.net and other interesting dev stuff in PA

Moving on...

sspotts — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 16:21:00 GMT

I haven't posted for a while, having been out on infant care leave with my wife and new twin boys, and I've taken a new job outside of Microsoft at Computer Aid, Inc.. My new blogsite is: http://www.geekswithblogs.net/sspotts/.

Microsoft was a great place to be, but the time and travel demands I was looking at just didn't balance with the time I wanted to spend with my boys. There were several people at Microsoft that said that the work/life balance wasn't skewed enough towards time with their families, and they gave something up. I wasn't willing to do that.

I'll still be active in the community, especially with the PhillyDotNet and one or two other user groups, but not the 15 or so groups I worked with in the past. Look for a few Code Camp events coming to Philadelphia in the Jan/Feb timeframe :).

--Stan

First Philadelphia FoxPro User Group coming on September 14

sspotts — Tue, 23 Aug 2005 16:05:00 GMT

Tamar Granor, a FoxPro MVP who is starting this group, will be presenting at the Microsoft offices in Malvern, PA. The meeting starts at 7pm, so please try to arrive 15-30 minutes sooner.

This presentation wil be Using the VFP Debugger Effectively.

Visual FoxPro has a powerful debugger that provides many tools for finding problems with your code. This session will dig into the Debugger by working through a buggy piece of code, and show you how to step through code to find problems, how to set breakpoints, how to use Event Tracking and the Coverage Profiler and more. Overall, the session will teach you to make the most of the Debugger's tools in order to speed development, improve your code, and understand VFP better.

Please register at: http://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/EventDetail.aspx?culture=en-US&EventID=1032280764&EventCategory=1.

Tamar E. Granor, Ph.D., is the owner of Tomorrow's Solutions, LLC. She has developed and enhanced numerous Visual FoxPro applications for businesses and other organizations. She currently focuses on working with other developers through consulting and subcontracting. Tamar served as Editor of FoxPro Advisor magazine from 1994 to 2000. She is the magazine's Technical Editor and co-author of the popular Advisor Answers column.

Tamar is author or co-author of nine books including the award winning Hacker's Guide to Visual FoxPro and Microsoft Office Automation with Visual FoxPro. Her most recent book is What's New in Nine: Visual FoxPro's Latest Hits. Her next book, due this fall, covers the use of VFP's SQL language for managing local data. Her books are available from Hentzenwerke Publishing (www.hentzenwerke.com).

Tamar is a Microsoft Certified Professional and a Microsoft Support Most Valuable Professional. Tamar speaks frequently about Visual FoxPro at conferences and user groups in North America and Europe, including every FoxPro DevCon since 1993. She is a Lecturer in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. She served as Technical Content Manager for the 1997-1999 Visual FoxPro DevCons and was part of the coordination team for the Visual FoxPro Excellence Awards.

You can reach her at tamar@thegranors.com or through www.tomorrowssolutionsllc.com.

Portals mini-Code Camp in Charlotte, NC

sspotts — Mon, 08 Aug 2005 21:04:00 GMT

The Charlotte portals Code Camp just got even more horsepower! Doug Turnure, my fellow DE down there, has enlisted Ted Pattison and David Leininger as speakers.

Ted Pattison is a published author and an industry-leading trainer and consultant who specializes in building portal applications and collaborative solutions with SharePoint Products and Technologies. Ted has been recognized by Microsoft as an MVP with Windows SharePoint Services and Microsoft Office Portal Server 2003. He has delivered his advanced SharePoint training and consulted with developers and system administrators from companies such as Microsoft, Intel, Countrywide, Morgan Stanley, Mattel and Viacom. Ted is also a best-selling author of books focused on developing for the Windows platform and a columnist with MSDN Magazine.

David R. Leininger sent his first email in 1979, and has been involved with software ever since. He served as a director of international operations in the 80s for a high-end database company, then began writing code for a living in 1992. He has presented seminars on object oriented design and development in more than a dozen countries. Recent projects include large-scale portals for educational institutions, and senior developer on one of the largest .NET applications in the country for a governmental body.

Agenda:

8:30-9:00 registration
9:00-9:15 Opening statements
9:15-10:45 Session 1 Developer’s Deep Dive into SharePoint Products and Technologies – Ted Pattison
10:45-11:00 Break
11:00-12:30 Session 2 Creating Portal Applications with Web parts in ASP.NET 2.0 – Ted Pattison
12:30-1:30 Lunch
1:30-3:00 Session 3 DotNetNuke, part 1 - David Leininger
3:00-3:15 Break
3:15-4:45 Session 4 DotNetNuke, part 1 - David Leininger
5:00-5:15 Closing statements/giveaways

August Philadelphia Area BizTalk User Group meeting

sspotts — Thu, 04 Aug 2005 02:43:00 GMT

We had our third meeting tonight, and had about 9 attendees. Unfortunately for the late cancellations, we had a great session by Michael Webber and Darrin Weber from Air Products who presented their document tracking solution and deployment strategy. Lots of custom adapters, integration with Remedy, and more. Good stuff!

The BizTalk User Group meets on the first Wednesday of each month in the Microsoft Malvern office. Their new support web site is at www.pabtug.com. If you're in the Philadelphia area, and interested in meeting with other BizTalk users, developers, analysts, and managers, be sure to sign up at the web site to get onto the mailing list for meeting announcements.

Big turnout for DotNetNuke SIG in Malvern, PA

sspotts — Thu, 04 Aug 2005 02:23:00 GMT

We had about 50 people attending the DotNetNuke SIG meeting tonight at the Microsoft office in Malvern, PA. There were three talks tonight - one by Bill Wolff, the PhillyDotNet User Group leader, one by Hal Dell, the DotNetNuke SIG leader, and the final talk by Todd Davis, from Seabury Design.

Bills talk was about database tricks: We saw the database structure in DNN 3.x including tables, stored procedures, and views. Sample code that automates page and module creation will be reviewed. This technique can saves lots of time when you have many pages with similar content.

Hal's presentation was on how to develop a Scheduled Task within the DotNetNuke Framework. While DNN tasks are similar in concept to Services; DNN Scheduled Tasks have some limitations were discussed.

Finally, Todd presented on SqlDataProviders. Packing a DotNetNuke module from distribution requires the creation of the 01.00.00.SqlDataProvider file, which installs the tables and stored procedures required by the module. This process requires some careful finesse and fine tweaking to be successful. Todd demonstrated how to create this file by hand, and how to edit it properly so that DotNetNuke can consume it during installation. Afterwards, he showed how to automate the process using ScriptBuilder. Todd, BTW, is very much involved at the DNN training site.

iWay to Sell .Net Adapter Source Code to Microsoft

sspotts — Thu, 04 Aug 2005 02:22:00 GMT

The New York-based company, which has a stable of about 280 prebuilt adapters to back-end systems, announced Tuesday it's selling the source code and intellectual property from eight of its adapters to Microsoft. See the article...

Exploring the Integrated Environment Power Session

sspotts — Wed, 03 Aug 2005 04:32:00 GMT

Thanks to all who attended today’s Power Session on Exploring the Integrated Environment that I presented this morning. Please find the session video here and the slides here.

Acrylic - beta graphics tool from Microsoft

sspotts — Tue, 02 Aug 2005 02:11:00 GMT

"Acrylic" is the codename for an innovative illustration, painting and graphics tool that provides exciting creative capabilities for designers working in print, web, video, and interactive media. Check out this site to download the beta or get more info.

Windows Vista (was "Longhorn") beta available for MSDN subscribers

sspotts — Thu, 28 Jul 2005 17:20:00 GMT

Windows Vista Beta 1 is now available on the MSDN subscriber downloads site. Yet another example of why MSDN subscriptions rock!

And if you're a developer, check out the Windows Vista Developer Center.

Escape Yesterworld!

sspotts — Thu, 28 Jul 2005 17:03:00 GMT

Wow, someone had a lot of time on their hands!

http://www.escapeyesterworld.com/

One of the more humorous ways I've yet seen to promote the benefits of SQL Server 2005 and Visual Studio 2005.