atmosphere - the developer blog of Bernard Wong

Google launches a special treat just for developers

2006-10-06T06:21:00Z

Very cool - this looks like it's going to come in very handy for me. Maybe you too? It seems the Google folks have just launched a new Code Search service at www.google.com/codesearch . They have indexed publicly accessible source code from all across the Internet. The new service then helps you find sample code and function definitions. Developers will be able to optionally use regular expressions to narrow down searches as well as further specifying specifying restrictions upon language, license...(read more)

Behind the scenes of selecting session topics for the SoCal .NET Technical Summit II conference

2006-09-08T02:17:00Z

Continuing our look behind the scenes of the SoCal .NET Technical Summit II developer conference, I discuss how some of the session topics to be presented by Rocky Lhotka, Scott Stanfield and Russ Nemhauser came about....(read more)

Behind the scenes of selecting speakers for the SoCal .NET Technical Summit II conference

2006-09-05T09:58:00Z

Ever what goes into the process of selecting speakers for a developer conference? Who are these speakers, what are their qualifications and how do they get chosen?...(read more)

Learn from Rocky Lhotka, Bill Vaughn, Markus Egger and more, in person on September 23rd for only $79

2006-09-02T13:23:00Z

Announcing the SoCal .NET Technical Summit II at the Hilton Irvine on Saturday, September 23rd, featuring Rocky Lhotka, Bill Vaughn, Markus Egger, and more. Early bird registration only until Monday, September 4th for just $79....(read more)

Naughty or Nice - Lump of coal for the Visual Basic 2005 team?

2005-11-30T18:25:00Z

OK, i know my posts have been very intermittent and matter of fact to the point of desiccation recently (ever since i was asked by Windows Vista to expunge one of my posts - it was their IP, intellectual property, watchdogs too). So you know what this means right? Yup, i'm well overdue to stir things up again...

So late Monday afternoon, i was over at one of the Redmond campus buildings to check out some (not overly) impressive demonstrations for the Coding4Fun booth that i'm supposed to be running at the big Anaheim launch event next week (don't worry if you're planning on attending though, i'm now working with my new pal Mark Miller, chief architect of Developer Express' CodeRush and Refactor! products, to come up with some much cooler stuff to show). Afterward, i made a call on my cell phone to arrange some Webcasts in the new year and looking out the window, noticed a whole gaggle of friends from the Visual Basic (and VS Data/LINQ) team walk by on their way to the nearby cafeteria.

When i got there to say hello, it became evident the purpose of the gathering was to get their team photos taken and do the big product box signing ritual. Of course, i was immediately greeted with (libelous) accusations of crashing any party that goes on (patently false by the way - just those worth crashing). Unfortunately (or fortunately as it turns out), i already missed their ship-it (product release) party combined together with their holiday party.

FYI, ship-it parties, in recognition of all the effort and long hours that go into a product development cycle, are typically a BIG DEAL - the SQL Server 2005 team are going up to Whistler soon for theirs, even the red-headed step-child of Developer Division (er, that would be the FoxPro team) would get to jet off to Vegas for the weekend. Holiday parties though not nearly as lavish as past years, are still a biggish deal - e.g., the team that i'm on are jetting off to Vegas next week, yeah!

So what top-rated, favorite American vacation hotspot did the Visual Basic team get to go to for their COMBINED ship-it and holiday party? Yup, you guessed it - that's right, Seattle Center for an all expenses paid buffet dinner! Congratulations on a job well done!

It's not exactly a lump of coal in their stocking but from any angle it looks like the Visual Basic team got the weenies end of the shrimp stick (i'll save the shrimp and weenies story alluded to for another post). They did a darned good job with Visual Basic 2005 like getting that Edit and Continue feature from Visual Basic 6.0 back into the product finally. And when you think about it, they really had their work cut out for them just trying to keep up with all the language innovations that their counterparts got into C# 2.0...

All kidding aside, i think the Visual Basic team deserve more. Maybe we could take donations on their behalf and at least send them to the distant lands of... beautiful, exotic Alki Beach in West Seattle. At least it would really be a proper weenie roast then!

What do you think?

See all the really juicy tid-bits i miss out on (and don't get to report) now that i'm mostly away from Redmond? No, i'm not asking for a write-in campaign to send me back! I like living in SoCal just fine, thank you very much.

New Web site and meeting location for the .NET User Group in Santa Barbara

2005-11-29T20:14:00Z

The still newish .NET user group in Santa Barbara is going strong. Their third meeting is coming up on Tuesday, December 13th, with Microsoft's other SoCal developer evangelist, Gerald Walsh, coming up to present on some of the new features in the .NET Framework 2.0 like type enhancements, generics and more. Note, that they will be moving to a new meeting location in the Santa Barbara Technology Group Building, courtesy of Truston Corp.

Not sure where this is located? Check out the group's nascent Web site at http://www.sbdotnetug.org.

If you're a .NET developer in the Santa Barbara area, get involved in the group now or you'll miss out on some great presentations and other community opportunities coming in the new year.

Kick off meeting for new .NET user group in Santa Barbara, CA - October 12th!

2005-09-28T05:26:00Z

Developers know that user groups are a great way to learn more about .NET, network with your local peers and even reach out to the broader community of developer notables from afar. Now it's time for Santa Barbara to join in the action along with all the other active .NET user groups in Southern California.

The provisional steering committee for the user group has secured an interim meeting place - the Planning Commission hearing room on the first floor of the County of Santa Barbara Administration Building (pictured below), 105 East Anapamu Street, Santa Barbara (at Anacapa).

The user group will kick off its first meeting - October 12th at 6:30pm with a presentation by Microsoft's Bernard Wong on the security, membership and personalization infrastructure that will be provided in the forthcoming ASP.NET 2.0 technologies. Pizza and soda will be provided and there will be a raffle for lots of prizes at the conclusion of the evening. Come and join the fun!

You can find out additional information at the temporary Web site of the group.

Developer Connections conference in Las Vegas, November 7-10 - $100 discount off regular registration

2005-09-26T06:26:00Z

As you have likely heard already, the grand launch for Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005 will be on November 7th and I can't think of a better opportunity to immerse yourself in education on these two massive product sets than the Developer Connections conferences running that same week at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. This is actually four separate conferences in one (covering Visual Studio, ASP.NET, SQL Server and a special C++ commemorative edition) and a single registration gains you access to any breakout session in any of the individual conferences.

As a special bonus, all attendees will receive Visual Studio 2005 Professional and SQL Server Standard Edition (with one client access license) since this edition of the conference coincides with the launch. The speaker list is absolutely stellar this time around with notable personalities like Charles Petzold, Bjarne Stroustrup, Stan Lippman and more.

I was extremely fortunate again to be asked to organize together the entire Fundamentals track of the Visual Studio Connections conference - a five day agenda (including pre-conference and post-conference workshops) especially arranged for developers who are just getting started with the .NET environment now. A couple of my fellow MSDN Events presenters (namely Geoff Snowman and Joe Stagner) and myself will be delivering several of these sessions.

OK, this is the special exclusive sweetener for those of you who haven't yet registered, if you register using the discount code of B101, you will receive a $100 discount off the regular conference rate.

Download location for the sample code from my x64 programming Webcast

2005-09-06T20:33:00Z

For those of you who attended my Webcast this morning on developing for the Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 Edition from Visual Studio 2005, you can now download the sample code and compiled solution.

There were no slides, just a brief introduction to the x64 platform essentials at the beginning. The Webcast demonstrations were drawn in part from the Hands-on Lab at TechEd 2005 that I put together on x64 programming (which were drawn in turn from the Intel Route 64 roadshow). Visual Studio 2005 beta 2 and a computer running Windows XP Professional x64 Edition are also required.

Have fun with the samples - someone suggested running the x64 specific release on the regular 32-bit Windows XP to see if there would be a sensible exception message... Any bets on this one?

Help start up a .NET user group in Santa Barbara

2005-08-16T04:39:00Z

OK, I've been soliciting for interested parties in the SoCal edition of the MSDN Flash newsletter since almost forever, it's finally time to get things started for Santa Barbara's very own .NET user group now that Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005 launch are right around the corner.

We're going to hold a planning meeting for the new user group tomorrow night at Chad's restaurant (see address and map below) in downtown Santa Barbara following my MSDN Event free developer seminar (but attendance at my seminar in the afternoon isn't required).

We can all meet up at Chad's restaurant beginning at 6pm. There's no formal agenda; in fact, no formality at all. We'll just get everyone introduced and then see what we can organize together for the user group over appetizers and non-alcoholic beverages (on Microsoft's dime). The food there is pretty darn good judging from what I ate there last time. Of course, if there are other topics that you would like to discuss in public, as I wrote previously, there is no set agenda. See you there!