Monday, February 08, 2010
The Release Candidate is now available to MSDN subcribers with a public drop on Wednesday, February 10th: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/dd582936.aspx
Enjoy.
Join us for a sneak peek of Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2010, which will be a landmark release of the premier development toolset for Windows®, Web and Cloud development. ![c8946faa-fb1c-46b9-8f1c-fb6942b1881a[1]](http://rickgaribay.net/Images/CustomContent/TheUltimateEventVisualStudio2010TeamFoun_C8F5/c8946faafb1c46b98f1cfb6942b1881a1_thumb.jpg "c8946faa-fb1c-46b9-8f1c-fb6942b1881a[1]")
I will be speaking at the Phoenix and Salt Lake City Events. Below is more info and a complete list of dates.
The Ultimate Event is your exclusive opportunity to hear about Visual Studio 2010 from experts before the product is launched this year. Microsoft has made significant investments to and improvements of Modeling and Testing/QA tools in Visual Studio 2010. At this event you’ll get a comprehensive overview of Visual Studio 2010 and Team Foundation Server 2010, which is the Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) core of Visual Studio. We’ll present enhancements in version control, reporting, project management and build management.
Spend the day with us to learn how to take software development to the next level with Visual Studio 2010!
| Time | Topic |
| 8:30 AM-9:00 AM | Registration, Welcome |
| 9:00 AM-10:30 AM | Lap Around VS 2010 |
| 10:45 AM-12:00 PM | Agile Management with TFS |
| 12:00 PM-12:30 PM | Lunch |
| 12:30 PM-1:45 PM | No More "No Repro" |
| 2:00 PM-3:15 PM | Architecture for Everyone |
Dates: Register now using the link below, space is limited.
| Date | Location | Event ID |
| 3/2/10 | Bellevue, WA | 1032439179 |
| 3/2/10 | San Diego, CA | 1032439178 |
| 3/4/10 | Los Angeles, CA | 1032439180 |
| 3/9/10 | Mountain View, CA | 1032439176 |
| 3/9/10 | Irvine, CA | 1032439181 |
| 3/10/10 | Phoenix, AZ | 1032439183 |
| 3/11/10 | Salt Lake City, UT | 1032439996 |
| 3/11/10 | Portland, OR | 1032439182 |
| 3/16/10 | Denver, CO | 1032439184 |
| 3/16/10 | San Francisco, CA | 1032439177 |
Hope to see you there!
Saturday, January 23, 2010
WCF 4.0 simplifies the configuration experience significantly by providing a new default endpoint feature. This saves time and simplifies the configuration requirements for hosting a WCF service by providing a File –> New Project –> Code –> F5 hosting experience.
In this episode you’ll learn how to get up and running quickly with default endpoints and how to gain more control over the default bindings for each scheme (HTTP, TCP, MSMQ, etc) you may want to configure using the new protocol mapping capabilities in WCF 4.0.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
This is a really good comprehensive review of SOA security.
Thanks to Lars Wilhelmsen for sharing and credit goes to Prabath Siriwardena for putting this great tutorial together.
Friday, January 15, 2010
The following article was recently brought to my attention. It asks if .NET should be considered a disruptor in the last decade: http://blogs.zdnet.com/service-oriented/?p=3921
I actually gave this a bit of thought and the best answer I was able to come up with was “Yes and No”. Here’s why…
A technology can be "disruptive" when it gains wide spread attention but can fizzle out just as quickly or over an undetermined period of time. How deep into a revolution a technology can sink its teeth and still emerge a clear winner is a true long term measure that I believe earns the designation of "disruptor".
A true market leader leverages (or themselves are responsible for) a revolutionary technology and both exploits it fully while surviving several aftershocks that typically follow.
For example, I would argue that SOA was a revolutionary innovation that changed the mindset of an industry. In the process it displaced many traditional (and proprietary) approaches to distributed computing and a new market segment exploded.
I think Microsoft capitalized on this with ASP.NET Web Services (ASMX) which at the time I would certainly consider disruptive- offering 1st generation commodity SOA to the masses- but had the innovation wave stopped there, Microsoft wouldn't have a SOA story today.
Enter WCF . WCF is both an evolution over ASMX as well as a technology that has been successful in displacing many proprietary incumbents. However I think today what we have is a low-end disruption because it is evident that WCF overshot the market with performance and features. Incredibly, almost in perfect harmony with this market perception REST came into its own and disrupted our whole perspective on SOA and continues to challenge our values in the process (as all disruptive technologies do).
WCF 3.5 and the REST Starter Kit answered this call cementing the fact that .NET (WCF) is deep enough to survive and subsume other distrubtions and at the same time, WCF 4 will attempt to democratize WCF for the masses, likely gaining both mindshare and market share in the process.
So, while .NET has been disruptive, I don't know that we can claim it as disruptor just yet.
One thing is for certain. Azure has the potential to propel .NET to a more profitable market segment ushering with it new market disruption and establishing .NET in a clear lead position.
But these are just my thoughts. What do you think?
Tuesday, January 05, 2010
I’ve been with Neudesic since 2007 and have thoroughly enjoyed my role as the Connected Framework Practice Lead for the Connected Systems Practice.
I am passionate about model-driven, distributed software and have focused my career on helping organizations across all verticals streamline business processes while enhancing the productivity of developers by combining modern, iterative software engineering methodologies to deliver business value and drive revenue while reducing operational costs.
This role has been exhilarating. I’ve been fortunate to work with some of the best and brightest consultants in the world and helped build a regional Connected Systems practice that I am very proud of. In my role as Connected Framework Practice Lead for the Connected Systems Practice, my focus has been on architecting, designing and leading the implementation of solutions built on distributed .NET technologies such as WCF, Azure, Neuron ESB and Sync Framework as well as focusing on model-driven tools such as Entity Framework (EF) and SQL Server Modeling Tools (Oslo).
Effective 1/2, I am moving out of my role as Practice Lead and into a Solutions Architect role with the Enterprise Solutions Group (ESG) at Neudesic.
As a Solution Architect, I will continue to apply my passion in helping customers realize the benefits of the Microsoft platform by integrating distributed and model-driven Microsoft technologies to attain business outcomes, however this role will significantly limit the amount of time I spend on delivery/implementation and focus almost entirely on strategic architecture and design to help ensure that the solutions in which we partner with our customers are envisioned, orchestrated and executed as effectively as possible.
This new position aligns wonderfully with my areas of interest and career goals and will position me to have a larger footprint with Neudesic’s customers by being both a touch point and a touchstone for all customers within the Desert District and to help ensure they are effectively leveraging technology to accomplish intended business outcomes and help align business needs with the Microsoft stack.
It’s an exciting time for building distributed, service-oriented solutions. The enterprise and consumer market present endless opportunities for integrating applications and services, and SOA-much like the Internet- has become both a conduit and the lynchpin for integrating and surfacing these assets to add value to people and organizations both on-premise and in the cloud.
To this end, this year will be very exciting with a number of exiting releases including Windows Azure moving to production and the release of the .NET Framework 4.0 which will include updates to WCF which I believe will significantly increase adoption as well as new value-added functionality around discovery and routing. In addition, this year we’ll see a complete rewrite of WF, a tremendous update to EF and continuous investments in SQL Server Modeling Tools.
As such, the focus of my blog over the next 12 months will be on leveraging these technologies to solve business problems and provide new opportunities for organizations, developers and architects. I will also begin introducing Neuron ESB (our Enterprise Service Bus built entirely on .NET and WCF) and what a tremendous accelerator this product can be in crossing the cost-value chasm.
Lastly, we are hiring. If you are interested in talking with me about career opportunities at Neudesic, please send me a note.
Happy New Year everyone!
Monday, November 02, 2009
The Phoenix Connected Systems User Group is partnering with the Feed My Starving Children organization to pack food for thousands of needy children who need your help.
Join us as we pack 1 million meals for Feed My Starving Children in just one weekend. That’s enough to feed more than 2,700 children for a year! We will need thousands of volunteers to pack these life-saving meals. We also need to raise more than $170,000 to pay for production costs.
About Feed My Starving Children
Feed My Starving Children is a non-profit Christian organization (see FAQs below) committed to feeding God’s starving children hungry in body and spirit. The approach is simple: children and adults hand-pack meals formulated specially for starving children, and FMSC ships the meals to more than 60 countries around the world.
This year, Feed My Starving Children is committing to providing 91 million meals.
How can you help?
Join PCSUG on Saturday, 11/21 from 9:00 am to 11:00 am at La Casa de Cristo Lutheran Church in Scottsdale, AZ. In this 2 hour shift, we’ll pack thousands of meals to be distributed worldwide and help FMSC get one step closer to their goal of 1 million meals.
Volunteering your time and energy to help pack these meals for which there is an urgent need is our highest priority. If you can help, please register for the 9:00 am shift on 11/21 here: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/459671891
In addition, Feed My Starving Children is accepting donations of $40 per volunteer to cover the production costs of the food. Just $40 pays for the ingredients you pack, and $62 feeds a child for a year! To make an online donation, click here.
Please note that donations are not a requirement to contribute.
FAQs
Here are some common questions from the FAQ : http://www.fmsc.org/Page.aspx?pid=278
Where do you send your food?
We have sent food to more than 60 countries including Haiti, Sudan, Jamaica, Bolivia, Dominican Republic, Tanzania, Lesotho, Liberia, Ghana, Guatemala, Malawi, Cambodia, East Timor, Nicaragua, Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Cameroon, Niger, Colombia, and El Salvador, and to Hurricane Katrina victims in Louisiana and Mississippi.
Do you feed children here in the United States?
Feed My Starving Children (FMSC) targets feeding programs to children who are in the most severe circumstances, those suffering from severe malnutrition and threatened with death from starvation. The United States does not have that level of hunger on a widespread basis. In the past we have supplied food to an Indian reservation in South Dakota and to those affected by Hurricane Katrina.
How long have you been doing this?
Feed My Starving Children was founded in 1987; the first shipment of the current food formula was sent in 1991.
Do you have to be a Christian to pack?
No. We welcome people of every faith to participate in our life-giving mission.
Do you require delivery of a Christian message when the food is served?
No. Our food is given to the neediest children, regardless of their faith or whether a Christian message is delivered. All of God’s children deserve to be fed.
Can the hunger problem ever be solved?
There is currently enough food in the world to feed everyone. The model FMSC has created works. With many people working together, we can have a significant impact on hunger and malnutrition worldwide.
What makes FMSC food so special for a malnourished child?
Our food was designed by food scientists at Cargill and General Mills to meet the nutritional needs of a 4-to-8-year-old malnourished child. Each meal has 20 different vitamins and minerals that are specifically tailored to meet a child’s nutritional needs for one day.
How old do you have to be to volunteer?
Children should be in third grade or older to participate. Younger children may have difficulty reaching to pour food into and packing food in the ingredient funnels. We realize that there will be some mixed age groups, in which case we ask that younger children work one-on-one with an adult and are not left unattended.
The Saturday shift is limited to 52 volunteers, which, at capacity can pack up to 30,000 meals. I would love nothing more than to hear that Eventbrite is out of tickets for that shift!
Thank you for considering this opportunity to volunteer and give back to the community in a much needed way!
Register Here: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/459671891
Donate Here: http://www.fmsc.org/Page.aspx?pid=383
Saturday, October 31, 2009
I will be speaking at DCC on November 7th on the following topics:
- Developing and Deploying an On-Premise .NET Application with Azure Table Storage
- Developing and Deploying a WCF Application with Azure Compute Services and Azure Table Storage
There are several excellent sessions this time around, including talks from fellow colleagues at Neudesic like Michael Collins, Joel Neubeck and Andrew Wilson.
Hope to see you there!
Monday, October 19, 2009
.NET 4.0 and Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 is now available to MSDN subscribers as of 9:30 AM PST. This release includes the new version of Connected Framework products like WCF and WF 4.0, Entity Framework 4.0 and a host of additional new features across work streams including MEF, Parallel Extensions, and significant enhancements to Visual Studio Team System and Team Build.
Having spent some time with both WCF and WF limited CTP, Beta and pre-Beta 2 bits, this release includes significant improvements, re-design and new features specifically around WCF and WF 4.0. If you are like me, you will likely welcome many of the designer enhancements in WF 4.0 and may lament a number of designer design changes within messaging activities. You’ll just need to rip off the shrink wrap on Beta 2 to find out yourself!
I plan to start doing a significant amount of writing around WF 4.0 because I think that having been re-written from the ground up, WF 4.0 addresses many, many of the pain points in the 3.0 and 3.5 version, and I believe that WF + WCF 4.0 will lower the barrier of entry for writing workflow and service/model-oriented applications. In addition, the improvements within Workflow Services and the ease with which those new to WCF can get a service up and running are both significant and necessary to increasing the reach of these fantastic technologies.
Another major area of VS 2010 I am excited about is in the new architecture and design tools in Microsoft Visual Studio Team System 2010 Architecture Edition which introduces new UML designers, use cases, activity diagrams, sequence diagrams and the ability to explore and visualize existing code, design and apply layering to enforce dependency rules, and physical designers to visualize, analyze, and refactor your software. In May of the year, I demonstrated how VS 2010 extends UML logical views into physical views of your code along with how to create relationships from these views to work items and project metrics, and how to programmatically transform models into patterns for other domains and disciplines.
Needless to say, I’m excited about VS 2010 Beta 2, and am even more excited to announce that the official launch of Visual Studio 2010 will take place on March 22nd, 2010.
Until then, you can download Beta 2 on October 21st here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/dd582936.aspx
Some other notes of interest:
- Microsoft is announcing a new, streamlined packaging lineup and licensing options for Visual Studio 2010 and MSDN. This includes an "Ultimate Offer" to help customers upgrade to the latest developer tools. For more information on the new packaging, licensing, and pricing of Visual Studio 2010, visit: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=166249
- As you may have noticed, MSDN has undergone a significant redesign which includes new benefits for all MSDN subscribers: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx
March 22nd will be here before you know it, so jump on the Beta 2 bits now and get ready!
Oh, and don’t forget, PDC 2009 is right around the corner. Register now for key insights you just won’t find at any other conference: http://microsoftpdc.com/
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
I don’t do a new and notable list, but if I did, Roy’s TDD Katas would be on my list: http://5whys.com/blog/how-to-measure-programmer-productivity-using-tdd-katas.html
Just brilliant.