To Dev or not to Dev

Scanning through my RSS feeds I found a link to the new Google Chrome browser download. Since I use Leopard as my default OS I was quickly informed that Chrome for the Mac is not available yet, but I could sign-up via e-mail to be notified when it does become available. I pulled open my Parallels Vista VM and downloaded the Windows version instead.

The installation was fairly straightforward, with the normal Google offline/online installer being used to deploy Chrome. The download is fairly quick and the installation starts immediately. I did notice that at no point did Vista User Control prompt me for permission to install. Once installed Chrome starts and immediately imports settings from IE. I assume it imports setting from the default configured browser, however does not prompt or ask to do the import, something I would prefer since I don't want my settings imported between different browsers as a rule. Also it does not install under Program Files but actually installs under the "UserData" folder in Vista.

The blue framed browser window gives the impression that the application is lightweight and fast. The tab bar above the address is an interesting change, however does remind me of the beta release of IE 7.0 which sported the same concept. When I started seeing the reports of Chrome I realised that this adds another browser to the long list of existing browsers that needs to be compatibility tested for Website Designers, so I immediately headed over to this site and HoneyB.co.za to determine how well they render in the new WebKit based browser. I was satisfied that both sites rendered correctly, especially since I spent a lot of time designing against Safari and Firefox.

So far the positives I have found with Google Chrome include:

• Fast startup and rendering of application
• Fast page loads, reminds me of the initial FireFox betas.
• Proper reloading of pages when clicked
• Support for Javascript and Flash

The negatives I have found has been:

• Browser "hangs" accessing certain sites (Could be a Parallels/connection issue)
• Silverlight support lacking with the browser hanging and taking forever to load
• Lack of Mac and Linux versions for cross platform testing
• Lack of a 64-Bit version.
• Separated address bar can be confusing.
• No prompts on importing from other browser

Overall I like the way Chrome is going, and as with any beta product do expect some problems to occur during its use. I generally stick to using the default browser of the OS, and must say I have fallen in love with Safari, and only use other browsers when a site does not render in Safari, however it is a browser I will most certainly use when doing demonstrations and testing.

Roll on next beta, hopefully with Silverlight support.

Google Chrome can be downloaded here.

Crossposted from Diago.co.za

During Tech-Ed various speakers and guests of the event are invited to participate in video interviews regarding various technologies and subjects related to the event or the IT industry. These videos are then uploaded to the MSDN library for free download. This year some of the more well know community members and MVP's where involved in some very interesting interviews and they are now available on the Tech-Ed Online website.

Currently videos are available featuring Thea Burger, Ernst Kuschke, Nicolas Blank and various other speakers. Topics covered include Agile Development, Powershell 2.0, Green IT and more. Videos are uploaded weekly on Wednesday and a RSS feed is also available.

I am currently downloading all the videos as they are released and once the complete collection is available will be provide it as a DVD to all community members early next year. So to get up to date with what is happening in the industry as well as what happened at Tech-Ed 2008, hop on over to Tech-Ed Online.

Crossposted from Diago.co.za

Microsoft has finally released SBS 2008 to manufacturing. The new version has some significant changes and more info is available at the official SBS blog over here.

Crossposted from Diago.co.za

As a software developer and trainer I am often asked what tools can help with ensuring code is written correctly and follows the right development guidelines and best practices. Over time the ideas around coding styles and formatting have changed considerable and Microsoft has released new versions of two extremely useful applications which focus on this topic, one checking code before it is compiled and the other checking code after it has been compiled.

FxCop 1.36 (Homepage)

Last night I was made aware that Microsoft has released FxCop 1.36. This little gem has not been updated in quite some time but is extremely useful. By pointing FxCop to an already compiled .Net assemblies, a code analysis is done which can be extremely revealing and interesting. The resulting HTML report lists all potential code violations and incorrect syntax. The extremely handy part of FxCop is that all errors have a unique identifying code which can be used in the MSDN library to find a description on what the problem means and how to correct it. It also features MSBuild integration and can also be used with continues integration platforms like CruiseControl.Net. FxCop can also be used on ASP.Net Web Project from the command line allowing the same analysis to be done on Website Development and also works on Windows Mobile assemblies.

I also use FxCop to learn more about .Net. The documentation is complete and informative, allowing for a better understanding of how to implement certain features and applying best practices to code. It also promotes code consistency in development teams since the rules engine can be modified and adapted to the guidelines set for each industry. The default ruleset is closely tied to the Microsoft Best Practices guidelines and by default already provides single developers an invaluable method of implementing code correctly.

FxCop will not make any changes to code directly, and will only report on results. With the flexible rules engine and wealth of information it provides developers, I would really like to see some out of the box Visual Studio integration in the next version, similar to what is done with TFS. It should however become one of the most important tools used by any .Net developer today.

StyleCop 4.3 (Homepage)

For a long time Microsoft had an in-house tool similar to FxCop, with one important difference, it analysed the code before compiling and is integrated into Visual Studio. As with FxCop, StyleCop provides important insight into the code before it is even compiled, and can also be completed integrated into MSBuild. The net result being that code can be analysed as it's written, ensuring that best practices and coding guidelines are always enforced. I am especially impressed with the heavy weight put on proper commenting guidelines.

I only recently started using StyleCop, but like FxCop it is an important tool in my development toolbox. The importance of proper coding has become more and more of a focus in my own career, and using these tools ensures that code reusability and correctness becomes a core focus during the actual development stages, and can very often assist in avoiding problems when testing and deploying.

I am extremely glad to see Microsoft release these powerful tools to the development world. Feel free to download both application and give them a try on one of your latest projects, you'll be amazed at what you will find needs to be changed.

Crossposted from Diago.co.za

Last night I was involved in an interesting speaking engagement. I was asked to talk to a group of parents and students who are currently completing a one year IT course. The topic of discussion was mainly around whether the students should choose between completing the networking or programming track. One of my colleagues was invited to discuss networking while I was meant to focus on programming. The talk was held in front of around 40 parents and students, with ample opportunity for questions.

The talk turned into a slight debate between my colleague and myself. The reason for the debate was surrounding the levels of success achieved in the IT Industry based only on completing the courses and more importantly the writing of exams. Although in principle I agree with my colleague, who is in itself very passionate about the industry and is also very successful within it, I couldn't help but wonder how much of what we discussed during the talk was pie in the sky and how much was truly real.

I have been a long time activist around the topic of academic achievement. The IT industry in South Africa is flooded with want to be developers and networkers, who leave school and study IT because of the misconception that the IT industry is a get quick rich scheme. I find it ironic that 15 years down the line it has joined a place of importance next to careers in Law, Medical and Business Management. The one item of debate was related to how quickly you can earn a proper salary, and for me this is an unnecessary thorn in my side. Especially considering that most students leaving tertiary eduction never end up working in the IT Industry.

I had the opportunity to study when I left school, but failed my first year at tertiary eduction and ended up working full time for a small retail store in my hometown. My time their was a massively important learning experience, as my love and passion for the IT industry was well cemented by the time I left. Over the last 14 years I have been involved in all major fields of IT, including sales, support, networking, programming and currently training. During that time I have been exposed to various technology stacks and honed my skills by applying myself to everything I could possibly learn while working.

However all of this came at a price. 18 hour working dates was the norm, not the exception. My personal life was none existent and my family was always at the bottom of the list of responsibilities. In return for these sacrifices financial gain was also not impressive, with a good 5 year gap of my life never seeing an increase or bonus of any kind. Looking back at the time I had often wondered why I was doing what I was for the money I was earning, and rather jealously looking at some of my then peers and colleagues wondering why I couldn't be in their shoes.

About 2 years ago the picture changed, when I was hired by a company based on my experience and knowledge, offered a descant salary package and provided with all the required tools to continue growing as a person and within my field. I have since also become extremely passionate about the IT community, becoming involved in as many user groups and academic drives I can find, and trying to guide students and industry professionals through the interesting and exciting world of IT, while at the same time remaining honest and impartial to the false pretenses set by those with no understanding of the industry.

As I listened and participate in the talk it came to me that the only place I have to compare and use as a motivation is my own experiences, completely different from any of my colleagues. I was left in the process of attempting to convince these students of what choice to make, wondering whether the quick growth of the industry, and the perception created by community members like myself, is in the end not the exact reason why students enter the IT field, believing that the few and far between successful public figures in the industry is the norm, rather then the exception.

In this process, am I, through my own involvement and interaction, not just adding more fuel to a completely empty and false perception of one of the most exciting industries in the world?

Crossposted from Diago.co.za

I have been actively and religiously following the StackOverflow initiative started earlier this year by Joel Spolsky and Jeff Atwood. I have been listening to every podcast, finding the content of their discussions informative and interesting, often bringing some reality and realism to the world of development and IT.

Jeff e-mailed me a link to the beta about 2 weeks ago, however due to my own personal commitments with Tech-Ed South Africa I was not able to spend a lot of time on the site. I have since spent some time looking at what the site has to offer and I must congratulate him and his team on some very innovative ideas and a lot of hard work.

The Architecture

The first thing that makes StackOverflow interesting is it's architectures. Jeff and the team opted to go with the new ASP.Net MVC platform to develop the site and from what I can see so far it has been a huge success. The site loads extremely fast and pages and navigation is a breeze. For me, that fact that a still "experimental" technology has been introduced into running a future major website and it has proven stable enough to work. When fairly established developers tackle a project like StackOverflow with platforms like MVC it also makes huge leaps in convincing developers to actively research and use the technology, ensuring it's growth and establishing it in the developer toolbox.

The Idea

StackOverflow is a questions and answers site focussing on all development languages, and even covers some IT Pro products. With a small list of beta testers currently spending a lot of time populating the site with questions, the overall feeling and response to the site has been extremely positive. The ability to vote for answers and questions, and building reputation points is also well implemented, and there is some personal satisfaction when visiting the site and finding that your reputation score has gone up another 20 points.

The content so far has also been extremely informative, allowing a for a lot of discussion and detailed information being posted, providing accurate answers. The voting system also allows for correct information to filter to top, and eliminates the need for every person to provide an answer, instead just vote for the answer you agree with, eliminating duplication of answers and ensuring accurate information is always quickly accessible.

The Design

Can you spell Google? Jeff's design team has kept the site clean and neat, ensuring the focus of the site is on content. Clean and simple is the word of the day when navigating the site, and the use of existing external tools like Google Forms and Uservoice ensures that very little reinvention of the wheel is done as far as the design and development is concerned.

In Conclusion

I have to congratulate Jeff and his team on an awesome project, and I sincerely hope to see the site grow from strength to strength. It will definitely become a often used tool in my toolbox of internet research sites.

If you want to find out more about StackOverflow and the Beta head over to Jeff's blog here or the signup information found here.

Crossposted from Diago.co.za

On Tuesday, Eben came into the speaker room at Tech-Ed needing someone to take over a talk on Windows Mobile, which was to be presented by Goksin Baskir from Microsoft. Goksin had found out earlier in the morning that his Mother-In-Law has passed away and needed to return to Istanbul. Prompted by Ruari Plint I informed Eben that I am willing to present the session, rather then letting it be cancelled.

Goksin and I spent some time reviewing the presentation covering the new and very exciting feature provided by the Windows Mobile 6.1 Refresh SDK. I am not new to Mobile development, as I completed a few Asset Management Project while working at BTG, and I was truly impressed with the content of the talk. After spending a good 6 hours reviewing the notes, testing the demos and even getting to bed early to do the talk, I had a bit of an anti-climax arriving, all prepped and ready to do my 8:00 am Wednesday morning session, only to be told the session only starts at 9:00 am.

After a short introduction by Eben, I started moving through the various aspects of the presentations, and bar one mishap with my first demonstration, I successfully completed the talk, running inside my MacBook, with Windows XP in Parallels. I am sure this must have been another Microsoft first for many of the delegates attending my talk. I also found out afterwards that about 40 delegates attended the talk.

The talk covered the following topics:

• Device Emulator V2 sporting battery life and cellphone simulation and 25 supported device skins.
• FakeGPS to allow for GPS development without the need for GPS units.
• FakeServer to allow for Server development stack builds without the need of actual servers.
• Cellular Emulator allowing for the development of Text and Call enabled Windows Mobile Applications
• The new namespace stack and it's additional features.
• The new sample set inside the SDK and it's availability.

I was extremely pleased when Willy-Peter pointed out that I had made the Top 20 speakers list and on the last check today I ended up 22nd. I am extremely thankful to Eben and Goksin, with a little push from Ruari for giving me the opportunity to present at Tech-Ed, and also have to thank everyone of the MVP's and community members for their morale support.

Crossposted from Diago.co.za

From a community aspect this year's Tech-Ed proved to be an awesome event. I had the privilege of planning and hosting the community lounge this year, and it would not have been half as successful without the support and the help from an awesome team of community members, MVP's and Microsoft staff. I would like to thank various people for their involvement in the lounge.

• Du Preez Kritzinger for managing and planning the community lounge, and allowing me complete freedom with the stand.
• Amory Somers Vine for ensuring that everything ran smoothly with the speakers, the planning and the overall event.
• Ruari Plint for the guidance, support and valuable input, without which the lounge would not have worked out the way it did.
• Willy-Peter Shaub for the moral support, valuable input and having me stay at the MVP Cave. Another gem in the community space.
• Eben De Witt for the pre and post Tech-Ed support and assistance with my community work.
• Lillian Serobatse for the financial support and consistent input into community activities
• Jackie Marston for assisting and manning the stand, having taken time of work to attend.
• The MVP's for your continued support and presence at the lounge and for making the MVP Hunt such a success!
• IT Intellect, Microsoft, BBND and all the other amazing sponsors who assisted with the setup and manning of the stand.
• SA Architect, Information Worker and SA Developer.Net without whom the lounge would not even exist!
• The Delegates for attending and supporting the lounge, you are the reason we all do this!

Last, but most definitely not the least, Michelle Gray, for her continued support of my community activities and her huge amount of time and assistance in ensuring the lounge was the success it was when I was not around to man it. Considering that in between all of this she is still trying to plan and finalise our wedding in less then two weeks, I cannot thank her enough for her effort and support.

Thanks to all of you, and I hope to see every one of you back at Tech-Ed 2009!

Crossposted from Diago.co.za

On Sunday, 3 August 2008, 2000+ delegates invaded the Durban ICC to attend the first keynote to be held outside of Sun City in 8 years. In the few hours preceding this event a lot of behind the scenes work had to be completed to ensure that all these delegates will be provided with the best that Microsoft and it's various partners have to offer.

On Saturday evening both Ruari Plint and Willy-Peter Shaub and his team arrived in KZN, heading out to the Sandringham B&B which was the base of operations for the MVP Cave during Tech-Ed. It was the first time I had the opportunity to see the B&B and I must admit I was highly impressed with the service and the beauty of the facilities. We all signed in and everyone spend the evening trying out the open bar Ruari established.

Sunday at around 11:30, Michelle and I arrived at the ICC to complete registration and start following up on everyone that was meant to arrive. I also had a chance to see the community lounge and the expo centre, which I will admit had me stressing as they were not remotely close to being completed on time for the opening the next day. However Du Preez and Amory both assured me that everything will come together.

The opening keynote on Sunday was interesting, with Microsoft launching a new conference product name Microsoft Roundtable. The device allows companies to do video conferencing over low bandwith lines and integrates with Microsoft Communication Server. Eben and his team also demonstrated the power of Microsoft Blend and the ability for designers and developers to work together using Silverlight and Visual Studio 2008. Directly after the Keynote, Dimension Data hosted the opening party at the ICC Expo centre, featuring Prime Circle as the main act for the evening.

Monday morning at 7:00 Ruari and myself arrived to oversee the final stages of the community lounge. This year we had secured an X-Box console, managed by Craig Nicholson, X-Box MVP, and also some plasma screens and a coffee bar. The staff of the ICC also worked hard to provide some of the seating clusters with power, to allow delegates to sit down with some coffee and plug in their notebooks.

IT Intellect also had the final preparations done for the Instructor-Led Labs, and I had a dual role in presenting at the labs as well as being at community lounge. I missed the opportunity of attending sessions, however spend a lot of time at the lounge meeting community members and MVP's as well as assisting with the highly successful MVP Hunt.

We were very honored and surprised to have Steve Riley spend a considerable amount of time at the community lounge during the event, making himself visible and available to all the delegates. It was indeed an honor to meet one of the top security experts at Microsoft and to see him actively engage with everyone. Thanks very much Steve!

For me the rest of Tech-Ed was a major blur, as I spent a significant amount of timing networking and engaging with people, including spending some time at the Tech-Ed Academia Day which was held on Tuesday and had 650 local students attend a 6 hour mini Tech-Ed. The MVP braai on Tuesday evening also proved to be an awesome event with most of the MVP's attending and networking among themselves, and Sandringham providing an awesome selection of food and meat for the braai.

The highlight of Tech-Ed this year has to be the closing keynote with Stephen Attenborough from Virgin Galactic. We were taken through a tour of the first ever commercial space flight and an in-depth discussion of what it entails to send a space shuttle into the galaxy. With timelines of the first commercial flight within the next 18 months to 2 years, the reality of space as the next frontier is truly possible.

Overall I believe Tech-Ed 2008 was a huge success. The community and MVP's through the community lounge and immense exposure as session and chalk and talk presenters has proven to everyone that we are a force to be reckoned with in the next few years, and I can't wait to get started on Tech-Ed 2009!

Crossposted from Diago.co.za

From 3 August 2008, Durban will be abuzz with Microsoft. With Tech-Ed coming to the ICC there will be a huge crowd assembling every day to come and hear what Microsoft has in store for the next few months, with almost 200 more sessions then before. Behind the scenes a lot of work has gone into making Tech-Ed 2008 one of the best yet.

Microsoft is focussing a lot of attention on communities this year, and community lounge promises to be bigger and better then ever. With more floor space then before and the addition of some new and existing features, we hope to make every community in South Africa come alive. Members from SA Developer.Net and SA Architect.Net will be at the lounge in full force, along with the introductions of a few new communities, and the re-establishment of some existing ones.

Over the next few days we will be introducing some of the features to be seen at the lounge, and we hope to see many existing community members there!

When: Wednesday, 23 July 2008, 18:00-20:30
Venue: I.T. Intellect, Shop 405b Level 3, Musgrave Centre, 115 Musgrave Road, Musgrave
Presenter: Willie Roberts
Topic: Microsoft SharePoint Server 2007 - Overview and Changes
RSVP: Please RSVP by replying to this thread or e-mailing diago at sadeveloper dot net.

Please join use for a look into the world of Microsoft SharePoint Server and what it offers developers, users and corporates. Catering provided by our hosts IT Intellect and lots of opportunities for questions.

Braving a freezing Johannesburg morning, Ruari Plint and his team of MVP's and Community Leads took over 2 of the Microsoft Bryanston auditoriums to present a series of enlightening and eye opening talks regarding Interoperability. The theme is entirely related to how Microsoft Technologies, in particular .Net, can be utilised and used across various platforms, in particular Linux. A group off 55+ individuals decided to brave the weather along with Ruari's team to interact and engage on a technical and conceptual level to look at the various topics covered.

The opening keynote, presented by Ruari Plint and Paulo Ferreira, was a brilliant start to the day. Paulo has a very interesting position within Microsoft, as it is his responsibility to test the stability and workability of non-Microsoft products, both open source and commercial on the Microsoft Server platform. He provided an extraordinary view regarding Microsoft's cooperation agreements with various vendors, and also took the time to clear up and explain some myths regarding the various Microsoft agreements and projects. Ruari also provided an in-depth view of the Microsoft MVP program, and outlined the requirements and processes involved in receiving this award.

As per most of the Microsoft events the Interoperability event provided 2 tracks, covering distinct areas of interest. The sessions where all well presented and attended, with Willy-Peter Shaub, Zlatan Dzilnic, Eben De Witt, Henk ?, Ryan Crawcour and Steve ? providing interesting and fascinating views at various development methodologies and solutions. All the presentation deck will be made available on the SA Architect website shortly. My overall impressions of the event was impressive, and I am glad to be associated with such a dedicated and knowledgeable team who continue to work at making these events possible.

After successfully completing exams 70-315, 70-316 and 70-320 in a 2 day marathon I have finally acquired something to put at the end of my name: MCAD.

This is the one of the few opportunities I will ever take to pat myself on the back.

I seem to be spending a considerable amount of time lately apologising. I am extremely passionate about 3 things in my life: my fiance, my career and my community work. Because my work and community involvement has been drawn together a lot closer since I joined ITI in the beginning of the month, I have been able to get more actively involved in the various aspects of the community world, while being able to mentor others in the field of development, which to me is an exciting and never ending catalyst for change.

Being thrown into the deep with ITI has been a huge learning curve. I am doing well with the training aspect as far as my evaluations are concerned, however adjusting to my colleagues and the processes of the company has become both a physically and mentally draining exercise. I have butted heads with one or two of my colleagues in a short space of time, which is outside the norm for me, and this has started building some insecurity around the way forward for myself. I by no means want to give up on the path I have chosen, but I need to readjust my viewpoints and understanding of people, especially in my new working environment, quickly and quietly.

I do however have some new challenges to take on in the next 2 weeks, including planning of the community lounge for Tech-Ed 2008, held in Durban this year and hoping to draw 2000+ visitors, along with various other fairly big and hopefully exciting community projects, which with the strong support from the Microsoft, ITI and MVP team should get off the ground in the next few months.

This all has however put me in a space I am not used to, where my normal simple and direct understanding of issues has caused me to lose sight of a personal growth process I have been undergoing. A process in which I am attempting to humble myself as a person. I am learning things about myself that will hopefully guide me going forward, and allow me to continue to grow, and hopefully also allow me to become a dependable and respected individual to my colleagues in business and the community.

I arrived in JHB yesterday morning at 7:45. I was strangely not surprised at the roadblock outside the airport and the traffic running from the Airport to the ITI offices, but did however realise I don't miss a moment of it. Effectively I walk to work, as my office is 2 blocks down from my house. I had a few rushed but very productive meetings with Microsoft as well as internal ITI meetings that will be continuing today, addressing various issues.

One of the people on my meeting list was Ruari Plint, MVP Product Manager for Microsoft. I was pleasantly surprised and pleased with the results of the meeting, and found Ruari to be a walking encyclopedia on communities and motorbikes, both intense passions of his. Our initial 1 hour meeting quickly grew into a 2 1/2 hour brain dump on communities and community structures, as well as a long walk down memory lane. Ruari, along with Simon, was the founders of SA Developer.Net a few years back.

Willy-Peter Shaub also introduced me to Ryan CrawCour, the BizTalk Community Lead. We had a fairly quick chat however Ryan did offer to come to KZN and do some talks on KZN, so look out for some dates that will be coming up shortly. Afterwards Willy-Peter, Ruari and myself went to the Baron's in Bryanston for dinner, with a bit of business mixed in. The InterOperability day was big on the agenda, and Ruari had us in stitches with his car stories. I really want to thank Willy-Peter for planning the evening, and for still coming after finishing his deep dive at 18:30, with no sleep the night before.

I must admit being surrounded by them is truly a humbling experience, and I always leave with a feeling of excitement, along with intense knowledge transfer. Today I have a light agenda, flying back to KZN tonight. My parents will be arriving in KZN tonight as well and we have a long weekend planned.