Yesterday, I went to a memorial in Twin Falls, Idaho for Dale "Doc" Stukenholtz. Doc gave me my first computer programming job at Stukenholtz Laboratory in December 1984, working on an IBM AT and writing BASIC programs to lookup soil and plant nutrient values and recommend chemical compositions for various crops and yields. 
As Gary Baker said during his Memories of a Life Well Lived: "when we lost Dale, a library burned". Never was a truer statement spoken. Always the teacher (and often the student) Doc maintained a vast knowledge: agronomy, sports, business, science, history, and even a conspiracy theory or two.
Doc believed in me, and I will never forget that!
It looks like I'll be speaking at BASTA! in a few weeks.
I'll be delivering two regular sessions:
And one full-day workshop:
Last week, while teaching a SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services class, I built this simple C# Windows forms application to help "push" an RDL report to multiple servers. It is a simple application that calls the CreateFolder and CreateReport Web methods on the ReportService2005 Web service. It's easy enough to customize for your purposes.
According to my students, this is a very common problem they face, as they have nine identical servers, with identical folder structures, and reports. They are generating and running scripts today, but wanted something more automated.
Feel free to download the source code.
I did find the Reporting Services Scripter utility, which looked promising.
Thanks to Brian Harry and team for releasing the latest version of the provider.
The enhancements in this latest release include:
- Enable handling branched solutions in Visual Studio 2003
- Fixed issues to enable provider to support TOAD for SQL Server 2.0
- Enhanced the "Choose Folder in Team Foundation Server" dialog
- Fixed bug which prevented Properties Dialog from displaying local path
- Work Items Query list in the Checkin Dialog is loaded and saved on the disk
- "Get" operation performance improvements
- Miscellaneous bug fixes
Download the new provider here, and remember it is for use by anyone who owns a Team Foundation Server Client Access License (CAL).
Wanted to say thanks again to my friends at Wellmark and New Horizons in Des Moines for a great weak of VSTS enlightenment.  Here's the motley crew in the flesh.
Mark your calendars! Microsoft's Boise launch of Windows Vista, Office 2007, and Exchange 2007 will be on January 30.
The event is broken-down into two, half-day events, one for develpers and one for IT professionals. Here are the registration links: Developer track | IT Pro track.
If you can't make that event, then the one in Seattle on February 26 might be a better choice, because it is the only launch with a keynote by Bill Gates.
Some of you have been beta testing it and, thanks in part to your hard work, it's ready for prime-time ... before the holidays!
Click here to learn more, and download SP1 for Visual Studio 2005, Team Foundation Server, and/or the Express editions. In addition, you can download Visual Studio 2005 SP1 Update for Windows Vista Beta.
Spread the word!
As I write this, I'm spending some time at Powell's Technical Book Store in downtown Portland. You could call it my "happy place". If only there were a Starbucks and a Fry's Electronics connected to the same building, I'd be truly happy.
Anyway, I'm flipping through the local ComputerChips magazine and, in-between all the Microsoft bashing articles, found a neat list of some interesting user groups. I thought I'd list them for (my) future reference:
Microsoft release Robotics Studio this morning. Microsoft Robotics Studio allows robotic applications to be developed using Microsoft Visual Studio, Microsoft Visual Studio Express C# and VB as well as Microsoft IronPython.
Read the Press Release and the PressPass Q&A with Tandy Trower for more information.
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.
Bookmark this page. It contains the starting point for the V1 (RTM) version of the DB Professional documentation.
I just noticed that there is a December update to the SQL 2005 samples. The December 2006 update is identical to the July 2006 update, except that support for Windows Vista has been added. If you already downloaded the July update and do not run on Windows Vista, then you do not need to download this update.
This edition became available last Thursday on MSDN. Hazzah!
I've noticed when installing the edition, as well as the CTPs, that it also installs the "ProjectAggregator" ...
A quick search of the forums, finds a post by Robert Merriman (MS) explaining what the ProjectAggregator is ...
"We use the Visual Studio ProjectAggregator to integrate our package into Visual Studio. The ProjectAggregator is from the VSIP SDK and here is some information from the April 2006 readme file for the VSIP SDK:
There is a new ProjectAggregator2 MSI for project systems to leverage. A new aggregator (ProjectAggregator2) was added to the Visual Studio SDK to replace the following two aggregators:
- ProjectAggregator: included with Visual Studio 2005, used for project flavors (also known as project subtypes)
- NativeHierarchyWrapper: included in previous SDK CTPs, used by the MPF project samples
In addition to solving the problems the NativeHierarchyWrapper solved (source code control support for projects implemented in managed code), this new aggregator solve a limitation of the original ProjectAggregator (which did not allow for multiple levels of flavoring)."
I'm getting more and more questions regarding running Visual Studio 2005 on Vista. Here's the summary from Microsoft:
"Visual Studio 2005 is supported on Windows Vista. We recommend that developers install Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 and the Visual Studio 2005 SP1 Update for Windows Vista as they become available (SP1 end of this year, VS Update for Vista Q1 next year). We also recommend that Visual Studio 2005 be run with elevated administrator privileges. Visual Studio 2003 & 2002 are not supported on Windows Vista. The underlying frameworks (.NET Fx 3.0, 2.0 & 1.1) are supported and applications using them will run on Windows Vista."
(Update 14 Dec) Here are some more resources ...
You can read more on Soma's blog.
As for SQL Server 2005, I've heard that you won't have any problems installing the Developer edition, but if you want to install Standard or Enterprise versions, you'll need to install the CTP of Beta 2. If you are wanting to use Reporting Services, remember that RS uses IIS and IIS 7 + Vista are different. Here is a blog post (in Spanish but the screens are pretty self-explanatory), instructing on how to properly configure IIS on Vista for RS. Beyond that, there is guidance in an older June article.
Finally, Microsoft has added an easy, and powerful search tool for searching past events and Webcasts. 
Thank you for the good time last night at the Iowa .NET User Group meeting. I enjoyed spending the evening with these easy-going, but tech-savvy folks. 
We had a good turnout, great questions, and a fun time afterward at the 801 steak and chop house!
If you are looking for my SQL Server 2005 script of love. You can find it here.
The Kickstand Board of Directors is hosting a holiday celebration at a special location - the Discovery Center of Idaho.
- What: Holiday Party & New Member Invitation
- When: Thursday, December 14th, 5:30-7:30pm
- Where: Discovery Center of Idaho, 131 Myrtle Street, Boise
- Why: Networking, fun, entertainment - BSU Robo Wars
- Cost: Free to members and guests
Please RSVP if you are wanting to attend.
If you know me, you know my fascination with Tradesports.com.
Well, it seems that the parent Company of TradeSports has developed an Application Programmable Interface ("API") that all members of the Exchange are entitled to use subject to satisfying the eligibility criteria. A monthly fee for API access may be charged which may in turn be refunded in full if the member generates sufficient trade volumes.
Visit this page for more information.
I was recently reading Geoff Koch's article in Software Test and Performance magazine on SCM: More Than Code Check-In, Check-Out. It was a short, but good article talking about how CM is similar regardless of whether you write articles or software. I would agree. I believe that i just becomes a matter of complexity.
I found a couple of interesting points in his article:
- Wikipedia has an exhaustive list of revision control software.
- Money magazine lists software engineer as No. 1 in its Best Jobs in America (which I knew), and that release engineers are hailed as having the top-paying jobs (which I didn't know).
- Google's Dan Bloch recently stated that they have more than 3,000 users accessing a single Perforce repository running on an HP 4-way Opteron server with 128gb. Wowsers!
Side note: have you checked out Google Code? Apparently, Google will crawl publicly accessible source code, such as (.tar, .gz, .tar, .bz2, and .zip archives) and CVS and Subversion repositories. You can block Google from crawling by using a robots.txt file. Read more here.
I'm honored to be speaking at the Iowa .NET User Group this week. My topic will be on SQL Server 2005 for Developers. If you are in the area, please stop by. Visit their site for more information.
You might have heard, and it was such a tragedy that the group's founder, Eric Jacobs, and another member, Josh Trainor, were killed in a plane crash last Month. My prayers go out to the family and friends of Eric and Josh.
Bill Essary, software architect at Microsoft just posted this MSDN article on new team project limit and monitoring recommendations for Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server.
The article includes a downloadable Excel spreadsheet (TeamProjectLimits.xls) containing experimental data which you can use to estimate the maximum number of team projects per server when you use customize work item types.
My good friend, Dr. Michael Pavelec, history professor at Hawaii Pacific University has written another book on WWII military aviation ...  |
"In the 1930s, as nations braced for war, the German military build up caught Britain and the United States off-guard, particularly in aviation technology. The unending quest for speed resulted in the need for radical alternatives to piston engines. In Germany, Dr. Hans von Ohain was the first to complete a flight-worthy turbojet engine for aircraft. It was installed in a Heinkel designed aircraft, and the Germans began the jet age on August 27, 1939. The Germans led the jet race throughout the war and were the first to produce jet aircraft for combat operations. In England, the doggedly determined Frank Whittle also developed a turbojet engine, but without the support enjoyed by his German counterpart. The British came second in the jet race when Whittle's engine powered the Gloster Pioneer on May 15, 1941. The Whittle-Gloster relationship continued and produced the only Allied combat jet aircraft during the war, the Meteor, which was relegated to Home Defense in Britain.
In America, General Electric copied the Whittle designs, and Bell Aircraft contracted to build the first American jet plane. On October 1, 1942, a lackluster performance from the Bell Airacomet, ushered in the American jet age. The Yanks forged ahead, and had numerous engine and airframe programs in development by the end of the war. But, the Germans did it right and did it first, while the Allies lagged throughout the war, only rising to technological prominence on the ashes of the German defeat. Pavelec's analysis of the jet race uncovers all the excitement in the high-stakes race to develop effective jet engines for warfare and transport."
You can pre-order the book at Amazon.com.
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