We’re currently working on a consolidated event calendar/list/RSS feed for the Western US. Right now, there are several places you need to go to get a relatively comprehensive list of Microsoft events in your area, including MSDN Events, Technet Events, Microsoft Worldwide Events, and blogs (hopefully this one!).
Are there other places you look? Let me know! Our ultimate goal is to provide you a comprehensive listing of Microsoft happenings in a single location, ideally via RSS feed as well.
Send me mail or comment on this post below and let me know where else you look.
In case you haven’t seen this, Microsoft in partnership with Quest Software, has announced a new plug-in which will provide Oracle database development support inside Visual Studio. This plug-in, available for Visual Studio 2010, is called Quest’s Database Schema Provider. With this, Oracle developers will now be provided with the tools to help them design their database schemas, PL SQL Code, stored procedures and triggers, and to do offline design, development, version control and change management for Oracle databases via Visual Studio 2010.
You can do this type of offline database development today in Visual Studio Team System with SQL Server. Support for DB2 is on the way, and this announcement will add Oracle to the list. What does all this mean? Simply that Visual Studio Team System is rapidly expanding its already robust ALM capabilities and abilities to support the entire lifecycle, regardless of platform.
This importance announcement was made at this year’s VSLive conference in San Francisco.
You can read more about it via the following links:
I had a great time on Saturday hanging out with 400-ish of my closest friends at the Rocky Mountain Tech Trifecta! Many of you braved iffy road conditions to make it downtown for this incredible event.
Big hats of to the Yacks for putting this together!
*** UPDATED 4/30/2009 ***
If you attended the Agile & Scrum Essentials event series last fall, then you’ve been expecting this second round! And if you missed it, now you can catch up!
Please join Microsoft and Neudesic for a day in the life of Scrum with Visual Studio Team System 2008 and Team Foundation Server! Agile methods are a set of development processes intended to create software in a lighter, faster, more people-centric way. Many development teams have adopted "agile" methodologies to manage change and to improve software quality. These methodologies promote continuous integration as a practice to build and test software products incrementally as new features are included, bugs are fixed, and code is refactored.
If you missed the first series of Agile & Scrum Essentials last fall; here’s your chance to attend the follow-on event where we’ll briefly revisit the basics of Agile and Scrum and provide a walkthrough of how to configure Visual Studio Team System 2008 and Team Foundation Server for Scrum. Participants will be familiarized with how key artifacts are managed within this popular process template for enacting Scrum in organizations.
Join us for this interactive event as we explore a “day in the life of a Sprint,” that will give you a practical perspective of how Scrum teams leverage Visual Studio Team System for end to end management of the planning, execution and control of Scrum projects. The day will end with an overview of what’s coming in Visual Studio Team System 2010!
Please register today for the event nearest you!
You can also call 1.877.MSEVENT (1.877.673.8368) and provide the appropriate invitation code to register.
I will be at the Denver, Phoenix, and Salt Lake City venues and hope to see you there!
Did I mention this event is FREE?
“Coming Soon, to a Mall Near You”
So if you haven’t check your favorite news site already, Microsoft has announced plans to open retail stores (for real – we’ve even hired a VP to do it).
Initial, knee-jerk thoughts vary greatly, from the “what are they thinking” to “hey, that could work”..
I’m mixed on this one. The Microsoftie in me thinks this is a bold but needed step to start correcting the negative perception of Microsoft products in the eyes of the consumer (Vista sucks, right? Microsoft’s evil, right?). The amateur economist in me can’t help but be wary of venturing into retail when that industry is hurting so badly.
Since the state of the economy has been discussed to almost a numbing degree, let’s look at the possible positive (and humorous, of course) scenarios surrounding the “Microsoft Store”.
First of all, what will it be called? Should we follow Apple’s suit and just call it the “Microsoft Store”? (Actually, if we’re really following Apple we wouldn’t have a name, just the Windows or Vista logo.) Here are a few thoughts:
The nay-sayers are wondering what the heck will actually be sold in the store. It’s not like we can “sell” Windows Live, SkyDrive, or Photosynth. Well, it sounds like the store will be stocked with new computers (Dell, HP, etc.) loaded with Vista (actually, probably Windows 7 by the time the stores are fully operational), software packages (i.e. Office), Xboxes and Zunes. All the typical stuff, right? Ahh, not so fast. A real hidden bonus for this retail idea is the opportunity to showcase a lot of physical products (i.e. hardware, what you can touch) that the typical consumer may not know about. Let’s look at some of the possibilities (including some obvious ones):
Now, what should the PC’s in the store have on them? Okay, okay – BESIDES Windows and Office. Here’s a short list of software & services that should be readily available for any shopper who saddles up to a machine, including what the “Microsoft Guru” should be ready to show:
Show how the different services work together (example: Use Live Writer to post to a blog, pulling pictures from Live Photo Gallery (or even Facebook), to Spaces.)
Demonstrate how you can use Live Mesh to easily push photos from your PC in Colorado to Grandma in California.
There are several more, but this is a good start, I think.
Take a page from the Apple folks and surround all the set up PC’s with complementary products, such as Windows Mobile phones, Zunes, digital picture frames, etc.
Now of course, you’ll want to stock the shelves with all the software we offer, including OS’s, Office, Streets & Trips, OneCare, etc.
Lastly, there should be an “ask the expert” station where you can discuss any Microsoft-related product issue with (presumably) an expert. There shouldn’t just be sales-oriented people in the store, but rather technical support –types that can put a smile on their face. Lastly, the store employees will need a thick skin as there will undoubtedly anti-Microsoft (justified or not) walk in for the sake of whining & moaning. (As a former tech support guy, I assure you they’re out there.)
These “gurus” should hold regularly-schedules workshops: “Get the most out of your photos", “How to back up my PC”, “Tell me about Internet Explorer”.. those kinds of things.
So we’ve covered signage, inventory, and personnel. What about store layout? I have no idea what this will actually look like, but here’s a rough thought:
The key to getting people in the store will be to move the rows of stocked software (boring to look at) to the back and bring the cool stuff to the front, i.e. Xbox and Surface. If a shopper walking by glances inside and sees some people on a couch having a blast playing video games, and a small crowd of people going nuts on a Surface, that person will have a hard time not venturing inside to check it out.
Okay, so I’ve gone a little overboard here. I had a little time on my hands and found myself getting surprisingly excited by this concept. To start changing perception, Microsoft needs to be tangible and approachable. This could be a great start!