Pascal Belaud, a .NET evangelist at Microsoft France, has started a beta plan for his popular OlyMars product. Version 1.5 will support .NET 2.0 and SQL Server 2005.

So what exactly is OlyMars?

It is a SQL Server Centric .Net Code Generator and is a both flexible and powerful generator based on database modeling. It allows instant generation of both T-SQL and .Net code providing a complete library of stored procedures, .NET classes and ready-to-use custom web and form controls related to the database modeling, including associated documentation. These elements are illustrated in two default Windows and Web applications and can be used in custom applications. SQL Server centric .Net code generator is fully extensible to use custom templates and extended properties and consequently can be adjusted to generate any custom code respecting a homogeneous implementation scheme.

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!

... or at least obtain the ISV competency as a Microsoft certified partner or Microsoft certified gold partner. The full Team Foundation Server (not just the workgroup edition) will be made available as part of the ISV competency MSPP benefits. It should be in the July MSDN shipment.

Learn more about the ISV program here.

We just finished up a VSTS training class in Johannesburg, South Africa. Thank you to my students and the Netscope training center for making this a fun class.

From left to right: Oliver, Shereen, Robin, Richard, Esendal, and Anton.

I remember two years ago, Steven Borg, told me about TradeSports, an Irish Website where you can trade "futures" on just about anything, such as election results, sporting events, entertainment, and even when the bird flu will hit the US (no kidding). I believe Steve even made some money on the 2004 presidential election using TradeSports.

Well, naturally, with the largest sporting event in the world starting tomorrow, I checked them out, and they've got exchanges setup by group, by game, overall index, by scorer, and by outright ranking at the end of the tournament. So, if you are looking for extremely accurate predictors, check them out. If you want to trade, be sure to read up on them. You can find more about TradeSports here.

Follow your favorite teams and players during the FIFA World Cup tournament with Microsoft Soccer Scoreboard. This fun program allows you to access all the latest tournament news and information with the click of a button! Live game data allow you to monitor your favorite teams progress in real-time. Want more? Check out your team’s fixture (schedule), standing, and news as they advance through the tournament. If you are a soccer fan, don’t miss a minute of the action. Download Microsoft Soccer Scoreboard today!

The Microsoft Soccer Scoreboard displays all dates and times according to your Windows XP’s time zone setting. No more calculating start times only to find out you are off by an hour or more. Microsoft Football Scoreboard is available in Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Czech, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Spanish, Spanish (Latin America), Swedish, and Ukrainian.

Microsoft recently announced Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007. I believe this product was a result of the acquisition of Proclarity (Boise, ID) and a combination SQL Server 2005 BI, and Microsoft Excel.

Read the announcement from InfoWorld (Yahoo).

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.

The secret is out! I can finally breathe a sigh of relief and not have to look over both shoulders before saying the words "Data Dude" or "K2".

That's right, Database Professionals will soon get a chance to be part of the Team!

Visual Studio Team Edition for Database Professionals delivers a market-shifting database development product designed to manage database change, improve software quality through database testing and bring the benefits of Visual Studio Team System and life cycle development to the database professional.

Read more here.

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

It's a bit of an older case study, but one I haven't seen before. It's a quick read, as it goes through the situation, solution, benefits, and conclusion.

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)."

Sorry, but I chose to use the term Google as a verb here, because Krugle has no affiliation with Google. It looks quite promising ...

"Krugle makes it easy for developers to find source code and technical information - fast!"

Their beta has had a few issues with balancing a slick UI with many different browsers and browser versions, but you should check it out nonetheless.

Visit the Krugle site and maybe even check out their blog.

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.

My inteview with Scott Swigart is out in the current Dr. Dobbs. You can read it online here.

Had I known that it was going to make the print version, I wouldn't have been so cheesy!

I just got off of a 25 hour train ride from West Palm Beach florida to Washington, DC. I know that some trains on the East coast have WiFi in their cars (if Lufthansa and SAS can do it over the Atlantic, then why can't Amtrak do it on soil?). Alas, no signal was to be found. So, I fired up NetStumbler and ran it for the entire length of the trip.

I found 1288 hot spots along the way - most locked, and none of them broad enough to connect to at 70+ miles per hour!

If you'd like to check out the big list of AP names, speeds, etc. then download my NS1 file. You'll need NetStumbler to read it.

A bit late, but nevertheless, I wanted to let you know that there's an update you should all be aware of ... the samples and sample databases!

• SqlServerSamples.msi -- 19,092 KB
• AdventureWorksDB.msi -- 27,992 KB
• AdventureWorksDBCI.msi -- 29,116 KB
• AdventureWorksBI.msi -- 7,592 KB
• AdventureWorksBICI.msi -- 8,814 KB

Hat-Tip to Korby Parnell and James Newkirk, and the rest of the CodePlex crew. The beta is online, and you can read about it here and try it here.

What is it, you ask?

CodePlex is an online software development environment for open and shared source developers to create, host and manage projects throughout the project lifecycle. It has been written from the ground up in C# using .NET 2.0 technology with Team Foundation Server on the back end. CodePlex is open to the public free of charge.

Addison-Wesley has just released Sam Guckenheimer's book "Software Engineering with Microsoft Visual Studio Team System". Sam is a member of the Visual Studio Team System product team. I'm very interested in reading

Given Sam's extensive background in the industry, I'm really looking foward to reading this book!

Congratulations, Sam!