February 2006 - Posts
One of the more "fun" things I got to do while Editor for TheServerSide.NET was to help publicize The Code Room, an online TV show that puts developers under pressure to use Microsoft's latest technologies to solve business problems. Caught somewhere between documentary and marketing fluff, it's always fun and this episode looks to be no different.
The first episode starred a few friends of mine, Chris Menegay, Scott Bellware, and Tracy Sawyer but the biggest topic of discussion seemed to be the superhot host, Jessi Knapp. Chris, Scott, and Tracy were given the task of developing a web based user interface to an online ordering system before their laptop battery died. Unfortunately, they failed. The second episode put several Windows Mobile developers into a fishbowl room at a busy Seattle mall to build a Smartphone based application with a SQL Server backend. They were successful but sadly Jessi was missing from episode 2.
This episode centers on security and pits black hats against white hats in a battle to control a Las Vegas casino's player system and thereby millions of dollars. And I'm happy to say that Jessi is back sporting a new 'Do and seductively using phrases like "SQL Injection" and "Brute Force".
Check out The Code Room: Breaking Into Las Vegas
I am pleased to announce that I will be speaking at two major conferences this year in addition to my regular round of User Group presentations.
 | VSLive Toronto Threading in Windows Forms
Paul Ballard, Rochester Consulting Partnership, Inc.
4:30 p.m.
Windows Forms programming poses some unique threading hurdles. Many of those have been overcome in .NET 2.0 with the introduction of the BackgroundWorker component. In this session we’ll look at how to use the BGW to keep your user interface responsive as well as other threading tricks to ensure that your applications make the most of today’s powerful processors. Click-Once Deployment: Beyond the Basics
Paul Ballard, Rochester Consulting Partnership, Inc.
2 p.m.
Click-Once deployment gives developers the opportunity to use the web as a means to deploy custom Windows applications. But what’s actually happening when you publish an application via the web? And what happens when the user installs and runs the application? This session will look beyond the demos at the files generated via the “Publish” wizards, how .NET applications deployed on the web can be run and installed, and how Code Access Security makes this type of deployment safe. |
| Tech-Ed 2006 | Tech-Ed 2006 Creating and Using Outlook Add-ins in Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office (VSTO)
Outlook is about more than just email, and with millions of users worldwide the Office System provides a preinstalled platform for development that has yet to be fully explored. In this session we'll cover how to use existing Outlook information such as contacts and scheduling with Visual Studio Tools for Office to provide context to build a web service based data portal for an enterprise. |
My brother has decided that he wants to learn about .NET programming and asked if I could help him learn about VB.NET. Now the last time I taught him anything it was how to play chess when we were teenagers and after just three months he was routinely kicking my butt. I wanted to make sure he got started off on the right foot and went to the local bookstore to get him a book on learning VB.NET.
While parusing the books though, I realized that in an entire shelf of books specific to VB.NET, published by companies like Wrox, Microsoft Press, and Sams, not
ONE SINGLE BOOK contained even a chapter on object oriented programming. Not one!
Thinking this must be an oversight I checked the C# books and sure enough, the books I checked all had chapters on object oriented programming. Why then don't VB.NET books contain at least a mention of OO? If not the publishers then surely the authors should understand the importance of laying the proper foundation before diving into the WinForms designer or ADO.NET. Don't they?
That's not to say that books on OO with VB.NET don't exist. My buddy
Dan Clark wrote a good one and I know that there are others. But in one of the biggest stores of the second largest bookstore chain in the country in the 4th largest city in the country, I couldn't find a single book on VB.NET that included object oriented programming. If there is a message in there somewhere, I really don't like it.
Yes, it looks to be a banner year and so we're staffing up again. I have several clients located all over the US that are in need of .NET expertise. Here's a short list of positions I have available. If you're interested, just send me an email via the blog and I'll get back to you.
Thanks,
Paul Ballard
Dallas - Jr. .NET Dev - Some C# and Windows dev experience preferred. Most important aspect is a desire to learn and be productive fast.
- Sr. .NET Dev - At least 3 years of .NET experience preferrable in C# with Windows Forms development. BizTalk experience is a plus.
- Sr. ASP.NET Dev - At least 2 years of experience developing ASP.NET applications in C#. .NET 2.0 exposure is a plus.
Maryland Sr. .NET Architect - This is a very strategic position and requires somebody with advanced knowledge of .NET as well as experience building large scale distributed systems. 10 years of overall experience required with at least 3 of those at an architect level.
Southern New Jersey .NET Technical Evangelist - This position is for somebody with excellent technical skills as well as communication skills. Must have experience writing technical articles for publication. Advanced .NET knowledge is also required.
I recently spoke at the Dallas .NET User Group on Windows Workflow Foundation. The demos I did, while fairly simple and high level, did show a number of interesting features in the Beta 2 version of Windows Workflow including:
- Publishing a Sequential Workflow as a Web Service
- Invoking a Web Service
- Policies and Rules
- Custom Activities with Validation and Designers
- Using WinWF Code Snippets in Visual Studio
You can download the entire presentation including PowerPoint slides, the completed demos, and the demo script I used during the presentation. Note that the state based workflow is just Lab 4 from the new WinWF labs available on http://www.windowsworkflow.net/.
Link to Files
A friend sent me this link for a new conference designed for those of us who just don't get modern development methodologies. Get your tickets now for Waterfall 2006.
For those of you lacking a sense of satire, note the conference date!
Well, it's all over now. I've officially resigned my position as Editor of TheServerSide.NET. It was a great experience and I'm glad I had the opportunity to work on the site. I've learned a lot about what it takes to provide consistent quality content and how that sometimes conflicts with the equally reasonable requirement to make money and sell ad space. Balancing those two objectives while walking the tightrope of my MVP NDA was often a bit tricky, but overall it's been a great experience. Now it's time for me to move on and make room for some new blood to re-invogorate the site. For those of you who visited TSS.NET in the past year or so, I thank you very much.
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