15% off of MCSD/MCAD Certification Exams @ Pearson/VUE

Use the following voucher number MSAU113E1020. Good until August 31, 2005.

Congratulations to TVBUG

http://weblogs.asp.net/kencox/archive/2005/04/21/403792.aspx

Congratulations to all those involved, but especially to the winning team from TVBUG. So how do we get our hands on that pocketbuilder app?

Update: Links to pocketbuilder added

List of URLs

Code: ftp://cynot.gotdns.com/PocketBuilder in Code directory.

Installation instructions in file setup pocketbuilder.txt.

Zip version of nant and nantcontrib included.

Documentation: ftp://cynot.gotdns.com/PocketBuilder in Documentation directory.

Data Model: http://cynot.gotdns.com/PocketBuilder.DataModel

Blog: http://cynot.gotdns.com

Monitoring ASP.NET tool: http://cynot.gotdns.com/PocketBuilderUI

Admin tool: http://cynot.gotdns.com/PocketBuilderAdmin

WebService: http://cynot.gotdns.com/PocketBuilderWS/PocketBuilder.asmx

Note: The asp.net applications require a username/password. If you are interested in running them send an email to TonyCavaliere@rogers.com

SQL Server 2005 "Yukon" Virtual "Hands On" Online Labs

SQL Server 2005 “Yukon” is in beta, but if you'd rather not go through the hassle of installing it (and trying to uninstall it) you can experience it through the magic of online virtual labs.

http://msdn.demoservers.com/login.aspx?group=sql2005

Not only is it a hosted environment, but guided hands on labs are provided for the following topics:

  • SQL Server 2005 Integration Services
  • SQL Server 2005 Introduction to SQL Server Management Studio
  • SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services
  • SQL Server 2005 Server Management Objects
  • SQL Server 2005 SQL CLR Integration
  • SQL Server 2005 SQL Query Tuning
  • SQL Server 2005 SQL Server and ADO.NET 
  • SQL Server 2005 T-SQL Enhancements
  • SQL Server 2005 Web Services
  • SQL Server 2005 XML Capabilites
  • Geek Breakfast, Vancouver, March 30

    I'll be hosting an Architect's Breakfast on Wednesday March 30th in Vancouver. We've been doing these in Toronto and Kitchener over the past 6 months or so and I really like the format. We break the mold of sitting in rows facing a presenter and gather around these new fangled ball shaped tables, facing our peers, sharing experiences and thoughts for the future. As a backdrop to this, yes some powerpoints, but much less of a marketing blast of blue backgrounds and product demo's. Topic? Enterprise Integration Patterns. Click here for more details and registration links.

    DevTeach June 18-22, Montreal and a $50.00 Rebate Code!

    DevTeach is a really nice conference. I went to it for the first time last year and it's a very intimate and interactive conference. While smaller than your TechEd's and PDC's, it manages to attract a very good set of speakers....Kevin McNeish, Brian Noyes, Julia Lerman, Don Kiely, Patrick Hynds, Carl Franklins, Mario Cardinal, Ted Neward, Nick Landry, Etienne Tremblay, Sam Gentile, Jim Duffy, Guy Barrette, Eric Cote, Markus Egger, Kate Gregory and me too. I'll be doing a DataSet tips and tricks talk - but mostly just so I can get a free pass to go and see all the other great talks. This year it is being held once again in Montreal which is a beautiful city with a great night life.

    And last but not least, here is a rebate code for $50.00 "TO000OBJSHARP". You can register at http://www.devteach.com

    VS Live Toronto 2005 - 10% Discount Priority Code

    VS Live is coming to Toronto again - April 13-16th. This year, the event will be right downtown on the lake at the Harbour Westin Castle hotel. Use Priority Code “BARRY” for a 10% discount when you register. You'll also save an additional $250 if you register early by March 16th. Toronto is a great place for a conference, especially when you factor in the exchange rate, this is very affordable for americans.

    I'm speaking at this event, covering some of the methodology customization support in Visual Studio Team System and some new ADO.NET stuff too. Should be a lot of fun.

    Get your Free Visual Studio Tools for Office custom applications here.

    Ok, this is very cool - not often somebody gives you something for free.

    Is your company upgrading to Office 2003 between June & July of this year?

    Could you envision a customized solution built on top of Office - perhaps using Visual Studio Tools for Office, to solve some business need? If so, not only can we help with that, but Microsoft Canada is willing to foot the bill for the development effort. This is a great risk free way to try out Visual Studio Tools for Office projects - either the current 2003 or 2005 versions.

    For more info, drop me an email. bgervin@objectsharp.com

    What are you doing for your summer job?

    We have a very exciting internship project coming up this summer for a university student, perhaps co-op - but not mandatory.

    This high-profile project is to develop a software system to monitor the various systems in a “green” home that is completely off of the power grid. The house is fed by batteries charged by solar and wind (and a backup generator). There are many other systems in place to optimize power usage throughout the house. Although this home is off the grid, it's not off the internet, so the software will have to publish it's information and allow remote access via it's 2-way satellite system. The software will also be developed in .NET, likely using the current whidbey beta.

    You are a university student with some combination of electrical engineering and computer science. You are strong “quality-oriented” programmer. You have strong design skills and are good at listening and capturing requirement. The position will be located in southern ontario.

    If you are interested, please send your resume to bgervin@Objectsharp.com .

    Bidding on .NET Celebrities

    So today our company ObjectSharp placed a bid for 5 of the individuals on the .NET Celebrity Auction. Firstly, it sucks that max bids are not shown for a charitable auction. I would encourage any winners who didn't get to their max bid, to still donate the full amount to ACEH.

    Now having said that, what would *we* do with 5 .NET Celebrities? Hmmm

    • Scott Hanselman, I'm going to ask you to give a 1 hour MSDN webcast about how easy it is to build a Smart Client Application using datasets and marshal them across web services.
    • Clemens Vasters, I'm going to ask you to give a talk on rapidly building data driven applications with Windows Forms using SqlDataAdapters and dynamic SQL. (No stored procs allowed).
    • Kimberly L. Tripp, how about a MSDN webcast on building mission critical, enterprise scale applications with MS Access.
    • Joel Semeniuk, you're going to give a talk about building rich user interfaces with ASP.NET and client side javascript.
    • Stephen Forte, Essential C++ Managed Extensions
    • Richard Campbell. Creating a Business Intelligence Solutions using the ODBC driver for CSV files.
    • John Lam, a 1 hour talk on Understanding the Unexpected Reactions of Hyrdoxybenzylthiamin. Ok, so he would actually enjoy this, but for my 1 hour of time, I'll watch it and try to learn something.
    • Kate Gregory has also said she would willingly join me in a head shaving.
    • And of course there is the thought of the .NET Celebrity Winter Car Wash!

    Thoughts? Any of you feel like outbidding me?

     

    .NET Celebrity Auction

    Be a sport and click on this link:

    http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5552696499

    Then make a generous bid. If you'll win, you'll get an hour (or more) of help from a .NET guru/celebrity (or possibly me). But more, you'll also be helping Tsunami relief efforts.

    The top bid gets to pick their consultant. Then next, and so on and so on. If you are in southern Ontario, and you get me, I'll make it up to you by coming to your office - for a whole day, hang out, and bring donuts. What will I do? I can tell you everything I know about Visual Studio Team System (breaking all kinds of NDA rules, etc.), try to convince you to use data sets, do some code reviews, help debug something nasty, defrag your hard drive, organize your mp3's, tell you what DataGrid girl is really like, whatever.

    I'm visiting Vancouver, Calgary, Ottawa, Montreal over the next 3 months so if you live/work near there, my offer stands, pending my schedule. I'll also be in Orlando possibly in June (for TechEd), LA in Sept (for PDC), and Chicago in August, so ditto on those as well.

    For more info on how it all works....

    http://www.stephenforte.net/owdasblog/#a61b646aa-ca24-47ef-b013-012bf852f79d

    And finally, special thanks to the other RD's who are volunteering their time (especially all those fellow Canadians). Last but not least, special thanks to Stephen Forte and Julia Lerman for organizing this.