August 2004 Entries

I am going to make a point of blogging when I can get online from interesting places from now on and noting them here. Today I am in Indianapolis and I am blogging from the Moon Dog. I am happy to report that one of the best restaurant/bars in Indy has hit the online trend! If you are ever in Indy - check it out.
New demo song from Josh available at http://www.joshjoplin.com/disc.html

Online Chat: Upgrading COM Applications to .NET with Visual C++ 2005

Many applications consume and expose COM interfaces as their object models today. And .NET has tools such as tlbimp, tlbexp and COM Interop support for RCWs and CCWs to help integrate managed code with COM objects. In addition, there are also a number of options in C++ unavailable to other languages such as C# or VB. Some mechanisms are simpler to code, while others provide deeper control over aspects such as data and interface marshaling, custom interface support and performance tuning. What are these options and when do I use them? What conveniences does Visual C++ provide to "go deep" but retain the simplicity of a tool like tlbimp? What goes on under the hood that I need to be aware of when I provide my own interface wrapping, and why might I do this? How is the COM apartment model honored when I recompile as managed code? What AppDomain and threading issues should I be aware of and how do I avoid any pitfalls? What is the fine-print surrounding areas like using interface sinks, object lifetime control, and COM capabilities in mixed or pure images? If you expose or consume COM interfaces in your C/C++ applications today and need to know your options moving forward in .NET then this chat is for you.

September 2, 2004
12:00 - 1:00 P.M. Pacific time
3:00 - 4:00 P.M. Eastern time
19:00 - 20:00 GMT

Chat time for cities world-wide:
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?day=2&month=9&year=2004&hour=12&min=0&sec=0&p1=234&sort=1

To add this chat to you calendar:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/chats/outlook_reminders/MSDN_VC2005_Sep2_04.ics

Online Chat: Visual C++ 2005 Library and Runtime Enhancements

The next release of Visual C++ includes many new and enhanced libraries which improve security, support managed code and integrate existing applications and components. The CRT and STL fully support managed applications. There is a new secure CRT and STL that offer safe interfaces to familiar functionality. The managed support library provides conveniences such as lock patterns, COM interface wrapping and type marshaling templates. MFC has new support for integration with .NET Windows Forms to enable incremental migration of existing UI to incorporate .NET controls and forms. Bring your questions about new and existing application development to find out more on the next generation of libraries in Visual C++.

September 16, 2004
12:00 - 1:00 P.M. Pacific time
3:00 - 4:00 P.M. Eastern time
19:00 - 20:00 GMT

Chat time for cities world-wide:
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?day=16&month=9&year=2004&hour=12&min=0&sec=0&p1=234&sort=1

To add this chat to you calendar:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/chats/outlook_reminders/MSDN_VC2005LRI_Sep16_04.ics

For more info on MSDN chats, including other upcoming developer chats, chat
archives, and other info see
http://www.msdn.microsoft.com/chats

Find out more from eWeek here: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1636268,00.asp

Microsoft Takes New Development Track
By Darryl K. Taft

Cooks together...we had a bit of team bonding time this Sunday.  We started out with a friendly game of Texas Hold'em.  I think I won - I am on a hot streak lately.  I will take the world twenty dollars at a time!  Then it turned into an initiation of my new kitchen by Shreyas (voted new team chef).  Gerardo put in a bit of an assist (wearing his Imagine Cup shirt - of course).

Shreyas makes a mean fish taco! We all watched a bit of the Olympics together. My kitchen is clean and the Olympics are still on (very tape delayed). A nice way to spend a Sunday.

 

This weekend included a nice housewarming party at E and Doug's new digs.  But, I must say that the gifts they received (all very nice) do not shine as brightly as what I received in the mail today from a great friend as a housewarming gift.  It is Candle Couture!  Who knew such a wonderful useless item existed.  I have seen Elvis in wax, food in wax, just about anything...but, nothing like the headless couture!   Thanks Marg!

Chatted with Steve on IM tonight.  He is in great spirits for being far from home and somewhere that cools down to 95 at night!  And what does he ask about - books on the Visual Studio 2005 beta!  Got to love the spirit of this community.  I told him I am expecting to see his bug reports and a couple articles from his Army barracks. 

You can keep up with Steve at his blog - www.armysteve.com

My friend Stephen Ibaraki is always posting new interviews.  The latest (and I admit I am behind in reading them) include a brand new interview with Kenton Gardinier one of Rand Morimoto's wonderful crew over at Convergent Computing, a newer interview with Stephen Walther of ASP.NET Unleashed fame, and one with Mr. Excel Bill Jelen.  Plus there are many more interviews to check out with notables in the technology community. 

An interesting article on how researchers are measuring online users' reactions to an item or product for sale.