According to
MSNBC, Randy Pausch, a computer science professor who has inspired millions of people in the world through his "Last Lecture: Achiving Your Childhood Dreams" and a best-selling book, has died at a young age of 47. You can find the video of "The Last Lecture" at
CMU's web site.
David Makogon is a co-lead for RDA’s Architecture Guidance evangelist team. According to him, they have just created a team blog at http://rdaarchitecture.blogspot.com. Check it out when you get a chance.
If you have a Windows Home Server, you may be interested to download the Power Pack 1 release (file size 22.5 MB). This release includes many improvements, including the following:
| • |
Support for home computers that are running Windows Vista x64 editions |
| • |
Backup of Home Server shared folders |
| • |
Improvements to remote access |
| • |
More efficient power consumption |
| • |
Improved performance |
Nikhik in his recent blog explains how to dynamically select a theme from multiple themes in Silverlight 2 applications, e.g. based on a user's profile. This improved feature addresses several shortcomings associated with the StaticResource approach. However, it does not support change of the theme on the fly. In other words, themes have to be pre-built using tools such as Expression Blend; they cannot be created and applied programmatically in the application.
The most exciting new capability that has been added to BizTalk Services R12 Release “R12” CTP is Workflow. These new cloud-based Workflow capabilities enable ‘service orchestration’ from the cloud. This specialized cloud-based, or hosted, Windows Workflow Foundation runtime can orchestrate services that connect to systems in your enterprise, or to systems running anywhere on the Internet via Web services messages. This new power and capability will enable an entirely new set of application scenarios, and we’re very excited to see what people will do with it.
One question I get asked a lot while talking about Silverlight is if there are Flash to Silverlight (currently in version 2 beta 2) conversion tools available. The quick answer is there are not many such tools in the market at present. But you can find some from the Internet such as Michael Swanson's SWF2XMAL.
I recently came across Scott Hanselman's interview with Rick Barraza, an Experience Architect from Cynergy, and Bryan Perfetto, a Developer from Inxile, in which they chat about how and why they ported the popular Flash Game LineRider.com to Silverlight 2. It took them several weeks to port the application from coding, debugging and testing.
The 7th summer social event organized by Pittsburgh Technology Council is coming up this Thursday. See detail below.
Developers, leave your code at the office; DBAs, forget Oracle and SQL for one night; CIOs, you can worry about the information technology audit tomorrow. It's time for Pittsburgh user groups to unite! For the seventh consecutive year the summer socials of many Pittsburgh user groups -- including Java, .NET, Oracle, SQL, SharePoint, and many others -- combine for a unique night of networking and fun. Learn about the benefits and challenges of each technology through informal conversations with peers. Enjoy free appetizers, raffle prizes and a cash bar. Other participating user groups include ALT.NET, Coding Dojo, IIBA, ISSA, PghBOUG, PghDWUG, PITCFUG, Pittsburgh HDI, PMI's IT SIG, SalesForce.com, STC, WPEAF (tentative), WPLUG, WPVMUG, WSMQUG and WSUG. Attend and interact with your peers to learn the meaning of each acronym.
Hope you can make it. Please invite your co-workers, peers and friends. It should be a fun evening.
If you are interested to become an MCA, you may want to check out my interview posted at Channel9 with Biff Gaut who has earned his MCA title during the pilot phase of the MCA programs. During the interview he candidly shared his personal experience with the certification process and some tips and tricks that he has learned.
The news that Bill Gates will be a part-time Microsoft employee is not really so new; it was announced two years ago and it has been everywhere. But it is hard to believe the day has really arrived. For Bill today is a new milestone in his career as he starts to focus on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. For Microsoft today marks a new chapter, or in a software release term, Microsoft 2.0. Bill said jokingly at a company meeting that people were trying to find out when he’d leave his office, 4pm or 5pm so that they could start renovating his office. The truth is, so many people will miss his presence dearly. Due to a customer meeting I had to miss the second half of the company meeting. When I read an MSNBC article "Bill Gates Bids Farewell with Tears", I just wish I was there to witness that experience first hand.
To some people Bill may be synonymous to the richest guy in the world. But to many others, including myself, Bill is an icon of software and IT technology that has changed the world for better forever. He is an icon of our generation, and perhaps many generations after. Before I joined Microsoft, the notion of working for Bill and his company was so noble. After seven years I find that feeling remains so true and so strong. Our CEO Steve Ballmer perhaps has said it all for all of us, "We've been given an enormous, enormous opportunity. And Bill gave us that opportunity. I want to thank Bill for that."
A while ago I presented a session on developing Office based solutions at several Microsoft "Heros Happen Here" launch events in the Mid-Atlantic region. One topic I touched briefly was Visual Studio 2008's support for VBA via interoperability service. There is a great introduction article on the topic at MSDN that I'd like to recommend,
VBA Interoperability with Visual Studio Tools for the Office System (3.0). This new feature is currently available for Microsoft Office Excel 2007 and Microsoft Office Word 2007.
Check out this
Channel9 video in which my colleague Bob Familiar interviewed at TechEd 2008 Simon Guest, who shared his thoughts on the industry, the architect community, and how Microsoft thinks about architecture.
Please join us for a discussion on June 27th to talk about how to strategically plan for your software development projects; and how planning your project first makes development faster, more efficient, and more likely to provide results.
Information Concepts has been developing fixed-price custom software solutions since 1982. Our planning workshops have been the key to our successful fixed-price projects by providing predictable results.
During this presentation, Wayne Beekman, co-founder of Information Concepts , will discuss our strategy for Project Planning. The discussion will focus on how Planning Workshops are performed, their process, and deliverables. This includes:
- Meeting with stakeholders
- Weekly Review Sessions
- Prototype refreshes
- Development of detailed Requirement Documents
- Development of a detailed project plan for the system's development
In an industry where more than half of all projects go over budget by almost 200%, this process has been used successfully on dozens of application development efforts to scope and cost development projects.
Friday, June 27th, 8:30 - 11:30 AM
Microsoft Reston
12012 Sunset Hills Rd., Reston, VA 20190
Join us on June 27th at 8:30 am in the Microsoft Reston Headquarters, 12012 Sunset Hills Rd., Reston, VA 20190.
REGISTER: To register for this event, please click here
https://www.clicktoattend.com/invitation.aspx?code=129249
Reserve your spot soon! Space is limited to 30 people.
Light Breakfast will be served.
Microsoft and FMS are co-hosting a seminar for Microsoft Access to SQL Server Upsizing. It'll be a the Microsoft Reston office on June 27th. You can sign up for the free event at http://www.fmsinc.com/Consulting/event080627.aspx
Agenda
| 8:30am - 9:00am |
Registration/Breakfast |
| 9:00am - 9:15am |
Overview |
| 9:15am - 10:15am |
Luke Chung Microsoft Access and Microsoft SQL Server within an Organization's Database Strategy |
| 10:15am - 10:25am |
Break |
| 10:25am - 11:30am |
Steve Clark Upsizing Microsoft Access to Microsoft SQL Server |
| 11:30am - 12:00pm |
Discussion / Open Q&A |
| 12:00pm |
Lunch |
Presentations
Where Microsoft Access Fits in the Overall Database Strategy of an Organization
Luke Chung President, Founder, FMS, Inc.
Luke Chung will provide an overview of how large organizations successfully use Access, where it’s appropriate, where it’s not, and how to strategically take advantage of Access’ strengths and address its weaknesses. Mr. Chung will address how Access users, developers and IT managers can better understand Access' place within their organization’s overall database needs. It covers the basic concept of database evolution, and how database applications naturally evolve from Excel to Access to SQL Server. This presentation also helps managers anticipate situations where Access can no longer meet the needs of a particular application and how to anticipate and support those situations rather than being surprised by it.
Upsizing Microsoft Access to Microsoft SQL Server
Steve Clark Project Manager, MVP, FMS Professional Solutions Group
Join Steve Clark as he explores the issues related to upsizing Microsoft Access applications to take advantage of the performance, security, and reliability of Microsoft SQL Server. Mr. Clark will outline the value of Access within your organization, discuss the decisions involved in upsizing, review available data architectures, and detail how to plan for an upsizing project.
Thanks to all of you who attended the TechFest event last week. You can download all three presentations at the link here. You can download some of the demos from the first session at the links below. I will post Mike's and Pete's demo codes once I receive them.
Microsoft Health Common User Interface
Silverlight Streaming API Sample
Deep Zoom Composer - English
You can download two designer tools below to work with Silverlight 2 beta 2. Note that Expression Blend 2.5 can co-exist with Expression Blend 2 on the same computer.
- Install Expression Blend 2.5 June 2008 Preview
This is a preview version of Expression Blend for designing Silverlight 2 experiences.
- Install Deep Zoom Composer
This tool allows you to prepare you images for use with the Deep Zoom feature in Silverlight 2.
