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Back from Microsoft PDC 2009

Matt Ortiz — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:10:23 GMT

So we’re back from Microsoft Professional Developer Conference (PDC09) which was held at the Los Angeles Convention Center this past week.

The focus of PDC is future and emerging Microsoft technologies, product roadmaps, and industry trends – making it the premier, developer-focused Microsoft event. It is not held every year. The workshops, keynotes, and sessions were excellent with few exceptions and, as expected, there were a number of important announcements.

Unlike last year we didn’t come back with multiple gigabytes of pre-release bits; none in fact. Truth be told, though, with the rapid and open pre-release cycles on the many key products and technologies soon to release, any bits would be stale quickly. So get out to MSDN Developer Centers, CodePlex, and the like and pull down the latest as needed.

Take a look at the swag attendees did walk away with though (below)…

Key Themes and Announcements

By no means is this comprehensive but a punch list of key themes and announcements we, as as professional developers and Microsoft technology consultants should keep an eye and provide feedback to the product teams on and share with our colleagues, customers, and the community.

“Three Screens and a Cloud”

Ray Ozzie, Microsoft Chief Architect, described Microsoft’s long-term cloud computing strategy as “three screens and a cloud”:

“A journey that started 4 years ago with our Software as a Service platform vision, now materializing. I believe that the world some number of years from now in terms of how we consume IT is really shifting from a machine-centric viewpoint to what we refer to as three screens and a cloud: the phone, the PC, and the TV ultimately, and how we deliver value to them.”

As a very satisfied iPhone user (a WinMo/HTC convert) and someone who has been less than blown away by the Xbox 360/Media Center story, there is work to be done here. As an architect and developer I’m impressed by the leaps made by Microsoft; providing the tools, platforms and technologies to deliver sophisticated, connected solutions. And as a consumer, I’m very excited and look forward to seeing the strategy play out to when “it all just works - seamlessly.”

Providing web-centric experiences, served by private clouds in data centers or by the world wide, public cloud and extended through applications on your desktop, smart phones, and televisions certainly summarizes the current software + services strategy. And Ozzie also let in that, along with the back-end – servers, tools, and cloud computing, and the experience at the top of the Microsoft stack – Windows, IE and Silverlight, Office, and SharePoint, that in Spring, at MIX 2010, Microsoft will make announcements about progress on the Windows Live Platform and about developing applications for the “next generation of the Windows phone.”

So given Microsoft’s commitment, and the tools now at hand, it is as much up to us as technologists to plan for and build solutions that leverage and deliver on the “n screens and a cloud” and “software + services” stories.

Cloud Computing: “Software + Services” 2.0

It was announced that Windows Azure will release in January, with billing starting in February 2010. The November release of the Windows Azure SDK, available now, includes updates to Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio, which extends VS 2008 (and included in VS2010 Beta 2) allowing us to easily model, develop and test, build, deploy, and run Web apps and services for Windows Azure.

The AppFabric: a Unified Development, Configuration Management, and Deployment Model

Today, application architecture, design, and tooling considerations are vastly different for on-premises versus cloud-based applications. Now using Visual Studio 2010 and leveraging the AppFabric, applications can be designed and built once, promoted across environments to either Windows Azure or on-premises infrastructure, and delivered securely to our customers; whatever deployment model, service level or scale they require.

In addition, Windows Azure capabilities such as VMs, along with AppFabric, provide us with flexible options for migrating existing on-premises .NET applications to public and private Windows Azure environments.

Windows Azure Platform AppFabric i

The Windows Azure platform AppFabric provides secure connectivity as a service to help developers bridge cloud, on-premises, and hosted deployments. You can use AppFabric Service Bus and AppFabric Access Control to build distributed and federated applications as well as services that work across network and organizational boundaries.

From simple eventing scenarios to complex protocol tunneling, AppFabric Service Bus gives developers the flexibility to choose how their applications communicate, and to address the challenges of configuration and management of firewalls, NATs and dynamic IP, and disparate identity systems.

AppFabric Access Control enables simple, secure authorization for RESTful web services that federate with a variety of identity providers.

Windows Server AppFabric ii

Windows Server AppFabric is a set of integrated technologies that make it easier to build, scale and manage Web and composite applications that run on IIS. Windows Server AppFabric has these core capabilities:

For Web applications, AppFabric provides caching capabilities to provide high-speed access, scale, and high availability to application data. This feature was previously codenamed "Velocity"
For composite applications, AppFabric makes it easier to build and manage services built using Windows Workflow Foundation and Windows Communication Foundation. This feature was previously codenamed "Dublin."

Project “Sydney”

Project Sydney was announced at PDC. Sydney provides a means to connect existing on-premise or services behind the firewall with those running in the cloud on Windows Azure. Underlying the technologies are IPSec, IPV6, and Microsoft’s federated-identity capabilities (formerly codename “Geneva”).

Sydney can be used for a variety of business cases, such as allowing fail over of on-premises servers to the cloud (or vise versa), to running applications targeting on-premises and cloud deployments, and to synchronize on-premise and Azure-hosted databases, as examples.

Sydney is slated to go to beta early next year and to release in 2010.

Codename “Dallas”

Ray Ozzie announced the public alpha release of Microsoft’s Data Services in the Cloud. Microsoft codename Dallas allows developers and information workers to discover, purchase and manage data subscriptions in the Windows Azure platform. The “data-as-a-service” offering is an information marketplace that will deliver data, imagery, and web services from commercial data providers as well as public data sources from a single location, under a unified provisioning and billing framework.

A Silverlight application was shown using the NASA Mars Exploration Rover Mission Images dataset during the Day 1 keynote where attendees put on a set of silly 3D glasses handed out at registration.

Dallas is available now and surfaced at Microsoft PinPoint here.

Visual Studio 2010 and .NET 4

Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 was released on October 19^th, so attendees had nearly four weeks to preview prior to the borage of information provided during keynotes and in deep dive sessions at PDC.

Microsoft announced at PDC that Go Live licenses are available for Visual Studio 2010 and .NET 4. So if you’ve not gotten your hands on Visual Studio 2010, it’s time to dig in and socialize the value proposition of transitioning early with customers.

Visual Studio 2010 is a significant release and has been re-designed using WPF 4.0? Cameron Skinner described the dog-fooding process as painful at times but that (paraphrasing here): “there’s nothing like a dev. finding their own (or a colleagues) bug holding them up.” Noting (half jokingly) how quickly things get resolved.

A quote from the Day 1 keynote by Ray Ozzie sums up, for me, how the Windows, Office, and Visual Studio platform and tools continue to be at the heart of what is to come: "We at Microsoft have one simple strategy - that is to focus on leverage and seamlessness in everything we do.”

Of particular interest to me is the new architect tooling: UML Modeling projects (and strategy), MEF extensibility, and T4 goodness. T4 has been there since VS2K5 but seeing it in action in various open source frameworks, being baked in as an extensibility point (along with MEF) in Visual Studio for Entity Framework 4, and shown in various sessions really re-piqued my interest.

I spoke with Cameron Skinner and team, along with some other attendees, after his session “Code Visualization, UML, and DSLs” and as a practicing enterprise and solution architect (and agile practitioner) the direction being taken by the group is compelling; not only from a modeling perspective, but from a tooling and process automation perspective as significant improvements in TFS have been made.

Some of those Team Foundation Server innovations include:

Multi-project Collaboration (i.e. Team Project Collections)
Process automation improvements, including deep agile support and improved workflows
Truly innovative parallel development capabilities with branching and visualizations
Continuous integration ++
Project visibility and health
Deployment, provisioning, and management options

Be sure to take a look at these Visual Studio sessions.

Entity Framework 4

From what I saw in the whirlwind session “Evolving ADO.NET Entity Framework in .NET 4 and Beyond” by Shyam Pather and Chris Anderson there have been significant improvements . The room was packed so the interest was high. As an observation, session goers (including myself) were guarded going in and generally high-energy walking out. Though you see a combination of NHibernate, Castle Active Record, Unity, and Fluent NHibernate, you also see a lot of innovative new capabilities.

Some of those things we’ve been waiting for, and delivered, include model first (as well as round-trip) development, support for POCO and lazy loading, and improved separation of concerns allowing for, among other things, a better testing story.

I did fiddle a bit late night this week, and there seemed to be issues with inheritance, but will dig in deeper and share my experiences with those interested and in posts. As a steadfast NHibernate advocate, I look forward to the discussion here.

.NET 4 and C# Language Enhancements

.NET and C# 4 now includes the dynamic types, named and optional arguments, enhanced Office programmability, and variance. Some additional areas of interest include:

F# for functional programming
Application Compatibility and Deployment
Parallel Computing
Improved Security Model
Core New Features and Improvements
Networking
Web
Client
Data
Communications and Workflow

There were sessions that hit on each of the areas listed so search the PDC and other sites for content; this is our bread and butter.

Office and SharePoint Development Enhancements

Office 2010 is now available in public beta and there are considerable, exciting improvements in Visual Studio 2010 allowing developers to more easily deliver rich business applications using Office. In addition, with Office Web Access (currently Office Live) developers will have real options to deliver connected solutions targeting both on-premises and in the cloud.

Here are links to SharePoint and Office PDC sessions.

VS Product Line-up Changes

Team System branding – no more: it was confusing. Now there is simply Visual Studio and Visual Studio Team Foundation Server and the Visual Studio product line-up has been streamlined. Now there are just three flavors: Professional, Premium, and Ultimate which provide progressively more capabilities. The new line-up doesn’t erase the price tag reality on the higher end but it is easier to understand. And hell the alternative is point solution fun-and-games; on the high-end at ridiculous price tags.

One significant item of note here is that TFS is now included (no limitations, e.g. Workgroup Edition). If you own VS2010 and MSDN then you own a TFS client and can deploy TFS for team use of any size.

So there’s too much on Visual Studio to punch list but I’ll follow-up with multiple posts with a value focused perspective.

Silverlight 4

So I attended a number of Silverlight or UX-related sessions this year. Silverlight 3 was released only 4 months ago but general availability of Silverlight 4 public Beta was announced at PDC. Silverlight 4 provides improved connectivity to peripherals and improves the out-of-browser application options. Together with RIA Services and Prism, Silverlight 4 is a leap ahead for web deployed, core business applications.

Silverlight 4 is planned to release in the first half of 2010.

It was announced at PDC and RIA Services renamed WCF RIA Services. RIA Services simplifies building layered applications targeting Silverlight (and MVC), exposing WCF services and reducing the amount of work for service configuration, contract specification, data validation, and deployment; essentially UI domain services.

Here’s a link to Silverlight sessions and take a look at the Day 2 keynote by Scott Guthrie and team.

SQL Server 2008 R2

Another one of those hot off the presses technologies is SQL Server 2008 R2. Despite the naming it is a major release.

It was also announced that the tooling previously known as codename “Gemini” is now PowerPivot. This is something we need to take a look at along with the BI toolset that Microsoft has delivered along with the partner ecosystem. If you get a chance take a look the PDC workshop “Developing Microsoft BI Applications – the How and Why.” Andrew Brust did a great job of describing the BI landscape and provided pointed guidance on how to approach and transition your customers.

Here’s a link to SQL Server and BI sessions at PDC.

Window Technologies

In case you haven’t noticed, Windows 7 was recently released. In addition to Windows 7 there were announcements about the Release of Windows Identity Foundation, Windows Azure, and the AppFabric.

Take a look at the Windows technologies related sessions here.

Microsoft PinPoint

Microsoft PinPoint was announced. It is a one stop shop providing access to software solutions based on Microsoft technologies. PinPoint is a directory to discover applications, companies, and trusted technology partners through contextual searches; a sort of Apple App Store and Salesforce.com AppExchange rolled together.

“It’s All Data” – Oslo, SQL Server Modeling

So last but not least is something I focused on at last PDC – Oslo, and more generally modeling. It was announced at PDC that Oslo has been renamed SQL Server Modeling and the team (along with XML) have been brought together under Data.

The MSDN Data Developer Center has been redesigned to not only include current and emerging data technologies but also roadmap and way early (or “future”) technologies like Oslo, which includes “M” – the language, Quadrant – the tooling, and SQL Server Modeling Services.

Keep an eye on these technologies and view related PDC sessions here and here.

The Swag, PDC Edition

During the day 2 keynote, Windows and Windows Live Division President Steven Sinofsky announced that attendees would receive an exclusive “PDC Edition” Acer Aspire 1420P Tablet PC designed by the Windows team, for PDC. It was funny watching folks streaming out of the keynote about a half hour early to get theirs, only to be turned away till later in the day.

The tablet’s not yet available to consumers, which make it even cooler, and the stacked configuration (for the nearly netbook form-factor) will allow developers to leverage many of the Windows 7 (64-bit, Ultimate) capabilities, including multi-touch. Take a look at some photos of it here at the Windows Team Blog and the specs here.

Session Videos and Downloads

Session videos, and in many cases the decks, are available publicly at microsoftpdc.com. We encourage you to get out there, download the video and content, and dig into these new technologies. I’d start with the keynotes so you can get a feel for Microsoft technology strategic direction and areas of focus, and then deep dive into the session.

Happy viewing!

i Content was used from the Windows Azure Platform site here.
ii Content was used from the Windows Server Development Center here.

Speech Recognition on Windows Vista

Matt Ortiz — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 01:06:41 GMT

I broke my arm a couple weeks ago. No, that's not the reason I've not blogged in a while: I've just been ridiculous busy - no excuse, I need to get on it. So I came down off the boat in the garage and my feet got caught up in the trailer. I came down on both hands, but harder on the right, breaking both the ulna and the radius at the wrist.

At first, the orthopedic surgeon thought an internal fixator would work. In layman's terms that's some space-age metal plate with screws. The break was more of a crush, though: the ends the two bones (in the forearm) were in small pieces. Screws don't work well in that situation so an external fixator was put on in surgery. I won't go any further as some people won't "appreciate" it, but Google will shed some light if you're curious (and a bit warped).

I can actually type with the right hand but, truth be told, it hurts like hell if for more than an hour or so. And in this gig, that means pain.

I decided to check out the speech recognition in Windows Vista and did some research on the web. Turns out there's not a lot of information out there on the subject. So there are two (no three) things to consider 1) the microphone, 2) the software, and 3) the platform. The microphone was the item I wasted more time on. The built in microphone on my HP Pavilion dv9500 notebook (a powerhouse) was nowhere near good enough - it wouldn't pick up anything.

After some additional research on microphones I decided on a gaming style headset (the Logitech ClearChat Style). It has a noise canceling adjustable boom-style headset microphone and fits over the ears and wraps behind the head. Its intended use is internet chat, music and gaming. It actually worked OK but the microphones kept me from hearing things around me and speech recognition wasn't stellar. So I reached back out to Google but from the angle of "speech recognition microphone". What kept coming up was the Sennheiser ME3 - it's said to be the best microphone out there for speech recognition. So, I bit.

I'm opting, right now, not to use Dragon's NaturallySpeaking which speaks to the second consideration, software. I'm not sure this is the best solution as I've not tried NaturallySpeaking. There's not a lot of information on the web on how Windows (Vista's, in particular) speech recognition works so I figured I'd give it a go before jumping. And besides, there is no 64 bit version of the software yet which actually speaks to the platform or the third consideration.

I can tell you that dictating this post in Live Writer has been a bit painful. Not physically, but that speech recognition is not all that wonderful. The Sennheiser ME3 hasn't impressed me or at least it's not leaps and bounds better than the $30 gaming headset. This paragraph in fact took me about 40 seconds to get written - with corrections. I guess that's not horrible and my arm doesn't hurt.

I'm going to keep trying and I'm going to continue to train this thing in hopes that it will get better. By the way, speech recognition has come with Windows for quite some time - yeah, in the box. You can look into it your yourself and find out some of the commands and see if you would appreciate it more than I have so far. I'll also be sure to post some updates and let you know how this works out.

Technorati Tags: Tech Watch,Tips and Tricks,Tools,Windows Vista

Visual Studio 2008 Edition Comparisons Posted

Matt Ortiz — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 06:15:00 GMT

Update [1/30/2008]: here is another hot of the press product comparison.

So I've had a number of folks ask about Visual Studio 2008 editions recently but quick searches for updated product comparisons, till now, have been fruitless. Yesterday, though, a colleague of mine at Statêra asked and I finally reached out to Heuer to get the scoop.

He came through with just what I needed and followed up today with a heads-up on the pages oficial. Thanks man! Here's what we got:

Visual Studio Team Edition comparison matrix
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vsts2008/products/bb991841.aspx

Pro vs. Standard comparison matrix
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vs2008/products/bb980920.aspx

These will be helpful when determining what your organization needs: or when playing Trivial Pursuit Nerd (I mean Web v.Next) Edition.

Technorati Tags: Visual Studio,Team Edition,.NET,Visual Studio 2008

My ALT.NET Tools Aren't Really Alternatives Anymore

Matt Ortiz — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 08:24:00 GMT

It's nagged on me a bit how my last post mentioned only MS products and not those that I deal with after my base install: you know, those developer tools you just can't get along without (R#). It certainly isn't all that important to that post but it got me thinking of putting together and sharing my list of "other" developer tools.

Though it'd been a while, this time, I often rebuild my laptop as a result of new product releases (or pre-releases), conflicting client requirements, or just because I'm not patient enough to troubleshoot PC issues. So I was catching up tonight on some reading and came across altnetpedia's tools list. A solid chunk of the list are tools I use regularly and a number more are ones I use every day. One was missing - Beyond Compare: I've registered and will add it if someone else doesn't beat me to it. Here's my list.

So, as observation, the spirit behind the ALT.NET movement is healthy and a good one. A couple of the movement's doyen are among the bloggers I read regularly, in fact. I find myself cringing at times, though, when reading some of those same altdotneter's "rants". Pause - thinking... And it doesn't feel natural to me that an alternative movement needs to be declared. It feels sort of, umm, .NOTALT.

I find, in an industry that requires its high-end to change quicker than the market, that such broad declarations of the obvious, as described in this What is ALT.NET page, are, well, redundant. I mean - encouraging developers to keep their eyes open to (and fingers in) alternatives is smart. Critical thinking and pushing, not being pulled, (and getting involved) is something to encourage. However, we all, at work at least, need to get to value at some point (soon) and this should be a principle considered as well.

Anyway, the Tools list is a good one: though many are, by no means, alternatives anymore or new, for that matter.

So I've got to go to bed now and hug my tree, spoon my Mac, and dream up my next rage against the Mothership. Then maybe I too can be considered alternative or, perhaps, mainstream...

Technorati Tags: ALT.NET,Stream of Consciousness,Tech Watch,Tools

Visual Studio 2008 RTM Bit Me!

Matt Ortiz — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 20:59:00 GMT

So I went home Tuesday night with the downloaded RTM bits in hand prepped for a late night install. The download experience was excellent: it took all of about 10-15 minutes to pull it all down while in the office - couldn't wait. And I had it prior to the onslaught of VS bits on the wire that must have happened that night. Isn't everyone waiting with bated breath for this release?

Visual Studio Orcas (2008) Betas and CTPs have been of awesome quality and I've had excellent experiences with the uninstall/installs all along side-by-siding - until now.

Hell, it had been a while since I'd wiped the machine anyway - right. And what better time than for a VS release: one of my, if not the, primary tools.

Yeah - that's what it took. I should say: I'm not willing to jump through too many hoops to troubleshoot an install. Especially, on a machine that's undertaken such Beta torture since being re-upped on. As the pre-releases were so surprisingly smooth, and stable once up, I had no expectation this time that it would come to this. Truth be told - it was a hateful experience.

The Rundown

So first, while uninstalling Beta 2 the setup hung for about an hour. It was late, the mother-in-law was in town, but I did some reading and found some nuggets, again, on Rick Strahl's blog. He'd recommended to uninstall some components manually first. I killed it as it was futile and after a reboot I took the suggestion. This seemingly freed up the problem for the uninstall but it still took a really long time and, though few, confirmations were still needed. You know, can't just cut it off mid-stream...

Took two days away from the machine as Thanksgiving came and family beacons. Happy late turkey day - BTW!

When I got back at it I attempted an install of the RTM bits. What the *#@&! It's hung after a couple of hours - no errors, couldn't find anything on the web. The curse of early adoption - right. So I killed it and retried after doing some research (multiple times) - it never panned out. I figured I'd sleep on it and see what I could do Saturday morning before other duties turned up. Saturday's attempt faired the same - no real progress.

The backups start...

I like having a newly installed machine but not since Vista RTM'd have I re-upped so I was not looking forward to this. Multiple backups - just in case (OneCare and manual file drops). As backups are the most boring thing ever it took till Sunday morning for me to really get it done.

Sunday, after going to the airport, the Vista Ultimate install commenced. Vista installs really nice - YES, finally! IIS is configured and SQL Server's installed (multi-step SPs ya-da-ya-da). Office 2007 - well it took a bit but just grunt work - got it all up. As a heads-up: if you have an MSDN subscription, don't opt for the Pro install and then individuals like OneNote, Grove, Project Pro, Visio, etc. just pull Enterprise, your list of stragglers will be smaller.

Visual Studio 2005 - this was quite painless but, again, it took a while: remember SP1 and SP1 update for Vista...

Visual Studio 2008 - I was in the Statêra office Monday so I kicked it off there in the morning. I walked away as I had a conference call with a Microsoft Services colleague and came back. SKREECHING OF TIRES AND THEN A HUGE BLUNT CRASH sound rang in my ears. On the screen was a prompt for, and let me remind you this is an MSDN DVD ISO, disk #3 (attempting to install the .NET 3.5 framework). My shoulders scrunched and I moped away to get a Perrier with lemon flavored stuff.

So I came back found the file it was looking for in the ISO (mounted using Daemon Tools) and pointed it at that directory. It wouldn't take it... I'm turning red.

Redemption

I did a search for VS 2008 install issues and found this cryptic MSDN newsgroup post titled Visual Studio 2008 Fails to compile on Vista Ultimate. The title and subjects were vaguely (stretching) relevant and the post was a bit over my head as many of these types of troubleshooting posts are.

Remember I mentioned I don't like to troubleshoot installs: I was in a pickle though, and hell, how else could I post on my experiences with the tool (or the install for that matter) - so I tried it. The one from BFaassen about installing the files in the \WCU\dotNetFramework\dotNetMSP\x86 folder:

NetFX2.0-KB110806-v6000-x86.msu
NetFX3.0-KB929300-v6000-x86.msu

As a heads-up, I attempted the install of the others there, the RTM ones: they both ran successfully but reported that the KBs were not installed. And, oh yeah, they all require a reboot if successfully installed. WING'N IT - HUH...

I re-attempted the install after reboots and after a nail biter of a while (not too long) - the VS 2008 RTM install was successful!

WHEW! Now to test the issue Bennie's been having: he reported that the XAML editor was not working. I tested it by simply creating some buttons and sure enough it worked for me. I'll take it! NAH-NAH-NAH-NAH-NAH...

So there are a number of posts in the MSDN managed newsgroups and elsewhere showing issues with the install. I don't have a feel, at all, for volume of problems and it could certainly be light for all I know. I can report, though, that Bennie's up in arms over his experience too. I opted out of beers with him last night as I could feel the flames over IM.

Kidding of course - I wouldn't turn down a Stella: that's crazy talk.

Technorati Tags: .NET Framework,Beta Review,Tech Watch,Tips and Tricks,Visual Studio,Windows Vista

Visual Studio 2008 and Netfx 3.5 Released!

Matt Ortiz — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 21:54:00 GMT

So Rob Bagby sent over an email that stopped me in my tracks titled "VS2008 RTM today". Well, I intended to spend time with my mother-in-law while she's out this week but sorry Grammy (as the kids call her) - I'm going to be locked in the office. Oh heck, I can put it off for a few days.

Nah, who am I kidding: I'll be up all night as long as the download works out...

Let me formally request that every Microsoft developer stay off the internet while I download it today. Yeah right - huh!?

Technorati tags: .NET Framework, NetFX 3.5, RTM, Visual Studio

Microsoft SOA Announcements

Matt Ortiz — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 05:20:00 GMT

So, though I had to miss it, reports from Redmond are hitting the wire about the SOA and Business Process Conference.

First, SOA technology roadmaps and press releases for project code-named "Oslo" were announced. The Oslo technology/product roadmap, posted by Christian Weyer, outlines Microsoft's strategy for its next generation of messaging and workflow technologies through (and initially releasing in) 2009.

The story within the story is maturing support, from within the Microsoft server and tools stack, for end-to-end SOA application life-cycle and run-time governance. Further, the "model-driven and service-enabled principles" referred to in the press release re-ups on the Microsoft SOA technology framework, server and tools commitment and marks maturing messages on composite applications and the "software-plus-services" play.

Other conference news comes out of Microsoft Services and the patterns & practices groups. The Managed Services Engine (MSE) and the Web Service Software Factory v.Next (modeling edition) were announced and are now available on Codeplex.

MSE looks to start to address the lack of Microsoft SOA repository/registry, virtualization and run-time governance tools - though, admittedly, I need to crack it open and check it out: updates to come. My hope here is the project matures and gets widespread community support, as in the case of EntLib, and receives product group and further P&P engagement. Microsoft product PMs and VPs take note from the field: they've got some great feedback.

It'd seem that Oslo is still in flux so let's put on our lobbying hats and provide feedback. Is there such a thing as a lobbying hat? If so - It'd probably be blue and have an LA on the front. ;-)

The November 3rd Service Factory drop is the final (modeling edition) release for Visual Studio 2005: this release "helps developers build WCF and ASMX Web Services in C# using Visual Studio 2005." I can't say enough about the service factory - the December 2006 release was the first and best community software factory implementation out there.

Good stuff! I'll be digging in over the next week...

Technorati tags: .NET Framework, Enterprise Library, Oslo, SOA, Visual Studio, WCF, Windows Communication Foundation, WF, Windows Workflow Foundation

New Zune Line-up Announced

Matt Ortiz — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 05:26:19 GMT

So the new Zune device line-up has been announced and is set to releases for the holiday season. An 80GB hard-drive based model and 8GB and 4GB ultra-portable flash memory models are said to include the same basic feature line-up.

Zune, using Zune Marketplace, will be able to download, share and play music minus the digital rights management software (DRM). Other new features of note include updated touch controls, Wi-Fi sync and recorded TV content. The Zune 80GB is said to be 1/3 the size with a 3.2 inch screen.

But here's the big news!

The Zune v.1 (yes - the old 30GB one) is getting the new Wi-Fi syncing, it's getting the updated sharing features, the new codecs, podcasts, and the new Windows Media Center TV on the go. Hell - yes!! This is a compelling story...

Technorati tags: Gadgets, Tech Watch, Zune

Wow! Microsoft is Releasing Source Code for the .NET Framework

Matt Ortiz — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 19:07:19 GMT

Tim posted something on Facebook recently (I think in the last couple of nights) hinting that some big news was possibly coming: I assumed it would be Microsoft related. So this morning I looked through my feeds and both Scott Guthrie and Heuer dropped "it" in public. The .NET Framework source code will be released under the Microsoft Reference License later this year.

Holy c%@#! Debugging without having to use Reflector is significant: yes, some of us have to do some spelunking from time-to-time. And - well Scott says it best towards the end of his announcement:

Having source code access and debugger integration of the .NET Framework libraries is going to be really valuable for .NET developers. Being able to step through and review the source should provide much better insight into how the .NET Framework libraries are implemented, and in turn enable developers to build better applications and make even better use of them.

Great job developer division!

Technorati tags: .NET Framework, Visual Studio

Wiring your Weblog in Facebook (Notes)

Matt Ortiz — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 05:42:00 GMT

Shane and I were talking about how I wired my Foo Theory weblog posts to my Facebook profile yesterday. It's actually fairly easy to do - so here's how it goes...

1. Login to Facebook and from your Profile menu or from Applications choose Notes.

2. On the right under "Notes Settings" choose "Edit import settings".

3. Enter your weblogs RSS feed Url and save.

Voilà! Your weblog posts are now included in your Mini-Feed and, given you've granted permissions, in the News Feeds of your friends.

You can visit my Facebook public profile here.

Technorati tags: Blog Tool, Facebook, Foo Theory, Non-technical, Social Networking, Tech Watch, Tips and Tricks

The current social networking landscape

Matt Ortiz — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 05:10:22 GMT

So Social networking apps and services are maturing and proliferating at the speed of light. The new kid on the block, from Kevin Rose of Digg fame, Pownce has some promising features and for an alpha product is getting some great press (billed the "next" Twitter killer). As in the early days of Gmail Pownce is providing new accounts by invite only right now and as a result you find craziness like invites being bid on at eBay. I'd hold on this - Pownce is no Gmail.

Thanks to Tim, though, I've been checking out Pownce tonight and I'm initially impressed with features like file sharing, links, and shared event calendars: none of which Twitter provides - "yet". Pownce also has a simpler reply and directed post implementation and larger message size. The Twitter implementation, however, still provides something that's key in my mind to this type of networking - the ability to post via text message (mobile integration). There's something to be said about micro-posting while at an event, some landmark or simply while not at a computer. I'll be interested to see how the Pownce-Facebook application and Twitter mashups will play in proliferation: integrated experience is important.

Hold the presses

With facebook's implementation of mobile text posting recently and with facebook clients emerging (nothing too exciting yet) Pownce and Twitter may already be "running on fumes". I'd be interested to hear what others opinions are on this.

The Mothership's Live groups (Messenger, Hotmail, Groups and Spaces) need to take note. It's crazy to me how disjointed these offerings still are. It'd take me a lot (no a lot) to give up on Live Messenger but I'd really like it to be my one client for IM, micro-posting (public and targeted), contacts, calendars and an access point into things like facebook status, pokes, ya-da-ya-da...

It'll be interesting to see how the social networking landscape looks in 6 months/year.

Pownce Invites

So I have 6 Pownce invites - if you want one contact me. I'll send them to the first 6 that request them: if you don't get a reply/invite assume they're gone. Please do comment to this post if you'd like but (heads-up) I won't be monitoring comments for the invite requests.

Technorati tags: Digg, Gadgets, Pownce, Social Networking, Tech Watch, Windows Live

I'm Dig'n Regionerate

Matt Ortiz — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 06:18:30 GMT

I'm one of those OCD-developers that has to have my source artifacts formatted and organized for readability. So when I got a glimpse of Regionerate I was thrilled to see that there are like-minded folks in the open source community helping those of us out.

This kick-$%@! simple open source add-in for Visual Studio (2K5 and Orcas) and #develop applies automatic layout rules to your C# code. The site has a set of tutorials that explain how to use the tool, how to start applying your own custom rules (code layouts) and how to integrate it with NAnt to run and apply your rules during automated builds. Note to self: getting it to run with Team Builds (WIX) would be cool. The site also provides a gallery where people can upload custom layouts.

The creator Omer Rauchwerger has done a great job with this one. A+++ recommendation here...

Technorati tags: Tech Watch, Tools, Visual Studio

Song Identification - Very Cool

Matt Ortiz — Tue, 22 May 2007 07:59:23 GMT

So I'm watching TV while catching up, from a weekend in LA, on some reading and I had to rewind the DVR for this one. The commercial started out in a narrative of a "music hunter that prowls the streets" (paraphrasing). The guy in the commercial stops in front of a shop were a creepy guy stands watching, seemingly, for potential suckers and a small boom box is playing a song that catches the guys attention. He raises his phone and clicks a button. A second later he looks at the phone and in its display reads - "Song ID: Song Identified": with the songs name.

Oh - that's frick'n cool!

The commercial was for one of Verizon's V Cast phones. However, after some quick, and very light, research I find that the technology isn't brand new (no big surprise - coming out of Verizon) or limited to any provider for that matter. Take a look at the Verizon feature and here's a good post on the subject where the writer describes the possible technology behind the Verizon implementation as well as some alternatives for non-Verizon customers, like me.

Technorati tags: Tech Watch, Gadgets

Iomega Sucks!

Matt Ortiz — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 05:22:39 GMT

About a year ago I bought an external 120GB hard drive so I could do occasional backups and run VPC images from it. Since, I've backed up and restored a number of times, as I rebuild my machine regularly. So when Vista RC1 was released I had to jump again. Ya - I'm a beta whore (Consultant - that is).

So, I backed up my Laptop using the external hard drive with the included Iomega Automatic Backup Pro (v 3.3..). The backup reported that it completed successfully. I tested the "successful" backup by restoring a file for good measure and then started the Vista install. I chose to do a full install which wipes out the OS, programs and all the data on the machine. No worries, I had a successful/tested backup. The install went as expected and I absolutely love Vista (with few exceptions).

The next day I went to restore my long-time security blanket, outlook personal folders (PSTs), but when I installed Iomega Automatic Backup Pro on my other machine (doesn't run on Vista) IAB didn't recognize the backup volume from the last backup. It failed to import the backup configuration. Needless to say, my heart dropped. The prior successful backup was from over two (ok three) months ago and you can imagine how important recent backups are. Argh... So like any other beta whore, I was too excited by the Vista Aero Glass and IIS 7 to fully think through my current reality. I thought to myself: I'll deal with it tomorrow.

A few days later (tonight) I finally got fed up as I needed something on that backup. I decided to leave the client early and go home where the IAB software and drive were and got on the phone with Iomega. I called the data recovery group listed on the Iomega support site and after telling me that their services were around $700 and would require me to send in the drive with no guarantees I was transferred (no given the phone number) to tech support.

Sidebar:

Okay - I'm confused. I can see all of the files that were backed-up on the drives file system. All of the backed-up files were compressed, manipulated in some proprietary way and renamed something like 00.<filename.ext>.IAB. This to me means that the backup worked but the index or backup configuration, as they call it, is corrupt. The backed-up files could surely be recovered with the right utility: something that understood the format and compression.

So I talked to the tech support guy, who was the typical - well you know: reading from the book. He had me delete the index/configuration files and then re-import the backup configs from the drive. Oh - and by the way it cost $25 for me to get any help at all. Steam spewing from my ears right now. So when the same error popped up while importing the backup configurations, he informed me that there were two options: 1) to talk to the "data recovery" group. You know: the $700 dollar, off-site, deal. Or 2) try the backup again without compression as compression could cause corruption. You could imagine my calm pleasant demeanor went into full affect.

Funny thing though, after scolding the tech support guy and getting no results I was so miffed that I could only stutter and complain in an effeminate tone. Boy – Iomega sucks! They’ll never get another cent from me.

Technorati tags: Product Review