Random .NET Ramblings

It looks like Novell has made it easy for .NET developers to create and deploy Mono based applications to Linux. This should scare Microsoft quite a bit, one of Microsoft's big concerns is to win server market share on the internet. They have created the WebsitSpark program just try to attract PHP developers to deploy on Windows and here is Novell making it easy for .NET developers to deploy to Linux. Looks like there will be some interesting times ahead for Miguel and the MS relationship people.

Test, package .NET apps for Linux with Visual Studio add-in - Ars Technica

For the record I can't see using Linux, Windows Server 2008 R2 has such good hosting tools now it would be much cheaper to Windows in the long run and at scale.

@ritzy is not going to like this post but?

After the ASP.NET User Group the other night I went and had dinner with Mark Rosenberg and Tim McCarthy and I asked Tim if he was planning on attending PDC. The surprising answer I got was ?No why would I? I can get so much content online that I don?t need to take the time or spend the money to go to conferences any more.? (ok that is not an exact quite but it was close) he also pointed out that all the content from PDC will be available on line soon after a given session is done. Well now we have yet more ways to learn on line with The Channel 9 Learning Center from the site:

The Channel 9 Learning Center is the destination for free technical training on emerging Microsoft products and technologies. The Learning Center consists of a set of courses with each course including a set of videos, hands-on labs, and source code samples to get you up-to-speed quickly.

So if you are in to the bleeding edge stuff here is where you can get information about what Microsoft is up to.

I have migrated my blog from dasblog to BlogEngine.NET and wow was that easy. I found several blog entries from others about doing it and I just fallowed along. I did hit a small snag in the blogML importing in to blogengine.net and I had to tweak a line in the BlogImporter class where the post.DateModified was set there was some code that was breaking so I just set it to import.PostDate and bam all my old posts were in. I want back in the current branch and this fix was already posed but it?s not correct in the 1.5 final code.

So the big question why did I move to new blog software? Well dasblog is great I have been running to for years but the themes implementation is just not that easy to work with and I can?t create pages off my blog. So how did I decide on BlogEngine.NET? to be honest I cam close to going to Wordpress as part of my new job is to know the PHP on Windows experience but I just could not do it. The coding paradigms in BlogEngine.NET are just too familiar (I know I was chicken).

So with the new blog comes a new theme, I will hopefully be getting some more images for the top header soon and I want to be a more up-to-date head shot here as well.

Let me know what you think!

Yesterday the PHP Toolkit for ADO .NET Data Services was released! Ok so what the heck is that? The .NET Data Services was called Project Astoria and it makes a lot of data sources available via a RESTful service interface. This new toolkit makes it easy for PHP developers by creating PHP proxy classes to ADO.NET Data  Services.

I love how much Microsoft has been making recently to make the .NET & Windows platform accessible with it’s continued commitment to openness and interoperability as well as of its embrace of Web standards in its technologies!

If you put this tool kit to use please let me know I would like to see how we can highlight your success.

The Windows product group has launched a contest to get people  started with coding Windows. There will be several winners from around the world and everyone who submits something by 8/15/2009 will be eligible to win a $1000 gift card.

There are 7 guiding principles that the submitted applications need to address:

• Simplify My Life
• More Media, More Places
• Gaming
• Work from Anywhere
• Safeguard Your Work
• Applications for a Better Tomorrow

• Libraries
• Windows Touch
• Shell Integration
• DirectX 11
• Sensor and Location Platform

Check out the site for all the rules The Code⁷ Contest.

So go! I would suggest you get the Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 Beta 1 as there are some new Namespaces to help with new Windows 7 features.

I almost forgot you could get a free trip to the PDC

Good luck!

Just yesterday I commented on twitter how I dreaded giving a 101 talk on the .NET Framework and I was pounced on in twitter and email with comments about how needed that type of content is desired. Like many people once I know something I tend to think everyone knows it… I need to break myself of that!

So today I found a two (new to me) sites that Microsoft has for getting stated…

• Ramp Up
  • This is new part of MSDN that has some quite complete content and helps you track a learning plan.
• www.msdev.com
  • This is a site targeting solution providers but anyone can use the content

Update: SI forgot one of the more amazing offers Microsoft has going right now. it’s called Jumpstart and you get 60 days of free hosting, free Expression Web and Visual Web Developer 2008 Express.

[Cross posted with Strategy and Architecture Council blog]

Joe Shirey and I (Woody Pewitt) have recently concluded a series of Architect Councils titled The Importance of the Client. In 2 weeks and 1 day we did 10 events in 7 cities and while it is always great to meet customers working with our tools and technology due to the break neck travel involved we are happy it’s over!

We talked about what investments Microsoft as made and is making for web development including ASP.NET, ASP.NET AJAX, AJAX Control Toolkit and ASP.NET 4.0 AJAX Preview 4 as well as the work we have done on Internet Explorer 8. We talked about the commitment Microsoft has made with IE8 as far as browser compliance. We also showed some of they ways developers can extend the IE8 shell\chrome with Accelerators, Web Slices and Search.

We had several questions about IE8 and Group Policy and the complete information about Group Policy and Internet Explorer 8 are available but I am happy to say that the developers tools can be turned off. There are many other setting that are manageable via Group Policies in IE8 checkout the Internet Explorer 8 Deployment Guide for more information on how to get IE out to your users with the settings you wan to have for your environment.

If you are interested in the slides I presented I have put them out on my SkyDrive.

Some links that may be of interest were:

• What's New in Internet Explorer 8
• SilverLight Demos
  • Hard Rock Memorabilia
  • Kelley Blue Book Perfect Car Finder: Photo Edition
  • SnapFlow
  • Local Chess
• As an example of a ClickOnce once and rich visualization of data with WPF I showed Vertigo’s Family.Show application.
• For an example of an application that extends the reach of a web site I showed Slideshare’s SlideShare Ribbon that enables interaction with Slideshare from within PowerPoint 2007.
• As examples of extending on to the mobile platform I pointed out Pandora for Windows Mobile.
• I also talked about rich mobile applications with the example of PockeTwit.

For all of you who made it to the events thanks for showing up for those who did not sorry we missed you but we hope you all can make our next set of events witch will be on line. Stay tuned to this blog for details.

Microsoft has teamed up with several web hosting partners to offer 60 days of free web hosting and Microsoft also gives you the software to do the development with.

This should make it easy for anyone who wants to tryout the Windows web platform. For all the details and a list of the hosting companies go to the web page Microsoft Web Platform and enjoy!

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.

Back in the day Microsoft created a code base to be used to help people learn .NET programming. The format was a cool game called Terrarium, the concept was that using .NET code you would build creatures of different types. You had to build each creature within a range of specifications if your animal met the specifications you could put in in to the Terrarium environment and see how it manages with the goal that your creatures take over the Terrarium.

I used the original Terrarium as a way for my students at UCSD to get some real world experience with .NET. I found that a lot of students really got in to the game and enjoyed creating creatures. I never created a successful creature my self but I think I may give it another try this time around.

If you want to learn .NET or know someone who dose you might point them to the new version on CodePlex. The URL is http://www.codeplex.com/terrarium2, just don’t get too sucked in to it! :)