Blogus Maximus

Hello VB Folks,

These sessions are designed to be a primer for getting started using various features in Visual Studio 2010 and the .NET Framework 4.0. (Yes, some have already occurred... you can still watch them, just not live.)

·         Nov 3rd 10:00-11:00AM -Getting Started with IntelliTrace (formerly the “Historical Debugger”) by Habib Heydarian and Justin Marks
·         Nov 4th 10:00-11:00AM - Getting Started with SharePoint Development in Visual Studio 2010 by Boris Scholl
·         Nov 5th 9:00am-10:00am - A Lap Around Visual Basic in Visual Studio 2010 by Lisa Feigenbaum
·         Nov 5th 10:00am-11:00am - Getting Started with Managed Extensibility Framework  by Glen Block
·         Nov 6th 10:00-11:00AM - Getting started with Design and Discovery Tools (Architecture) by Mark Groves
 
All times listed are PST and all these sessions will use the same LiveMeeting connection information.

LiveMeeting:
https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/0000000379_103/join?id=76P755&role=attend&pw=p%2C%2Fzk2K%7CM

Conf call: 
Toll Free (US Only): 866-500-6738
Toll: 203-480-8000
Participant code: #198585

WPF / Silverlight Tooling Quick Poll
Finally, Mark Wilson-Thomas put together a few follow-up questions after last week’s WPF / Silverlight tooling session. If you would like to volunteer answers to these questions please email Mark at mwthomas@microsoft.com. And as always, lots of great WPF/Silverlight designer discussions taking place in the forums.

1.       Do you see yourself using Visual Studio 2010’s WPF and Silverlight tooling to build a line of business application in the next 6-12 months?
2.       Do the features for building these applications make sense to you?
3.       Is there anything clearly missing from the tooling in Visual Studio 2010 for getting the job of building line of business applications missing that you would like to see? If so what is it?
4.       Do you intend to try the Beta 2 release? If you’ve already tried it, what did you make of the WPF and Silverlight designer features?

Mark would love to hear your answers!

Worldwide numbers for the Extra Credit Homework
Argentina
Buenos Aires:+54 11 6777 0660

Australia
Toll Free (Non-VoIP): 1800 202 713
Adelaide:+61 8 8217 7432
Brisbane:+61 7 3218 7022
Canberra:+61 2 6122 4672
Melbourne:+61 3 9286 3225
Perth:+61 8 9420 8419
Sydney:+61 2 9870 2922

Austria
Vienna:+43 1 61064 5270

Belgium
Brussels (Non-VoIP):+32 3 400 2811

Brazil
Sao Paulo -Toll Free (Non-VoIP):0800-891-1983
Sao Paulo:+55 11 5504 4800

Bulgaria
Sofia: N/A

China
Beijing - Millennium:+86 10 5896 8000
Chengdu:+86 28 8620 8000
China, GuangZhou: +86 20 8510 8000
Shanghai (Toll Free): 800 819 8000
Shanghai:+86 21 6151 8000
Shenzhen:+86 755 8611 8000
Wuhan: +86-27-5960-8000
Hong Kong: +852 2804 4338
Hong Kong (Non-VoIP): +852 2286 5645

Czech Republic
+420 261 197 300

Denmark
Hellerup:+45 4489 0997
Vedbaek:+45 4489 0997

Dubai
+971 4 3917654 - Enter 9

Egypt
Cairo:+2 02 3539 3430

Estonia
+372 6679 804

Finland
Helsinki:+358 9 525 50 270

France
Paris (Non-VoIP):+33 17070 6275
Paris EHQ:+33 16986 8866

Germany
Aachen (Non-VoIP):+49 (241) 99784 5366
Bad Homburg (Non-VoIP):+49 (6172) 661 8366
Berlin (Non-VoIP):+49 (30) 39097 370
Böblingen (Non-VoIP):+49 (7031) 7168 3366
Hamburg (Non-VoIP):+49 (40) 89722 8366
Munich (Non-VoIP):+49 (89) 3176 3366
Neuss(Non-VoIP):+49 (2131) 708 8366
Toll Free (Non-VoIP):+49 (800) 0006359

Greece
Athens:+30 211 1206 303

Hong Kong
(Non-VoIP):+852 2286 5645
+852 2804 4338

Hungary
+36 1 4372 893

India
(IP Phones):+1 203 480 8000
(Nortel VoIP Phones):+1 203 480 8000

Indonesia
Jakarta:N/A

Ireland
Dublin (Non-VoIP):+353 1247 5443

Israel
1800 884 884

Italy
Milan:+39 027039 2888

Japan
Tokyo (Non-VoIP):+81 3 5539 5167
Tokyo:N/A

Korea
Seoul:+82 2 531 4999

Latvia
+371 704 6580

Lithuania
+371 704 6580

Luxembourg
+32 2 704 3809

Malaysia
Kuala Lumpur : +60 3 2170 7399

Mexico
Mexico City:+52 55 5267 2162

Netherlands
+31 20 500 1111

New Zealand
Toll Free (Non-VoIP):0800-448-997
Auckland:+64 9 362 5566

Norway
Oslo:+47 2202 2599

Peru
Lima:+51 1 611 5600 5692

Philippine
Makati:+63 2 860 8611

Poland
+48 22 594 1568

Portugal
+351 214 407 803

Russia
Moscow:+7 495 540 85 55

Singapore
APOC:+65 6370 9390
OMB:+65 6888 8008

South Africa
+27 11361 7098

Spain
Madrid:+34 9139 19800

Sweden
Stockholm:+46 8632 4844

Switzerland
Zurich (Non-VoIP):+41 44 580 6291

Taiwan
Taipei:+886 2 3725 3588

Thailand
Bangkok:+662 257 4988

Turkey
Ankara (Non-VoIP):+90 312 4099376
Istanbul (Non-VoIP):+90 212 3265480

United Kingdom
Reading (Non-VoIP):+44 118 909 2000

CRineta.org, Iowa .NET and CVIneta.org are hosting the fourth code camp to Iowa on November 7, 2009 at DMACC in West Des Moines.

These are always great events, and you can't beat the price: FREE!  This event gets bigger and better every time they do it, and this time is no exception. SEVEN concurrent tracks, with FIVE time slots at 75 minutes each.

These aren't just Microsoft Lovefests either, you'll also find talks on jQuery, Ruby, WebOS, Lisp, Software Craftsmanship, Load Testing, Mobile Device applications and a whole lot more.

See you there!

 

Wanted: Killer apps!  Reward: $12,000 prize!

Spread the word—there’s a contest for developers blazing trails with the .NET Framework and Visual Studio, Windows, Windows Server, Windows Azure, SQL Server, or SharePoint.
 
We’re looking for interesting, powerful and unique solutions based on the latest Microsoft technologies.
And the winners get their choice of a 15 day Galapagos Islands Adventure or a new Smart Car!
 
Two ways to win!

Judges Choice: Impress the panel of technology industry leaders and Microsoft gurus for the trip, the car, a home entertainment system or an internet tablet PC.
 
People’s Choice: Get friends, family and colleagues to vote for your solution. Receive the most votes and win one of three ARCHOS 320 GB Media Internet Tablet PCs.
 
Our current campaign site ‘Expect the Unexpected’ features some unique developers and their amazing solutions. Check them out at www.DotNETstories.com.
 
But we’re looking for more great solutions!!! Have you used .NET Framework to create an amazing app?  Are you doing remarkable work in the market with a solution built with Microsoft dev tools?  Give us the details and you could win a prize worth US$12,000. The contest launches Wednesday, November 4th so submit your story at www.myDotNETstory.com and spread the word!

 

TCCC7 is just around the corner (this weekend!!) and it looks like this one will be the biggest ever (again.) 

We have a terrific lineup, featuring intro talks on CSS, Ruby, XAML, Silverlight 3 & Robotics Studio. For the more seasoned developers Donn Felker has a great talk on the Spark View Engine and you definitely don't want to miss Adam Grocholski's talk on Code Generation. The architects among you may also enjoy Jordan Terrell's Domain Driven Design talk.

Just like last year, we're holding this event at the U of M, so be sure to show up early since parking fills up quickly.

Also, there's no free lunch this time, but there are LOTS of great places to go eat in the area, and we will be putting together a cash-only Jimmy Johns order for anyone interested. Exact change is appreciated and anything extra will be used as a tip, so break those $20s at Starbucks before you get to Code Camp.

We'll also have a community table this year, so if you're interested in the local user group scene, or maybe already a part of it, stop on by and see what's going on. 

Tonight in User Group land:

The Twin Cities Developers Guild meets on the second Tuesday of each month, and tonight's meeting features Donn Felker of Agilevent.  http://www.TwinCitiesDevelopersGuild.com

Topic: Testing with Mocks: Test this, test that, no problem. But what about when we need to start building full object graphs into our test in order to test an interaction or state? Yeah, Houston, we have a problem. With mocks we can streamline development by mocking out dependencies. Mocks will allow us to not only mock our dependencies but to also test our interactions and state very easily. In this session learn how to use mocks in your day to day testing.

Speaker Bio: Donn Felker is a Principal for Agilevent, a Microsoft Partner in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His experience is in Software Architecture/Development with over 9 years of professional experience in various markets that include – entertainment, health, retail, insurance, financial, and real estate. He is an ASP Insider, MCTS & MCP Certified, Certified Scrum Master and certified in ITIL Foundation v2. He's the current leader of the Twin Cities Give Camp, Twin Cities Developers Guild and Twin Cities Pragmatic Beer.

 

As a VB MVP and someone who really loves VB in general, this kind of news really makes me smile…

Microsoft has heard your feedback that VB/C# content parity is a top priority for the VB community. Given that, this issue has become a top priority for the languages team.

The Approach
We’ve gone about a prioritized approach, in order to fill holes for the most important technologies and content types first. Here are some general guidelines we’ve used… Technologies are prioritized by the number of current VB.NET users, as well as how “hot” the area is (i.e. Windows Azure or Windows 7). Content types are prioritized by how “core” they are to the official product. For example, first the product needs to support VB.NET, then the official MSDN Help documentation needs to be available in VB.NET, and then the Microsoft samples and training kits (including videos, tutorials and hands on labs) need to be available in VB.NET.

The Content So Far…
Below is the list of projects that are being done as partnerships between VSL and partner teams. Many teams have stepped up in the past year to improve their VB.NET support, and other teams have been doing this all along. In the coming year, we still have a lot more work to do.

·         MSDN Magazine Code Downloads
·         Entity Framework Samples
·         Visual Studio Express Samples
·         WPF “Prism” Quickstarts, Samples, Hands On Labs
·         WPF MSDN Help Documentation (Started)
·         WPF Hands On Labs (Started)
·         WindowsClient.NET WPF Video Code Downloads
·         WindowsClient.NET WPF Video Code Downloads
·         Windows7 API Code Pack Samples
·         Silverlight MSDN Help Documentation (Started)
·         Silverlight Toolkit Samples
·         Silverlight Hands On Labs (Started)
·         Silverlight.NET Full Tutorials
·         Silverlight.NET Video Code Downloads
·         ASP.NET Tutorials
·         ASP.NET Video Code Downloads
·         VS2010 / .NET Framework 4.0 Training Kit- Hands On Labs & PowerPoints (Started)
·         Windows Azure Training Kit- Hands On Labs (Started)
·         Windows Azure Video Code Downloads
·         .NET Services SDK Samples
·         .NET Services Video Code Downloads
·         DotNet-U Presentation Materials
·         RampUp courses
·         MEF & VS Extensibility Hands On Lab

Over the years, I have met many user group leaders (and been one myself a few times) and I often hear this question, or a variation of it... "I'm in a pinch, I can't find a speaker, I've got a new guy who wants to try speaking...  Where can I get already prepared presentation materials to use at code camps and user group meetings?"

Well... I am thrilled to announce that Doug Turnure from the Microsoft Marketing team has been leading an effort to compile these materials. He’s made about 40 presentations available across Visual Studio, the .NET Framework and other Microsoft technologies. You can download these materials from the following location:

http://dotnet-u.com/Courses.aspx

The presentation materials include powerpoint slides, video recordings, demo code and demo script available in VB.NET & C#.

Check it out!!

Remember the good old days, when we all thought we’d be cruising around in our own spaceships by the year 2002? Trading fuel, organics and technology at every StarPort we managed to find? Dodging the Federation and blowing up aliens (and each other) while trying to save up enough credits for a bigger ship… hauling human cargo to our home world so we could increase production and begin our mission of universal conquest?

Well… those days are back my friends.

Thanks to a miracle of not-so-modern technology, I’ve set up a TradeWars 2002 server. Now you too can experience the joys of ascii based space gaming. Take a look at these stellar graphics, depicting the transportation of human resources to your home planet:

I know, right? You can’t wait to play… same here. The good news is, I’ve got the server set up, and I’m doing some connectivity testing now. If you have a TradeWars 2002 client (or a telnet client that supports ANSI) you can hit it now at RCG.GAME-HOST.ORG

If you don’t have a dedicated TradeWars 2002 client (which I highly recommend) you can get one at http://www.swath.net (it’s a 30 day trial, but worth registering.)

Marvel at the super realistic rendition of interstellar space travel:

Galactic Commerce has never felt SO REAL:

Upgrade and outfit your own spaceship!!

I know… you’re asking yourself how can a game THIS AWESOME be free to play?? I assure you it is! I do this because I love the game and want to play with all my friends. I’ve set up a 5000 sector universe as a test run, and you can connect to it now.

Sometime around midnight Sunday night, I’ll be wiping it all out and doing a Big Bang on the universe, so don’t get too attached to your ship this weekend. The game will officially start at that point.  Good luck!

One more time, in case you weren’t paying attention:

Telnet to:  RCG.GAME-HOST.ORG (port 23)

Use a client that supports ANSI
    –or-
Use a dedicated TW2002 client like SWATH (http://www.swath.net)

The current (test) universe ends midnight on Sunday 9/13/09, The Big Bang will wipe EVERYTHING out.

The universe will have 5000 sectors. There will be bad aliens in it.

ASP.NET AJAX Preview 5 is now released at CodePlex:
 
http://aspnet.codeplex.com/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=32770

This new version of ASP.NET AJAX contains bug fixes and feature enhancements including:
 
* Dynamic and recursive templates
* Binding Converters
* Compatibility with the UpdatePanel
 
The download includes a Visual Studio project that contains sample code that demonstrates many of the features of ASP.NET AJAX Preview 5. For example, the project includes sample code for creating master/detail forms with the client DataView control and client templates, sample code for creating recursive templates, and sample code for creating pages that use JSONP. The download also includes the client reference documentation.

Enjoy!

If you're a .NET User Group leader, you probably already receive the INETA newsletter (and if you haven't been getting it, contact your mentor to update your contact info!!)

On the other hand, if you aren't a .NET User Group leader, you might not realize that you're missing out on some valuable community info that isn't just for UG leaders.

If you want to see what's going on with INETA, and the greater .NET Developer Community by extension, hit this link: (http://www.ineta.org/ContactEmail.aspx?MailTo=NL) and send us your name and preferred email address. We'll get you added right away.

If you're interested in seeing what you missed so far, be sure to check out the Newsletter Archive, which can be found here: http://www.ineta.org/newsletters/

 

Next week in User Group Land...

The Twin Cities Languages User Group presents:

Comparing Objective-C to Java/.NET (Sept. 10th, 2009)

Objective-C, a fossil of a language from the '80s is resurgent: the language of choice for Mac development and, currently, the only language for iPhone development. In this talk, I'll cover some of the history of Objective-C & Cocoa (the Apple standard library for Mac/iPhone), how it differs to languages like Java or C# that you may be familiar with and show you some interesting techniques that can't be easily accomplished in other languages.

Speaker

Dan Bennett is Senior Director, New Product Technology for Thomson Reuters based in Eagan, Minnesota, responsible for a team building the next generation of web applications for West. Dan hates to manage things he doesn't understand, so keeps his hand in with a variety of development projects, including leading the development of the first iPhone application for Thomson Reuters.

I was looking over the Dragon*Con website this evening to see what kind of craziness will be going on this year, and who the guests are...

William Shatner... cool, Leonard Nimoy... cool, never actually seen those two in the same place at the same time.

various other Star Trek, BSG and Stargate people... cool (no Robert Picardo though... bummer)

Looks like most of the Firefly cast have other plans (although Shephard Book will be there)

various comic book artists and writers, including Michael Golden who I really like.

Chewbacca, C3PO, etc...

Julie Benz (awesome!!)

that dude who played Spike on Buffy/Angel

and... OMG... do my eyes deceive me??  Gil Gerard (aka Buck Rogers) has apparently come out of his self-imposed exile and will be making an appearance this year, along with (no surprise here) Erin Gray. Gil -freakin- Gerard... yes!

Ohhhh yeah, this is gonna be a good year.

wow, just wow...

http://www.newsarama.com/comics/090831-disney-acquire-marvel.html

Not sure how I feel about this. I don't know that it will be "the death of Marvel" as some have predicted. Everyone cried when Hasbro bought WOTC, and that seems to have turned out fine. (For the record, NOBODY cried when WOTC bought TSR, but that's another story.)

Now if we could just get Quentin Tarantino to start doing DC/JLA movies... the final seal will be broken.

This pretty much sums it up for who I am... so who are you?

Tuesday night, the INETA Speakers Bureau Director (Randy Walker) chose to step down for undisclosed reasons. I wish him well and respect his decision. Unfortunately, there's never really a GOOD time for something like this to happen, so as with all departures, a void was created that needed to be filled immediately.

As a result, I am stepping in to fill this position. I have served on the INETA Speakers Bureau committee for several years as well as being an actual Speakers Bureau speaker and user group leader, so I am already familiar with the system and the processes that need to be managed and fixed from a variety of angles.

I have been working with the INETA Vice President, Mike Vincent on the budget for some time, as well as identifying ways to improve the existing process and ensure that the .NET community gets the greatest possible value from INETA.

Since I am transitioning out of my role as INETA Membership Director, I am also happy to announce that Julie Yack will be serving as acting Director of the Membership division. I know Julie will do an outstanding job in this role.

I just received word today that I have been invited to become an ASP Insider.

What's an ASP Insider? Well, their website explains it best:

"The ASPInsiders is a select group of international professionals who have a demonstrated expertise in ASP.NET technologies and who provide valuable, early feedback on related developing technologies and publications to their peers, the Microsoft ASP.NET team and others."

 

 

So, IMHO it's quite an honor to be a part of this distinguished bunch.  I'm looking forward to it.

In an earlier post I mentioned that I was making some health related dietary changes.

Well, I'm coming up on the end of my 8th week as a *mostly* vegetarian... (by *mostly, I mean that I have been eating some seafood, but no beef, pork, chicken or turkey) ...and it's been going pretty well. I've had the occasional craving for a burger or whatever, usually when at a cookout, but nothing I couldn't handle.

So, on the plus side... I've lost some weight as part of this, about 9 pounds so far. I also feel better overall, although the last couple weeks have been rough because I've been sick (I think I'm allergic to Seattle) but overall good. Definitely good.

The not so plus side, is that eating out mostly SUCKS when you're trying to stay vegetarian. I can only imagine how much more it sucks for diehard true vegetarians and vegans. Eating out when traveling is even more of a pain in the ass, because you don't really know where any of the veggie friendly places are.  By contrast, staying veggie at home is pretty damn easy.

The plan at this point is to continue sticking with it. I eat fish a couple times a week (mostly tuna) and a little shrimp here and there (usually in stir fry or spring rolls.)  I'm almost done with this travel gig, so I'll have a while back at home to get into a regular routine again.

Lastly, I have to say that my vegetarian friends and coworkers have been a big help and I appreciate the encouragement,  input and advice they have offered along the way. Especially my buddy Alan Stevens and his charming wife Michele, who gave me a very helpful book when I first got started.

A while back, I submitted an XNA talk to the South By SouthWest Music/Film/Interactive Conference (also known as SXSW) and it's currently up for voting in the Interactive category.

I'd really appreciate some votes in order for my talk to get selected. You can click this link or the image to the left to go to the site and vote for my talk.

You will need to register on the SXSW site to place a vote, but there's no charge for that and it's quick and easy.

Be sure to leave a comment with your vote so I know where to send the cookies later. :)

Take Over The World With XNA Indie Games

Microsoft's XNA blows open the barn doors to make creating indie games possible on their next generation console (XBOX 360) and a variety of other platforms. Come learn the WHAT, HOW and WHY of making games with XNA in this exciting and entertaining session.

 

so... the other day, I was at <FastFoodPlace> and in the mood for some fish fillet and cheese curds. I wasn't there for crazy, but I got some of that too.

Shortly after coming inside, this lady approaches us and asks if we left our dog in the car. (We did not.) I tell her no and resume my conversation.

This apparently isn't enough of an answer to satisfy her, so she tries again... informing me that he's really barking a lot (out in the parking lot.) So I give her my best indifferent look and say "sorry, not us" and attempt to resume my conversation.

She still couldn't let it go... and hits me with this one: "well, how would you feel if YOU were locked in a car." My first impulse was to say "well if it means not continuing this conversation... then I'd be all for it" but instead, I said something like... "LADY... NOT MY CAR, NOT MY DOG." to which she responded sullenly, "well... I know, I was just saying."

Fortunately (for us) at that point, someone else walked in to the restaurant... so she launched herself at them. "Is that YOUR dog outside barking in the car?? He's really upset." This scene repeated a few times as people emerged from the restroom, or went to refill sodas.

(At this point, I feel compelled to point out to you, the reader, that it was a glorious 60 degrees outside, and ever so slightly breezy. The temp in the car was quite likely around 65 at most, and well... some dogs just bark a lot. Especially when strange people are peering in the windows.)

Eventually she wanders off, going table to table, asking everyone about the "poor barking dog" in the car outside.

We place our order and go sit down. In the booth next to ours, there is a bag of stuff on the seat. Crazy lady has plenty of options to choose from, so of course she comes over to us and inquires if the bag on the seat in the booth BEHIND US is ours. (It wasn't, I said so.)

So she glances through the bag and then finds a seat in the booth adjacent to that one, while waiting for her takeout order. A few minutes later, an elderly man comes over and sits down in the booth that has the bag. She immediately turns around and inquires if its HIS bag. It is, he says. She explains that she thought someone left it behind. They did not, he explains. We attempt to tune her out.

Then, her food comes. We all breathe a sigh of relief as she leaves.

A couple minutes later, she comes back in. Apparently the dog is still barking and she just can't handle it. (My bet is that the dog was fine until she came over to the car again...) Now she's asking the staff to go table to table and find out who owns the dog.

She goes back out, come back in, accosts everyone she meets along the way. Finally a woman gets up and goes outside, to sit with the dog in the van, quite probably wondering why she cant just eat her meal in peace?

Satisfied, the dog lover goes outside and leaves. I feel bad for the family that had their meal disrupted, but happy that I can now eat mine in peace.

A few observations here... I know the animal lovers among you will cry foul at this, but lets take a moment and look at the facts. It was NOT hot, it was NOT cold, the dog wasnt out there THAT long, and some dogs just BARK (all the time.) Maybe they were on a road trip, and needed a break. Maybe it was none of this ladies business. Maybe she was just a self-righteous nosy pain in the ass. (For the record, that last one totally has my vote. I was there.)

I went to the Twin Cities Languages User Group meeting last night. The topic was Esoteric Programming Languages and it was quite interesting. Jason Bock (also the UG leader) showed several different examples of languages that you'll never use in your day job, but were still pretty cool (mostly.)

The one I was most interested in was Befunge (Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Befunge), which is a 2-dimensional interpreted language that can modify/generate its own code while running. The whole language is only 35 instructions and program control is handled by directional arrows.  It reminded me a lot of the game RoboRally (wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roborally)

Jason also showed off Malbolge, LOLcode, BrainF*ck and a couple others whose names escape me at the moment. Definitely an interesting night.

---

Next week, on Tuesday 7/14/09, the Twin Cities Developers Guild (http://twincitiesdevelopersguild.com/) is featuring INETA speaker Rachel Appel, who will be giving us A First Look at ASP.NET 4.0:

Get a first a look at the 4.0 feature set from ASP.NET and learn what’s new or improved in ASP.NET 4. This talk will highlight ASP.NET 4 in the areas of Web Forms, MVC, AJAX and Dynamic Data. You’ll see how the IDs are handled in web forms, and get more control over the CSS markup of ASP.NET server controls. You’ll also see how to dynamically template applications and what scripting options are available by using the AJAX 4 libraries. If you're considering MVC, we look at the feature set and understand how to create applications with this technology.

Speaker Bio:
Rachel has been working as a mentor, instructor, software developer, architect and DBA for nearly 20 years. During her career, Rachel has worked with a variety of languages, technologies and systems and has contributed to projects of all sizes including large scale enterprise applications at some of the world’s leading companies. Rachel is the Vice President of the .Net Valley user group, as well as a leader and regular speaker in the Philly.NET and Central Penn.NET user groups of Pennsylvania. She can also be found speaking at code camps, user groups, community events and conferences. Rachel’s expertise lies within developing solutions that align business and technology using the Microsoft .NET family of products, particularly ASP.NET & SQL Server. She is also an ASP.NET MVP, ASPInsider and holds the Microsoft Certified Trainer, MCAD & MCSD certifications. She is also a member of the INETA speakers bureau.

---

Thursday Night (7/16/09) The Twin Cities XNA User Group (http://twincitiesxnausergroup.com/) will be having a social meeting (no speaker) for members to come in, hang out, eat pizza & discuss XNA. Members and newbies alike are encouraged to bring any projects they would like to show off and any problems they need help solving.

I haven’t had many opportunities to blog lately because I have extremely busy on some rather demanding/challenging back-to-back projects lately, but a couple things happened recently that I want to announce…

FIRST: This last Friday (June 19, 2009), I was called into my General Managers office at Magenic and informed that I had been promoted to Principal Consultant. This is something I have been working towards for some time, and I am very excited about the new responsibilities and challenges that will come with this role.

SECOND: Those of you that know me well are aware that I’ve been struggling with my health for some time. My weight tends to fluctuate (more than “just a couple pounds” in either direction) and lately I’ve been feeling like complete hell, partly because of my diabetes and partly because of my weight.

I’m not one to do much of anything in moderation… When I quit sodas, I had to go from a 12-pack a day to none (and stay there for a couple months) before I could “just” have 1 or 2 a day. This is also how I quit drinking (alcohol) a while back. Going cold turkey has never really been an issue for me. I’m gradually rebooting myself and focusing on eliminating a lot of unhealthy habits.

So, anyway, I’ve decided to do the same thing with meat. I don’t know for how long, or if I’ll even switch back once I’m used to being away from it, but I’m going to give it a shot.

I've been working with MVC for a little bit lately, and I've run into a really bizarre problem. I'm hoping someone can help me figure it out.

Everything "appears" to work fine when the page first loads. I have a dropdown with three values and a chart which displays some data based on the value selected in the dropdown.

Making a selection from the dropdown causes a roundtrip to the server. (This is good)

I can SEE new data if I step through the code in my View. (This is good)

The dropdown displays the newly selected value on the page. (This is good)

However, nothing else on the page changes! None of the new data shows up. It's all still the data from the initial page load (except the dropdown list).

WTF?!?!

I put in some temp variables in the View and grabbed some values from the ViewData and Response.Write them to the screen. When I step through the code, they have the correct value, but when I look at the web page, where I did the Response.Write calls, it still displays the values from the initial page load.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Recently XNA 3.1 was released and I think one of the coolest additions by far is the use of Avatars in game. Really brings a lot of ideas to mind.

The Creators Club site has posted their rules for Avatar use. My comments are inline.

 

Xbox LIVE Avatars are unique and personal items you can make available to players. We have a very specific set of rules for Avatar use to prevent abuse. Any Xbox LIVE Indie Game that contains Avatars must be Peer Reviewed to check for the following prohibited content:

• Player interacts with their avatar as if it’s a separate character

A player’s avatar does not have an autonomous personality or instinct.  The avatar is under the control of the owning player. It can have idle animations and can respond appropriately to game events but it should not interact with the user as if it is separate from the player, try to get the player’s attention in an annoying manner

ok, so I can kinda see this one. Nobody wants an annoying avatar. Still it would be interesting to have a game where your Avatar broke free from your control and you had to hunt it down. Oh well…

• Violence which causes blood, gore, dismemberment, decapitation, maiming, or mutilation

Cartoon violence is allowed.  Violence is allowed as long as there is no blood, gore, dismemberment, decapitation, maiming, or mutilation.  An example of allowable injuries includes injuries that might befall an avatar in a sporting event such as American football.  Avatars can die temporarily to depict failure.

I love how they specify “American” Football here. So Avatar Football is ok, but Avatar Hangman probably isn’t. Avatar Paintball is probably fine, but Avatar Sniper may not be. Avatar Fight Club (which I would absolutely pay for) is unlikely, it would seem.

• Player’s avatar talks

The player’s avatar should not have their own voice. They are allowed to make individual sounds, such as laughing and crying but otherwise cannot use a voice

I guess Avatar Psychotherapist is out of the question.

• Acts of sexual innuendo or mildly explicit sexual descriptions or images or sexual posturing

Sexual acts or terminology cannot be insinuated or enacted

See above. This also likely excludes Avatar Mansion, Leisure Suit Avatar and a variety of other interesting titles.

• Excretes obscene bodily fluids or substances

No sexual or bodily fluids or substances can come from the avatar

Well, yeah… it’s sad that we even need to say this. On the other hand, does this mean Avatar Snot Rockets probably won’t happen?

• Glamorized criminal act

Criminal activities need to be relevant to the story and are presented unfavorably

So much for Grand Theft Avatar.

• Acts of an aggressive or threatening manner

Gratuitous insults, bullying, intimidation or otherwise violent or emotional abuse of a position of power are not allowed. Avatars may leave innocents or bystanders slightly injured, but not dead.

So “Bully, Avatar Edition” probably won’t see the light of day. Wait, no gratuitous insults?  So I guess that means most of the Avatar Quiz Show games will be pretty dull too. There goes my “Are You Smarter Than An Avatar?” idea…

• Vulgar or profane act

Game-controlled avatars cannot use profane, racist, or discriminatory language, nor can they make obscene gestures.

Sorry guys, this means no “Avatar Hate Crime” (probably a good thing.)

• Use of controlled substances

An avatar is not allowed to hold, be seen around or partake in any controlled substances or paraphernalia including, but not limited to, alcohol, tobacco and drugs

So I can have a beer while I play, but my avatar can’t? Bummer. Avatar’s can’t even be seen around any controlled substances either, so I guess my idea of Avatar Drug Task Force might not fly.

• Replace Avatar features

The features of an avatar cannot be hidden or in obscured and cannot be replaced with alternative items. Items such as, but not limited to, masks, hats and alternative clothing,  are not allowed

All joking aside, this one is a real bummer, because I think an Avatar Baseball or Avatar Bowling would be super cool if we could replace the shirts with jerseys or bowling shirts, etc…

• Avatars proportions are not modified

The proportions of an Avatar cannot be modified form their original settings. An Avatar can be resized as long as the proportions don’t change

Ok, so as long as the proportions stay the same, I can make Attack of the 50 Foot Avatar. Now we’re getting somewhere.

The INETA Regional Speakers Bureau was announced today. I’ve been fielding questions on Twitter ever since the news came out, so I figured I would share some of the most common questions with you here, until we can get the INETA site updated.

Q: Why should I do this? Who does it benefit?
A: This program benefits User Groups and Speakers alike by providing funds for events. Speakers get increased exposure. UG gets a speaker. This also helps the group discover people adjacent to (rather than just in) their local community.

Q: Who gets the money?
A: Money goes directly to speaker for Travel & Expenses (up to $50)

Q: Why so little money?
A: Mostly budget reasons. Remember the intent is for semi-local travel, not national.

Q: Will there be Pizza for UGs that have Regional Speakers?
A: Nope, limited budget means money gets spent on providing max # of speakers. No pizza at this time. maybe in the future.

Q: How many Regional Speakers can a group request?
A: INETA will reimburse up to 2 speakers from the Regional Speakers Bureau per group, per year. This is separate from the National Speakers Bureau.

Q: What criteria will be used to determine how requests are approved (i.e. is it first come, first served, etc?)
A: Requests will be approved so as to ensure maximum coverage around the country, as budget allows.

Q: Why this instead of the National Speakers Bureau?
A: Not everyone is ready for the National Speakers Bureau. People who do well in the Regional SB will certainly be considered/encouraged to move up to the National SB. Think of it as a Farm Team for the National Speakers Bureau.

Q: What criteria are they considering "regional"? Drivable? Or is it up to the speaker's convenience?
A: Mostly up to the speaker, with a $50 cap on T&E, except for really remote locations (case by case basis for those.)

Q: Can National Speakers Bureau members participate in this program as well?
A: Yes, but they fall under the same financial limits.

Q: Sounds awesome, where do I sign up?
A: http://www.ineta.org/RegionalSpeakers/Default.aspx 

More to come…

June 9, 2009 – Twin Cities Developers Guild Meeting, featuring Mike Benkovich

When: 6:00 PM.

Where: New Horizons of Minnesota (4510 West 77th Street - Edina, MN 55435)   MAP

Mike Benkovich

Topic: Advanced Debugging with Visual Studio 2008
The system’s down, things are broken, what do you do? Before they panic you whip out your trusty Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 instance and attach to the troubled process. Use the tool the way it was meant to be used, quickly to identify the issue and save the day. Join us for this session as we look at tips and tricks for leveraging the power of the Visual Studio Debugger. We look at the scenarios and tools that are available to help you figure out what's broken.

Speaker Bio:
Mike Benkovich delivers technical presentations around the U.S. as a developer evangelist on the MSDN team at Microsoft. He has worked in a variety of professional roles, including architect, project manager, developer, and technical writer. Mike is also an author of two books, published by WROX Press and APress, which show developers how to get the most from their SQL databases. Since appearing in the 1994 Microsoft DevCast, Mike has presented technical information at seminars, conferences, and corporate boardrooms across America.

Please RSVP to DevelopersGuildEvents@gmail.com so we may obtain an accurate count for the meeting. Thank you.