Mike Azocar

Coolest Team System Gadget Contest Winner!

2008-11-17T21:05:24-06:00:00

Sorry this is so late, but we have a winner for the contest!

Our winner is Matthew Rowan whose gadget is called TFS Working. This gadget allows you track your time against work items in a very useful manner.

Go check it out when you get a chance!

Congratulations Matthew!!!

Happy Coding!

Microsoft Developer Conference

2008-11-05T15:01:00-06:00:00

If you weren’t able to make PDC a few weeks ago, we are now taking some of the show on the road!

These day long events are great for keeping your skills sharp and also you get a chance to take a look at Windows 7 and Windows Azure!

You will need to use an RSVP code when you register. So choose one of the following:

Audience	RSVP Code
Developers	MDCDEV
Architects	MDCARC
Designers	MDCDES
Students	MDCSTU
User Groups	MDCCUG

The event is $99 and includes lunch and some cooool giveaways.

Happy Coding!

Presenting at the Houston Dot Net User Group in October

2008-10-08T13:00:25-05:00:00

In case you missed me at Tech Ed, I will be doing the popular "Scrum-tastic Development with Visual Studio Team System and Light Weight Scrum" presentation at the Houston .Net User Group tomorrow night (October 9th).

Come and see me if you get a chance.

Happy Coding!

M. Night Shyamalan should be ashamed!

2008-09-12T10:52:46-05:00:00

This is clearly the direct result of the movie The Happening. These people are so afraid that the trees will kill them that they are begging for their lives. Shame on you Shyamalan. Shame on you.

Happy Coding!

Houston TechFest

2008-08-29T15:01:41-05:00:00

The second annual Houston TechFest is coming up on September 13 at the University of Houston. If you are in Houston on the surrounding (huge) area and would like to come and geek out you should sign up. Last I heard from the organizer, there were 500 signed up to attend.

This year there is a great cast of speakers including my buddies Christian Thilmany (Microsoft), David Walker (SharePoint MVP), John Cook (Virtualization MVP and SQL Guru) and Tim Rayburn (Biztalk MVP).

I am doing two sessions this year one on Scrum and the Light Weight Scrum Process Template and the other is an update to the session I did last year "Making your Test Lab Obsolete: Part Deux."

I would love to meet you if you can make it out.

Happy Coding!

Data Dude GDR CTP 16 Available!

2008-08-28T14:53:40-05:00:00

Sorry this is a little late.

Two important things about the GDR for Data Dude.

1. No more design-time databases.

2. There is now a provider model for databases. This is how they will support DB2 when then GDR is released and how they will also support Oracle in the near future.

From Gert Drapers:

The team is happy to announce that we just released CTP16, of the Visual Studio Team System 2008 Database Edition GDR release. ...

This release adds the following features:

VSDBCMD.EXE
- We added independent commandline deployment and reverse engineer, which can be used on machines that do not have Visual Studio installed, in order to deploy the results of a database project build (.dbschema file), or if you need to generate a .dbschema file so you can for example compare it, this commandline tool will let you do that as well.
Database Project (.dbproj) Upgrades
- CTP15 enabled upgrade of project files, but did not included updating Data Generation Plans (.DGEN files), which now be upgraded when they are opened the first time inside the DGEN designer.
Schema Compare
- You can now choose the SQL Command Variables (SQLCMD) to use during a Schema Compare session by clicking the “Specify SQLCMD variables” button on the Schema Compare toolbar. This will allow you to compare projects that are using SQLCMD variables and provide the contextual information via the variable values.
- You can now set the Schema Compare options at the session level, in addition to Tools->Options, by clicking the Settings button on the Schema Compare toolbar.
- And you can now save your Schema Compare session and reopen it again. We also added an item template for this, name "Schema Comparison"

Extensibility
- We finished the namespace and assembly naming cleanup. As a result all assembly names and namespaces have been changed. This means if you have code leveraging our extensibility mechanisms you need to update the assembly references and namespaces in your code.
- We added the ability to add your own refactoring types! So now you can create your own refactoring command and have it change all the required references inside the schema. This is above and beyond the ability to create your own refactoring targets (the sources your want to change by an refactoring type), static code analysis rules, data generators, data distributions and test conditions.
- We now also offer public access to our TSQL parsers for SQL Server 2000, 2005 and 2008, including the script generator functionality.
And then there are many more enhancements in the parser, interpreter, validation, build and deploy.

Pre-requisites:

CTP16 requires the following components to be installed:

Download location:

You can download CTP16 from the following location:

NOTE: If you have a previous version of the GDR installed, you will have to first uninstall this and then install the latest CTP16 bits.

...

Check it out when you get a chance.

Happy Coding!

Want to Learn WPF?

2008-08-27T10:53:28-05:00:00

MSDN Unleashed

Session 1: Demystifying WPF

Today’s applications need to do more than simply work. They need to draw in the user, and provide a differentiated experience. This means moving beyond battleship gray forms, boxy UIs, and providing a positive user experience. Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) provides powerful capabilities to develop a compelling user interface, the kind that makes an application stand out. In this session, we’ll examine the core concepts of WPF such as layout panels, data binding, styles and control templates, and we’ll use them to develop an application UI from the ground up.

Session 2: Developing Applications with Visual Studio 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1

Service Pack 1 and Visual Studio 2008 introduce a wide variety of new features for targeting Windows, Office and the Web. This includes more controls, a streamlined setup, improved startup performance, fresh graphics features, improved AJAX support, and much more. We’re also introducing the ADO.NET Entity Framework and ADO.NET Data Services, which are designed to simplify application data access by providing an extensible, conceptual model for data from any source, while enabling this model to closely reflect business requirements. Don’t miss this lively session and learn how to use these powerful new features in your applications.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

Anyone who designs, develops, or debugs code. If you are an architect, developer or just enjoy curly braces, join us.

WHERE ARE THE EVENTS?

Events are held in 12 cities across Central Region. To register for this event, please select a link below.

9/10/08 Nashville TN

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9/16/08 Downers Grove IL

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9/17/08 Indianapolis IN

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9/23/08 Irving TX

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9/23/08 Waukesha WI

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9/24/08 Houston TX

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9/25/08 Austin TX

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9/30/08 Southfield MI

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10/2/08 Columbus OH

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10/7/08 Chicago IL

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10/7/08 Mason OH

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10/9/08 Cleveland OH

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WHAT TIME ARE THESE EVENTS?

1:00pm – 4:00pm

Happy Coding!!!

Steve Andrews on MVP TV

2008-08-27T10:45:24-05:00:00

Last week was the debut of MVP TV. The idea behind MVP TV is to use Live Meeting to allow for a lot of user interaction with the presenter and create a recording for others to view. The presenter last week was Team System MVP Steve Andrews. Steve covered Team Build 2008 and MSBuild 3.5. I lurked for a bit to get an idea since I think I am the next one to present.

Check it out when you have a chance.

Happy Coding!

Turning Windows 2008 into a Desktop Work Station

2008-08-26T16:02:09-05:00:00

So if you are like me and you can't live without Hyper-V, then there are some things you miss going to Windows 2008 and using it as your desktop. I was searching for a tool that would allow me to use LiveWriter on 2008 today and I came across an awesome website. Basically, this site has all of the things you need. In addition, there is a tool that allows you do all of the hacks and edits you need without doing all of the leg work.

Freaking amazing.

Happy Coding!

Microsoft ArcReady Event Coming to Houston, Dallas and Austin

2008-08-25T20:14:47-05:00:00

Microsoft ArcReady

Architecting Modern Distributed Applications

Nearly every application we build today has dependencies to other systems. How do we design them to work together to meet our goals? How do we decide what to build and what to buy? Do we host it ourselves or in the cloud? With a bewildering array of choices, the biggest challenge we face today is how to architect robust applications with the right technologies to meet our user’s needs and integrate nicely into our existing IT ecosystems.

Join our Central Region Architect Evangelists for a great discussion on architecting distributed applications using all the latest technologies and best practices.

Session 1: Blueprints for Success. In this session, we will survey the modern architecture landscape from the ground up, including infrastructure, application, and client solution choices. We’ll discuss how current industry trends are shaping our architectures and present an innovative architecture mapping technique for analyzing our customer’s needs and aligning them to today’s technologies and solution patterns.
Session 2: Making It Real. In this session, we’ll take a look at several case studies to learn how to apply the mapping technique from Session 1 to architect real world solutions that add true business value. We’ll examine applications we use every day and take a walk through a Microsoft reference architecture that explores many of the decisions we face when building modern distributed applications.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

Architects and Senior Developers who are interested in becoming an architect.

WHERE ARE THE EVENTS?

Events are held in 16 cities across Central Region. To register for this event, please visit www.arcready.com.

9/23/08       Dallas, TX

9/24/08       Houston, TX

9/25/08       Austin, TX

WHAT TIME ARE THESE EVENTS?

9:00am – 11:30am