MSDN geekSpeak

geekSpeak Recording - SQL Azure Under the Hood with Chris Rolon

In this episode of geekSpeak, Chris Rolon gives us a look under the hood of Microsoft SQL Azure to see how was constructed. Chris discusses the issues involving high availability, failure detection, automatic failover, and the distributed data fabric. Be sure to bring your questions about SQL Azure for Chris. This geekSpeak is hosted by Glen Gordon and Lynn Langit.

geekSpeak recording: Migrating from SourceSafe to TFS with Ed Blankenship

There hasn't been a better time to migrate to the newest Microsoft source control offering, Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Team Foundation Server, because Microsoft Visual SourceSafe support is ending soon and Team Foundation Server will be part of Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) subscriptions in 2010.

In this geekSpeak, Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Ed Blankenship discusses migrating source code from Visual SourceSafe, including the history. Ed discusses specific version-control features to help you become more productive like branching and merging visualization, annotate, shelving, and gated check-in. This geekSpeak is hosted by Glen Gordon and Brian Hitney.

Here are the links Ed mentioned in the show.

Whitepaper – “From VSS to TFS”:  http://sstjean.blogspot.com/2006/10/document-from-vss-to-tfs-introduction.html

Whitepaper – Exposing TFS to the Internet:  http://blogs.msdn.com/ablock/archive/2009/08/24/exposing-tfs-2010-beta-2-to-the-internet.aspx

Visual Studio 2010 and .NET 4.0 Training Kit (Labs, Videos, Slide Decks, etc.):  http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=752CB725-969B-4732-A383-ED5740F02E93&displaylang=en

January geekSpeaks are open for registration

MSDN geekSpeaks return in January with two fantastic guests.

Wednesday, January 6 – SQL Azure Under the Hood with Chris Rolon

In this episode of geekSpeak, Chris Rolon gives us a look under the hood of Microsoft SQL Azure to see how was constructed. Chris discusses the issues involving high availability, failure detection, automatic failover, and the distributed data fabric. Be sure to bring your questions about SQL Azure for Chris. This geekSpeak is hosted by Glen Gordon and Lynn Langit

Wednesday, January 20 – Migrating to Team Foundation Server from Visual Source Safe with Ed Blankenship

In this geekSpeak, Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Ed Blankenship discusses migrating source code from Visual SourceSafe, including the history. There has not been a better time to migrate to the newest Microsoft source control offering, Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Team Foundation Server, because Microsoft Visual SourceSafe support is ending soon and Team Foundation Server will be part of Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) subscriptions in 2010. Ed discusses specific version-control features to help you become more productive like branching and merging visualization, annotate, shelving, and gated check-in. This geekSpeak is hosted by Glen Gordon and Brian Hitney.

Next geekSpeak – September 23 - The Dynamic Language Runtime in .NET 4 with Kevin Hazzard

Join us this Wednesday, September 23 for this geekSpeak. MSDN Webcast- geekSpeak- The Dynamic Language Runtime in .NET 4 (Level 200) (click to register)

In this geekSpeak, Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Kevin Hazzard will show us how new caching capabilities in the .NET 4 framework can make your Ruby and Python code fly when running on the Dyanamic Language Runtime. Kevin will illustrate the benefits of hybrid language application development. He'll also spend some time on writing dynamic types in C#. Bring your DLR questions for Kevin!

About our Guest: Kevin Hazzard

Kevin is currently a Microsoft C# MVP and a Lead Consultant/Architect for CapTech Ventures in Richmond, Virginia. He has served on the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and as an advisor to Virginia’s Joint Commission on Technology and Science (JCOTS). While serving as a Senior Engineer in the Intel Architecture Lab, Kevin successfully authored patents and designed ciphers, protocols and peer-to-peer networking components used by millions of users worldwide. Kevin has been writing software for 25 years and loves the art and science of his job as much today as he did in the very beginning.
Kevin is a father to five, a husband to one and a servant to many others. He speaks a bit of Portuguese and enjoys doing missionary work in South America. He also enjoys motorcycling, welding, hiking, etymology, bird-watching and friendly discussions about world politics and history.

Resources for geekSpeak: Composite Application Development with David Kelley

This geekSpeak barely scratched the surface of how Composite Application Development can help you with code reuse. Lot of resources are below. Watch the recording here.

• David's Blog
• Prism: patterns & practices Composite Application Guidance for WPF and Silverlight site
• the Simon game project
• Portal for the WPF Toolkit and WPF Futures
• Hacking Silverlight Library on CodePlex – a set of custom Silverlight controls
• Crossfader demo application
• Sparkling Client – the Silverlight podcast
• MSDN Magazine article on Composite Web Apps with Prism
• MVVM light toolkit for Silverlight, via Laurent Bugnion’s blog
• An interesting take on how design should be more about solving a problem and not implementing a pattern for the pattern’s sake.

Next geekSpeak – August 19 – Composite Application Development with David Kelley

In case you haven’t noticed, we’ve scaled back the geekSpeak series in recent months, so we can focus on bringing you higher quality experiences in each one.

Our next geekSpeak is August 19th, when we’ll have David Kelley explain Composite Application Development in WPF and Silverlight. David is a prolific Silverlight guru, so this should be an excellent geekSpeak. Bring your questions!

About our guest

David Kelley, Senior Software Architect, IdentityMine

David Kelley is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) for Microsoft Silverlight, and he has been building Web-based, distributed applications for more than ten years. He is a Silverlight user experience architect at IdentityMine, and his passion is building user experiences that are elegant and easy to use. David's career highlights include a Silverlight demonstration with Bill Gates at TechEd 2008, and developing the "Entertainment Tonight" Web site for the Silverlight 1 launch and Emmy Awards. In his spare time, David is the executive officer of the Seattle Designer Developer Interaction Group.

Resources for geekSpeak: the Web Deployment Tool with Mark Rosenberg.

Here are resources for our August 5 geekSpeak with Mark Rosenberg on the Web Deployment tool.

Links

• The MS Deploy blog is a good one to follow.
• Vishal Joshi is the Program Manager for the tool, lots of good info at his blog.
• Vishal’s blog post 0 + 20 Reasons why you should create a Web Package has good information on providers.
• Many good articles (including exporting/importing IIS packages, using the command line version, troubleshooting and more) linked from this post about the Web Deployment Tool and IIS 7.0.
• Download the Web Deployment tool for IIS7. Note that this install adds a .chm help file with lots of good documentation.

Questions

Before I deploy my ZIP file to destination servers, will it validate if my destination servers are compatible with required settings (hardware or software or anything else) just to make sure ZIP file is 100% compatible?

Unfortunately they do not have this provider created yet. The idea would be that System Center would do the prepping up of the box and MsDeploy will do the job of installing the web app. Eventually the team may consider creating a special provider which does the compatibility check. By the way, anyone in the community could write that provider – the MsDeploy provider APIs are public. ;)

Will it be in Visual Web Developer? Or only pro version & higher?

It will be available in Visual Web Developer Express edition.

Next geekSpeak – August 5 - Inside the Web Deployment tool with Mark Rosenberg

In this geekSpeak, Mark Rosenberg introduces us to the Microsoft Web Deployment Tool and shows us how the tool is used to easily move configuration information, content, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates, and other types of data associated with a Web server. Mark examines the scenarios where the Web deployment tool shines, how the tool is incorporated in the Web Platform installer, and where the tool features in the upcoming Microsoft Visual Studio 2010. This geekSpeak is hosted by Glen Gordon and Mithun Dhar.

Register at http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032422050&EventCategory=4&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

About our Guest

Mark Rosenberg, Senior Development Instructor, QuickStart

Mark Rosenberg has been writing software with Microsoft technologies for the last 10 years. He has been speaking to user groups and at code camps for the last two years and has been a certified trainer for the last year.

Mark likes to talk to developers and has been talking to anyone who will listen. He is very active in the developer community, speaking at user groups and running two user groups in Southern California. As if that was not enough, he also is the International .NET (INETA) User Group liaison in Southern California and is on the INETA Speakers Bureau Committee. He currently is working as a senior development instructor at QuickStart Intelligence, which is a training company with offices in California.

MSDN geekSpeak on hiatus until August 2009

Hello, geekSpeak fans.

Just a quick note to let you know you aren’t missing any episodes – we’re taking a short break for July but will return in August with some great guests and topics.

In the meantime, have a look at our channel 9 site to see if there are any shows you missed.

Thanks for your loyal support!

Next geekSpeak – June 24 – WCF Deployment Strategies with Keith Elder

Join us this Wednesday for a practical look at how to deploy WCF services from a guy who’s been there. Our guest Keith Elder is a team leader and senior software engineer for Quicken Loans, so he’s been on the frontlines of running services in an enterprise. Besides being a popular speaker and running a user group in Mississippi, Keith is a blast to talk to.

If you’ve ever wanted to get your questions about WCF answered, or pick up some excellent tips, this is the geekSpeak for you.

Register today at http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032417610&EventCategory=4&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

Resources for geekSpeak: MVVM Patterns with Christopher Bennage and Rob Eisenberg

Kudos to Christopher and Rob for helping bring our geekSpeak attendees up to speed on the evolution of UI patterns. If you missed this geekSpeak you can catch a recording here.

Below are links/resources mentioned on the show:

• WPF Architectural Patterns Examples on CodePlex
• Caliburn - an Application Framework for WPF and Silverlight
• WPF Model-View-ViewModel Toolkit
• ChumChase – a FriendFreed client demonstrating many patterns
• Prism – patterns & practices composite application guidance for WPF and Silverlight
• WPF Apps wth the Model-View-ViewModel Design Pattern from MSDN Magazine
• Martin Fowler's GUI Architectures
• Christopher and Rob’s book Sams Teach Yourself WPF in 24 Hours

Next geekSpeak – June 10 – MVVM Patterns with Christopher Bennage and Rob Eisenberg

In this episode of geekSpeak, we explore UI architectural patterns, such as MVVM (ViewModel), with two Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals, Christopher Bennage and Rob Eisenberg. Christopher and Rob will share their experiences developing WPF and Silverlight applications with these techniques and discuss some of the insights they gained along the way. Be ready with your questions on applying these patterns to your projects!

Join us on Wednesday, June 10 at noon Pacific time. Your hosts for this geekSpeak will be Glen Gordon and Brian Johnson. Register at http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032418083&Culture=en-US

About our Guests

Christopher Bennage is the President and cofounder of Blue Spire Consulting, Inc., a Florida based software consulting firm specializing in .NET technologies, user experience, and interface design.  Christopher began programming on his Texas Instrument in elementary school, but fell in love with computers with the advent of the Commodore Amiga.  His career has brought him through a number of various technologies before eventually landing him in the marvelous world of C# and the .NET Framework.  His early interest in Flash, rich user experiences, and usability led him to be an early adopter of both WPF and Silverlight.
More recently he coauthored Sams Teach Yourself WPF in 24 Hours with Rob Eisenberg.
Christopher embraces the values of the Agile Software Manifesto and has been significantly influenced by Extreme Programming, Domain Driven Design, and other related practices.
In his free time, Christopher is usually very distracted by a dozen different, competing creative ideas.  His interests include liberal education, science, truth, beauty, video game development and a number of deceased British authors. He lives in Tallahassee, FL with his wife, Sandra, and their three children.

Rob Eisenberg is a .NET architect and developer working out of Tallahassee, FL. He is a partner with Christopher Bennage at Blue Spire Consulting, Inc., a software development firm specializing in .NET technologies, user experience, and interface design. Rob got his start with computer programming at the age of nine, when he thoroughly fell in love with his family's new Commodore 64. His fascination with programming started with the Commodore Basic language, then moved to Q and QuickBasic and quickly continued on to C, C++ and presently C# and the .NET Framework. Rob publishes technical articles regularly at devlicio.us and has spoken at regional events and to companies concerning .NET technologies and Agile software practices. He is coauthor of Sam's Teach Yourself WPF in 24 Hours and is the architect and lead developer of the Caliburn Application Framework for WPF and Silverlight. Rob is happily married to Anna Eisenberg and in his spare time enjoys swing dancing, making artisan cheese and playing/teaching drum set.

Notes from Reza Madani’s MSDN geekSpeak on Simple Animations with WPF or Silverlight

Here is some info:

- My blog is at: http://blogs.harborobjects.com/RezaMadani/

- Silverlight 2.0 and 3.0 versions of the code are attached.  2.0 version does not include the ‘drop shadow effect demo’.

- System requirements: Visual Studio 2008 – sp1, Silverlight SDK 2.0 (or 3.0).

- Recommended books ‘WPF Unleashed – SAMS’, ‘Programming WPF’ – O’Reilly

- Code samples (on Lynn Langit’s SkyDrive – you must log in with a Windows Live ID to access this – link here

Resources for geekSpeak: WPF for the Business Programmer with Paul Sheriff

Here are follow up resources for Paul Sheriff’s geekSpeak on WPF for the Business Developer. Be sure to visit Paul’s websites for demo code shown during the geekSpeak. http://www.pdsa.com/event/geekspeak

Some examples of WPF charting

• http://telerikwatch.com/2008/11/new-telerik-wpf-charting-and-gauges-on.html
• http://ligao101.wordpress.com/2007/07/17/a-wpfxaml-based-chart/
• http://www.devexpress.com/Products/NET/Controls/WPF/Charting/
• http://www.componentone.com/SuperProducts/ChartWPF/
• http://dot-developer.blogspot.com/2009/01/microsoft-chart-controls-in-wpf.html

Good sources for XAML “skins”

• http://www.xamltemplates.net/
• http://www.visualstudiogallery.com/ExtensionDetails.aspx?ExtensionID=4ed8a367-0166-40e2-9eab-76b2d06c6da4
• http://www.codeproject.com/KB/WPF/wpfskins.aspx
• http://igorshare.wordpress.com/2008/06/19/wpf-skin-factory-or-how-to-skin-your-application/

Article highlighting Vs2010 support for WPF

• http://blogs.msdn.com/jasonz/archive/2009/02/20/a-new-look-for-visual-studio-2010.aspx

The DataGrid from codeplex - http://www.codeproject.com/KB/WPF/WPFDataGrid.aspx. Note that some form of it will most likely be in VS.NET 2010

Graphing component (for WPF and SL)( http://www.mscui.net/Components/Graphing.aspx

Visual State Manager - http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2008/06/06/silverlight-2-beta2-released.aspx

Overview of MVVM design pattern - http://blogs.msdn.com/johngossman/archive/2005/10/08/478683.aspx

Using WPF with Office applications (via Visual Studio Tools for Office)

• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb772076.aspx
• http://utahdnug.org/blogs/xamlcoder/archive/2007/07/17/using-wpf-with-vsto-amp-office-2007.aspx
• http://www.codeproject.com/KB/WPF/WPFControlsInVSTO.aspx

Regarding what is reusable between Silverlight and WPF, it’s not too easy to come up with a definitive list. Here is a good article:  http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc895632.aspx

Resources for geekSpeak: What’s New in Silverlight 3 with Shawn Wildermuth

Many thanks to Shawn Wildermuth for giving us all some insight into what’s coming for Silverlight 3. Here are the show notes. Watch or downloading the recording here.

Useful links from the show

• Silverlight 3’s new pixel shaders
• How to enable hardware rendering via the object tag
• MIX talk on using physics behaviors
• How to run Silverlight 2 and 3 on the same machine.
• Overview of .NET RIA Services
• DevTeach conference where Shawn will be presenting in June.

Good Silverlight blogs to follow

• Bill Reiss http://www.bluerosegames.com/silverlight-games-101/
• Sergey Barskiy http://sergeybarskiy.spaces.live.com/
• Corey Schuman http://www.85turns.com/
• Silverlight Cream http://www.silverlightcream.com/
• Scott Guthrie http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu
• Brad Abrams http://blogs.msdn.com/brada