Dennis "D.C." Dietrich : Links

Dennis "D.C." Dietrich : Linkshttp://blogs.msdn.com/ddietric/archive/tags/Links/default.aspxTags: Linksen-USCommunityServer 2.1 SP1 (Build: 61025.2)Back from Portland Code Camphttp://blogs.msdn.com/ddietric/archive/2009/05/31/back-from-portland-code-camp.aspxMon, 01 Jun 2009 09:25:00 GMT91d46819-8472-40ad-a661-2c78acb4018c:9673970ddietric0http://blogs.msdn.com/ddietric/comments/9673970.aspxhttp://blogs.msdn.com/ddietric/commentrss.aspx?PostID=9673970<P>The <A href="http://portlandcodecamp.org/" target=_blank mce_href="http://portlandcodecamp.org/">Portland Code Camp</A> yesterday was a blast. In fact, it was one of the best (un)conferences I've been to so far with a wide variety of topics and I'd like to share my personal Top 3 <EM>Best of Portland Code Camp 2009</EM> (but keep in mind that that's 3 out of 5):</P> <P><A href="http://www.cauldwell.net/patrick/blog/" target=_blank mce_href="http://www.cauldwell.net/patrick/blog/">Patrick Cauldwell</A> did a presentation titled <EM><A href="http://portlandcodecamp.org/session.aspx?sid=296c59a4-0219-4f99-9bfa-c20949297e4b" target=_blank mce_href="http://portlandcodecamp.org/session.aspx?sid=296c59a4-0219-4f99-9bfa-c20949297e4b">Building Business Applications in Silverlight 3</A></EM> which was a great introduction to what's new in <A href="http://silverlight.net/getstarted/silverlight3/default.aspx" target=_blank mce_href="http://silverlight.net/getstarted/silverlight3/default.aspx">Silverlight 3</A> for business application developers. He started by talking about what's already in Silverlight 2. His conclusion was that while the current version is a good platform for Rich Internet Applications implementing certain features is too much work. He then went on to talk about and demonstrate some of the new features in version 3 like navigation/deep linking and improved validation as well as the <A href="http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=76bb3a07-3846-4564-b0c3-27972bcaabce" target=_blank mce_href="http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=76bb3a07-3846-4564-b0c3-27972bcaabce">.NET RIA Services</A> which are currently available as a preview.</P> <P><A href="http://jasonkelly.net/about.aspx" target=_blank mce_href="http://jasonkelly.net/about.aspx">Jason Kelly</A> did an introduction to <A href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing" target=_blank mce_href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing">cloud computing</A> focusing on two offerings which follow the <A href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utility_computing" target=_blank mce_href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utility_computing">utility computing</A> model, <A href="http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/" target=_blank mce_href="http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/">Amazon EC2</A> and <A href="http://www.microsoft.com/azure/" target=_blank mce_href="http://www.microsoft.com/azure/">Microsoft Azure</A>. After talking about the benefits and common usage patterns of cloud computing he compared EC2 and Azure in terms of the feature set and (dis)advantages of each platform. Jason also showed two versions of a simple application demonstrating how to use the Amazon and Microsoft cloud services. He has published his slides as well as the demo applications in a blog post (<EM><A href="http://jasonkelly.net/archive/2009/05/30/portland-code-camp-2009-cloud-computing-presentation.aspx" target=_blank mce_href="http://jasonkelly.net/archive/2009/05/30/portland-code-camp-2009-cloud-computing-presentation.aspx">Portland Code Camp 2009 - Cloud Computing presentation</A></EM>).</P> <P>The last session I attended was Brian Henderson's <EM><A href="http://portlandcodecamp.org/session.aspx?sid=e5cede07-ca92-4cb7-88cc-c04df99c3562" target=_blank mce_href="http://portlandcodecamp.org/session.aspx?sid=e5cede07-ca92-4cb7-88cc-c04df99c3562">Implementing a Rich Interactive Application Design</A></EM>. The content was more general than the title suggests with many good tips on how to do good UI design and improve the user experience (UX) of your application. I highly recommend checking out the slides if you are developing applications without designers or UX engineers on your team and need some practical ideas that can help you deliver a better product; the slides can certainly not replace books or training but those two require time and money and who has those these days (unfortunately, the slides have not been uploaded yet but that should happen within the next day or two so keep checking the session page if they are still missing).</P> <HR align=center SIZE=2 width="90%"> <P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto" class=MsoNormal align=center><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 8pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.</SPAN></P><img src="http://blogs.msdn.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=9673970" width="1" height="1">LinksUser ExperienceSilverlightCode CampCloud ComputingMIX09 announcedhttp://blogs.msdn.com/ddietric/archive/2008/10/22/mix09-announced.aspxWed, 22 Oct 2008 18:22:00 GMT91d46819-8472-40ad-a661-2c78acb4018c:9011213ddietric0http://blogs.msdn.com/ddietric/comments/9011213.aspxhttp://blogs.msdn.com/ddietric/commentrss.aspx?PostID=9011213<P>Don't make any plans for March 18-20 next year (or cancel the plans you've already made) since that's when MIX will happen once again in Las Vegas. The <A class="" href="http://2009.visitmix.com/" target=_blank mce_href="http://2009.visitmix.com/">MIX09 website</A> is already online and if you liked what we showed you this year you will love the cool new stuff that's coming up next!</P> <HR align=center width="90%" SIZE=2> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; TEXT-ALIGN: center; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto" align=center><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.</SPAN></P><img src="http://blogs.msdn.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=9011213" width="1" height="1">LinksMIXTransitionals - About a little piece of Acropolis that wanted to become open sourcehttp://blogs.msdn.com/ddietric/archive/2008/04/30/transitionals-about-a-little-piece-of-acropolis-that-wanted-to-become-open-source.aspxThu, 01 May 2008 02:44:00 GMT91d46819-8472-40ad-a661-2c78acb4018c:8445438ddietric0http://blogs.msdn.com/ddietric/comments/8445438.aspxhttp://blogs.msdn.com/ddietric/commentrss.aspx?PostID=8445438<P mce_keep="true">While Microsoft is certainly not an open source company there are some instances of code drops from, and open source projects started by teams at Microsoft that are released under licenses which comply with the <A href="http://www.opensource.org/docs/osd" target=_blank mce_href="http://www.opensource.org/docs/osd">definition of open source</A> as defined by the <A href="http://www.opensource.org/about" target=_blank mce_href="http://www.opensource.org/about">Open Source Initiative (OSI)</A>. One well-known example is the <A href="http://wix.sourceforge.net/" target=_blank mce_href="http://wix.sourceforge.net/">Windows Installer XML (WiX) toolset</A>, a more recent example is the <A href="http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=EA93DD89-3AF2-4ACB-9CF4-BFE01B3F02D4&displaylang=en" target=_blank mce_href="http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=EA93DD89-3AF2-4ACB-9CF4-BFE01B3F02D4&displaylang=en">source code for the additional Silverlight controls</A> shipped during MIX which was released using the OSI-approved <A href="http://www.opensource.org/licenses/ms-pl.html" target=_blank mce_href="http://www.opensource.org/licenses/ms-pl.html">Microsoft Public License (Ms-PL)</A>.</P> <P>The very latest addition to this list is a little project called "<A href="http://www.codeplex.com/transitionals" target=_blank mce_href="http://www.codeplex.com/transitionals">Transitionals</A>" which - quoting from the project description - "<EM>[...] is a framework for building and using WPF transitions which provide an easy way to switch between UI views in a rich and animated way</EM>". The reason I wanted to highlight this project is that it was originally part of the incubation project "<A href="http://windowsclient.net/Acropolis/" target=_blank mce_href="http://windowsclient.net/Acropolis/">Acropolis</A>" and while we are of course using the experience gained during the project for new technologies we are working on it is good to see that a small part of it has been released to the community in form of an open source project under the Ms-PL. Kudos to <A href="http://blogs.msdn.com/jbienz/" target=_blank mce_href="http://blogs.msdn.com/jbienz/">Jared Bienz</A> for coming up with the idea and patiently pushing to make it happen (<A href="http://blogs.msdn.com/jbienz/archive/tags/Transitionals/default.aspx" target=_blank mce_href="http://blogs.msdn.com/jbienz/archive/tags/Transitionals/default.aspx">he documented the journey on his blog</A>).</P> <HR align=center width="90%" SIZE=2> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; TEXT-ALIGN: center; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto" align=center><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.</SPAN></P><img src="http://blogs.msdn.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=8445438" width="1" height="1">LinksOpen SourceJoin the family - Become a UI Framework Tester!http://blogs.msdn.com/ddietric/archive/2008/02/17/join-the-family-become-a-ui-framework-tester.aspxSun, 17 Feb 2008 15:00:00 GMT91d46819-8472-40ad-a661-2c78acb4018c:7750128ddietric2http://blogs.msdn.com/ddietric/comments/7750128.aspxhttp://blogs.msdn.com/ddietric/commentrss.aspx?PostID=7750128<P>By the time I made up my mind that I really wanted to work at Microsoft I was already really excited about the .NET Framework. In combination with C# and Visual Studio it opened a whole new (and managed) world of programming to me. But after a while I wanted more. Just using these incredible technologies was not enough anymore. I wanted to work on the next version of them, a desire which eventually (cutting a long story short) led me to the UI Framework group which is part of Microsoft's Developer Division. Since I cannot talk about what we are working on right now I want to point out that this group has a long track record of delivering features which are used by developers around the world like WinForms as well as working on new innovative technologies like <A class="" href="http://windowsclient.net/Acropolis/" target=_blank mce_href="http://windowsclient.net/Acropolis/">Acropolis</A>.</P> <P>Speaking of Acropolis, if you're familiar with Acropolis then you probably know that we're rolling "<EM><A class="" href="http://blogs.msdn.com/acropolis/archive/2007/10/29/An-Acropolis-Update.aspx" target=_blank mce_href="http://blogs.msdn.com/acropolis/archive/2007/10/29/An-Acropolis-Update.aspx">many of the Acropolis concepts into future versions of the .NET Framework for the desktop and Silverlight</A></EM>". And if you have a strong passion for quality and the developer community you could be a part of it! The UI Framework group is hiring SDETs (Software Development Engineer in <A class="" href="http://members.microsoft.com/careers/careerpath/technical/softwaretesting.mspx" target=_blank mce_href="http://members.microsoft.com/careers/careerpath/technical/softwaretesting.mspx">Test</A>) right now and offers not only technical challenges but also the benefit of being part of a group with great (technical) leaders like <A class="" href="http://blogs.msdn.com/brada/" target=_blank mce_href="http://blogs.msdn.com/brada/">Brad Abrams</A> (and let's not forget the <A class="" href="http://scobleizer.com/2007/05/25/why-scott-guthrie-is-cool/" target=_blank mce_href="http://scobleizer.com/2007/05/25/why-scott-guthrie-is-cool/">coolness</A> factor of having <A class="" href="http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/" target=_blank mce_href="http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/">Scott Guthrie</A> as your VP).</P> <P>Now, if you're still reading this post then you're probably interested (if not extremely exited) and looking for the "Sign me up" button or at least some more information about the job opening. In that case please have a look at the <A class="" href="http://members.microsoft.com/careers/search/details.aspx?JobID=9716E717-4E53-4D93-9724-BB2CD0C168E5" target=_blank mce_href="http://members.microsoft.com/careers/search/details.aspx?JobID=9716E717-4E53-4D93-9724-BB2CD0C168E5">detailed job description</A>. And I also got links for you in case you're not sure if working at Microsoft is your thing or not: <EM><A class="" href="http://members.microsoft.com/careers/mslife/meetpeople/default.aspx" target=_blank mce_href="http://members.microsoft.com/careers/mslife/meetpeople/default.aspx">Meet our People</A></EM> (a site on <EM>Microsoft Careers</EM>) and the equally interesting, truth revealing video <EM><A class="" href="http://www.on10.net/blogs/tina/Life-At-Microsoft/" target=_blank mce_href="http://www.on10.net/blogs/tina/Life-At-Microsoft/">Life at Microsoft</A></EM>.</P> <HR align=center width="90%" SIZE=2> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; TEXT-ALIGN: center; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto" align=center><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.</SPAN></P><img src="http://blogs.msdn.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=7750128" width="1" height="1">LinksAdditional information on the garbage collector and weak referenceshttp://blogs.msdn.com/ddietric/archive/2007/09/30/additional-information-on-the-garbage-collector-and-weak-references.aspxMon, 01 Oct 2007 05:42:00 GMT91d46819-8472-40ad-a661-2c78acb4018c:5217684ddietric0http://blogs.msdn.com/ddietric/comments/5217684.aspxhttp://blogs.msdn.com/ddietric/commentrss.aspx?PostID=5217684<P>I received some feedback on my previous post <EM><A class="" href="http://blogs.msdn.com/ddietric/archive/2007/09/23/a-good-reason-for-calling-gc-collect.aspx" target=_blank mce_href="http://blogs.msdn.com/ddietric/archive/2007/09/23/a-good-reason-for-calling-gc-collect.aspx">A good reason for calling GC.Collect()</A></EM> basically saying that I omitted certain details on the garbage collector and weak references. I won't argue that - it is certainly true. However, it wasn't my intention to fully explain either especially since they are both well documented. MSDN is a great starting point for learning more about this and if you still want more information I recommend trying the new improved version of <A class="" href="http://search.live.com/" target=_blank mce_href="http://search.live.com/">Live Search</A> as there is more material available on many MS and non-MS websites and blogs:</P> <UL> <LI><A class="" href="http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/f144e03t.aspx" target=_blank mce_href="http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/f144e03t.aspx">Automatic Memory Management (MSDN)</A></LI> <LI><A class="" href="http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms404247.aspx" target=_blank mce_href="http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms404247.aspx">Using Weak References (MSDN)</A></LI></UL> <HR align=center width="90%" SIZE=2> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; TEXT-ALIGN: center; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto" align=center><SPAN lang=EN-US style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: DE">This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.</SPAN></P><img src="http://blogs.msdn.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=5217684" width="1" height="1">Garbage CollectorLinks