Guy Barrette, Microsoft, Regional Director, Montreal, Canada, Visual Studio, .NET Expertise April 2010 - Posts - Guy Barrette

Guy Barrette

Microsoft Regional Director, Montreal, Canada

April 2010 - Posts

Thoughts on Apple

Was Jobs on crack when he wrote that?
http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/

Apple has became the new 90’s Microsoft.  Period.

steve-jobs-mac-sick-150

(BTW, I do love my iPhone)

[Edit: Steve Jobs’ Apple-Adobe Letter: A Bullshit-Free Translation]

[Edit #2: Apple Draws Scrutiny From Regulators]

Bookmark and Share
Posted: Apr 29 2010, 09:58 PM by guybarrette | with 4 comment(s)
Filed under:
Windows Phone 7 Tools - April Update

The Windows Phone 7 Tools April Update just came out and now works in VS 2010 RTM.

http://developer.windowsphone.com/

Bookmark and Share
Posted: Apr 29 2010, 09:25 PM by guybarrette | with no comments
Filed under:
Silverlight 4 – What to download and install?

Silverlight 4 was launched last week and in case your wondering what tools to download and install and more importantly, backward compatibility with your existing apps and tools, check this blog post by Tim Heuer.

Bookmark and Share
Posted: Apr 19 2010, 07:20 AM by guybarrette | with no comments
Filed under:
Ottawa Code Camp 2010 pictures

The Ottawa Code Camp IT Day 2010 took place over the weekend.  With about 130 attendees, it was a great success according to Jean-René Roy, one of the organizers.

Pictures are available here

Bookmark and Share
Posted: Apr 19 2010, 07:06 AM by guybarrette | with no comments
Filed under:
CloudCamp Montreal

CloudCampMontrealLogo

I just heard about the first CloudCamp that will take place on June 4th, 2010 in Montreal.

More info hereRegister here.

Bookmark and Share
Posted: Apr 17 2010, 07:51 AM by guybarrette | with no comments
Filed under:
Thoughts on iPhone, Flash, IE

It’s interesting to see the debate caused by the iPhone debate over Flash.  In the new version of the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement, Apple bans Flash and Monotouch:

3.3.1 — Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs. Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine, and only code written in C, C++, and Objective-C may compile and directly link against the Documented APIs (e.g., Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited).

In Adobe’s last SEC filing, they list the iPhone/iPad as a threat to their business.
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/796343/000079634310000007/form_10q.htm#riskfactors

We offer our desktop application-based products primarily on Windows and Macintosh platforms. We generally offer our server-based products on the Linux platform as well as the Windows and UNIX platforms. To the extent that there is a slowdown of customer purchases of personal computers on either the Windows or Macintosh platform or in general, to the extent that we have difficulty transitioning product or version releases to new Windows and Macintosh operating systems, or to the extent that significant demand arises for our products or competitive products on other platforms before we choose and are able to offer our products on these platforms our business could be harmed. Additionally, to the extent new releases of operating systems or other third-party products, platforms or devices, such as the Apple iPhone or iPad, make it more difficult for our products to perform, and our customers are persuaded to use alternative technologies, our business could be harmed.

I had a conversation recently about IE9 and people were asking why is Microsoft spending money and resources to build IE9 now that we have Silverlight.  It makes just no sense to put so much efforts to support HTML 5 in IE because it’s overlapping with Silverlight, no?  Well, what if Chrome became the dominant browser and all of a sudden, Google would remove the object tag?  Would Microsoft be in the same position as Adobe is right now on the iPhone?

What do you think?

Bookmark and Share
Posted: Apr 09 2010, 04:25 PM by guybarrette | with 3 comment(s)
Filed under:
Silverlight 4 Launch Event – Watch it live

The Silverlight 4 Launch Event will be available in streaming live from DevConnections on Tuesday April 13th 2010.  Check www.silverlight.net for more info.

BTW, wearing a red shirt is mandatory for watching.  The streaming police will disconnect you if you don’t  ;-)

ScottAutoCollage_1_3 
Photo via Katrien’s blog

Bookmark and Share
Posted: Apr 09 2010, 08:38 AM by guybarrette | with no comments
Filed under:
Moving to Visual Studio 2010 free e-book

Moving to Visual Studio 2003/2005/2008 to Visual Studio 2010?  You can download a free draft preview of Microsoft Press Moving to Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 book.

09-04-2010 8-16-01 AM

Bookmark and Share
Posted: Apr 09 2010, 08:25 AM by guybarrette | with no comments
Filed under:
Windows 7 – Fun with VHD

I’m teaching about TFS 2008 next week and I wanted to use TFS in a virtualized environment so I downloaded the TFS + Team Suite VPC image from Microsoft’s Website.  Working with Windows 7, I opened the VM with the built-in Windows Virtual PC.  The VM loads fine but the problems started when I tried to install the VM additions: I simply couldn’t get them to install properly.

I then looked at VMware and found that they have a product called VMware Player that can load Virtual PC VMs.  Tried that but VMware Player failed in converting the VHD.

VMwarePlayer

I then looked at VirtualBox.  Created a new VM, attached the VHD and bingo!  Worked like a charm.  The only real caveat is that the guest Windows will ask for the OS CDs to install new drivers so you must have either the CD/DVD or the ISO file (sweet!) to proceed.

VirtualBox

OK, I got it working in VirtualBox but I’m curious why I couldn’t install the additions from Windows 7 Virtual PC onto a Windows Server 2003 VM.  Anyone has a clue?

BTW, thanks to Rolly Perreaux who pointed my to his blog where he goes into great details explaining how to use VM images with VirtualBox.  Good stuff!

Bookmark and Share
Posted: Apr 09 2010, 08:19 AM by guybarrette | with 2 comment(s)
Filed under:
.NET Framework 4 on Windows Azure coming

The Azure Team blogged today about the upcoming .NET 4 support. 

Read it here

Bookmark and Share
Posted: Apr 07 2010, 07:21 AM by guybarrette | with no comments
Filed under:
More Posts Next page »