November 2004 - Posts
In early October we did a series of “ISV Essentials” - i.e. an event targeting Independent Software Vendors. One of the topics I presented on was on Windows Server 2003. The focus was really on leveraging the operating system beyond the traditional usage. So for example when I asked how many are using features like ASP.NET, IIS, COM+ etc many hands popped up. So the focus was not these areas.
Instead there are many areas of Windows Server that many developers don’t take advantage of – or might not even know that they exist. Now I know that adopting new technology is not always the easiest but often you might find that these operating system features are services that developers generally write themselves. A case in point – Windows Server ships a technology called Authorization Manager. This is a tool that you can use for role based authorization for task based work e.g. approving an expense claim. Most of the security features in Windows tend to be resource based (e.g. some kind of ACL on file share).
Now many developers will probably end up writing this layer. In fact this is one of the reasons we make available an Authorization and Profile Application Block (see http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnpag/html/authpro.asp - side note - this block uses Authorization Manager as a store but also support SQL Server). Authorization Manager has nice functionality whereby you can script your business rules (in VBScript) and you can also have dynamic LDAP groups. For more information on AuthMan check out http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/03/11/AuthorizationManager/
There are many other technologies that ship in Windows Server (or maybe as some kind of addon) that falls into this same category. The most obvious one is Windows Sharepoint Services WSS). Once again not many developers know that WSS is part of the OS (note that Sharepoint Portal Server is still a product but it builds on top of WSS). So right out of the box you have a collaboration platform.
Other technologies include Digital Rights Management, UDDI, MSMQ, Active Directory, Active Directory Application Mode (ADAM) and Web Services Enhancements Kit (although it technically it does not part of the OS). One other really important one is WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation) that you can use to instrument your apps and even better make a MOM Management Pack available (not that difficult). I might blog on this at some other time. When I asked the audience I mentioned above how many use these technologies very few hands came up
If you are leveraging these “extended” features of the OS – especially if you are building a product (i.e. you are an ISV) I would be keen to hear about what you are doing
I have been giving some thought to developers events in the next 6 months. What kind of content are developers out there looking out for. My general feeling is to have MSDN Sessions on
1) Smart Client (Office dev, Mobility, Infopath etc)
2) Connected Systems (WSE, Biztalk, SOA etc)
3) SQL Server 2005 for the developer
4) A little on VS05 :-) huge topic on its own when you break it down
5) Maybe something on Leveraging Windows Server 2003 (Instrumentation, WSS , 64 bit etc)
6) Security
That's quite a bit already and most of the above will probably need a day on it's own.
What would guys like to see for MSDN and even Devdays. Are there some things you really want to see or not see. What kind of format -- do you like 2-3 hour sessions or a full day end to end type sessions. How many events is too much?
We have made available an Avalon Community Preview for MSDN Subscribers. You can go off to http://msdn.microsoft.com/longhorn/ and navigate off there. This can run on XP and Windows Server 2003. The SDK has some basic tools for integrating with Visual Studio as well
And if you are MSDN Subsriber you might want to check out the fantastic offer to subscribe to MSDN Magazine. If you have universal I think it is $30 for a years subscription.
I installed this tool from http://www.lookoutsoft.com/Lookout/download.html -- this is a company that Microsoft has acquired. I installed the experimental version and so far I must say I am impressed. The searches and lightning and there appears to minimal effect on performance while it is doing the background indexing.
Note than even though it says for Outlook -- it can also index your file system. What is quite neat is that it indexes attachements in your email too.
Try it out
A preview version of this tool is available. The VS2005 Class designer and “Whitehorse“ is built using this. This allows you to build your own domain specific tool using this same underlying technology. Check it out at http://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/vs2005/teamsystem/workshop/dsltools/
No, this is not a technical post
I got up on Saturday and with a busy day ahead I quickly decided to check out some of the latest news. With ADSL and little wireless network, this is quite pleasant. The first thing I spot is that the manager of Tottenham Hotspur Jacques Santini has quit after just 13 games in charge. Now I read this on newsnow.co.uk which is essentially a news aggregator site and this headline came from the Hindustan times. So I thought this must be nonsense. Scrolling down and yes it was fact.
I have been a Spurs fan since the early 80's when the likes of Osvaldo Ardiles and Glenn Hoddle played some wonderful football. One would think that the interest would wane but with DSTV and internet access the interest is probably even more - so much so that I paid to listen to the live audio feed of all the games. Which is where the second part kicks in. After a busy day I decide to turn on to the audio service about 15 minutes into the game. Within 2 minutes of logging on Charlton Atletic (Spurs opponents) take the lead. Around 60 minutes later my team is down 3-0. The only possible consolation being that 2 of the goals were scored by a South African - Shaun Bartlett. Having switched off to break my fast I came back and saw that my team staged a spirited comeback but still lost 3-2. So that makes it 4 defeats in a row. Following Tottenham Hotspur is certainly a roller coaster except there are more downs than ups.
Well, at least the Springboks won!!
Check out http://msevents-eu.microsoft.com/cui/EventDetail.aspx?culture=en-ZA&EventID=118751400&EventCategory=1
One of our first Embedded Sessions. It says business but from what I have seen there will be some technical sessions on Windows XP Embedded and Windows CE embedded. So if you are into embedded development go off and register
A less technical post. I was chatting to a developer the other day and we talked a bit about adopting new technology -- mostly .NET Framework/Visual Studio .NET. His view (and this was agreed upon by some others in the coversation) was that these decisions were largely made the developers managers or project managers (and not the developer).
This meant that while the developer was sometimes “sold” on the idea of a new technology the manager might not be. This is quite interesting especially since Microsoft often targets the developers with technical information on the product and more recently the architect. We rarely speak to the development team manager.
What do you guys find. Now I know I am probably speaking to the converted to a degree but what do you find in the overall community. Why would companies not move to .NET? If you are a developer who would like to use .NET but your manager does not want to move, what should Microsoft be doing to “assist”.
Have you gone through VB6 to .NET migration projects. What was the experience like? What would you have liked to assist in this process (if anything). Do you think Microsoft should have more events on upgrading from VB6 to .NET
Someone asked me this question at Teched - i.e how to stop the screen from repainting while adding controls etc
On doing some research:
1) Firstly some controls implement a BeginUpdate, EndUpdate that you can use to stop a a refresh of that control (this was the obvious one). You can also look at SuspendLayout
2) You can use SendMessage and send a WM_SETREDRAW Message
3) Look to use LockWindowUpdate
Both (2) and (3) will require a P/Invoke call
Looking to build applications for mobile devices like the Windows Powered Smartphone or the Pocket PC but don't know where to begin?
LabCasts differ from traditional WebCasts as these will provide the delegate with hands on coding experience, we will supply a lab document in both C# and VB.NET to each attendee and encouraging the participant to build the sample application during the course of session. Delegates will be able to raise questions and have the answered during the course of the event
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.
See http://www.learn247.net/webcasts/default.aspx
Some new SQL Server 2000 labs have been developed and were recently featured at the SQL PASS conference. These self-pace training labs are free, lightweight troubleshooting training for anyone interested in reviewing training in a self-study environment. They cover popular topics such as blocking, performance, memory, and debugging, and data recovery. They include hands-on usage of the PSS tools: READ80TRACE, OSTRESS, and PSSDiag.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=AEC18337-887F-4EC6-A858-81F84DE8082F&displaylang=en
TechED 2004 is over and the results are in. My focus was on the developer track and while I have a say in developer related sessions in other tracks my main focus is on the developer track itself (i.e. sessions that start with DEV).
This year we tried to have 2 themes. One focusing on existing technologies and another on new technologies. The existing technology theme sessions were all aimed at being advanced. We had 10 sessions in the “now“ theme and 8 in the futures theme. We also had a few sessions that were focused on the architect. These sessions are interesting in that they do not “demo“ well but are very important. We are trying to apply similar rules to MSDN events as well
Interestingly in the dev track 5 out of the 6 top sessions came from the “futures“ theme. The overall average was also better for the futures theme (4.23 versus 4.0). The developer track overall scored 4.2 (including keynotes) and this is higher than the average TechED session rating.
I am not exactly sure what this means but it does seem like “what's new“ stuff always seems to generate more excitement and better ratings. In our interactions with many developers though we hear more often than not that they want advanced sessions on existing technologies. As such we always look to create a balance between these two requirements.
This leads me to think that we probably have a few different developer profiles or personas. Do you agree?. Can developers be stuck into different groups? Is one group more critical than the other? I would be interested in any feedback.
My first post. Armand set this up for me a month ago but October has been incredibly hectic. With TechED over now I finally decided to get blogging.
A bit of me: I am Developer Technical Specialist in Developer and Platform's Group at Microsoft South Africa. I focus on the Microsoft developer platform -- not just the tools but the platform as well-- and work with customers and partners talking about adopting and successfully using our technologies.
From an audience point of view my work is largely focussed in 3 areas.
ISVs -- Independant Software Vendors. These guys typically built software for resell.
Enterprise Customers - Large enterprise customers who typically have lots of developers and whose needs are sometimes different to smaller customers
Community - That's everyone. This includes events like Devdays, TechED, MSDN Essentials as well as sadeveloper.net and user group group activities
That's it for the first post. I look forward to adding many more posts. If there is anything specific you would like me to blog on let me know