A lot of folks are confused about the differences here.

Azure Storage

Essential storage services in the cloud.  Provides a core set of non-relational storage and processing abstractions at massive scale.  Azure is built from the ground up for the cloud.

Sql Services

Rich database services in the cloud.

Extends the power of sql server in a scalable way to the cloud. SQL Services is based on a SQL Server foundation.  It adds to the standard platform a lot of innovation in scale, HA, lights out operation, etc.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008 2:42:36 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)         Comments [0]   .NET Architecture

Sitting in the ASP.NET 4.0 session.  What a confusing road map with arrows going every different direction.

From what I can tell.  They are putting their formal releases going forward on www.asp.net and interim drops on codeplex at www.codeplex.com/aspnet.  The latter location is intended to be more cutting edge and sneak peek oriented.  Full source code will be provided along with road maps around thoughts and priorities.  They are currently getting around 1100 downloads a day.  They released new bits to codeplex today including a new ASP.NET Ajax Preview 3, Dynamic Data and MVC.

ASP.Net investments in dev10 include rollups of existing previews.

FX4.0 maintains a high compatibility bar with FX 3.5.  VS10 support multi-targeting to  FX4.0 or FX 3.5.

ClientIds can now be managed by the control developers for the rendered clientid.  Mangling is gone!!!

Removes the need to use CSS adapters.  Defers to CSS stytles and bypasses existing style properties. Supports non-table based HTML rendering for all controls.

URL Routing for web forms.  Friendly url handling for standard web-forms.

Viewstate can now be disabled on page and enabled on only specific controls. 

ASP.NET Ajax innovation for RIA.  Appealling to JavaScript developers is a goal.  Want to also provide support for the page developer.  IntelliSense for jQuery will be included.

Databinding will include client-side binding using REST or Web Services.

ASP.NET Ajax toolkit will be moved into ASP.NET proper and include new controls.  The script libraries will be centralized and broken up for performance.

ASP.NET Dynamic Data has enhanced filtering with auto complete, search filters and cascading filters.  Enhanced meta-data will also include control over column ordering.

Monday, October 27, 2008 1:42:01 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)         Comments [0]  

Check this out: http://blog.seanalexander.com/2008/10/27/NetFlixBringingInstantStreamingToPCAndIntelMacsViaSilverlight2.aspx

NetFlix announced usage of SilverLight2 for high quality DVD experience streaming.  Very cool.  The SilverLight streaming of the DNC that Vertigo did was spectacular and will look great for movies.

Monday, October 27, 2008 12:59:00 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)         Comments [0]  

I don’t get it.  I admit I can’t understand where Microsoft is going with Windows Azure.

There are two issues as I see it. 

1. Small to medium sized business who will be attracted to the pay as you go model will have to learn and re-architect their applications to sit on the Microsoft SQL Services model.  It won’t be an easy road. Everything they have learned about databases by and large goes out the window and they must do a significant retraining on how to work with a database with no transactions, etc. At least they announced Join support! While they are doing that they will also have to be learning the ins and outs of using the new Windows Azure as their deployment mechanism.  It is going to be a tough road for many of them.

2. Large business is interested because they:

• Want to try and minimize their rocketing data center costs.  Interested in leveraging the IP Microsoft is building around energy and cost efficient hosting.
• Are interested in lower cost mechanisms for doing geo-scaleout without having to build the physical presence around the world.
• Love the ability to dynamically increase scale without large up front capital expense with the associated long lead times.

However large business is not going to be willing to place their revenue stream into the hands of a single source vendor.  Once I write my software to the proprietary Microosft SQL Services I have no where else I can run the software. Yeah, yeah if I architect and factor my design I can limit the impact of the lockin but the issue still stands.  Am I willing to bet the revenue stream of my company on a single source solution that I can’t have another vendor host for me and I cannot run inside my firewall?  This isn’t just a Microsoft issue.  I see the same issue with Amazon Web Services and their SimpleDB service.  It is fairly proprietary and I can’t run it inside my firewall.

I was hoping that Amazon with the release of EC2 for Windows would put some pressure on Microsoft to release a full version of SQL Server instead of the crippled entity based model that is more a copy of Amazon’s SimpleDB.  However if you take a close look at the pricing it falls apart.  While .125/hour for a windows instance is quite price competitive once you add SQL Server standard it jumps to anywhere from $1.10 to $2.40/hour!  If you need authentication services also then it caps out at $3.20/hour!  While $0.125/hour only translates to ~$91/month the SQL Instance bumps up to more than ~$800/month!  No longer price competitive whatsoever. 

What is a developer to do?

Monday, October 27, 2008 12:36:58 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)         Comments [1]   .NET Architecture

We are doing it again!  Seattle CodeCamp is coming back to the DigiPen campus on November 15–16, 2008.  Check out https://seattle.codecamp.us for more information.

Monday, October 20, 2008 8:57:25 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)         Comments [0]  

As Conference Chair for VSLive Las Vegas, to be held October 13–17, this time at the Mirage Hotel right on the strip, it is my pleasure to lead the second "re-tooled"  VSLive event, and to invite you all to participate as speakers.

What does re-tooled mean?: for the remaining VSLive 2008 shows, we are making a concerted effort to break with long-standing formulas around tracks, content and, in some cases, format.  Rather than forcing all content to fit within 3 or 4 tracks/topic areas, we are instead pushing for a variety of content covering a variety of subjects relevant to Microsoft developers of all stripes.  We are also creating an additional full day of sessions.  And with a "pay one price" registration model, all attendees will be able to attend any session. 

The end-result of these changes is new freedom and subject matter flexibility and 50% more breakout session content than in past years at our "regional" shows (including New York, Las Vegas and Austin). 

A general call for papers (CFP) has already been announced and closed, but I am taking this opportunity to solicit additional content from speakers who perhaps have not spoken at VSLive before. If you have already submitted proposals through the CFP channel, rest assured I will review those proposals and give them every consideration.  However, I would like to make a special appeal to those of you who haven't submitted, and even those who have, to submit additional sessions now. 

The most important thing is to pick topics that you're excited about and will enjoy presenting on.  Meanwhile, if you're looking for guidance, a set of major topics and sub-topics/tags that we hope to include is listed now on the conference's Web site at http://vslive.com/2008/lasvegas/.  Check out the full list on the Web site, but please know that if you have something really interesting that doesn't quite mesh with the topics listed there, that I have the discretion and the desire to accommodate you, provided the topic is likely to be well-received by attendees.

One thing that hasn't changed (yet) is the short timeframes we're working on.  I have been asked to finalize the session matrix this week.  But here's the thing: assuming you can craft descriptive session titles, that's all I really need from you right now (once selected, you'll be asked to produce full abstracts).  So take just a few minutes now and send me titles for a couple of sessions you'd love to present.

Please email content to vslive@vergentsoftware.com

Thanks!

Sunday, June 22, 2008 7:29:23 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)         Comments [0]  

Recently setup a new TFS2008 installation out in my colocation and had issues with the report and document nodes in my TFS projects not coming alive.  I had put the correct routes into my ISA Server but those other links weren’t working.

I had forgotten to update the wss and report servers names in the registration data on the application tier.

To get the registration data do a:

TFSReg /EXPORT reg.xml APPTIERSERVERNAME

Change the following values to the FQDN of your application tier:

ATMachineName

ReportsService

BaseReportsUrl

WssAdminService

BaseSiteUrl

There are a few settings in the registry also:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\9.0\TeamFoundation\ReportServer\80\Sites

Has BaseReportsService and BaseSiteUrl that also needs to be changed.

Finally clear your cache at (for vista):

c:\users\@username@\appdata\local\microsoft\team foundation\2.0

and delete the cache folder in that location.

Found a great article here somewhat after the fact: http://bloggingabout.net/blogs/mglaser/archive/2007/01/31/hosting-team-foundation-server-on-a-fully-qualified-domain-name-fqdn.aspx

Friday, March 14, 2008 10:01:05 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)         Comments [0]   VSTS

I have been having a great time playing with the new MVC Preview 2 bits released on www.asp.net.

I am working on a project however where I needed a url like:

/home/view/2008/spring/easter/morning

and I wanted to put in a route like:

{controller}/{action}/{id}

and I wanted id to get

“2008/spring/easter/morning”

This could be N levels deep so

{controller}/{action}/{id1}/{id2}/{id3}

is not a great solution.

After spelunking around on the www.asp.net forums I found I could do a route like:

{controller}/{action}/{*id}

This directs everything after the action to the id.  Works great!

WideOpen Web

Wednesday, March 12, 2008 2:27:34 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)         Comments [1]  

Hear ye, hear ye!  MIX08 to debut the first ever MIX UX Track which is 3 days of solid content dedicated to creatives / designers.  Lou Carbone, David Armano, Dan Roam, Kim Lenox and others will speak.  In conjunction with Adaptive Path, the User Experience track is just one of the many great reasons for all types of designers and creative professionals to attend MIX this year.  http://visitmix.com/2008/mixux.aspx

The deadline for this year’s CSS contest, RESTYLE, has been extended.  Folks can still restyle the MIX08 Homepage and win a pass to MIX08, 3 nights at the Venetian, $$ and more, more, more! http://visitmix.com/2008/restyle/

Have you been listening to The Signal?  Each week a new episode debuts featuring a speaker or MIX crew member talking about some of the upcoming coolness happening at MIX08.  Listen to their interviews with Molly Holzschlag, Kip Kniskern, Jonathan Snook and others as we countdown to Vegas.  http://visitmix.com/blogs/TheSignal/

Perhaps you remembered last year’s MIX, in which we featured Flotzam, a WPF screensaver mash-up that showed MIX07 feeds from Facebook, Flickr, Twitter and blogs. Well, we are doing it again this year with a twist: we are running a contest and will feature community created skins of the application on the big screen and on the screensavers of the computers available to attendees at the show.  The best skin will win an XBOX 360.  Entering the contest is easy: everything you need to know can be found here http://www.visitmix.com/blogs/News/403/ including links to screencasts and instructions that show how easy it is to do the restyle.  

Monday, January 28, 2008 10:36:31 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)         Comments [0]  

Microsoft is finally bringing back the PDC.

October 27-30, 2008
Pre-conference October 26, 2008
Los Angeles, California

Nice to see Microsoft giving plenty of advance notice so I can plan who from my team is headed to TechEd, Mix and/or PDC this year.

Friday, December 07, 2007 9:36:57 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)         Comments [0]