April, 2005

I just got an update on registration for the Mid-Atlantic Code Camp , and we're down to around 25 slots left. So if you've been thinking about attending, but haven't registered yet, don't dilly-dally, because at this rate the event will be full soon....

Download either the Visual Studio 2005 SDK or the Visual Studio 2005 Team System Extensibility Kit for Beta 2: http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/extend/SDKDownload/ and Discuss .

Jim Allchin, head of Microsoft's Windows division, talks with the Channel 9 folks .

As in previous years, this year's Tech-Ed has Jam Sessions scheduled for the first several nights of the conference ( see Agenda ). As I recall, they'll have a room set up somewhere with PA equipment, a drum kit, and I believe some instruments as well...

Scott Guthrie explains .

From Rob Howard : It was a really exciting morning here at Telligent, we just found out that Community Server 1.0 was selected as the Best Forum Application receiving an asp.netPRO Reader's Choice Award: Thanks to everyone who took the time...

From Steve Smith : One very cool feature of Visual Studio 2005 is that you no longer need to build your controls into separate assemblies. You still *can* and of course if you're a control vendor or if you want to share them, you probably should...

The good folks at Wintellect are putting on a cool event called Devscovery this coming week (May 3-5th, 2005) at Microsoft's Reston, VA office. Come out and see John Robbins, Jeff Prosise, Jeffrey Richter, Peter DeBetta, and Richard Hundhausen share their...

...my counterpart in the Greater Pennsylvania District, who just recently completed his first Code Camp in Philadelphia . Sounds like it was a blast. If you want to experience Code Camp, our first Mid-Atlantic Code Camp is coming up in less than two weeks...

More information on the VSTS team's usage of Team Foundation Server: http://blogs.msdn.com/rickla/archive/2005/04/28/413014.aspx

OK. I know that title sounds a little grandiose. But I wanted to plug the new SDM Developer Center , and figured that grandiose was appropriate, given the vision of the Dynamic Systems Initiative , for which the System Definition Model, or SDM, is a critical...

One of the neat features of Visual Studio Team System 2005 is the ability to set check-in policies at the team project level. You can, for example, require that each check-in be associated with a work item (for tracking requirements to code, or code fixes...

Been meaning to blog the following, from my colleague Aaron Margosis ...the KB article was actually published in the fall, but if you've considered following the named organizations' recommendations for security configuration, and want to know about potential...

SysInternals' free Autoruns utility can help you track down what's auto-starting, so you can get rid of stuff you don't want. If you use it from a low-privilege account, and then from an admin account, you'll probably notice that there are a lot more...

How to allow users to manage file and print shares without granting other advanced privileges http://blogs.msdn.com/aaron_margosis/archive/2005/04/18/409105.aspx

Apropos to my last post (and, actually, inspired by a discussion of the same article), my fellow Microsoftie Alun Jones had the following to say, which I think does better than I ever could at highlighting some of the misconceptions around biometrics...

http://msdn.microsoft.com/howtobuy/vs2005/compare/default.aspx

I recently had some discussions with a customer on this subject, so I thought I'd post the following: http://www.g4tv.com/techtvvault/features/25413/Biometrics_Truths_and_Fictions.html My take: it's going to be a while before biometrics are commonplace...

Info about CodeCampOz ...very cool! More...

Robert Hurlbut just announced that his suggestion for a Least-Privileged Development Birds of a Feather session was accepted for Tech-Ed 2005 . I'll definitely be there: The TechEd BOF (Birds of a Feather) voting is over and mine was accepted. Here...

As I prepare for an upcoming talk at Tech-Ed 2005 on Least Privilege for Developers, it's worth reviewing a post from my colleague Aaron Margosis on Least Privilege and Explorer , in which he discusses some workarounds for challenges in making Windows...

http://www.microsoft.com/legal/useterms/ allows you to easily locate the useage terms for a given Microsoft product. So if you want to know what the license looks like before you buy, now you can.

Wanna show off your chops on SQL Server 2005, Visual Studio 2005 or BizTalk Server 2005? Better yet, wanna win $50,000 (and bragging rights)? Check out the Connected Systems Developer Competition .

Just a quick reminder about tonight's meeting of the Capital Area .NET Users Group . The meeting starts at 7pm at AT&T Government Solutions in Tyson's Corner. Directions are available on the group's web site. Speaking tonight is Vishwas Lele of...

Did you buy a 64-bit machine before 64-bit Windows XP was available? If you purchased an x64-based machine with the 32-bit version of Windows XP Professional, you can exchange your 32-bit version for the recently released Windows XP Professional x64 Edition...