In typical FireStarter event style, this event will be delivering a first class experience to all attendees and make them experts on developing on SharePoint technologies before the end of the event. There should be great speakers from the Microsoft roster presenting some awesome topics that will help you build and customize web sites with SharePoint and Web 2.0 technologies.

Logistics

Where: Microsoft Conference Center (Building 33) – Kodiak Room

When: June 11th 2008 - Wednesday

Free stuff: Breakfast and lunch provided, lots of swag

Attending

Click here to register to attend In-person 

Click here to attend via Live Meeting! (the in-person event will have a better experience)

If you have any questions, please contact Mithun.

We all know the sedentary lifestyle of your classic IT person can lead to ... shall we say ... bloat. I regularly joke that the only thing bigger than your typical (Unix) system administrator is his beard. I jest.

Anyway, we do what we can to avoid the bloat, including running (literally) some form of carbon-based defrag on a regular basis, to compact that extra space.

... and it may be working across the industry.

Here's my evidence.

When registering for a Microsoft developer event in 2005, notice the shirt sizes go to 6XL ...

But, for this year's Tech-Ed Developer conference, only 4XL ...

I'm going to assume that Microsoft has leveraged the cool data-mining features in SQL Server to determine that 5XL and 6XL sizes are vanishing.

Back home now, and I have a moment to get the photos downloaded from my camera and uploaded to my blog. Next time I'll take my SD card reader with me.

As you can see, registration was quite busy. I heard that there were 4000 people there, but didn't count them myself. The long lines delayed the keynote by about an hour:

Douglas McDowell and I snuck into the press area. Well, he was officially press (SQL Server Magazine), but I wasn't - still I took more notes than most of the other pressies there.

The main screen was huge, and 3D. We estimated about 80' wide and 20' tall. When no slides were on the screen, there was a spinning 3D Earth enclosed in curley brackets. Hey, what about VB?

After the keynote, there was a short walk to the LA convention center, where the breakout sessions, chalk-talks, exhibitor area, etc. Fortunately, we had these interpretive dancers along the way to keep us from getting lost.

The line to lunch was too long, so we ducked inside to check out the exhibitor area.

I was there (where it says "You Are Here")

Attendees attending one of Doug Seven's chalk talks on Team System.

Doug was all about the writing quality code and the 3 C's in his talk (Code Coverage, Code Analysis, and the new Code Metrics)

After I turned in my evaluation form, I picked up the attendee bag, which had  lots of goodies, including a hard-bound, coffee-table style book called "Heroes Happen Here" which contains IT heroes from all around the world, photographed by Carolyn Jones. And yes, I got my book signed!

10:35 AM (Los Angeles)

A fictitious developer, from the fictitious company "Fourth Coffee" is demonstrating the new, agile development features in Visual Studio 2008. She's showing off how to manage team development projects (a.k.a. team projects and work items), giving her tasks to make some changes to her code. Mostly she is showing off the split-screen editor, synchronization of code and designer, integrated design tools, and the new JavaScript debugger.

Oops, she just called it "Team Services" as she closed out her work item. Well, we get the idea.

In this, my first post of (hopefully) several today, I'm sitting in the keynote session (next to Douglas McDowell), listening to Tom Brokaw warm up the audience. What a nice surprise. It definitely stopped all the geeks in their tracks, to listen to his wise words, gathered from years of experience in all matters mankind.

I loved his opening line "I'm not here to write code, or wire this room". He did, however, wax poetic on the future of technology, the spirit and energy of the types of people who will drive it, and how we must handle it to get their safely."

Some of his quotes during the keynote (some paraphrasing):

• "The test or our place in this world is not yet complete. We don't want to become Easter Island or the Mayan civilization. The use of this technology is not just a virtual experience. If we develop capacity and leave out common sense, what then is the reward to each of us, collectively or individually? If speed overruns reason, what else gets trampled?"
• "We will not solve climate change by hitting backspace. It will do us little good to wire the world if we short circuit our consciousness, our souls and if we don't use this technology to advance mankind."
• "When I left Nightly News I said that I'm not only going to spend my time at suites in the four seasons ... but to spend time in the trenches to meet people who make a difference"
• "One day I woke up in Pakistan in a packing container with Americans who had been there for six months, trying to assess medical and health needs. When they hiked out, they put their hands on the keyboard and distilled what they had learned ... and in so doing, made a big impression ... of those of us in the West who have so much, while they (people in Pakistan) have so little."
• "This technology takes a guiding hand, an imaginative approach, and a hope ..."
• "We have the opportunity to become the next, greatest generation."

Steve Ballmer came on stage next to thank the many platinum sponsors, and discuss how "Dynamic IT" can help manage complexity and achieve agility (especially in the realm software development)

I heard the term "Agile" about 10 times in the span of 3 minutes. More to come ...

Man, I need to keep a closer eye on the work product over at .NET Rocks. I had meant to link up this transcript last Summer, but I dropped the ball. Apologies.

So, what this was was a VSTS panel discussion at Tech-Ed in Orlando last June, with Mike Azocar, Steven Borg, Doug Seven, Joel Semeniuk, and the hosts Richard Campbell and Carl Franklin.

Here's the panel (with Barry Gervin running the microphone)

And some of the audience (you can see Rob Caron and Mickey Gousset in the back).

There's some pretty good questions in there, especially those asked by yours truly!

Microsoft announced today that PDC 2008 is on!

October 27–30, 2008
Pre-conferences October 26, 2008
Los Angeles, California

PDC is the definitive Microsoft event for software developers and architects focused on the future of the Microsoft platform. Mark your calendars and save the date. More information coming soon.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/pdc2008

Wow, I found this old photo of me at COMDEX in 1990. It was my first such event, and I was completely blown away by the size of it - and who was there. I remember Borland had a giant quiz-show, asking questions and giving away prizes if you got the answers correct. I met Jeff Duntemann, who was the editor of PC Techniques magazine.

I also met Phil Katz (think "PK") at the event. He had become a hero to the BBS community, because his PKXARC/PKARC software was good at compressing files for transfer over 300 baud modems. After he was sued by SEA, he released an even faster PKZIP and became everyone's best friend. Most everyone in the world still uses PKZIP, or a derivative today.

Unfortunately, Phil Katz lead a troubled life and he died from alcoholism at age 37. Here is an article on his life.

It seems that the US Tech-Ed is following Europe's lead, by breaking up the one large conference into two: one for developers and one for IT professionals.

• June 3-6, 2008 - Developers (developers, solution architects, designers, and testers)
• June 10-13, 2008 - IT Professionals

Both events will have a similar format with the past Tech·Eds, but will focus on a single audience instead of a mixed audience, which was the case with the previous Tech·Ed model.

Visit the main Tech-Ed site for more information, including some FAQs.

Talk about "community-driven", Lorin Thwaits and the other coordinators of the Desert Code Camp are wanting your input on when 'camp should be held this next year.

You can choose between dates in September and October.

What a great week. I saw many friends ...

attended many parties ...

and learned a few new things ...

One of the technologies I heard about was Windows Live Writer, which provided me the ability to write blog posts offline, such as I'm doing right now!

Microsoft (and others) had announed that its Fall Professional Developer's Conference (PDC) would be October 2-5, in Los Angeles. Yesterday, they canceled the event and are in the process of rescheduling it.

From their site:

We are currently in the process of rescheduling this fall’s Professional Developer Conference. As the PDC is the definitive developer event focused on the future of the Microsoft platform, we try to align it to be in front of major platform milestones. By this fall, however, upcoming platform technologies including Windows Server 2008, SQL Server codenamed “Katmai,” Visual Studio codenamed “Orcas” and Silverlight will already be in developers’ hands and approaching launch, which is where we’ll focus our developer engagement in the near term. We will update this site when we have a new date for the PDC that is better timed with the next wave of platform technologies.

Welcome to Camp! Portland Code Camp 3.0 (as was 2.0) is being hosted at the gorgeous WSU Vancouver campus.

There are quite a few attendees here. I counted around 90 at this morning's welcome session.

Click the above to zoom-in

As for my SQL Server 2005 Worst Practices talk, if you'd like to download the slides, code, or sample project, please click here.

Pack up your compilers and IDES, because it's camping time in Portland!

Portland Code Camp 3.0 is back May 19th and 20th!

Location: Washington State University - Vancouver, 14204 NE Salmon Creek Ave, Vancouver, WA 98686

Visit the site for more information.

If you've got some extra miles burning a hole in your account, cash them in to get to Frankfurt, Germany at the end of February and attend Basta!

Surprise ... I'll be speaking on Team System at the conference!

• VSTS Best Practices (part 1)
• VSTS Best Practices (part 2)
• Customizing and Extending DB/Pro Edition
• From Zero to Team System (in 5 days)

I just heard that Walt has become a Wintellectual, no doubt spreading the WPF and WPFe gospel. Walt is a very sharp developer and great instructor, and I've had the privilege of watching him in action at the Portland and Seattle code camps, as well as a few VSLive! events.

Be sure to check out his blog.

Registration is now open for MIX '07 in Las Vegas.

This event is geared toward Web developers, designers, online advertising professionals and includes a broad set of partners and customers. Building on last year’s inaugural event, MIX will continue to explore how to build more interactive and responsive experiences that take full advantage of the capabilities of the Web. This is a great opportunity to dive deeper into Microsoft’s Web technology offerings and discover new ways to create more dynamic customer connections.

www.visitmix.com

It looks like I'll be speaking at BASTA! in a few weeks.

I'll be delivering two regular sessions:

• Team System Best Practices (Mar 1, 8:30AM - 9:30AM)

• Customizing and Extending Team Edition for Database Professionals (Mar 1, 3:15PM - 4:15PM)

Microsoft will be holding the next Professional Developers Conference (PDC) October 2-5, 2007 in Los Angeles, with two days of pre-conference on September 30 and October 1.  Save the date!

The PDC is the definitive developer event focused on the future of the Microsoft platform. PDC 2007 attendees will have the opportunity to access new code, learn about the latest Microsoft product offerings and hear from Microsoft executives about the various platform developments.

Click here for more information.

I'm back home now, but had a total blast at DevConnections in Las Vegas this week. I saw many friends and colleagues who I hadn't seen for awhile. I was surprised that there were ~4700 attendees at the show, with quite a large exhibiter hall too. It's really become a mini Tech-Ed.

Although the venue was changed at the last minute (to better digs at DigiPen) and my colleague Steven Borg bailed out to have a kid (that still hasn't come yet), Seattle Code Camp 2.0 was awesome!

If you attended my talks on SQL Server 2005, you can find my demo bits here.

Microsoft has made the difficult decision not to hold Tech·Ed 2007 in New Orleans. With this event drawing a large number of attendees from around the world and with the airlines only servicing the city with about half of their pre-Katrina flights, the logistics of moving that large a group into and out of the city is challenging and would likely result in travel and logistical challenges for attendees.

Instead, Tech·Ed 2007 will be held on June 4-8, 2007 in Orlando at the Orange County Convention Center (OCCC).

Here is the official site.

Join Borland for a free educational breakfast seminar on Wednesday, November 15th, 2006 to learn more about their Software Delivery Optimization (SDO) – A Vision for Software Development. Borland has been slowly evolving into a company that provides Application Lifecycle Management tools, as well as a process consulting.

Specifically, they will be demonstrating

• Borland CaliberRM® and DefineIT® for Requirements Definition & Management
• Borland SilkCentral® Test Manager™ for Requirements-Based Testing
• Borland StarTeam® for Configuration and Change Management

Who should attend? Directors and Managers of: Application Development and Quality Assurance, Program and Project Managers, Architects and Business Analysts

The breakfast seminiar is on Wednesday, November 15, 2006 at 8:30am (until noon) at the Grove Hotel, 245 S. Capitol Blvd, Boise, ID 83702.

I'm guessing you can probably just show up, if you are interested.

That's right. Seattle Code Camp 2.0 is upon us, with a late-breaking venue change ...

Camp will be held at Nintendo's DigiPen Univeristy, which is very near the Microsoft Campus.

Consultants from our company will be doing talks on SQL Server, Team System, and Ruby. See you there, this Saturday and Sunday (October 28 and 29).

Peter Nowak's book on CF development for mobile devices has just been released. The book is in German.

I met Peter awhile back at Tech-Ed Europe 2005 and he gave me a lot of good feedback on my Team System book.

Nice work Peter!

I met Chad Z. Hower at Tech-Ed 2006 in Malaysia a few weeks ago, and was very impressed with his knowledge and presentation skills. Mostly, I was impressed with his extensive travel (makes me seem aerophobic), living overseas, and jaw-dropping stories. I just learned that Chad has gone independent, leaving Microsoft recently. If you are looking for an energetic presenter on all topics Microsoft-developer related, check out his professional site and his fun site.

Woo Hoo!!!

Here are my slides from yesterday's presentation at Tech-Ed 2006 SEA. Thank you to the many delegates who joined me for the session.

I heard a cool idea from an attendee of Devscovery last week. He said that his wife is a consultant who switches tasks throughout the day. Like most consultants, we have a hard time remembering what we did (or didn't do) throughout the day.

Their answer is to just run a screen-capture program like Camtasia or something like it, and configure it to shoot a snapshot every 5 minutes or so. This way you can play back at the end of the day and have a semi-recollection of what you've done!

Idaho's leading entrepreneurial group is joining forces with Idaho's leading funding groups to host a night of networking on September 26 to connect entrepreneurs with capital sources. Connect with the region's most promising new companies and the West's top investors.

WHEN:  Tuesday, September 26 (6-8pm)
WHERE: Lobby Area - Boise Centre on the Grove
WHO:   All entrepreneurs, angel investors & venture capitalists
COST:  Free

RSVP to www.kickstand.org by September 5

Peter DeBetta and I are going to have fun putting together a presentation on "worst practices", and by doing so we will be illustrating the "best practices".

Look for us to be onstage together at SQL Connections this Fall at the Mandalay Bay.

So, what are some of your "worst practices" that you'd like to share?

Yep, these are the RDs and other MVPs that I hang out with on a regular basis.

Caution: Before clicking this link, let me warn you that you are going to see things that you can't un-see!

Hat-tip to Carl Franklin for his camera and assembly skills for this page.

If nothing else, I now know how to spell my name in Russian!

Here's a link to view the back of the book as well.

Thanks to our friends at AVICode for sending me this copy. We enjoyed co-presenting with them at Tech-Ed in Boston.

At Tech-Ed in Boston, we ran our first Regional Director Talent Show. John Alexander was courageous enough to warm up the crowd with a series of impressions. He did impressions of famous people such as US Presidents, film stars and…well, other Regional Directors! It was hilarious. Next, Ken Spencer sang and played guitar for the crowd. He performed his version of Margaretaville while everyone cheered and clapped to the beat. Next was Carl Franklin who started by impersonating Bruce Springsteen and then performed a spirited acoustical guitar instrumental. Michele Leroux Bustamante also played guitar and sang her amusing and unforgettable rendition of Smelly Cat which originates from a performance by Phoebe on the TV Show Friends. Each of these RDs did a phenomenal job and the judging was very close.

The winner was one of our new RDs, Alexander Wechsler from Germany. He sang his version of the Rolling Stone’s hit Honky-Tonk Women, breaking out in a harmonica solo to cinch the deal. He brought the house down.

He may be a new RD, but everyone knows his name now. He is the winner of the custom painted Fender Stratocaster guitar. Special thanks to Tim Heuer for donating the Fender Stratocaster guitar. He helped make this fun event possible. Thanks Tim!

Wow, I'm honored! One of my sharper students at a recent talk in Reston, VA was actually paying attention to my discussion of extensibility and customization and has built a VSTS Check-In Policy to help track time working on team projects.

It looks promising. You can read about it at the VSTS Forums, or go to the GotDotNet site. I'll have it available on the Widgets page soon, too.

It's been awhile, but Bill is blogging again. I know he's been busy working on his latest Hitchhiker's Guide to Visual Studio and SQL Server 2005 book and speaking for INETA.

Besides giving a couple of talks on Team System and SQL Server 2005, I plan on hitting a few parties and other interesting sessions.

One such session is being hosted by the DataDirect team, who are assembling gathering of ADO.NET, and data connectivity lumaries for an informal gathering during TechEd 2006.This will be an opportunity for everyone who lives and breaths data connectivity, ADO.NET and who is looking to get a first hand feel of everything on the horizon for ADO.NET, LINQ and .NET and meet some of the key players involved.

When: June 13, 2006, between 4pm and 6.30pm, Where: Seaport Hotel in Boston

Last week I mentioned to a group of Team System professionals that I thought MySpace was running Cold Fusion, because of the abundance of .CFM pages.

According to some of the comments from MySpace developers, on Scott Guthrie's article post-Mix, there are CFM files on MySpace.com, but they are not Cold Fusion ...

"To clarify, we wrote a custom configuration section that maps "fuseaction" URL parameters to ASPX extensions so that we'd maintain link integrity. The only place we aren't doing this is 'Browse' and certain other new features. Meanwhile, as Scott said the parts of the site that are running in ColdFusion are essentially doing so in ASP.NET 2.0 (via BlueDragon)."

No, not Windows DNA, but XNA. Yes, it's an exciting new enhancement to DCOM bringing XML manifests and BizTalk schemas! Kidding ...

Microsoft XNA is a tool and set of technologies which will help game studios manage the growing complexities of their game content builds. Basically, it is designed to help game studios and publishers develop better games, more effectively, on all platforms. Microsoft unveiled the XNA Framework at the Game Developers Conference 2006.

Best yet, XNA Studio is based on Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team System. XNA Studio will extend and customize Visual Studio 2005 Team System to make it an ideal solution for game studios and publishers.