Rob Windsor's Five Cents

The Face of ObjectSharp?

rwindsor — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 14:21:00 GMT

I guess I am - at least according to Cuil.

Webcast Series for ASP.NET Developers Who Want to Learn SharePoint

rwindsor — Sun, 18 May 2008 05:21:00 GMT

[Microsoft is] doing lots of things around introductory SharePoint development for .NET developers over the next few months. Here is the schedule for a series of MSDN web casts on 10 introductory SharePoint development topics for .NET developers. If you are a .NET developer then chances are these are the most interesting ten introductory things you can do on SharePoint Products and Technologies.

http://blogs.msdn.com/pandrew/archive/2008/05/12/sharepoint-developer-msdn-web-cast-series.aspx

Technorati Tags: [SharePoint]

TechEd Developer 2008

rwindsor — Sat, 17 May 2008 17:52:00 GMT

The spring conference season keeps on chugging along. The MVP Summit and DevTeach just finished and TechEd is just around the corner.

It will be interesting to see what effect splitting the conference into a developer week and an IT Pro week will have. I've been spending a lot of time with SharePoint lately and that's a topic that has firm roots on both sides. I'm sure there are many other disciplines (SQL Server and VSTS come to mind) that are in the same boat.

This year I'll be taking it easier on the "networking" than I have in the past. I'm moderating a Birds-of-a-Feather (BoF) session and co-presenting an early-morning TLC talk and want to do so with a clear head. I'll also still be in the process of upgrading our ASP.NET course from 2.0 to 3.5 which will be delivered for the first time the week following the conference.

I went through the session builder earlier and there are a ton of things I want to see. I had two or three (sometimes even more) sessions per time slot that I wanted to see. This morning I deleted all those and later this weekend I'm going to go through and pick the sessions that I absolutely don't want to miss (my sessions for example) and put those in Outlook. Everything else will be done spur of the moment at the conference.

For those of you who are attending the conference for the first time, you might want to check out my Guide to Attending TechEd or PDC.

I'll be Twittering (http://twitter.com/rob_windsor) and hopefully blogging from the conference. If you're there feel free to look me up or better yet drop by one of my sessions.

WIN07-TLC Strategies for Moving Microsoft Visual Basic 6 Applications to Microsoft .NET
Wednesday, June 4 8:30 AM - 9:45 AM
Blue Theatre 1

BOF806 Strategies for Moving Your Microsoft Visual Basic 6 Investments to .NET
Thursday, June 5 1:00 PM - 2:15 PM
S330 E

Technorati Tags: [TechEd, Visual Basic, VB]

Talking About Many Things on Devcasting

rwindsor — Fri, 16 May 2008 21:35:00 GMT

As I mentioned a while back, I had a long conversation with Derek Hatchard that was recorded for Devcasting. The second part of that discussion - where we discuss WPF, Silverlight, technology overload, and DevTeach - has now been posted.

http://devcasting.com/index.php/2008/05/16/devcasting-11-rob-windsor-on-many-things/

Happy listening.

Technorati Tags: [Devcasting]

ObjectSharp Training - Summer Seat Sale

rwindsor — Fri, 16 May 2008 16:06:00 GMT

No, I haven't decided to give up software development for the glitz and glamor of the Jet Set life. I'm just the poster child for our summer training promotion. If you're looking for .NET, SharePoint, VSTS, or BizTalk training in Toronto you should check it out.

This summer, ObjectSharp invites you to take advantage of reduced pricing on its premiere .NET training courses. Save up to $500/person on our real-world training destinations. All flights include complimentary breakfast, and are piloted by industry Top Guns - including six Microsoft MVPs and one Microsoft Regional Director. Book your trip today!

http://www.objectsharp.com/training/summer-seat-sale.aspx

Technorati Tags: [ObjectSharp]

DevLounge Goes Live

rwindsor — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 01:23:00 GMT

ObjectSharp has always been very community focused. Our consultants run user groups; we speak at user groups, code camps and conferences; we man the experts areas at big Microsoft events; and we run our own community events like Visual Studio 2008 at the Movies. To extend our contribution to the community, we've added the DevLounge to our website. This is an area where we will post videos, articles, code, and tools so they are available on demand when you need them.

As a special kick off to the DevLounge, we are featuring a video taken at the recent Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Summit in Seattle. At the behest of ObjectSharp's Barry Gervin, Steve Ballmer donned a Team Canada hockey jersey to show Canadian developers some love.

Talking WCF on Devcasting

rwindsor — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 16:00:00 GMT

While I was in Vegas for Un-Mix 08, I sat down with Derek Hatchard to record a show for Devcasting. About a week later Derek decided to repave his machine but unfortunately, he forgot to backup the recording of the interview. We got together over Skype to re-record a couple weeks ago. What started out as an interview on WCF turned into a 90 minute conversation on all things geek.

Derek's done some editing and has extracted the WCF interview part into a show which you can check out at the link below. Stay tuned for part two where we talk about Mix, WPF, and more.

http://devcasting.com/index.php/2008/04/10/devcasting-10-wcf-with-rob-windsor/

Happy listening.

TechEd BOF Session: Strategies for Moving Your Microsoft Visual Basic 6 Investments to .NET

rwindsor — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 15:56:00 GMT

If you're not familiar with the concept, a Birds-of-a-Feather (BOF) session is an open discussion lead by a moderator who is not a Microsoft employee. The sessions are not presentations, there are no projectors. Unlike the Keynotes and Breakout sessions which are mostly one to many communication, Birds-of-a-Feather sessions are many to many communication and don't necessarily focus on Microsoft products or technology. They are about people talking with people - connecting, sharing, networking, and creating community.

This year I'm doing a BOF session at TechEd Developer. From my expereince with the community at user groups and conferences it's pretty clear that there are lots of developers who still work with classic VB code at least part of the time. Many are still questioning what to do with this legacy code and how to move it forward or integrate it with .NET.

Strategies for Moving Your Microsoft Visual Basic 6 Investments to .NET: For years Visual Basic 6 (VB 6) was used by organizations world-wide to build key line-of-business applications and components. Now they have thousands to millions of lines of code representing a significant organizational investment. Many have struggled in the past trying to move this legacy code base to .NET, many are just starting that journey. The path from VB 6 to .NET has not always been clear - there are options but there is no one size fits all approach. One option is to rewrite your applications so you can re-architect and take advantage of all the features .NET has to offer. Another is to migrate the applications so automated tools like the Code Advisor and the Migration Wizard can assist you. Finally, you can use COM Interop and the Interop Forms Toolkit to continue leveraging existing working assets while phasing in new features built on the .NET Framework. In this session we will discuss all three options and explore the pros and cons of each. The goal is raise awareness of the choices and the tools available so you will be able to pick the best strategy for your organization going forward.

Webcast: Migrating Your Visual Basic 6 Investments to .NET

rwindsor — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 15:52:00 GMT

I recorded my first webcast a couple weeks ago. I teamed with Beth Massi on VB 6.0 to .NET integration and migration.

Visual Basic (VB) 6 was used by millions of developers world-wide to build applications ranging from thousands to millions of lines of code representing significant organizational investments. The path from VB 6 to .NET has not always been clear, there is no one size fits all approach. We’ll cut to the chase, exploring the pros and cons of each option using real world examples. You will leave this webcast with the framework and tools to develop the right strategy for your organization to leverage your existing investments while taking advantage of the power and productivity the .NET Framework provides.

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032371436&EventCategory=4&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

"How Do I" Videos on the VB Developer Center

rwindsor — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 15:51:00 GMT

The VB Team has added about 50 "How Do I" videos to the VB Developer Center. The topics include Forms over Data, Windows Development, Office Development, Security, and so on. Most of the videos are 20 minutes or less so there a great way to get up to speed on a topic really quickly.

You can check them out at:

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vbasic/bb466226.aspx