April 2005 - Posts
I just returned from the Microsoft East Region Architect Forum in Washington, DC and enjoyed the trip. There was some excellent content, but equally important was seeing some old friends and meeting fellow architects from other great companies all along the eastern seaboard.
One subject that (all too briefly) came up during a discussion was that one company has been effectively using mailing-list based technology discussion groups. The key to their success was that by using email, people didn't have to context-switch over to another place for discussions, such as a forums application. Having seen my share of discussion ideas start with a bang and fizzle out from lack of use (forums, intranets and internal NNTP groups,) I clearly understand the value keeping discussions front-and-center with employees' daily routines.
The problem with this approach is that mailing lists have no memory. You send an email and it either gets deleted or squirreled away in various recipients' private folders. A new employee comes along, has a similar question and has to send a repetitive email.
What I need is the ability to set up distribution lists that have the ease-of-use of email, but where messages get stored for all users to access at any later point and, more importantly, are searchable.
Have you seen anything that would enable such a scenario? Configurations of or additions to Exchange? Applications of SharePoint? Are there any third-party forum packages that support posting & reading entirely via email?
-Chris
We're very pleased to be hosting two amazing speakers at our April and May Boston .NET User Group meetings!
On April 27th, join us as David Chappell speaks on Indigo, featuring plenty of demonstrations. David is one of the most well-spoken people I know and I always enjoy his sessions. I had planted the bug in David's ear to come speak to the user group while at the “Influencer” party at TechEd last year. The scheduling stars have finally aligned to enable him to do so.
- 5:00-6:15: Technology Study Group - “Tool Time!” We'll demonstrate many free or nearly-free tools every .NET developer should consider using. Know of a great tool you'd like to demonstrate? Send a note to us at studygroup@bostondotnet.org and we'll plan some stage time for you. [Register]
- 6:30-8:30: Main Session - David Chappell - “Indigo In-Depth” [Register]
On May 11th, Miguel de Icaza returns to BDN to give the latest news on Mono and the open source community. Miguel brings a refreshingly different perspective that is guaranteed to open your eyes and pique your interest. The session he gave at BDN last March was was absolutely packed, so be certain to register early!
- 5:00-6:15: Technology Study Group - Topic to be announced. [Register]
- 6:30-8:30: Main Session - Miguel de Icaza “Mono: The Open Source Development Platform for .NET” [Register]
I hope to see you there!
-Chris
“NTeam” Open Source Project Based on Team System
E-Week has coverage of the fledgling effort, called NTeam, just getting underway to create an open-source counterpart to Visual Studio Team System. They seek to integrate existing open-source solutions (e.g. NUnit, NAnt, etc.) to enable smaller development organizations to achieve a degree of VSTS-like functionality without a VSTS-like price.
Here is the project home page.
It will be interesting to see if the initial fuel of interest is enough to propel this effort through the many issues that will undoubtedly be faced trying to integrate disparate technologies in a workable (and pluggable) solution. While they mention they aren't trying to directly compete with VSTS, even trying to emulate the features and integration of VSTS is a tall order.
Whidbey/VSTS Newsgroups Moved to MSDN Forums
As reported by Rob Caron, The microsoft.private.whidbey.* groups have now been replaced with new groups in the MSDN Forums.
Command-Line Code Coverage with VSTS
John Cunningham has a great post on how to perform code coverage using the command-line tools in Team System. It is based on Beta 2 APIs, but you'll have it very soon, right? ;)
Class Designer Channel 9 Videos
While Visual Studio 2005's Class Designer isn't technically part of Team System, it can be considered an “honorary“ part of Team System Architect and Developer editions. There is a three-part series of short videos with John Stallo demonstrating the Class Designer over at Channel 9:
“.NET Rocks!” on Team System at TechEd
Carl and Richard will be recording a .NET Rocks show at TechEd during a lunch break. The guests will be members of the Team System development team, including Eric Lee, Michael Leworthy, Ajay Sudan and Beindia Hallauer.
I'll see you there, Carl!
-Chris
If you're curious about Indigo, take a look at the seven hours video content at:
http://www.ftponline.com/special/indigo/
They include sessions from VSLive by Don Box, Eric Rudder, Doug Purdy and others.
NOTE #1: They ask you to create an account first, but you'll find a selection of conveniently pre-baked accounts at BugMeNot. I also find Mailinator very handy in these cases. :)
NOTE #2: Watching the videos in the puny default framed mode is ridiculous, especially when the session includes code. Launch the video, then right-click on the video and select properties. Copy-paste the video url (e.g. “mms://.../something.wmv“) and launch another browser to that link. You'll then be able to watch the video in full-screen mode if you choose.
-Chris
Rory and Scott have pulled out all the stops to get the TechEd word out. Now, with the disturbing and frightening “video #3“, they've given us a glimpse into a secret ritual never before seen outside of Redmond. Don't watch video #3 in the dark, or alone, or alone in the dark.
Here are links to the videos:
Of course, they're wearing the same shirts in each video, so let's hope that means they were all shot on the same day (or they REALLY like those shirts and have a bunch of identical ones.) How many more videos will there be? Keep an eye on Scott's blog to find out...
-Chris