Visual ActiveKent Sharkey .NET SE 3.11 : Visual Studio Developer Center

SQL Web Administrator

ksharkey — Tue, 22 Mar 2005 03:54:00 GMT

Even with all of the many powerful resources at my demand to install, I still tend to install SQL Server Developer Edition. I guess it's just that I'm so used to just having that around for testing (and not wasting valuable CALs for testing purposes) that I just don't feel like installing Enterprise on my dev box. (I do install it for dev that needs big box features, of course -- what am I an idiot? Oh, right, I am)

Installing Dev Edition does mean that I'm usually left with osql for my database work. I know, a lot of you will say, "Hey, Moron (people are usually polite enough to use a capital 'M' on that). Download SQL Web Data Administrator. It r0xx0rs!" Of course I downloaded it, but I had a problem with the download -- I would try to login, and the hourglass would spin, and spin and nothing would happen. No SQL joy in my heart, so I'd go back to osql while waiting for something exciting to happen. Same with IIS and Cassini. Finally, I did a bit of searching, and we come to the reason for this post. If rather than run the binaries they gave you, you run the solution, it works! Apparently some code was changed to fix the login, but this wasn't reflected in the shipped binary. Build it yourself, or get a friend with VS .NET 2003 to build it, and you will have a lovely, web-based administrative package and enough joy, you'll forget you ever wrote sp_dropdevice main.

Meet the new boss, (not the) same as the old boss...

ksharkey — Mon, 21 Mar 2005 18:26:00 GMT

In an attempt at our ongoing efforts to ~~confuse everyone coming to MSDN~~ balance the knowledge and workload at MSDN, we have shuffled a few of the Developer Centers around. While I will still be working on the ASP.NET Developer Center, I am reliquishing my duties on the Visual Studio Developer Center. The good news for all of you is that this means that Brian Johnson, one of the authors of "Inside Visual Studio" will be moving in. As you can probably guess, he knows far more about Visual Studio than I ever will, and I'm certain he will take excellent care of you.

Already he has made the announcement public that current MSDN subscribers will get VS Team System:

"MSDN Universal and MSDN Enterprise subscribers with valid subscriptions will be upgraded, at no additional cost, to one of the higher value MSDN Premium Subscriptions for the Visual Studio Team System. "

TechEd, will I be there?

ksharkey — Wed, 16 Mar 2005 23:16:00 GMT

I haven't a clue. Last I heard I'd be able to go if I ride my bike there.

Still, Scott & Rory will be there (along with a lot of other Really Smart Folk), and you'll even be able to get them to explain this in person...

... but who will manage the Managers?

ksharkey — Thu, 03 Mar 2005 23:40:00 GMT

I know my blog is in serious danger of turning into a recruiting site or even (heaven forbid) a recruiters' blog, but I have another job offer for you. Our Site Management team (the good folk who keep MSDN and TechNet running tickety-boo to the tune of about 100MM page views (MSDN) and 19MM (TechNet) page views a month is seeking a manager. Help plan, build and run two of the larger sites on the Internet. For more details, see the job posting. For those too lazy to click, here's an excerpt:

The Site Manager is responsible for understanding the business and marketing strategies, 
representing the technologies of a specific product or program, and directing the ongoing 
development of sites that help customers to find the information they need. 
They direct development through project management of content deliverables and relationships 
with product and marketing groups, third-party vendors, and other functional teams. 
The challenge is to maintain a strategic Web presence and also to manage 
the ongoing publishing efforts for the site.

UPDATE: forgot to tell you, if you're interested, send resume etc. to Katherine Lagana

February CTP now available

ksharkey — Thu, 03 Mar 2005 16:59:00 GMT

In honour of March 2, we now present {insert ta da here} The February Community Technology Preview (CTP) of Visual Studio 2005. This month, we have new versions of Visual Studio 2005 Professional (for MSDN Subscribers) and the fabulous Express products:

Get them while the bits are still hot -- overwhelm our download servers. Taste, build, enjoy (note: these are still not *quite* Beta 2).
Finer print:
The new Community Technology Preview releases of the Express products now require registration and activation within 30 days of first use. This process is simple, free, and it allows us to personalize your experience on MSDN. If the products are not registered and activated within 30 days of first use, they will cease operating.
UPDATE: fixed the links

Second Edition, now with more brain-thumping goodness

ksharkey — Thu, 24 Feb 2005 18:37:00 GMT

Just got a copy of the second edition of Advanced .NET Remoting by Ingo (and now also Mario Szpuszta). I had the good fortune of squeezing my brain through it a while back (and lived!). While the talk continues, you really need to read as much of this book as you can. It's not only THE best book on Remoting (even better than the first edition), it's also a great reference on how to build scalable, loosely coupled distributed applications; information that is useful if you're building Remoting, Web Services, Indigo or even COM/COM+ apps.

The Outlook Web Access team is looking for web developers

ksharkey — Mon, 31 Jan 2005 19:25:00 GMT

Web-based mail is hot. Gmail, Hotmail, Outlook Web Access... They're all making headlines and showing off the richness of the web. The Outlook Web Access team is looking for solid ASP.NET developers to help build our next version. We're looking for people with top-notch development skills, who have worked with C# and ASP.NET in the past and have a solid understanding of HTML, CSS and script. We're looking for people who want to take web applications to the next level of richness while also offering a blazing fast client.

OWA uses a wide variety of technologies. Candidates must have experience with C#, C++, JavaScript, DHTML, XML and ActiveX.

Right now we are looking for both full-time and contract team members so if you are interested, email your resume to owajobs AT microsoft DOT com, or submit your resume for here. We want to hear from you.

Pimping the pros

ksharkey — Sun, 23 Jan 2005 19:19:00 GMT

A number of Microsoft Regional Directors, Wintellect folk and INETA speakers have put themselves up on the auction block to help the victims of the tsunami in South East Asia. Get an hour of Jeff Richter, Joel Semeniuk, Scott Hanselman or many more. Solve more .NET problems than you know you have, and help others out at the same time.

Kind of a win-win-win situation.

ASP.NET and Community Technology Previews (CTPs)

ksharkey — Mon, 17 Jan 2005 19:37:00 GMT

I know there is a *lot* of confusion around the Community Technology Previews that have been coming out for Visual Studio 2005. I know because I get a *lot* of email about them. Which build is good, what's in them, etc. That's the prime reason John "The Experience" and I created this page. However, there is always funky, er, "interesting" stuff happening around here, so the little details may get missed. Personally, I think the build process around here (especially with all the new virtual build labs) would be an excellent idea for someone to write about. However, in this case it's ASP.NET 2.0 that I want to discuss. Those looking for the latest and greatest build of ASP.NET 2.0 should look at the November CTP rather than the December CTP. Just so you know.

Team System prezzies

ksharkey — Thu, 23 Dec 2004 21:19:00 GMT

In the spirit of the holidays (either late in the case of Hanukkah, Ramadan or Solstice — or early in the case of Christmas or Kwanzaa — and I have no clue what holiday Jedis celebrate around now) the Team System team have brought unto you a gift. A new Community Technology Preview. So, now you will have something to do while *everyone* else drinks egg nog, shreds wrapping paper and watches their new plasma TV.

Enjoy

TTFN - Kent
PS: If you're at all confused about all the builds we're throwing at you, we've also updated the "Get VS2005" page with details on which builds are stable, and what's in each. I'll add some details about the SQL 2005 specific builds in the new year.

Still time for one more headache in 2004

ksharkey — Tue, 21 Dec 2004 23:21:00 GMT

I know I've promised to be good, and I've sucked the life out of any possible controversial topic off of this blog. So, to finish up the year, it's time to get myself in trouble again.

The MSDN stats report came out for November, and I noticed a few tasty tidbits in there:

Approximately 48% of people search when they come to the home page
Top 25 MSDN Viewed Pages are approx 33% of the total traffic to MSDN
From 2003 – 2004, Downloads, Subscription Downloads and the Visual Studio Developer Center continue to be major drivers.
Customer VSAT (very satisfied) and DSAT (disatisfied) numbers are flat (same as last year)

What does this tell me? Rather, what should I learn from this? Here's what I think:

Almost half of you search as soon as you get to MSDN. This implies that our "Information Architecture" — aka the ToC, and the Dev Centers aren't really doing it for you. Or is it just that people have become programmed by Google to "Just search it"? The Dev Center project has been a fairly large (in effort, if not also budget) undertaking by MSDN. I know I'm here only because of this project. Still, do they make sense? Does creating organized sections of content mean anything to you, or help you find information you need? Do you even know what a Dev Center is? Should we move to a new UI?

25 pages are a third of our traffic. Wow. Looking at them, they're almost all download pages. Should we try to improve the ability to find and get your downloads? Does the newly redesigned Downloads page help? Do the articles help, or should we just be providing downloads and documentation?
Help me out here — I need ideas to help MSDN help you. And so I stop feeling like I'm collecting a salary for unjust reasons.

TTFN - Kent (aka Eeyore)
Currently: Scanning for polymorphic spyware files, listening to "Who's Laughing Now?" by Skinny Puppy

Internet Explorer Developer Center

ksharkey — Wed, 15 Dec 2004 23:20:00 GMT

And then there were 50...

OK, maybe there aren't 50 Developer Centers (yet — it just feels that way some days), but there is now an Internet Explorer Dev Center. With new content, even! Learn what SP2 and future advances have in store for you. It's worth saving the link, even if all you need to do is find the DHTML reference, as I seem to have to do a lot.

YABRT: Yet Another Blog Ranking Tool

ksharkey — Mon, 13 Dec 2004 06:08:00 GMT

While browsing my Bloglines subscriptions, I see that there is yet another tool available for monitoring the "importance" of blogs -- PubSub. From their site:

LinkRanks are a measure of how many pages link to each particular site, with more weight given to fresher links and to links from a wider variety of pages.

The interesting .NET angle on all of this is that they have a C# library for communicating with their service.

ClickOnce from the RDs

ksharkey — Mon, 06 Dec 2004 18:02:00 GMT

Sorry, this actually went live on the 1st, but I'm a little behind.

The latest article from the Microsoft Regional Directors (in this case Mauro Sant'Anna of Brazil) has been posted:

Deploying Windows Forms Applications with ClickOnce

NOAA Way -- the Web Service

ksharkey — Sat, 04 Dec 2004 21:15:00 GMT

Looking at my news items this morning, and what do I see? NOAA (the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency, aka, the Weather Guys) now has a Web Service available (sadly RPC/Encoded) to get the weather. Details here. WSDL here. Party on your desktop.