Random .NET Ramblings

The West Region DPE Customer team (the team I work for) is just about to start our 3rd quarter Architect Councils. This Architect Council will be the last in person set of events our team will be doing this fiscal year 4th quarter will be all virtual.

This time around the topic is “The Importance of the Client” we will cover The Value of the Client, The Changing Face of the Web, Creating Powerful Applications on Computers and Devices and The Future of the Client. This is a topic that I am passionate about! Way too often software developers are now creating only online experiences for there users but ask a consumer I bet you often they don’t like the experience. Compare that to when the consumer gets a rich client application I will bet dollars to donuts they prefer the client application.

Locations

Click on the city name for details and to register

3/24/2009 – Bellevue, WA
3/25/2009 – Mountain View, CA
3/26/2009 – San Francisco, CA
3/31/2009 – San Diego, CA
4/1/2009 – Irvine, CA
4/2/2009 – Los Angeles, CA
4/7/2009 – Denver, CO

Local VSTS for Database Professionals workshop around SoCal…

Overview
Visual Studio Team System 2008 Database Edition provides advanced tools for database change management and testing and offers functionality to enable database developers and administrators to be more productive and increase application quality in the database tier.

Visual Studio Team System 2008 Database Edition delivers a market shifting database development product that provides a foundation for managed database evolution through the use of an offline, Visual Studio project-centered source code control system together with a suite of tools designed to help understand the impact of proposed changes. Schemas, DML and metadata can be versioned, code can be automatically reviewed using static analysis, unit tests can be created and executed to ensure quality, and comparisons can be made with test and production systems prior to deployment. Integration with Visual Studio Team System 2008 Team Foundation Server helps increase the productivity of the database professionals by enabling them to become an integral part of the application team.

Please join Microsoft and Adventos for this one-day course to learn how the Developer and Database editions of Team System work together in the application lifecycle.

Course Outline

I. Core Features of TFS

II. Team Projects

III. Source Control and Team Foundation Build

IV. Managing Databases in a Team Environment

Who Should Attend?

Database Administrators, Database Developers

The schedule for each event is:

Welcome: 8:30 PM

Seminar: 9:00 AM-4:30 PM

Los Angeles, CA
March 3, 2009
Click here to register with invitation code: 31A402

Irvine, CA

March 4, 2009

Click here to register with invitation code: E4995A

San Diego, CA

March 5, 2009

Click here to register with invitation code: 3B9F3B

To Register by Phone –

Call 1.877.MSEVENT (1.877.673.8368) with invitation code.

It’s been a long while but we finally have a MSDN event scheduled the cool think is that it’s all about stuff people have been asking about.

The topics are:

Demystifying Azure - An Overview of the Azure Services Platform for Developers
Deepen your Debugging - Tips and Tricks for the Visual Studio 2008 Debugger
Developing for Windows Mobile Devices

All the details and more descriptions are at MSDN Events: Azure, Debugging and Mobility where you can register.

The West Region Visual Studio sales team and Neudesic are hosting 6 events where customers are invited to come see how Visual Studio Team System and Microsoft Visual Studio Team System 2008 can be used to implement the Agile method known as "Scrum".

8/26/2008 - Mountain View, CA Register

8/28/2008 - Phoenix, AZ Register

9/9/2008 - Irvine, CA Register

9/10/2008 - Los Angeles, CA Register

9/23/2008 - Denver, CO Register

9/25/2008 - Salt Lake City, UT Register

Last week I presented to to about 30 to 40 people in Irvine about developing applications for the Mobile platform using the Compact Framework. The audience was great, lot's of good questions and interactions, I had promised to post all the content after the class and while this fulfils the terms of that statement I am sorry it has take me this long.

There are still some Mobility Metro events scheduled see Loke Uei Tan's blog entry More Mobility Metro events for more information. I talked to Loke this week and he has assured me we will be doing more of these events in a few more months as well.

That's right the Code Trip is coming to Southern California we will be doing some fun events while the bus is here. The bus will be coming from Phoenix to San Diego on the 24th some time in the early evening. We will be keeping the bus at my families winery in Rancho Bernardo (Bernardo Winery) where it will stay  until about 4:30p on the 25th where it will be heading to the San Diego .NET Users Group meeting in Scripps Ranch Library where we will get to hear from Michele Leroux Bustamente and Jon Galloway on SilverLight and WCF. We will have Pizza and a bunch of giveaways!

That night we will be driving to Irvine and staying at the Hyatt next to the Microsoft Office where we will have the next event on the 26th. We will hear from John Bowen about the iZooFari project and David Robinson about SQL Server Data Services. This event is being sponsored by speakTECH!

On the 27th the Code Trip is earning it's pay! We have three event we will be at:

Cal State Fullerton
USC
LA Geek Dinner

At each we will have different things going on so any of them will be a good place to catch us!

On the 28th we have a special party at RedBull planed we will hear again from David Robinson and we will see some cool SilverLight applications but mostly we will be socializing and getting to know other developers in SoCal. Space is quite limited so please register soon!

And finally we will be stopping at Cuesta Community College in San Luis Obispo where we will speak to a few classes and have a community meeting as well.

I hope if you are in SoCal you can make one or more of these events I am sure you will see some new stuff and have a bunch of fun!

Last night I got to be the local lead for the Halo 3 launch event in the SoCal Irvine office and WOW what I hot event! OK that was a reference to the non-existent air conditioning but event with no air conditioning every one had a blast. We had 6 XBoxes running Halo 3 and one running Garter Hero. 130 people from all parts of SoCal (San Diego, Santa Monica and further) lots of good gammier food (pizza, chips, candy etc.). At one point we had one team of 4 get ganged up on by two other teams because they were just too good :).

I have posted some pictures on flickr with the tag "halo3irvine" check them out and please add your own if you have some.

I would like to point out this event was a huge effort and all I had to do was setup the local hardware and host the event. Many many people (Erin, Jason, Yesenia, Scott, Matt, Jas, Shaina and Chris) made this event happen you all are the reason that working here is so much fun!