I’m in Orlando now, and spent the afternoon at an INETA Summit. Very cool — I got to meet a number of “famous” people while there, including Chris Pels (President of INETA) and Shaun Walker (of DotNetNuke fame). Very cool.
At the moment, I am standing at a terminal inside the convention center. Gerry and I just checked in to Tech·Ed and are making dinner plans with some other INETA people. So I thought I’d take a minute for a quick post.
BTW, this place is huge.
Here is my tentative Tech·Ed schedule. There are several time slots where I have double- or triple-booked myself. Also, I have been told by experienced Tech·Ed attendees to let my schedule be flexible — make sure I hit the things that are critical to me, but let the other times be rearranged if necessary. I suppose this makes sense, especially because of the Grok Talks. I haven’t compared schedules (GT schedules for Tues, Weds, Thurs), but hopefully I’ll be able to skip something less interesting for three really interesting Grok Talks.
In addition to my full schedule, I am hoping to be able to make it to the last half of a User Group Leader Summit for INETA and Culminis group leaders. The reason I’m hoping to make the last half is that it takes place all day Sunday, and I don’t arrive until around noon or so on Sunday. I didn’t know about this summit in time to book my flight appropriately. Oh well.
Anyway, as promised, for what it’s worth, here is my current (overbooked) schedule.
| Monday, June 06 | ||
| 9:00 AM – 10:15 AM | ||
| Opening Keynote | ||
| 10:45 AM – 12:00 PM | ||
| DAT382 Database Application Quick Start with SQL Server Express and Microsoft Visual Basic .NET 2005 (S 210 E) | ||
| WEB320 ASP.NET: Best Practices and Techniques for Migrating ASP.NET 1.x Applications to ASP.NET 2.0 (N 320 B/F) | ||
| 12:15 PM – 1:15 PM | ||
| GNL003 Microsoft Learning Presents: Getting Ready for Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005 (N 320 D/H) | ||
| 1:30 PM – 2:45 PM | ||
| WEB321 ASP.NET 2.0: A Look Inside Membership, Role Management and Profiles in ASP.NET 2.0 (N 320 D/H) | ||
| 3:15 PM – 4:30 PM | ||
| BIN333 Ad Hoc Reporting with Report Builder: Extending the Capabilities of SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services (N 320 D/H) | ||
| DBA304 Advanced Querying Techniques, Tips & Tricks Using Transact-SQL (S 310 A) | ||
| 5:00 PM – 6:15 PM | ||
| DEV260 Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team System: Managing the Software Lifecycle with Visual Studio 2005 Team System (S 310 A) | ||
| 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM | ||
| Exhibit Hall Reception | ||
| Tuesday, June 07 | ||
| 9:00 AM – 10:15 AM | ||
| Keynote | ||
| 10:45 AM – 12:00 PM | ||
| ARC305 Code Generation: Architecting a New Kind of Reuse (N 320 D/H) | ||
| 12:15 PM – 1:15 PM | ||
| GNL005 Behind the Scenes of TechEd: A Look at the Development of TechEd’s New Hands-on Lab Launchpad Application (N 320 D/H) | ||
| 1:30 PM – 2:45 PM | ||
| ARC206 Next Generation Service-Oriented Architectures (S 320 A) | ||
| CSI349 Beyond the Wizards: A Practical Approach to Web Services Security with WSE (S 220 E) | ||
| DAT385 Using the New Microsoft Report Controls in Visual Studio 2005 (N 320 D/H) | ||
| 3:15 PM – 4:30 PM | ||
| DEV280 Advances in Threat Modeling (S 210 E) | ||
| WEB329 ASP.NET: A Lap Around the New Enhancements for Web Developers in Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 (S 320 A) | ||
| 5:00 PM – 6:15 PM | ||
| ARC308 Dealing with Data in Service-Oriented Architectures (N 210 E) | ||
| DAT320 Integrated Innovation: Using ADO.NET 2.0 with SQL Server 2005 (S 220 D) | ||
| DEV362 Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team System: Building Robust and Reliable Software (S 310 A) | ||
| 6:30 PM – 7:30 PM | ||
| BOF001 Software Factories: Making ASP.NET Server Controls Simpler (Track Cabana 01A) | ||
| BOF010 Test-Driven Development is Design! (S 321) | ||
| 7:45 PM – 8:45 PM | ||
| BOF019 What are Microsoft Patterns and Practices and Why Should I Care? (Track Cabana 16) | ||
| BOF020 Contract-First Web Services: Step-by-Step (S 321) | ||
| 9:00 PM – 10:00 PM | ||
| BOF023 Data Access for Business Objects with NHibernate (Track Cabana 04) | ||
| Wednesday, June 08 | ||
| 8:30 AM – 9:45 AM | ||
| ARC309 Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Software Architects: Developing Service-Oriented Systems (N 320 B/F) | ||
| 10:15 AM – 11:30 AM | ||
| ARC310 Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Software Architects: Developing Logical Datacenters (S 220 E) | ||
| WEB323 ASP.NET 2.0: Overview of ASP.NET 2.0 (Part 1) (S 320 A) | ||
| 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM | ||
| GNL009 .NET Rocks! Live @ TechEd with Visual Studio 2005 Team System (N 320 D/H) | ||
| 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM | ||
| DEV463 Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team System: Maximizing Collaboration with Team Foundation Server (S 220 E) | ||
| WEB324 ASP.NET 2.0: Overview of ASP.NET 2.0 (Part 2) (S 330) | ||
| 3:45 PM – 5:00 PM | ||
| DEV351 Microsoft Visual Basic 2005: Application Frameworks and Advanced Language Features (N 210 E) | ||
| DEV364 Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team System: Enabling Better Software through Better Testing (S 310 A) | ||
| 5:30 PM – 6:45 PM | ||
| DEV380 Enterprise Library In-Depth (S 220 D) | ||
| 6:30 PM – 7:30 PM | ||
| BOF035 Innovative Techniques in .NET Development (Track Cabana 08) | ||
| 7:45 PM – 8:45 PM | ||
| BOF041 Pragmatic Architecture (Track Cabana 02) | ||
| 9:00 PM – 10:00 PM | ||
| BOF049 CSS and ASP.NET (Track Cabana 01A) | ||
| BOF052 Writing Secure Code (S 321) | ||
| Thursday, June 09 | ||
| 8:30 AM – 9:45 AM | ||
| ARC313 Patterns for Service-Oriented Architecture (S 310 A) | ||
| DEV467 Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team System: Using Visual Studio 2005 Team System to Support Your Agile Processes (S 220 E) | ||
| WEB325 ASP.NET 2.0: Building Data-Driven Web Sites in ASP.NET 2.0 (S 330) | ||
| 10:15 AM – 11:30 AM | ||
| ARC314 Passing Messages: A Flexible, Powerful and Extensible Communication Model (N 210 E) | ||
| DEV365 Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Software Architects Overview (S 210 E) | ||
| WEB330 ASP.NET: Using Microsoft Visual 2005 Studio Team System to Build Enterprise Web Applications (S 320 A) | ||
| 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM | ||
| GNL011 Inside Microsoft: Perspective on Creating Technology for the World with Don Box (N 230) | ||
| 1:30 PM – 2:45 PM | ||
| WEB343 ASP.NET and IIS: New Developments in Web Security With IIS 6.0 and ASP.NET (S 320 A) | ||
| 3:15 PM – 4:30 PM | ||
| ARC316 Tight Processes, Loose Services (S 210 E) | ||
| DAT400 SQLCLR vs. T-SQL: Best Practices for Development in the Database (N 220 E) | ||
| 5:00 PM – 6:15 PM | ||
| BIN335 SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services Custom Report Items (S 320 A) | ||
| 7:00 PM – 11:00 PM | ||
| Attendee Party | ||
| Friday, June 10 | ||
| 9:00 AM – 10:15 AM | ||
| ARC317 Service Oriented Management: The Business Imperatives (N 210 B) | ||
| DEV461 Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team System: Advanced Project Management and Reporting in Visual Studio 2005 Team System (S 220 D) | ||
| 10:45 AM – 12:00 PM | ||
| ARC318 Service-Oriented Management: The Technical Solutions (S 220 D) | ||
| WEB327 ASP.NET 2.0: Best Practices for Building Web Application UI with Master Pages, Themes, and Site Navigation (S 330) | ||
| 1:00 PM – 2:15 PM | ||
| ARC419 The Grey Area of Implementing Services Using Object-Oriented Technologies (S 220 D) | ||
| DEV466 Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team System: Enterprise-Class Source Control (S 220 E) | ||
| 2:45 PM – 4:00 PM | ||
| Open | ||
I love my iPod. It’s an amazing thing. What I don’t love is having to run the system restore on my iPod every 5 weeks or so. I don’t understand why it happens or if I’m even doing anything to cause it, but periodically when I go to sync it, I get a message that some file is corrupt. (I’m sure a Google search would clear things up, but that’s too easy.)
So I try to run the latest iPod Update from Apple. There are two problems with this, though:
What a pain!
I suppose it could be worse — I could carry 160+ cassette tapes around with me.
So, I wanted to install VS 2005 Beta 2 so that I can play with it before (and at) Tech·Ed. Well rather than install it rught my laptop (in case of any potential conflict or crash or whatever) I decided to install it in a virtual machine. On my work laptop I installed VMWare Workstation and on my own laptop I installed Microsoft Virtual PC.
Both were incredibly slow. I mean painful. Granted each machine has only 512MB of RAM, but I can’t believe how slow it was. S. L. O. W.
Fortunately (in a sick sense), I had a problem with my work laptop and it will need to be re-imaged. So I removed VMWare and installed Beta 2 right on the base OS.
I got it all (VS, SQL, MSDN, Visio, VSS, etc.) installed just before I left the office today. I’m hoping to get in a couple hours of “play time” before the sessions start. If anyone else is using Beta 2 already, I’d appreciate any tips or warnings you might have.
Also, if you’re going to Tech·Ed, let me know. I’m staying at Westgate Lakes Resort & Spa.
So I’m flying out to Tech·Ed on Sunday. Once I finalize my schedule, I’ll post it here (in case anyone cares).
I found something interesting on Scott Hanselman’s blog, though. They are going to have condensed, 10-minute GrokTalk sessions covering a lot of topics in a short amount of time. Now I just have to see if there are any sessions I can skip.
Sometimes when developing web applications it is useful to have them live at the root of the web space instead of a virtual directory (which is the default for Visual Studio). This is not always the case these days, but when I was still doing a lot of classic ASP development, I would often need this. Since XP Pro only allows one web site (as opposed to Windows 2000/2003 Server, which allows multiples), I spent a lot of time loading IIS, going to the properties page, and changing the “Home Directory” for the web site.
Maybe it’s because my computer was crappy, or maybe there was too much other stuff in memory, or maybe it’s always this way, but IIS was slow to load, plus that seemed like a lot of clicks for something so simple. So, a long time ago I wrote a simple utility in VB6 (to help me deal with this. Then as I was learning .NET, I re-wrote it as a WinForms app (including the designer generated code, it’s all of 157 lines of VB.NET). In a nutshell, it lets you choose a new folder to be the webroot on your local machine. Additionally, it keeps a history of directories used (in a text file) so that you can easily switch back to another in the future.
For me, the main benefits were that it loads much quicker than the IIS console, and that there are not as many clicks needed, especially if you’re just switching back to a previously used web root. But it’s far from perfect, so here are a couple ideas for possible future improvement (if I ever work on it again):
So anyway, take it for what it’s worth. Use it if you want. As always, use it at your own risk. Here is the ZIP download. Aside from this post, there are no docs of any kind — you’re on your own. If anyone is interested in source, I can supply that as well, or you can just use Reflector. It’s pretty basic, but if you want to make any improvements (my ideas or your own), I’d like to see the result.
I rarely use this anymore, but it came to mind again recently, so I thought I’d post it in case it might be of use to someone else.
I found this quote online today in this article on MarketingProfs.com:
“Guided by our parents, our teachers, our managers and by psychology’s fascination with pathology, we become experts in our weaknesses and spend our lives trying to repair these flaws, while our strengths lie dormant and neglected.”
Hmmm. That one made me stop and think for a few minutes. How true it is, for me at least. Lately I’ve been finding myself examining my weaknesses and trying to go about correcting them. I don’t want to do anything poorly.
The thing is, those “weaknesses” don’t affect my ability to perform well. If I focused the same effort toward improving my strengths, the net result would be a more productive Scott than if I continue trying to improve my weaknesses.
Of course, there are, and always will be, some weaknesses that need improving. There will always be new things to learn, better ways to do things, and mistakes to correct. But the balance of trying to not do anything poorly keeping me from really excelling at what I am already good at — it’s keeping me from becoming an expert.
I’ve always thought to myself, “I don’t have to be the best at Topic X, but I don’t want to be the worst.” Perhaps what I should have been thinking was, “Since I want to be the best at Topic A, I’m not going to really worry about Topics X, Y or Z anymore, and it doesn’t matter if I am the worst at those.” I just have to learn to accept that it’s OK if I suck at some things, as long as that allows me to excel at others.
The whole concept is not new to me — I’ve even blogged about it before. Related conversations might discuss specialization, niches, long-tail, Purple Cow, etc. Sometimes, more important than something being said is the way it’s said.
Hmmm. I like that sentence, so I’ll quote myself now to make it stand out more:
Sometimes, more important than something being said is the way it’s said.
(I’m not sure what the rules are for quoting yourself from within the same context as the original quote. Just in case, I’ll mention that I found this quote here.)
But I suppose that diversion will take us away from my actual topic here, so I’ll have to come back to that another day.
So anyway, I’m going to try to update the filters, and only concentrate on the important stuff.
There you go, about a dozen paragraphs to tell you that I’m going to try to focus on something. I guess that just shows that one of my weaknesses is knowing when to be verbose and when to not be verbose. 🙂
So I found out yesterday that someone I know is going to work for Telligent Systems, the company that makes Community Server, which is teh software that I use for this blog.
Congratulations to Dan Bartels, a fellow Milwaukee-area developer, on this new position.
Now that I know someone on the CS team, I’ll have to start sending in lots of feature suggestions and bugs…
I mentioned the other day that I’m going to see the new Star Wars movie with a few friends.
That’s happening tomorrow night, but in the meantime, if you’re any kind of a Star Wars fan, you need to check out Store Wars.
From Glenn Vanderburg via Matt Terski:
It should be noted that no ethically-trained software engineer would ever consent to write a DestroyBaghdad procedure. Basic professional ethics would instead require him to write a DestroyCity procedure, to which Baghdad could be given as a parameter.
— Nathaniel S. Borenstein
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