Jennifer Marsman

Ann Arbor Give Camp

jennmar — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:42:46 GMT

I am truly fortunate to be part of such an amazing developer community! I am still reeling from the passion that I experienced at the Ann Arbor Give Camp last weekend.

The Ann Arbor Give Camp was a weekend-long codefest where developers, designers, and DBAs volunteered their time to create websites and applications for non-profit organizations. The event was held at the Washtenaw Community College, who generously donated the cost of the venue. Verio donated free hosting until January 2010 to all of the non-profit organizations, and even sent a technical resource, the amazing Matt Lagrotte, onsite to make sure that the accounts were set up properly.

We kicked off the event on Friday night at 6pm; each charity spoke briefly about their mission statement and their technology needs. On Sunday at 3pm, we held the closing presentation where the developers were able to demonstrate their work.

There were many different projects. Multiple charities had no web presence and needed their very first website. One charity needed a volunteer management system, and the development team led by Jeff McWherter created a generic web-based scheduling application that allows volunteers to schedule themselves to work events for a nonprofit organization (they posted it to CodePlex, Microsoft’s open source project hosting web site, so that any organization can access and use it). The Michigan Humane Society needed a searchable database to make it easier to find animals. To give you an idea of the scope of the problem: in 2007, 104,690 dogs were surrendered to registered animal shelters. Only 19,151 were returned to their owners. This searchable database could allow pet owners to more easily find their lost pets, and assist individuals who find stray animals find the appropriate location for stray holding. It's really amazing to see such concrete examples of technology enpowering people!

In total, we were able to help 15 charities:

• Michigan Chapter of the National Children's Alliance
• Michigan Humane Society
• The Wellness Community
• Caring Alternatives, Inc.
• Forgotten Harvest
• Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum
• Angel's Place
• Wonder Puzzle
• Child Care Network
• Golightly Academy of IT
• The Information Center
• Center Stage Drama
• Arab American Culture Center
• SDL EQ Enrichment Center
• NOCIRC Michigan

The Give Camp actually happened at a very opportune time, since last week Microsoft just launched a portal for non-profit organizations at http://www.microsoft.com/NGO. This is a wonderful resource; it contains stories of charities using technology, discussion forums, access to free or discounted software and hardware, software support, and training and certification opportunities.

How do I summarize the magic of the weekend? It was absolutely inspirational to watch. The developers and designers were so passionate about their charities. A ripple effect occurred, where one developer would realize that he/she had a friend with particular skills to assist with some problem, call up the friend, and then the friend would come and code with us too! There were 85 registered developers/designers that I knew of who attended, but we quickly lost track of everyone coming in and out - there were roughly 100 people total who volunteered.

There were also people participating from two remote locations - the Columbus, OH effort was led by Carey Payette and my teammate Jeff Blankenburg, and the Knoxville, TN effort was led by Nathan Blevins.

I got maybe 6 hours of sleep the entire weekend, but it was worth it! We were crunching some numbers (cost of developer time, Verio hosting, software donations, etc.), and figured out that this event provided about a half million dollars in goods and services to these charities!!!

Huge thanks to my fellow organizers: Patrick Steele, John Hopkins, Todd Bohlen, Bill Wagner, and Kristina Jones. These people are wonderful to work with, and it was an incredible team effort to make the event happen. We also had some phenomenal people step up during the event and make everything run smoothly: thank you Josh Holmes, Michael Eaton, and Greg Campeau.

This event also wouldn't have been possible without the donations from our generous sponsors. Financial support and services were provided by Microsoft, Verio, Washtenaw Community College, SRT Solutions, Infragistics, Telerik, TechSmith, and DevMavens by Lake Quincy Media. Food was donated by Domino's Pizza, Arbor Brewing Company, Dunkin' Donuts, Aubree's Pizza, Busch's, and Trader Joe's. Software was donated by Microsoft, Infragistics, and Telerik.

Here are links to other writeups on the event (if you blogged about it and I haven't mentioned you, let me know and I will add you):

Again, THANK YOU to everyone who participated!

Celebrate Contribupendence Day on July 3!

jennmar — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 01:15:25 GMT

My fellow developer evangelist for Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee - the great Jeff Blankenburg - had an extremely cool idea. On Thursday July 3, the day before Independence Day in the United States, he is celebrating “Contribupendence Day”. This is a day where we recognize the contributions of others by taking some time to write recommendations in social networks such as LinkedIn. From Jeff’s blog:

"On July 3, 2008, I am going to write recommendations for 5 people on LinkedIn. And leave comments on Plaxo. And {name your social network here}.

One of the things that I have found, in this wonderful developer community I am a part of, is that we've got some amazingly talented people in this industry. But when I look around at their profiles on the sites I mentioned above, you'd hardly know it. Hardly anyone has even ONE recommendation on LinkedIn. Comments (or a presence, for that matter) on Plaxo are slim. Facebook walls usually consist of nothing more than "Hey Steve, what are you doing this weekend?" But yet, when you're looking for that next job, what's the first place a new employer is going to look?

So let's tell the world about the people we work with. Or the people we WISH we worked with. No strings attached. Let's make sure that when someone looks up your friend online, that they find a glowing (and true) review from a peer. No embellishments, no lies. Just the truth. And do it with no expectation that they will return the favor. That's just selfish."

I really like this idea! On July 3, I will join Jeff and write 5 recommendations on LinkedIn. I've been extremely fortunate to work with a number of amazing minds (many more than 5, but there are only so many hours in a day), and it's nice to take some time out to recognize that.

Please join the celebration, and contribute to someone's independence from online mediocrity!

Register for the Ann Arbor Give Camp!

jennmar — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 16:08:24 GMT

The local software development community, in partnership with Microsoft, is throwing a Give Camp in Ann Arbor!

A Give Camp is a weekend-long event where software developers, designers, and database administrators donate their time to create custom software for non-profit organizations. This custom software could be a new website for the nonprofit organization, a small data-collection application to keep track of members, or a application for the Red Cross that automatically emails a blood donor three months after they’ve donated blood to remind them that they are now eligible to donate again. The only limitation is that the project should be scoped to be able to be completed in a weekend. In addition, Verio is offering to donate two years of free website hosting to non-profits who need it.

During the Give Camp, developers are welcome to go home in the evenings or camp out all weekend long! There will be food and drinks provided at the event. There will also be XBOXs set up for when you need a little break. It should be a lot of fun, for a great cause!

At the Give Camp, there is an expectation of “What Happens at Give Camp, Stays at Give Camp”. Therefore, all source code must be turned over to the charities at the end of the weekend (developers cannot ask for payment) and the charities are responsible for maintaining the code moving forward (charities cannot expect the developers to maintain the codebase).

The Ann Arbor Give Camp will be held the weekend of July 11-13 at Washtenaw Community College in Ann Arbor, MI.

Call to action: We are looking for developers, designers, and DBAs! If you are interested in participating and writing some code for charity, register at http://annarborgivecamp.org/DevRegister.aspx. Early registration really helps us, as we are deciding the number of charities we can help by the number of developers that are interested.

For more information, please check out our website at http://annarborgivecamp.org/ or contact me.

Lansing Day of .NET

jennmar — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 03:11:34 GMT

The Lansing Day of .NET will be held this Saturday, June 21, 2008. Like previous Days of .NET, there is an amazing lineup of speakers. Check out the session list - topics include WPF, WCF, Windows Workflow, Silverlight, the Dynamic Language Runtime, Windows Live, SQL Server 2008 development, LINQ, and various testing topics.

I'm going to be presenting an "Introduction to WPF" talk at 2:15pm. Swing by and say hi if you're there!

Although this is a free event, you do have to register. The word on the street is that there are only 40 spots left, so register now!

CodeStock 2008 - registration open!

jennmar — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 17:47:02 GMT

CodeStock is a software development conference held in Knoxville, Tennessee on August 9, 2008. The session list looks good, and there is a fabulous group of speakers. The Grand Prize giveaway for one lucky attendee is Visual Studio Team System 2008 Team Suite with MSDN Premium ($10K value)!

Featured Woman in Technology: Dianne Marsh

jennmar — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 04:02:42 GMT

Dianne Marsh co-owns a software consulting company called SRT Solutions, with Bill Wagner. They focus on learning and implementing new technologies to help their customers make technology decisions. Dianne actively works with customers as a software consultant. She typically enjoys back-end development and that which is "computationally intensive". One recent project involved the University of Michigan's software which supports their survey system. Dianne's role was not limited to software; she helped them to improve their entire process and workflow.

At the end of the day, Dianne is motivated by simplicity. "I'm inspired both by helping our customers to get their jobs done AND by discovering cool and interesting ways to make that happen in the most unobtrusive way possible. The goal is to help someone get their job done; it's really not about the software. The nice thing about software is it simplifies the way people do their work."

Dianne feels that the best part of her job is clearly the people with whom she works. "We've grown from just the two of us to about 17, and I have learned something from each and every one of them." Dianne also thrives on being very engaged with customers and understanding their specific business. "Understanding the application domain is as important as understanding technology. This is an amazing career because you get to learn about both!"

Dianne has a 3 year old and a 5 year old. Like all working mothers, Dianne strives to balance work with family life. "When my daughter asks me why I can't work at her daycare and take care of kids, I tell her that mommies and daddies need to do what they do best. And that, for me, is writing software. I try to always keep that in mind." Dianne also believes strongly in spending free time with her kids and not over-scheduling activities. "My parents didn't allow us to have a lot of after-school or weekend activities. We could take ONE Saturday morning class, and we could participate in ONE evening activity. The rest of the time was reserved for family time. I hope to do the same with my children."

Moving her office outside of her home into a more traditional setting has really helped Dianne with work/life balance as well. "Previously, I never left the office. With wireless internet at home, it's easy to get trapped into a 24/7 work cycle, but that's not good for my family or for me. When I used to work at home, the first response from people was how great it was that I could work at home with my kids around me. No way. I can't get anything done for work with my kids there, and I always had childcare when working at home."

Dianne first tried computer science in college; she enrolled as a Computer Science major without knowing what it was! However, she stuck with it, finding that it was a nice way to draw languages together with math and science. After graduation, she wrote code for several companies in Michigan in areas ranging from analytical instrumentation to automotive applications.

Dianne went back to graduate school in 1990 for a Masters degree. After grad school, she decided that she wanted to work in Ann Arbor and interviewed with a startup company there. This was a big turning point for her; she realized that working for a startup company and starting your own company aren't that different in terms of risk. Although she describes herself as "risk-averse", she could better control the risk if she ran the company. Yet, independent contracting was challenging in a different way. As an independent contractor working on a job, she would get calls for work, but she was already in the middle of a job. Then, when that contract was up, she needed to make a million phone calls looking for work, so it was a lot of stopping and starting. Starting SRT Solutions was a way to manage that timing and not lose as much work. When asked about the risk in owning a company, she warns, "Working for big companies gives you a false sense of job security. Whole divisions can be removed; companies can be relocated. In small companies, you know what's going on and have more input in big decisions. At the very least, you know when you don't have any work to do!"

Dianne emphasizes the importance of managing your own career. "A company's objectives may be different from your own. If you don't keep an eye on that target, you risk letting the company define your career. Pay attention to where you want to be and reevaluate constantly. If you aren't going where you want to, alter your course. Someone could be doing Fortran programming for 10 years, and then her company goes out of business, she pops her head up, and she realizes that she can't find work doing that anymore...that is far more risky than working on your own, where you remain much more in touch with the market."

Dianne's advice to other women in technology: "Gender-specific groups can offer support and encouragement, but for technical expertise, don't shy away from the gender-neutral groups. Actively participate in user group meetings and at conferences. You will meet a lot of really interesting people and you will learn a lot."

Software Development Meme

jennmar — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 04:49:38 GMT

I did not line up a Featured Woman post for today, but as luck would have it, I was tagged by Jeff Blankenburg to answer some questions about how I got into software development. (These questions were originally posed by Michael Eaton here.) So this counts as today's Featured Women in Tech post, right? :) Here are my responses:

How old were you when you started programming?
I was a junior in high school. It always amazes me when I interview my Featured Women in Technology, and they were programming as little girls. I wasn't exposed to this world until much later in life.

How did you get started in programming?
I was pretty good at math and logic, and one of my high school math teachers, Mr. Ron Carlson, encouraged me to take a programming class. At that point, I had no idea what programming was, but I had a one-semester gap in my class schedule for the next year and the "Intro to Programming" class would fit it, so I agreed. Thanks, Mr. Carlson! I fell in love with the clean logic which allowed me to understand and manipulate the language that a computer spoke. When I started college, one of the majors that I considered was Computer Engineering. The summer after my freshman year, I had my first internship as a programmer at Ford Motor Company, and it was then that I knew I could be happy doing this for the rest of my life.

What was your first language?
My first class in high school used Pascal.

What was the first real program you wrote?
If I assume that the definition of a "real" program is one that someone paid me to build and not one that I wrote for the sheer joy of it, my first real program was the "Reengineered Measurables" application that was built by my team at Ford. It was an application to store and report on the various "Measurables" from the plant floor (data like the number of cars that were built to schedule, were correct the first time through the line, etc.). I designed report templates for the front end using the Holos Report Designer, created and maintained the “Build to Schedule” reports, and developed and tested the help files for the application using Robohelp 95. Whoo hoo!

What languages have you used since you started programming?
Roughly in order: Pascal, C, C++, assembly language, LabVIEW, HTML, VBScript, LISP, Prolog, SOAR, VB.NET, C#, SQL. Yes, that's correct - no COBOL and no Java! I want to learn/am in the process of learning Ruby, Python, Boo, and F#.

What was your first professional programming gig?
During the summer after my freshman year of college, I had an internship with Ford Motor Company as a programmer.

If you knew then what you know now, would you have started programming?
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I --
I took the one less traveled by,
and that has made all the difference.

If there is one thing you learned along the way that you would tell new developers, what would it be?
Ask questions. You will learn, understand, and retain knowledge more deeply if you really question it and think it through.

What's the most fun you've ever had ... programming?
In college, there were a lot of fun all-nighters in the computer lab with fellow geeks, trying to get assignments done before the deadline. In my professional life, I designed an algorithm to cluster together search sessions where the users had similar intents. The algorithm was somewhat complex, and my first implementation was a performance nightmare...it took at least 12 hours to run (I think we finally killed the process). I was just a year or two out of college, and I didn't know much about performance. My process was the bottleneck of our system. So I researched performance tips and tricks, learned good SQL indexing strategies (thanks Blake!), and eventually got the program running in about 10 minutes. That was such a triumphant moment.

I'm not going to call out anybody specific to continue this meme, but if you are so inclined, I'd love to hear your responses to the questions. Many people have been responding on their blogs all day, and it's nice to get to know them a little better.

Is your website ready for Internet Explorer 8?

jennmar — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 18:05:26 GMT

In IE8, some default settings are changing in order to be more standards-compliant. Make sure that your website will still render well! Here's the official announcement:

Consistent with our efforts to promote further interoperability across the Web, Microsoft will be releasing Internet Explorer 8 to render content in its most standards-compliant way by default. Giving top priority to Web standards interoperability allows us to help web developers and designers drive toward the ideal of “write once, run anywhere”, freeing up more time to innovate rather than modify content for different browsers. This commitment also addresses several development and design pain points from previous Internet Explorer releases.

However, browsing with this default setting may cause content written for previous versions of Internet Explorer to display differently than intended. This creates a call to action for site owners to ensure their content will continue to display seamlessly in Internet Explorer 8. As such, we have provided a meta-tag usable on a per-page or per-site level to maintain backwards compatibility with Internet Explorer 7. Adding this tag instructs Internet Explorer 8 to render content like it did in Internet Explorer 7, without requiring any additional changes.

We are encouraging site administrators to get their sites ready now for broad adoption of Internet Explorer 8, as there will be a beta release in the third quarter of this year targeted for all consumers. To learn more and get started, please follow the step-by-step instructions located at the following link: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=120024.

Additional Resources

The following links provide additional information you may find useful:

Internet Explorer 8 main site: http://www.microsoft.com/ie/ie8
Internet Explorer Team Blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/ie
Internet Explorer Developer Center: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/ie/default.aspx
Internet Explorer 8 Readiness Toolkit (for web designers and developers): http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/ie/ie8/readiness/default.htm
Microsoft Interoperability Principles: http://www.microsoft.com/interop/principles/default.mspx

Featured Woman in Technology: Katy Kneale

jennmar — Fri, 30 May 2008 18:30:53 GMT

Katy Kneale is a Test Lead for the Online Management Platform and Solutions group at Microsoft. She owns testing the user interface for several management products, like the Microsoft Update Catalog, the Asset Inventory Service (part of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack), and the Microsoft Update website. Katy leads a team of 4 fulltime employees and 3 vendors in China.

Among other things, Katy's team works on finding new and creative ways to automate user interfaces, which is a tough problem. “We’re always looking into new tools and new testing methodologies to help us become more efficient at our job.” She is currently exploring pixel comparison - taking a screenshot and comparing it to a golden version (which is known to be correct) to make sure that nothing has changed. However, she works with dynamic data which creates some challenges that they are still trying to solve.

She has also utilized model-based testing. This constitutes building a model of your user interface which describes the different code paths through the application or website. She has done prototyping using a tool developed by Microsoft Research called Spec Explorer. This tool takes a specification written in Spec# (which models the user interface) and automatically creates test cases based on it. “If you code it such that the output of Spec Explorer is the input to your automation code, you are able to explore new code paths, find bugs, and stress your system very easily.”

Katy also recognizes the importance of evaluating the customer experience when testing. It is important not only for the system to work, but to make it easy for users to accomplish tasks. "Get to know your users," she advises. "They won't think that a product is high-quality if it's difficult to use, even if all of your underlying functionality works flawlessly."

Of course, there are some situations when it makes sense to simply test manually, rather than automating your test suite. In that case, Katy looks for testers that are "very perceptive, with a sharp eye for detail", so they notice when little things change.

What gets Katy out of bed in the morning? "The best part of my job is working with my employees. I love thinking through problems, both technical and career growth related. How are we going to test our products? Are the proposed solutions the right solutions? I ask a lot of questions to figure it out. I also enjoy helping them grow in their careers and thinking of creative ways to give them the experiences they need while still getting our work done."

Katy manages her work/life balance by making a loose schedule for the week. One night per week, she stays late at the office. One night per week, she goes home early and "tries to hit Happy Hour" at one of her favorite Seattle bars. Another night, she goes to the gym. Katy also hardly ever works from home; she stays late if she needs to work. "On nights and weekends, I don't even turn on my computer if possible. My time at home is for me and my husband."

Katy's mother was a computer engineer, and her father was an electrical engineer. Katy was gifted at math and science from a young age. In college, she took an Engineering 101 course and learned to program in C. Programming felt natural to her. "I was really good at it, so I took additional programming courses, and I was good at those." Katy found her career path not by falling in love with programming at a young age, but by discovering that she was good at something that is hard for a lot of people. "I liked that I was different...I'm not a geeky boy, but a cool girl" (Katy was a varsity cheerleader in high school) "...and I could program well. I enjoyed the challenge and liked proving that you don't have to be someone who sits inside their dorm room all the time to get a Computer Science degree."

Katy's advice to other women in technology: "Try to stick together as women. Most of the women in technology that I know are amazing. I love having a network to run ideas through. Seek out the women that you work with or go to class with - have lunch and see if you have anything in common. Knowing that there are other women out there, and supporting each other, really helped me."

PDC registration is live, baby!!!

jennmar — Wed, 28 May 2008 19:22:57 GMT

The Professional Developers Conference (PDC) is the definitive Microsoft event targeting influential software developers and strategic architects focused on the future of the Microsoft platform.

PDC 2008 will be held on October 27-30 in Los Angeles, CA. I browsed through the list of sessions, and the content looks extremely cool. I see lots of Silverlight, Live Mesh, developing services for the Cloud, Windows Mobile, Visual Studio/Team Foundation Server, and Windows 7.

You can also come early to the Pre-Conference Sessions on Sunday, October 26. These are a number of day-long deep-dive sessions on such topics as data access, debugging, agile development, and performance, as well as technologies like WPF, WCF, Windows Mobile, and Silverlight. If you're already traveling out to LA, it is well worth it to come a day early and take advantage of these great technical sessions from industry leaders.

Ray Ozzie is keynoting the event. He will be discussing Microsoft's Software + Services vision for the future.

Registration opens today! Check out http://www.microsoftpdc.com. Hurry - this conference does sell out.

Featured Woman in Technology: Toi B. Wright

jennmar — Fri, 23 May 2008 17:39:43 GMT

Toi B. Wright owns her own consulting business, One Stop Designs, which does web development for small- to medium-sized businesses. She started the company in 2003 and is the sole employee. "Right now that makes sense for me, even though I occasionally have to turn down jobs." She primarily does intranet sites.

Toi is extremely active in the software developer community in Dallas, Texas. She is a Microsoft MVP for ASP.NET. Toi also serves as the President of the Dallas ASP.NET User Group, which she founded in 2003 while she was on maternity leave for her first child. She started the group because she was looking for a group that focused solely on web development. Toi also organizes the "We are Microsoft" Charity Challenge Weekend, which is a weekend-long event in which software developers donate their time to work on projects (such as a new website) for non-profit organizations. On top of all this, Toi has two young children, ages 2 and 5.

Prior to 2003, Toi worked at a consulting company. When she became pregnant, she experienced a change in the way the company treated her. "They were so happy for the men whose wives were having babies, but they acted like I had betrayed them." She went back for a short time after her maternity leave, but then she decided to start her own company.

Toi is extremely happy with her decision. "I've been doing professional software development since the mid-80s, and I really like making a difference in these small companies and helping them solve their problems. It's really cool to walk into a company and see your screens up on everyone's machines, and know that you are helping them to work more productively."

How does Toi manage to run her own company as well as be extremely active in the developer community? "I have a house husband! My husband is the primary caregiver for our children and takes responsibility for our home." Toi asserts that this type of arrangement is becoming more frequent with working women. "There are three families on my street in Frisco, TX, where the husband stays home with the kids. It's becoming more acceptable in our society that men have this responsibility."

Toi also enjoys working from home as a great way to stay connected with her family and balance her work and home life. "Today, remote work is more acceptable. If you ask, many clients will let you work from home. I can arrange my schedule so that I'm able to go to my son's activities at school." Toi had one client that she didn't actually see for five years; they did everything via phone and email. "Take advantage of that!"

Toi was introduced to computer programming in the seventh grade when she took a Pascal 4 class with her mother. Her parents owned a home computer, and she programmed in Basic throughout high school. Her first big program was a space game that was wildly popular with the other kids in her neighborhood. "It was actually impossible to win, so most of the neighborhood got addicted trying!"

Toi earned her Computer Science and Engineering degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and then earned her MBA from Carnegie Melon University. "I identified many years ago that I learn best by seeing. In college, I actually went to all of my classes." That's why user groups are so helpful to Toi. At monthly user groups, knowledgeable presenters demonstrate new technology which allows you to see it in action. "It's a good way to get excited about it. Then I'll go buy the books and watch the webcasts." User groups also help you keep up in the rapidly-changing world of technology. "Every three years, I completely change my toolset." Toi recognizes the importance of user groups to the developer community and has been running user groups since 2000. While pregnant with her second child, she was running two user groups, but narrowed it down to one after the baby was born.

Toi's advice to other women in technology: "Don't let yourself get pigeonholed as the 'note taker' or 'coffee maker' on the team. Women can feel more free to participate in the meeting if they are not distracted with other responsibilities. Work harder and be better prepared than your male counterparts. Not fair, but still true."

Where is the Events tab in the WPF Designer?

jennmar — Thu, 22 May 2008 01:33:48 GMT

Here's a good question that I got the other day:

"How do I, in Visual Studio, wire up an event handler in the WPF designer without editing the XAML or doing the wiring in code? Where's the Events tab in the Property dialog box like I get in Windows Forms?"

The short answer is that it's not there. The Events tab feature for the WPF Designer didn't make it into Visual Studio 2008. However, there are plenty of easy ways to hook up an event handler:

In the WPF Designer, you can double-click the control to automatically generate a handler for the default event. For example, if you created a button, just double-click the button on the design surface, and you will be taken to auto-generated event handler code for the Click event.
In the XAML View, you can use IntelliSense to generate an event handler. Put your cursor after the control whose event you care about, and press space. An IntelliSense dropdown should appear, with all of the control's events (as well as properties). Events are denoted by the lightning bolt. Scroll down through the list until you are highlighting the proper event, and then press tab. Then press tab again to generate a new event handler. Then you can right-click the name of the event handler (it will be of the format "controlName_Event") and select "Navigate to Event Handler". That will take you to the proper place in your code.
In the Code View, inside the constructor of the Window or Page, type the name of the control whose event you care about, and then type ".". An IntelliSense dropdown should appear, with all of the control's events (as well as properties and methods). Events are denoted by the lightning bolt. Select the appropriate event and press tab. Then type "+=" and press tab twice. This will wire up your event handler and generate the event handler method.

However, the Events tab will be in the WPF Designer in Visual Studio 2008 SP1, as per this announcement.

Featured Woman in Technology: Janet Galore

jennmar — Fri, 16 May 2008 05:10:00 GMT

Janet Galore is a Senior Program Manager on the Strategic Prototyping team at Microsoft. This is a small team of 11 people that support Craig Mundie in his vision as Chief Research and Strategy Officer by developing prototypes and demos to tell credible stories about the future. The team grapples with the world's big problems and how technology can help solve those problems. Craig identifies major themes that Microsoft is exploring, such as the Future of Computing, Healthcare, or Education. Then the team generates ideas based on relevant trends, raw technology, and the incredible work that is being done inside Microsoft, and comes up with scenarios to pitch to Craig and his staff. Some of these ideas become demos that support Craig's presentations at large-scale events worldwide.

To be successful in this role, Janet is an expert in storytelling and synthesizing ideas. She keeps track of current trends in technology and culture. She also does a lot of cross-group work. "My team has a broad vantage point across many product groups and Microsoft Research." However, the vision that her team portrays is not intended to become Microsoft products; their charter is to explore possibilities, not dictate work.

Janet's team also runs the Microsoft Home. The Microsoft Home is a concept facility that brings to life a vision of consumer scenarios five to ten years in the future. "For instance, a teenager’s bedroom in the facility portrays what it would be like to have addressable wallpaper that employs organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology to display a variety of content such as artwork, video clips, and immersive environments." The Microsoft Home is physically located within Microsoft's Executive Briefing Center on their main campus in Redmond, WA.

"My personal favorite part of the job is getting to explore ideas with the incredibly brilliant researchers and thinkers across the company." Janet is a very curious person and enjoys learning new things. "I get to think about so many different areas of research, everything from quantum computing to natural user interfaces."

Janet is inspired by the possibility of telling a story to someone that completely changes the way that they think about the world, permanently. Her hope is to "show something that is so new, and so obviously right, that they get on fire about it". Janet is an artist specializing in illustration and animation, and in her art, she also strives to get people see the world in a new way.

With a demanding job developing a vision for the future to support a Microsoft executive, how does Janet manage to have a life outside of work? She had some great tips to share:

Listen to your friends and family. "I'm married to someone who is really balanced, and he helps to keep my workaholic personality in check."
Try not to work from home. Rather, Janet prefers to stay late and keep her work at work. But she recognizes that not everyone has that option; people with children may want to go home, see their kids before bed, and work from home later in the evening. "If you have to work from home, give yourself a time limit."
Actively watch for signs of stress, and give yourself a break - go for a walk or turn off the email and lay down for a bit. What are the "signs of stress" that she watches for? "Suddenly, everything on your TODO list is priority 0 - it needs to be done immediately. That's usually not true. You can always negotiate for more time or delegate."
Take a "well day" if needed. A well day is a day off from work (much like a sick day), but its purpose is to save your mental sanity and refresh you before you get sick.
Take control. You become stressed when you feel like you're out of control, so do something that gives you the feeling that you're in control. "For example, if you're running late in the morning and stressing about it, take control and actively decide that you're going to come in late today, rather than stressing about it."

Being strong with both her left brain and right brain, Janet's career path meandered between technology and art. As a little girl, she wanted to be an "everything scientist". She wrote papers on the future that included flying cars. She's also always been attracted to technology.

She received a BS degree in pure mathematics from the University of Washington and also completed three years of graduate school in pure and applied mathematics. Janet enjoyed the theory of math more than the actual numbers. One day, one of her favorite teachers wrote the equation "e^(i * pi) = -1" on the board. "It blew my mind. Infinite series, logarithms, trig, complex and transcendental numbers all came crashing together in this really beautiful equation." She's considering getting the equation tattooed. "That, or the Heisenberg uncertainty principle." Janet is one cool cyberpunk.

After college, Janet worked for art organizations, but became interested in virtual reality as a hobby. That's where she met the people who got her into the video game industry, where she worked for 7 years. "I did stuff that I enjoyed and took risks. For a fulfilling career, you have to follow your heart."

Janet has now been with Microsoft for 5.5 years. She joined the company as a manager in Content Publishing for Office Online, and she started her current role in August 2007.

Janet's advice to other women in technology: "Think of yourself as a person first and a female second. Focus on what you believe to be true and don't take things personally. Even if someone acts sexist, if you act professionally and hold your own, they can develop respect for you. Just be yourself and don’t be afraid to point out when someone is out of line."

Featured Woman in Technology: Carey Payette

jennmar — Fri, 09 May 2008 19:36:24 GMT

Carey Payette is a senior software developer at American Electric Power (AEP). At AEP, she holds the role of Lead Developer or Technical Solution Owner on multiple projects. Carey defines the application architecture and technologies to use on these projects as well as participating in the actual coding. Projects range from customer self-service websites, to equipment inventory and maintenance systems, as well as work management software and call center systems.

Carey also sits on multiple company-wide panels to evaluate new technologies and make recommendations on the best ones to adopt. Because she learns these new technologies during the evaluation process, Carey is the go-to person for other employees coming up to speed. She is well-known within her company as an enthusiastic person who is excited about technology and willing to discuss it with anyone.

What is the best part of Carey's job? "I really enjoy teaching and mentoring people. I like to get people excited about technology and where it's going. It's a constant struggle in a large enterprise to get new technologies accepted...it's both a fun challenge and sometimes a source of a great deal of stress," she says with a smile.

Carey is inspired by the larger developer community who gets out there and discusses technology. "Enthusiasm is contagious!" The fast pace of technology excites her too. She recently had to predict what her company would need in 2010, and she joked that there had better be Surface computing in place. Carey reads technical magazines and websites to keep up with what's going on. Carey is also addicted to Twitter; you can follow her at http://twitter.com/careypayette.

Carey is extremely active in the software development community. She serves as president of the Central Ohio .NET Developers Group, as well as president of AEP's internal developers group. Carey also participates in the local speaker's circuit, currently presenting on Silverlight, the DLR, and IronRuby. Finally, she is also forming a developers' group in Sudbury, Ontario, her hometown. "Make friends in the developer community and inside your organization. The more people you know and network with, the more sources of expertise you can tap into when you need guidance in a particular area," she advises.

On top of her job and numerous contributions to the developer community, Carey has three young sons. "My guilty pleasure is that with my two-year-old, I can still get away with reading technical books to him like it's Dr. Seuss. At long as you read in a sing-song tone, he doesn't care what you say. Last night, we read The Ruby Way!"

Carey has a flex schedule at AEP. She works four 10-hour days (Monday-Thursday). She spends Fridays with her children. While her husband gets to work early and gets home early, Carey works from about 9am until 7 or 8pm. She has the flexibility to work from home as well, which allows her to have lunch with her kids and see them on breaks. While she's working, a babysitter watches the children at her house. "Family is #1. If you feel like you're not around enough for your family, you're probably doing too much." Carey also advocates building downtime into the schedule. "Take some time for yourself, at least an hour a day. Even if it's just an hour before bed, do something for yourself...not cleaning!!!"

Hopefully, girls who enjoy math and science are guided to computer science or engineering fields. Although Carey excels in logic, she was drawn to programming not for the math aspect, but for the language aspect. Carey is very good at picking up languages. Natively an English speaker, she went to French schools and studied German in college. Computer languages made sense to her as well. Carey learned Pascal in a programming class in 10th grade, and she was hooked. (She originally wanted to be an Air Force pilot!) In 1999, Carey earned her Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario. She is currently halfway through an MCIS from the University of Denver online, specializing in web development and information security. "I'm just a geek at heart!"

Carey's advice to other women in technology: "Read The Pragmatic Programmer and learn a new language every year. Keep an open mind...every technology exists for a reason; you just need to find its strengths."

When should I use WPF vs. Silverlight?

jennmar — Tue, 06 May 2008 16:30:02 GMT

In my role, I work with a number of large corporations, and this is a question that they ask me regularly: What is the difference between the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and Silverlight, and in what scenarios does it make sense to use each?

Microsoft feels that user experience is important, and invested in multiple technologies to promote better user experience. Both WPF and Silverlight use XAML (Extensible Application Markup Language) under the covers.

Let's look at some of the different characteristics of each technology:

WPF:

Ships as part of the .NET Framework (version 3.0 and onward)
Runs as Windows application or as web "browser application" (called XBAP, for "XAML Browser Application"). Note that XBAPs run only in Internet Explorer with .NET 3.0 and in both Internet Explorer and Firefox with .NET 3.5.
Runs on Windows machines only (Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, and Windows Server 2008)
Richest functionality, including 3D graphics

Silverlight:

Ships independently
Runs in web browsers only (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari)
Runs on Windows or Mac operating systems (also on Linux via Moonlight, which is an open source implementation of Silverlight based on Mono)
Functionality is a subset of WPF's feature set

When should you use each? The maddening answer is (of course): it depends!

WPF is a more mature technology and was designed with a richer feature set. It also has the advantage of being able to run in a browser or as an installed Windows-Form-type app.

Silverlight has a broader reach. You can access Silverlight from many operating systems and web browsers.

The most important reason to choose one over the other should be based on the intended audience for the application. For example, if a corporation is designing an application for internal use only and every employee has Windows XP as the company standard OS, then go with WPF to leverage the richer feature set. If a corporation is designing an external-facing website, then Silverlight is the better choice because potential customers can access the website from a variety of different operating systems and browsers.