Archives
-
Route64 Training Tour 2005 (for 64bit computing)
Undoubtedly, 2005 will be the year of the 64-bit. MSFT has announced Route64 Training Tour 2005 - a hands-on workshop about 64-bit computing that'll be held in several countries around the world.
-
My sympathies to those affected by the Earthquake in SE Asia..
Truly a monumental disaster by nature.. my sympathies..
-
E-Government Victory for Microsoft
From Line56.com - Despite the very public success of Linux in some government engagements, Microsoft has plenty of fans in others; why Bangalore went with Microsoft.
-
VS Team Foundation Installation Guide
Rob Caron has posted more info regarding the VS2K5 Team Foundation Installation. A must-read if you are getting into the VSTS.
-
Running 64-bit Win 2003 Server x64 and Win XP Prof x64 on AMD chips
The Windows 2003 Server x64 will only run on the AMD Opteron and not the AMD Athlon series. Whereas, the Windows XP Prof x64 will run on both AMD Opteron and AMD Athlon series. There is a movement now from the Opteron Socket 940 into the Socket 939 but I guess one will have to wait a bit for the Socket 939 Opteron chips. Socket 939 is relatively cheaper & with improved performance due to use of non-ECC & registered memory chips.
-
Yet another problem with Open Source
Chris Garrett cites a 'Problem with Open Source' with some interesting insights. In my experiences with corporate clients - one reason they like 'Open Source' is that they can download it "immediately" and not go through their bureacratic paper-work, permissions and procedures that usually takes months!
-
Virtual File Server with no server (move-over Napster, Hamster..)
I got this from Hugh - (Hugh is one of the engineers at Groove Networks)
-
Oracle Gives Developers Opportunity to Reach for the Stars with a Trip to Suborbital Space
You have to hand it to Oracle - they know how to grab you by the nose to get you to use their products. Now this - Oracle Gives Developers Opportunity to Reach for the Stars with a Trip to Suborbital Space.
-
Worldwide PC Market Seen Doubling by 2010
Reuters reports that ' Worldwide PC Market Seen Doubling by 2010'.
-
64-Bit .NET Framework at MSDN
64-Bit .NET Framework at MSDN is here.
-
What Joel Spolsky may learn from the Indians (empirically speaking)
-
DotNet Rocks Video is here!
Jeez.. I had just posted about DotNet Rocks Videos recently and I guess Carl took me seriously!.. :-)
-
MSN Spaces are here..
-
CAPTCHA Implementation
Dave Burke has a great description on CAPTCHA implementation. As I have and if you have been plagued by spam feedbacks to your weblog posting, this is worth taking a look. I am not sure though if this has or will be implemented with our weblog host (weblogs.asp.net).
-
Why Amazon almost sucks..
-
MSFT to open research lab in India next month
Microsoft will open a research lab in Bangalore, India in January 2005.
-
WSE FAQ site
I got this via Sam's blog - WSE FAQ site. Timely and instructive.
-
DotNet Rocks on Video??
I hope this posting gets Carl seriously thinking about putting DotNet Rocks on video! Congratulations on getting a hundred shows out the door with +50K listeners and ~200K downloads! Time to take it to the next level - now that the show is well established and extremely well received.
-
Connecticut .NET Developers Group presentation (held Nov 23rd)
-
Robert Hurlbut's presentation at the Connecticut .NET Developer Group meeting
We had Robert Hurlbut gives us a presentation on .NET Code Access Security (CAS) on Tuesday evening. It was excellent! CAS may well be a requirement for all .NET applications development. I have been having some problems with my machines lately - I'll post some more information and pictures here soon.
-
Thirty best practices for integrating Web services
-
Microsoft PDA Software Takes Lead
The Wall Street Journal reported that 'Microsoft PDA Software Takes Lead' (subscription required). The report cited a Gartner Group study - Worldwide PDA shipments grew 13.6 percent year over year to 2.8 million in the third quarter of 2004. Windows CE shipments, which reached 1.4 million in the third quarter, exceeded those of Palm OS for the first time.
-
Former Assistant Secretary Of Defense John P. Stenbit Joins Groove Networks Board of Directors
From the Groove Networks website announcement - Former Assistant Secretary Of Defense John P. Stenbit Joins Groove Networks Board of Directors. This is very positive for Groove.
-
SKYPE releases developer API for VoIP apps
-
Connecticut .NET Developers Group meeting - Code Access Security .NET
We are having a presentation by Robert Hurlbut on 'Code Access Security .Net' on Nov 23rd (Tues). This will be a good one! I attended Robert's presentation in August in Boston and it was most informative. More details about the event in our website here..
-
Power Collections - C# Generics
After attending the recent C# Generics presentation at the Boston .NET Group meeting, it has renewed my interest in building collection libraries as I did using STL during my C++ days many moons ago. A notable development is Wintellect's Power Collections - this looks very promising and is worth checking out.
-
Carl Franklin in NY Times..
-
C# Poetry - an evening at the Boston .NET Developer Group meeting
-
Red Sox (or baseball) fan? Get a discount on Groove
Baseball mania has hit the software industry, check out ' - Groove Networks Offers World Series Promotion To Red Sox Nation'. To obtain the discount, simply enter the promotion code "P-ReverseTheCurse".
-
The first CT .NET Developer SIG meeting
-
The new Connecticut .NET Developers Group is on the roll..
As Carl mentioned - The Connecticut .NET Developers Group is BACK! For the past few weeks, both Carl and I have been putting together our local .NET SIG. Our first meeting is tomorrow with John Motyl's presentation on .NET Distributed Applications.
-
The Zen of User Groups
-
Groove .NET Developer workshop (Aug 31- Sept 2)
-
Broadband Now More Popular than Dial-Up Internet Access
Broadband Now More Popular than Dial-Up Internet Access - Yeah!
-
'Add-in contest's results are out!
The 'Add-in contest's results are out - a terrific job arranging the contest done by Roy and associates and all done online!
-
C# Coding standards (from Lance Hunt)
Lance Hunt has released 'C# Coding Standards v1.13'. Very well worth reading through it (its only 20 pages) - especially, if you are new to the 'C#' language or from a VB background. I mention the latter because I have seen C# code from former VB developers that make their code look like VB by obsessively using 'getters/setters' for one! This is not meant to disparage VB developers but C# has a style and standard of its own.
-
Bloggers (posts, last update) column in 'weblogs.asp.net'
I noticed a change in the left-most column of 'weblogs.asp.net' main page. It doesn't appear to be sorted by 'number of posts' but appears to be random! Any thoughts on this?
-
Downtown Boston .NET User group meeting pictures
I attended the Downton Boston .NET User Group meeting recently - here are some pictures from it:
-
Downtown Boston .NET User Group meeting yesterday
Yesterday, I attended the Downtown Boston .NET User Group meeting held at Adesso Systems' office. Robert Hurlbut gave a presentation on 'Code Access Security in .NET' (unfortunately, I missed the last 10 minutes of it as I had to get the Greyhound back to Hartford). I hope to convince our local .NET group to have Robert to make the presentation here as well.
-
Live Communications Server 2003 FAQ and Troubleshooting Guide
'Live Communications Server 2003 FAQ and Troubleshooting Guide' is now available. A must-read if you are deploying LCS2K3.
-
Resuscitating our local .NET Developer group
After a very silent and uneventful year, our local .NET developer group is very much dormant. In over a year, we haven't had a SQL Server presentation/meeting (with Bill Sulcius, who is perhaps, the most knowledgeable SQL2K Server person out there). The .NET events have been very few and with less attendance and vigor than the past ones. The truth is that our local MS office has been quite busy with the changing economy and priorities do change. I don't see much happening this summer but perhaps, the coming fall would bring in new events on Whidbey, Yukon, etc - ANYTHING!
-
Eric Sink discusses the 'Hazards of Hiring'
The vaulted unlegend (pun intended), Eric Sink has a new biz-tech piece titled 'The Hazards of Hiring'. It's some thought provoking piece of work, especially about the “Ph.D. Qualities“. What he didn't mention is that PhDs usually have very big egos that can bring a company or its product development down. I encountered one about a year ago (an Ivy-Leaguer to boot) who insisted that XML be used as a database (a futile attempt that I had described in a blog posting). One of these days, I have to put my biz-econ hat on and re-read Eric's biz-tech series.
-
Code Complete 2 - a mast on your shelf
-
SmartPart for SharePoint 0.2.0.1 Released!
Jan Thielgen has released SmartPart for SharePoint v.0.2.0.1. I have been developing/deploying SP recently and SmartPart is a very “convenient” way of developing web parts.
-
Sam Gentile's Jonathan writes his first distributed app!
Sam has a wonderful little posting about taking his son Jonathan to work (at Adesso) and him writing his first distributed application! Adesso should consider using 6-1/2 year-old Jonathan as a model!
-
Groove v3 (Virtual Office) is out!
-
Groove v3 comes out very soon
The long awaited Groove v3 comes out very soon - this is a different beast than prior versions. Not only in UI but very considerable improvements in performance. Peter O'Kelly, an analyst with research firm Burton Group calls it "This is the deepest security you're going to find in a commercially available product--period".
-
Does ActiveViews have a web service interface?
I am developing with the SQL2K Reporting Services and MSFT's recently acquired, ActiveViews, has me more interested in this SQL Server reporting capability. Does anyone know if ActiveViews has a web service interface? (see illustration in prior post).
-
ActiveViews integration with SQL2K Server Reporting Services
-
Roy makes MVP
Roy makes MVP! A very well deserved accolade. I recall encountering Roy well over a year ago and his 'Regulator' Regular Expression tool has helped me out a lot (I did attempt to document it via the Regulator Wiki and perform some beta testing). Roy also sponsors some interesting “contests“ - the Desktop Screen and the recent VS.NET Add-in. He's a great asset to the .NET community. Congrats Roy!
-
Using W2K3 Server as a desktop
I use a W2K3 Server as a desktop (upgrading from WinXP). It's far more stable and in addition, has IIS6 and WSS built-in. Feed it more memory (>1gb) and it'll do more wonders. Kevin Moore had a posting about using W2K3 as a desktop and there's a site ('msfn.org') that's also a source of info on this topic.
-
Happy Birthday America!
-
Using .NET in the Enterprise (Barry Gervin's Blog)
A very interesting blog - Barry Gervin's Software Architecture Perspective. Lots of very interesting info about using .NET in the Enterprise.
-
BizTalk Server 2004 Developer Competition
I just encountered this one - BizTalk Server 2004 Developer Competition. (It has some serious prize money).
-
SharePoint Hosting Providers (redux)
As I develop SharePoint apps for clients, at times I bear the responsibility of recommending SharePoint Hosting providers. So I am continously looking for SP hosting. Since my last post on the subject - I have discovered yet another provider: 1and1.com. So far, they appear to be quite good & reasonable - 50 users, 100mb space & 6gb traffic for less than 20 bucks/month.
-
Webcast: SharePoint Portal Server 2003: Integrating Enterprise Applications
SharePoint Portal Server 2003: Integrating Enterprise Applications Webcast is a very interesting one. Good introduction to EAI with SharePoint by Appuswamy Kannan [MSFT MCS] that is made more interesting with “live examples” from the field (client sites).
-
Using SQL Reporting Services for MS Project Server 2003 Reporting
Anyone experimenting with SQL Reporting Services and MS Project Server 2003 Reporting combination? I am currently exploring the MS Project 2K3 Server's Enterprise Reporting capabilities. An article in MSDN describes the Enterprise Reporting Solution Starter but I *think* the new SQL Reporting Services Server can be more efficient (and effective).
-
India stealing Israeli thunder in IT industry
uh oh.. I hope my friend Roy doesn't see this one.. ;-)
-
Integrating Analysis Services with Reporting Services
Integrating Analysis Services with Reporting Services - just released on MSDN. This one hits the nail on the head!
-
SharePoint Resource Kit finally came in!
-
Blogging with Bill Gates' blessings
A very interesting article in the current issue of Business Week - 'Blogging With The Boss's Blessing'. There's a mention of Robert "Scobleizer" Scoble in it also. A must-read for all Microsoft Bloggers!
-
SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services SP1 is out!
Some of the new enhancements in SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services SP1-
-
Extend SharePoint Server with ADO.Net & XML
Dave Burke has written a very interesting article at MSD2D.com entitled 'EXTEND SHAREPOINT SERVER WITH ADO.NET AND XML'. He shows SharePoint Document management with ADO.Net (in lieu of WebDAV). I'll certainly go through that one thoroughly - other people's experience is the best teacher.. :-)
-
Event Log Monitoring with RSS
Got this link to 'Event Log Monitoring with RSS' via Tiernan's Blog posting. Event log monitoring made easy!
-
Collaboration Design Patterns within Groove and SharePoint
I work with Groove and SharePoint and after reading Keith Pleas' posting on 'Collaboration Design Patterns' it has conjured up a lot of good ideas. Both Groove and SharePoint are extendable with Groove tools (using the GDK/GTK) and WebParts (& also web service calls via CAML & lists). I find that "collaboration" is really an amalgamation of several patterns. As a developer it will certainly help decomposing the various patterns and seeing the 'sum of the (pattern) parts'.
-
Hey Microsoft - would you please get the .NET Framework to the desktop?
This is a posting at Paresh Suthar's weblog. I have reposted Paresh's rant here (for those, who like me, are lazy, procastinate and love donuts that make the mouse and keyboard sticky beyond use at times) -
-
SharePoint Configuration Analyzer is your friend
For the past several weeks I have been working on a fairly intensive SharePoint deployment project. I have found the SharePoint Configuration Analyzer to be an indispensible tool. Perhaps MSFT should consider releasing its development (under GotDotNet) so that it may be enhanced with new features (and certain fixes). I have mounds of new ideas for it.
-
(Still) Looking for SharePoint Hosting Providers
I had posted this about a year ago and after a few projects I am still looking for some good SharePoint Hosting Providers. My current projects for clients calls for some fairly reliable hosting. Any caveats, etc.. ? TIA.
-
Buying books
Roy has a very interesting post about buying books - I thought I'd add a few words here:
-
Whidbey templates removed
I was looking forward to trying out the Intranet Templates (see MSDN June 04 issue). Apparently, the Templates were removed from the current release of VS2K5 (see ASP.Net forums). Bummer.. I'll have to wait for the beta..
-
Exam 70-340 Application Security elective for MCSD/MCAD
Exam 70-340 (Implementing Security for Applications with Microsoft Visual C# .NET) is now an elective (moved from the beta exams) for the MCSD/MCAD certifications.
-
Visual Studio 2005 Team System to have RSS Feeds?
I do hope Visual Studio 2005 Team System has RSS Feeds! Much like Greg Reinacker's RSS for VSS (very timely and useful).
-
SD EAST 2004 at Boston (Sept 20-23)
Software Development Expo EAST 2004 is coming to Boston (Sept 20-23). Anyone planning to attend? Let's also plan on a beer (or two)..
-
July issue of MSDN has an article on the Regulator and other .NET tools
-
Roy gets the Regulator 2.0.3 out!
The versatile Regulator is out along with a Help file!
-
Whidbey sources
I found a good site showing Whidbey links [via Rob Chartier]. Any more similar links out there? Please post them there (Rob's site) under feedback.
-
Sacre Bleu! It's the first Groove Event in France!
Sacre Bleu! It's the first Groove Event in France!
-
Exchange to disappear within SharePoint!
-
Eric Sink's views on the VS 2005 Team System
Eric Sink has a very heart-opening post about the new VS 2005 Team System and how it impacts his products at SourceGear. I like his description of the market segment that's the target by MSFT - competing products against Borland & IBM (Rational) in large enterprises. He also describes how SourceGear's products fits in the market niche that he is in (primarily 10 to 50 developer companies). A superb job in positioning himself!
-
SharePoint caveat KB (#840701)
This important note from the MSDN KB (#840701) - 'How to install SharePoint Portal Server 2003, Windows SharePoint Services, and Project Server 2003 on the same server'. Very useful to know if you have an Enterprise deployment of SharePoint along with MS Project 2K3 - Note Running these services at the same time on the same server may create conflicts.
-
Whidbey relish
-
Spam wave from weblogs
I have been getting a barrage of spam mail regarding the blog postings here - I am not the only one, Roy is encountering the same problem.
-
Developing with 'Whidbey'
I have been checking out 'Whidbey' for a little while now (the initial installation was troublesome). What grabs me the most (so far) is C#2 and the 'Web Parts'..
-
Sam joins Phil at Adesso
Sam Gentile has joined Adesso and to work with Phil Stanhope. The last time the two were together was at Groove Networks a few years ago. This is certainly a gain for Adesso!
-
Gunderloy's 'Code To Developer'
-
Dancing with 'Whidbey'
[DUMB POST REMOVED]
-
Groove Announces Third-Generation Developer Offerings
Flexible development environment empowers experienced developers and non-technical power users to rapidly create solutions for the virtual office [Groove Networks Press Release]
-
VS.NET AddIn-Macro Coding Contest - UPDATE
Roy's VS.NET AddIn-Macro Coding Contest is extended for another month (till June 30th), presumably midnight PST and not UTC/GMT.. ;-)
-
FREE XDN Professional for .NET Bloggers during May 2004
FREE XDN Professional for .NET Bloggers during May 2004
Mike Schinkel, president of Xtras.Net, made an offer on his personal blog of a free XDN Professional membership (http://www.xtras.net/xdn) during the month of May 2004 for anyone that blogs about .NET frequently. If you are a .NET blogger, see Mike's post for how to get your free XDN membership. -
Microsoft Adds ActiveViews to Free SQL Reporting Services Add-On
Microsoft Adds ActiveViews to Free SQL Reporting Services Add-On
Microsoft may be setting its sights on business users with very little, if any, development expertise [from Enterprise Systems] -
U.S. hits four with criminal antispam charges
From ComputerWorld -
-
VS.NET AddIn-Macro Coding Contest
Roy is sponsoring a VS.NET AddIn-Macro Coding Contest. The prizes are very enticing! The last contest Roy arranged was the 'Desktop Screens' - that was a lot of fun seeing several dozen bloggers' desktops. I had entered that contest and managed to get over a 100 views ;-)
-
nTier for free for weblogs.asp.net bloggers
Gavin Joyce is very generously giving away nTier - a .NET development tool. The free offer is for weblogs.asp.net bloggers. I recall checking out nTier last year and it has developed quite nicely since then and I can't wait to check this new version out.
-
MSFT cover-story in Business Week
The business side of MSFT is the cover-story of the current issue of Business Week.
-
Regular Expressions in ASP.NET
There is a terrific introductory article about Regular Expressions at the MSDN ASP.NET Dev Center. Royo's 'The Regulator' gets a mention in it.
-
Channel 9 - a very commendable effort
Channel 9 is a very commendable effort. Undoubtedly, it will improve over time but this is a great step in building another communications channel with MS developers. Congratulations and you certainly have another viewer.
-
Paul Yao's book on the .NET Compact Framework
Paul Yao & David Durant have made available their book on .NET Compact Framework programming (both C# & VB.Net versions). The book is “open” for reader reviews and is available till publication (by A-W) at a later date.
-
Groove v3 beta running on DELL Axim3i PocketPC
('right-click save as' the images for a closer view)
-
Excellent review of Groove v3 beta by Robin Good
Robin Good has an excellent review and thoughts about Groove v3 beta. Pay particular attention to “GFS” which works via your File Explorer - some call it “Napster on steroids” (or something like that)...
-
Developing apps on the .NET Compact Framework
This evening, I attended Mike Pelletier's presentation on 'Developing mobile apps on the .NET Compact Framework' at our local .NET Developer's group. It was held at the MS office in Farmington, CT. Mike is a Principal Consulant with Tallan. It was a good presentation that hass certainly perked my interest in developing apps for the PocketPC using .NET.
-
SharePoint Indexing Basics
Very informative article on indexing with SharePoint at Thom Robbins' site.
-
Groove & Homeland Security: Slash-Dotted
Homeland Security's purchase of Groove seats has been 'Slash-Dotted'. I don't think I agree with the term “acronym whiplash” - you get that when you work with any Government agencies especially the Army, e.g. FUBAR, AWOL, .. :-)
-
Groove v3 beta download
-
Review of Groove 3.0 beta from Corante:Get Real
I got this lead from Runar Jordahl in one of my Groove spaces - Groove v3.0: A tool for our times [Corante: Get Real]. It also has some terrific screenshots. The review is by Stowe Boyd.
-
What happened to CRC cards?
Back in the early '90s when I got started with OOPs - there were a few object-oriented methodologies (or compilers!). Grady Booch ruled with his classic text on Object-oriented Analysis and Design. There was one approach to object-oriented development that was both pedagogical and developmental (for small projects) - CRC Cards. I recall a CRC tool written in MacApp that layed out the relevant classes and generated the class definition in C++ (or Object Pascal). CRC is not mentioned much anymore - too bad, it was a terrific way to learn about object-oriented thinking and design.
-
Groove jumps to Microsoft beat
Groove Networks plans to begin testing on Monday a new version of its software that aims to help mobile workers collaborate on projects and ties the company closer to Microsoft. [at ZDNet].
-
Greg Reinacker releases the RSS Feeder for Visual SourceSafe (VSS)
Greg Reinacker's tool that generates RSS feeds from Visual SourceSafe was re-released today (version expires on Oct 31st). Thanks Greg.
-
Joe Stagner [MS] presents 'Developing Secure Web Applications' at the GHACM (Mar 9)
The Greater Hartford ACM Chapter will hold its March meeting on Tuesday, March 9, 2004 at 7:00 PM. The meeting will be in the City of Hartford conference center on the Plaza level of 260 Constitution Plaza. Details here.
-
C# Language - THE Book
-
A report card for .NET
-
Collaborative GIS tool under Groove
-
Groove Dev Conference - Groove on a PocketPC running GIS!
More on the Groove Dev Conference at the Groove corporate blog. I just saw Groove running on a PocketPC via PopG services. It was running InfoPatterns' GIS tool - this is an awesome combination with tremendous possibilities.
-
Groove Developer Conference (March 3-4)
I am attending the Groove Developer Conference in Beverly, MA (March 3-4). These are exciting times for Groove Networks - see my previous post.
-
Groove announces v3.0 beta
If you have been using Groove v2 or later - sign up for the Groove v3.0 beta..
-
Regular Expression Content Processor
-
Something brewing at ShadowFax land
I think Ron Jacobs (Microsoft PM) must have the old whip out - I see a lot of activity at ShadowFax land. I received three emails in a day alone and I also see quite a few recent releases. The Virtual TAP is something worth pursuing for projects that don't have much stakeholder equity (euphemism for 'not much responsibility involved'). Seriously, pick a small project where you can apply ShadowFax and learn from it.
-
Groove software is core component of Homeland Security Network
Groove Networks announced that its software is a core component of an information-sharing network of the Department of Homeland Security. The Homeland Security Information Network (HSIN) will be expanded to "all 50 states, five territories, tribal governments, and 50 major urban areas" and eventually to the private sector so it can coordinate preparedness efforts with government officials". From the IT perspective - if there ever was a technical solution that perfectly fits a business requirement then this is it. Read Ray Ozzie's blog posting for more insights.
-
Building an Internet Coffee Maker & Toaster
OReilly has a new book out - Hardware Hacking Projects for Geeks. There are a couple of free chapters that shows you how to build an Internet Coffee Maker and Toaster. The book also has a chapter on 'How to Build an Aquarium Inside a Macintosh'.
-
ShadowFax TAP Program extended to Feb 25th
-
SharpMT v2.2 released
RandyRants has released a new version of SharpMT (v.2.2). In addition to a new Help System and an updated Toolbar, it has a RSS Aggregator support that allows to work with plug-ins. One feature that caught my eye but have yet to explore is the 'Now Playing' music plug-in..
-
MSF Resources [Lorenzo's]
Good listing of resources concerning MSF (Solutions Framework) at Lorenzo's weblog site. Worth noting (as he'll be updating it as well).
-
Sorting Out Microsoft's Collaboration Technologies
John Durant has an article on MSDN which gives an excellent overview of MS Collaboration Technologies. I do work with collaborative systems, primarily with SharePoint and Groove. I was hoping that there would be some mention of Groove in John's article - after all, MS does have a considerable stake in Groove.
-
Two interesting Longhorn sites
Now that I have the Longhorn bug in me - I am foraging for Longhorn related information. I came across two very interesting websites - 'Academic Longhorn' and 'Longhorn Tweak Guide'. The latter has a fix for the 'Infamous Explorer Memory Leak'. I am sure there are many more out there (I mean Longhorn websites)..
-
Building Distributed Systems (vertical industries)
Phil Stanhope has some interesting points to add to Sam Gentile's posting on 'Building Distributed Systems'. We are certainly in the midst of a change not just in technologies but the methodologies to go with it. Back in the late '80s and early '90s - I had spent considerable time on developing systems for the Insurance industry. While the technologies evolved, the methodology (predominantly the 'waterfall') remained the same. It was only after the works of Boehm ('spiral'), Davis ('software engineering') and others ('XP') had permeated, did the industry make its changes (it's still evolving). Phil's point on vertical industries is a good one but different industries take different schedules in adapting to something new.
-
Are Programmers Engineers? (some thoughts on Eric Sink's thoughts)
Maestro Eric Sink answers a very pertinent question - Are Programmers Engineers? I think a lot has happened to the software development field since we started in it (Eric - I'll raise your T-Square with my 1401 punched-card deck). I think the folks at Carnegie Mellon would concur as well. The question really to ask is when or what project does one have to be (or behave like) a “professional engineer”. I think engineering for most part and regardless of type (mechanical, electrical et al) is one of discipline and attitude. Software development is having a difficult time showing its engineering stripes since the placement of its effort has been difficult to classify/categorize only until recently (see graph & Scott Ambler's article).
-
Should I buy ECC or non-ECC RAM?
While prepping my new machine for 'Longhorn', I had a decision to make - Should I buy ECC or non-ECC RAM? ECC RAM costs a bit more but by not that much. ECC RAM are a necessity on servers and have now trickled down to (high-end) workstations, granted there are some performance losses (very marginal at best). Oliver Aaltonen's excellent Unofficial FAQ about the Dell PowerEdge 400SC series has a very informative explaination on why ECC RAM is certainly worth it. By the way - if you are a Dell PowerEdge 400SC owner, I highly recommend Oliver's website (and support it too).
-
Carl to speak again..
Carl Franklin's prior presentation on 'Whidbey' was cancelled due to a snow-storm. He's back again on Feb 24th at the Connecticut .NET Developers Group meeting. Looking forward to it.
-
What 'Indigo' does..
Software industry pundit David Chappell's column 'Indigo: The end of the rainbow' explains why this forthcoming effort by Microsoft is radically different. Worth reading if you have to explain to your boss what it's all about. “In a world that has both .NET and Java, the announcement of Indigo is an unassailably good thing.”
-
'Pareto' (Dell PowerEdge 400SC) - my new Longhorn machine
-
Free book chapters about UML (Activity & Use Case Diagrams)
Free book chapters - Learning UML (Activity Diagrams) and UML Pocket Reference (Use Case Diagrams).
-
Free book chapter: XLink - XML Linking language
From Erik Wilde and David Lowe's XPath, XLink, XPointer, and XML: A Practical Guide to Web Hyperlinking and Transclusion. Describes the XML Linking Language (XLink), which defines how hyperlinks can be used in an XML-based environment (in PDF format).
-
Programming Microsoft InfoPath: A Developer's Guide.
-
New England (well, Connecticut) .NET Dev bloggers evening (with Rory)
This is a tentatively scheduled event - New England (well, Connecticut) .NET Dev bloggers evening (with Rory) on March 5th or March 6th. This is being done under the auspices of Franklins.Net who'll bring in the guest of honor, the indefatigable Rory Blyth. Carl will decide upon the location which may be in New Haven, Middletown or the old Dutch Tavern in New London. The latter may be familiar to .Net Rocks listeners. Stay tuned.
-
running with InfoPath runtime
A good posting from LauraJ regarding the 'runtime version of InfoPath'. The feedback from Chris Kunicki asks the question - “So would an InfoPath Viewer or even an InfoPath runtime editor be of value to you?” But of course!! Forms-based systems are crucial in enterprise business processes and competing products from Adobe (and they really do their homework) shows that emphasis - Adobe Form Designer, Form Server, Form Client, etc. Any flexibility with InfoPath will go a long way in the market.
-
Architectural thinking..
Michael Platt has a couple of good postings regarding 'Architectural Thinking'. He mentioned a few approaches that are undertaken during the process, notably, 'divide and conquer' and 'simulated annealing'. Thinking about architectures is a very intuitive and thus, a personalized phenomena that encompasses many facets, including social ones. One approach that I have found to be beneficial is the 'Pareto Law' - tackle 20% of the problem space that gives you 80% of the solution space at the first round. There are exceptions of course, and is dependent upon the nature of the problem to be solved.
-
Greater Hartford Chapter of ACM meeting on Feb 10th - UML 2.0 Presentation
Greater Hartford Chapter of ACM meeting - UML 2.0 Presentation on Feb 10th. More details here.. On March 9, Joe Stagner [Microsoft] gives a presentation on .NET.
-
Ignoring dynamic languages in .NET
Thought provoking columnist, Larry O'Brien has an interesting article 'Ignoring The Scripts' in the current issue of 'Software Development Times'. I know of another prolific developer Hugh Pyle (see his July 16 '03 posting), who would agree with Larry - the necessity of having dynamic languages with dynamic typing. Larry is a bit critical in pointing out that Microsoft is 'ignoring' such language development (on the .NET platform). Jon Udell, on the same topic, provides some more insights on dynamic languages and how others are developing the languages themselves. It certainly has its place.
-
Upcoming MSDN Events: ASP.NET (New England Region)
Upcoming MSDN Events can always be found on www.MSDNEvents.com or at www.ManagedCode.com
-
Another .NET developer blog - Thom Robbins [MSFT]
-
A jocular note for Mr Spolsky on 'Getting Your Résumé Read'
'Joel on Software' is a great source for developers - he provides 'meta information' needed in the art of software development. A subscription to his newsletter is a must! His recent posting on 'Getting Your Résumé Read' was an eye-opener - I didn't realize that people from India put a space before the comma - yikes! a lot must have happened after I left the old country many years ago. To quote Joel -
-
Selling Groove - a personal observation
This is a personal observation but does bear credence. Groove is a collaborative platform and for it to be successfully deployed in an organization, the organization must have an already established 'culture'/practice/acceptance of collaboration. Of the numerous prospective clients (mainly development shops) that I have tried "selling" Groove to - the ones who didn't buy are the ones that follow the 'not invented here' syndrome. They build almost all their own libraries, components, etc. - the 'Build vs. Buy' maxim is almost non-existant. This is an interesting correlation - a dichotomy almost between 'collaboration' and the 'not invented here' syndrome. The unfortunate side of 'not invented here' is that it invariably transforms into the 'not invented in my cubicle' syndrome and that may explain the missing 'collaboration'.
-
.NET Reality Check - a matter of 'Pragmatic R&D'
My recent posting (with the convoluted long sentence - thanks Frans :-), needs an update. Michael Earls has some very substantiated arguments about .NET at the present and its future. His posting(s) does express a concern about what's needed today.. I do concur that MS has done a superb job with the Longhorn technology and the weblogs that are devoted to it in disseminating the information. Too much information in such cases, are never enough. 'Longhorn', today is a matter of 'Pragmatic R&D' and I hope to indulge in it (am expecting a new Dell box in my lab soon). 'Pragmatic R&D' is not a production environment but a viewport of what's coming but it may (will) change when it gets here. Having spent a considerable portion of my career in research labs, I know that it's a gamble as well, as the bottom-line is always there to remind us. When advising/suggesting to clients about the future of an operating platform, I would also like to state what's needed in human terms - training issues are the foremost. Quite a few of my clients run their systems for decades - talk about ROI! A Windows Healthcare laptop application, of which I was the project tech lead, was built about 12 years ago and it's still running! Granted that it has undergone numerous iterations (and a change in compilers from BC++ to VC++). So, it pays to do some 'Pragmatic R&D' upfront - laptops and Win3.x have come a long way!
-
10 Great Things to Do with Analysis Models and Artifacts
I should have blogged this awhile ago but better late than never..
-
.NET Reality Check..
A 'must-read' is the column by Jon Udell (InfoWorld) about '.NET Reality Check'. He refers to another posting about 'Longhorn' in the market. This is a good article albeit critical about .NET and its future, unlike articles from other columnists who have become legends in their own minds.
-
We'll have to wait for Carl to speak again..
This winter is getting to us - we'll have to wait for Carl to speak again. Our local .NET Dev Group meeting tomorrow has been cancelled due to the weather. bummer..
-
Sir Bill?
-
Where is your dev shop in this graph?
-
MS Office Desktop Blogger (hypothetical)
I have examined two desktop blogging tools recently (BlogJet and w.bloggar). I can see the next version of MS Office having such a tool in the Office portfolio with the blogging site as an add-on to the Windows Server. This would be similar to SharePoint-WSS add-on to the W2K3 Server. It would fit in well with the Small Business Server - the weblog site can be an internal communications source (news, views, events, etc) and the admin management using the Desktop Blogger. I think all this is beginning to fall into place for the end-user.
-
Testing BlogJet
This is a test via BlogJet.
-
First post from desktop w.bloggar
This is the first post from desktop w.bloggar (v3.03).
-
Indigo shows some color
Yasser Shohoud has posted an article at MSDN about building Indigo's web service apps using SFx & MFx. I think this has rejuvenated my interest in getting a new box for Longhorn.
-
WS-Eventing & its equivalents
Recently MS, BEA & Tibco announced the WS-Eventing specs for web services to communicate events (between the WS nodes). IBM had refrained from this joint venture and announced two specifications which will do the same - WS-Notifications and WS-Resource Framework. The key element here is reliable messaging which should include communicating even in the presence of two or more different messaging protocols.
-
Microsoft's Systems and Services Management strategy
Windows System magazine has a good article describing Microsoft's Systems and Services Management strategy. Particularly interesting is MOM managing web services - this will be crucial in SOA deployment. Worth reading.
-
Interoperability with other (corporate) platforms
In the F500 corporate world, interoperability between MS apps and other platforms will be a “hot” topic. In a recent conversation with a corporate systems architect, he stated that Microsoft's strong drive into large enterprise systems will bring forth interoperability and integration issues. Time to read up on it - Simon Guest's Toolkit and some recent MSDN articles. Choosing between the various platforms (notably IBM, Oracle & Sun) may not be easy.
-
Tech lead and leadership
Roy has a good posting and essay on misjudging development approaches. My thanks to Roy for the posting and "divulging the soul" on the matter. Chalk it up on experience and we all have gone through that before. I wouldn't blame Roy's approach on his 'directory services' project and I personally, do not view it as a technical (WMI, AD, etc) issue but one of LEADERSHIP. Ultimately, it's the tech lead's responsibility to seeing the project done. But tech leads can go astray. In this case, the development was done "behind the back" and that was certainly not the right way and that approach in itself, demoralizes the entire development team. I'd say that's poor leadership on the tech lead's part.
-
Regular Expression quick reference card
Found this quick reference card on regular expressions (for client javascript) from Visibone. Some good useful information.
-
The Death of Denormalization?
Craig Mullins has a provocative article entitled 'The Death of Denormalization'. His argument lies in the fact that RDBMS technology now has better internal performance features, query optimizations, use of MQTs and ASTs, etc. These make the process of (de)normalization of databases almost redundant. While he may have some credence in his argument, I am skeptical - it pushes the design process too close to the system implementation. I have yet to utilize his new view for systems development but will certainly keep it in mind.
-
Regular Expression Mining
-
Carl Franklin to speak about Whidbey at the local .NET developer Group (Farmington, CT)
Our own, Carl Franklin will give a presentation - What's new in Whidbey? - January 27, 2004. 5:30 pm - 6:30 pm at the MS Farmington CT office. More details here...
-
Five free Client Access Licenses for SBS2K3 customers
Following up from my prior posting about the WSS & SBS2K3 Installation update - just found out that MS is offering 5 free Client Access Licenses for Windows Small Business Server 2003 customers. Some details here...
-
What's wrong with this picture?
-
XMLFox - xml and xml schema(XSD) editor
-
Joe Stagner's Managed Code site
Joe is the local .NET guru who haunts the New England developer events. He's a prolific speaker and a .NET junkie! He works for MS as a .NET evangelist.. (dreamy job) and runs a website dedicated to it - ManagedCode. Worth visiting.
-
Happy New Year 2004!