Plant to attend the MSDN event on October 4, 2007 (a Thursday). Products to be discussed: ASP.NET, Office, Visual Studio, and Windows Vista.

• times: 1:00 to 5:00 (welcome Time: 12:00 PM)
• Theater - Edwards Boise Stadium 21, 7701 Overland Road, Boise Idaho 83709

You can find out more, and register here.

MSDN Events are free, live sessions designed to enhance your coding skills and make your life a little easier. By attending you'll get up-to-the-minute technology delivered by seasoned developers and have lots of time to network and ask questions. Chat with your fellow developers get the latest coding tools and tips and learn how to create rich new applications.

Ah yes, late August, time to go back to school - even for us adult geeks.

Fortunately, David Starr has provided us an exhaustive list of must-read books, organized by developer, tester, project manager, and executives.

... nothing specifically on VSTS however. I'll have to bug him about that.

The great news just keeps on coming from Microsoft. After a flurry of Team System announcements and downloads recently, we have yet another set of Power Tools to play with.

These tools are designed specifically for the Visual Studio Team Edition for Software Architects and provide the following capabilities:

• View class library projects on the Application Diagram (AD)
• View references to class library projects as connections on the Application Diagram
• Create class library projects from the Application Diagram
• Create references to class library projects from the Application Diagram
• Synchronize properties between class library projects and their representative applications on the Application Diagram
• Create and use class library applications and references on the System Designer (SD)

Fantastic. We haven't seen much out of the Architect tools, except for the SDM SDK in quite some time. I'm looking forward to it.

Download the CTP here. Note: you will also need to download Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2.

If you have any feedback on these tools, please visit the Architecture & Design forum.

Microsoft has published a detailed KB article about the problems fixed by SR1. The article includes a link to download the update.

Aside from many fixes, there are three major improvements found in this release:

• Cross-database references - support is improved so that you can reference objects within different databases by using database project references or by referencing a database metafile (.dbmeta). This support reduces or eliminates the cross-database reference warnings within a database project
• Improved file support within SQL Server file groups - you can define files within file groups as database project properties instead of having to create files and file groups within the pre-deployment storage script.
• Variables - a Variables page is added to the database properties. This new page enables you to define setvar variables for use in the deployment scripts.

My friend Jeff Prosise has taken John Conway's mathematically-based Game of Life, automated it and given it a slick UI using Microsoft Silverlight 1.1. I'm sure Jeff had fun writing this, all the while learning the new environment.

You can read more about SilverLIFE at this blog post, and then play with it here. (You will be prompted to download Silverlight 1.1 Alpha Refresh).

Not only did Microsoft just recently post Beta 2 of Visual Studio 2008 (Orcas) a few days ago, but yesterday Microsoft made a CTP of the next generation of Visual Studio Team System (codename Rosario) available for download. Craziness ... which do I spend my time with? It's like having two mistresses to pick from.

Anyway, here are the details, if you want to start playing with Rosario: (keep in mind that it won't ship until some time [6,12,18?] months post Visual Studio 2008, so at least 2009):

• Read Jeff Beehler's blog posting
• Read the Rosario Overview whitepaper
• Download the VPC images (8+ files, 700mb each)
• Download the Rosario documentation
• Visit the MSDN newsgroups dedicated to Rosario
• Visit the MSDN homepage for Rosario

Finally, and most important, provide feedback to the team using http://connect.microsoft.com.

Over the past few years, a few of my clients have deployed Team Foundation Server Proxy to improve the performance of their remote/distributed teams. It boosts network performance by caching copies of source control files in a remote location, local to the developer needing the files but away from the main source control location. In short, the proxy helps each user avoid a costly download of the files to their workspace across the slower connection.

So why wouldn't this work for Team Build?

In today's VSTS chat, I asked if anyone had done this. I should have expected that Buck Hodges would have, and even blogged about it.

Still trying to decide if Team System is right for you and if you can afford it. I would say you can't afford *not* to have it. Check out this list of case studies from other companies and teams who agree with me.

Thanks to Rob Caron, for putting together this consolidated list of the "top" Visual Studio Team System case studies. They support a wide range of propositions by showcasing real customers who have gone through the adoption process and have great stories to tell.

Microsoft just released their Team System Web Access Power Tool (formerly known as TeamPlain). This is a Web interface to Team Foundation Server.

If you have team members that don't want Visual Studio/Team Explorer installed on their desktop, but they still want to participate with the project lifecycle, this is a great, web-based approach to getting everyone connected quickly/easily. Here are some of the features:

• Add new work items or edit existing ones
• Work with any type of work item, including custom ones
• Add new work item queries or edit existing ones
• View, download, upload, check-in and check-out documents on SharePoint team portal
• View reports, export as PDF or Excel
• Browse source control repositories, download files, view changesets, diffs, histories, and annotated views
• View build results, start or stop builds
• Search for keywords in work items
• Authentication Modes: Integrated Windows Authentication or Forms Based Authentication (Recommended to use with SSL)

Read more about it in Brian Harry's blog posting.

Join members of the Visual Studio Team System product group to discuss features available in Visual Studio Team Foundation Server, Architecture Edition, Development Edition, Database Edition, and Test Edition. In addition, discuss what's new in Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2.

Microsoft will be holding two sessions:

• Join the chat on Wednesday, August 1^st, 2007 from 10:00am - 11:00am Pacific Time. Add to Calendar
• Join the chat on Wednesday, August 1^st, 2007 from 4:00pm - 5:00pm Pacific Time. Add to Calendar

I just wanted to blog a couple of things here:

• The future of BizTalk (read: updated roadmap) is available here
• BizTalk Server 2006 R2 will launch in September of this year (read more here)
• Microsoft has opened the BizTalk Labs, which allows scientists (such as you) to experiment with various technologies

The next Ask An Expert Live Chat is scheduled for Thursday, August 23, 2007. Join Microsoft MVPs, ASP Insiders, Regional Directors, and other industry experts - all on hand to answer your tough .NET- and Visual Studio-related questions. This chat is not being hosted by Microsoft and as such questions regarding upcoming products and future product specs may not be answered.

Details: Thursday, August 23, 2007, 5:00 - 6:00 P.M. Pacific Time / 8:00 - 9:00 P.M. Eastern Time / 00:00 - 01:00 GMT

Click here for an ICS file to update your calendar, and click here for more information on Microsoft technical chats.

Nice work Microsoft. The download page just came online today. You can download Installation Disc Images, VPC Images, or Express Editions.

There's even a link to download the .NET Framework 3.5 Beta 2 at the bottom of the page.

Next week, August 2nd, hundreds of middle and senior-level IT Managers from SMB, corporate, academic and government organizations as well as line of business managers will be attending the 1-day forum known as Interface. Although it's not a software/developer event, the schedule looks pretty interesting, and so does the impressive hall of vendors.

The Interface forum runs from 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM at the Boise Center on the Grove.

Computers for Kids is currently accepting computers (both working and non-working units) for refurbishment and distribution to K-14 in Idaho. Donations are tax deductible.

Computers for Kids is a Microsoft Authorized Refurbisher (MAR) , which means Microsoft provides a good deal on Windows 2000 and sometimes Windows XP operating systems. The Community MAR program was created to increase the number of usable PCs available to non-profits, schools, and low-income families across the globe by reducing the cost of software to refurbishers. The MAR program also benefits the environment by giving new life to a significant number of computers that may otherwise be destined for landfills.

Contact Computers for Kids at 8540 W. Elisa Street, Boise, Idaho or by calling them at (208) 345-0346.

This post is a bit off-topic from the usual techno-geek stuff I blog, but for the last two weeks the fine folks from D&R Residential Drainage Systems have been under our house installing a system that ensures that we won't pool water after a heavy rain, yard watering, etc. More importantly, that it won't lead to a festival of bugs, molds, and mildews!

The Problem

The neighborhood we live in has horrible soil - heavy clay content and quite rocky. We're basically on top of table rock here in Boise. This means that the ground does not absorb water well, especially under the house. This spring, I went down in the crawlspace and saw that there had been water pooling:

I didn't see any pipe breaks or problems. After consulting some experts, especially Dan Flynn of D&R, I realized it was just the water from outside coming in and pooling at the lowest point. He tells me many houses are like this in the area.

The Solution

Dan proposed an under-the-house drainage system. Basically this means the digging of a small trench, just the inside of the foundation, and sloping it down from the corners of the house.

The trenches are filled with rocks and wrapped with a special cloth, which allows the water to be collected and sent down stream. These trenches then feed into two catch buckets at the centers of each end of the house. The buckets contain a 1/2 hp pump for pumping the water out. They also have a battery-operated water alarm connected to it, in case of failure and overflow.

The pump has a float valve which kicks on when the water reaches a certain level, and pumps the water out of the crawlspace and into a clean-out pipe in our yard. They also installed an AC-powered vent, to further control the humidity.

I'm glad I acted when I did, because I don't want to fail an inspection in a few years when I go to sell the place. I also understand that systems like this are fairly common in other parts of the country. Who'd of known?

I can appreciate a fusion of technologies as much as the next guy, but this is a real head-scratcher.

Check out the Wii Key project, which uses a Wii Remote to handle the basic slideshow operations.

Ok, I finally got fed up with all of the spam in my historical dasBlog postings. It's really embarrassing to send a link to a a colleague, only to have them snicker at all of the spam comments and trackbacks.

For those of you who don't know what a trackback is, it's basically an acknowledgement that enables authors to keep track of who is linking to, or referring to their articles. When used properly, trackbacks form a communication link between the two blogs, so that new comments on one blog can basically ping the other, allowing readers to easily follow discussions on both. The problem is that spammers have abused this mechanism and bloggers end up with trackbacks and pingbacks to various gambling, herbal medication, and adult sites.

Earlier this year I joined the ranks, and disabled my trackback and pingback services in dasBlog. I then followed Scott Hanselman's advice on using Akismet spam blocking service.

The big effort was then how to cleanup the <Comment> and <Trackback> elements that were spam, so, like others before me, I built a tool to assist with this.

1. Download ScrubDasBlog.zip or ScrubDasBlogSource.zip to your hard drive
2. Edit the blacklist.txt to include your own blacklisted URLs *
3. Backup your existing feedback files: \content\*.dayentry.xml
4. Run the ScrubDasBlog utility, specifying the path to your \content folder and the path to your blacklist.txt file, for example:

scrubdasblog c:\inetpub\wwwroot\mydasblog\content c:\scrubdasblog\blacklist.txt

* If you have predominately more SPAM comments and trackbacks in your dasBlog history, then you can generate a starter blacklist by going into your \content sub-folder and typing the following:

type *.xml | find "AuthorHomepage" > blacklist.txt

After you generate the blacklist.txt file, you should remove any good sites and remove any duplicates, before running the ScrubDasBlog utility.

I would recommend downloading the Source code version and reading through my code. Please comment on any improvements you might make.