Guy Barrette, Microsoft, Regional Director, Montreal, Canada, Visual Studio, .NET Expertise December 2008 - Posts - Guy Barrette

Guy Barrette

Microsoft Regional Director, Montreal, Canada

December 2008 - Posts

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.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/31/30gb-zunes-mysteriously-begin-to-fail-at-12am-december-31st/

From the Zune.net site:

Posted: Dec 31 2008, 04:03 PM by guybarrette | with 4 comment(s)
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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

Wikipedia is supported thru donations.  If you use it why not give, even if it just a little?  Clicking on the following banner will get you to the donation page:

Wikipedia Affiliate Button
Posted: Dec 24 2008, 01:32 PM by guybarrette | with no comments
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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

The Flash app gets the avatars from a Microsoft URL that you can also use.  One benefit is having your avatar on a transparent background instead of the ones generated by the Flash app.  Just replace the gamer tag in the following URLs with yours.

Full body:
http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/trixie360/avatar-body.png

Smaller:
http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/trixie360/avatarpic-l.png

Tiny:
http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/trixie360/avatarpic-s.png

Posted: Dec 24 2008, 11:41 AM by guybarrette | with no comments
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Happy Holidays / Joyeuses Fêtes

Posted: Dec 24 2008, 08:30 AM by guybarrette | with no comments
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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

The good news is that you're not affected if you have:

  • SQL Server 7.0 Service Pack 4
  • SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 3
  • Microsoft SQL Server 2008

 

Posted: Dec 24 2008, 08:10 AM by guybarrette | with 1 comment(s)
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SQL Server 2005 SP3 is now available

Home - SQL Server 2005

Microsoft has just released SP3 for SQL Server 2005 (yes that's 2005, not 2008).  More info here:

http://blogs.msdn.com/sqlreleaseservices/archive/2008/12/16/sql-server-2005-sp3-released.aspx

 

Posted: Dec 17 2008, 09:13 AM by guybarrette | with no comments
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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.

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/16-12/ff_ozzie

Posted: Dec 15 2008, 08:43 AM by guybarrette | with 1 comment(s)
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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

 

Posted: Dec 14 2008, 09:52 PM by guybarrette | with 2 comment(s)
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DevTeach Badge

The badge I had at DevTeach was a riot!

DevTeachMtl2008Badge.jpg

Posted: Dec 14 2008, 09:36 PM by guybarrette | with no comments
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Communauté .NET Montréal - Last Meetings of 2008

http://www.dotnetmontreal.com

Description:  Architecture par couche: Au delà de la programmation objet
Conférencier: Mario Cardinal
Lundi 15 décembre, 18h15

Cette présentation explique comment concevoir des applications .Net avec des couches. Vous allez apprendre les 3 attributs d’une couche, comment codifier une couche avec la plate forme .Net et comment utilisez l'injection de dépendance et les classes abstraites pour réduire le couplage entre les couches. Nous allons discuter comment appliquer les techniques de design « top-down » ou « test-driven » pour implanter une architecture par couche. Nous allons expliquer comment codifier les contraintes d’architecture et comment les intégrer dans le « build » de nuit de sorte que ces contraintes se perpétuent à travers les versions comme spécifications "exécutables" d'architecture. À la fin de cette présentation vous comprendrez pourquoi la couche est une unité de modularité aussi importante que l’objet.


Sujet: TDD, le développement piloté par les tests
Conférencier: François Tanguay
Mercredi 17 décembre, midi

Pour ce dernier @Lunch de 2008, nous allons discuter du TDD, soit le développement piloté par les tests, une grande partie de la philosphie agile à propos du développement logiciel.  Quand devrions-nous faire du TDD? Quel genre de tests devraient être faits? Le département de QA n'est-il pas assez? C'est à toutes ces questions et bien plus que nous tenterons de répondre dans un environnement propice à la discussion inspiré de Open Space. Venez en grand nombre et aidez à décider du sujet de la première rencontre de 2009!

Posted: Dec 14 2008, 07:34 PM by guybarrette | with no comments
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