Occasionally I'm asked about the business value of VSTS and TFS. I think it's pretty obvious, but I guess others need more convincing than just my word.
I've pulled together some links below that will help with this.
How's this for my next writing project? 
Just kidding. I happened upon this site, and thought I would get creative.
Wow, what a great 'camp! We had over 200 attendees (207 was the last number I heard) and many, many great sessions. Thanks to all of you who attended, helped coordinate, and SPOKE at the event!
Rob Anson (BSU) welcomes students to the College of Business and Economics.
Personally, I enjoyed showing off PowerShell and getting some good feedback from fellow developers on how they might use it and what they thought the really cool featuers were. You can download my demo files here. Also, the demo script for my SQL Server 2005 for Developers talk can be found here.
As for my third talk, co-presented with Jason Mauer, it didn't go as planned. We had intended to show off Amazon's Mechnanical Turk in the search for Dr. Jim Gray, Microsoft's missing researcher from Silicon Valley. When we got to the session, however, we read the announcement "Satellite Image Examination Done! We've examined more than 560,000 images from 3 satellites, covering nearly 3,500 square miles of ocean! We currently do not need help here." Thanks to everyone (around 20) who showed up to the session to help! Instead, we spent some time discussing Mechanical Turk, S3, and other popular web services.
Jason Mauer exploiting his dog for money on Mechanical Turk.
After the final session and closing "ceremonies", most of the attendees broke off and headed over to the Allen Noble Hall of Fame building for a great dinner and some giveaways. Thanks to the sponsors: Micron, Microsoft, Keynetics, Treetop Tech, and healthwise! 
Friday night's presenter's dinner was a good time, and a good place to relax and prepare for the day ahead. About thirty of the presenters and coordinators of 'camp met at Murphy's on Broadway and enjoyed some good food, and presentation tips and tricks from veteran campers. 
I'm sitting through a good presentation on mock objects in .NET presented by Tim Shakarian (TSHAK). Tim gave a great overview of why we should care, and how mock objects it can simplify our TDD lives.
He listed the following Mock frameworks:
I was honored to learn that I had achieved the Bronze, Silver, and Gold awards for 2006. 
Thanks to all of you who read my blog, attend my classes, and generally listen to me ramble on about Microsoft's tools and technology. Without you I wouldn't have these giant coins to carry around!
Join members of the Visual Studio Team System product group to discuss features available in Visual Studio Team Foundation Server, Team Editions for Architects, Developers, Database Pros, and Testers. In addition, discuss what's new in the latest Community Technology Preview (CTP).
Join the chat on Wednesday, February 7th, 2007 from 10:00am - 11:00am Pacific Time.
As many of you may know, Dr. Jim Gray (Microsoft Researcher and Turing award recipient) went missing a week ago, on his sailboat Tenacious off the coast of San Francisco. I've had the pleasure, on several occasions, of speaking with Jim and learning more about his research. If we cannot find him, it will be a huge loss.
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The search for Tenacious (and Jim) is underway, in a big way. Many news agencies are calling it the largest private search for a missing person ever. This blog is aggregating all of the latest information.
Best of all, YOU CAN HELP!
Visit Amazon's Mechanical Turk site dedicated to finding Jim, and help by searching new/updated high resolution satellite imagery. All of the instructions are provided, you just need to donate some time. |
Tired of building boring corporate applications? How about working on an application to accelerate the cure for cancer?
A friend of mine, Steven Forte, is the hiring manager for this effort. Read more about it on his blog posting.
The much anticipated and eagerly awaited Analysis Services 2005 Performance Guide has been released and is available on the Microsoft download site.
If you've got some extra miles burning a hole in your account, cash them in to get to Frankfurt, Germany at the end of February and attend Basta! 
Surprise ... I'll be speaking on Team System at the conference!
Hope to see you there!
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" ...
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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).
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