Today, a great set of labs to finish the Financial Year - Soup to Nuts Virtual Labs (from the MSDN Suite of Virtual Labs)
Learn how to build Microsoft Windows Forms applications and Smart Clients in Microsoft .NET. We will cover object oriented concepts and delve deep into .NET. During this series of labs, you will learn how to create rich user interfaces, access data, and see industry-proven ways to get Windows Forms applications to market quickly. It's simple — no complex setup or installation is required to try out Soup to Nuts running in the full-featured MSDN Virtual Lab.
You get a downloadable manual and a 90-minute block of time for each module. You can sign up for additional 90-minute blocks at any time.
Today, Microsoft Visual Studio Team System Virtual Labs (from the MSDN Suite of Virtual Labs)
What's new in Visual Studio Team SystemVirtual Lab Express is the fastest and easiest way to test drive Microsoft products and the Virtual Lab environment. These are 30-minute hands-on overviews of some of your favorite Microsoft products and developer tools. Try them out online now - no need to download full trial versions or dedicate test machines.
Today, .NET Framework 3.0 Virtual Labs (this time from the MSDN Suite of Virtual Labs)
David Williams has been talking about certification, and he links to "this entertaining blog by Trika Harms zum Spreckel".
Trika will be coming to Tech.Ed on the Gold Coast in August. We'll also have some great deals on certification taken at Tech.Ed, as well as some fun activities around the certification process. I really like getting my certs done at a conference as it seems like I'm out of routine anyway, so I may as well just get them done.
Today, SQL Server 2005 Upgrade (from the suite of Virtual Labs)
Step into a New SQL Server 2005 Upgrade Virtual Lab for Free
It's simple-no complex setup or installation is required to try out Microsoft SQL Server 2005. In these labs, you will increase your confidence and reduce your upgrade risks by performing detach and attach, in-place, and side-by-side upgrades from SQL Server 2000 / 7.0 to SQL Server 2005. You get a downloadable manual and a 90-minute block of time for each module. You can sign up for additional 90-minute blocks anytime.
Today, Security (from the suite of Virtual Labs)
Step into the Security Virtual Lab for Free
It's simple! No complex setup or installation is required to try out the security features of products and security tools running in the full-featured TechNet Virtual Lab. You get a downloadable manual and a 90-minute block of time for each module. You can sign up for additional 90-minute blocks anytime. As part of the TechNet Virtual Lab, you will have full access to security features and tools through the following modules:
Chris Birmele, our (ostensibly neutral) VSTS Technical Specialist was complaining about not being able to work out what version (Beta, RC, RTM, SP1) and which Edition (Standard, Trial, Workgroup) of TFS was running on a machine. After consulting with VSTS MVP and all-round TFS guru, Anthony Borton, I was able to point Chris to Rob Caron's article on this very topic.
Chris was less than impressed with having to spelunk through folders and the registry so I whipped him up a command line utility to do his dirty work.
Here's the source:
using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Text; using System.IO; using System.Diagnostics; using Microsoft.Win32; namespace TFSVer { class Program { static void Main(string[] args) { if (args.Length > 0) { Console.WriteLine("TFSVer - Version Information for Team Foundation Server"); Console.WriteLine(); Console.WriteLine("Usage: TFSVer"); return; } StringBuilder VersionInfo = new StringBuilder("Team Foundation Server Version Information\n==========================================\n"); // go and get the version info // based on Rob Caron's Blog Post http://blogs.msdn.com/robcaron/archive/2006/08/15/701843.aspx /* 1. On the application-tier computer, check the file version of Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Server.dll. You'll find this file here: %PROGRAMFILES% \Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server \Web Services \Services \Bin Here's the key to determine which release of Team Foundation Server you have: 8.0.50727.43 = Beta 3 Refresh 8.0.50727.127 = Release Candidate 8.0.50727.147 = RTM (final shipping release of the product) Update: The version number for Visual Studio 2005 SP1 is 8.0.50727.762. */ string DllVersion = ""; string tfsVersion = "Unrecognised"; bool RTMorLater = false; try { FileVersionInfo TheFile = FileVersionInfo.GetVersionInfo(Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("PROGRAMFILES") + "\\Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server\\Web Services\\Services\\Bin\\Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Server.dll"); DllVersion = TheFile.FileVersion; switch (DllVersion) { case "8.0.50727.43": { tfsVersion = "Beta 3 Refresh"; break; } case "8.0.50727.127": { tfsVersion = "Release Candidate"; break; } case "8.0.50727.147": { tfsVersion = "RTM"; RTMorLater = true; break; } case "8.0.50727.762": { tfsVersion = "SP1"; RTMorLater = true; break; } default: { break; } } VersionInfo.AppendLine(string.Format("TFS Version: {0}", tfsVersion)); // now go and find the Edition (If we're in RTM or later) if (RTMorLater) { /* If you have the RTM release, the next check is to see which edition of Team Foundation Server you have. To do this, open Registry Editor (regedt32.exe) and navigate down to this key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \SOFTWARE \Microsoft \VisualStudio \8.0 \TeamFoundation \Registration In this key, you'll find a value named, Edition_CT, which is the clear text equivalent of the encrypted data in Edition. Here's the key to determine which edition you have: "Full" = Team Foundation Server ("Standard Edition") "Trial" = Team Foundation Server 180-day Trial Edition "Workgroup" = Team Foundation Server Workgroup Edition */ string Edition = "unknown"; string rk = Registry.LocalMachine.OpenSubKey("SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\VisualStudio\\8.0\\TeamFoundation\\Registration").GetValue("Edition_CT").ToString(); switch (rk) { case "Full": { Edition = "Team Foundation Server (\"Standard Edition\")"; break; } case "Trial": { Edition = "Team Foundation Server 180-day Trial Edition"; break; } case "Workgroup": { Edition = "Team Foundation Server Workgroup Edition"; break; } default: break; } VersionInfo.AppendLine(string.Format("Edition: {0}", Edition)); } } catch (FileNotFoundException fnfEx) { VersionInfo.AppendLine("TFS Not Installed on this machine"); } Console.WriteLine(VersionInfo.ToString()); Console.WriteLine("Press any key to continue ..."); Console.ReadKey(); } } }
And I've attached the binary project with the binaries in the Release and Debug folders.
As usual, this is a hack without production-level quality control or any exception handling. You'll need to give it sufficient caspol permissions to read the registry and environment variables (I generally copy it to somewhere on the local machine). Use at your own risk.
Today, Microsoft Search Solutions for the Enterprise (from the suite of Virtual Labs available)
Step into a Microsoft Search Solutions for the Enterprise Virtual Lab for Free
There are some great resources available online. I've mentioned these before in passing, but it's worth doing a full series to highlight the this sensational set of virtual labs.
Today, Business Intelligence.
Step into a New Business Intelligence Virtual Lab for Free
It's simple—no complex setup or installation is required to try out Microsoft Business Intelligence. You get a downloadable manual and a 90-minute block of time for each module. You can sign up for additional 90-minute blocks anytime.
I had a really interesting day yesterday. I'm here in Orlando because I'm on the core team for TechEd in Australia. Two of my missions while I'm here were to meet with the guys from EventPoint (the ones who write our Commnet) and with the TechEd Orlando core team.
Roger and I did both of these yesterday and we learnt a lot. Here in Orlando, the EventPoint guys run the entire network. That's huge! The pipe alone is staggering. They have a 100Mb/s pipe allowing bursts to 150Mb/s, and they're running at about 85% of capacity as a base line and bursting to at least 120Mb/s! Another interesting stat is that there have been over 9000 unique machines on the WLAN. I'm really excited about this and as I sit in sessions I see at least 20% of the attendees taking notes on laptops. At lunchtime and in breaks, there are laptops and WiFi-enabled mobile devices. We're hoping to emulate this (the laptop/mobile device usage, not the bandwidth necessarily) on the Gold Coast.
Next, we popped into the daily Core Team meeting. This was another great experience. The core team are responsible for everything at TechEd, and each member reported in on how things were going. As an example, someone in the team had noticed that at lunchtime the recharge bays (a place delegates could sit down and plug laptops into power and connectivity) were completely full and people were waiting for spaces. It was immediately decided to tear down a bunch of the commnet console machines to make more room for user-supplied machines. There were half a dozen more examples of this and some great learnings for next year's show were captured.
The most exciting thing I saw yesterday though was Virtual TechEd. There's a place on the expo hall floor where Carl Franklin and Richard Campbell are hosting a variety of content including expert panel discussions, TechEd Speaker Idol and Iron Architect. Some of these are being recorded as DotNetRocks shows and a bunch of it is up on Virtual TechEd. This is another thing we'd love to bring to Australia and New Zealand.