Today is the last day for the $299.99 early bird price for the Software Development and Evolution Conference 2010 happening in Winnipeg this October!
The conference is 2 days of sessions spanning development, management, methodologies, and technology topics and features a wide range of local and out of town presenters!
We’re also very happy to announce that Microsoft has graciously provided two free passes to the upcoming Tech Days 2010 event in Winnipeg this December, so we’ll be giving those away in addition to JetBrains licenses and other prizes!
Check out the event website here for all the info about the conference and how to register!
D
So proud to say that I defeated the 70-516 Microsoft exam which covered data access with .NET 4.0!
Obviously because of rules around taking Microsoft exams I can’t get into details about what I encountered, the things the questions focussed on, etc. But really I don’t have to since Microsoft is listing really good details on what’s covered and what percentage of the exam you can expect questions from the different areas.
Experience obviously plays a role in determining how successful you’ll be, but I also leveraged some other materials in my study.
TekPub
http://tekpub.com/
I took advantage of the free video day this past Friday, and the content is awesome! Great production quality and excellent content! The EF 4 series was very well done.
Programming Entity Framework 2nd Edition (Julie Lerman)
http://learnentityframework.com/
I picked up Julie’s newly released 2nd edition of her EF book and it was an amazing resource for preparing for the exam! The book is well written and there’s a tonne of content…she *really* knows Entity Framework!
Definitely review the Skills Measured list at the link I embedded earlier. This is truly a *data access* exam, and EF is just a part of how you handle data within .NET 4.0.
On to WCF Services in .NET 4.0!
It’s James Avery’s birthday on Friday, and to celebrate he (and by extension Rob Conery) are opening up the TekPub content vault!
Tomorrow (Friday), all content is free to view for a full 24 hours (barring server crashes, earthquakes, alien invasions, etc.)! You can read the official announcement on the TekPub blog here.
Now maybe you’re not familiar with TekPub. It’s basically an online video store with tutorials created by experts in the technology field. These videos span everything from Entity Framework to Ruby to Sinatra to nHibernate and many, many other topics. They have different purchase options ranging from one-time views to yearly subscriptions for all site content.
This Friday is a great opportunity to check their stuff out! James mentioned that you do need to create an account with the site (which is free) before accessing content, but otherwise the vids will be available!
For more info on TekPub check out their website here.
 | …make a LEMON GRENADE! |
I blogged a few days ago about this maddening issue with VS.NET 2010 and not being able to use the designer for ASP.NET 3.5 projects or add an EF model file to a .NET 4.0 project (You can read all the gory details here). Well my friends, I’m happy to report that I have a solution! Well, not a solution…but a workaround…kinda like how they dumped Megatron into the ocean at the end of Transformers instead of dismantling him: the threat is still there, just dormant.
Unfortunately my workaround doesn’t offer any insight into what the original problem was, but I have a working VS.NET 2010 on my desktop and that’s all that matters. So, what did I do?
- Created a VM
- Installed Windows 7 86x
- Applied all Windows Updates
- Installed VS.NET 2010
Yup. For whatever reason, there are *no* issues installing on the non-64 bit version of Win 7. When I’ve experienced issues with 2010, its always been on the 64 bit OS, so there *must* be something with that combination (although I had a number of peers tell me they were running 2010 on Win7-64 without any issues).
I’m still curious about what the issue might be, but now that I’m at least able to work in the environment I’m relegating it to hobby-interest status.
One thing I definitely want to do is tip my hat and give a big thanks to some Microsofties: Kirill Osenkov and Ion Todirel. When I first tweeted about my issue, Kirill reached out and got me in touch with Ion, who sent me suggestions on things to check and ideas for troubleshooting. Although we didn’t come to a solution, I appreciated that they took time to try and lend a hand, so thanks guys!
If I uncover anything else related to the original problem I’ll post it, but for now…back to jacking Entity Framework into my brain.
I’m gearing up to take the 70-516 exam, which focuses on ADO.NET, EF, LINQ, and XML as it relates to .NET 4.0 and VS.NET 2010. My exam is scheduled for Friday, although I had thought about moving it. Busy work/family life has meant my best intentions of studying haven’t happened.
When I looked at the availability for when I could move my exam though, the earliest was in early October (we only have two Prometric test centers here in Winnipeg…before a month ago or so we only had one).
So I’m gonna roll the dice, burn a vacation day tomorrow to study, drink insane amounts of coffee, and see whether or not I can pull off a pass on this.
So over the next 35 hours, expect me to update this blog with all things data-access related!
I blogged last month about an unsolved mystery I was experiencing, which I dubbed the Mystery of the Uncooperative EF Model and the Missing Target Frameworks. Since then, I’ve since expanded that to include the Mystery of why VS.NET 2010 can’t seem to resolve where my .NET 3.5 assemblies reside. Because of all this, let’s just go with the title of this blog, or as it’ll be known in its European release: HOOPED – a boy and his VS.NET installation.
Without getting too wordy, let me give you the recent string of events because it makes even less sense now than to go and describe *everything* in detail. Here’s what I did today:
- Reinstalled Windows 7 64 bit, wiping out my previous install.
- Installed system drivers (motherboard, video card, etc.)
- Installed all available Windows updates.
- Installed VS.NET 2008.
- Installed VS.NET 2008 SP1
At this point, I verified that I could create a .NET 3.5 web project application in 2008. All good. Restarted the machine (*note – multiple re-starts throughout the above process too).
- Installed VS.NET 2010, Full Install (even the C++ stuff that I’ll never touch)
- Checked Windows Update, installed only one: .NET 4 Client Framework
- Restarted
At this point, all should be well. However, when I create a web application project targeting .NET 3.5, this is what I get:
What this does is clobber my designer. If I put this in the default.aspx page…
…the designer won’t recognize the ASP.NET control. In fact, I had to hand-type that as the toolbox wouldn’t let me drag/drop into the designer or into the markup view. If I switch to the designer view, I get this:
But I can still run the page and the textbox will actually appear, so issues.
Huh.
Another oddity (which may/may not be related and may/may not be anything) is that under the properties page of the project I have no frameworks listed.
Ok, so if this wasn’t enough (and Lord knows it is), the original issue I had still exists: If I create a .NET 4.0 project, let’s say a Winform project, and try to add an EF model to the project, I get this:
HOW?! How can you not resolve the .NETFramework 4 when its a .NET 4.0 project to start with?! DOES NOT COMPUTE!
I have been emailing with some guys from the Visual Studio team and they’ve been great at giving me some suggestions on things to look at, but I think this is perplexing them as much as it is me.
Others have told me they had no issue installing vs.net 2010 on Win 7 64 bit, so I have no idea what is different in my setup, especially since this last attempt to install was entirely from scratch.
Thoughts? Suggestions? HELP?!
D
I’ve been running into some blue-screens with Windows 7 64bit lately (what I thought was related to a video card driver might be a more widespread problem with Direct X, but that’s for another post). Of course, trying to read those demps (or even get into them to access the info) can be daunting.
I found a freeware tool called BlueScreenView from NirSoft. It scans your dumps and gives you information in a way much more digestible.
If you’re interested and want to learn more about it, visit the site here.
We realize that many people were on vacation over July and may have missed the announcements regarding the upcoming SDEC10 conference being held in Winnipeg this October.
So we’re extending our early bird price of $299.99 until August 31st!
This gets you two days of great sessions with breakfast and lunch provided both days.
For more info, visit our website and for how to register click here!
So I'm on this private email group and a discussion starts by someone pointing out this blog post which talks about the Microsoft.Data.dll and the Microsoft.Data namespace. From the blog post:
It’s an awesome new assembly/namespace that contains everything you’ll ever need to access a database. In ASP.NET WebPages we wanted people to be able to access the database without having to write too many lines of code.
...
The user doesn’t have to learn about connection strings or how to create a command with a connection and then use a reader to get the results.
Check out the full blog post for all the details, but remember the context of this is around the Webmatrix product release. Still, it created a shitstorm of discussion on the private email group I mentioned earlier on whether this type of functionality should be available as many would see this as not a good practice for accessing a datastore.
Some people commented that we try to make software development too hard or too complicated and that this may scare of people from entering the field; that we also dictate best practices and shun those that don't follow them; and that if you don't use language-x then you aren't a *real* programmer.
But software development is difficult, sophisticated, uses complicated IDE's, and if you aren't creating software according to professional standards then no, you shouldn't be doing it.
We're building complex systems that have to take into account business process, security, scalability, availability, and maintainability. We need to consider laws (local, territory, and country), understand client business policies, and create the most ideal user experience. We need to provide metrics such as code coverage of unit tests to prove and meet client expectations of quality.
I could go on, but the point is that I think what some may see as haughty or snobby devs ranting and raving are really people that realize we need to mature and who get frustrated when mixed messages get sent to new developers as to what's *really* involved in software development. Software development is hard, just like electrical engineering is hard, just like being a bio-chemist is hard. When we try to show how "easy" it is in our industry, that's when we do a disservice by pretending to be something we aren't to prospective students and job seekers.
I think that releasing tools for the student and hobby levels of developers are great, but what I'd love to see is a roadmap that these people could be provided to help guide them. Start on Webmatrix and play with the tools provided, but know what they should look at next to continue their progression. I also question if students and hobbyists should be grouped together: one will eventually move on in learning, while the other one might be happy to just play on weekends or in free time. One is not equal to the other.
Anyway, intersted to hear thoughts. I'm always reminded of what a former boss said to me: If what we did was easy, then companies would just hire high school kids to do it.
D
Last Thursday was the first ever MVCConf – a virtual conference around Microsoft MVC Framework, and it looks to have been a great success!
I wasn’t able to make it to any of the sessions, and if you’re in the same boat then you and I are both in luck: the organizers recorded all the presentations and have posted them for viewing!
You can access all the conference content here.
I’m prepping this week for the 70-515 exam I’m taking on Friday, and I thought I’d go through some VS.NET 2010 labs as part of my prep. One of them has to do with setting up a WCF service, where you create a web application and then add an Entity Framework model file to the project.
Right click, Add New Item, Entity Framework file, and…
Huh. Well that’s weird, considering that this is a .NET 4.0 web application project in Visual Studio.NET 2010…how can it not resolve to the target framework?
So I check to see what framework is being targeted in my web project…maybe its set to the wrong one somehow. To my shock and horror though, I’m greeted to an empty drop list:
What is going on?! I look online, trying to figure out what could be the cause of this bedlam but to no avail. Twitter provided me some input (like the .NET 4 Client Framework, which is a slimmed down version of the full framework and the default for certain projects. See the articles here and here for more info), but nothing to solve my issue specifically.
After doing the uninstall/reinstall dance with .NET 4 (which didn’t fix it), I decided to do it for VS.NET 2010. This time I installed everything but the C++ libraries (I had removed a bunch of stuff from my initial install, but nothing that I thought would cause this…like F# for instance).
I loaded up VS.NET, created a new web project, tried to add an EF file and SAD TUBA! Same error message I got initially about mscorlib not resolving for target .NET 4. Now during my Twitter conversations, it came up about which projects are defaulted to the .NET 4 Client Framework I mentioned above. I tried an experiment: I added a Winform project to the solution.
Loaded it up, tried to add the EF file, and got the SAME ERROR! This time I checked the properties of the Winform project and saw not only a full Target Framework drop down list but that it was defaulted to the .NET 4 Client Framework. So I tried setting it to the full .NET 4 Framework. Guess what happened?
All the frameworks disappeared from the Target Framework drop list!
This is all getting funky…for those reading this blog post hoping that I was going to provide a solution, sorry to disappoint. I’m blogging this as a cry for help because I have NO idea WTF is going on. The fact that a full uninstall/reinstall didn’t fix this is troubling also. If I come to a solution, I’ll add it…but if anyone has some thoughts/insight, please comment below!
D
When I did the Prairie Developer Conference it was with the idea that you don’t need to have a large-scale event to have a quality event. Other conferences like DevLink, CodeStock, and HDC are smaller scale yet all very successful, and it was their model that I tried to emulate.
Contrast that with Tech Ed and PDC events from the last few years. Large cities (New Orleans, Orlando, Los Angeles), large venues, large staff requirements, and large…well, pretty much everything. The feedback I’ve heard from friends that went to the recent incarnations of these events was “meh”. Especially TechEd New Orleans, where complaints ranged from the cramped convention centre to the lame (their term, not mine, I wasn’t there) attendee party. The value proposition for these large scale events is diminishing.
Enter Microsoft PDC10, which is a refreshing change from the traditional PDC events and also a sign of the times when it comes to cost savings and delivering more (hopefully) on the steak and less on the sizzle.
PDC10 will occur at the Microsoft campus in Redmond, a far cry from the LA convention centre! Cost for this event is cheap by PDC/TechEd standards: a mere $1000 USD! It’s also not the week-long event, and instead will occur over a two day span.
It’s obvious that Microsoft realizes organizations can’t afford to send people off for a week and pay large amounts of money for (in PDC’s case at least) an event that talks about what’s coming soon, not what’s useful now. And for Microsoft, it makes sense too. They just recently did another round of layoffs and while their nowhere near hurting, they obviously need to be more careful about spending.
Attendees want to go to events that are successes, and reducing it to 2 days at a smaller venue and with a lower cost, I think PDC could be a great success this year.
Last year my employer, Protegra, put on the first ever Software Development and Evolution Conference (SDEC) in Winnipeg. The event was such a huge success and the feedback we got was so positive that we’re doing it again this Fall and we’re making it bigger and better than last year!
SDEC10 will occur October 13th and 14th 2010 at the Winnipeg Convention Centre! We’ve expanded the event to two days from the one day we did last year, and that means more sessions and more speakers! We’re still feeding you breakfast and lunch on both days and we’ve made the schedule family friendly so those that have to leave to pick up kids or get home don’t miss anything.
Sessions will fall under three track headings:
Development Management & Methodologies will feature sessions on Agile, Lean, and other topics related to how to manage technology projects.
Developer Foundation covers topics related to the act of developing software, whether it be creating your development ecosystem, using techniques like TDD and BDD, or optimizing your database.
Developing for the Web is…well, just that! But here in 2010 we’ve got more choices than ever for how to perform web development. MVC, Ruby, ASP.NET and others are all vying for our technical selection. If you want to know what’s new and exciting in the web world, this is the track for you!
We’re still finalizing the line-up of speakers and sessions, but you can check out our event website for the abstracts and speaker bios we have available so far.
Pricing for this conference is very reasonable: the Early Bird price (which ends July 31st) is $299.99, and if you register a group of 3 or more you can get an additional $50 off each registration! Registrations can either be done online or by invoice. Check out the registration page on our site for more details.
If you have any questions about the conference, feel free to leave a comment and let me know…happy to answer them. Hope to see you there!
D
This year Microsoft revamped their partner program with changes to eligibility requirements, competencies, and other areas. In this post I want to talk about some changes to the competency requirements.
The idea of competencies aren’t new, however this year we’re seeing Microsoft take a more serious view of who they allow into their partner program. Because of this, achieving those competencies are more difficult and require more investment. The idea is that only serious partners participate. Microsoft wants organizations that help them sell licenses while making consulting dollars off of those transactions. It’s not a bad model, its a smart one actually…for both parties.
My company is one of those partner organizations, and we’re launching internal initiatives around a large component of the whole partner program: having Microsoft certified professionals on staff.
We had a meeting yesterday to discuss what exams were required for the competencies we’re looking at, who was available for upgrade paths, etc. Most of the information we were going off of was from this document found on the Microsoft Partner website. We had downloaded an earlier version (read: pre-June) and by fluke I opened it up yesterday to verify something…but it looked different.
After reviewing this June version of the document, we realized that all our certification targets had to change because the requirements for competencies had been altered. For example, now instead of requiring 4 MCPD Web (.NET 2.0) or ASP.NET 3.5 developers on staff for the Web Developer Advanced Competency, you need 4 MCPD Web Developer 4…as in .NET 4.0. And while individual ASP.NET 3.5 exams still count towards the base competency, why bother when they can’t help you towards the advanced competency certification?
So anyway, the point of this blog post is to serve as a warning. If you’re a Microsoft Partner up for renewal in the next 6 months, you NEED to review the new requirements. Luckily we opened that document up again, otherwise we wouldn’t have been made aware of the changes to the competency requirements.
Also changed seems to be the licenses available for the different competencies (a colleague mentioned that the calculators were spitting out different numbers from before, although I haven’t looked myself to validate that…but it wouldn’t surprise me).
D
From the www.devsforwendy.com:
Wendy is a 30 year old software agilista from Long Island. She's a strong WPF developer and a firm believer in the agile method of development including pair programming and TDD. Wendy is wife and mother of a beautiful girl named Kaylee who will be 2 in August.
In August of 2009 Wendy learned that she had a rare and agressive pediatric cancer called aveolar rhabdomyosarcoma. Her treatment consists of high dose chemotherapy and radiation. She has had to leave her job, and her husband has been forced into part time work in order to care for their daughter.
I’ve actually never met Wendy personally, although I heard of her through friends that attended her DevTeach talks a few years back and have featured her in past blog posts.
DevsForWendy is the work of “Girl Developer” Sara Chipps, who put together a fantastic charity dinner tonight in NYC. If you’re in NY and can make it out, check the website out for how to buy a ticket. But if you’re not, then you can still donate to help Wendy out. There’s a donate link on the DevsForWendy site also.
Also, stay tuned for our next charity event, DevsForDonaldBelchamsLiver!
;)