David Kline : Events

See you at Mix 2008

DavidKlineMS — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 22:24:21 GMT

Just a quick note to let folks know that I will be making the trip to Mix this year. I have recently gotten my flight, hotel and conference in order and am now officially registered. I'm very much looking forward to this conference. It'll be my first time attending and I hear it's a fun one. :)

Hope to see you there,
-- DK

One other note, sorry for going dark last month. Things have been extremely busy for me lately (and will likely continue as such). My usual stream of posts has unfortunately been impacted and continue to be slower than "normal".

Looking back at MEDC 2007

DavidKlineMS — Mon, 07 May 2007 06:12:00 GMT

This year's MEDC was a blast! When it ended, it seemed as if we had just started. I cannot believe how busy I was for the three days of the conference. I had intended to post to this site at least once per day and only had an opportunity on the first day, after my first session.

Highlights (in no particular order)

The formal debut of .NET Compact Framework v3.5 with Windows Communication Foundation, Language Integrated Query and the CLR Profiler (among other, smaller features)
.NET Compact Framework being featured prominently in the Keynote
Finally getting to share details about Store and Forward Messaging
Presenting to my largest audience to date (more than 400 attendees) while introducing .NET Compact Framework v3.5
Delivering my best session ever and talking about my experiences testing software at Microsoft and sharing tips and techniques that I have learned and developed during my career
Meeting and getting to talk to so many attendees
Seeing many friends again
Geeking out in Las Vegas for the third year in a row

Stay tuned to this site as I post on much of what I presented this year and more. Hope to have the opportunity to see you all again at next year's MEDC.

Take care,
-- DK

MEDC 2007 - Day 1 (in progress)

DavidKlineMS — Wed, 02 May 2007 01:04:00 GMT

Hello from day 1 of MEDC 2007. I got to Las Vegas yesterday afternoon and it was almost like attending a class reunion -- many familiar faces. :)

Today, I had the honor of introducing version 3.5 of the .NET Compact Framework (currently in beta) and to demonstrate some of the new features we will be delivering. I would like to express my sincerest thanks to all who attended the session, the room was large and was packed. Special thanks to everyone who submitted session evaluations, especially the comments. I read all of the feedback and use it to make future presentations more effective and to make me a better speaker.

If you are at MEDC and have questions, I will be around our booth throughout the week. If you have any questions after MEDC, please feel free to use the contact link on this page to send them to me.

Take care,
-- DK

Mark Prentice Introduces Store and Forward Messaging in .NET Compact Framework v3.5

DavidKlineMS — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 21:11:00 GMT

Yesterday, Mark posted a 'Hello World' example using the Store and Forward Messaging technology which will ship with version 3.5 of the .NET Compact Framework (currently in beta).

For me, this post is particularly exciting since it allows me to start talking about the feature that I have been busilly working on for the past several months - Store and Forward Messaging.

As Mark mentions in his post, Store and Forward Messaging is built on the Windows Communication Foundation and uses our new Email transport to enable devices to communicate with PC / Server systems as well as other devices. For me, the coolest aspects of Store and Forward Messaging are that it makes devices addressable and I no longer need to worry about whether or not I have connectivity when I send or receive a message -- the email infrastructure takes care of that for me automatically.

If you are coming to MEDC 2007 next week, I highly encourage you to attend Mark and Sergey's session (APP325) on Tuesday afternoon. They will be introducing Windows Communication Foundation for the .NET Compact Framework and Store and Forward Messaging. If you would like to give Store and Forward Messaging a test drive while you are there, Anthony will be presenting an Instructor-Lead Lab (ILL317) on Tuesday (right before Mark and Sergey's session).

And, I would be remiss if I neglected to mention my own session during which I will introduce .NET Compact Framework version 3.5 and demonstrate the cool new features we will be delivering with Visual Studio 'Orcas' including Store and Forward Messaging.

Last October, Roman wrote about the Windows Communication Foundation and an application that he called the "Lunch Launcher". Back in the early days of the .NET Compact Framework, I was one of the folks who was trying to implement a Lunch Launcher (I owned networking and web services testing back then). This coming Tuesday, during my session (APP214), I will at long last be demonstrating a Lunch Launcher built on Store and Forward Messaging! I cannot wait to finally get to show it to you.

Take care and hope to see you all at MEDC!
--- DK

Disclaimers:
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
The information contained within this post is in relation to beta software. Any and all details are subject to change.

MEDC 2007 - Just about here...

DavidKlineMS — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 03:45:10 GMT

This time next week we will be in the middle of MEDC 2007. The last couple of weeks has just flown by. My demos are finally (!) finished, the slides look great and all that is left is one final tune up tomorrow.

See you all in Las Vegas next week!
-- DK

MEDC 2007: T-3 weeks and counting...

DavidKlineMS — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 21:20:27 GMT

Wow! MEDC is almost here. It hardly seems possible that in three short weeks, we'll be in Las Vegas and I will be presenting the first of my two sessions.

In the past couple of months, I have written, reviewed, edited and rehearsed the slides, developed demos and attended the dry runs (dress rehearsals) for each of the sessions being presented by the .NET Compact Framework team. All that is left is (like my first music teacher used to say) to "practice, practice, practice".

If you are going to be at MEDC, the Schedule Builder (session planner) is now available to attendees. I highly recommend checking out the sessions our team is presenting.

Time	Session	Speaker(s)
Tuesday, May 1 11:30am	APP214 - What's New in .NET Compact Framework v3.5	David Kline
Tuesday, May 1 1:45pm	ILL317 - Building an Application using Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) and Store and Forward Transports in the .NET Compact Framework	Anthony Wong
Tuesday, May 1 3:15pm	APP 325 - Using WCF to build Distributed Applications using Smart Devices	Mark Prentice and Sergey Kuryata
Tuesday, May 1 4:45pm	APP324 - Using LINQ with the .NET Compact Framework	Ilya Tumanov
Wednesday, May 2 11:30am	APP403 - Building High-Performance Apps Using the .NET Compact Framework	Ryan Chapman
Wednesday, May 2 3:45pm	APP206 - Panel Discussion with .NET Compact Framework Team, OpenNETCF Smart Device Framework Team and Other Industry Insiders	Richard Greenberg and Scott Holden
Wednesday, May 2 5:15pm	APP322 - New and Improved .NET Compact Framework Diagnostic Tools	Steven Pratschner
Thursday, May 3 8:30am	APP323 - Real World Testing of Managed Smart Device Applications	David Kline
Thursday, May 3 2:00pm	APP206 - Panel Discussion with .NET Compact Framework Team, OpenNETCF Smart Device Framework Team and Other Industry Insiders	Richard Greenberg and Scott Holden

There are also some excellent Hands-On Labs that feature the .NET Compact Framework and the new features of version 3.5.

HOL301 - Building an Application using Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) and Store and Forward Transports in the .NET Compact Framework

HOL302 - Improving Application Performance Step-by-Step featuring Diagnostic Tools in .NET Compact Framework 3.5

HOL305 - Incorporating COM Objects into Your .NET Compact Framework Application

HOL310 - Building a Device Client Application Consuming a Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) Service over HTTP and HTTPS

HOL312 - Exploring Compact LINQ

HOL313 - Tips, Tricks and Techniques for Debugging .NET Compact Framework Applications

For a complete list of sessions and labs, please visit the MEDC 2007 site.

Hope to see you there!
-- DK

Disclaimer(s):
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

MEDC 2007: What's New in .NET Compact Framework v3.5

DavidKlineMS — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 02:06:00 GMT

This year's MEDC just gets more exciting for me. In addition to presenting the 'Real World Testing of Managed Smart Device Applications' session, I will be delivering 'What's New in .NET Compact Framework v3.5'!

This is a 200 level session that will provide some background on the .NET Compact Framework and a look at what we will be delivering in version 3.5 which will ship with Visual Studio 'Orcas'. I've included the session abstract below:

This 200-level session provides a brief introduction to the .NET Compact Framework, and a high-level overview of the new features coming in our next major release. The forthcoming release of Visual Studio (codename “Orcas”) will include a significant update to the .NET Compact Framework: Version 3.5. This version includes a compact version of the Windows Communications Framework (formerly called “Indigo”), Language Integrated Queries (LINQ), new and improved diagnostic and performance analysis tools, and many smaller improvements as well. This session will serve as an introduction to the .NET Compact Framework V3.5 for those not familiar with it, or as a high-level overview of key new features that will be covered in our other sessions in much greater depth.

Hope to see you there!
-- DK

Disclaimer(s):
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

MEDC 2007: Real World Testing of Managed Smart Device Applications

DavidKlineMS — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 23:32:00 GMT

I was recently browsing the MEDC 2007 site and discovered that this year's sessions are now listed. You can browse here and find the sessions you would like to attend -- I have already earmarked several.

As I type, I am taking a short break from working on my slides. This year, I will be presenting the "Real World Testing of Managed Smart Device Applications" session (Application Development track). I've included the session abstract below:

Would you like the inside scoop on testing mobile Smart Device applications? Have you ever wondered how testing managed code differs from testing native code? Is testing a Smart Device application different from testing a Windows application? This session presents answers to these questions and more by detailing the strategies and techniques employed by the .NET Compact Framework QA team for testing our products.

I'm really having fun putting this session together and cannot wait to get on stage and start presenting. :)

Hope to see you there!
-- DK

Disclaimer(s):
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

MEDC 2007

DavidKlineMS — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 22:15:00 GMT

Mike Hall recently posted that registration for MEDC 2007 is now open. As of this past Monday, I am officially registered and, for the third year is a row, will be presenting a session in the Application Development track. I should check with some of my hockey fan friends, but I believe this could be considered a hat trick. I'll post here with more details as the session content gets finalized. Hope to see you all there on May 1.

Take care,
-- DK

Disclaimer(s):
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

MEDC 2006 Update: What went wrong in the debugging demo during APP326?

DavidKlineMS — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 23:17:00 GMT

Ever since I finished my MEDC 2006 presentation (APP326 - Essential Tips and Tricks for .NET Compact Framework Application Developers), I have been bothered by the fact that one of my demos did not work 100% as I had designed and practiced. During the demo of debugging a P/Invoke call (based on this post), I was unable to re-attach to the managed application. This demo worked correctly at MEDC 2005, so why didn't it work this year?

After thinking about this for awhile, I realized that there was one major difference between 2005 and 2006... This year, I decided to show setting the AttachEnabled registry key as part of the presentation. Last year, I had pre-configured the device to support attach to process. This is was the cause of my problem.

While practicing my session, I had used the demo system (my laptop) to walk through each and every demo until I knew them backwards, forwards and inside-out. I was very careful to always leave the device and emulator images in a known state (the beta of .NET Compact Framework v2 sp1 installed, the shared folder configured, etc) so that I would not run into any problems or deployment related delays. My practices went flawlessly and the time came to do them "for real".

Those who attended the session may recall that there were actually two things that did not go smoothly for this particular demo. First, while I was careful to leave the device and emulators in a known state, I forgot to make sure that I had reset the source code before starting the debugging demo and left the Debug.Assert statements that the demo required commented and, therefore, they did not execute.

The second (actually it was the first mistake that I made) was misspelling "AttachEnabled" when editing the device's registry. Ryan Chapman later pointed out that he remembered seeing me type "AttachEnable" (missing the d). After he mentioned that, all I could think was "oh no, how could I have made that mistake". I will confirm this once I receive and watch the session recording, but I think Ryan is correct. Fortunately, the slides have the correct registry data listed.

To make a long story short, when you watch the session recording, please be aware of this error and use the registry key (AttachEnabled) that is shown in my slides and here. Sorry for the confusion that this may have caused at the show.

Take care,
-- DK

Disclaimer(s):
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
Some of the information contained within this post may be in relation to beta software. Any and all details are subject to change.

MEDC 2006 Session Photo

DavidKlineMS — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 20:58:00 GMT

I was talking to Ryan Chapman the other day and he mentioned that he took a couple of photos during my session. He sent me one of them and said to feel free to share it.

This picture was taken during my "Essential Tips and Tricks for .NET Compact Framework Application Developers" session (APP326). That's me, on the right, standing behind the laptop. On the big screen is my demo of a single binary that displays a device type (Pocket PC or Smartphone) appropriate user interface. For the demo, i used the Device Emulator from Visual Studio 2005 and used the Windows Mobile 5.0 Pocket PC, Windows Mobile 5.0 Pocket PC Square and Windows Mobile 5.0 Smartphone Landscape (320x240) images.

Once again, thanks to everyone who came and especially those who submitted feedback.

Take care,
-- DK

Disclaimer(s):
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

MEDC 2006: Another Great Conference

DavidKlineMS — Fri, 12 May 2006 10:37:00 GMT

Another MEDC has ended. I had a great time, met many kind and enthusiastic people and reconnected with many that I met at last year's conference -- they sure seem like old friends now. :) I very much enjoyed presenting again this year and appreciate all of the feedback I received through the session evaluations.

I'll be back in Seattle tomorrow afternoon (technically later today) and am looking forward to getting back to my "regular" job of helping to ensure that future releases of the .NET Compact Framework are even better than we have seen to date.

The picture below was taken during my flight from Seattle to Las Vegas the day before the start of MEDC. I must say that we in the Pacific Northwest corner of the United States are spoiled by getting to see this (Mount Rainier) whenever the weather is clear. The next time I see this sight I will be nearly home.

I now return this weblog to it's regularly scheduled technical content :)

Take care!
-- DK

Disclaimer(s):
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

MEDC 2006 - Day 2 (Belated)

DavidKlineMS — Fri, 12 May 2006 02:13:00 GMT

Yesterday was so busy that I did not have time to post the daily summary when I got back to my room. Instead, I went to sleep and did not stir until this morning.

Ryan's session (APP411 - .NET Compact Framework 2.0: Optimizing for Performance) was quite good. It was very well attended (standing room only) and well received. For those who were in Las Vegas, I hope you were able to catch his talk. If not, please be sure to watch the recording on the session DVD when they arrive. This information is not to be missed.

I also got the opportunity to catch Sue Loh's session of Windows CE Performance Tools and Techniques (EMB311). Another session full of excellent information that I am eager to get back to Redmond to try. During this session, Mike Hall and the podcast crew came in and conducted a surprise interview (pop quiz for presenters?)... This was the first time I have been able to meet Sue -- once again, traveling ~900 miles to meet someone who works across the freeway from me. :)

Take care,
-- DK

Disclaimer(s):
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

MEDC 2006: Day 1 -- Wrap up

DavidKlineMS — Wed, 10 May 2006 09:54:00 GMT

The first day is done. As I mentioned earlier, the keynote was this morning and had some fun demos. Then came the hardest part of presentation day for me.... waiting for it to be my turn. The session went quite well, mini-godzilla, the session mascot, took his place on the podium and it was underway. Session mascot? This all started, at last year's MEDC, when I was given a rather large plastic bug (I presented a debugging session) to bring along for luck. I'm not sure what was funnier: the audience's or the airport screener's reaction. I'm thinking the airport screener. When I went through security in Seattle, last year, my carry-on bag went through the scanner on the belt, backed up, the attendant pointed out the screen to another attendant, smiled and sent my bag on it's way :) This year, I was sent with mini-godzilla. If I present again (next year?), I wonder what the mascot will be...

Back to the session... The room was full (around 250 or so) and I would like to express my thanks to everyone who attended. It was a privilege to present again this year and to especially get to debut the .NET Compact Framework Remote Performance Monitor (shipping in the version 2 sp 1 beta). The questions in the presentation hall were all very interesting, and thanks to Scott, who helped field a couple of them. Afterwards, I had some great conversations with many attendees in the speaker cabana. My previous session was at the end of the conference, so today (or is it yesterday already?) was my first real opportunity to experience the speaker cabana. I liked it. It's great to get some 1:1 time with the kind folks who stopped by.

After the cabana, I had a little down time before Ask The Experts. After that, a quick break in my room and then a late dinner with some of the .NET Compact Framework team.

Before I forget... To everyone who attended my session: Thank you! To those who have submitted feedback via the conference network: Thank you even more! For those who have not yet submitted feedback, please take a few minutes to do so while you are at MEDC. I read each comment and rating and use the data to tune future presentations (improved content) and my delivery (there is always room to get better).

I think it's time to turn in. I'll see you tomorrow.

Take care,
-- DK

Disclaimer(s):
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

MEDC 2006: Day 1 - In progress

DavidKlineMS — Tue, 09 May 2006 20:43:00 GMT

Arrived in Las Vegas yesterday afternoon on a very smooth, pleasant, uneventful flight. Met with many folks at dinner in the evening, some I had not seen since the last MEDC and some I had only talked to in email. After dinner, I braved the (very) long walk from The Venetian to Luxor and back. While it was tiring (special apologies to my legs and feet), it really helped to relax me before today's session (at 1:45pm).

This morning was the keynote (it ended about an hour ago) which had some great demos -- no one can top Mr. Hall for excitement, enthusiasm and humor :). Now I am sitting in the speaker preparation room getting ready for my time in the spotlight. This year, I feel very prepared and quite a bit more relaxed than last year... and I brought along a good luck charm (not saying what until after the session). For those here at MEDC, I will also be at tonight's Ask The Experts reception to meet and answer your questions about the .NET Compact Framework.

Well, I really should be getting back to my final preparations...

Take care,
-- DK

Disclaimer(s):
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.