Adventures In SoftwareLand

And now for something completely different…

2010-12-20T21:19:00Z

Well, I got what I wanted for Christmas this year… a brand spanking new startup to launch! I’m launching a new consultancy and product company… you can now find me at DreamTimeStudioZ.

If you need Visual Studio Extensibility expertise or want to build an iPhone/iPod touch or iPad application, we can help!

Monday, December 27th, marks my last day at Microsoft. I'll have been here for almost exactly 6.5 years (2,358 days to be precise).

In that time I've had the following 10 jobs:

    1. Senior Consultant
    2. Technical Evangelist for
        a. Visual Studio Tools for Automation
        b. Compilers
        c. MicroISVs
        d. Visual Studio Team System - Distributed Systems Initiative
    3. Podcasting producer for Channel9
    4. Senior Architect/Engineer
        a. Project Glidepath
        b. Software + Services Blueprints
        c. Microsoft Blueprints
        d. Feature Builder - A power tool for Automated Guidance Packages (directing developers not flying objects!)
        e. Community Outreach Manager

I've shipped 5 different versions of automated guidance/software factories tooling that have helped thousands of developers adopt Windows Vista, Outlook automation, multi-tenant database architecture, Silverlight video, SharePoint + Silverlight, ASP.Net, Social Media applications and more:
    2006 Project Glidepath
        Dynamic software factories for Visual Studio 2005
    2007 Software + Services (S+S) Blueprints
        Dynamic software factories with reference apps for Visual Studio 2008
    2008 Microsoft Blueprints
        Dynamic software factories with cloud scenario examples for Visual Studio 2008
    2010 Feature Builder
        Dynamic software factories shipped in July 2010 as an official VS power tool
    2010 Instant Feature Builder
        Easier-to-author mechanism for Feature Builder, works on VS2010 Pro and above (open source, available on www.codeplex.com)

All-in-all it's been a great ride and I've learned a lifetime's worth of knowledge about building large scale software, large scale corporations and immense leverage.

I'll be continuing my blogging and podcasting career on my personal blog which is located at:
http://www.independentinnovation.net

Instant Feature Builder 1.1

2010-11-15T17:10:40Z

I discovered a bug (missing code) related to the processing of item templates. I’ve also updated the documentation for the Map describing how to use content:// links (such as used in the hyperlink to The Tools) to navigate within your documentation.

This new version is posted to CodePlex and the Visual Studio Gallery entry has been updated.

The Instant Feature Builder v1.0

2010-11-09T23:40:48Z

I’ve been working on guided developer experiences at Microsoft for the past 6 years. Beginning with helping Jack Greenfield and Keith Short deliver a full-day tutorial on Software Factories at OOPSLA 2004, cruising through Project Glidepath in 2005 and 2006, Software + Services Blueprints in 2007, Microsoft Blueprints in 2008 and finally the Feature Builder Power Tool for Visual Studio 2010 which shipped this past July, I’ve been trying to find the right combination of power and ease-of-use for both guidance authors and consumers.

A few months ago, as the Feature Builder Power Tool was just about to ship, I had a brainstorm and thought, what if I could build a drag-and-drop authoring experience that ran inside Visual Studio (including Visual Studio Professional) and delivered just the essentials of combining documentation with code and easy-to-use automation (via hyperlinks)…

Well, I built a prototype in June and just now finished my first public release: Instant Feature Builder v1.0.

Note: You still need to download and install the Visual Studio SDK to use the Instant Feature Builder.

You can get the binary VSIX either from the Visual Studio Gallery (search for Instant Feature Builder) or get it along with the source at http://InstantFB.codeplex.com

Note: This is a personal project and not a replacement for the Feature Builder Power Tool. It does, however, give you 80% of the power of the full Feature Builder with a dramatically easier to use experience.

I look forward to not only your feedback but all the Feature Extension you build. Please drop me a line so I can hilight your work.

How to Rename a Feature Extension

2010-10-19T19:04:17Z

When you create a Feature Extension, the name of the Feature Extension is calculated by copying the name you provide for the solution/project.

This name is stored in multiple places within your Feature Builder solution as it is required by multiple components at both build and runtime (Extension Manager, MEF, etc).

You can change the name of your Feature Extension by following the steps below.

It is not necessary to change the name of the solution or any of the projects or files.

To change the name of your Feature Extension follow the following 3 steps:

In Feature.cs

#1 Change:

[Feature("FeatureExtension30")]

Open the VisualStudio folder, right click on source.extension.vsixmanifest and select View Code

#2 Change:

<Identifier Id="FeatureExtension30">

#3 Change:

<Name>FeatureExtension30</Name>

You may also want to change the following (not required):

In VisualStudio\source.extension.vsixmanifest:

<Description>FeatureExtension30 Feature Extension</Description>

In Templates\Projects\Feature Extensions\MyTemplate.vstemplate (if you are using the default template supplied with your Feature Builder solution)

<Name>FeatureExtension30</Name>
<Description>Project template for creating an instance of FeatureExtension30</Description>
<DefaultName>FeatureExtension30</DefaultName>

Note: Accidentally using the GUI editor to edit the .vsixmanifest of a Feature Extension will remove the following two tags shown below from inside the <Content> section. If you do edit the .vsixmanifest file using the GUI editor, be sure to re-add these two tags using the XML editor or your item and/or project templates will not be properly installed.

<ItemTemplate>Templates\Items</ItemTemplate>

<ProjectTemplate>Templates\Projects</ProjectTemplate>

Patterns & Practices Symposium Early Bird Discount Expiring Tonight

2010-08-31T23:48:06Z

Just in case you were thinking about attending the P&P Symposium, October 18th-22nd, here in Redmond, the Early Bird registration discount expires at midnight (Pacific Time) tonight, so you’ve got a little less than 8 hours!

Episode 2 of Behind The Curtain now live on Channel9

2010-08-22T21:59:44Z

My new video podcast, Behind The Curtain, hosted on Channel9, is now sporting a brand new episode (#2).

In this episode, I talk with Ajoy Krishnamoorthy, Product Planner for P&P, about how we pick the topics for which P&P provides guidance and how you can contribute and influence those topics including connecting directly with Ajoy and the P&P team at the Patterns & Pactices Symposium.

Reminder: Early Bird Registration for the Symposium is still open! (until August 31st)

P&P Symposium - Still two weeks left for Early Bird Discount!

2010-08-17T03:28:39Z

Every fall patterns & practices team hosts an annual p&p event at Microsoft Redmond Campus. This year’s event called “p&p Symposium” is being held Oct 18th-22nd 2010. This year’s event has got a new name and a new price (it’s only $699 before Aug 31st and $999 after that) among many other exciting new improvements. Here is a quick run down of what this event has in store.

Half a day workshops:

On Oct 18th afternoon, there will be three workshops that attendees can choose from on the following topics:

- Windows Azure Guidance

- Enterprise Library and

- Prism

Keynotes:

We have an amazing line up of Microsoft technical leaders keynoting this year’s event and they will be joined by a leading authority on Agile development.

Here are the keynoters:


Robert C. Martin	Emma Williams	Jason Zander	Charlie Kindel	Yousef Khalidi

Technical Sessions:

This year’s event will include 20+ technical sessions, open space discussions, ask the experts luncheon and more. Don Smith just posted a blog with more details about the sessions that are being planned. Stay tuned for more information as we lock up the agenda.

We will have sessions covering the following areas:

Web
Windows Azure
Windows Phone 7
SharePoint
Client
Enterprise Library
Agile Practices and
more

Parties and Goodies:

Of course. It wouldn’t be complete without parties. Would it? We are planning a reception on Oct 19th and an attendee party on Oct 21st. We will also have giveaways. We will post more information on the goodies shortly.

Register Now!

It’s $699 if you register on or before August 31st and take advantage of our limited number of early bird seats. This price includes the workshop and 4 days of sessions. That is what I call a deal!

See you all in Redmond at the p&p Symposium!

Behind The Curtain - Episode #1 now live on Channel9

2010-08-15T20:17:34Z

Welcome one-and-all to my latest podcast series: Behind The Curtain - tips, tricks and insights from Patterns & Practices @ Microsoft.

In this video podcast, I'll be pulling back the curtain on the architects, developers, designers, program managers, testers and content authors who create the guidance and code which is used by hundreds of thousands of .Net and native developers worldwide.

In Episode #1, I'm joined by Don Smith, P&P's Community Liason, as we discuss events and conferences happening between now and the end of 2010 which feature P&P Content including the upcoming Patterns & Practices Symposium right here on the Microsoft campus here in Redmond, Washington.

Leave a command or click on the email link if there's anything about how or what we do here in P&P that you'd like to know.

Patterns and Practices Symposium in Redmond - October 18-22, 2010

2010-07-28T22:47:34Z

Interested in Patterns and Practices? Come to the P&P Symposium, October 18-22, 2010, in Redmond on the Microsoft Campus.http://tinyurl.com/pnpsymposium

Feature Builder 1.0 Released!

2010-07-20T22:36:45Z

I am very happy to announce the Feature Builder Power Tool for Visual Studio 2010 v1.0 is now live on the Visual Studio Gallery.

Please visit http://channel9.msdn.com/tags/FeatureBuilder for more information and links to the download.

Note: While all the information on Channel9 is valid, there have been many additional features added since the videos were recorded and I will be updating them in the very near future.

Second Note: Will shortly be providing an upgrade tool on CodePlex (in source code form), which will aid authors who built Feature Extensions for the RTM-Preview version to upgrade their Feature Extensions to work with v1.0

Fix for trying to use EnvDTE.Constants in VS2010

2010-06-07T17:18:00Z

I ran into a problem today while trying to iterate over the files in a ProjectItem as I wanted to look at the item.Kind property and compare it to values in EnvDTE.Constants.

Turns out there's something weird going on with VS2010 related to our old friend COM Interop.

Thankfully, Misha Shneerson, a Principal SDE in Office tools, has posted a solution: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/mshneer/archive/2009/12/07/interop-type-xxx-cannot-be-embedded-use-the-applicable-interface-instead.aspx

Feature Builder Guidance Extensions on CodePlex and Visual Studio Gallery

2010-05-16T01:43:00Z

The RTM-Preview Release of the Feature Builder includes a new mechanism for extending the Feature Extension authoring experience. Feature Builder Guidance Extensions are small Feature Extensions which enhance the "Map" and the "Tools" inside the Feature Builder and, when installed and enabled, show up inside the Feature Builder’s guidance outline.

FBGX #1 provide information about how to rename a Feature Extension once you've created your Feature Builder solution.

FBGX #2 provides information and tools about how to create "standalone" feature extensions which can run even when no solution is open within Visual Studio. This make it particularly easy to provide developers access to tools, content and focused web experiences in any context.

The source code for the first two FBGX is now up on CodePlex (http://fbgx.codeplex.com) and binaries are available to download via the Visual Studio Gallery (http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/2a6dc7a0-559d-4c4a-9b2b-2615147d40d7)

Feature Builder Power Tool for VS2010 RTM-Preview Now Available

2010-05-14T00:07:45Z

The RTM-Preview version of the Feature Builder Power Tool for Visual Studio 2010 has just been posted to the Visual Studio Gallery.

These bits are compatible with the RTM release of Visual Studio and will also run side-by-side with the upcoming Visual Studio 2010 Feature Pack.

Here is the “read me” information for this release:

Welcome to the Feature Builder Power Tool for Visual Studio 2010 RTM-Preview:

1. If you installed the RC-preview

a. You must uninstall the RC-Preview bits. The easiest way is to use the Extension Manager in Visual Studio.
b. Download and install the Feature Builder Power Tool RTM-Preview from the Visual Studio Gallery

2. If you have built any Feature Extensions using the RC-Preview:

a. You must uninstall all of your existing Feature Extension instances in both the regular and experimental “hive”. The new runtime has namespace and interface changes which are incompatible with the RC-Preview release.
b. Upgrading your existing FX:

Click on the Feature.commands and remove the TextTransformationGenerator from the CustomTool property
Click on the GuidanceWorkflow.activitydiagram and remove the TextTransformationGenerator from the CustomTool property
Rename the .feature file to .featureid
Re-compile any existing Feature Extensions to pick up the namespace changes.

The pattern for interface changes was to add “Fxr” in between the I and the rest of the name (e.g. IUriServiceProvider becomes IFxrUriServiceProvider)

3. What has changed in the RTM-Preview:

a. Added ability to run Side-by-side (SxS) with upcoming Visual Studio 2010 Feature Pack
b. As part of 3(a), the T4 runner inside the Feature Runtime’s copy of the Extensibility Pack, no longer leverages the Visual Studio custom tool integration (SingleFileGenerator).
c. API for Initializing Feature Extensions has improved
d. Added support for “stateless” FX
e. Added support for content files to be picked from Solution Folders
f. Guidance Workflow Explorer now auto-refreshes when a feature changes removing small delay on instantiation
g. Fixed issues when Features are instantiated when language and culture not EN-US
h. Removed auto creation of logging file (still logging to Feature Extensions section of output window)
i. Fixed bug which made a Feature Builder solution break when moved within the file system.
j. Fixed issue related to use of multi-project templates with Vs Template Launch Points
k. Fixed issues related to interactions between DSL and Activity diagram while authoring
l. The format of content:// URIs used to reference guidance in the current Feature Extension is now simplified thus reducing the number of things that must be changed when a Feature Extension is renamed. The existing format (from your existing feature extensions) will still work.

content://./Content/ProcessGuidance/<filename>

instead of

content://<featurename>/Content/ProcessGuidance/<filename>

m. Added extensibility to the Feature Builder guidance. There will shortly be a series of Feature Builder Guidance Extensions (FBGX) which will be distributed in source code form on CodePlex and in binary form via the Visual Studio Gallery that will augment the guidance and functionality of the Feature Builder.

Support for the Feature Builder is available on the Visual Studio 2010 Visualization and Modeling Tools Forum

Announcing the Feature Builder Power Tool for Visual Studio 2010 (Preview)

2010-03-31T01:16:00Z

It’s been nearly a year since I posted this: “Since February, I … have [started] spending my time working more closely with the Visual Studio team and am looking forward to seeing what comes from that collaboration.”

Today, I am finally able to talk about what I’ve been doing since last February: the Feature Builder Power Tool for Visual Studio 2010!

Feature Builder is a completely re-thought implementation of the automated guidance + tools + templates work I’ve been doing for nearly 6 years here at Microsoft. Some of you may remember Project “Glidepath” and the two versions of Blueprints which were released between 2006 and 2009. Feature Builder tops them all in terms of functionality, integration within Visual Studio and most importantly product group alignment.

Working directly with the Visual Studio Architecture Team (from whom this release originates), I’ve had the pleasure of participating in a serious effort to turn conceptual theory and 5 years of “incubation” within DPE into something very cool: product group power tool bits!

I’ll be posting hints-and-tips as well as keeping the Feature Builder FAQ post up-to-date during this preview period.

For an overview of the Feature Builder and step-by-step screencast how-to walkthroughs, head over to Channel9 where you’ll be able to find all things Feature Builder: http://channel9.msdn.com/tags/FeatureBuilder

Note: What we are releasing today is a “preview” which requires Visual Studio 2010 Release Candidate (RC) and the Visual Studio SDK for RC. Bits compatible with VS2010 RTM will be available later.

Feature Builder for VS2010 FAQ

2010-03-31T01:13:00Z

Q: #1 What do I need to have installed to use Feature Builder?

A: Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate Edition Release Candidate, the Visual Studio SDK for RC

Q: #2 What do users need to run my Feature Extension?

A: If it is an Ultimate Feature Extension, then VS2010 Ultimate Edition is required. If it is not an Ultimate Feature Extension, then it will run on Visual Studio 2010 Professional Edition Release Candidate or Visual Studio 2010 Premium Edition Release Candidate. In either case, your users will *not* need the Feature Builder. The Feature Extension runtime library that supports all feature extensions is included in your VSIX and will be automatically installed if necessary.

Q: #3 Will Feature Builder work on Visual Studio 2010 RTM SKUs?

A: The Feature Builder Preview has been certified only for VS2010 Release Candidate. Use on RTM at your own risk and without support. You will see this dialog when you start Visual Studio:

Q: #4 Is the Visual Studio SDK required to use Feature Extensions I build?

A: No.

Q: #5 When trying to run a Feature Extension I get the following dialog. What do I do?

A: The Feature Extension Runtime is not enabled. Open the Extension Manager (Tools à Extension Manager) and click on the Feature Extension Runtime and if the button that appears says “Enable”, click on it and restart Visual Studio.

Q: #6 Is the Feature Builder Preview supported on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003?

A: In order to run Feature Builder on either XP or Server 2003 you must create an environment variable named LocalAppData (set by default on Windows Vista and Windows 7).

How to Add LOCALAPPDATA variable in Windows XP

o Right-click on the My Computer icon and choose Properties

o Click Advanced

o Click Environment Variables

o Under User variables section, click New

o In the Variable name: field, type LOCALAPPDATA

o In the Variable value: field, type %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data

Q: #7 When trying to debug my Feature Extension I get the following dialog. What do I do?

A: This means you have either not copied the Feature Extension Runtime to the LocalAppData store for Experimental Instance or the Feature Extension Runtime is disabled. Open your Feature Builder solution and follow the steps found in the guidance for Authoring Feature Extensions.

Q: #8When running my Feature Extension, my menu items do not appear. What went wrong?

A: There are two possibilities.

1. Your VS Launch Point is connected to an action in the "Map" and that action is not in the "ready" state as denoted by the green circle next to that action in the Guidance Workflow Explorer.

2. You have encountered a condition in which the menu data in your VSIX is out-of-sync with the data in the registry installed by the behind-the-scenes build process for VSIX packages.

To fix this rarely occurring issue follow these two steps:

a. Open the Feature.commands document, right click on the designer surface and select Generate Commands Binding and Launch Point Code

b. Right click on the topmost node in your solution and select Clean Solution from the context menu.

c. Build and try again.

Ok, Blog posting month was not quite a bust but time to start again

2010-03-07T00:38:01Z

In November, I decided to write to write a blog-post-a-day and got through 8 before I fell “off-the-wagon” because time for blogging fell down the priority list due to customer needs.

Shortly, things I’ve been working on should finally become public and thus I’m going to start, once again, to climb back on the “horse”.

First up, I work with Visual Studio Extensibility on a day-to-day basis and have been working with the Release Candidate of Visual Studio 2010 for a month now.

One of the things I discovered is that, between Beta2 and the RC versions of VS2010, the implementation of Microsoft.VisualStudio.TemplateWizard.IWizard as changed:

In earlier releases, when you created a new solution using File –> New –> Project, when the RunStarted() method was called, any existing solution was closed and the new Solution object was, at least, partially initialized.

In VS2010 RC, the existing solution (if any) has not yet been closed when RunStarted() is called. This means that you can’t start creating items in new solution until after RunStarted has run (i.e. in the RunFinished method).

Enough for today, another observation from “the road to RTM” tomorrow.

You can also follow me on Twitter @michael_lehman or friend me on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/michael.lehman

Post #8 – Updated Facebook Developer Toolkit for .Net

2009-11-10T00:37:39Z

V3.0 of the Facebook Developer Toolkit was just released on Codeplex.

Major Updates:

• Provide better doc and samples
• Provide support for Silverlight
• Provide support for ASP.NET MVC
• Provide improved support for WPF
• Provide improved support for FBML (FBML Server Controls)
• Provide a login control that can be used to replace the BasePage and/or MasterPage for Canvas Development
• Improve out of the box support for Extended Permission Prompts
• Refactor core source to improve maintainability and design
• Fix known bugs

Post #7 – Serializing Dictionary to/from XML

2009-11-10T00:08:05Z

I spent a bit of time searching for the magic of how to use XmlSerialize with the Dictionary type this morning and thought I’d share the easy-to-use result:

Assuming you have an object, let’s say it’s called “data” that is of type Dictionary<string,string>, you can save it to an XML file whose name is contained in the string “dataName” like this:

XmlWriterSettings settings = new XmlWriterSettings();
settings.Indent = true;
XmlWriter writer = XmlWriter.Create(dataName, settings);
DataContractSerializer serializer = new DataContractSerializer(typeof(Dictionary<string,string>));
serializer.WriteObject(writer, data);
writer.Close();

(XmlWriterSettings is used to cause the resulting XML come out on human-readable multiple lines instead of all on one very long line.)

and read it back like this:

XmlReader reader = XmlReader.Create(dataName);
DataContractSerializer serializer = new DataContractSerializer(typeof(Dictionary<string,string>));

result = (Dictionary<string,string>)serializer.ReadObject(reader);
reader.Close();

Post #6 - “First-time Experience” with the Arch Tools

2009-11-09T15:32:37Z

Cameron Skinner, Product Unit Manager, for the Visual Studio “Team Architect” group, has a great blog post about discovering the new modeling tools within Visual Studio 2010 Beta 1.

Check it out!

Post #5 – Great post by Dane Morgridge on Model First Development

2009-11-09T14:57:28Z

Using Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 to do Entity Framework Model First Development for Visual Studio 2008

Post #4 – Copying VSIX extensions to the Experimental Instance

2009-11-07T19:50:04Z

When using Visual Studio Extensions (aka VSIXs), sometimes you may want to use those Extensions when debugging in the Experimental Instance of Visual Studio.

However, when installing VSIXs via the Extension Manager or by double clicking on a .vsix file, they are only installed in the main instance.

To copy the extensions, select “Reset the Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Experimental Instance” from the Start –> Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Beta2 SDK –> Tools menu.

Your main instance VSIXs will be copied into a folder for the Experimental Instance and the next time the Experimental Instance is started they will be installed.

Note: They may not be enabled to be sure to check the Extension Manager to make sure the ones you need are Enabled.

Post #3 (a bit delayed)

2009-11-07T19:11:00Z

While I "fell off the horse" of daily blogging, I'm climbing back on and will still do a post-per-day, it's just that I'm going to do 5 of them today :)

Today's post is about the "sticky toolbox" feature you can use with the UML designers.

So many times I've been creating a diagram by dragging and dropping the elements on to the diagram and then went back, one-at-a-time, to select the Connector tool to draw a line.

Turns out you can double click on the connector tool and then it will stay as the selected tool until you hit Esc or select something else. Thus you can connect multiple items without having to go back to the tool box!

Post #2 of NaWriSOMyBloMo (National Write Something On My Blog Month) - Visual Studio 2010 Extensions aka VSIX

2009-11-03T00:11:00Z

Yesterday I started a personal challenge of writing something on my blog every day this month.

Today's hint for Visual Studio 2010 is that it would be very wise to start coming up-to-speed on the new Visual Studio Extension mechanism known as VSIX.

You find and manage extensions by selecting the menu item: Tools --> Extension Manager

Information about managing extensions can be found at: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd293638(VS.100).aspx

National Write Something Month...

2009-11-01T17:01:00Z

All over the world people have taken inspiration from the folks at National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) http://www.nanowrimo.org/ and are creating other types of month-long creative self-challenges (vlogging, etc.) so I'm going start my own and see how well I can join in by declaring National Write Something On My Blog Everyday Month (NaWriSOMyBloMo), this post being the first step on the journey.

I've been working on a very cool project for the past 8+ months and, bugs willing, very soon I'll be able to not only talk about it but also share many of the learnings (aka early-adopter-arrows-in-the-back) which we've been accumulating (hopefully to save you, the reader, time/pain/confusion).

I'll start by describing the "problem domain": Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 (download), the Visual Studio SDK (download) and the Domain Specific Language (DSL) SDK (download).

VS2010 Beta 2 is a very nice, solid, development tool. Of course, as it was being developed by a team of thousands, it wasn't always this way as the hill from Beta 1 to Beta 2 was being climbed.

These tools are loaded with new capabilities, some of which weren't even in Beta 1, and chock full of enhancements to the ones that were.

I'll start with two of my most favorite features in VS2010: A simple, wonderful user experience for doing something I do a hundred times a day:

Since I build things that developers use to build things, I'm constantly creating new solutions in order to test the tools I'm building as a user would. Thus the inclusion of the "New Project" link on the Start Page has finally inspired me to leave the Start Page turned on.
Adding the MRU (Most Recently Used) list of projects, especially the ability to "pin" a project to the list so it never leaves the Start Page, has also been an enormous time saver and pain reliever. I didn't realize how many clicks or keystrokes it took to go open the "project I just previously opened" until I could do it with one click. Very nice indeed!

You can also follow me on Twitter @michael_lehman or friend me on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/michael.lehman

Update on MicroISV Evangelism

2009-05-28T00:06:00Z

For the past 4 years I have had the enjoyable task of being the MicroISV Evangelist for Microsoft. Recently based on some organizational changes and task assignment realignment, I have begun to focus my attention full-time on other efforts and thus, effective now, am no longer tasked with MicroISV-related responsibilities.

If you are a MicroISV and are interested in working with Microsoft, I'd highly recommend checking out the BizSpark program and the Microsoft Startup Zone http://www.microsoftstartupzone.com/pages/home.aspx

I may get the opportunity to attend SIC this year but it's looking increasingly unlikely. If I can swing a speaker slot at TechEd EMEA, I'll be visiting ESWC '09.

I thank all of the members of the MicroISV community for their interest and support and look forward to all your wonderful products which I, and millions of other Windows users, continue to enjoy each day.