerPoint clicker) so I asked presenter extraordinaire and PowerPoint guru Etienne "E.T." Tremblay for a recommendation. He said that the best device on the market is the Logitech 2.4 GHz Cordless Presenter so I quickly ordered one from TigerDirect to use it for my talks in Paris.
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Podcasting in Paris
While in Paris for speaking at the Université du SI conference, Mario Cardinal and I went podcast crazy. During the week, we recorded 8 podcasts with French MVPs and even a bonus one with a French software engineer working for Microsoft Ireland.
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Zune Originals
I was planning to get a Zune 80GB when I saw that Microsoft is offering free engraving (+ shipping) thru September 15th. Being a Kraftwerk fan, I couldn't resist ordering this design:
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Visual Studio Talk Show #78 is online (French)
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The Next Bubble?
Anyone interested in the business of social networking Websites should take a look at Technology Review Magazine's August issue. It's a special issue about social networking and the future of the Web. Being published by the MIT, you would expect more then just a list of cool social network sites à la PC World. Well, the magazine deliver the goods. Not only you get a good assessment of the current situation, you get to understand the business of it (or lack of). They also explain what Facebook runs on.
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ALT.NET Canada
The first ALT.NET Canadian conference will take place on August 15-17 2008 in Calgary.
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Using Fiddler with the VS Web Development Server (Cassini)
It's been a while since I had to use Fiddler with Cassini, the Web server included with Visual Studio. Fiddler is a HTTP Debugging Proxy which logs all HTTP traffic between your computer and the Internet. It is free and it is a must have tool.
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Beyond Bullets Webcast
I'm a fan of Cliff Atkinson's book Beyond Bullet Points and in my presentations, I tried to use bullet points to a minimum. What? PowerPoint presentations without bullet points? Intrigued? Cliff is doing a free Webcast for Microsoft on Thursday June 12th.
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Zoom Out ZoomIt, here comes NLarge!
I have been using ZoomIt for a while now. It's a great and free presenter tool that let you zoom on screen areas while demoing stuff but there's a new pretender to the throne: NLarge. What's so different about NLarge? Well, it provides you with the same features as ZoomIt and it's also free but it's using WPF for smooth zoom effects. Cool!
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PDC 2008 registration is now open
Registration for PDC 2008 is now open:
http://www.microsoftpdc.com/ -
GUVSM Next Meeting: Tuesday May 27th
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Microsoft Source Analysis for C#
Microsoft released a new cool tool called Microsoft Source Analysis for C#. It's an internal tool that does somewhat FxCop does. While FxCop analyse the IL, Source Analysis analyse the source code itself. It comes with about 200 built in rules that are however not customizable. These rules cover:
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Comments About DevTeach Toronto
DevTeach was held for the first time in Toronto. When a new dev conference like this comes to town, the hard work is making people aware of the quality of the content they'll get from attending a "paid" conference like DevTeach. Jean-René Roy, the conference owner, sent the speakers a few comments he received.
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Switched to Google Reader
I've been using IE/Outlook as my RSS client for a while now but a couple of weeks ago, a switched to Google Reader. Here are my findings so far:
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Using Gmail as a backup mail server
Let's face it, if you're a small shop, building a redundant Exchange infrastructure is way too hard and way too expensive. So what if you have a simple Exchange setup with just a few users? You can prey that you server will never go down and you can plan the reboots after the critical updates installs on Sunday mornings.
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Microsoft's in the digital cameras business
[Via Mark Brown's blog]
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Hanselman Blog Love for nVentive Umbrella
Wow!
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VB on CSI
[From Henrik Lykke Nielsen]
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GUVSM Next Meeting: Wednesday May 21th (French)
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Xobni is pretty cool but...
Xobni (Inbox backward) is a great Outlook add-in that add some cool features that let you find information more easily.
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Enterprise Library 4 is now released
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Digital Cameras Findings
While browsing a little bit for digital cameras stuff this morning while sipping my latte, I found a couple of interesting sites.
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Virtual PC 2007 SP1
Virtual PC 2007 SP1 is now available.
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Visual Studio Talk Show #74 is online (French)
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The Millennials Are Coming!
The Millennials are coming and here's an interesting video from CBS 60 Minutes about them and how the workplace is impacted.
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Imaginet Spring 2008 Webcast Series
Joel Semeniuk, RD for Winnipeg and known as "Joel from Canada", mentioned to me that his company (Imaginet) started a series of free Webcasts.
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Heading to DevTeach Toronto
I'm heading to Toronto for DevTeach where I'll talk about the tooling in VS 2008 pre SP1. Here's my session's description:
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Visual Studio Team System 2008 Licensing White Paper
A new version of the Team System Licensing White Paper has been published.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=CE194742-A6E8-4126-AA30-5C4E969AF2A3&displaylang=en -
.NET 3.5 SP1 and VS 2008 SP1
Microsoft released today a Beta version of the .NET Framework 3.5 along a Beta version of the Service Pack 1 for Visual Studio 2008.
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Borland Finally Sold CodeGear
Borland finally found a buyer for its CodeGear dev division. Embarcadero bought it for a mere $23 million!
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Zune Canadian Release Date: June 13th
Finally, Zune will hit the Canadian marketplace on June 13th.
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Speaking at the Patterns and Practices Summit
I'm at the Patterns & Practices Summit in Quebec City and I'll give a talk about data access layer. Sounds boring? What if I mix some LINQ to SQL with some multi layered architecture and a touch of WCF? Sounds more interesting, right?
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NIN - The new album is free!
Yeah, this is a blog about technology but I love music and I love NIN so skip this one if you think it's silly.
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Visual Studio Talk Show #73 is online (French)
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Visual Studio Talk Show #72 is online (French)
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GUVSM Next Meeting: Monday May 5th
More info at www.guvsm.net -
Expression Studio 2 Ships!
Microsoft shipped Expression Studio 2 yesterday:
http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2008/may08/05-01Expression2PR.mspx -
Montreal Team System User Group Inaugural Meeting
Tomorrow, we are launching a new user group dedicated to the application life cycle with Team System and Team Foundation Server in Montreal.
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Students: 2 days left to get Office 2007 Ultimate for $60
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SQL Injection Attacks on IIS Web Servers
There have been conflicting reports about SQL Server injection attacks and a possible new IIS vulnerability.
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DevTeach Toronto is coming - Register!
If you're living in Toronto and don't attend DevTeach, I'm gonna beat you up and force you to code in Clipper for the rest of your life. Seriously, DevTeach has one of the greatest speakers lineup of all the .NET conferences.
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Pictures from the MVP Summit 2008
Pictures from the MVP Summit 2008 (some from Laurent Duveau).
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Montreal VS UG: Launch of the Team System SIG
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Book Review: Learning WCF
Author: Michele Leroux Bustamante
Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ISBN-10: 0596101627
ISBN-13: 978-0596101626
Retail Price: $44.99 US, $58.99 CDN
Publication Date: May 2007
Softcover: 582 pages
Online information: Table of contents, source code
URL: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596101626/
Book URL: http://www.thatindigogirl.com/Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) is a set of .NET technologies for building and running connected systems. It unifies various technologies previously available like Web Services and .NET Remoting into a single programming model and let you build Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) applications.
“Learning WCF” is a book targeted at experienced .NET developers wanting to learn WCF from scratch. In the first chapters, the author explains what services are and the whole idea behind SOA. She then guides you thru the WCF path learning about contracts, bindings, hosting, concurrency, reliability and security. You’ll find plenty of code examples and each one is explained in details. To help you apply the WCF concepts, each chapter has a lab that you can just read or experiment with by downloading the source code. The approach in these labs is a “step by step” one and often, the author guides you thru one path then backtracks and explains you a different way to accomplish the same thing. This is very useful to get a good understanding of the technology.
Even thought the title has the word “learning” in it, the book will get plenty of mileage serving as a reference book in the future and don’t think that it’s a “light” book; most of the concepts explained are advanced ones. I often had to reread complete sections not because they were poorly written but because of the vast amount of information provided.
WCF is vast and learning it is not a simple task but thanks to Michele Leroux Bustamante’s “Learning WCF”, this process is a lot simpler. High praises for “Learning WCF”.
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Patterns & Practices Quebec City Summit - Almost Sold Out
If you're planning to attend the Patterns & Practices Quebec City Summit but haven't registered yet, do it right away! I just heard from Joel Quimper that the Summit is almost sold out, less then a dozen seats are still available.
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Code Access Security Primer
I was trying to explain quickly what Code Access Security is to someone when I found this blog entry from Emmet Gray:
http://home.hot.rr.com/graye/Articles/CodeAccessSecurity.htm -
How to deploy the Crystal Reports 2008 Basic Runtime
If you created reports using Visual Studio 2008 and Crystal Reports 2008 Basic (the one included with VS) and you want to deploy your app on a server, you'll also need to deploy the CR runtime. Your first reaction might be to go to the Business Objects Website and download the CR 2008 runtime.
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Live Mesh Beta now available
Ray Ozzie hinted it at his Mix08 keynote.
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TheRegion.com Sidebar Gadget
If you like TheRegion.com, home of the Microsoft Regional Directors, you'll love this Vista Gadget created by Adi Saric.
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How to get Enterprise Library 3.1 working in VS 2008
While waiting for Enterprise Library 4, you might want to use Entlib 3.1 with Visual Studio 2008. All the blocks will work but the VS integration will not. Does that mean you're stuck editing the config file by hand? Not at all, all you need is add a few registry entries by downloading a .REG file from CodePlex.
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MVP Summit 2008 - ScottGu Honorary Canadian
With his own VS 2008 hockey puck and Hockey Canada jersey, ScottGu is now an official honorary Canadian!
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MVP Summit 2008 - Here come the Montreal MVPs
I finally made it to Seattle. Why do I say finally? Well, we were flying American Airlines, you know, the airline that grounded all its MD-80 last week and guess what? 6 MVPs from Montreal were flying on MD-80s Sunday morning flights! So it's not until Saturday that we had a confirmation from AA that our flights were not cancelled.
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WCF Custom FaultException
I was trying to return a WCF custom FaultException and just couldn’t figure out how to read the custom info I was sending from the client when I found this blog entry from Jean-Paul Smit:
http://bloggingabout.net/blogs/jpsmit/archive/2007/03/21/wcf-fault-contracts.aspx -
Experts (Part Deux)
Some of the experts at the
Launch 2008Montreal Technical Readiness 2008: Bertrand, Laurent Duveau, Etienne Tremblay and Mario Cardinal. -
Experts at the Montreal Technical Readiness 2008 ATE Booth
Some of the experts at the
Launch 2008Montreal Technical Readiness 2008 ATE Booth: -
Number of Microsoft Certified Professionals Worldwide
Interesting numbers on Microsoft Certified Professionals Worldwide:
http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/certified.mspx -
SQL Timestamp vs WCF
In my previous post (LINQ to SQL in multi layered + service apps), I mentioned how LINQ to SQL can be used in WCF apps but how to you deal with concurrency checking? One way is to use a Timestamp column in your tables. This is a binary type so how will WCF deal with that?
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LINQ to SQL: Returning Complex Objects (Performance Problems?)
In my previous post, one reader commented that the proposed LINQ query would be utterly slow so I did a quick unscientific showdown.
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Hypocrisy, a view on Open XML ISO approval
Must read:
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LINQ to SQL: Returning Complex Objects
In my previous post about using LINQ to SQL in multi layered apps, I mentioned that this query was not optimal because I would need to build the POCOs from the objects returned by LINQ. This would mean that objects would be created twice.
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Enterprise Library 4.0 March 2008 CTP released
Enterprise Library 4.0 March 2008 CTP was released yesterday.
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The Hidden Roles of Software Architects
My good friend Mario Cardinal just got one article published on MSDN. It's called The Hidden Roles of Software Architects. Check it out:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc431351.aspx -
Team Suite Vnext will be FREE (but ad supported)
Team Suite Vnext will be FREE (but ad supported)
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Patterns & Practices WCF Security Guidance
The P&P group recently published a set of WCF security related guidance. You'll find on this CodePlex site a series of articles and videos.
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LINQ to SQL in multi layered + service apps
In a previous post, I was explaining how surprised I was when I discovered that you lose LINQ to SQL change tracking features when working in a multi layered application or when you expose your business logic thru a service layer. Thanks to everyone (especially Barry Gervin, Rocky Lhotka, Julie Lerman and Rick Strahl) who pointed me to articles, blog posts and code samples, I was able to make sense of all of this.
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Sending the LINQ To SQL log to the debugger output window
When coding apps that use LINQ to SQL, it is very important to check the SQL code generated to make sure that your queries are optimals. To do this in a Console app, you simply use this code to output the query to the Console window:
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Visual Studio Talk Show #71 is online (French)
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Nvidia Laptop Graphic Card Drivers Update
Last year, I bought a Dell Vostro 1700 with an Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT 2560MB graphic card with a respectable rating of 4.5 for Aero and 5.1 for gaming.
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PHP for Visual Studio
While doing a little browsing, I found a product that let you program with PHP inside Visual Studio 2005 & 2008. They even have a standalone version for those who don't have Visual Studio installed. The price is dirt cheap: $99. The only strange thing is that there is absolutely no info at all about the company on their Website. Strange is you ask me.
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Wired article: Apple Evil/Genius (and how Microsoft changed)
Interesting article in Wired this month by Leander Kahney called How Apple Got Everything Right By Doing Everything Wrong.
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Will the real Crystal Reports 2008 stand up?
After looking at Business Objects' Webpage about Crystal Reports 2008 for Visual Studio, you may conclude that the version included in Visual Studio 2008 is a "light" version of CR 2008.
http://www.businessobjects.com/product/catalog/crystalreports_visualstudio/ -
Visual Studio Talk Show #70 is online (French)
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IE8 Beta 1 Whitepapers
Doing a little search on some of the new IE8 features, I found this page listing a series of IE8 whitepapers:
http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/ie8whitepapers -
LINQPad
[From Eric Moreau]
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Visual Studio 2008 PowerCommands
[From Eric Moreau]
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Mix08: Qixing Zheng in the WideOpen Web
At Mix08, I had the chance to record a quick interview with Qixing Zheng. Qixing is a UX advisor for Microsoft Canada. If you're doing anything UX related and you're in Canada, make sure to bookmark the Canadian UX Connection blog.
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Crystal Reports 2008 - Doh! (Part Deux)
[Follow up from my previous post]
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Thanks to Rod Paddock
I'd like to thank Rod Paddock for doing his Annual Canadian User Group World Tour again this year. He spoke on Monday in Montreal, then Tuesday in Ottawa and finally Wednesday in Toronto.
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Crystal Reports 2008 - Doh!
Any Crystal Reports experts here? Not sure if I get this right....
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GUVSM Next Meeting: Rod Paddock from CoDe Magazine
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Mix08: Steve Ballmer in the WideOpen Web
Seeing the CEO of a large company answering non scripted questions from an audience is remarkable. Too bad people will only remember this:
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Mix08: Party in the WideOpen Web
While Laurent Duveau's French (from south of France) accent was a hit with the ladies at the Mix08 attendees party at Tao, my French Canadian accent only got the attention of this Rum & Coke.
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Mix08: Ben and Jerry in the WideOpen Web
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Mix08: The WideOpen and Deep Zoom Web
One of the coolest demos shown at the Mix08 keynote was the Hard Rock Cafe Memorabilia Website created by the folks at Vertigo using SilverLight 2 Beta 1. It is using a technique called Deep Zoom. Very cool and impressive.
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Mix08: Attend the WideOpen Web for free (almost)
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Mix08: Elvis in the WideOpen Web
Yep, Elvis saw the (Silver) Light at Mix08. That's what he told me after playing a hot guitar solo on Rock Band!
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Montreal .NET User Group Next Meeting (French)
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Visual Studio Talk Show #69 is online (French)
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LINQ to SQL - Stunned!
[Looking for opinions, links, articles and so on]
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Infragistics NetAdvantage 2008 Volume 1 Now Available
Infragistics NetAdvantage 2008 Volume 1 is now available. Besides new features, it provides support for Visual Studio 2008 + AJAX.
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Laurent Duveau Featured on the CDN Dev Connection
Laurent Duveau is featured as the MVP Insider in this month MSDN Canadian Developer Connection. Way to go le
FrançaisQuébécois! -
Waiting for Windows Server 2008 SP1?
In many companies, there's an unwritten policy to wait for the release of the first service pack of a product before deploying it. With Windows Server 2008 just out, you won't have to wait for SP1, it's already built in!
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Live SkyDrive No Longer Beta
SkyDrive is no longer in Beta and finally available in Canada. What's SkyDrive? It provides 5GB online storage for free. It's a great way to share and exchange large files.
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Mix08 Sold Out!
Yep, they did it again. Mix08 is now sold out!
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Mario Cardinal to speak at TechEd Dev in Orlando
Great news! My good buddy Mario Cardinal will speak at TechEd Dev 2008 in Orlando. Congrats Mario!
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Free VS Pro 2008, SQL Server Dev 2005, Expression Studio...for students
DreamSpark is simple, it's all about giving students Microsoft professional-level developer and design tools at no charge so you can chase your dreams and create the next big breakthrough in technology - or just get a head start on your career.
Who can get this right now?
We are kicking this off in 11 countries/regions, giving DreamSpark to millions of students in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, China, Germany, France, Finland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Belgium. If you are not residing in one of the countries listed keep checking back, we will be adding more countries throughout the year.
Does that mean that I might not get in?
Possibly, if you are not residing in one of the countries listed, not attending an accredited university or not a member of one of the student organizations that we're connected with. But keep checking back, as we're working on adding more ways to verify your student status all the time.
What do I have to do to get this software? Not much really, just select a product and follow the steps below.
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Quest for Antivirus/Antispyware Utilities
I did a little research for some antivirus/antispyware utilities so i thought I'd share my findings.
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HD-DVD - R.I.P.
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Visual Studio Talk Show #68 is online (French)
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Congrats to ScottGu, Corporate Vice President
Congrats to ScottGu on a well deserved promotion as a corporate vice president. Well Looks like the day to day will stay the same.
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GUVSM Next Meeting: Concepts d'entrepôts de données (French)
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Vista SP1 - On your mark...Download!
Looks like Microsoft has listened because Vista SP1 is now available for download right now before the announced (March 18th) date. If you're looking in MSDN Subscriptions Downloads, it's not there yet but you'll find the links on this page:
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OMG! Windows Mobile News
First, Sony Ericsson is releasing a Windows Mobile phone:
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206401730 -
Another Bubble?
So funny, so true....
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Vista Anemic File Copying Fixed in SP1?
[From Mauro Sant'Anna, RD in Brazil]
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Community Connection Events - What the Heck?
On top of doing 2 launch events (Toronto & Vancouver) and the Technology tour accross Canada, Microsoft will host a series of community events in Canada. After reading the events description (read below), you may wonder what the heck this all about!
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Tired of Vista Anemic File Copying?
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Windows Server 2008 + Vista SP1 RTM
Microsoft announced yesterday that Windows Server 2008 has reached RTM. The 64 bit version is available right now on MSDN with the 32 bit to follow.
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Visual Studio Talk Show #67 is online (French)
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GUVSM Next Meeting: Nouveautés des langages C# et VB + LINQ (French)
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Some Mix08 News
Some Mix08 news:
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Microsoft Boy announces his School Homework
Make sure you read Phil Factor's blog entry called "Microsoft Boy announces his School Homework" about the 2008 product launch. Oh man, this is so funny.
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Icy Sidewalks
This is what I look like this morning due to icy sidewalks here in Montreal. I'd like to thank my nameless guardian angels who called 911, took care of me and stayed with me while waiting for the ambulance. Thank you from the bottom of my hearth.
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Speaking at DevTeach Toronto
I'll be speaking at DevTeach Toronto that will take place May 12-16 2008.
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Windows Server 2003 64-bit - Logon Problem
I had a strange problem today with my Windows 2003 64-bit server: it rebooted itself! After it rebooted, I logged in and bang: BSOD! Again and again.
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Outlook High CPU Usage - Part Deux
In this previous post, I explained how I was able to solve a problem where Outlook was eating way too much CPU.
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VS2008 at the Movies (Toronto)
My good buddies at ObjectSharp in Toronto are organizing a half day seminar on Visual Studio 2008. If you're in the Toronto area, make sure you register for this event with these VS2008 ninjas.
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New Home Theater for Technologists Certification
A certification for Home Theater using Vista and Home Server! How cool is that?
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Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 - Beta Exams
Just found out about these NET Framework 3.5 Beta Exams.
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Visual Studio Talk Show #66 is online (French)
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Canadian Launch 2008 - Registration is now open
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.NET Framework Library Source Code
This Visual Studio 2008 feature is now available. Check ScottGu's blog for more info:
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Mix08 Hotel
I don't know why but Derek Hatchard didn't want to return to the magnificent Imperial Palace hotel for Mix08 this year. Yep the Imperial Palace is cheap but it feels like a 70's hotel in desperate need of a refresh. One thing for sure, I won't stay at the Venetian. Even with the conference discounted price, it's still $269/night. Derek found a good deal at the Treasure Island hotel @ $119/night and that hotel is located accross the street facing the Venetian. Nice!
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Exchange Server 2007 - How To Retrieve Quarantined Emails
In my previous post, I explained how to set the Exchange Server 2007 anti-spam content filters and how you can quarantine emails likelly to be spam but how can you verify if they are really spam?
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Exchange Server 2007 - How To Get Rid of Spam
Recently, I was asked by someone how to configure Exchange Server 2007 to get rid of the spam. I gave that person a few hints and bingo! No more spam in the Inbox. So I thought I would post these here for the benefit of everyone.
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ClearContext - I'm loving it!
In our private discussion list, a few Regional Directors were raving about about a third party information Management system tool for Outlook called ClearContext. In desperate need of help for managing my Inbox, I decided to give it a try.
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Outlook High CPU Usage - Solved
I was having some performance issues with Outlook 2007. When running idle, it was consuming around 20-30% CPU. I know that Outlook is no small app but 20-30% CPU when idle, c'mon!
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FeedDemon and NewsGator are now free
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Silverlight Fire Starter
Here you'll find a series of 8 presentations that were recorded at an event called Silverlight Fire Starter.
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CES 2008 Keynote - Bill Gates' Last Day Video
What can I say? So funny!
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GUVSM Member in SQL Server Magazine
One of the members of the GUVSM is on the front cover of the January issue of SQL Server Magazine!
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GUVSM Next Meeting: Top 10 TFS New Features (French)
For more info: www.guvsm.netFree Online Clinic: Developing Rich Experiences with Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 and Visual Studio 2005
I did some content review for a refresh of this free online clinic: Developing Rich Experiences with Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 and Visual Studio 2005.
P&P Summit: Quebec City 2008
Free Online Clinic: What's New in Microsoft SQL Server 2008
This might be interesting to get a quick overview on some of the new SQL Server 2008 features...
Cool Vista Gadget for MVPs
Laurent Duveau, another MVP ASP.NET from Montreal, updated his Vista Gadget countdown to the MVP Summit.
HTC Touch
I finally got my hand on a HTC Touch. Yes, it's not an iPhone but I the iPhone is not available in Canada yet and I absolutely need to sync from Exchange.
Cataloging CDs, Books and DVDs - Part Deux
In a previous post, I wrote about the Collectorz.com cataloging software and bar code scanner. I mentioned that a serial to USB adapter wasn't included altought the Website says so. Well, a few days ago, I received the promised adaptor. Looks like it was out of stock when they shipped the scanner. I guess that a brief note in the first shipment saying that it was backordered would have helped ;-)
Dominic Sevigny: New ASP.NET MVP
I'm happy that another fellow Montrealer and user group organizer Dominic Sévigny was awarded MVP in the ASP.NET competency.
Microsoft Regional Director Program: I'm renewed!