Gold Coast

WPF Chart Controls!!!

marcsc — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 16:42:29 GMT

YES! WPF officially has charting controls now:). There’s a new release of the WPF Toolkit:

WPF Toolkit - June 2009 Release

Bug fixes PLUS CHART CONTROLS!

FOLLOW UP: Developer Dinner on OGDI

marcsc — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 01:47:24 GMT

Thanks to everyone who attended Developer Dinner showcasing our work on the Open Government Data Initiative (OGDI). Here are the follow up links we promised:

OGDI Developer Dinner.pptx

FlexEntities.zip

WEBCAST: Microsoft and IDV Solutions at Work for the Enterprise

marcsc — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:03:23 GMT

Jerry asked me to help spread the word.

“…

Visual Fusion from IDV Solutions combines with Bing Maps, SharePoint and other Microsoft technologies to create a visual mashup platform, empowering organizations to unite data from otherwise incompatible sources - enterprise data stores, Web feeds, spreadsheets and more - into rapidly-built, interactive and collaborative applications that provide a single view of the data.

Join the Microsoft Bing Maps team, IDV Solutions and Directions Media for a complimentary webinar that discusses how the Bing Maps and Visual Fusion technologies can help you plan, predict and respond quickly, plus efficiently manage and analyze the overwhelming amount of data that flow through your agencies and departments on a daily basis.

…”

Details here.

SnagL: Visualizing Government Data using Silverlight

marcsc — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 13:56:49 GMT

My job at Microsoft is to focus on developers building software for the U.S. Government (directly or indirectly). When talking to folks about Silverlight, I get asked quite often whether it is being used on U.S. Government networks (including classified networks) all the time. You can imagine, due to the potential sensitivity of the customers/question, this is hard to answer other than “Yes, in many places.” That’s why I am excited to have published an interview with Berico Tailored Systems about their product called SnagL. Here is the interview description:

SnagL, from Berico Tailored Systems, is a thin client collaborative link analysis tool, which can be integrated with any existing tool or data repository. Advanced analytics, like clustering and ranking, enables users to intuitively navigate massive amounts of data through a thin client in a web browser.

SnagL is used by U.S. Government customers to help visually analyze, determine relationships in, and make decisions based on data. Watch the interview with members of the team to learn about the product, see a demo of it in action, and how it uses Silverlight to deliver compelling data visualizations that go beyond what you might expect from a browser based application. The team also gives you a history of their early adoption of Silverlight, evolution of SnagL, and how Silverlight enabled them to “see things you wouldn’t normally see just looking at the data.” They also talk about how Silverlight gave them a level of performance and visualization in the browser unmatched by their previous approaches. Finally, the team shares their excitement to start incorporating capabilities coming in Silverlight 3.

You can watch the interview at http://tinyurl.com/Ch9SnagL.

LINK: Open Government Data Initiative (OGDI) complements Data.GOV

marcsc — Fri, 22 May 2009 17:19:13 GMT

http://blogs.msdn.com/publicsector/archive/2009/05/22/open-government-data-initiative-ogdi-complements-data-gov.aspx

CANCELLED: Developer Dinner in Reston, Va

marcsc — Fri, 22 May 2009 15:04:29 GMT

The facility in Reston, Virginia had some unexpected audio/video failures. Because of this, the developer dinner for next week has been cancelled. I am really sorry for this inconvenience. We will reschedule ASAP once the audio/video equipment is successfully repaired. Stay tuned…

Open Government Data Initiative (OGDI) Developer Dinner

marcsc — Tue, 19 May 2009 20:46:55 GMT

Next Wednesday in Reston, Virginia. Details on my team’s blog: http://tinyurl.com/oupyf9.

Entity Framework 4.0 Sneak Previews

marcsc — Tue, 19 May 2009 13:17:11 GMT

If you haven’t been keeping up on the ADO.NET team blog, but you want to get up to speed with what’s coming in the next release of the Entity Framework (.NET 4.0), then now is the time to start monitoring their blog. Since 5/11, they’ve cranked out seven posts on new features. I like what they are doing. The post on 5/11 gives you a high level update. Then, they have followed it up with “Sneak Previews” of specific improvements. Definitely worth the time to read through these posts!

What’s new in ASP.NET 4.0 and VS2010 Beta 1?

marcsc — Tue, 19 May 2009 12:10:25 GMT

Comprehensive whitepaper for Web Development:

http://www.asp.net/learn/whitepapers/aspnet40/

Integrating Virtual Earth 3D into WPF and Surface Applications for Mere Mortals

marcsc — Mon, 18 May 2009 19:28:04 GMT

I just published a Channel 9 interview with Josh Wall and Josh Blake from InfoStrat about their Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and Surface controls that make integrating Virtual Earth 3D a breeze. Check it out:

http://tinyurl.com/Ch9InfoStratVE

“Virtual Earth 3D has many applications, but until recently has only been practical on the web with a JavaScript interface. WPF applications could not use the full potential of Virtual Earth 3D without requiring a WPF wizard and some XAML magic due to Win32 interop limitations.

Information Strategies (InfoStrat) has the solution. They created a WPF / Surface control, InfoStrat.VE, and are sharing with the community on CodePlex. This control provides a WPF interface for the Virtual Earth 3D control, complete with data binding for camera control and WPF-based pushpins. All Win32 restrictions (air space control, no rotation or visual brush) are eliminated. Microsoft Surface is also supported.

Watch the interview to learn the history behind the control, see it in action, learn how to get started, and even contribute back to the community.”

UPDATE: Interested in learning about a pretty cool solution that uses InfoStrat.VE? Check out Sam Chenaur’s post:

John L Scott Real Estate Looks to WPF and Software + Services

Using code analysis again…

marcsc — Thu, 14 May 2009 00:42:23 GMT

This week marks my 5 year anniversary at Microsoft. Five years ago, I stopped being a “real developer” and became an evangelist. Ok, I started with a short stint as a SQL / BizTalk Technology Specialist (what other companies call “pre-sales engineer”), but I’ve pretty much been focused on developers the whole time. I used FxCop back in my days of “real development.” As an evangelist, I spend lots of time writing demo code and samples. Today, I had a rude awakening that I’ve gotten a little sloppy. I’ve used “it’s demo code” as an excuse so many times. In many ways, I think it is a fair excuse. However, I think I have leaned on that crutch a little too long.

We are going through and cleaning up the OGDI codebase preparing it for CodePlex. Part of our internal review is to use code analysis to help us identify refactoring opportunities. Yea, Yea, Yea. I know. We should have been using it all along.

As part of preparing for our code review, I wanted to find out what else is available in the way of analysis tools that are free. I also wanted to review the capabilities in Visual Studio 2008. Here’s what I came across:

Writing Quality Code (various subsections on code analysis)

Code Analysis Team Blog

Code Analysis tools on MSDN Code Gallery

StyleCop Blog (Source Code Style and Consistency Tool)

StyleCop on MSDN Code Gallery

CAT.NET

I also watched this PDC session:

Improving Code Quality with Code Analysis

I’d definitely recommend checking out these resources and using the tools. I hope to learn a lot from using these tools. I also plan on forcing myself to use them as I build out demos, samples, and work on projects in the future.

Virtual Earth / MapDotNet webcast

marcsc — Wed, 13 May 2009 21:08:04 GMT

Interested in learning how to build Virtual Earth solutions and lowering the amount of custom code you need to write? Have a look at the upcoming webcast Jerry just blogged about:

Microsoft Virtual Earth May 2009 Webcast: Virtual Earth & MapDotNet for Economic Development

FREE .NET / C# Tutorial from pluralsight

marcsc — Mon, 11 May 2009 14:51:23 GMT

http://www.pluralsight.com/main/olt/Course.aspx?n=dotnet-csharp-tutorial

I tend to steer away from making recommendations on training companies and books unless I have actually been through the training or read the book myself. I have had the chance to review a number of the on-demand courses from pluralsight. I can say that this is top notch training content. I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for training. If you are new to .NET / C#, then here’s a great chance to experience the quality of this training FREE. Check it out!

ShawnWildermuth: Supporting ScreenReaders in Silverlight

marcsc — Mon, 11 May 2009 12:29:40 GMT

http://wildermuth.com/2009/05/10/Supporting_ScreenReaders_in_Silverlight

Nice quick post with a video…

Open Government Data Initiative (OGDI)

marcsc — Thu, 07 May 2009 18:43:08 GMT

I’ve been relatively quiet on the blog lately. I’ve made hints in a couple posts that I’ve been working on a fun little Windows Azure project that has been consuming my time. Well, I can finally talk about it a little more. Keith, a manager on my team, blogged about OGDI on my team’s blog:

http://blogs.msdn.com/publicsector/archive/2009/05/07/microsoft-announces-the-open-government-data-initiative-ogdi.aspx

Check out the blog post. I’ve had my hand in many parts of the OGDI codebase. I plan on writing a series of posts explaining different parts of the OGDI code. We are also planning a Developer Dinner in Reston, Va later this month that will focus on “how we built it.”

We will be making the entire source code for this solution available on CodePlex. We’re currently going through code cleanup, review, etc. The process for putting code up on CodePlex is a little more involved for Microsoft employees. Rest assured we are working hard to get it up there!