Team System Pricing, Licensing and New Names Announced

Pricing and licensing details for the Team System SKUs have finally been made public.

Rob Caron has announced the details over on his blog.  A must read!

If you read carefully you'll notice the slightly altered product names as well.

-Chris

Visual Studio 2005 & Team System - Technical Preview Sessions

Thom Robbins has just announced two special full-day sessions on Visual Studio 2005 and Team System coming to the Waltham, MA and Farmington, CT Microsoft offices.

“Microsoft is preparing for the release of the next generation of our developer tools, including tools for business analysts, architects, testers, and project managers.  Anchored by Visual Studio 2005, Visual Studio Team System is designed to increase integration and communication among the various resources within the software development lifecycle and to increase the overall security and quality of these projects.  This event provides an overview of these tools as well as guidance to effectively manage the transition from your current MSDN subscriptions and VS licenses to these new products.“

Waltham, MA

Date and Time:  May 11^th 2005

8:15AM - 8:30AM: Registration, Welcome & Breakfast
8:30AM - 5:00PM: Technical Preview Presentation

Location:              

Microsoft New England District Office- MPR
201 Jones Road
Waltham, Massachusetts 02451

Registration:  http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032272311&Culture=en-US

Farmington, CT

Date and Time:  May 5^th 2005

9:00AM - 9:30AM: Registration, Welcome & Breakfast
9:30AM - 5:00PM: Technical Preview Presentation

Location:      

Microsoft Farmington Office- MPR
74 Batterson Park Road
Farmington, Connecticut 06032

Registration:  http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032272314&Culture=en-US

More great free content available to New England developers!

-Chris

TechEd Orlando - Count Me In!

It looks like I'll be able to make it to Orlando for TechEd this year!  (Flair image has dutifully been added at right.)

I always get so much out of attending - great content, discussions with vendors, hands-on labs, catching up with acquaintances and making new ones.  The 2000 TechEd in Orlando went very well, having a good convention center and plenty of activities for the, oh, 60 minutes of free time I had each night.  Looking forward to it!

I've added my blog to the growing list at TechEdBloggers.net.

-Chris

P.S.  I haven't booked a hotel yet.  Has anyone done the legwork to pick out a good one from the list?

New England Code Camp III this Weekend!

Let's hope we don't get too much snow for this weekend's (sold-out**) Code Camp III!

Thom has announced that Microsoft will conduct hands-on labs at the Microsoft Technology Center (MTC) on Saturday from 1-5.  Seating is limited and you can sign up for these when you arrive at Code Camp on Saturday morning.  The MTC is about a mile drive from the Jones Road offices.

He also sends word that the final agenda is ready (and probably won't change.)  The session descriptions are online as well.

I wanted to have more time to see other peoples' sessions, so I've cut back from doing four at the last code camp to just two:

• “Moving to Visual Studio 2005 Team System Unit Testing” - The session will concentrate on introducing the unit testing features of Team System, pointing out how they compare and contrast with solutions available today as well as issues to plan for during migration.  Experience with unit testing is not required, but is of course helpful. 
• “Effective Development Practices in .NET” - This peer discussion (“chalk talk“) went so well at Code Camp II that I wanted to conduct it again.  The exact topics are open, but I have a list of potential topics to get things started.  Conversation revolves around the practices and tools with which people have had success (or sometimes failure!)

Looking forward to seeing you there!
-Chris

** Although the Camp is “sold-out”, if you're interested, I recommend you sign up for the waitlist and show up anyway.  Chances are excellent that the snow will keep a larger percentage of registrants away (at least on Saturday.)

New Hampshire .NET User Group - The Return

Fellow Cabana Night veteran Pat Tormey (who really needs to start a blog) sends word that the New Hampshire .NET User Group is back!  If you go to the website, you can vote for your preferences of location and night of future meetings.

There are also plenty of opportunities to volunteer, so if you live in the area, join in and help to make the group a success!

“New Hampshire Dot Net is Back from Sabbatical

And we need your advice! See the Survey at our new web home www.NHDN.com

Pat Tormey (Foursquare Solutions Inc.) has just accepted the position of President of the New Hampshire Dot Net user group. Jim Murphy has accepted the position of Vise President and member of the Executive Committee board.

Current President of Boston User Groups, and previous of New England C #, Pat has a long history as a user group President and activist.

________________________________

New Executive Committee

First order of business is to reestablish the Executive Committee (ExeCom). If you are interested in participating please contact Pat at PTormey@4square.net.

The ExeCom will be a working group with hands on responsibility.

ExeCom members will be expected to plan at least one meeting per year.

Please only volunteer if you have the time.

Advisory Committee

NHDN will also support a non-voting Advisory Committee (AdCom) as a resource for additional comments and discussion..

Schedule & Location

Two immediate items are to be resolved at the first ExeCom meeting.

Where to hold the meetings and which evening work best for the membership

Please send your comments to PTormey@4square.net”

-Chris