Ok, Chris Kinsman caught me flat-footed when he tagged me earlier this month. I know I'm a slow learner, and now that I fully understand what's going on, it's time that I sit down and post the "five things you didn't know about me" ...

1. I fell in love with computers in 1977, when I first saw a Radio Shack TRS-80 Model I. I started programming two years later on a Level II version of the same computer. Turbo Pascal hooked me in 1984 and I've been in/out of compiler-rehab ever since.
   
2. I own a Harley Davidson (2003 Fat Boy/100th anniversary) but don't ride it much. My biker friends think I'm weird. I am.
   
3. My favorite TV shows are The Shield and The Office. Oh, and I'll watch those car chase police video shows too. I guess I need help.
   
4. I'm a freak about soccer. I love to play it (indoor and outdoor) and love the World Cup and all its fanfare. I'm indifferent to MLS, and especially Beckham coming to the US.
   
5. I've only had three jobs in my life that did NOT relate to software development in some way: working at my folks' video arcade Excalibur (Twin Falls, Idaho) in 1983, working at the Elk's Lodge setting up parties in 1983, and working at the new Wendy's cooking burgers in 1984 (6 weeks/never got paid).

Ok, so that's probably TMI at this point, so I'll stop, and pass the baton to Steven Borg, Peter DeBetta, Scott Cate, Peter Kellner, and Jason Mauer.

Richard Waymire has publishes his long-anticipated whitepaper on permissions, security objects, and other security concerns centered around using the Database Professionals edition.

Over the years, we've had a few clients automate their build process by using Final Builder by VSoft Technologies. Much like Team (Foundation) Build, Final Builder is a powerful build & release management tool. Unlike Team Build, Final Builder has a slick UI allowing a build master to quickly design the builds.

Last summer, a new Final Builder version (4.2) was release which included more support for MSBuild and Team Build tasks. With that version, and following the guidance in this article, you can get the two products working together!

Thanks for attending my talk last night and letting me share my SQL Server 2005 Worst Practices. I hope I didn't embarass anyone too badly by highlighting your practice in my talk!

Here are the slides, script, and sample project from last night's talk.

Also, a small correction: MyGeneration's site is www.mygenerationsoftware.com

If you are in the Boise area, be sure to attend Thursday's meeting of the Boise .NET User Group. I'll be delivering a talk on "SQL Server 2005 Worst Practices". If time permits, I'll also be diving into any other SQL Server/Visual Studio topics that are of interest, so bring your questions!

Please note that we will be meeting at the Microsoft building downtown (old ProClarity building).

My friend Ed Lance has started up a new training company: nTierTraining.

They focus mostly on Java software development, and include some really niche classes: Hibernate, AJAX, Spring, Servlets, JSP, STRUTS, JSF, JUNIT, J2EE, OOAD, Use Cases, Design Patterns, Web Services, and SOA.

Drop by his site and tell him hello ...

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

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!

I just noticed that the new TFS Installation Guide (date: 4 Jan, 2007) is available for download from Microsoft. It contains updated help relating to SP1.

The TFS Administrator's Guide is still the Nov 2006 version however.

What a better place to run Microsoft Windows Vista and Microsoft Office 2007 than at the 50 yard line of the Boise State University Broncos.

If you haven't heard, we won the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl championship last night with a series of do-or-die trick moves, including the high-school favorite State of Liberty play!

Go Broncos!

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)

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.

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.