Chris Koenig

THIS BLOG IS MOVING

Chris Koenig — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 05:19:00 GMT

In a bit of daring do, I've decided to self-host my blog instead of having it hosted at MSDN. This blog has been here for 2 years, but I'd really like to explore what it will mean to host my own blog platform, and experiement with some other technologies as well. I'm still hosting on Windows, but I've decided to give Wordpress a try.

RSS feeds are still the same: http://feeds.feedburner.com/chriskoenig

the new link to the online version of my blog is http://chriskoenig.net

Maybe that will be easier for people to remember :)

Get up to 25% off select Microsoft Certification exams

Chris Koenig — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 21:49:22 GMT

In this tough economy, are you looking to get ahead? Do you want to stand out? Microsoft Certification can help you pursue a new career in IT, move from one job role to another, or become indispensible in your existing role. Microsoft Certifications are continually evaluated and updated to ensure their relevance in the marketplace. As a result, earning a certification not only helps you stay current on the latest developments in Microsoft technologies and platforms; it also enables you to demonstrate to employers your job skills.

To make it easier for you to get started, you can now take advantage of a new set of discounts that Microsoft is providing on select Microsoft Certification exams. Visit the website below to find out how to begin and to see whether the exam you’re interested in is 15%, 20% or 25% off.

This offer is available worldwide while supplies last, and you have to register, schedule and purchase your discounted exam by December 31, 2009.

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/careeroffers

SQL Azure Database CTP Available

Chris Koenig — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 23:34:25 GMT

The official CTP for SQL Azure (a.k.a. SQL Data Services, a.k.a. SQL Server Data Services) has now been released into the wild! Head over to the SQL Azure Team Blog to learn more, or directly over to the SQL Azure web site to request a token and get started!

For those that don’t know, SQL Azure is a cloud-based relational database service that’s part of our Windows Azure platform. Based on SQL Server 2008, SQL Azure provides a highly-scalable cloud-based relational database for your application needs. Head over to the Windows Azure web site to learn more about Windows Azure and SQL Azure.

Chris Tullier and Todd Girvin at PDC09

Chris Koenig — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 23:34:00 GMT

Not sure if everyone knows this, but SCD’s own Todd Girvin and Chris Tullier are teaming up to present a pre-conference workshop at PDC 09 titled Developing Quality Software using Visual Studio Team System 2010. If you’re planning on attending PDC, I’d highly recommend also adding a Pre-Conference registration to you trip and attending this session.

Real World Azure with Microsoft IT

Chris Koenig — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 19:18:00 GMT

Come spend a day with us to explore Windows Azure™ – Microsoft’s platform for building and deploying cloud based applications – from a real world point of view! During this event, we’ll review critical lessons Microsoft IT has learned migrating internal line-of-business applications to Windows Azure™. What is Windows Azure™? When should I use it? How does it apply to my job? Whether you’re an IT Professional, Developer or Architect, we’ll address your top of mind questions about cloud computing.

TechNet Events Presents – for the IT Professional from 8:30am to noon

In this session, we will discuss:

Azure architecture from the IT professional’s point of view
Why an IT operations team would want to pursue Azure as an extension to the data center
Configuration, deployment and scaling Azure-based applications
The Azure roles (web, web service and worker)
Azure storage options
Azure security and identity options
How Azure-based applications can be integrated with on-premises applications
How operations teams can manage and monitor Azure-based applications

8/20/2009 - Dallas, TX

9/17/2009 - Houston, TX

9/24/2009 - Austin, TX

MSDN Events Presents – for the Developer & Architect from 1:00pm to 5:00pm

In this session, we will discuss:

Cloud computing architectures in general and the Azure architecture in particular
Several aspects of Azure from the developer’s and architect’s perspective
Azure roles (web, web service and worker)
Azure storage options
Azure security and identity options
How Azure-based applications can be integrated with on-premise applications
Configuration, deployment and scaling Azure-based applications
How development teams can optimize their applications for better management and monitoring

8/20/2009 - Dallas, TX

9/17/2009 - Houston, TX

9/24/2009 - Austin, TX

Who wants to win a Surface Table?

Chris Koenig — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 18:10:36 GMT

As you probably heard, Windows Marketplace for Mobile has been announced as a new offering for WinMo users. In order to get some applications up there, The WinMo team at Microsoft has created a little friendly competition called the Race to Market Challenge. When you submit your application to the Windows Marketplace for Mobile, you’ll be automatically entered into the competition that makes you eligible to win some fabulous prizes including your very own Surface Table!

Visit the Race to Market Challenge at http://www.mobilethisdeveloper.com to find out more and get your application out on the Windows Marketplace for Mobile today!

DevCares July - DotNetNuke

Chris Koenig — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 17:20:39 GMT

Hey everyone – got some great info about the upcoming DevCares event at TekFocus this week. This time around the speaker is my good friend Jason Kergosien and he’s talking about DotNetNuke. Here are all the details:

DevCares July - DotNetNuke

Click here to register

Session: DotNetNuke
With the advent of content management systems and the evolution of development tools, frameworks are everywhere. DotNetNuke, an open source web platform based on Microsoft's .NET framework, has become more prevalent in the business environment. It has quickly grown to become the most widely adopted open source framework for web CMS and application development in.NET. In this session, we'll discuss how to leverage DotNetNuke in developing business applications without having limitations of frameworks to hinder you. See real world examples of applications that leverage DNN's security, extensibility, and personalized content by using the DNN's portal framework as well as the full sets of skills in your .NET toolbelt.

Speaker: Jason Kergosien
Jason is president and senior architect at Ingen Systems, a Dallas-based development and consulting company specializing in DotNetNuke. He speaks on regularly on various .NET and DotNetNuke topics at technical conferences including regional TechFests and CodeCamps.

When: July 31, 2009

8:30 AM - 9:00 AM - Sign-In
9:00 AM - 11:30 AM – Presentation
11:30 - Announcements and Give-Aways

Location: TekFocus
TekFocus at the InfoMart
1950 Stemmons Freeway, Suite 3050 Dallas, TX 75207
To register, please call 214.800.5611 or visit www.clicktoattend.com

These are great sessions put on by great speakers at a great location! You should definitely attend…

Announcing Microsoft Tag API

Chris Koenig — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 16:58:15 GMT

Yesterday, the Microsoft Tag team announced the release of their Tag API. The Microsoft Tag API allows anyone to create Tag from the web, the desktop, mobile devices.

By using the Microsoft Tag Web Services API, you can programmatically access many of the same operations used on the Microsoft Tag Web site. Using Visual Studio and the .NET Framework, you can write programs to create, modify, and otherwise manage Tags for your business — including bulk Tag creation and updates — without having to use the Microsoft Tag Web site interface.

Get Started Right Now!

Sign-up if you are a new Tag user
Apply for an API key.
Getting Started with Tag Web Services
View the documentation
Provide feedback or questions

Tag team blog post: http://blogs.msdn.com/tag/archive/2009/07/23/microsoft-tag-api-announcement.aspx

Tag team Twitter account: http://twitter.com/microsofttag

Register NOW for Houston TechFest

Chris Koenig — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 07:23:54 GMT

Hey everyone – the Houston TechFest site is opened up for registration! You can visit http://houstontechfest.com and get signed up and registered for one of 12 tracks including .NET (2 tracks), Java (2 tracks), Methodology, Agile, ALT.NET, Silverlight/WPF-specific, SharePoint, IT-Pro and a couple of “Special” categories. I’ll be presenting 2 sessions:

A Tour of Visual Studio 2010
Building LOB Applications with Silverlight 3

I hope you’ll come out an join us on September 26, 2009 at the University of Houston University Center!

Technorati Tags: event,houston,techfest,silverlight,visual studio 2010,vs2010,visualstudio,visual studio

Thrive for Developers

Chris Koenig — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 22:57:50 GMT

Although the economic news is looking a little brighter, we know it’s still tough out there…. to help Microsoft has put together Thrive - a website that’s all about helping developers survive the recession and manage their careers in this tough economy. Thrive pulls together a ton of great resources to help you learn new tasks faster, get access to discounted training, and certification and connect you with your local community. Thrive has lots of interesting insights from members of our own developer community who are sharing their stories and advice about what they are doing to manage their career in the downturn.

.NET Rocks “Development in a Downturn” podcast series – 10 part podcast series focusing on developers in the community sharing their stories of how they have handled the recession, what they have learned and advice they have to share to others based on their personal experiences
Step by step resources to help devs ramp quickly on new tasks. Developers are being asked to take on more with fewer resources and limited training, these step by step scenarios help save time and money.
“How to be a better Developer” series – everything from community MVP’s weighing in with their advice, to how to leverage social networks to benefit your career, to “Driving your Career Forward” , a 32 part screen cast series on how to develop key soft skills that can help you be more successful on the job.
Job search functionality on thousands of development job openings across the country
Industry resources and articles on how to land a job; including a 4 part webcast series on “Getting a Development Job in the Current Economy”
Community Connection to find local developer events and user groups

Head over to http://microsoft.com/thrivedev to get some more more information about this great program!

Technorati Tags: developer,thrive,thrivedev

WinMoDevCamp

Chris Koenig — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 22:44:53 GMT

Announcing the first in a series of 6 international barcamp-style events for Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.5 OS called WinMoDevCamp! WinMoDevCamp is a not-for-profit gathering to develop applications for the upcoming release of the Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.5 O/S. Attendees will include mobile developers, web developers, .Net Developers, UI designers, and testers, to learning all about the wonderfulness that is Windows Mobile 6.5, and development projects during the event will include both solo and team efforts. While some attendees will wish to work solo during the event, we encourage attendees to team up, based on expertise, to work in ad-hoc project development teams. All attendees should be prepared to work on a development project during the event.

During the event, attendees will be able to:

Create new applications for the Windows Mobile Platform.
Meet and work side-by-side with team members from the Microsoft Mobile Developer Experience team.
Migrate existing mobile applications from the iPhone, Blackberry and Palm Pre to the Windows Mobile Platform.
Create applications to support Windows Enterprise Applications.
Test and optimize applications for Windows Mobile 6.5.

The first event is scheduled for August 19th in Seattle, Washington. Although the “official” list of cities includes Seattle, Austin, London, New York, San Francisco and Singapore, the soon-to-be-released http://winmodevcamp.org website will have facilities for us to organize our own local events.

Technorati Tags: Windows,WindowsMobile,BarCamp

Dallas GiveCamp “We Are Microsoft” Dates are Set!

Chris Koenig — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 19:30:09 GMT

I’m happy to announce that Dallas GiveCamp – a.k.a. We Are Microsoft Charity Challenge Weekend – will occur on the weekend of January 15-17 at BravoTECH in Dallas. This is the same location as the past few years – we love working with BravoTECH on this and look forward to another successful camp! Stay tuned to http://wearemicrosoft.com and http://givecamp.org for more details!

The planning process will begin in earnest during the month of August – if you are interested in helping out as a volunteer, especially during the early stages as a business analyst, please drop me a line and let me know.

Technorati Tags: givecamp,dallas,charity

Dallas TechFest 2009 – Recap

Chris Koenig — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 01:02:19 GMT

Dallas TechFest is a multi-technology, multi-disciplinary developer conference held this year it was held on June 19^th 2009 at the beautiful Westin Stonebriar Resort in Frisco, TX. Completely organized and run by members of the local community, this year over 400 developers and architects turned out for 8 tracks and 40 sessions covering advanced topics in .NET, RIA, Java, Flex, Cold Fusion and Ruby. Speakers and attendees were drawn mostly from the regional influencer pool around Texas, Oklahoma and Northwest Arkansas, with the notable exceptions of a speaker from Boston, MA and a participant from Brazil!

This year’s conference was fantastic. Not only was the content exceptional in all of our tracks, but it was a great chance to see and work with some of our friends in the Java and PHP communities as well as make some new friends in the Cold Fusion and Flex communities. Although early challenges around securing sponsors caused us to have to delay the original start date, we were finally able to find some great sponsors, and raise enough money through ticket sales to bring the whole thing off. All of the feedback I’ve gotten around the content was really, really positive. Each track had fantastic speakers, and everyone was really happy with the results. As this event is first and foremost about the content, I’m really proud of the feedback in this area.

Although nothing ever goes as well as planned, this year’s event had relatively few (and minor) glitches. The biggest problems we had were around some confusion with ticket sales. Our original tiered ticket price model wasn’t communicated very well, and people got confused when they went to register and the cost wasn’t what they’d expected. Next year, we need to do a much better job of making sure that any ticket prices are communicated appropriately so that nobody get surprised. The other big challenges we had was around food and Wi-Fi. With the money we were able to raise, it was not feasible to pay for internet connections for everyone, so each person had to pay for their own. Even at only $9 a day, it was still seen by many as an inconvenience to have to pay for Wi-Fi when so many of these types of events provide it for free. Food was the same way. Last year, we spent less on the venue and were able to purchase a boxed lunch for everyone. With the 2009 venue, it was a much nicer place to meet, but they didn’t allow us to bring food in, and their cost for catering was far beyond our budget.

One question we did get quite often was around ticket prices: “why did you guys charge money this year? It’s always been free before…” Simple answer? We needed the money. Between the cost of the venue, and what happened last year, it was critical to us that we get a relatively predictable number of attendees. Now that we know this works, it will be easier for us to plan to feed people next year without fears of a repeat of 2008. What happened last year, you ask? 650 people registered for Dallas TechFest least year, but only 255 actually came out. We had to give away about 250 boxed lunches that would otherwise have gone to waste. having a small amount to charge people ($25 in most cases) was a great incentive for people to actually come if they did indeed register. Hopefully, we’ll have additional sponsors earlier in the planning cycle next time, and can make some better plans around a cost structure, but I don’t see this becoming a completely free event next year unless the economy turns around by then…

Next year, we’re going to look at solving the food and internet problems without sacrificing too much around the quality of the venue. We will also probably charge again next year, but might consider doing a 2 day event so that people who can not attend on one day (due to work, or family time) can attend on the other day. We can monkey around with the price to include in internet and food, but I would rather not charge any more than I absolutely have to.

Before I sign off, I wanted to make sure and thank all the folks that worked so hard to make this event successful. From our Sponsors (Microsoft, Odyssey, GeneXus, DeKlarit, Credera and GenuTec) all of our organizers and volunteers (Tim Rayburn, Erik Weibust, Omar Villarreal, Dave Shuck, Jonathan Campos, Teresa Burger, Adam Keys, Geoff Dagley, Tim Stiles and Jason Ragsdale) as well as the nearly 40 speakers at the event. It would not have been possible without all your help and support of the Dallas developer community. Thanks for all you do!

Technorati Tags: #dtf09,dallas,techfest,dallastechfest,event

Dallas SharePoint Saturday

Chris Koenig — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 23:28:46 GMT

Join SharePoint architects, developers, and other professionals that work with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 for the first ever SharePoint Saturday Dallas. SharePoint Saturday is an educational, informative & lively day filled with sessions from respected SharePoint professionals & MVPs, covering a wide variety of SharePoint-orientated topics. SharePoint Saturday is FREE, open to the public and is your local chance to immerse yourself in SharePoint.

The agenda is broken into 3 tracks (Business, IT Pro, and Developer). Everyone from end users to administrators to developers will find something of interest for them at this special event. There will be lots of prize giveaways, and lunch will be provided.

To register: http://www.sharepointsaturday.org/dallas

Technorati Tags: sharepoint,training,dallas,#sharepointsaturday

June DevCares - Parallelism in .NET 4.0

Chris Koenig — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 01:10:43 GMT

One of my favorite speakers, and all around great guy Tim Rayburn will be speaking at the next installment of DevCares on one of the hottest topics around - Parallelism in .NET 4.0. If you haven’t seen Tim present on this topic, then I’d make every effort to get myself over to TekFocus on Friday, June 26th at 8:30 AM. Special thanks to Miguel, Kory and Ken for keeping the fires burning on DevCares…

Technorati Tags: training,.net,parallelism