March 2005 - Posts

Team System:Power In Simplicity Webcast Series
28 March 05 03:32 AM | jld | with no comments

Rob Caron recently reported a very cool series of Team System webcasts for the month of April. I'll definitely be there.

Speaking of Team System, I've been closely following the controversy around the MSDN pricing of VSTS. My take on it: Microsoft's pricing of Team System is bang on - for Enterprise level clients. What Microsoft needs to do now is create a similar product targeted for mid-sized ISVs and consultants (I fall under the latter category). Stay tuned...

Filed under: Team System, General

March 2005 "Avalon" and "Indigo" Community Technology Preview
18 March 05 02:08 AM | jld | 1 comment(s)

If you want to play with the March 2005 "Avalon" and "Indigo" Community Technology Preview, head on right over to the MSDN Subscriber downloads website (FYI, the .iso file is 444 MB). You have a few options once it's installed - you can try coding everything command line like Sam Gentile. Or opt to use the February CTP of Visual Studio 2005.

Next, you need documentation. A really good place to get started for all things Indigo is the Longhorn Developer Centre. David Chappell has written a really nice primer to get your head wrapped around the new concepts. Then head on over to the FTPOnline website for Indigo webcasts from VSLive! (I'd highly recommend looking at the Steve Swartz/Don Box webcast with a soup to nuts overview of Indigo. Don also has a very informative weblog with great tidbits of Indigo here and there).

Filed under: XAML, General, Windows Vista (formerly "Longhorn")

Kevin Mitnick Speaks in Toronto
15 March 05 02:44 AM | jld | 2 comment(s)

World famous hacker Kevin Mitnick will be presenting in Toronto at the end of the month in association with Polar Bear Corporate Education Solutions. Kevin is most famous for evading the FBI and appearing on a Wanted poster, breaking into the Pentagon's computer system, subverting entire phone networks and much more. You can read his abridged bio here - fascinating stuff. His forte is Social Engineering. This involves misrepresenting yourself and psychologically manipulating an individual in order to obtain trade secrets, authentication information and passwords (or any other information a hacker can get his/her hands on). The event will be taking place at the Second City on March 29th and 30th.

For more information about the event, check out: http://www.polarbear.com/mitnick

Filed under: General, TWSUG

Going to TechEd 2005
13 March 05 10:55 PM | jld | 3 comment(s)

I just learned that I'm going to TechEd 2005! I'll be participating at the author's booth and hopefully at some of the Cabanas. I've now subscribed to the TechEdBloggers website - I'm planning to post detailed information and photos from the event. It's my first time in Florida so it should be fun.

This past week, I've been at the Microsoft Book Publisher's Summit in Redmond. The "endurance" portion of the final day of the events included a series of draws which included amazing prizes (including free admission to TechEd). I was the first business card picked out of the basket!

During my stay I've met a host of illustrious authors including Ted Neward, Joe Mayo, John Wildermuth (The ADO Guy), Jeffrey Richter... I also met Mark Dunn, one of the architects of Dot Net Rocks!

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Jan, all the Microsoft staff and the publishers for putting on a great Summit. A very special thanks goes out to Noah, Connie and Erik for taking time in their busy schedules to spend time with me.

Filed under: General, TechEd 2005

Scobleized!
12 March 05 02:38 AM | jld | 4 comment(s)

Last night, I attended a great talk by none other than Robert Scoble. The title of the topic was "Blogs to Books!". He is currently writing a book with Shel Israel on blogging (documented on The Red Couch blog). Robert has recently signed up with Wiley Publishing.

There were several points that stood out from his talk last night. The important point he mentioned was that the recipe for a successful blog is to be "passionate and authoritative". I completely agree - it's really difficult to take the time to maintain a blog or be active in the community. But if you make the effort to do so, you'll achieve great things. Robert's words are not only true for the blogging world but also very much applies to the spirit of the Microsoft MVP program.

A friend of mine (who shall remain nameless) dislikes Robert for a number of reasons. My first impression - I found him to be funny, affable and very passionate about blogging. He was gracious enough to answer some of my questions and pose for a photo with the Channel 9 Guy. 

I walked away from the talk with a few personal action items on my checklist: first, I'll increase my posting frequency. If Robert can spend three hours a day reading 1500 blogs, I can take the time to post on a regular basis. I'd also like to start to podcast - I've recently been listening to great audio content from Phillip Torrone, Wil Wheaton and DotNetRocks.

Filed under: General, Writing, Business, MVP

East of Toronto .NET User Group - Sam Gentile & Whidbey C# Generics
01 March 05 02:05 AM | jld | with no comments

Sam Gentile is coming to Oshawa this month to speak with the East of Toronto .NET User Group.
If you are in the GTA, this is a talk you won't want to miss:

Tuesday, March 15, 2005 (EST) Introduction to Whidbey C# Generics speaker: Sam Gentile location: Oshawa French Canadian Community Centre (l'Amicale) Click here to Register Generics are an extension to the .NET CLR's type system that allows developers to add parameters to their types.

Generics are an extension to the .NET CLR's type system that allows developers to add parameters to their types. This allows you to create generic types where the details are specified when the code is referenced. For instance, a generic Stack could be created and integer, double and string instances of the Stack could be created from the same type definition. This powerful feature, which has some similarities to C++ templates but none of its drawbacks, will be part of the Whidbey .NET Framework 2.0 release. Because Generics are implemented in the CLR, they are accessible from C#, VB and MC++ equally. In this presentation, Sam Gentile, will introduce .NET Generics, covering what they are, how to use them and the new Collection classes in the Whidbey BCL.  Prizes for this event VS03 Pro – Special Edition VS05 Betas for every attendee Location and Agenda Oshawa French Canadian Community Centre (l'Amicale) 707 Simcoe St South (back entrance) Oshawa, ON L1H 4K5 http://mappoint.msn.com/(ht5z0x45oh4e2s554hlup0mf)/map.aspx?L=USA&C=43.87951%2c-78.85468&A=7.16667&P=|43.87951%2c-78.85468|1|707+Simcoe+St+S%2c+Oshawa+ON|L1| Event Agenda Time Location Title 6:00 - 7:00 Socialize and refreshments 7:00 - 9:00 Presentation

Sam Gentile is internationally recognized for his overall .NET knowledge and was recently acknowledged by Microsoft as an MVP for C#/.NET. He is also an INETA Speaker having delivered .NET training to user groups and companies all over the US. Sam is now the Chief .NET Architect at Adesso Systems. In this role, he is responsible for all architectural and design aspects of the future line of .NET based products, working with .NET based technologies, present and future.

Filed under: MVP, East of Toronto .NET User Group, Speaking

XAML 3D Chess
01 March 05 01:49 AM | jld | with no comments

Last January, I gave a presentation on XAML to the Metro Toronto .NET User Group. I had the fortune of meeting Valentin IIliescu at the presentation - he is currently in the process of converting his chess application to XAML. It's great to see active Longhorn developers in the Toronto area.

He recently transformed a 2D chess game to 3D XAML! It's one of the most compelling XAML apps I've seen to date. He also created a proof of concept mapping application that's quite cool.

Check out and download his application (with source code) here: http://www.valil.com/avalon/
His blog is available here: http://spaces.msn.com/members/viliescu/

Filed under: XAML, Windows Vista (formerly "Longhorn")