Closing Party

The TechEd 2011 closing party was held at Coke World in Atlanta, GA. A band played in the courtyard and was right accross from the Georgia Aquarium. Here are a few pictures:

Ladies and Gentlemen...Ron White!

Here is a pic I took on my cell phone of the night we went out to the Laughing Skull comedy club on 5/18/2011 for open mic night. The place was sold out but we went inside anyway, just in time to catch the opening act, Ron White. We stood inside the door and watched Ron's 10 minute performance. Then we left and went back to the hotel...but I wouldn't have wanted to be the guy following that act.

Team Build 2010–Brian Randell

New version of Team Build.  Project Collections are intended for hosters who need to provide isolation between companies.  Build number format is now available.  Symbol Server is new. .  Silverlight switch is new so that it targets x86.  Power tools adds an ability to copy an existing build.  Build notifications power tool is now integrated in VS 2010.

TFS Admin Console Manages Controller / Agent

Lab Management integration means build have additional artifacts.

Build notification tool built into VS 2010.  Work flow is now the orchestration, testing, and auditing engine for TFS 2010.  XAML is now the build template file.  When you upgrade builds, it translates tfsbuild.proj file to the Upgraded xaml file.  At a minimum, use daily check ins using continuous integration. 

Customize Build

Paremeters are now built into the team build definition so you don’t have to do as much customization. 

Create a Custom WF Activvity

File New Project – Activity Library.  Toolbox has some built in activities.  Sequence toobox item.  Add items to your toolbox from Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Build.Workflow.dll.  Example shown is auto increment of build version number.  Hook it in through the controllers,

Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services Tips and Tricks, How-to and Beyond

Most of the changes below are in both R2 and "Denali"

New in "Denali":
Merge DataSets
Can use DataSets Lookups with use of new Lookup Functions.
This is in R2 also.
Report Styles (available in R2):
Report Parts
Publishable RDL fragments
Promotes reuse
This is really nice if someone makes a standard report part like a header it can be saved and reused by everyone.

Multiple Result Sets - still unsupported - will have to write dynamic stored precedes.

RDL Object Model - still unsupported.

At this point in time Microsoft has not fixed many of the outstanding issues in "Denali" and R2. Some of the minor issues have been resolved.

New page break properties
ResetPageNumber
Disable - can be expression based

Rendering Enhancements
Can determine the export format
RenderFormat()
Vertical text
Can export to Word.
Can name the worksheets when exporting to Excel

Location:TechEd 2011

Introduction to SharePoint Development with Microsoft Visual Studio 2010

familiar VS experience...build, debug. deploy SharePoint projects
VS allows programmers to do custom web parts,list definitions, event receivers,application pages, coded workflows
Use SharePoint designer to push to wsp packages to VS
There are project templates, and visual designers for SharePoint
Need to load powertools to get the sandboxed web part project template

dim  taskitem as splistItem = spcontext.current.web.lists["tasks"].items.add()
set values
TaskItem.Update

Event Listener - Whole list of events to listen to

Workflow project - will bring up work flow designer in VS

BDC designer..can drag and drop entities on
Videos on channel 9 on how to use

SharePoint exposes many Project system properties and commands
Feature designer, Package designer, Packaging Explorer
Add server Explorer Integration for sityes on your dev box

Troubleshooting application compatibility issues for IE9

appcompatguy@microsoft.com
@appcompatguy
Pin your apps to what works (force compatibility)
<meta> tags to set where browser content="IE=5"  in page
Use F12 helper to find problems. and fiddler
<!doctype must be 1st line)
to see zones now...go to properties...to display before was 40 million cycles

This session turned out to be more on helping you get away from IE6 rather than IE8.  Tho the technique's he used can be used for both

What’s New in Security for Microsoft SQL Server Code-Named "Denali"

Our current security for SQL Server 2008 & R2 is set up fine. Should try to get rid of any SQL Server logins when going to R2

New Security items in "Denali"
Special Schema's for Groups
Server specific roles
Now have an audit feature to replace SQLTrace.
User defined audit event: sp_audit_write()
Record filtering in the audit log
T-SQL Stack Information
Database Authentication

Location:TechEd 2011

Martin Woodward–The Accidental TFS Admin

martinwo@microsoft.com – @martinwoodward

One of the authors of the TFS 2010 book that we have.  New feature for intelliTrace symbol server (UNC file share) to store *.pdb files.  In TFS 2005 & TFS 2008, it assumed ownership.  Recommend creating an instance for TFS.  Sharepoint portal is optional.

Team Project Collection – a collection of team projects.  Change set, work items etc are now only unique across a team project collection.  One to one relationship between a team project collection and a SQL database.  We probably only one team project collection.

http://vs2010quickref.codeplex.com

Admin tools.  Process template editor.  Seen before.  tf help rollback.  tfsconfig license.  tfsconfig help changeserverid. tfpt addprojectportal, tfpt addprojectreports (say you didn’t have the reports on your team project before).

Installing (/ updating) TFS

clean machine – 64 bit

Use VM’s to practice – don’t use team reports or Sharepoint unless you need to.  Run BPA before upgrade and fix any issues.

Users and permissions – nothing new to us.TFS Administration Tool from Codeplex.  Can remove check – in permissions on a branch.  Warning this unchecks all permissions for all roles in TFS 2005 and 2008.  Can only fix by logging in as local admin on the AT. 

Improving your asp.net application Performance with Asynchronous pages and actions

@tibor19
St Async =true to let page know there could be async calls on the page(in html page)
Add Asynchronous processing = true to connection string
Async methods called in pre render - will not call prerender complete until async call is done
Add eventhandler
eh.begininvoke , eh.endinvoke
AddOnPreRenderCompleteAsync Command to invoke async call
Need to use page tasks to get full benefit of async calls
Page.RegisterAsayncTask(new pageasynctask....  use 2nd overload and set last parameter to false
Use page instead addonPrerendercompleteAsync for better results
Don't need async =true if using page method
MVC2 added async controllers
  Make controller a asynccontroller
  Add Async to end of function name...and add a new one with completed on end
  AsyncManager.Outstandingoperations.increment
  Parallel.invoke
  Asynmanager.OutstandingOPerations.decrement

Upgrading to Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 and SQL Server Code-Named "Denali": A Comprehensive Look

This session was not that useful because our past history has been to do new or side-by-side installations and not upgrade. If we go to "Denali" we would do a separate install and rebuild the databases or create new ones for new apps.

It is good thing that we are getting new servers because we would have had to reinstall the clustering software. This was taken care of with Window 2008 and our new software installations. We avoided a lot of work to upgrade because we are working with new servers and we have a practice of creating new instances when we install the next version of SQL Server.

Types of installations:
Standalone
Clustered
Log shipping
Replication

There is copy database wizard. We would most likely use our scripts we have saved and then copy data.

Location:TechEd 2011

Using JavaScript to Build HTML 5 apps

Jonathan Carter

HTML 5 is the convergent technology for the web, but JavaScript is a necessary evil.  Perforamance and browser support is getting better,  Great community support, but quite an esoteric language.  Strict Mode (IE 10+) to the rescue.  If you use strict mode, backwards compatibility is broken, and it points out where things are bad.

Suggests that we try out our approaches using jsfiddle.net  Check out book “JavaScript – The Good Parts”.  Usings examples for audio, windows.localStorage, and windows.sessionStorage, geolocations.

Idiom:  Prettier software (no matter how klunky or riddled with Indian bugs) are perceived as being better.  Examples of using canvas.

Identify and fix performance problems with Microsoft VS ultimate

the purpose of load testing, is to identify the capabilities of your application.
Possible goals
  Explore,verify, find the limits,crush
Load test early
VS ultimate - WEb performance Tests, load testing, load rigs
Plan
Script  web perfomace tests
script tests with load tests
script tests with load test rig -  lets you test which much more users (with VS ultimate - limted only by yer hardware)
Reproduce the errors hopefully
find code problems with performance wizard
fix the code

http://wcfloadtest.codeplex.com
http://sqlloadtest.codeplex.com

Let's Get Visual - The Art of Report Design

Types of report design:
Operational Reporting
Strategic Analytic Reporting
Tactical Analytic

Categories of Reports:
Prepared Reports
User Driven - write their own reports

Types:
Enterprise Portals & Dashboards
Department or self created.

Principles of Report Design (see the slide):


Dashboards & Sparklines

Sparklines - charts with no cluttered details, scales or labels.

Report Parts - IT can create a gallery of report parts that novice users can drop on the reports and not have any access to the DB.

Report Builder 3.0 is now available and the users can use shared DataSets we should do some more research to see if we can make this available to our users (Jerry Strub).

Location:TechEd 2011

Dev320 - Demystifying Debugging with MS VS Ultimate and IntelliTrace

Mickey Gousset

Infront Consultant Group

Shows making labels with breakpoints.  Import / export breakpoints.  Conditional breakpoints. Shows moving datatips during debug sessions. 

IntelliTrace – the idea is to provide a way to prevent the ‘no repro’ scenario.  Tester needs MS Test Manager.  Collects Intellitrace Events, Method entry / exit calls, breakpoints.  The Basics.  Nice details on getting IntelliTrace data output in a bug. 

Advanced SharePoint Data Access With Microsoft Silverlight

visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com
get SharePoint Silverlight web part...need powertools installed
Add Silverlight web part to proj...will add the one in solution
custom Silverlight web part adds ascx to do htlm stuff to web part
Odata
Restful interfaces brings data based on URI you send it
Case sensitive http://spserver/teched/_vti_bin/ListData.svc/Contacts to see contacts
Need to set a service reference to connect to SharePoint
use datacontext to get data
Client Object Model
3 versions,:winform,Silverlight, Jquery
Can makecalls to run code on server...and if fails..tell it to keep going
can do many powerful things in web parts and wiki and such with COM

Use Silverlight to dip[lsy a picture collection
List of pictures ifno is hidden so it doesn't have to gfo back to server uses initparameters, passing the id of hidden fields to initparameters

using web services inside SharePoint applications

Make sure to go download code

C# and VB Future: Async Made Simple

The presenter either didn't mention his name or I missed it. Here is a summary of what I saw.

• The next version of Visual Studio, called vNext, will contain a lot of enhanced support for Async calls. Namely some new keywords, such as Async and Await.


• Apparently as of .NET 4 there is something called Tasks which I still need to fully understand but these will work with the new vNext keywords.


• He demonstrated how looping logic can be very problematic for the "standard" way of dealing with Async calls.


• He went on to demonstrate the new Async CTP and the new keywords mentioned above.


• He also showed the new CancellationToken and how that works. This can be used in client.dosomethingAsync calls


• He also showed in c# how to set up a delegate to run an anonymous block of code. This isn't new but I thought it was pretty cool.


• He then, finally, loaded up some VB code to demostrate the new WCF enhancements. the syntax for the new stuff in VB is something like this:

Public Async Function doSomething() as Task (of objCustom)

.....

Dim something = Await clientProxy.doSomethingAsync

....

End Function

• There is also something called Task.WhenAll which waits for everything in the parameters list to come back before exiting.

Demystifying Debugging with Visual Studio Ultimate and Intellitrace

www.teamsystemrocks.com
@mickey_gousset
Live messenger:mickey_gousset@hotmail.com
2010 Debugging Features
Breakpoint Labeling
    This is useful for when you have multiple breakpoints, set the labels, After setting then you can group and search on them to enable/disable them
Import/Export Breakpoints
    Allows multiple users have same breakpoints (save line numbers so code must match)
Hit Count
    Allows you to set when it breaks on...nice for when in loops
    Will add a + to red dot to indicate it has a condition for it to go off
Can Drag Data tips and look at last value when done
IntelliTrace
Helps eliminate the no repro scenario
capture debugger state information during program execution
It collects 3 types information,Intellitrace Events, Method/Entry Calls, Breakpoints
THere ae about 150 different events you can trace
Tools->OPtions->Intellitrace to see if turned on

Should open intellitrace window to see intellitrace data
If you want to see local variables, set debugger lines and it will capture what local variables were when it hit debugger line
Can turn on calls view in options...then you see calls and navigate through the calls using left bar of your code
Warning turning this on could slow down running
all the info is saved in a log file you can look at
  you can set size of it under options
  If you close VS it will delete all intellitrace files you have so if wish to keep, move it before closing VS
  Click on exception and open up VS to where exception occurs even if you dont have solution open
  (must have pdb file and it must be from the build)
Intellitrace and testers
Do a build
tester runs thier test case
Tester files a bug with attached Intellitrace
Programmer can look though intellitrace log
Tester can set in Test Manager what kind of intellitrace datta they want to capture
Saving a bug in Test manager save lots of inforation that deveoper can use uncluding an intellitrace log
in the build definition, under process tab. there is a source and symbols setting...set index sources to true...give it a path to a share (place to store pdb files)
Create share to save pdbs and add file to build defifinion
And Source serving indexing -modifies info in PDB to include
  Source control provider info
  Command line to retrieve file (tf.exe)
  intellitrace lets you fix bugs w/o having to retrace tester steps
Creating Custom Intillrtace events
Warning not supported by MS
No official documentation
need to hack CollectionPlan.xml

Blend for Developers: Demystifying UI Design

Brian Randell

Why black designer?  Because of working with colors.  Tools Options, Project, “Use VS to create and edit events”…

He us a fab of exclusive check out of xaml files.  Sketchflow – use it to create a prototype.  Example using design time data..  This talk is too basic, but I would like to talk to Bob, Deb and Janus about UI design using Sketchflow instead of Excel.

Microsoft Expression for Developers:demystifying user interface design

All user want a quality experience. This Comprises of 4 things:Intuitive,Availability,Fast,Connected
need to get back to sketching out things on pen paper before we start
Change your state of mind...empathize more with user
beware user liaison...they don't always know what the users want
Use Blend and sketchflow
Blend is primary tool for xmal based interfaces
SketchFLow
  Used to create prototype
  Helps you break out ideas
  Supports WPF and Silverlight
Blend
  Can use blend to create some sample data
  Allow for interactive behavior without code
  Behavior used across all applications
  Supports Visual state manager
    Allows you to create states for your objects
    Can move between states with behaviors or with code (set behaviors in blend)
WP& support in blend due out in "mango" (I know no one really cares)

Cooler.com -  help with colors

OSP320 Managing Microsoft Access Databases in Your Organization with Microsoft SharePoint

See below for the PowerPoint presentation:

SharePointMSAccess

Not a priority folks will develop it on their own Applications in Access. Then it will be IT's problem to make it available to others.

We would find the most benefit with Access Services. This recreates any of the Access objects in SharePoint and the user will use SharePoint to modify the Access DB. This includes Forms, Macros, etc.

Location:TechEd2011

Integrating SSRS with SharePont Technologies

This session was more about Denali than SQL Server 2008 R2. Also it was geared more towards SharePoint Admins. Here are some highlights:

• Crescent and Alerting, which are new features of Denali, only will require SharePoint integration.


• Apparently in the past, SSRS reports running on SharePoint were much slower than running them natively (from Report Manager). Delani address this issue and the performance is "almost" as good.


• There can be more than one SSRS catalog in Denali, which is different than previous versions where there could only be one.


• Claims based authentication via the WCF framework endpoints.


• Powershell is used extensively for configuration and management.


• There will be support for consuming reports "cross-farm".


• Integrated Backup/Restore, monitoring with SharePoint.


• Denali will NOT require the SSRS configuration management tool.


• There will be 3 databases which will comprise the SSRS catalog: main, tempdb, and alerts.


• SSRS can be backed up via the SharePoint application management screen.

Efficient T-SQL Querying with Itzik Ben-Gan

The main focus of this session was to highlight the new functions that will be available in "Denali". These functions are called Window Functions not to be confused with Windows. They are hugely faster then standard SQL and are focused on the Set Calculations.

Set calculations:
Ranking
Aggregates
Offset
Distribution

Cursors are slow an non-relational in SQL Server not in Oracle.

Window Functions mainly handle the following:
Aggregates: partitioning, ordering & coverage (POC)

Please the following link to review the functions that were reviewed:
TSQL Querying

If the link does not work, which is what I expect, I have a copy of the presentation.

Location:TechEd

Silverlight, WCF Ria Services and Your Business Objects–Deborah Kurata www.insteptech.com

deborahk@insteptech.com

http://msmvps.com/blogs/deborahk

code is www.insteptech.com

No EF coverage in this talk.  This is about RIA and your own business objects. In web host app, do an add on a doman service class.  Click enable client access. Use the KeyAttribute.  Demos used via drag and drop and MVVM.  See slides.

Visual Studio 2010 Tips and Tricks

Presented by Dustin Campbell and Scott Cratte.

There are so many that they went over I will list some of the ones that stood out for me:

• Pin Data Tip. This was my favorite so I am listing it first. Not only can you pin data tips in your code, so that when you are debugging you can see the values of variables right next to the line, but the data persists between debugging sessions, so you can see the last value the variable contained.



• A lot of keyboard shortcuts shown, here are some: Alt + Drag causes a Box type selection of code. Then you can type and it will replace everything selected with whatever you are typing. Shift + F12 Find all references (this one I already knew about) then F8 to navigate through the results (this I didn't know about). CTRL + , Brings up the "Navigate To" box which is like a fuzzy logic search. CTRL + . displays the currently selected smart tag. CTRL + F10 run to cursor. CTRL + SHIFT + F10 moves the execution point up. SHIFT + ALT + F11 brings up a context menu that allows you to pick which nested method you want to step into. There were many more...



• They discussed "When Hit..." breakpoints. You can configure these to print to the output window the values of stuff rather than actually breaking the code execution.



• Oh and this one was cool: CTRL + Double-Click on a tab that you have pulled away from it's original dock, this will put the tab back to where it was originally.



• I learned that when you don't have a variable declared and you start typing sometimes it will try to be helpful and Intellisense will put something there you don't want. Well, undo (Ctrl +z) will put your text back to whatever you typed. But even better is CTRL + ALT + SPACE cause Visual Studio to run in Suggestion mode instead of Force mode.


• Here another one that will come in handy since XAML doesn't support #Regions. AD Hock regions. These are basically regions you can Hide and Unhide for you current session. Select a region of code then CTRL + M, H to hide it and CTRL + M, U to unhide it.

Entity Framework 4 and Beyond: Building Real World Applications

jeff Derstadt (jeffders@microsoft.com)
Jonathan Aneja (jonaneja@microsoft.com)

Use Enity Framework to generate classes
Using MVC can add comntrollers based on the enity framework
USe nuget to find things not shipped with vS - can install items just to project you are in not every project
Viewmodel class..store data gotten from controller
turn off entity framework change tracking if using readonly data to improve speed
Lazy Loading (need to research)
Compiled Queries - use most complex, and use for queries that are called the most
Eager Loading (look into)

www.tinyurl/efproviders list of providers for entity framework
Next version will be able to bring in stps
Next version of EF will have support for enum types, and spacial data
Will also be able to suse table value functions instead of stps

wwww.msdn.com/data/ef
http://blogs.msdn.com/efdesign

Test Automation with Visual Studio 2010: Coded UI tests (CUIT) and Lab Management

This may be a little unrealistic for us but here is what I gathered from the session:

• Need VS Premium or Ultimate to use. Also they recommend Feature Pack 2


• Create a new Test project in VS, then add a UITest. At this point you are presented with either "record actions" option, or "use existing action recording" option. The second option can be from a manual test case (see yesterday's blog).


• Record actions allows you to record everything you do on on the machine while interacting with an application. Such as open app, type "Hello world" in textbox, click button...etc.


• Then you click on generate coded UI test and it writes code in your test project for you. Interestingly, the presenter Brian Keller, stated that Microsoft has been using the technology to test their app for 15 years.


• At this point you can modify the test code, by writing assert stuff, where you can use the test case tool to select a control and tell it to watch this control for a certain value.


• The tests are run "as quickly as possible" meaning that it will wait until callbacks come back and everything before it moves on to the next steps. You can also insert delays into the tests.


• The UIMap tool can be used to view the test steps and these can be modified and deleted from here.


• The steps can be broken out into individual methods (by default they are all rolled into one).


• You can configure the steps to "continue on error". By default this property is set to false.


• You can use test parameters which can be hard coded or looked up from a datasource, such as a database or CSV or XLS files


• You can also configure to capture images at certain steps, which can then be saved with the test results. These can then be reviewed by a real live person to make sure the interface is running smoothly.

HTML5 and CSS3 techniques you can use today

@toddanglin
started with a demo that used html5 in ie6 browser
HTML5 is really a mix of <html>, CSS3, abf Javascript
Things in HTNML5 that work in all browser: Canvas,local storage,micordatra,docukent editing, geolocation,semantic tags, video
more defined CCS3 - Css color, selectors,backgrounds,borders,media queries, multicolumn
Browswer prefixes for Css tags for broswer specific css tags :webkit,moz,o,ms
Adoption strategies
Lowest common demoninator...features that all browsers support - wont use many new features
Pollyfill Enriched - only use features eitjh native filled or can be done using Javascipt adding HTML5 tags functions
Alterante experiences - Design alternate experience for other browsers
Vertical targeting - Create experience for targeted browsers or class of browsers

HTMLUI.com has good demos
html5demos.com good demos too

MOdernizr -  give api to test if browser has the features you want to use.  If they don't you can potentially call javascript that will handle it
Renders elements as html elements
Semantic tags are tags with meaning, cahnge tags from <div id="header"> to <header>
<!Doctype html /> is valid without all extra itmes nonamlly in doctype tags
video audio use mp4 or h.264 as it works in htlm5, silverlight, and flash
Geolocation - naqvigator.geolocation.getcurrentposition(callback); or for older browser try getting ip address and determine from there
Local Storage - store stuff client side up to 5MB -Sessionstorage per window, localstorage per browser
you can put tags inside new tags to to tell browser if this outer tag doesn't work, try inner tags.  this helps makes thing work in all browsers
CSS SELECTORS
use css to style every other row and more
CSS3 COLOR
BAckground:rgb
background:rgba
background:HSL
Borders and backgrounds
border-radius:
Web Font Providers
Easy access for fonts liscened to use on the web
www.fontsquirrel.com ias web site for fonts you can use on the web
css3pie.com - has pollyfill for rounder corners

IIS 7.5 for Developers–Dev 336

Steve Evans – @scevans – http://serktools.com

Host name – when creating a web site in IIS, chose host name based on how user will type.  EG, site1.com, www.site1.com; Example using Powershell to create a web site.  SSL starts with certificate authority (Godaddy, etc).  Browser will check who created certificate, then a host header match.  Then a data match.  Create a certificate at the root of the server.  Starting in IIS 7, create a self signed certificate.  This will at least cause the encryption to happen.  Then on site, you can set https binding.  But you cannot bind by the name on SSL.  Wildcard certificates can be used as well. 

Example of a new default document.  Feature delegation will control what changes are managed through web.config or internal to IIS. 

Application Pools – Integrated mode on app pools is the way to go if you can.  Normally, he sets the timeout to 0.  Set the app pool reset to 0 and set the time span to something like 2 AM. 

Failed Request Tracing Rules – example of checking for codes of 500.  Generate logs.  Shows Web Deploy. 

Manual testing with Test Manager 2010

Here is a summary of what I was shown today regarding the test manager 2010.

• Test Suites are configured with a set of test cases



• Test cases can be configured to capture all sorts of data, including Intellitrace, System Info (e.g. CPU, RAM, etc), Video Recording of steps, Test Impact (this is what DLL are being tested and if there is a change to one of them, the test manager lets you know that you might want to retest).



• You can set up different roles for each test suite/case. So you can have different permissions or setups.



• You can set up the suites to says what different configurations are needed, such as Firefox, IE7, IE8, etc..



• When you create a new test case, you can insert steps, such as click here open this, type that.



• AND you can create parameters for some of your steps, for example if you want to test an address form with different countries addresses, you just set up the parameters @address1,@address2,@city, etc... then create what values you want to test for those parmeters and save them as part of the test case.



• You can also set up "expected results" and you can put screen shots there.



• You then "Run" the test case where you select lightweight or full (determines how much data is collected).



• When running it will prompt you to create an "action recording" which records every click and action the tester does.



• When the tester tool is running and it comes to the step with the parameters, you can simply copy and paste from the values list.



• Once succcessfully run once, you can rerun automatically with different pararmeters.


• All the data collected can be attached to TFS bugs so that the developers will be able to see exactly what the tester did.



• Test Impact Analysis tells the tester that a new build may have affected a previously tested piece of code.

Tomorrow we talk about test automation.

From Zero to Silverlight in 75 minutes

Akthough this class was geared more to people who had no Silverlight experience, I was hoping to glean some tips and tricks. Here is some of what I learned:

• The Document Outline can be used to see the whole visual tree. I never really used it before but I can see how it could be useful.



• Right-Click on your XAML page and select Reset Layout > Reset All. That make all the controls on your form expand to fill their respective parent containers.



• Canvas's allow controls contained therein to be positioned absolutely with the left and top properties.



• You can create grid rows and columns simply by clicking on the border surrounding the grid in the designer.



• You can also insert a row or column by right-clicking the grid and selecting Insert. This renumbers all down stream controls, which will save some time if you have a lot.



• You can set multiple controls' margins (and other properties I am sure) by multi-selecting them and then using the properties window.



• To remove the margin (as well as other tags) from single or multiple controls, select them and then in the properties window, select the "Advanced properties" icon (a diamond), and select reset value. Setting the margin to zero leaves the attribute in the markup whereas using the advanced properties does not.



• You can select a keyed Style in the property window.



• Any control that uses Content instead of Text can be templated to contain just about anything.



• Textblocks can contain tags which are like bits of text that can be formatted. For example: This text is bold and this text is red. All within one textblock.



• Binding properties to other controls (and other resources) can be done easily through the advanced properties window.



• You can create a static resource of a custom class in the XAML and then bind to controls. Can also be done with collections. This is done by importing the namespace of your custom class and then in resource area (like the Grid.resources) do something like this <?xml:namespace prefix = namespace /><namespace:customclass property1="some text" property2="more text"></namespace:customclass>.... and collections are like this <namespace:customcollection><namespace:customclass property1="some text" property2="more text"></namespace:customclass>

My Customers are Using iPhone / Android but I am a Microsoft Guy–Now What?

Simon Guest, Director Mobility Solutions

Android 34%, iPhone 24%…Many orgs adopting Android and iOS. .  Take the iPhone and Android environment into the MS dev tools.

Scenario 1) Render a web site better on iPhone.  User agent string from browser advertises the client.  Leads to multiple sites.  Can use MVC and use a different view based on theclient.  ASP .Net view engine can deliver different views based on the client. 

Using jQuery to create a uniqye experience.  Take your MVC app, annotate with jQuery.  Works the same on android. 

Choose carefully the UI frameworks which are available. 

Scenario 2) Services – WCF – Format the output in JSon and not XML.  Need a JSON library for Objective C.  What about Soap services?  It is not as easy as you were hoping.  wsdl2objc – takes the Soap Service and generate objective C.  github.com/simonguest

Restful on Android.  Easier – All JSON libraries are embedded.  Soap handler.

Windows Azure Toolkit for iOS, released last week.

So, the proposal in general is to have a web app to be able to be rendered in multiple devices using MVC. 

Application Development in HTML5

Defining HTML5
HTML+CSS+JavaScript APIs = HTML5
A term that represents what new and next for the web
5 terms that describe HTML5
Hyperbole - Don't believe all the Hype
Compatibility - Web is largest legacy software system in history of the universe
Semantics - naming tags
JavaScript - use of JavaScript is becoming more and more used - becoming 1st class language
Polyfills - target new features and not break users using old browsers (modernizr - JavaScript libary)
there are 28 new elements are avaialble in HTML5
using modernizr will add most of tags to DOM so sites will work in older browser
Much scripting is now being moved to css in CSS3
Local storage is like cookies on steroids.  These are stored in the browser (get 5 megs) (dont expire) (not secure)
can use the storage to only store string but can use new json conversion to convert json to stings and save to increase speed.

ietestdrive.com
html5labs.com

Performance Tuning and Optimization in Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 and SQL Server Code-Named "Denali"

The presentation will available at: SQLBlog.com

The Tuning Process
Monitoring
Collection of metrics
Storage of time stamped data
Calc

Troubleshooting
Id problem
Measure impact
Refine data collection

Tuning & optimizing
Correct problem
Improve the query

Testing and deploying
Validate
Move to production
Confirm with users

Make sure you test

Dynamic Management Views now called "Objects"
See the web site above for categorized objects

Extended Events - tracing and profiling. Extended Events only exist in "Denali"

In conclusion the are a huge amount of objects and tools to tune our SQL Server 2008 R2. Use the website for list that was discussed. In the coming year, I would like to do more tuning to increase performance in SQL Server and our apps.

Location:TechEd 2011

Fundamental Design Concepts for UI Developers

.net is ecosystem that is an ever changing environments
Getr ready for degining in new world.  Touch, maybe motion(kinect)
Most developers use logic thing part of brain vs look and feel part
Design Princip[als
Pareto princi[pal -80/20 - 80% of usage is done on 20% of buttons
fitts law - the amt of time to locate and use an option is smaller if the option is bigger
Hicks law - AMt of time required to locate and use an option is larger if the user must choose from many options
Savahna effecr - Open spaces make people feel safe
People prefer non-mono effects...why gradients are better...most of the world isn't mono color
Gradients come from top normally...light normally comes from overhead
Animations are more real world for new screens and stuff...not just poof appear
Desire lines - capture what folks do and analyze to make them get there more effectively
Aesthtic -Usability Effect -Users believe believe beautiful software is more usable
 
The New Drawing on the right side of the brain - Book
Universal Design Principals -  Book

What’s New in Microsoft SQL Server Code-Named “Denali” for Reporting Services

SQL Server Reporting Services code names "Denali"
Will be much easier for end users to create their own reports.
Shared DataSets
Report Part Gallery
New visualizations (Map, Guage, Sparkline, Databar, KPI)
Ajax Report Viewer
Customer DCRs (defined customer requests)
They cut Adhoc reporting and alerting

Main Focus Areas:
Empower the end users
Crescent reports - this will be the new way to allow end users to create reports on the fly. It is presentation ready at all times and requires Silverlight because it is a Silverlight app. Only works with SharePoint mode.
Increased productivity
End user alerting
Increased Efficiency
Enable as SharePoint shared services
Report Performance Improvements

Must make a decision as whether you want to run in SharePoint mode or native mode before the install. Can't switch.

Need to remember that this is the version after SQL Server 2008 R2 and will not be implemented for some time. May want to enable the SharePoint mode now to administrate reporting services.

Office Open XML Rendering Extensions. Users will see this option in the export drop list in the report viewer and in the developer tools.

All this seems very cool, but is years away from being implemented at Weston. Although, if we want to work with a beta version we can load to VS 2010 and SSRS R2. This is not normally our policy.

Location:TechEd 2011

Web Deployment Made Easy–Seriously

J. Michael Palermo & Scott Cate -  Slide Deck

Twitter tag #TEDEV342  What you can’t do (publish from old Web Site template and not Web App).  Publishing needs a profile and a build configuration.  You can build a deployment package, using the new .Net 4.0 web.config transformations options to make changes between dev, qa, and prod.  Does not support using a task to create an app pool in the package.  Can deploy either through Visual Studio, or just import the package through IIS.

. 

Code First Development in ADO.Net Entity Framework 4.1 (aka Magic Unicorn Edition)

The demo that the instructors were doing was in MVC. Some highlights of the session:

• They introduced me to something called NuGet which is a way to get a project reference to something that was released after .Net Framework 4.0 was released. You can go to Microsoft's website and download the release, or you can right click on references and select "Add Library Package Release". This brings up a multipage window of many different references you can select. In this case they selected, the EntityFramework 4.1. This downloaded and set up the references automatically.


• Once this package was referenced they were able to add a "Context" class to their project by inheriting from dbContext. This allowed them to create public properties of dbSets (basically lists of custom objects).


• They used MVC and the EntityFramework to generate a database in their local SQL Express database. This was automatically created when they ran the app.


• They then went through how to configure the database fields (i.e. isnullable, max length, etc) by overriding the OnModelCreating method in the Context class (modelbuilder.entity...).


• They also discussed how to use some of that stuff for validation on the View.


• They duscussed something called EntityFrameworkMigrations, which isn't available yet but is supposed to help keep databases and applications synced.


• They also discussed something called Code First Power Tools, which are "almost available". This has a right-click context menu in VS, "Reverse Engineer From Database" which allows you to create classes from an existing database. This could be interesting...


• The next version of EntityFramework will support Enum and Spacial data.

HTML, Jquery, and Javascript In Microsoft Sharepoint 2010 Development

x

http://bit.ly/sphtml -  examples used in presentation
HTML
Markup,JavaScript,CSS
HTML5 - New Tags -<Canvas><Video><Input><AUDIO><COMMAND><DATALIST><TIME>
    DocType -HTML
    Content ="IE=8" (IE=9 for IE9)
JavaScript
    three ways to get <Script src ="xxx.js">
        <Sharepoint.Scriptlink>
        <Script type="text\javascript" Sys.LoadSripts>
_spBodyOnLoadFunctionNames.Push("DisplayImage") To replace OnLoad events in HTML in SharePoint

VideoJS - JavaScript Video player
USe Content Editor in Sp to add the examples to SP
<Video> has multiple <Source> based on browser you are looking at it in
Make sure files you reference point to correct places
Fluient UI- Server Ribbon for working with JavaScript
SP.UI
SP.UI.ModalDialog
SP.UI.Notify
SP.UI.Status

JavaScript Client Object Model   
SharePoint sites ahve _vti_bin/listdata.svc to see the data structure its passing back

Advanced Business Intelligence Solutions Using Microsoft Excel + Excel Services

Almost everyone is using Excel 2010 so it looks like Weston is bit behind in this area.

Interesting Things in Excel 2010:
Name sets in Pivot Table options.
MDX is the query language for BI or cubes.
What if analysis
Slicers - get a much richer analysis. These are enhanced filters and can
Can use VLOOKUP in formulas
Have added more features to Pivot tables.
Spark Lines are small trend lines that can be added to cells in Excel.

Excel Services:
You can create dashboards that are workbooks and can be exported to SharePoint and have the data be live against the warehouse or cube.
Can use Web Parts to help with dashboard and you might need to add code.

Bottom-line, there needs to be more research to learn how to perform this function. My guess is that Srikanth and Bob already have some knowledge of how to do some of this. Main point is that these dashboards could need a more technical asset to do more of the advanced BI features, but there does seem to be many things a less technical resource could do. Might be the solution for the Jerry Strub's of the world??

Location:TechEd 2011

Is an Object-First or Database-First Development Approach Better

This BOF (Birds of a Feather) was a very passionate discussion about whether Objects or the Database comes first. It was a great conversation with many good points on both sides of the argument. I think because we are such a small shop that do them both at the same time, but I believe the database is the foundation and many of the objects are tied to DB objects.

It was really interesting to hear that most companies have very few developer DBAs and that kind of drives the approach that folks take. If the DBA is part of the development team then the Database is first and if they are not, then Objects come first. This discussion was streamed and I did take the opportunity to voice my opinion (No surprise there). :)

This would be an interesting discussion for our monthly technical meeting.

Intro to IE 9 for IT Pros

Anurag Pandit

Application Reputation – Browser does a quick scan on download to check against the reputation of the app.  Tracking ptotection.  Demo with Fishbowl  Bad video, kept going out.  100 level class.  Boo.

Async Calls in Silverlight and WPF

This was very fast paced for such a complex subject. Here are the highlights:

• Three commandments of Multi-Threading: 1. Thou shall not block the UI thread, 2. Thou shall not access objects on a non -UI thread. , 3. Thou shall not access variables on multi-threads without protection (locks).


• The instructor, Brian Noyles, went over different patterns for Ansyc processing:


• Begin/End pattern, which is the most powerful but also the most complex. he didn't recommend using this for UI stuff.


• Async/Completed pattern. This is the one we currently use in our Silverlight app. This was the most familiar to me.


• TPL: Task Parallel Library. Only .NET 4 and not for SL (yet).


• Parallel Framework (PFX) and PLINQ. There are Parallel.For and ForEach commands, and PLINQ is a LINQ statement that runs on multiple threads, var q = from item in data.AsParallel() select item +1


• Task Based Ansyc Pattern (TAP). He stated that "tasks" are the future. This is only available as a CTP but will be released in the next version of .NET. This adds new keywords to the languages (VB and C#). It allows you to write Synchronous looking code which actually compiles down to be Async. Two of the new keywords are: Async and Await.


• Reactive Extenstions (Rx): Like LINQ for Events. Allows you to write LINQ against some evnents, kind of hard to follow his demo. He said is available now.

Windows Communication Foundation Futures

4 things for WCF futures

WCF FOR VNext
Simplicity
improved intellisense for items in web.config
make the web.config debugable
AppFabric - Public Application manager - Management tool for WCF
Cloud
APPfabic:Next Generation Middleware platform
HTTP/REST
FOr use with talking to mobil devices...and web pages
Create Web APIs
HTTP++,OData,WebSockets,OAuth
    Web Sockets - Upgrade HTTP connection to full TCP connection
        EArly Previews on wcf.codeplex.com
Clients
WCF RIA Services
    Doamin Service Project - Available with VS 2010 SP1
    call from silverlight, JQuery

SQL Server Developer Tools for VS vNext.

Takes SQL Server Management Server tools inside of Visual Studio.  Develop databases connected or (new) disconnected.  Even publish to SQL Server Azure.  Demonstrates creating local database changes (no SQL Server required), and creating a deployment package, snapshots, etc for comparing the changes later.

Services Made Easy with WCF 4 and VS 2010, and Windows Server AppFabric

Dan Roth – Points out that under ,Net 4.0 we have more tools to manage WCF services that I didn’t know about.  Example he uses is pointed out by deleting the web.config in the project and he points out you don’t need it.  WCF 4 supports implicit endpoints in your services and the means of managing the defaults of your endpoints without having to specifiy the details of all of your endpoints.  You change the defaults by just not giving a name of the settings. He also stated that the .Net 3.5 default throttling settings were not production ready.  They have been refactored for .Net 4.0 .  For example, MaxConcurrentSessions is 100*Processor count.  Demonstrates hosting the services with Windows Server AppFabric and deploying with packages.  http://msdn.microsoft.com/appfabric.  Does not work on IIS express.  Monitoring tools and dashboards can give you diagnostics on the service calls.  Looks very, very useful for ProjectTrack.

Advanced Expression Blend for Developers: Integrating MVVM and Designability

Just a quick summary:

• The presenter, Pete Brown, went over MVVM real fast. The gist is Model, View, ViewModel. But inreality it is more like View > ViewModel > Model. Where View is the GUI, and Model is the data source, and ViewModel is the stuff in between


• The concept is to seperate the User interface from the intermdiate level and also to seperate the intermediate level from the back end.


• Althopugh he covered many points, the one that I really took away from it was the concept of design time data sources. This is used for development purposes during the design time.


• for example: This shows how one data source can be used at design time and another at run time.


• Then you would use the IsDesignTimeCreateable = True in your binding statement in order to get it to work


• Also, once you have you design time data source, you can drag and drop in Blend and it will create your binding statements for you. This will be useful when there are a lot of binding statements to write.


• You wlould use the DesignerProperties.IsInDesignTool to figure out which datasource should be returned. If the same interface is used for both Deisgn and Run time you can return the same data tyep in your services.


• He also went over Behaviors and Commands in Blend but I will need some time digest that material. Basically a Command is like binding for an action.

Automating Database Migration to SQL Server

SSMA - SQL Server Migration Assistant

Used to migrate from non SQL Server environments to SQL Server.
Can migrate Access mdb's
Oracle and others

Process:
DB discovery
Schema discovery
Data migration
Embedded SQL Statement
DB connectivity
User login and permissions

Has a testing module to test the objects in the DB after conversion.

This is a tool we have in house that would mainly be used to convert Access DB. For the record, Microsoft is now saying that Customers are saying SQL Server 2008 R2 is now out performing Oracle when it comes to data retrieval. Joe, I don't want to debate it. :)

SSMA 5.0 was just released and is much faster than the previous version. Supports SQL Server 2008, R2,"Denali" and SQL Azure.

Location:TechEd 2011

Delivering end–end video workflow using using SharePoint, IIS media services, expression coder, and Silverlight

Video Workflow
Use Smooth Streaming
spinica - box for encoding the streams
     encode at multiple bit rates
Use CDM to push out to users
Silverlight does 2 seconds stream, Apple uses 10 second stream

Advanced capabilities
Adaptive streaming
VOD workflow
Live Streaming
Video Editing
Ad Insertion
Publishing

Start ar largest Bit rate..send 2 second chunk and look for bandwidth overhead and adjust bit-rate based on this

Services - Windows server - IIS media services -  built on top of windows 7
Tools - Expression encoder, MS PlayReady
Clients - Silverlight, HTML 5, Smooth streaming & PlayReady client porting kits (IOS4, Linux, Android)
Frameworks - Microsoft Media Platform (Video Editor,Content Manager, Player Framework, Audience Insight)

Server roles
SharePoint 2010 for content management not video management (Content Manager for SharePoint)
    Create new project types in SharePoint. site templates for video projects
    Define Encoding Resources
    Specify where IIS media Origin servers are
    And where FTP servers are
Sql server 2008
IIS media services Transfer Manager
    Covert live stream to VOD
    Trasmux to other formats (Apple HLS)
IIS media Services Origin (Live & VOD)
Expression Encoder (should be separate box because when encoding sucks up server resources)

Top 10 Reasons to Upgrade to SSRS 2008 R2

Some of these are available in 2008 but some are new to R2:

1. Tablix control. Apparently this was first introduced in 2008. Not much new in R2 for this.


2. Ad Hoc reports: There is a stand alond Report Builder that can be downloaded from Microsoft (v3.0), which allows users to build their own reports. It seems pretty easy to use.


3. Data Visualizations: R2 has Sparklines, small graphs that show trends, Indicators, alerts like in ProjectTrack icons (these are predefined image collections), and Data Bars, which are just small bar graphs.


4. Mapping. There is a new Map Wizard, supports Bing, SQL Server spacial data, and other formats. Also allows for not only maps but any geographic shape.


5. Report Parts. These are like custom defined user controls that can be compiled and shared among reports.


6. Data Enhancements. This is the best new feature, IMHO. Shared Datasets! These can be created and then shared among reports. For our ProjectTrack app, I could see using this for the Project Manager dropdown list. Also there is a new feature to export data from a report as a data feed (button on the report viewer). Another new feature is Share Point Lists can be used as data sources now.


7. Robust Report Platform (not new): Not dependant on IIS. Scalable Report Engine, which can be configured in the reportserver.config file.


8. Rich Text Formatting (not new): Textboxes support Rich text. Also text has property you can set that renders HTML tags.


9. Enhanced Experience: New enhancements to the admin management and report viewer. Ajax being utilized for smoother stuff (i.e. drill downs)


10. Misc. Enhancements: Page break enhancements, Excel tab naming (page naming property as an expression), Vertical text now supported, and export to Word.
    

TSQL Cookbook: Whats cooking in SQL Server 2008 R2 and New in SLQ Server Code Named “Denali”

New in R2( mostly availabe in SQL 2008)

Date, Time, Datetime2,datetimeoffset
Merge statement
Grouping Sets -  group by grouping sets
Spatial support through geometry and geography
Table value parameters

Denali

Simpplified Paging - Added Offset/Fetch Next
syntax -- Offset 10 rows fetch next 10 rows only

Add support UTF-16
Added _SC to collations

Sequence Genrators - seperates number-generation from coulmn and table
get min/max values...when max value hit will recyle to min value
create sEQUENCE s1 start with 1
select next value for s1,* from table1
Use OVER to order result set
 
Error Handling - Added Throw/ReTrow
Statement abort, scope abort, Batch abort, Transaction abort, connection abort

Improve Dynamic SQL
Support for defining a contract for returned reulsets

Additional Scalar functions
Try_convert - return null if conversion fails on converts (very cool)
Format - like .net for cultures
Parse
Try_Parse
IIF - Use instead case
Choose
Concat - treat nulls as empty strings
EOMOTH - returns end of month for giving date
and multiple date functions to create dates

Robust Results from Metadata
Replace set FMTONLY

The T-SQL Cookbook: What's Cool in Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 and New in SQL Server Code-Named "Denali"

SQL Server 2008 R2 mostly a BI release. No many T-SQL changes, but did address the following:
Date, Time, DateTime2, Grouping Sets, Merge, table valued parameters, geometry & geography

SQL Server code named - "Denali":
Simplified paging:
Select *
From Table
Order by offset
Fetch next 10 rows only

Supports UTF-16 and _SC collations (Supplemental Characters)

Sequence Generators - see the picture for the syntax.


Improved Error handling by adding "Throw"
Better Dynamic SQL - support for defining what is returned in result sets.

Additional Scalar Functions:
Try_Convert()
Format()
Parse()
Try_Parse()
IIF()
Choose()
Concat()
First()
Last()
EOMonth()
DateFromParts()
DateTime2FromParts()
DateTimeFromParts()

Metadata discovery tools - will need to research where applicable to our needs.

This was great session, but most of these improvements will not be available until the version of SQL Server after R2 which could be two to three years from now! Good stuff though!

Location:TechEd 2011

Whats New in Silverlight 5

@pete_brown: New deatures highlighted: XAML Binding Debugging, implicit data template, text (font) improvements and multi-column and links, low-latency sound, real popup windows (OOB only).

Foundational Session: The future VS ALM

A quick summary of the Foundational Session presented by Cameron Skinner. This is all about Visual Studio "vNext"

• Inteletrace in production <= this is like a "vcr" for your app. It replays the steps that were used in creating the error. This can then be run in VS





• TFS Portal has some new very powerful time/asset management tools




• Search for cloned code or similar code




• TFS items will be able to be searched easier




• New code review tool that has a very cool "diff" feature, where the changed code is right on top of the original




• A new tab called a provincial tab that contains the latest window but doesn't remain open after you are finished with it




• New feedback session tool, this is great for recording clicks and submitting screen shots. "Actionable"


• Oh yeah, one other very cool thing: There will be, in Team Navigator, a "pause" feature, which will allow you to save off what your working on, including break points, windows that are open, and other stuff, as well as your code. Then work on something else, then when you are ready you can "unpause" and it will load your windows, break points, code, etc back into Visual Studio.

MVC,MVP,MVVM–A comparisons of architectural patters

MVC  - Asp.net MVC 3

MVP – web form/Sharepoint/Winforms – UI state logic built in

MVVM -  Silverlight – two way data binding

Based on separation of duties Model – Data, View - Presentation layer, C or VM or P – Glue Logic

A Lap Around Silverlight 5

A summary of the items in the upcomming SL5:

• XAML Debugging <= only for binding statements


• pInvoke support for COM calls, not released with beta but will be available in final release


• Implicit Data Templates that allow different styles in a single listbox depending on what type of object is being bound. As long as they all inherit from the same parent class.


• Multi-column text <= used in tadem with RichTextBox and a TextBoxOverflowing control


• Linked text <= wraps around controls on a form


• Charater spacing, I think this is called "kerning", allows the spacing between letters to be modified.


• Enhanced "real windows" which are actual OS windows. Currently only available in out of browser apps.


• Low-latency sound. <= near real time sounds when n event is fired.


• 3D support.

Note: Also the speaker, Pete Brown, said that we should all beg our managers to get SSD hard drives. He stated that it would really increase productivity because it loads so fast. I personally witnessed Visual Studio load in lightening fast speed (less than 5 secs).

SQL Server "Denali" Always On Technology

Current Solutions that are fragmented when used by themselves:
Mirroring
Log shipping
Failover clustering

"Always On" combines mirroring and log shipping.
Features:
Flexible
Integrated
Efficient

Always On is a new technology that goes on top of SQL Server code named "Denali". Can deploy the failover solutions using this technology.

Not sure this solution is a good fit for Weston. Would love for Mike, Joe T or Geoff, to look at this technology and provide an opinion for the future.

Location:TechEd 2011

Lifecycle ALM

TFS – Built in Code review

VS Vnext –Search for like Code, Inline Comparisons

Intellisense – Can install on all servers for capturing debugging Info

Continuous stakeholder feedback-  Give better feedback when testing or in production.

Download System Center Connecector CTP

Visual Studio and Application Lifecycle Management

IntelliTrace used to help debug apps.

Web access for team foundation that does not require the Visual Studio.

There is new suspend feature that helps with constant interruptions.

Code clone looks for code that has been reused and might need refactered when changes are made. Looks for code patterns not exact matches.

Have made unit testing better, but it still needs to be done by the developers. Would like to see us go to test driven development, but it does take longer so we need to be practical with our staff levels.

Have made searching for work items easier directly from Visual Studio.

New code review feature has been included with the ability to ID the next person in the review cycle.

Stakeholder feedback tool. This would allow us to get rid of PBL as it relates to our applications.

Location:TechEd 2011

Future of Microsoft VS ALM

Cameron Skinner

Visual Studio vNext – Intellitrace in Production; Capture all events or even all data input; Revamped web ui to TFS.  Very Sharepoint like. Work Item search; Code review work flow; Comparison tool to view diffs. Customer feedback tool; Customer mock up tool.

Pre conference

Hit 2 Phillies games (Sat and Sunday) and was disappointed both games.  We all and Mexican dinner which was pretty good, then went to an Irish pub for a few beers Sunday night

Keynote

Started doing Cloud and Win Phone Demos. Which the connectivty stuff was interesting.  Tho since we don’t use win phones it wasn’t as interesting as 2nd 1/2 of keynote wich focused on Visual studio and TFS, where the demoed some new features in VS vNext(the next version of VS)

TechEd Arrival Day

Security line was long, had a guy fall asleep and become a bobble head on my shoulder. We landed on time only to wait 20 minutes for our gate to open. Went to the hotel and all the roads were blocked by the police. Michele Obama was giving a speech at our hotel. Were not even allowed to walk to the restaurant that was across the street. I kept thinking how much money was spent to have a 100 law enforcement folks escorting her.

The Mexican dinner was good. Hit an Irish pub to sample some microbrewery beer. Then we headed back to our rooms for an early night so we could be up early for the first day of TechEd. All-In-All a good day even with all the strange events except that Steve went to two Phillies games and caused them to lose both. Was totally his fault. :)

Location:Atlanta

Keynote

We are awaiting the start of the keynote. They are trying to entertain us with some computerized electronic music by a group called the Glitch Mob. Not doing it for me. Bin told there is something special coming. Focusing on the cloud and devices.

Cloud:

Can have a Public or Private cloud with Azure.

System Center would need to be used with the Cloud.

System Center will be able to handle the monitoring of most devices like the IPad, IPhone and BlackBerry!

Can use Excel to do BI and create great graphics and charts. Once it is created you can bring the whole app into the visual studio. This is really cool!

Devices:

Now shipping more smartphones then PCs. Microsoft has not done anything with their phones that has not already been done by Apple. They have improved the phone, but in my opinion they are too late and will not be able to get market share. One neat thing; you can attach to the cloud and get to SharePoint with Office365. All on the smartphone.

In conclusion, it is real clear that we should at least investigate the Cloud to ensure that we are availing ourselves to any features that would benefit Weston. Also, we will be investigating and confirming our current technology decisions. Lastly, the BI tools within Excel look very interesting and we should look at how it might apply for Weston.

Sunday Notes

We managed to have an early dinner (most had not eaten lunch) at this Mexican place, and then went to the Conf Center to register and get our swag.  Ran into Brian Randall and he said to make sure we don’t miss the keynote.  Later drank some brews at this Irish Pub.

Ms. Obama was apparently speaking at our hotel after the baseball game for some fund raiser.  Big police presence (including helicoptors, Evil Knevils, and Bumble Bee cop cars) blocking the roads from foot and car traffic.  Tremendous waste of government money.