graceworld

Get your sidebar gadgets!

gfrancisco — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 20:42:00 GMT

Our team recently released a series of Windows Vista Sidebar Gadgets with the help of Donovan West from LiveGadgets.net. These visually appealing gadgets provide a friction-free desktop mechanism for keeping users engaged and up to date with our latest content on Channel 8, Channel 9, Channel 10, TechNet Edge, and Mix Online.

Features:

· Automatic rotation of latest articles on the site allows you to quickly see what’s new and keep up to date without opening a browser

· Read articles and view videos right on your desktop or navigate directly to the post

· Gadgets works with both Silverlight 1.0 as well as the beta

· Users get a friendly error when attempting to use the gadget in 64bit mode. If users prefer to use this in 64 bit environment they can use this workaround.

These gadgets are available on the Windows Live Gallery:

· Channel 9

· Channel 10

· TechNet Edge

· Channel 8

· Mix Online

We would love to get feedback and reports of any issues which can be sent to us at evnetbug@microsoft.com .

MIX keynotes

gfrancisco — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 21:41:00 GMT

Day 1

Watch the Live Streaming Keynote: Ray Ozzie, Dean Hachamovitch, and Scott Guthrie

Day 2

Watch Steve Ballmer and Guy Kawasaki Live

My interview with 2 female developer evangelists

gfrancisco — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 21:54:00 GMT

Last week I had the pleasure to sit down and chat with a couple of female developer evangelists who were at SVC for our Women's Leadership and Development Conference. We were fortunate to have Lynn Langit as a speaker for the conference - talking about how she made her career transition. Lucky for me - she convinced Asli Bilgin to come to our conference as well. It was a lot of fun doing this interview - both are very funny, dynamic women. I really appreciated how candid they both were during our session. I hope you enjoy it too!

Feeling eScrummy!

gfrancisco — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 03:12:00 GMT

I was soooo ecstatic when I found out eScrum was going to be available on our IT supported TFS instance. Evangelism Network started really scrumming in March when I moved into the team. As with any process it takes a while to get the hang of things and really understand how things are supposed to work. It makes an enormous difference to have tools support to ease the transition. I can't remember exactly when that internal announcement went out about eScrum but it was sometime after March and then we had a delay for our specific project since we already had an exisiting TFS project. I think we were one of the first teams to benefit from eScrum injection - so rather than having to start a new TFS project and lose the version history by starting anew, we had the eScrum team just inject the eScrum template over our MSF Agile template. We've been on this now for a couple weeks and as the PM on team I'm super happy about it. We had a hodgepodge of tools including some homegrown stuff - none of which integrated with TFS prior to this and it really made managing the Product Backlog with Sprint planning and tracking of tasks a royal pain. I will however acknowledge that Sampy's enforcer bat at the daily scrums was a great idea! It was really easy to set up the product backlog and the sprints with the web interface and I really enjoyed the benefits of TFS' Excel integration by wholesale copying current product backlog items into Excel and publishing them into TFS. It's really funny to be on the other side as a real user - no longer the official evangelist for TFS. I did find on a search on eScrum in the public domain that it sounds like there are issues with getting it up and running initially. I hope Bil gives it another shot. On a side note the injection option isn't something available in the download that I know of. It seems to be an experimental thing right now and I certainly hope that option as well as installation improvements are right around the corner. Perhaps my buddy Brian Keller - Mr. VSTS Evangelist himself knows something more about this.

Cha Cha Change... and some random news

gfrancisco — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 02:36:00 GMT

Farewell Team System... Hello Channel 9! Or to be more specific - the Evangelism Network team which brings you Channel 9, On10 and VisitMix. I haven't been blogging about Team System since last fall due to major changes in my life since then. Recently I re-joined Jeff's team and I'm now working as a PM partnering with Adam on Channel 9 v4 and other Evangelism Network projects. It's been a refreshing change so far. I had a great time being an evangelist, but I was itching for something new and different that would stretch me and this definitely hits the spot. Aside from working on process, features and schedules, I'll also have my own Channel 9 video series here on the Silicon Valley Campus (SVC). There's a lot of fantastic, innovative work happening here at SVC and I'm looking forward to turning the spotlight to these teams.

I've also been working with some very talented women in our local chapter board of Women at Microsoft (W@M). We had a fun lunch today with the HR lead for our campus to discuss some of our ideas. It was really great being engaged in lively discussion with my fellow SVC W@M board members who really care about our campus community. We had some ridiculously funny ideas that we were bowling over in laughter over. I really hope we'll make them happen. In the meanwhile, it's been great meeting so many people on campus through the W@M events that we put together - definitely a great way for me to figure out who I'll be interviewing for my Channel 9 series.

Some cool things that have happened this week so far:

Digigirlz at SVC

We hosted our first Digigirlz day at SVC. Though the turnout was smaller than we were hoping, I still thought it was a great start. I had a chance to meet some of the young women - mostly seniors in the local high schools - during the lunch event. It was fun to talk with them about working in high tech and to listen to their top of mind concerns - like which college to pick and if their bus driver was going to block traffic again on the way back to their campus. It was interesting to hear one of the attendee's concerns that being technical meant being isolated on their computers all day long. So of course I had to chime in about other options in the technical field that give one a great variety of things to do in a day and unchains you from the desk - Evangelism is certainly a great example of that, and so is the presales engineer role (we refer to that as a "Technical Specialist" here at Microsoft). It really can be a fun experience. Of course I had to put in a plug for Channel 9 to let them know checking out some of the video interviews there could help give them some insight into what working in high tech is like and WM_IN highlights some of the cool women working here at Microsoft.

Microsoft sponsors a Stanford jazz concert

Microsoft sponsored a jazz concert at Stanford yesterday. Irvin Mayfield and NOJO delivered such an amazing performance of contemporary New Orleans Jazz - much of which included their original works. I had to keep myself from bawling when they showed a video segment at the end of the show to honor all of those who perished in the Katrina disaster. It was a really entertaining and educational show, and I loved that they brought out a Gunn High school jazz band to join them at the very end. These kids were amazing.

The countdown to MIX

Adam's team has been really busy updating the VisitMix site. Make sure to check it out. Folks are packing their bags and singing "Viva Lost Wages..." in preparation for this fantastic event next week.

Make a difference: Click and Yack away for some causes

gfrancisco — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 02:33:00 GMT

Recently I've been doing a bit of soul searching and trying to figure out how to blend my work with some social good. I haven't figured that out yet, but by chance a couple things came across my email that I thought was really great.

Just by using Live.com search, you can help nine million youth refugees around the world: http://click4thecause.live.com/search/charity/default.aspx?source=live.comwhatsnewpagea
Chatting away on IM? Using Live Messenger, Microsoft shares some of its advertising revenue with the cause that you select:

http://im.live.com/Messenger/IM/Home/Default.aspx?Source=im_tab

Obviously, Microsoft is running these initiatives with some business goals in mind, but I still think both of these are nice incentives that can make you feel like you did a little something while you were clicking and yacking away in your day.

Got some ideas about blending early adoption and social causes you want to share? I'd love to hear from you.

Responding to a blog tag

gfrancisco — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 20:14:00 GMT

Recently my teammate Brian Keller tagged me. It seems to be this blog game where you play "Tag - your it" and the tagged victim :-) needs to reveal 5 things most people don't know about them. Well ok, haven't been blogging for a few months now, so I'll play along...

1. I was a teacher's assistant (TA) in grade school. If memory serves me correctly it was second grade that I started to help the teacher correct other students' school work. I was always finished with my work before the rest of the class, so this is how I spent my "free time". I had so much time on my hands that I was granted self study time in the walk in closet where I chose to teach myself some Spanish with some audio tapes and books while the rest of class continued working on their assignments. Yes - you already knew I was a nerd - it started fairly early. :-) I was a TA for honors French in high school and for Physics in college. I was the one still in the Physics lab finishing the extra credit assignments while the rest of class piled out after the required set. I don't remember much French though.

2. When I was 12 I thought I had a calling. You know...THE CALLING. I wanted to become a nun. I got over that fairly quickly.

3. I taught tennis to inner city kids during summer break when I was 16 - for National Junior Tennis League - a nonprofit organization founded by the late, great tennis pro Arthur Ashe. At the time I was their youngest teacher. I had a wicked forehand and a tricky backhand that morphed between single and double handed forms. At my size you would never have expected the ball to whiz by at those speeds. I was a nerdy tom boy. I loved Boom Boom Becker and Stefan Edberg. Sadly my days of apsiring to be the next Chris Evert have evaporated (yes I realize that statement really dates me) and I'm really rusty now, so challenging me to a game wouldn't be very interesting.

4. In my late 20s, I took a "round-the-world trip". I travelled to Japan, China, Egypt, Italy, Greece, Spain, and Austria - I did that all in 3.5 weeks and spent a lot of time on planes, but did get to see lots of great sites like the temple town Kamakura, Forbidden City ,The Great Wall, the Sphinx, Picasso's famous Geurnica, the ruins of Athens, and the many fountains in Rome. I still remember getting help on properly using the laundry machines in Vienna by a sweet little, old lady. The spinning function is a separate machine there unlike washers in the U.S. and though she spoke no English she was very helpful. She also handed me a magazine and pointed insistently to Prince William on the cover. She thought I would be interested. :-) The UK was not on my tour, so... no, I didn't meet the Prince. :-)

5. My husband and I are both foodies. We're obsessed with great food. My favorite all time haute cuisine experience was at French Laundry - I love that place. I hope I'll be able to squeeze into Thomas Keller's Per Se the next time I'm in New York. Our favorite gelatoria is in Castellini in Chianti--Antica Delizia - there's only one there. It must be the best gelato in the world. I'm glad they're not within driving distance. I'm lucky that my husband is a great cook. I'd rather wash the dishes. :-)

As for the next victims of this game: Tim Aidlin, Don Campbell, Ben Riga, Steve Lange. Tag! You're it.

Data Dudes and Dudettes playing in the Sandbox

gfrancisco — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 00:01:00 GMT

Every time I hear a reference to our upcoming release of Visual Studio Team Edition for Database Professionals referred as “Datadude” I see images of surfer dudes in California with flowery board shorts waving their hand back and forth with pinky and thumb up. Can’t you hear it? “Duuuuuuuuuude”. J

Recently we’ve had some questions come up about this “personal sandbox” concept we’re advocating in this product. What’s with this sandbox anyway? Are we trying to encourage these datadudes and data dudettes to play nice? Well in short… actually… yes. J

Why? Imagine this dude(tte) running around trying to resolve changes to the database schema across several database servers in production, test and development…. The production server is typically the reference point – “the truth” – in what the schema should look like, but hey – the dev guy asked you late one night to make a change to the dev server so that he could try something out; and you can’t remember if that change – or any of the other changes people have asked for are in production or test. Meanwhile, other people are making changes to those servers for various reasons, and you may not always be in “the know”. Or perhaps you’re in the middle of writing some high priority new functionality, and you can’t wait for the dba to make changes on the dev or test server for you – you want to be able to easily grab the latest schema but you’re not even sure which server that might reside on – and you’re quite sure the dba won’t let you at any of the data either for testing. Can this simply be a datadude(ttes) bad dream? Unfortunately, from what we’ve heard from customers, this is part of the harsh reality of day to day life as a db pro. Now images turn to that poor woman in those old Calgon “Take me away!” commercials – but wait! You don’t need Calgon – you need Visual Studio Team Edition for Database Professionals (say that really fast 3 times!).

Let’s first talk about the audience for this product – is it for the dba? Db developer?

We found that there were even new role names emerging in this area in some organizations. The “datadude” role came out as a reflection of the diversity in the way organizations divide the work in this area – so rather than limiting our product to a role name that had preconceived notions associated it, we went with “datadude” as our internal reference for the role, and our final (and yes quite possibly the longest) product name is also a reflection of this.

So you’ve been “managing these changes” by using tools that do schema diffs? You can certainly continue to do schema diffs with this product – and data diffs too, but we take this a step further by bringing in best practices like SCM. What is SCM? Sounds awfully formal and complex if you read that description, but the right tools can enable this and make it a seamless process. And it’s a best practice that developers have been leveraging for years.

Datadude is about changing the way changes are “managed” today in the db world. We do this by providing seamless integration with Team Foundation (as well as SCCI providers) and enabling SCM throughout what we are referring to as “DDLC” – Database Development Lifecycle. Similar to SDLC – Software Development Lifecycle – it’s about all of the activities involved in evolving a database application.

But what does this have to do with that sandbox and playing nice?

The sandbox is each datadude(tte)’s copy of “the truth”. They have their own space in which to test out changes, run unit tests, and build database scripts. You can think of this as their “offline” copy of the database. When they’re done with these changes, they check in those changes into Team Foundation Server, identify what those changes were for, Team Foundation Server detects any conflicts in changes and helps you resolve them, and thus everyone has one central location that stores “the truth” and everyone is in “the know”. No more trampling over each other with competing changes or waiting for one person to give you what they think is the reference schema. DB Pro edition gives everyone the freedom they need to be productive and at the same time introduces the discipline of SCM to manage all of those changes.

So how does this work - do I need to have a machine that can support my large database to play in the sandbox?

When you set up your sandbox for the first time, you’ll either get a database project that’s been set up for you from version control, or if you are responsible for that project, you’ll point to your reference database and do a schema import (sometimes referred to as reverse-engineering your database). Individual scripts will be generated per object and you’ll have your own environment within Datadude to try out changes, run unit tests and even do rename refactoring. Under the covers Datadude uses SQL Server Express, but you can configure it to use SQL Developer Edition.

What does it mean to you? But you’re already taking your scripts and putting them into version control. Why should you care?

The DB Pro edition automatically runs those scripts within the sandbox to provide a running copy of the database environment, as well as tools for editing the scripts, generating test data using rules that you specify for the data generation, unit testing that can be run against that data, and rename refactoring which shows the impact of a rename before you run it. SCM – whether it’s Team Foundation Server – or some SCCI provider – is an integrated part of this environment, making it a natural extension of activities that db pro will do because it’s no longer a secondary thought, but a primary one that is easily within reach to accomplish. If you’re the person in charge of the “real” servers, you can also deploy using the version controlled copy of the schema from the DB Pro edition.

Well what about all of the versions of the database that are out there…

This is an opportunity to get all of your servers on the same version which is built from the scripts checked into Team Foundation Server. You would point to your reference of “truth” in Team Foundation Server rather than a running database server. One advantage of many is that this lets each developer pull down the reference schema from version control to test in their sandbox. If you’re using Team Foundation Server they would log requests to make changes in the schema as a workitem that the dba would complete and mark as resolved in that same central system. Another advantage is the ability to deploy databases from the version controlled database project.

Do you have to use Team Foundation Server to take advantage of this?

No – you can use version control products that support SCCI. There are many advantages to using Team Foundation Server of few of which include integrated Work Item Tracking, automated build, reporting and customizable process support. For more information go to http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/teamsystem/team/ .

But Visual Studio is only for developers…

In past yes – but with the release of Visual Studio Team System, we expanded our audience to include other roles in the SDLC – architects, testers, project managers, and now database professionals. Our documentation folks put together some great initial help information which includes walk throughs. You can find it once you’ve installed our CTP by going to Start|All Programs|Microsoft Visual Studio 2005|Microsoft Visual Studio Team Edition for Database Professionals help. If you’ve never been in VS before, here’s a link with a quick tour, and more in the Datadude help to orient yourself.

Is this database project the same one that I’ve seen in Visual Studio?

If you are referring to the ones under one of the programming language nodes or “Other Project Types” in “New Project” – then no. These DB Pro projects are under the top level “Database Projects” node which appears at the same level as the programming language options (once you’ve installed the CTP).

Where can I go for more information?

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/teamsystem/dbpro where you can find links to detailed product information, articles, FAQs, On-demand webcasts, product group member blogs, the latest CTP download, etc.

Ken Garove demos refactoring a db object using VSTE for Database Professionals

gfrancisco — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 23:15:00 GMT

I stumbled on Ken's short demo on C9 today showing off the refactoring feature of VSTE for Database Professionals. Nice job Ken!

Best practices for TFS Proxy

gfrancisco — Fri, 14 Jul 2006 21:44:00 GMT

Recently there have been internal discussions about the TFS Proxy and one of the engineers shared some information I thought would be useful to post:

Here are some of the best practices for TFS Proxy

Follow hardware recommendations in TFS install guide; specifically make sure that the proxy cache is deployed on a volume with lot of free disk space

Create a scheduled task to pull the latest files on a periodic basis to proxy. This will ensure that latest version of files are available in proxy cache and subsequent client requests for these files will result in cache hit

Proxy can be used even in high bandwidth environments. For instance if there are multiple teams using the same AT/DT and each team uses a separate Team Project then each such team can deploy a proxy. This will minimize (say CPU, Memory can be utilized for other tasks) the stress on AT/DT

Monitor Proxy Performance counters and event log (for errors/warnings) on a periodic basis, to get a good picture of how proxy is functioning

If large files are going to be downloaded over low bandwidth (< 3Mbps) network, then set executionTimeout to appropriate value in web.config (Default is 1hr - <httpRuntime executionTimeout="3600"/>)

For information about Team Foundation Server Proxy installation, see the Team Foundation Installation Guide available online at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=40042 or the TFSInstall.chm file included with the product.

For information about Team Foundation Server Proxy configuration, refer to http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=62391 or in the product documentation.

For information about Team Foundation Server Topologies

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms400668(VS.80).aspx

For more details on the TFS Proxy Server, Refer to the following screencasts.

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=62788

Some clarification about Load Agent & Controller

gfrancisco — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 22:56:00 GMT

There have been a lot of questions about the Load Agent & Controller for VSTS. Here are some FAQs to set this straight:

Q. What is the official name of the Load Agent (& Controller)?

A.Visual Studio 2005 Team Test Load Agent (TTLA) . Currently if you are a Volume License customer, there is a typo in the product name on the MSVL download site, and you can find it under "Visual Studio Test Agent 2005". This will be corrected.

Q. Is the Load Agent part of Visual Studio Team Suite?

A. No. It's a separate product.

Q. Are the Agent and Controller separate products?

A. No. These are all in TTLA.

Q. Is TTLA part of my MSDN subscription?

A. No. TTLA is not offered via MSDN subscriptions. It’s a separate product purchase.

Q. Where can I download it?

A. TTLA is not available as a trial product. If you are a volume license customer, you can download it under the MSVL download site. (See previous FAQ for current name listing.)

Q. Is this the only way I can try out load testing?

A. No.You can generate a pretty significant amount of load (equivalent to that of one “load agent” using the VS Team Edition for Software Testers). VSTE for Software Testers can be found in the Team Suite evaluation software. TTLA enables remote execution scenarios and when there is a need for additional load.

Q. Where can I find more information?

A. http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/products/vsts/load/default.aspx

TFS Administration Tool Beta 1

gfrancisco — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 22:50:00 GMT

Check this out - a powertool for making TFS admin a bit easier:

http://www.gotdotnet.com/codegallery/codegallery.aspx?id=cea30722-cd0a-4ef4-9c75-a5a5e4932b05

VS2003 users and TFS

gfrancisco — Mon, 27 Feb 2006 21:27:00 GMT

For you VS2003 users who want to take advantage of TFS, a beta version of the MSSCII provider for TFS has been released:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=32202966-EF04-442F-8C5C-88BDF15F551C&displaylang=en

For more information on this, read a previous blog from TFS Technical PM Eric Lee:

http://blogs.msdn.com/ericlee/archive/2005/10/06/477693.aspx

Feeling sentimental...

gfrancisco — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 04:00:00 GMT

This is totally unrelated to VSTS - like totally... :-) As my 1 year wedding anniversary is right around the corner, I dug up my OOF message from that time:

I am OOF - going to the chapel within a church within a city which all bear my name, getting married, flying to an undisclosed (to you :-)) location, taking a train ride, going on a mini safari, riding elephants and camels, touring old palaces, temples, forts and caves, hanging out on the beach in a Catholic-hippie town, haggling with merchants in crowded markets and then coming back to work...

I won't have a cell phone. :-)

In case you were a recipient of that auto-reply and still curious about the locations:

We were married in "The Chapel of Grace" the oldest section of Grace Cathedral in the city of San Francisco. My name happens to be Grace Francisco (and yes I actually grew up and came from San Francisco).

The train ride was "The Palace on Wheels" in India where we were well taken care of and had an amazing time exploring what's referred to as the land of palaces in India - Rajasthan. One of our stops included Udaipur with the "Lake Palace" that was used in the James Bond movie Octopussy . We got off the train at the famed Taj Mahal and continued to tour parts of central and southern India including the spectactular Ajanta and Ellora caves, the beaches of Goa, and ended with some haggling in Mumbai (with lots of other stops in between :-) )

VSTS Partners highlighted at VSLive last month

gfrancisco — Fri, 24 Feb 2006 03:39:00 GMT

Interested in seeing some of the partner integrations to Visual Studio Team System? Catch the video recording from last month's VSLive keynote:

http://www.ftponline.com/channels/net/reports/vslivesf/2006/soma/

(Select Listen to the audio and watch the slides! and then jump to about 60% into the video)

You'll get a glimpse of the integrations that these partners have to offer:

Serena Process View Composer - requirements, simulations
Sparx Enterprise Architect - UML 2
Teamprise - x-platform client for Team Foundation Server
Teamplain - lightweight client for Team Foundation Server
Avicode Intercept Studio - application monitoring