Brian H. Madsen - .Net Powered by Caffeine

Visual Studio 2010 and .Net 4 framework training kit available for download

Brian Madsen — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 06:50:19 GMT

With the upcoming release of Visual Studio 2010 and .Net 4 now's the time to get cracking writing some code and getting familiar with our new, and improved, IDE.

Download link:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=752CB725-969B-4732-A383-ED5740F02E93&displaylang=en

Visual Studio 2010 and .Net 4 framework training videos on Channel9:

http://channel9.msdn.com/learn/courses/VS2010/

LIDNUG: Project “Dublin” overview for application developers – Craig McLuckie

Brian Madsen — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:12:54 GMT

LIDNUG is bringing you an action-packed two months, leading up to Christmas. The first in a range of highly anticipated talks is Craig McLuckie’s Project “Dublin” overview for application developers.

The session will cover the following topics:

An overview of “Dublin”

“Dublin” service hosting extensions for .NET 4 – the role of the workflow management service, “Dublin” federated instance control capabilities, service autostart to reduce latency on first activation
Monitoring and troubleshooting .NET 4 WCF and WF services – a consolidated ETW based event model, open and extensible monitoring database
Deployment and configuration of .NET 4 WCF and WF services –service deployment with configuring services to work with “Dublin”
“Dublin” tooling –PowerShell based scripting layer, InetMgr plugin that provides an at-a-glance dashboard for service health, rich event querying capabilities, and supports most service related administrative tasks

How to get the most out of “Dublin” extensibility

Durable services extensibility
Monitoring extensibility
Tooling extensibility

Event Date: November 10, 2009

Event Time: 10:00AM-11:30AM PST (GMT-8)

Visual Studio 2010 got a new logo – you like?

Brian Madsen — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:38:01 GMT

Not so long ago we saw a new logo revealed for the Microsoft .Net framework – the “Wave” logo was widely received as being a huge improvement and many loved it.

Just around the corner comes a new version of Visual Studio – 2010 which promises to be the next best thing after sliced bread (that’s my personal opinion btw).

One of the small (and in all honesty, insignificant really) news is that there’s a new logo.

“Infinitely” nicer than the old one, yet still carrying the basic shape with it that we saw in previous Visual Studio versions.

Old Visual Studio Logo	New Visual Studio Logo

As i mentioned, it still has the same basic shape – very similar to the “Inifinite” sign – word play/picture play anyone?

It has the same flowy design and colours we saw in the Microsoft .Net logo, yet the colour is a bit different.

Question now is (and yes i know, it’s not that important), do you like the modern look?

Yay or Nay?

Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 available for MSDN subscribers

Brian Madsen — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 23:25:14 GMT

Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 – probably the most anticipated release of the VS family – has just hit a milestone. It’s reached the MSDN subscription downloads!

VS2010 Beta 2 available to MSDN
http://blogs.msdn.com/bharry/archive/2009/10/19/vs-2010-beta-2-is-now-available-for-msdn-subscriber-download.aspx

VS2010 Licensing Changes
http://blogs.msdn.com/bharry/archive/2009/10/19/vs-2010-licensing-changes.aspx

4 new SKUs, Express, Professional, Premium, Ultimate

What’s new in VS2010 and Learning about VS2010
http://blogs.msdn.com/bharry/archive/2009/10/19/learning-about-vs-2010-beta-2.aspx

TFS 2010 Compatibility with older clients
http://blogs.msdn.com/bharry/archive/2009/10/19/tfs-2010-compatibility-with-older-clients.aspx

Update:

Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 will be available to the public on the 21st of October, 2009 (for those not endowed with a MSDN subscription)

LIDNUG: Visual Basic.Net with Lisa Feigenbaum, Oct 29

Brian Madsen — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 23:07:33 GMT

Another stellar line of speakers are coming to LIDNUG – On the 29th of October we’ll be visited by Lisa Feigenbaum for a good look at Visual Basic.Net.

Lisa is a Program Manager in the Visual Basic team at Microsoft. She’s going to talk about what’s new in VB.Net and answer any questions you have.

Thursday, 29 October 2009

	Time		10:30 AM – 12:30 PM
	Subject		Visual Basic .NET with Lisa Feigenbaum
	Registration		http://bit.ly/UZeXW
			Lisa Feigenbaum is a Program Manager in the Visual Basic Team in Microsoft. She's going to talk about what's new in VB.NET and answer any questions you might have. blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/vbteam/archive/tags/lisa%20f eigenbaum/default.aspx

Download IE8 and MSFT will donate $1.15 to Feeding America (charity)

Brian Madsen — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 01:23:00 GMT

It doesn’t matter what flavour you prefer when you browse the big interweb today, you can still contribute to helping out.

Microsoft is donating $1.15 for each download of IE8 from here – if you’re upgrading from IE6 they’ll double the donation.

The donation is given to Feeding America.

So, contribute in your own way – and it costs you nothing – by clicking here to download IE8.

Tech.Ed AU 2009 – Sara Ford fan club

Brian Madsen — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 23:30:00 GMT

A good friend of mine, Mike, is even more of a social butterfly than i am. So, since he’s totally excited about going to Tech.Ed this year (who isn’t???) and because he’s a geek, he kicked off the Sara Ford Fan Club at Tech.Ed AU 2009.

After talking things over a few times it’s been organised to have a Geek Meet-Up on Tuesday evening, where Sara Ford will be attending too – check out the LinkedIn Tech.Ed Australia Group for details:

Tech.Ed Australia (Teched)

Lastly, we talked about getting some buttons made up – and Mike came through with them.

So, if you, like many many others are fans of Sara Ford seek us out at Tech.Ed and get your own :)

LIDNUG: Scott Guthrie session recording now available for download

Brian Madsen — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 22:51:49 GMT

It’s almost like a broken record, but i still can’t stop saying it – Scott Guthrie absolutely rocks!

In his open Q&A session for the Linked .Net Users Group (LIDNUG) he again dazzled us all with his “geeky” brilliance..seriously, i’m starting to think there’s at least a couple of thousand Gu clones walking around for him to retain that much knowledge!

In a 1 1/2hr session he answered questions from the attendees (252) and it was as usual a brilliant session.

For those that missed out – here’s a tidbit…The Silverlight team is working hard on Silverlight 4 already….He owns other coloured polos as well, not just red ones (????).

Lastly, head on over and download the recorded session from our archives – my voice’s still rather raspy/croaky etc, so i elected not to speak during the session (nobody’d be able understand me anyways).

LIDNUG: Scott Guthrie talks shop with developers II

Brian Madsen — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 01:27:51 GMT

Scott Guthrie will be visiting the Linked .Net Users Group (LIDNUG) for a second time this year, with a follow up on his first open Q&A session.

Event details:

Topic: Scott Guthrie talks shop with developers II - Open Q&A with Scott Guthrie
Date: August 25, 9:00am PDT (list of local times)
Cost: FREE
Registration: http://bit.ly/fbKNC

Prizes: JetBrains ReSharper & DevExpress CodeRush and Refactor

At this open Q&A session Scott Guthrie will answer questions from the attendees via Live Meeting.

Don't miss out on this opportunity to find out where ASP.Net, MVC, .Net is heading!

LIDNUG: Life inside the Big Blue Monster – Scott Hanselman’s recording available

Brian Madsen — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 22:53:15 GMT

Scott Hanselman; Author, code guru and internet legend visited LIDNUG late last week in an open Q&A session which gave us a bit of an insight into his life inside and outside of Microsoft.

In his normal humorous self, Scott took is through to his garage and showed us his arcade machine, which he built himself all the while answering a ton of questions from the attendees.

He also explained how he juggled work vs family life, talked about some of his likes and dislikes about working for Microsoft.

Download the recorded session from LIDNUG’s archives.

Sara Ford is coming to Tech-Ed Australia

Brian Madsen — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 23:20:38 GMT

It’s fun to see when the community steps up and becomes involved in decisions..

this was evident when Sara Ford petitioned the community to come to Tech-Ed Australia in order to present her Visual Studio Tips and Tricks session.

Well, the result was an overwhelming support with more than 400 people voting yes!

As a result of this, Sara’s posted a “Thank you” video on YouTube..Click here to view it!

I for one am looking forward to seeing her in person..

The voting concluded just as Tech-Ed was selling out…so, it’s now too late if you didn’t get a ticket in time.

Maybe next year?

LIDNUG – Announcing an action packed August

Brian Madsen — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 22:27:47 GMT

It's that time again and wow, do we have a line-up this month that you definitely don't want to miss!!

First off, thanks to all the members who voted in the "Bring Sara Ford to MSFT Tech-Ed Australia" poll - it's now official and Sara Ford will be giving a Tips and Tricks presentation at this years Australian Tech-Ed.

July also saw the conclusion of the voting for our new logo - thanks to everybody who participated and congratulations to Dave Herren for submitting the winning entry.

see http://www.lidnug.org for the winning entry.

Upcoming events in August
---------------------------------------------------------------

August 13, 2009 at 10:30AM PDT
Scott Hanselman - Life inside the Big Blue Monster, a random Q&A
- http://events.linkedin.com/LIDNUG-Life-inside-Big-Blue-Monster/pub/90969

August 25, 2009 at 9:00AM PDT
Scott Guthrie - Talking Shop with Developers II
- http://events.linkedin.com/LIDNUG-Scott-Guthrie-talks-shop/pub/90959

---------------------------------------------------------------

As usual, these are Live Meeting events and will be recorded - of course, attending in "person" is half the fun.

Have you ever missed any of our events? Want to keep up to date with the most popular discussions in the group? Want to ask a question?

LIDNUG is now twittering, are you following us?

- http://www.twitter.com/lidnug

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact us on info[at]lidnug.org.

Windows 7 and my new rig

Brian Madsen — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 23:41:31 GMT

I finally managed to get hold of the RTM of Windows 7 (yes, terrible download speeds – go figure).

But it’s here and i’m still loving it.

I was a bit concerned about putting it on my new rig – the Alienware M17x – due to drivers etc etc.

It wasn’t worth the hassle to stress about it so i jumped into it – some 24 minutes later i was ready to log in.

Got myself the drivers (mostly for Vista) and got my hardware set up. Then got a modded inf for the graphics and i was ready to roll.

Here’s the system details screen, showing my T9600 and the amount of ram the laptop has (going to put another 4Gb in there soon i think)

Now, i haven’t overclocked anything yet, so the CPU, Ram and graphics are all stock standard right now.

CPU: T9600 @ 2.8Ghz
RAM: 4.0Gb
HD: 2 x 320Gb 7200rpm in RAID 0
Gfx: NVidia 9400M + 2 x Nvidia 260M GTX in SLI (hybrid)

Shame that the disk and ram lets it down – but 5.8 isn’t bad from a laptop!

LIDNUG gets a new logo

Brian Madsen — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 22:39:28 GMT

The Linked .Net Users Group has just gotten itself a new logo – we had 10 entries and the vote fell on Dave Herren’s submission after 1 month of voting.

Congratulations to Dave Herren for his win!

Send Sara Ford to Tech-Ed Australia, vote

Brian Madsen — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 23:18:01 GMT

An excellent opportunity has come up to get Sara Ford shipped down under to present at Microsoft Tech-Ed Australia!

Sara put a petition video together which you can watch here.

Afterwards head on over to the twtpoll and put your vote to good use by voting “Yes, absolutely”!

Read more about her endeavours to go down south on Sara’s blog here.

Microsoft Tech-Ed Australia is promising to be an absolutely awesome event this year (yes, i’m going too!!!! w00t).

For a bit of behind-the-scenes look at what goes on in the lead-up to Tech-Ed, read the backstage ramblings of all the geeks that’s taking good care of us.

It’s also just been announced that it’s 90% sold out! so unless you want to miss out i’d be quick about registering!

Dramas over the weekend – Daughter gets hospitalised

Brian Madsen — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 22:57:45 GMT

It was an ordinary weekend which turned into one of those that you simply just want to forget and put behind you.

Sunday afternoon, we had a big seafood BBQ (Christmas in July was the theme) at a friends place – so the wife, myself and the kids packed up and migrated there for the day.

Around 6pm my youngest daughter crawled up onto an office chair to do some drawing at a desk – she loves drawing and colouring in (she’s 3 btw). When she wanted to get down again she slid off the chair, but as she was about to put her feet down the chair must have pushed backwards and she lost her footing, dropping the few inches/cms to the ground. Unfortunately what also happened was that while loosing her footing she knocked her head on the table edge.

No major outcry – so it couldn’t have been that bad a knock. Or so we thought.

30mins after coming home she started mumbling and throwing up – 5 times she threw up within 10 minutes.

We checked her for bumps and bruises but couldn’t see any but the wife, ever vigilant, asked me to look up concussions for children and we found that she matched 2-3 of the symptoms.

so the wife called the after hours emergency services and after a brief discussion was told to bring Blair into the emergency room.

Since we have two kids, one of us had to go and the other stay with the oldest. The wife went. On the way to the emergency room, my youngest threw up once more.

Anyways, wife managed to get her bundled into the emergency room and sat down for a bit of a wait – there wasn’t that many there, but it soon filled up.

After two ops sessions my wife was told that they had to keep my daughter overnight and she needed to have a drip inserted – urggghh…Blair isn’t too keen on needless to put it mildly. She categorises doctors into two categories – good doctors, who doesn’t do needless/jabs and bad doctors, who does do needless/jabs.

The wife sits down to wait as there has to be a bed “free” first.

In the meantime she calls me to ask her to bring her an overnight bag so i drop my oldest off at a friends place while i drive down to the hospital with it. Get back home and pick up the oldest again. Now, it’s nearly 11pm.

at 1:30am they still hadn’t seen a doctor…2:30am passes by..finally, at 3:30am a doctor shows up after an examination it was judged that my daughter had gotten a mild concussion from the knock on the head.

I have to admit I admire my wife’s vigilance and her stamina – sitting upright for that amount of time, holding a child, is hardly a walk in the park.

At around 11am or so, a third examination is done and since Blair’s perked up to her regular, normal self, she’s sent home.

I know kids are resilient but the slight knock rocked her enough to concuss her head – needless to say, no more climbing chairs in the near future. The scare alone is enough to make a parent grow old overnight!

Luckily she’s back on her feet again, drawing and just being a happy child again – but it was a scare that we’d rather have missed out on…Nothing sets those parental emotions into swing as much as these types of incidents.

Hail in Perth – 5 mins of hail just before lunch

Brian Madsen — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 04:05:34 GMT

Here’s a rare sight in Perth – Hail….and a LOT of it!!

Dropping my coffee intake to 0

Brian Madsen — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 23:15:56 GMT

Uhmmm – one of the decisions I’ve made recently has been to drop my, according to others, excessive coffee intake and replace it with something a bit more gentle.

Tea….

I’m now on day 7 of no coffee at all, started last Monday and obviously it had a very fast impact.

On last Thursday i had a comment from one of my colleagues – asking me if i was ok since I'd been VERY quiet Monday through to Wednesday?

I honestly didn’t think I'd been any different than my regular, “normal” self in the office, but obviously it must have registered somewhere.

I admit, i had a thunderous headache Tuesday afternoon – most likely from the caffeine withdrawal.

So, i replaced it with tea..my current recipe for a good cup is:

1 tea bag of either Chai tea (Ceylon), Herbal tea (Herbal Infusions, Twinings) or Green tea
1 slice of lemon
1 teaspoon natural honey

As far as missing the coffee – yes, but i think it’s more the habit of having the coffee with me around the office than the actual coffee itself right now.

It’s all a step into making my life a little bit healthier – next step includes finding a way to drop those extra kilos that’s weighing me down.

I’m literally going to take it slowly and just drop things off the list one at a time. Considering taking up Taekwondo though with my knee issues I might have to take that VERY slowly.

LIDNUG: Tim Heuer presentation recording now available on www.lidnug.org

Brian Madsen — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 08:17:13 GMT

The recording of Tim Heuer’s presentation earlier this month, was delayed due to disk space running out – that’s been sorted out and the recording is now available for download over on www.lidnug.org.

The topic of the night was Silverlight 3 and Tim showed us around some of the new features as well as answered questions from the audience.

To download his presentation (or others), click here.

What’s going on behind the scenes to prepare for Tech-Ed Australia 2009

Brian Madsen — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 03:27:04 GMT

Get a good (and sometimes funny) look into what’s going on behind the scenes to prepare for Tech-Ed Australia 2009 – www.techedbackstage.net.

The guys from the DE teams are climbing mountains to make sure that this years Tech-Ed Australia, at the Gold Coast, is going to be the best Tech-Ed ever!

Not only are we going to be getting a HP Mini but they’re also making sure that we have connectivity and gets the best possible experience with Windows 7!

So head on over to www.techedbackstage.net and see what’s going on!