According to Jeff Beehler's recent blog posting, we should see an RC by the end of February. We're getting closer folks!

You may have noticed a bit different look (and feel). I decided to get current on dasBlog, so I downloaded the latest from SourceForge.

Yep, I've got it this week. Had to go in on Monday, sit in a room with 300 other citizens and then get told that the prosecuting attorney was ill. All the time I was envisioning how a Web service or well-placed smart-client application could have eased our boredom.

I was outta there by mid-morning; but, it looks like tomorrow my number came up again.

The pay? 9$ per day for the first 3 days and $25 per day thereafter. "While people should not profit from jury duty, people should not suffer economic loss for fulfilling civic duty."

One of my students from Israel sent me this link. It seems someone has built a clever facade that sits over the Google search engine. Funny.

Teamlook brings together the ad-hoc communications domain, specifically messaging, and the structured software engineering team domain by integrating Microsoft Outlook 2003 with Microsoft Visual Studio Team System.

Visit Personify Design's site to download Teamlook and check it out.

Also, check out their TFS Outlook Starter Kit.

A friend of mine, Peter Kellner, has a couple of articles online:

• Part 1: Security and Configuration Overview
• Part 2: Implementation

If you're working with ASP.NET 2.0 role-based security, give them a read!

If you are wanting to play an active (or passive) role in the Boise Code Camp, please visit www.boisecodecamp.org to stay in tune with the happenings.

At this point, we have a location (University of Phoenix in Meridian), but not yet a date. We're choosing between the weekends of March 4th, 11th, and 18th.

I'll continue to blog more information as it becomes available.

 

I just received my letter from Microsoft welcoming me back to the Microsoft Regional Director program for the 2006-2007 period. Thought I'd share.

If your domain includes working with Microsoft connected systems (BizTalk, Windows Workflow Foundation, Windows Communication Foundation, SQL Server, Visual Studio, etc.) then you should be aware of this user group.

The UG covers the greater Seattle area, but you can stay engaged through their Website.

Yep, it's true.

Clemens Vasters, the .NET architect guru and co-founder of newtelligence AG from Germany is joining Microsoft.

Microsoft has published a Web page (actually a KB article) for any comments, corrections, or errata on my book. Nothing there yet!

I've been meaning to post this for some time. I was watching Ocean's Twelve awhile back, and really enjoyed the scene towards the end where Linus Caldwell (Matt Damon), Basher Tarr (Don Cheadle), and Turk Malloy (Scott Caan) are going over ideas on how to steal the Faberge egg in Rome. This is just after most of the twelve got arrested or detained while trying their primary plan.

The ideas and names they came up with are like Design Patterns for thieves or con artists. You can check out the script yourself, but here's a list of the design patterns (and their responses) from the original Gang of Twelve! (GOT) ...

• Swinging Priest - "not enough people"
• Crazy Larry - "not enough people"
• Soft Shoulder - "soft shoulder?"
• Baker's Dozen - "No woman and not enough people"
• Hell in a Handbasket - "we can't train a cat that quickly and not enough people"
• Lookie Loo with a Bundle of Joy - the design pattern they choose with the help of Tess (Julia Roberts)

Both sides have had sites like this over the years, but Microsoft finally put together a comprehensive site with research, case studies, code samples, and other resources.

As reported on Jochen Seemann's blog, these tools are now available for download. Now the world can get started creating Domain Specific Language Widgets!

Check out our article on Data Mining in the October issue of Business IQ Magazine. You'll need to download the October issue and read it for yourself! It's about 5mb.

I was asked this again last week, so it's time to blog!

When installing SQL Server 2005, you need to click the Advanced button to get to the screen below so that you can include the sample databases and project code. If you just check the boxes for the various database services, these won't get installed by default.

Since it's a holiday and I'm posting fun links today ...

Take a moment and watch this beer commercial. It's hilarious.

This is a pretty funny video. Enjoy!

(The servers have been pretty busy lately. Hopefully you can get through)