.net and other interesting dev stuff in PA : Visual Studio

Exploring the Integrated Environment Power Session

sspotts — Wed, 03 Aug 2005 04:32:00 GMT

Thanks to all who attended today’s Power Session on Exploring the Integrated Environment that I presented this morning. Please find the session video here and the slides here.

Escape Yesterworld!

sspotts — Thu, 28 Jul 2005 17:03:00 GMT

Wow, someone had a lot of time on their hands!

http://www.escapeyesterworld.com/

One of the more humorous ways I've yet seen to promote the benefits of SQL Server 2005 and Visual Studio 2005.

VSTS Beta 2 VPC Available on MSDN Subscriber Downloads

sspotts — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 22:13:00 GMT

This is great! Now you don't have to install the tools to do a test drive. Maybe the developer community could develop custom scripts for hands-on labs that can be shared with others since a standard base VPC image is now available. That would be a great way to help others learn the cool stuff you dig into yourself.

From Rob Caron:

The much anticipated download of a fully installed & configured Visual Studio 2005 Team System Beta 2 VPC is now available for download from MSDN Subscriber Downloads.

VPC Contents:

Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition (expires September 16, 2006)
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite Beta 2 (expires May 1, 2006)
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server Beta 2
Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Redistributable Package Beta 2
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Community Technology Preview
Microsoft Office 2003 Standard Edition
Microsoft Live Communication Server 2003

Minimum System Requirements:

PC with 2.0 gigahertz or faster processor
1.5 GB RAM minimum
10 GB available hard disk space
Super VGA (800 x 600) or higher video
DVD-ROM drive
Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 SP1 software

Philadelphia SQL Server User Group meeting - Reporting Services

sspotts — Fri, 17 Jun 2005 19:21:00 GMT

Wednesday, July 13, 2005 5:30 PM - Wednesday, July 13, 2005 8:30 PM (GMT-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada)

Microsoft Malvern Office
MPR I
45 Liberty Boulevard, Suite 210
Malvern, Pennsylvania 19355
United States

General Event Information
Products: SQL Server and Visual Studio.

Recommended Audience: Developer and IT Professional.

Intro to SQL Server Reporting Services

Connected Systems Competition

sspotts — Wed, 27 Apr 2005 05:06:00 GMT

Do you dare?

Show us what a great developer you are!
Show us how innovative you can be!
Win $50,000 USD.

Demonstrate your skills with SQL Server 2005, Visual Studio 2005 and BizTalk by entering the Connected Systems Developer Competition. There are 15 categories that will be used to judge the competition.

Visual Studio hands-on lab last week

sspotts — Tue, 18 Jan 2005 10:21:00 GMT

Last week we had our second hands-on lab in the Microsoft Malvern office, with 65 attendees. In this lab we reviewed new features in Visual Studio 2005's IDE, generics, partial classes, and other CLR and language changes. The lab was well received, but I put together so many labs that we didn't get through most of them. This just gives the attendees something to do at home!

Next month we have the next SQL Server 2005 lab, and registration is at http://www.phillydotnet.org/Default.aspx?tabid=362. This third in the series of Hands-On Labs is focused on SQL Server 2005. We’ll be covering backup and recovery, clustering, security, and new functionality including database mirroring and what the new features will mean to Database Administrators. We’ll briefly run through the major new features and focus on how they will affect database administration. We will be supplying lab material, instruction, and proctors; attendees will be required to bring laptops that are capable of running Virtual PC (install your own prior to attending or we’ll supply evaluation copies). As always, at least 1+ GB RAM and 10+ GB of free hard drive space, 2.0+ GHz processor is recommended.

Upcoming MSDN events for January in Greater Pennsylvania District

sspotts — Wed, 05 Jan 2005 09:32:00 GMT

If you're interested in Visual Studio 2005 and ASP.NET 2.0, we've got some cool stuff this month!

January 11 (Tuesday) is a pretty busy day. If you're close to Harrisburg that afternoon, there's an MSDN event with three sessions - WinForms, ASP.NET, and Visual Studio Team System. Be sure to check out location and details at the registration page. While both the WinForms and ASP.NET changes are well worth seeing, the VSTS stuff is something extraordinary and should not be missed.

That night, in the Microsoft Malvern office (so far), we've got a Hands-on Lab for Visual Studio 2005. For more info, check out the lab schedule. The lab occurs the second Tuesday of each month through June, and alternates between SQL Server 2005 and Visual Studio 2005. Last month we had 63 attendees and several proctors helping with the lab, and it was very highly rated. This month, over 80 people signed up so far and more register each day.

On January 13 (Thursday), the MSDN event mentioned above for Harrisburg will be replicated in King of Prussia. Location and details are available on this events registration site.

Pittsburgh .NET User Group meeting on Tuesday

sspotts — Thu, 16 Dec 2004 20:27:00 GMT

It was a cold and blustery night... :)

I drove to Pittsburgh (and back) on Tuesday night to meet Craig Oaks and the PGH.NET folks for the first time, and gave a presentation about Avalon to kick off the meeting. It looked like around 30 people attended, which was somewhat impressive given that it was snowing and under 30 degrees!

David Hoerster, from Ciber, gave the main presentation, and it was a sight to see him covering Visual Studio 2005, SQL Server 2005, and BizTalk Server 2004 all in one session! I thought he did a credible job, and the cool thing was that this wasn't just a talk about the products - it was about his experience in using them on a project as well.

Code Camp: Greater PA

sspotts — Thu, 18 Nov 2004 07:35:00 GMT

There was some great stuff done by Thom Robbins, one of my teammates in the East Region (up in Waltham, MA), with Code Camp II (http://weblogs.asp.net/trobbins/archive/2004/10/21/246018.aspx). Forty people presented over 60 sessions over 20 hours in two days.

The goal of the Code Camps series is to provide an intensive developer to developer learning experience that is fun and technically stimulating.

Tonight I brought this up to the PhillyDotNet user group as an event to bring to the Greater PA area, and the whole group was psyched, and so am I. The primary focus for our event will be on delivering programming information and sample code for Visual Studio 2005 and the .NET Framework 2.0 as well as Microsoft's other platform servers. The event is free and all slides, manuals and demo code will be provided. I'm planning to do this over a weekend in April 2005.

If you're interested, I'm be looking for speakers. RD's, INETA speakers, Microsoft Partners, authors, MVP's, user group leaders, or developers that just want to show how to do cool coding are all welcome. Any speakers at the Code Camp in Waltham will be most welcome to replicate his/her presentations down here!

I like the idea of the following tracks:

ASP.NET 2.0 Development (including WSS web parts)
Smart Client development (Winforms, mobile apps, tablet PC)
Patterns and Best Practices (focus on Enterprise Library)
SOA (think WSE, BizTalk 2004)
Data Access (SQL Server 2005, ADO.NET, etc.)
Dev Lifecycle (all about VSTS)

Presentations will all be aligned to these tracks. Event planning is work in progress, but it's too cool not to do.

There will be three types of scheduled 90 minute sessions.

Presentations. 200 level (50% code/50% Powerpoint), 300 level (75% code/25% PPT), and 400 level (90%+ code)
Roundtables. 3-4 subject matter experts discussing specific topics.
Chalk Talk. No presentation, just attendee-guided discussions and whiteboarding with a subject matter expert.

If you'd like to present at this event, please send me the following info prior to February 1:

Name, title, company
e-mail address
Phone
Which track (see above)
What level (200/300/400)
Name of session
Format of session (Presentation/Roundtable/Chalk Talk)
Description of session

I'm asking for speakers early so I can resource the best venue for the event. I'll want slides (including speaker notes) and demos by March 15th so we can review them and get them ready for distribution for the event.

There are a few other things I'm trying to connect with this Code Camp, so stay tuned.

SQL Server/Visual Studio 2005 Hands-On-Labs in Greater PA

sspotts — Tue, 16 Nov 2004 01:08:00 GMT

In conjunction with the PhillyDotNet and Philadelphia SQL Server user groups, we're doing a series of monthly hands-on-labs around SQL Server 2005 and Visual Studio 2005. See the schedule at:

http://www.phillydotnet.org/Default.aspx?tabid=362

These labs will require attendees to supply laptops and we'll be supplying the rest. The laptops should be capable of running Virtual PC, and if VPC is install prior to the lab it'll save time. For those that don't have fully licensed copies, we'll supply evaluation versions. Watch the link above for sign-up information.