Seems Microsoft MapPoint thinks the shortest route between two Norwegian cities requires a flying car!
Thanks Ken, this made me laugh.
Many of you are already aware of this, but July 23 and 24 will be the first "Code Camp" in the Pacific Northwest. These are very popular events back east, but are only now showing up out west. It's totally free, over the weekend, and it's all about developers connecting with developers.
Read more about it here and I hope to see you there!
BELLEVUE, Wash., June 29, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- Timeline Inc. (OTCBB:TMLN) announced it has filed a patent infringement action against ProClarity Corporation, a private company headquartered in Boise, Idaho. This action, filed in the Federal District Court for Western Washington, seeks substantial damages and to enjoin ProClarity from any further licensing of certain ProClarity software modules in the United States. ProClarity is a provider of reporting and data visualization products with an emphasis on analytic solutions based on Microsoft's Analysis Services module; a part of Microsoft's SQL Server data base management system.
Read the whole article here, and some analysis from last year here.
Looks like some changes are coming to the certification program, especially for SQL Server and Visual Studio. Read this article for all the details, but essentially they are planning three tiers:
- Tier 1: Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist will require simply passing one to three exams based on a Microsoft technology. As products meet the end of the support lifecycle, its related exam will be retired.
- Tier 2: Microsoft Certified IT Professional or Professional Developer require a Technology Specialist certification, plus one to three more exams, based on the requirement for a particular path. This tier is tied to job role at an organization, such as Database Developer or Business Intelligence. Recertification will be required to maintain status at this level.
- Tier 3: Microsoft Certified Architect is a rigorous, board-level certification that requires recertification. Achieving Technology Specialist or IT Professional or Professional Developer certification not a prerequisite to attaining this level of certification.
Sent from a friend of mine, this Java applet starts with a view of the Milky Way at 10 million light years from the Earth and then moves through space towards the Earth in successive orders of magnitude until you reach a tall oak tree just outside the buildings of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee, Florida. After that, you begin to move from the actual size of a leaf into a microscopic world that reveals leaf cell walls, the cell nucleus, chromatin, DNA and finally, into the subatomic universe of electrons and protons.
I guess they have a Windows screen saver available as well.
This was a short, 10-minute presentation that I recorded while at Tech-Ed in Orlando. Many of the Regional Directors gave a GrokTalk.
The registry really is an undiscovered country. I learned from Dave Herron that there is a specific registry entry that you can set that determines the delay between the appearance of a password-protected screen saver and the enforcement of the password requirement.
Learn more here.
Well, the auction actually ended a few days ago, but I wanted to include a couple of screenshots, to show you how successful it was. I had 20 bidders and over 14,700 views. The final price was $ 4.78. Now I just have to ship it!
Be sure to check out my live event on July 19 for SQL Server magazine. Here's where to register and here's an abstract:
SQL Server 2005 offers great features for every role: DBAs, Business Intelligence (BI) analysts, and developers. For developers, there are numerous features and productivity enhancements over SQL Server 2000. In this Web seminar, we will take a wide look at many of these interesting features. We will begin at the SQL Server engine, focusing on the new data types (XML and MAX keyword), PIVOT and UNPIVOT commands, Common Table Expressions (CTEs), ranking and partitioning options, exception handling, automatic output, and DDL triggers. Next, we'll drill down into the XML data type, and look at the new XML support, FOR XML improvements, and some XQUERY examples. Since developers should always be concerned with security, I’ll show a few options for encrypting and decrypting data, using T-SQL commands. Saving the best for last, we’ll finish up with SQL Server 2005’s hosting of .NET components. After a brief discussion of the architecture and process of building, deploying, securing, and executing SQLCLR components, we will look at the sample code for a user defined function, stored procedure, and user defined type – all built using Visual Studio 2005.
Thank you for attending my talks in Amsterdam this week. As promised, here are the presentation materials and sample code from my talks:
I hope you enjoyed the talks. I know I did. Please email me with any questions!
-Rich
A friend of mine, Christian Wenz, won himself a new Windows/Mobile phone. These were given away randomly to people who submitted feedback for sessions. Christian was submitting feedback for my session, so that's cool!
From Zig Ziglar (via Jim McKeeth) ... "The only thing worse than training good employees and losing them is NOT training your employees and keeping them."
But, I was told that there was at least one Tech-Ed/Europe speaker who ordered one. I should have selected it, just to see how large a 5X shirt would be! 
Server was down for a few days, due to a freak power outage (human error) at our hosting company. Long story short, the server was waiting patiently for several days for someone to press the F1 key ... I hate hardware!
For those who missed last week's "Learning Visual Studio Team System" chat, and can't wait for Microsoft to publish the transcript. Here it is, in its full and unedited form.
A few weeks ago I was working 18 hour days on a project in building 18 and, besides the free drinks, was enjoying the incredible bandwidth. Want to download something from MSDN subscribtion downloads?
If you are like me, then you are constantly copying and pasting from other documents, slides, or Web pages that you've created into Word 2003. It's a great repository for various content. The only problem is the formatting. Have you tried to paste HTML into Word lately? It will end up being pages and pages long. Try this.
- To remove all the formatting and related stuff like text boxes, select the text and hit Ctrl + Shift + N to remove all but the font formatting.
- To wipe out all formatting, select the text and hit Ctrl + Space.
I can't remember who told me about these shortcuts, but I'm much appreciative. I'm sure there's more in Word as well.
Our Train-The-Trainer (TTT) event has come to a close, and what a great class it was! We had 26 students, from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Kuwait, Denmark, Italy, the Russian Federation, Finland, Belgium, Macedonia, Greece, Poland, Lithuania, and France. 
A buddy of mine claimed it was true, and even sent me an email from BOI to prove it. Then, I found this article on Yahoo.
Yahoo!
Looks like 3 Leaf's Introducing Visual Basic 2005 for Developers is online, with chapters that can be downloaded.
I call it 3 Leaf's book, because of who contributed: Kris Horrocks, Sean Campbell, Derek Hatchard, Peter Bernhardt, Scott Swigart.
A few of the GrokTalks filmed in Orlando are online, ready to watch or download.
So, what is a GrokTalk?
The deal is this: We've all sat through some pretty lousy technical sessions at conferences. For the most part, sessions at TechEd are filled with good information, but every once in a while you sit through 75 minutes in order to "grok" something that could have been explained in 10 minutes. We thought it'd be interesting if we put together three days of presentations that were only 10 minutes long!
I was just informed that the extra appendix, the samples for the extra appendix and all the rest of the sample/exercise files for the Unleashed are now available for download on the SAMS site. When you get to the page, click on the Download link in the More Information section. Appendix C is cool because it covers most of the adapters.
Also, if you are searching for a good book on InfoPath, check out Thomas Robbins' book. Oh, and if you want to preview a cool technology, check out a few pages of this book using the Google/Print Beta.
I hope you enjoyed the presentation today. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me. Here are the files from today.
Yep, I need to pay some bills, so it's time to have an ebay sale.
Wanna have some fun? Visit Googlefight and put in any two phrases (quots work best) and let the fight begin. Try C# and Java or Delphi and FoxPro.
Wanted to post a few photos of the book and my buddies.   
Want to hire Don Box for an hour? He and a number of other developer rockstars are up for auction (or at least one hour of their time is).
In this article, it looks like FIFA will consider using an electronic microchip inside soccer balls at the 2006 World Cup finals to help with goal-line calls.
My friend Darrel Carver just turned me onto MonoUML - CASE Tool, codename monalisa. You can dwnload it here.
If you are looking for a good resource for both SQL Server 2000 and 2005 resources, TechCenter is the place to visit.
I had a can of Viking Beer on my flight from JFK to Reykjavik last night, while I munched on smoked reindeer and sat next to the president of Iceland ... no really. What am I doing in Iceland you ask? I'm speaking at the SQL Server 2005 Roadshow tomorrow for SQL Server Magazine.
Give a little to charity, and help your career or project too! Twenty-three of the top Tech*Ed 2005 speakers, including Microsoft employees, will get together to help raise money for an organization that is doing amazing and heroic disaster relief and recovery in Aceh Province, Sumatra, the hardest hit area of the Dec 26th Tsunamis.
Go Bid!
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