Rudi Larno's WebLog

Visual Studio 2005 SP1

2006-12-07T20:54:00Z

I just had a co-worker, actually a used-to-be technical manager, ask me if there is already a Service Pack for VS2005.
The blog to watch was (is?) the DDCPX Team Blog, but the latest news there is this entry: Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Beta Update, stating that the Beta Program was to end on October 30, 2006.

In my calender Q3 of CY2006 has come and gone, some time ago already, but where is the long awaited Visual Studio 2005 SP1? It is awfully quiet on the blogs. I guess the focus has moved on to .NET Framework 3.0, Office System 2007 and ASP.NET Ajax.

Anyone got a good update (link) for VS2005?

My other blog

2006-08-22T10:28:00Z

It is running Subtext and I have been posting bits and pieces. Go: http://www.larud.net/subtext/

The Developer & IT Pro Days 2005 have come to an end.

2005-02-03T08:07:00Z

It was interesting to see the 'abstract' work I had been doing come together and result in people (lots of people actually) enjoying the content of the sessions. Despite the unfortunate audio problems that come with organizing such an event in an expo hall, all the speakers did their best to present as best as they could. It comes with the territory, I guess. Having Bill Gates means you need a really big hall to fit 1500 people, and it has to be in Brussels. That pretty much leaves the Brussels Expo (aka Heysel) as the only option.

I must really mention Kimberly Tripp here, coz meeting her was just an amazing experience. I did not get the chance to go to TechEd and hear her talk there. She did get the highest speaker scores, and I'm pretty sure she will get the highest scores here in Belgium too. Feedback from her keynote session was just all good. She really rocked the audience. Although in Belgium that sort of thing is really hard to tell. The belgian audience is well, how to put it, somewhat timid? silent? not all that responsive? That is one of the hardest things when presenting here, getting a feel of the audience. Usually its only when the actual evaluations start comming in, that you know what people are really thinking.

Leaving Microsoft

2005-02-01T02:00:00Z

I'm sure many of you have already heard, but just to make it official.

Yes, I'm leaving Microsoft.

This will be the last post that I'll write while being employed by Microsoft Belux. It's good to be able to end my career here with the Developer & IT Pro Days 2005. The team, especially Tom, Ann and Jessie have and are still doing an amazing job to make sure it will be the best 'DevDays' ever. It is quite some work to get everything together, but with Gerd keeping a close eye on the project, we all got there! I was responsible to set the agenda, the content and get the speakers, so I do feel a bit nervous. And we have a record amount of people subscribed for the event, (so get there early!). I'm sure Bill Gates visiting has much to do with that. So I hope you will enjoy the event, and have a splendid 2 days of technical education and community building.

Brad Abrams caved in...

2005-01-28T18:46:00Z

Since I'm getting started in a new team, these are the kind of documents I am digging up these days. I'm sure most of you have done this already aaaaaages ago. But read my previous post, and understand that I am happy to be reading/learning these basic guidelines: OK, I give. Here are a set of internal coding guidelines

There is actually a whole series of webcasts and chats running over the next months. I'll be watching these closely.

2005

2005-01-04T18:40:00Z

Random braindump while triaging e-mails

2004-12-10T16:58:00Z

I'm sure many of you find yourself in the same position, and maybe there are even tools out there that do this (if so, share!)

I'm finding myself triaging e-mails again. The e-mails that arrive in my inbox are usually the ones that are important, and I tend to do these twice daily. But then I also have some rules set-up to immediatly send e-mail to their designated folders. Those rules mostly apply to the so called 'distribution lists'. A lot of traffic is happening and being stored in these folders. So a few times a week, I triage these to find the interesting ones. Usually the process is as follows:

Run 'Outlook Thread Compressor' on it.
This is a MS internal tool, written by Ewan Dalton but there is a Office Developer Sample that seems similar in function (not tested)
Then I sort out the useless replies
usually the one-liners: 'Thanks", "Taking off-line", etc.
Then I tend to quickly read the more interesting replies to find out if they contain any usefull information
The presence of links to other sites is usually a good giveaway that something is interesting. Bulletpoints also make a clear point.
If there is nothing of value, I delete the mail.

Now it struck me that this process must look somewhat like how a spam-filter works. It also need to filter the contents of the e-mail to look for suspicious patterns. Now what if that sort of technology could do that for an e-mail thread.

I'd even like a tool that would mold the random info from the e-mail thread into semi-structured info, people that were involved in the e-mail thread, external links, bullet points, ... In that form it would make it easier to build up your 'e-mail knowledge database'.

Unit Tests as documentation

2004-12-08T22:58:00Z

Since Unit Testing is becomming a defacto used practice in modern programming, this is an interesting topic to say the least:

The next XP BE meeting will be hosted by Philippe De Bruycker of the
Federal Administration of Foreign Affairs in Brussels.

The topic of the evening will be "Unit Tests as documentation". If you
have something to tell about the subject, let us know. Even better, if
you have some unit tested code, why not bring it along so that we can
see if the tests (help) document your code?

More info and registration at
http://wiki.xp.be/scripts/view/Xpbe/XpBeMeeting21122004

Because you need a badge to get in (and out), register at least a week
before the meeting. Put your first+last name and car registration number
on the list on the wiki.

Developer & ITPro Days 2005 updated

2004-12-06T19:42:00Z

Just slightly updated the agenda and some speaker details on Friday. If I had goodies to give away, I would open up a contest to 'spot the differences'. That is just to say how final things are at this point. Overall I'm hearing good feedback for the agenda.

As Tom already noted: you have the opportunity to wet your feet in giving a presentation ("Lightning Talk"). The best topic is about something you are passionate about. And really it can be about anything Developer or ITPro related, your favourite 10 tips 'n tricks; the best blogs you are reading, How you build/operate that Enterprise Ready Mission Critical Totally Awesome Scaling, Reliable Multi-Tiered Web Services Enabled Application!!.

If you want to aim higher, also note that the TechEd 2005 Call for Papers is also open
(Note: Spoke to Gerd, this is only for TechEd US at the moment.)

Updated Developer & ITPro Days 2005 Agenda

2004-11-18T04:24:00Z

Just completed some more details on the agenda, and I will continue so in the next coming weeks.
Please, please, pretty please give us some feedback. Especially around the 'Connect' sessions. Some people seem to think this is a great idea, other really don't see the point.

The idea behind the 'Connect' sessions is that as a professional in IT, be it that your business cards says 'Developer', 'Analyst', 'Architect', 'Engineer','Operations', 'DBA', 'Administrator', 'Network', we all once in a while need to do some of these jobs, or at least be aware of the other guy ^[1]. As a developer, you might need to install your own dev-box, set-up the test-environment, need dba access to the test-database, etc. As a developer you need to have basic knowledge of the infrastructure, network and databases. As an IT Pro, I assume your development skills can really help you be more productive in writing the right set of scripts to automate a whole series of otherwise dead-boring task.

So we have some sessions with really similar names and speakers that have been instructed to work together on delivering a strong story. These session are also displaced so that you can just follow the dev-track, but you can also follow the dev-session and the ITPro session, giving you the complete picture of the topic.

Does that make sense? What is your opinion of this Connect-track? Tell me, even if you are not planning on attending.

I'm working on getting the agenda fully finalized, still need to hunt down 2 speakers and some session abstracts.

^[1] With all due respect to all the women that work in our business. Apparently, from former events where there was some sort of 'Women in IT' session or focus or whatever, women do not want to be singled out, they just want to be part of the guy's.

Finally, InfoPath has Managed Code!!

2004-11-09T23:30:00Z

Announcing the InfoPath 2003 Toolkit for Visual Studio .NET

Back in the days that InfoPath was still code named XDocs, this was the one of the big features I was really missing, having been living and breathing .NET and managed code all over, convincing our customers and developers the only way forward was .NET. Seeing the Office team come up with InfoPath was a bit of a turn-off for me. I have grown to accept the tool for what it is, and it surely has its merits.

Win a Smartphone

2004-11-03T20:44:00Z

Webcasts

Looking to build applications for mobile devices like the Windows Powered Smartphone or the Pocket PC but don't know where to begin?

Learn247 are please to announce the free "Building Mobile Applications with Visual Studio.NET" online training series presented by the Mobile Devices Division at Microsoft. This is a 3 part hands on training course which has been designed to teach all you need to know to begin building powerful mobile applications using Visual Studio.NET.

Session 1 - Introduction to Windows Mobile Development
Date: - 16th November 10:00 GMT - 11:30 GMT

If you are new to Microsoft's Mobile platform and development tools then why not start with the basics: What is Windows Mobile? What's Microsoft's strategy and view of Mobile platforms? What types of application can I build for Windows Mobile? How can I build them? Deploy them? Where is Microsoft going with the platform?

All these questions and more will be answered in this session. During this session we will build a simple .NET based application using C# or VB.NET to experience the development tools, emulators and debug environment first hand.

Session 2 - Developing Smartphone Applications in Managed Code
Date: - 30th November 10:00 GMT - 11:30 GMT

With the advent of .NET Compact Framework and Windows Mobile 2003, Smartphone application development could not be simpler. In this session we will explore the features of Compact Framework specific for Smartphone development. Most of this session will be dedicated to hands-on work, building your very own snake game.

Sign up
To take part in any of the series you can sign up by clicking here . Taking part in the training is *free* and *easy* so sign up today!

You need to signup before you can participate and once signed up, we'll contact you nearer the time on how to download the code.

Win Prizes
Just for taking part in the training we have a number of prizes to give away to say thank you for attending - including an Orange SPV E200 mobile phone (with Windows smartphone software) for each webcast. One attendee from each session will be chosen at random to win this fantastic prize.

Requirements
By registering for the training you will receive the training labs in C# and VB.NET before the training takes place.

If you wish to take part in the training and follow along on your own PC you will need to have the relevant software installed. This will include Visual Studio.NET and related SDKs. Full details will of the installation will be sent shortly.

Of course you are welcome attend just to watch if you prefer.

New Usergroup online

2004-10-25T20:33:00Z

Yes, a new User Group has just been launched. http://www.vbgroup.org

At the moment, dutch only, but they hope to unite all of the Belgian developers to participate in their community. They offer a wide range of features such as newsgroups, a knowledge base.

I wish them all the best and hope it becomes a huge success.

Politics

2004-09-24T04:20:00Z

I try to keep this blog only on the technical side and not discuss religion or politics, but this seems like a nice site, that involves us all:

http://www.us-election.org

go post your vote.

Dev-ITPro Days 2005 Feedback

2004-09-24T04:07:00Z

For those that do not follow Alains blog, we are seeking feedback for the next edition of the Dev-ITPro days. Go there to add your comments.

Thanks.