Metro Toronto .NET User Group Meeting September 8th: Managed Code in Sql Server 2005

On September 8th I'll be speaking at the .NET User Group here in Toronto. I'll be talking about how developers can take advantage of Sql Server 2005's ability to host managed code. Full abstract and registration details are here.

Bell Mobility and Bluetooth - Finally, yet crippled.

Bell Mobility has finally released a bluetooth phone that isn't a blackberry. I have a bluetooth pocket pc, laptop, headset, and now LG 325 phone.

But like so many other cell carriers, has turned off/disabled (or convinced the manufacturer to) the OBEX bluetooth profile that allows you to exchange objects like contacts. I was looking forward to doing wireless syncing of contacts, or maybe taking pictures off of the device.

Instead, if you want to do that kind of stuff, you have to go through the network and mail yourself a photo - a pay Bell a gob of $$ in the process. When one pays $250 for a phone, particularly a bluetooth phone, one should expect to use typical bluetooth functionality.

There is a dial up networking profile so you can use your phone as a modem. This would be useful if Bell gave some instructions on using it. Looks like I have to actually dial up an ISP - no you can't tap into your phone as an ISP I guess. Strange.

I've also used the bluetooth headset profile and that works OK - I think I need to get a new headset though - it was a bit choppy. I'll have to play more with it before I decide.

This phone also has a GPS in it. You'd think you could connect to it with a bluetooth profile too - think again. The co-ordinates are only available directly to Bell (or to you though a service you pay for, like the finder services or Map Point Location Services).

 

Building Outlook Add-ins with .NET Managed Code

Why would you want to do that you ask? Well for developers, probably the main reason would be to rewrite or wrap up some ugly lotus notes application (or all of lotus notes for that matter) and expose it in outlook. But seriously, there is a good chance your end user might spend more time in Outlook then any other application they have installed. And then of course, outlook has some context that might be helpful. Maybe, just maybe, when a user wants to talk to a customer, they open up their contact details in outlook first. Nothing worst than having to then alt-tab to another application and lookup the same contact in another system, perhaps to lookup their order history, etc. Or maybe you'd just like to rip through the information in outlook (contacts, appointments, emails) and integrate that data with some other application.

The outlook support for VSTO 2005 was a well kept secret until yesterday at TechEd when this was demonstrated at the keynote. How long are you going to have to wait before you can get your hands on this? How fast is your internet connection?

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

Canadian Developer Community Radio

Mark Relph (MS Canada) posted his first blogcast as part of “Canadian Developer Community Radio“. It was recorded a few weeks ago at the ASP.NET 2.0 Deep Dive in Toronto. Lots of good discussion with the speakers, their favourite features, etc. etc. There is also a brief interview with me in which I don't say anything terribly interesting.

Click Here.

New Course! Architecting Applications with Visual Studio Team System (Bootcamp)

On March 17th in Toronto, I'll be teaching our first delivery of this new course. It's a one day hands on, instructor led - whirlwind bootcamp style course that gives you a lap around Visual Studio Team System - specifically with a Solution Architect's perspective. We touch a little bit on the project management stuff, testing and some of the developer tools, but primarily we'll spend more than half the day on modeling as we walk through the Whitehorse designers.

Now how can we teach a course on a product that's not even in beta you ask? Very carefully. A lot of people are evaluating if and how they'll use VSTS in their shops once it is released so by popular demand we're offering this course a little earlier than we would normally. This course probably needs to be 3 days to properly focus on best practices and true “architecture” but for the purposes of evaluating this technology and letting people make their own minds, we are focusing primarily on the tools provided. With that in mind, this abbreviated 1 day course is being delivered in 6 cities across Canada: Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver, Calgary and Quebec City. There is also a promotional price of $299 CAD. For more details, full schedule and registration, visit http://www.objectsharp.com/ttdinvitation/vstsbootcamp.aspx 

 

 

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?