April 2008 - Posts

Architects in IT

We don't need no architects

Welcome to Issue 15 of The Architecture Journal

As IT transforms the way we work, the IT process is evolving with web services that will inter-operate with other systems symphonically.
posted Wednesday, April 30, 2008 10:40 AM by paul with 0 Comments

GDC XNA Presentations

GDC 2008 Presenations are now available!

The XNA Team has announced the availability of the Microsoft Developer Day GDC presentations on MSDN. Thanks to the GDC speakers, who put in a great deal of time and effort to create and present these decks.
posted Tuesday, April 29, 2008 9:11 AM by paul with 0 Comments

AMD Business Class

AMD Business Class provides the foundation for a business computing infrastructure designed to work harder, longer.

Why care about a balanced PC configuration?

In our multitasking, multimedia, always connected, always on world, we aspire to consistent, persistent computing, enabling us to be more productive in everything we do.

AMD Business Class processors and the AMD 780V chipset, provide the performance and energy efficiency needed for a stable and consistent platform for today's business PC.
posted Monday, April 28, 2008 10:46 AM by paul with 1 Comments

Get Mesh


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Amit Mital, Microsoft's GM for Live Mesh gave a first look at Mesh at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco last week.
posted Sunday, April 27, 2008 9:43 PM by paul with 0 Comments

Mesh

Ray Ozzie, Microsoft's Chief Software Architect sits down with Jon Udell to talk about Live Mesh, a new technology and platform that enables synchronization and storage to the cloud. The history of Live Mesh, was influenced by Ray's previous work on Groove and Lotus Notes. Ray also discusses the core technology that forms the basis for Live Mesh including REST APIs, XML, and synchronization APIs that enable you sync your Mesh across multiple devices.

Live Mesh is a software-plus-services platform and experience from Microsoft that enables PCs and other devices to ‘come alive’ by making them aware of each other through the Internet, enabling individuals and organizations to manage, access, and share their files and applications seamlessly on the Web and across their world of devices

Check-out Live Mesh for yourself, sign-up and learn first hand about this new software + services platform for synchronization and collaboration.

posted Wednesday, April 23, 2008 12:03 AM by paul with 0 Comments

Techbash 2008

TECHbash 2008 Don’t Miss It!

Since its inception in 2005, TECHbash has evolved into a premier technology conference for Northeastern Pennsylvania. This one day event brings together a broad spectrum of Technology Professionals to network, knowledge share and discuss existing technology solutions to business challenges, as well as preview prerelease products on the bleeding edge.
posted Monday, April 21, 2008 3:54 PM by paul with 0 Comments

Age of Conan Beta

I've had a look into the world of Hyboria and have seen the next massively multiplayer online role-playing game that will engulf the lives of many adventures from our own persistent world.

As the gates to the online world of Hyboria are opening, you have the chance to become one of the select adventurers who may answer the call and come to the aid of Conan. The search for beta testers is upon us, and we invite every able man and woman to offer their aid in the quest for a better gaming experience. Now you can make a difference.
posted Sunday, April 20, 2008 7:24 PM by paul with 2 Comments

Win CE at ESC

Sights from ESC San Jose - keynotes, Sessions, and Labs.

From the Embedded Systems Conference in San Jose, California, the Windows CE Team wants to Spark your Imagination.
posted Friday, April 18, 2008 2:24 PM by paul with 0 Comments

SUN and AMD

Last night I had dinner with Scott McNeally and some friends at the NASDAQ Exchange in Times Square. We had a great time, Scott is a no-nonsense guy who speaks his mind and answers all question frankly. I asked him about AMD's Barcelona QUAD-Core Opertron chips in SUN Servers and Scott replied that SUN Servers will ship with SPARC, Intel and AMD Opteron chips and we'll see what the market and Darwinian laws decide. That's great news for AMD, many SUN Partners have been pleased with the value and performance of AMD Opteron Servers and should be ready for x64 Systems with Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors.

Sun announces multiple blade and rack systems based on the Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor. Sun Blade X8440 Server Module, the world's first blade server designed for Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors.
posted Thursday, April 17, 2008 11:39 AM by paul with 0 Comments

SQL Server Integration Services

NJ SQL Meeting

Tonights session will allow beginners to get a jump start on the SQL Server Integration Services concepts using Visual Studio 2005. The emphasis of this talk will be mostly on the Microsoft wizardry that puts rapid application development on a stable platform.

Speaker - Dr. Jay Krishnaswamy a graduate of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore who writes on databases and web development.
posted Tuesday, April 15, 2008 1:44 PM by paul with 0 Comments

Salesforce and Google

Introducing Salesforce for Google Apps 

Salesforce has expanded their partnership with Google to deliver a new product called Salesforce for Google Apps.  Salesforce for Google Apps is a simple combination of Web-based business applications that streamline communication and collaboration with the power to change the way you work.

A Microsoft spokesperson wasn't impressed, but Google has their foot in the Enterprise door.

Just so happens that the Salesforce Tour de Force Roadshow will be in New York, April 16 and Paul be there to meet CEO Marc Benioff and Polly Sumner, President, Platform, Alliances, and Services.

posted Monday, April 14, 2008 1:23 PM by paul with 0 Comments

Live Maps 6.1

The New Release of Live Maps and Virtual Earth 3D is now Live!

Mark Brown just announce that the latest version of Live Maps is up and ready to go. Coming soon is an upgrade of the Map Control to version 6.1 for developers.

I just field tested Live Maps and discovered why Fed-Ex has been delivering packages intended for me to another house five miles away. I have sent the search string to the Live Maps Team and now they will hopefully find my house.
posted Friday, April 11, 2008 9:44 AM by paul with 0 Comments

Smart Client Software Factory

SCSF April 2008 Alpha for Visual Studio 2008 Published to CodePlex

The Patterns and Practices Group has just published the Smart Client Software Factory April 2008 Alpha release on CodePlex.
posted Friday, April 11, 2008 7:13 AM by paul with 0 Comments

ASP.NET Dynamic Data Preview

ASP.NET Dynamic Data Preview Available

Scott Guthrie just announced the release of an updated ASP.NET Dynamic Data Preview part of the ASP.Net 3.5 Extensions Scott Hanselman spoke of in his Keynote at  Devscovery last week.

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posted Thursday, April 10, 2008 12:43 PM by paul with 0 Comments

ASP.Net 3.5 Extensions

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Scott Hanselman gave the Keynote at  Devscovery NYC on April 1, 2008

Scott called the talk I am ASP.Net 3.5 Extensions and so can You! and because it lasted about an hour and a half I edited it into three parts. See the final episode and if you missed it here is the intro.

posted Thursday, April 10, 2008 10:21 AM by paul with 0 Comments

Visual LINQ Query Builder

Visual Linq query builder for Linq to Sql: VLinq

The Visual Linq query builder is a Visual Studio 2008 addin. It's a designer that helps you create Linq to Sql queries in your application. Both C# and VB projects are supported.
posted Thursday, April 10, 2008 6:55 AM by paul with 0 Comments

AMD Live!

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While in Austin Texas I met Simon at AMD's HQ and he gave me a demo of the exciting features in AMD Live!
posted Wednesday, April 09, 2008 11:34 AM by paul with 0 Comments

Yahoo! Analytics

Yahoo! Announces Agreement to Acquire IndexTools' Analytics Business

Web analytics is so important and and accurate numbers are needed if this advertising model is to work.

Everybody has been wondering what Yahoo was going to do with all the pressure being applied by MSFT. Yahoo is an American success story and in America successful people and companies get up early and work hard all day long.
posted Wednesday, April 09, 2008 7:38 AM by paul with 0 Comments

Google App Engine

Introducing Google App Engine

Google is offering developers a tool that enables us to run our web applications on Google's infrastructure. The goal is to make it easy to get started with a new web app, and then make it easy to scale when that app reaches the point where it's receiving significant traffic with millions of users. mmmmmmillions of usersssssssss.

I signed-up for the preview, this is a great move by Google to win the hearts and minds of the developer community. SteveB used to cry - developers, developers, developers, but now he's giving most of his time learning how to yodel.
posted Tuesday, April 08, 2008 7:24 AM by paul with 0 Comments

Behavior Driven Development: The Evolution of TDD

Tonights N3UG Meeting

Test Driven Development has been gaining prominence, and many developers recognize the value it provides. Still, TDD adoption can be a slow and painful process, and often results in early abandonment as challenges mount. Many believe the current body of TDD knowledge puts too much emphasis on testing implementation details, and not enough on testing behavior. Behavior Driven Development (BDD) takes a more focused approach to TDD that can help clarify the testing process, and create a meaningful, readable suite of tests that not only helps you and other developers understand your application, but can be used to show your client that the application is meeting their needs. When developers, customers, and managers can clearly see the value of writing tests, everyone wins.

Speaker - Brian Donahue a software developer with Vitreo Solutions building custom business software.
posted Tuesday, April 08, 2008 6:33 AM by paul with 0 Comments