Craig Bailey on Microsoft

Head over to www.craigbailey.net

2008-08-31T14:37:00.001+10:00

Just to let you know, this is my backup blog. It only has a subset of my blog posts. All these and the rest are on my main blog.

My main blog and web site is here: www.craigbailey.net

If you’ve landed here (eg via a search engine result) then you’ll probably want to go to my main blog here.

VSTO: Deployment via SharePoint

2008-08-31T14:33:00.001+10:00

[This is a backup copy of the post – the original post is available here]

Deploying a Word document level VSTO add-in via SharePoint

Actually, more correctly, we are going to deploy via ClickOnce but deliver via SharePoint.

This the second demo on VSTO deployment, and follows on from my previous post about VSTO deployment via ClickOnce.

It covers building a very simple Word document level add-in, deploying to a network share, uploading this to SharePoint, and then focusing on the experience a user would have viewing it via a SharePoint Team Site.

TechEd 2008 – Session DEV320: Deploying VSTO v3 Applications

This is the second of the demos Andrew Coates and I will be giving in our TechEd session (next Wed 3 Sep at 4pm for those interested) – see my previous post for details.

Screencast

You can view it a few ways.

[UPDATE: I’ve updated this – the previous version had an extra trusted location check that wasn’t required – I’ve taken it out to avoid confusion]

You can view the SoapBox hosted version (or see below), but be aware this is lower res.
If you want the original 1024 x 768 resolution then click here to view it (Recommended!).
You can also download the WMV file (24.4 MB).

Acknowledgements: As previously noted, Andrew came up with most of the examples, so if you find the demo helpful then chances are he’s the reason! And if there’s excessive woffle or mistakes, then that’d be my input :-)

Any comments?

I hope this helps.

I’m always keen to improve my demos and presentations. If you have any advice or feedback I’d love to hear it.

Technorati Tags: VSTO,Deployment,ClickOnce,SharePoint,Andrew Coates,TechEd 2008

VSTO: Deployment via ClickOnce screencast

2008-08-31T14:32:00.001+10:00

[This is a backup copy of the post – the original post is available here]

Deploying an Excel application level VSTO add-in via ClickOnce

If you are new to VSTO deployment then this simple little screencast (just under 14 mins) may help. It covers the scenario of deploying an application level add-in via ClickOnce to a network share, and then the experience a user would have installing it.

TechEd 2008 – Session DEV320: Deploying VSTO v3 Applications

This is one of the demos Andrew Coates and I will be giving in our TechEd session (next Wed 3 Sep at 4pm for those interested).

In our session we cover all the security and trust issues around VSTO deployment (you can download an earlier version of the PowerPoint from Andrew’s blog here). We cover ClickOnce, MSI and SharePoint scenarios. However, we only have time to demo the ClickOnce and SharePoint scenarios. I’m planning on doing a screencast of the MSI process at a later stage (leave a comment if this is of interest to you).

Andrew and I had a practice run through last week, and I recorded the demo parts. The first demo is available now (below).

Screencast

You can view it a few ways.

You can view the SoapBox hosted version (or see below), but be aware this is lower res.
If you want the original 1024 x 768 resolution then click here to view it (Recommended!).
You can also download the WMV file (16.1 MB).

Acknowledgements: Andrew came up with most of the examples, so if you find the demo helpful then chances are he’s the reason! And if there’s excessive woffle or mistakes, then that’d be my input :-)

Any comments?

I hope this helps.

I’m always keen to improve my demos and presentations. If you have any advice or feedback I’d love to hear it. In fact I might try to organise a little prize for the best bit of feedback… please leave comment against this post.

(UPDATE: Here’s the Deployment via SharePoint screencast)

Technorati Tags: VSTO,Deployment,ClickOnce,TechEd 2008,Andrew Coates

TECHED: RFID Palava

2008-08-31T14:31:00.001+10:00

[This is a backup copy of the post – the original post is available here]

It’s going to be interesting to see the reactions of attendees to the RFID tag palava at this year’s TechEd in Sydney.

For those who missed it, the dudes at Breeze (Mick Badran and Scott Scovell amongst others) have been working hard for the last few months putting together a whole bunch of RFID infrastructure for TechEd (they even got some press).

RFID is a very convenient way of registering attendance of people (it sure beats having to wait for door staff to scan the bar code on your name tag) and it opens up a whole range of data mining options. Each delegate will have an RFID tag in their name badge which can be scanned at any of the 56 RFID readers around the event (and no, they aren’t putting scanners in the toilets!). The information is collected and can be linked to attributes (but nothing personally identifiable) about the delegate to allow some nice data patterns & trends.

Give privacy concerns the boot

But before we go any further, please note, this is not a big brother kind of thing. You can opt out. You can chuck away your RFID tag. In fact all you have to do is put your hand over the RFID tag and it won’t be picked up. So let’s give the boot to any silly privacy concerns that might rear their ignorant heads. You are in control folks! [UPDATE: Mick has an excellent update calming any concerns you may have]

I’m a fan… now

This might sound strange coming from someone who blogs about personal stuff from time to time, but I have to admit I was nervous when I first heard about the RFID tag plans. I’m actually pretty private and like to carefully control what is revealed about me (heh! and you thought I was totally open about everything on this blog – think again :-))

But now I’m a big fan. And here’s why… as a consumer your user experience is going to be better.

An improved Conference experience

The advantages of noting (in real time) the attributes of people who have turned up to a particular session are going to be immense. There’s plenty of benefits for organisers, but the main benefit I see is how presenters will be able to view stats on their audience and tailor the experience to suit.

I’m not sure what level of feedback will be provided at this year’s event, but you can see the potential. Imagine you are in a session and the presenter is able to know that most of you are experienced IT Pros. The coding might get reduced and the configuration increased (just an example).

Start thinking about all the possibilities…

(See also Shane’s post for details of the UX ideas)

Technorati Tags: TechEd 2008,RFID,Breeze,Scott Scovell,Mick Badran

CLARITY: Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO)

2008-08-10T13:08:00.001+10:00

[Note: This was originally posted on my main blog here]

After chatting with a few people about Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO) recently, it’s clear that the technology is not that well understood (even though, in my opinion, Microsoft have done a pretty good job of articulating it – much better than say OBA for example). So in this post I’m aiming to give a high level overview of VSTO and clear up some misconceptions.

As usual this is covered under my ‘well duh’ disclaimer, and I apologise in advance for ‘reworking’ some of my content from earlier in the year, including this one from January and my general VSTO page. For a comparison of VSTO to VSTA see this page.

VSTO – What?

VSTO is Microsoft's tool set for building applications that run on Microsoft Office (eg Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint).

I deliberately choose the word ‘on’ because part of understanding VSTO is to view Office as a platform.

VSTO - A brief history…

Originally a replacement for VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) that was delivered in Excel and Word, VSTO was made available in its first version approximately around the start of 2004, targeting the Office 2003 platform. Development was performed in Visual Studio 2003 but was referred to as VSTO 2003 (or sometimes VSTO 1.0). It was an add-on to VS.NET 2003 and wasn't free (costing around $450).

The second version, referred to as V2 or VSTO 2005 was a big update that added numerous advances and enhancements (eg support for Outlook). It was delivered as a special SKU of VS 2005 (my understanding is it was not available as a separate download, but I could be wrong).

The third version, confusingly titled VSTO 2005 Second Edition (VSTO 2005 SE) was delivered in 2007 and focused on targeting the Office 2007 platform. It was a freely downloadable add-on for VS 2005.

This SE version was tweaked significantly and released in November 2007 as part of Visual Studio 2008 (Professional and above – it is not available in the Standard edition), and is referred to as VSTO V3 (even though it is the fourth version of the product). VSTO 2008 overcomes many of the deployment and security hurdles found in previous versions, and adds a number of design helpers (eg visual editing of Office 2007 toolbars, support for SharePoint 3.0 Workflow, etc). SP1 for VSTO V3 is to be released shortly and further improves deployment abilities (as well as bug fixes, enhancement, etc).

[The reason the version numbers are confusing is because in Vx terms they refer to the runtime used, not so much the tooling released. So, technically speaking VSTO 2005 and VSTO 2005 SE both use the same V2 runtime. VSTO in Visual Studio 2008 is using V3 of the runtime, even though it is the fourth release of the product. For more information Andrew Whitechapel has a excellent overview.]

The aim of VSTO is to provide tools for developers to build on top of Office as a platform. Using VB.NET and/or C#, developers can use Visual Studio to build add-ins for most of the Office 2003 and 2007 applications, including Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, InfoPath and Visio. SharePoint and Groove development is also possible, although not directly targeted.

VSTO – How?

So, how to get working with VSTO?

In a nutshell VSTO is a set of Visual Studio project templates that allow you to write add-ins for Microsoft Office applications (eg an add-in for Outlook, or Word, etc).

(Don’t worry) I’m not going into any code in this post, but I think screen shot from File –> New –> Project… in Visual Studio 2008 helps explain the scope:

As a developer you can build add-ins for most of the Office programs. Start by choosing a particular template (eg an Outlook 2007 Add-in) and Visual Studio will setup the skeleton and initial hooks.

Application level versus Document level

VSTO supports four types of add-in. The two main ones are:

Application level add-ins - are those that reside in the program itself. Example: you add a toolbar in Word that has functionality that can run regardless of which document you have open. Application level add-ins can be written for just about all Office apps including Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Project and Visio (all in both 2003 and 2007 versions) and InfoPath 2007.
Document level add-ins (or customisations) - are delivered within a specific document. Example: you include functions in a specific Excel workbook. The functions are only available when you open that workbook. Document level add-ins are only relevant to Word and Excel. (You could think of Document level customisations as the VSTO equivalent of VBA macros in Word and Excel).

VSTO also support two lesser known types:

SharePoint 2007 Workflow templates
InfoPath 2007 Form Templates

VSTO - Some misconceptions

There’s a few common misconceptions I’ve come across talking with people about VSTO. Here’s the clarifications:

Yes, VSTO V3 requires Visual Studio 2008 and the .NET Framework 3.5 – I mention this because it is a common question on the forums. So, if you don’t have Visual Studio 2008, or can’t be certain your users will have .NET 3.5 then you’ll need to work with a previous version.
Yes, you can target both Office 2003 and Office 2007 apps using VSTO V3, but no, you can’t target them both in the same add-in (eg you can’t write a single add-in that will work in both Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007).
Yes, VSTO and VBA are friends. Whilst VSTO may have started out as a replacement for VBA, it soon became apparent that Interop with VBA is much better for all concerned. VBA is going to be around for a while, and with interop the huge body of VBA code can be used in VSTO apps (see this post for more VBA and VSTO details).
Yes, VSTO is a part of OBA – you may run into the term Office Business Applications (OBA) and think OBA and VSTO are synonymous. But that’d be missing the huge scope of OBA. OBA covers a whole enterprise architecture with LOB apps and Servers as well as Office. VSTO is just part of the tooling for building OBAs (see here for a full overview of OBA).

VSTO – Why?

Question: Why exactly would you want to consider VSTO?

Answer: so you can build on a platform.

And not just any platform. But a platform that is now in its twelfth version, covers almost every imaginable business and home user scenario, and is installed on more 500M PCs worldwide… The Office platform.

Now, to be fair, not all of those users are using Visual Studio 2003 or 2007, but the majority certainly are, and growing. (For example, in a recent OBA webcast I watched, around the 3:09 mark there were figures from Forester Research - dated 31 Mar 2008 - detailing that 62% of surveyed enterprises not yet on Office 2007 were moving to Office 2007 in the next 12 months.)

So then the question becomes – why build on a platform? I think Andrew Coates answered this beautifully in his Standing on the Shoulders of Giants post a year ago. If you haven’t already, read it. [Aside: Initially, you’ll wonder why he goes into such detailed history… but later, perhaps pondering it while stuck in line at the local supermarket, or caught in a boring meeting, it’ll suddenly fall into place, and you’ll understand the necessity of working with a platform.]

With VSTO, you get to build on top of the Office platform, using the vast functionality of the .NET framework.

VSTO – Hurdles

VSTO isn’t without its problems. For one, you’ve got a whole lot of extra weight you need to ship with your app (including a bunch of extra DLLs called Primary Interop Assemblies – I’ll be explaining those things in a later post - plus the VSTO runtime, and of course the .NET Framework). But that isn’t the main thing…

Deployment has been the biggest hurdle to VSTO adoption. Getting your add-in out there and easy to install isn’t the simple task it should be. V3 has certainly improved the process, but there’s still work to be done. And as mentioned in an earlier post, a big focus of the upcoming VS2008 SP1 enhancements has been to make VSTO deployment even easier. Andrew Coates links to a number of good resources on VSTO deployment.

[Assuming those issues are resolved shortly, there is really only one further hurdle: mindset. I’ve mentioned this previously, and I think it still stands, but since it isn’t really to do with understanding VSTO itself I won’t go into details here.]

VSTO – Where are the examples?

One of the frustrations I’ve found with VSTO is finding some good real-world examples. Sure, there’s plenty of code samples, and the odd Code Gallery post, but there’s nothing detailing commercial applications that I can find (I’m hoping someone corrects me on this). There’s nothing on the Microsoft case studies site (the closest I could find were some OBA case studies that mention VSTO), and there’s nothing in any blogs that I can find pointing to cool VSTO apps available for download.

That’s not to say there aren’t plenty of add-ins for Outlook, Word, Excel, etc out there, it’s just that I can’t be certain if they were built using VSTO or not. For example, Xobni is a nice little Outlook add-in, but doesn’t appear to use VSTO. Hopefully I can add some examples to this section soon.

VSTO - Resources

I’ll be linking to a full list of VSTO resources in a future post, but for now start here: VSTO Portal on MSDN. Then go here for a Getting Started with VSTO guide. For hands on detail, take a look at this helpful forum post by the awesome Cindy Meister and these How Do I Videos on the Office Dev Center. For blogs and articles head over to OfficeZealot and of course the official VSTO blog. I’ve also listed some other resources on my VSTO page.

Also, if you’re interested I have a separate feed for my VSTO related posts: VSTO

VSTO – Summary

Visual Studio Tools for Office is a set of Visual Studio project templates and runtimes for building add-ins for Microsoft Office programs.
VSTO is mature (now in its fourth version) and easy to use. It has overcome many of the deployment hurdles it had in the past, but still has a few to resolve.
The latest version uses Visual Studio 2008 and the .NET Framework 3.5 and can create add-ins for just about any Office 2003 or Office 2007 app.

Technorati Tags: Visual Studio for Office,VSTO

CLARITY: Office Business Applications (OBA)

2008-07-27T13:40:00.001+10:00

Office Business Applications is a term getting bandied about a fair bit these days.

What is it exactly? Well, answers differ, and you’d be forgiven if you thought it was as simple as using Office to build Applications for use in Business.

The purpose of this post is to try to get some simple high level understanding of OBAs. In later posts I’ll be digging into resources and also covering VSTO. (As per usual this is covered under my ‘well duh’ disclaimer.)

OBA - Concept

The concept behind OBA is perhaps best summed up in the following quote from the OBA Central site where they state:

“Office Business Applications are a new breed of application that… turn document-based processes into real applications.”

This sums up the main aim of OBAs: they are document based.

OBA - Delivery

But what about the delivery – the technology enabling it? This is where it can get overwhelming. OBAs can encompass a huge range of technologies. The Microsoft Office suite of course, but also (and perhaps predominantly) the Microsoft Servers with SharePoint Server being key, followed by Unified Communications (Office Communication Server), Exchange and Groove Servers. It also extends to non-Microsoft vendor products including SAP, PeopleSoft, even CAD programs.

Here’s how they fit together:

(Note: this is my own summary of OBA – based on an excellent Steve Fox webcast on OBA)

Line Of Business (LOB) applications

To really understand how OBA sits together we need to agree on what Line Of Business (LOB) applications are.

What are LOBs? Wikipedia is reasonably sparse on details but captures the main point: LOBs are related to business needs. SearchCIO has a more helpful description, highlighting that LOBs are vital to running an enterprise. That is, they are a set of processes/applications that run your business (or a division ie line of your business), and can be complex and deeply integrated with a number of systems. In terms of OBA they can be Microsoft provided (eg Dynamics) or other vendors (common examples are PeopleSoft, Oracle, SAP).

It can get blurry though – for example, why would Microsoft Dynamics be a LOB app and Exchange not? The distinction comes down to how they are used. If you just install one of the Dynamics apps and use as is to enhance a few processes then it’s probably not a LOB tool. But if you use it as a fundamental aspect of your business, to the extent that part of your enterprise relies on it, then it is a LOB app. Similarly, if you dramatically enhanced Exchange and built crucial business processes on top of it, then yes, it moves from being just a Server, to a LOB app.

When we talk about Oracle, PeopleSoft etc as a LOB app, we are talking about them being crucial to everyday business. Just installing an Oracle server somewhere in the IT department does not make it LOB…

Thus, summarising again the delivery aspect of OBA, here’s what we’ve got:

OBA = Microsoft Office + Microsoft Servers + LOBs

Digging deeper into the Microsoft Stack

This helpful diagram from the Office Business Applications Architecture Overview (well worth downloading – it’s a Word doc) helpfully puts it in context.

Looking through the diagram you’ll see that just about every facet of Microsoft’s Office, Server and Developer tool set offerings can be directed into an OBA scenario.

Admittedly this diagram is a little out of date (eg it refers to the previous version of VSTO, there’s no mention of Expression etc) but it does show the scope of OBA.

By the way, you’ll notice that most of the discussion around OBA is concentrated on Office 2007. What happened to Office 2003?

Whilst not specifically excluded (and in a later post I’ll be covering how Office 2003 is fully supported in VSTO) Microsoft’s push is definitely focused on Office 2007.To that end, just about every example, overview and case study features Office 2007.

OBA- Why?

Why is OBA so important?

The beauty of OBA (for me) is the way it brings together such a wide range of technologies, and aligns them for a common purpose. That purpose will be specific to each organisation of course, and by having a glance through the OBA cast studies site you’ll quickly appreciate how diverse and powerful they can be.

In terms of business benefit there’s plenty of compelling information about ROI and so forth on the OBA sites. But have your BS filters on, the figures that get bandied about are on the best case side at every turn, and sometimes are complete fantasy (marketing gets carried away for example when they try to make unrealistic licensing cost per person arguments). And whilst I agree that Office 2007 adoption is high (much higher than say Vista), we need to be careful when stating that OBAs provide significant training advantages because users are familiar with the Office interface. The fact is, to many enterprises the Office 2007 ribbon re-training is a hidden cost they can’t quantify.

But my intention here isn’t to nitpick, rather it’s to say that building OBAs isn’t an open and shut case when it comes to training cost.

To me the value of OBA development is in other key areas - surely the main benefit of OBA is the ability to:

Use what you know
Use what you have

Use what you know

There’s been cases where a new CIO joins an enterprise and successfully changes their entire infrastructure (eg comes in, chucks out Java and rolls out .NET, or vice versa). The reason these events happen is because the CIO knows they can get results simply because they have achieved success with those tools before, and they know how to manage the implementation.

This is extreme of course, but my point is that a particular technology choice is rarely right or wrong, rather its about whether you know how to make the technology choice work. The reason I mention this is because when it comes to OBA, many CIOs already know how to make two-thirds of the equation work (that is, they know Office, and they know Microsoft Servers). And this trickles down to all areas (users with Office, IT with SharePoint & Exchange, developers with .NET etc).

Summary: OBA may or may not be the best technology architecture – but it will often be the best choice – simply because your IT team know how to make it successful.

Use what you have

The second benefit of OBA is the ability to use what you have (ie minimise TCO). If you already have Office and Microsoft Servers in place, then building on top of them is a comfortable position to take. Notwithstanding the need to upgrade (eg Office 2003 to Office 2007, or SharePoint Server 2003 to MOSS) there is a considerable enterprise base in place that can be used. At this point the marketing collateral descends into ‘leverage’, ‘proven’, ‘scalable’ and other buzzword guff, but the point is valid.

Again, the actual technology may or may not be the best, but having it in place offsets costs required to develop functionality that might already exist in other offerings.

OBA- Who?

At this point you might be buying in to the whole OBA vision. But is it appropriate for your business? Does it apply for example, to companies with only 30 staff? Again the case study site provides good guidance here.

You’ll see for example that most examples are for large corporates (1000+ employees). But the good news is that OBA applies at all levels, and there are a few examples where companies with as few as 10 or 14 employees are using OBA to improve their business (the smaller company examples typically use Dynamics CRM as their LOB app).

In terms of where OBA is predominant, the top two industries are Finance (Banking, Insurance, etc) and Manufacturing and the top two processes are Financial processes and Sales processes.

OBA - Where does VSTO fit in?

Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO) is a small but vital part of the OBA discussion. It’s the main tool developers use to build the extensions to Office apps that allow interaction with LOBs. But that’s a whole topic on its own, and I’ll be covering that in a later post.

Summary

Office Business Applications are solutions built using: Microsoft Office + Microsoft Servers (predominantly MOSS) + LOB apps
They focus on automating document based processes.
They are applicable to companies of all sizes, but usually enterprises with hundred or thousands of employees.
OBAs allow companies to provide significant functionality by using What they know (Technical Knowledge) to utilise What they have (Technical Infrastructure)
VSTO is a small but important part of the tooling that enables OBA

[If you found this useful you may be interested in other Clarity series posts]

Technorati Tags: Office Business Applications,Line Of Business,Visual Studio Tools for Office,OBA,LOB,VSTO

SBTUG: Outsourcing + ASP.NET MVC + Prizes

2008-06-23T22:01:00.001+10:00

This Wed at the Sydney Business & Technology User Group (SBTUG) we're lucky enough to have Bob McGilvray and Tatham Oddie presenting.

When: This Wed 25 June 2008

Time: 6pm (until approx 8:30pm)
Where: Microsoft, North Ryde
Contact: Craig Bailey : 0413 489 388
Cost: Free (Pizza all provided)

Plus:

Prize: Full version of Visual Studio 2008 Standard & Windows Server 2008 Enterprise
Details: full details on the SBTUG site

Details of presentations

How to manage Outsourcing by Bob McGilvray
In this presentation Bob covers his experiences with outsourcing large software projects to overseas development teams. Bob will be covering the benefits, problems and techniques for managing an outsourced development.
Bob will present some basic facts about Outsourcing of development staff worldwide, and will give you some insight into the advantages and pitfalls of using overseas development staff, based on his own experiences to date.

About Bob
Bob left the British Army in 1986 and set up as a one man band developing database systems in the UK for HIV and Drug & Alcohol Treatment Clinics. Working in Clipper then Foxbase, Bob's very limited technical and programming experience resulted in an offer of help from Bulgarian IT firm JEI being readily accepted. 6 months later, JEI attempted to double its charging rates overnight and was was promptly fired - and Bob's firm then individually hired the developers from JEI, all of who work for Bob's firm Coomasis Ltd.
Coomasis has a support base in England, its development team based throughout Bulgaria, and is managed from Batemans Bay. It is on the UK's major suppliers of systems for Drug & Alcohol agencies with over 200 agencies using its products.

Overview of ASP.NET MVC by Tatham Oddie
MVC Framework In this session Tatham introduces the MVC design pattern and then explains Microsoft's ASP.NET implementation. The presentation will be high level, covering where MVC is beneficial, where it is inappropriate, and why you would consider it in your business.
Here's the full description: The release of Microsoft’s ASP.NET MVC framework is rapidly approaching, and now is the time for businesses to start evaluating how it can be applied in their organisations. Come along for an interactive discussion around the benefits that MVC brings to the table, the differences between MVC and Web Forms and the ongoing roadmap for each.

About Tatham
Based in Sydney, Australia, Tatham divides his time between his role as a Senior Consultant with Readify, and working on his own businesses.

Facebook

Don’t forget, if you haven't already, you can join the SBTUG group on Facebook.

And please RSVP for Wed night’s event here. This helps us know how many people are coming (for catering).

Twitter

Last but not least, you can always follow us on Twitter here.

Technorati Tags: SBTUG,The Sydney Business & Technology User Group,Bob McGilvray,Tatham Oddie,Outsourcing,MVC

CLARITY: SQL Server 2008

2008-06-16T10:28:00.001+10:00

One of the problems we often encounter is information overload. There's no shortage of great articles, examples, podcasts and webcasts on every conceivable technology. Microsoft's products are no different.

Thus, the following is comprised of numerous sources easy to find online - there's no special insight here. Rather, I've just simply tried to distill a product to its highest level overview. Hope it helps, and as usual it's covered by my 'well duh' disclaimer.

Anyway, on to today's topic: SQL Server 2008

History of SQL Server

SQL Server has been around for a while, with version 6 coming along in the early '90s.

Version 6.5 and 7.0 followed. SQL 2000 and SQL 2005 are the most common versions in use now.

SQL Server 2008 has just entered its Release Candidate cycle, which means it may be released in the next few months.

Editions

There's a number of editions, the main ones being:

SQL Server Standard, Enterprise & Developer

SQL Server Web & Workgroup

SQL Express (available Free)

SQL Compact Edition (available Free)

(These support a variety of operating systems and chip sets)

Components

You may have seen the following helpful diagram at some point - it is a good overview of the main components in SQL Server 2008:

Database Engine

The main storage and query engine, supporting security, tables, views, stored procedures, replication and general management of data. SQL Agent also hangs off the database engine, allowing jobs or tasks to be scheduled.

Analysis Services

As the name implies, Analysis services are about providing in depth functions for analysing data.

There's two main parts to Analysis Services. Multi-dimensional data is where structures are built that package up data, often from multiple sources, into a single aggregated model. Often referred to as 'cubes' due to their multi-dimensional format. These structures are then also used in other packages (eg PerformancePoint) and reporting tools.

Data Mining is about interrogating vast volumes of data, often to provide predictive models and trends.

Reporting Services

Reporting services provide presentation and programming tools for delivering reports. Various formats, scheduling and exporting options are provided.

Integration Services

Integration services provide a platform for efficiently moving data in and out of SQL Server. Numerous formats and conversions between them can be managed. The integration tasks are coded as 'packages', and GUI tools are provided to help build them.

Service Broker

Provides the database engine with the capability to build messaging and queuing applications. Allows distributed applications to be built easily (since it supports transactions).

Replication

Replication facilitates data being distributed between different databases, and synchronised at regular intervals (sometimes close to real time). Replication can function over LANs, WANS, and the internet.

What about Notification Services?

Notifications services was a component of SQL Server 2005 that allowed messages to be sent to subscribers. It was a way of deploying apps that could send notifications in huge volumes. However it was dropped from SQL Server 2008.

Tools

SQL Server Management Studio

Key function: Managing

This is the main application for managing and administering the servers & services, databases, stored procedures, security, replication, resource governor and more.

Business Intelligence Development Studio

Key function: Developing

This is where you build applications (ie think Solutions and Projects) for any of the main services, including Analysis, Reporting and Integration Services. For example, you'd use this for building Analysis cubes, or an Integration Services package (eg here's one I did earlier :-))

SQL Server Profiler

Key function: Debugging

This is used for capturing and analysing activity. The tool allows almost any communication item in SQL Server to be captured, everything from queries, stored procedures, result sets, handshaking, and more. This is usually the first port of call when debugging SQL performance for example.

Other tools

There's also various command line tools as well as configuration tools (although apparently not the Surface Area Configuration tool I mentioned recently).

Other important stuff

Microsoft has an overall vision for providing data everywhere, whether that's on the desktop, web, mobile device or in the data centre. Here's a nice little piccy that puts it in context ->

Microsoft Sync Framework

Part of the strategy for making data available anywhere, is having the means to synchronise it back with the main data store. This is where the Microsoft Sync Framework fits in. It's not yet released (currently CTP2) and handles more than just database synchronisation ( but we are only interested in the database part for now).

The diagrams below show two manifestations of this. The first uses the internet for connecting back to a main storage server. The second adds to this by allowing the devices to synchronise between themselves as well as the main server (again over the internet).

The main point is that this supports an 'occasionally connected' architecture.

SQL Server Data Services

Plus Microsoft has a SQL Server Data Services concept coming (it's currently in limited Beta), which provides on-demand data storage, all hosted by Microsoft.

Closing comment

Yet again Microsoft marketing has chosen to hit us with the 'actionable' adjective. I still smile every time I see it - here's why.

Technorati Tags: Clarity,Microsoft,SQL Server 2008

TECHED: Why crap tracks are great news

2008-06-16T10:26:00.001+10:00

Last week we started seeing some of the TechEd Australia tracks being announced. Web is the first.

There was a little bit of Twitter backlash and the odd blog post noting that the track might be missing an important topic or two. (I've deliberately not linked to any of the blogs or Twitter feeds in case I misrepresent people, but they are easy to find).

Whether the track could be better (and how that might be achieved) is not my concern in this post.

Here's why its a good thing

My thinking is this: Microsoft has come so far in the last 12 months that there is just way too much stuff to adequately cover.

Surely this is a good thing!

Whereas in years gone by we've been forced to sit through sessions hyping up technology that is ages away from being released, this year we have so much new (and released!) stuff that it can't all be shown.

Conferences

Conferences are always a juggling act, with so many planning decisions to make, topics to choose from, and speakers to accommodate. You'll never get the mix exactly right. And with Australia only having capacity for 2,000 or so attendees (the US can service 14,000+) there's gonna be tough calls all along the way. Perhaps there should be 2 web tracks, or more sessions, or shorter sessions, or whatever... I'm sure there'll be some careful analysis post event. But don't let that get in the way of your attending...

See you there

For me , I reckon this year's TechEd is likely to be the best I've attended (it'll be my fourth). Microsoft, please don't disappoint me.

Will you be there?

Disclaimer

This post is covered under my 'well duh' disclaimer, and I fully realise I've had the odd whinge myself in the past (here and here for example).

Technorati Tags: TechEd 2008,Sydney

ELCOM: New product launch - Elcom TrainingManager.NET

2008-05-26T18:05:00.001+10:00

We're launching a new product this week. This Thursday morning to be exact.

You may know that Elcom, where I work, is a web company that builds products for medium to large companies. We do intranets, extranets, portals, web sites, etc. Plus we do a fair bit of customisation.

Over the last few months we've been turning things around a little and 'productizing' our custom projects into products in their own right.

TrainingManager.NET is one such product.

Although it's already live in two reasonably large companies, we're only now doing the official launch. It's a breakfast this Thursday and I hear the food is going to be good!

There's a press release here if you're interested in the marketing spin :-)

Here's the details if you are interested in coming along (free to attend):

Date: Thursday 29 May 2008
Time: 8:00am - 10:00am
Location: Hamilton Parkes Room, NSW Trade and Investment Centre, Level 47, MLC Centre, 19 Martin Place, Sydney, NSW
Register here

It's got a little bit of press (here, here and here), but the main thing I like is that it is running on .NET 3.5 - yay for that! Of course you shouldn't just consider a product based on the underlying technology - that'd be a feature not a benefit right?

So, what does TrainingManager do? Here's an description (complete with terms like 'cutting edge' ;-)). We'll have some nicer collateral coming in the next few weeks with cool screens shots, a micro site, etc.

Basically - as the name suggests - it allows a company to manage all the training for its staff and customers. It covers training pathways, competencies, face-to-face training, training events, testing & verification, plus a whole bunch of other goodies. If this is of interest let me know and I'll post a few more details (or contact me and we can chat).

BTW we're thinking of re-branding the product with a cool, hip, sexy name. Angus suggested 'Mustang'. Why? No particular reason - it just sounds cool. Elcom Mustang. Hmmmmm I think I like it.

I'm open to suggestions...

Technorati Tags: Elcom,TrainingManager.NET,Launch

SBTUG: Microsoft Groove 2007 + 2008 Stack + Prizes

2008-05-25T21:02:00.001+10:00

This Wed at the Sydney Business & Technology User Group (SBTUG) we're lucky enough to have Aaron Saikovski along to bring us up to speed on all things Microsoft Groove related. Oh, and check out the prizes...

When: This Wed 28 May 2008

Time: 6pm (until approx 8:30pm)
Where: Microsoft, North Ryde
Contact: Craig Bailey : 0413 489 388
Cost: Free (Pizza all provided)

Plus:

Prize: Full version of Visual Studio 2008 Standard & Windows Server 2008 Enterprise
Guest: Special guest appearance by a little rubber version of the Channel 9 guy
Details: full details on the SBTUG site

Details of presentations

Aaron Saikovski (Senior Solutions Specialist with Strategic Data Management) will introduce Microsoft Office Groove 2007.
Groove is a way of allowing collaboration in your enterprise without having to rely on SharePoint. In this presentation we talk about how to integrate Groove into your enterprise and what is needed and how it can be used effectively for both connected, disconnected and even remote users. We discuss the architecture, security and the business benefits of the product.

Catherine Eibner will be giving a 10 minute demo of her favourite Microsoft 2008 stack feature during our Member Spot.

If you are still happy to continue on after our pizza break then :-)

Craig Bailey (Technical Director at Elcom) will be giving part 2 of a high level overview of the Microsoft 2008 Stack including Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008 and SQL Server 2008. He will be outlining the business benefits of each product (as opposed to just a feature review) including examples of how Elcom has gained from using them.

Facebook

Don’t forget, if you haven't already, you can join the SBTUG group on Facebook.

And please RSVP for Wed night’s event here. This helps us know how many people are coming (for catering).

Twitter

Last but not least, you can always follow us on Twitter here.

Technorati Tags: SBTUG,The Sydney Business & Technology User Group,Microsoft Groove 2007,Microsoft 2008 stack,Aaron Saikovski,Catherine Eibner,Craig Bailey

OPINION: The Death of Gen Y

2008-05-21T14:46:00.001+10:00

The whole Gen Y thing really intrigues me.

On one hand I think the concept behind Gen Y is a complete myth, and on the other I think there is something compelling we can learn from.

In this post I cover the following:

why Gen Y is a useless categorisation
the coming IT crash
why Gen Y will be especially disadvantaged, and
some suggestions for how we can all best survive.

What the hell is Gen Y?

First some clarifications.

What is Gen Y? Ask this question and you'll get a variety of answers. Many will stick to definitions (eg they are born after 1980), most will point to (or at least mention) 'kids' who have grown up with a sense of 'entitlement', some will talk of young adults still living with their parents, a few will mention highly educated, and others will simply describe them as incredibly hardworking employees, determined to climb the corporate ladder. In technology circles you'll inevitably hear the equating of Gen Y with social networking, use of IM, etc and on it goes.

One article I read stated it like this: ...'we are talking about a generation of kids who grew up not being told what to do, but instead being asked what they wanted to do...'

In any case there seems to be no real consensus as to what Gen Y really is. Even Wikipedia is confused.

Gen Y is a crock

My opinion: Gen Y is a crock.

Instead of being representative of a certain demographic, if anything the Gen Y moniker is little more than an indicator of economic conditions.

But before elaborating, lets first talk about categorising people.

Ever noticed that we use all kinds of tests and criteria to analyse people, but invariably end up defining the sum of the person in little more than a few broad categories? There's usually 3 or 4 labels attached, all of which help us instantly pigeon-hole friends, family and colleagues (eg "...I'm INTJ, but he seems ISFP, I wonder how he'll deal with conflict...")

If you're especially lucky, your categorisation method can be neatly visualised with a circle cut in quarters... :-)

It's all good on paper, but in real life, categorising people is a waste of time.

There's benefit of course in being able to visualise a concept, but these days we take the visual-bites too seriously and start making all kinds of HR related policy decisions based on them.

The Gen Y concept is another of these useless categorisations, where we attempt to reduce a large and important section of society into an easily manageable idea. It's never that simple.

Some recruiters* have much to answer for, having propagated the Gen Y notion to silly extremes. Witness the rash of 'Investigative reports' into the mind of Gen Y and the special advice forums on how to recruit and retain the talent. Business magazines are no better, with in-depth articles on how to best accommodate the 'needs' of Gen Y in your organisation.

However, it's time we started challenging some of these 'findings'. For example, let's pick on this 'entitlement' notion we hear so often.

The truth is, economic conditions had much more to do with the trend than any Millenial mindset. Only a handful of 'kids' started demanding entitlements, and in a skills-shortage (eg the IT market, Financial services market, etc over the last few years) they easily got their way. Recruiters started noticing the trend and soon had a winning pitch on their hands.

But here's the thing: Tell a group of 20-somethings enough times they are special, entitled to promotions, deserve flexible working conditions, etc, and after a while they start to believe it. Start telling companies that are hiring that they should expect this, and incredibly... it happens. Now get those same companies to participate in surveys about the working conditions this new Gen Y group are 'demanding' and the myth propagates.

And the winner is...

Who wins from all this I wonder?

Recruiters? Perhaps. If it results in a bigger package for their candidate (since recruiters are usually commission % based).
Gen Y? Yeah, I guess, but there's a downside which we'll discuss in a moment.
The employers? Not really.

Who wins? Well, nobody really. Nobody wins.

Which is why we need to kill off this silly Gen Y notion. And perhaps the coming crash will be the catalyst...

The IT crash is coming

Back in January we chatted briefly about the impending crash. Three months on and it seems a little more certain, especially when we start absorbing the scale of economic slowdown and the decline in venture capital. As economies in the United States and Australia slow, there will be significant impact in many sectors, but particularly affected will be the IT sector (we'll discuss why in a minute).

So, the discussion is no longer if, but when. Most people know that economic cycles happen in.. well cycles. So there is always going to be an end to the good times (and likewise the downturns will always pick up again). It so happens we've come to the end of a good time. Better start preparing for the bad times, because they are almost upon us.

Taking stock of the situation

Now's a good time to summarise some news themes of late (I'll simply mention what's happening - there's not enough space to discuss why it's happening):

Exhibit A: Venture Capital and Angel investing downturn

VC and angel investors ploughed $26B into 57,000 startups last year. But already the trend has turned. The latest reports show VC and angel investing down by 8.5%.

Exhibit B: Australian state economies slowing

This has been noted in business news sections a fair bit lately. NSW and Victoria economies for example are slowing, and already some of the larger accounting firms are looking to relocate staff to other states. But even though QLD and WA economies are growing they are much smaller than NSW and VIC and thus only able to absorb a subset.

Exhibit C: US economy

Open any business magazine or news section and you'll read how the US economy is stalling. Whilst initially reluctant to use the R word*** many economics commentators are now pointing to 4 quarters of negative growth...

Exhibit D: Silly money flowing

The TechCrunch lists and corresponding Deadpool should be red flags to anyone watching the industry. Every day a new company with very little to contribute starts up.

When you realise that the only reason for a company being in existence is because they are hoping to be bought out by Google, Microsoft or other large corporate, then you know there is a problem**. Those companies are never going to be sustainable in their own right.

Summary: In a down economy, with large corporates redeploying staff, venture capital drying up, but still IT startups surfacing (most on the back of misguided acquisition strategies), it doesn't take long to realise that IT is going to be hit hard. The fallout is unlikely to be the size of the dot com crash at the start of this decade, but it will be significant. The hot IT market of the last few years will quickly turn into a buyers market where employers have their pick of the best candidates.

Timing

It's anyone's guess as to when the real effects will hit. And I'd be foolish to make specific predictions... but I'm going to anyway :-)

For large Australian companies, my opinion is that we'll see rapid spending of remaining budgets from now until the end of June (when our financial year in Australia ends). After that there'll be plenty of 'revised' budgets hitting department heads. Look for layoffs to start appearing shortly thereafter.

For startups it's simply a matter of when the money starts running out. Most venture capital backed startups won't be renewed, and the Dead pool will grow rapidly. We're already seeing hints of this activity happening now.

For small to medium businesses, it will depend on who your customers are, and whether you sell features or benefits (more on this later).

The curse of Gen Y

OK, so let's assume by this point that we agree bad things are coming to IT. Cut backs need to be made, projects cancelled, and staff numbers cut. Who do you think is first in the firing line?

How about those new, entitlement seeking up and comers we keep having to satisfy...? Yes, even though Gen Y is a myth, the notion has been so well swallowed that it will come back to bite. When a sector like IT moves from a sellers market to a buyers market, discussions about entitlements don't get much air time.

The sad thing about this of course is that just being labelled Gen Y will be a disadvantage. An otherwise hard working professional will be tarred with the same brush as those IM using, web surfing, Facebook browsing, entitlement seeking, corporate climbers we've heard so much about.

What to expect

Dinner party conversations are already discussing how for the first time in a 'generation' we are going to see highly employable people out of work.

Sure, we've got some general unemployment, but for those in skilled professions it is reasonably easy to get a job. Perhaps that's part of the reason we think there's a whole generation of young adults who think they are 'entitled' to a job - it has never really been that difficult to get one.

This year however we are going to experience, for the first time in a decade, a time when young adults won't be able to get a job. This is going to be a huge shock for a certain segment of society.

The rest of us of course, used to working hard, and being paid for a fair days work will continue on unaffected right? Not so fast...

Is it just Gen Y?

No it's not just Gen Y of course. It will be a time when companies undertake necessary cleanups, and people are trimmed at all levels. The usual chops of middle-management will feature prominently, and under-performing CEOs will be unceremoniously shown the door. But there will also be a large swathe of junior staffers that are all cut back.

And here's my point. Once this cycle has been completed, and the transition has been made, there will no longer be any notion of Gen Y. All those ideas of entitlement will be long gone.

It will be the death of Gen Y.

Moving on...

Surviving the crash

Keeping your job during a downturn is a combination of having the right attitude and working for the right company.

The following points are specific to IT but could be applied in general with a few tweaks.

Remember though, good people will be lost. Like all things in life, there are no guarantees, which is why sadly, even great companies have to trim back great workers in tough times (see Sun's recent announcement along these lines for example).

The following is merely a few thoughts to consider, all other things being equal:

Make sure you are working for the right company

1. Work for a company that focuses on benefits instead of features

Here's how to distinguish between the two:

Features are things a vendor thinks are cool.
Benefits are things a customer thinks are cool.
Benefits fix pain points.
Benefits are easy to express in dollar terms (we'll save this much...)

So, if you find a vendor doing all the talking about how cool their product is, then they are probably fixated on features. But if you hear their customers talking about how cool their product is, take a closer look. They may be the type of company you want to work for...

Ideally what a vendor thinks is cool and what the customer thinks is cool will overlap, but in practice many vendor features are of no real business use.

Example 1: Most social networking sites are little more than features, they provide no real benefit. In 12 months time many of them will be gone.

Example 2: As much as I hate to say it (here's why), targeted internet advertising is a benefit - it solves a real pain point that advertisers have (ie not being able to reach the right audience)

Example 3: Being built on a particular technology (eg .NET, Java, Silverlight, AIR, etc) is a tricky one. It can be a benefit depending on existing infrastructure and other customer requirements, but is often only a feature.

Features are nice when times are good, but in economic downturns and IT spending cuts, companies only spend on benefits. So make sure your company, or the department you work for, is actively providing benefit to it's customer base, whether that be internal or external.

Summary: Find a company that focuses on providing a service or product(s) that benefits its customers/users.

2. Work for a company that invests in R+D during a downturn

If your company makes it clear that it will continue to invest in R+D during the tough times ahead, this tells you two things. Firstly, they have the financial strength to continue, but secondly and more importantly, they have the leadership 'balls' to take the long term view and be confident in their business. This is a company you want to work for. (Example)

Make sure you are working right

3. Work hard AND work smart

I know this sounds like common sense, but it needs to be said: Be passionate

I'm amazed, and perhaps a little disappointed, at how many developers I know who treat their livelihood as a 9-to-5 job. They rarely invest in: self-learning outside of work hours, attending user groups, trying new stuff or even thinking in new areas. They seem content to simply coast along. And these are smart (sometimes very smart) individuals. Yet, without passion, they will never make it too far in a downturn.

Also, be wary of misunderstanding books like The 4 Hour Work Week. People can be tempted to think the book is promoting a way to escape doing work (ie how to get paid to be lazy). This is a mistake. The value of the book is best summarised as Effectiveness trumps Efficiency. That is, often we get really good at doing things well, they just happen to be the wrong things. We need to focus on doing the right things. That's the 'work smart' part.

4. Be a solution provider

Telling your boss or customer about all the problems with an idea will not get you far. Instead they will be relying on you to find answers. Don't be the 'ideas man' - instead make sure you are the 'solutions person'. Anyone can come up with great ideas - but few can execute them well.

You want to be the person, that no matter how hard the problem, your boss knows she can hand it to you and be confident you'll take responsibility for the task, investigate it and provide a real solution.

Closing

Gen Y is a myth. It's an inconsistent bunch of ideas about how a certain demographic behave. But it's coming to an end. The coming IT crash will dissolve any notions of entitlement we may have thought existed and instead bring us back to reality. It's going to be a tough time for many, including the so-called Gen Y. Companies and staff need to work hard and act wisely.

No matter what demographic you fall into, now's the time to make sure you are working for the right company. And if you are, make sure you are working hard on the right things.

Notes:

* Not all recruiters are bad in my books, just most of them :-) I admit that I give recruiters a hard time, and it of course doesn't apply to all, but I think it applies in general.

** Every company should have an exit strategy. But to survive companies must also provide value and contribute something meaningful.

*** R word = Recession

Technorati Tags: Death of Gen Y,Generation Y,Recession,IT crash

SECURITY: BlogEngine.NET Security update

2008-05-10T18:49:00.001+10:00

In case you are running your site on BlogEngine.NET and missed it, a security patch was released in mid-April. Al Nyveldt notes it here, and the official announcement from the team is here. In order to be safe you need to be running 1.3.1.0 (or later). It is important you upgrade asap. As per the request from the team I won't go into details of what the issue is, however it is easy to find if you are curious (source code available here).

Problems with the patch

I couldn't get the patch update file to download from here, so I ended up downloading the entire 1.3.1.0 release. If you are running a standard site you will only need to update two files (the core DLL and XML files) in your \bin directory and you can take these straight from the download (ie no recompiling required). But, if you've made customisations to core functionality you may need to do some merging and building.

Summary for fixing a standard site

(Backup your site)
Download and unzip the latest release (just the 'website' download package is enough)
Get the BlogEngine.Core.DLL and BlogEngine.Core.XML files and update them into to the \bin directory of your site
Test

Delays...

I would have posted this earlier, but needed to time to upgrade my own site and test it (having made some customisations to the code base). If you find yourself in the same boat, then I at least recommend removing the version number from your site footer (if you display it), otherwise you will end up in search queries that can be used to find at-risk sites. (You can fix this by editing the site.master file in your selected themes folder).

Technorati Tags: BlogEngine.NET,Security

SBTUG: Last minute change tonight + Prizes!

2008-04-30T15:28:00.001+10:00

We've had a last minute change to tonight's meeting.

Unfortunately Mitch Denny has had to pull out (due to illness), but in his place Richard Banks will be presenting.

His session will be covering Agile Project Management.

Richard is a Principal Consultant at Readify and a Certified Scrum Master.

Full details are available on the SBTUG site here.

(Note: my session on the 2008 Stack remains unchanged)

As an added incentive to attend tonight we will have some great prizes. Schnubbs will handing out the following:

A copy of Vista Ultimate
A copy of Windows Server 2008 Enterprise + Visual Studio 2008 Standard
2 Microsoft Exam vouchers

Technorati Tags: SBTUG, The Sydney Business & Technology User Group, Richard Banks, Agile, Craig Bailey

TIP: Introducing people who already know each other

2008-04-29T12:35:00.001+10:00

No doubt you've done this at some point:

You're at an event or user group and find yourself chatting with someone new. A friend of yours strolls over and joins the conversation. Being the polite person you are you introduce your friend to the new person. They reply with 'oh yes, we already know each other - Bob here is my brother...'

Easy to feel embarrassed right?

You shouldn't - in a healthy group or event this should be happening all the time.

These days I make a point of introducing people whenever I can. I'd estimate that on 20% of those occasions they already know each other.

Far from being embarrassing it is actually a good thing.

Don't apologise, instead follow on with something like this: 'Oh good, just checking. Have you known each other for a while?' etc - use it is a conversation starter. (Of course, if they are brothers, you may want to use a different line... )

Why? Because it really is embarrassing if you chat for a while and then the third person takes it upon them self to make the introductions. Or worse, they part ways never having been introduced.

Some caveats

Obviously you should use a bit of common sense.

Introductions are best via a question: 'John, do you know Cathy here...?'
Don't go introducing people who clearly recognise each other (eg they are already chatting :-)).
And don't go out of your way to introduce people who are in a hurry eg they may be just passing by to quickly mention something to you.
Oh, and be careful introducing people if one of them is very well known (eg 'Tim, let me introduce you to Bono...'). Famous people - at least those worth being introduced to - are usually gracious and take the initiative of introducing themselves. Which is why you'll hear things like this at a developer user group: 'Hi, I'm Scott Guthrie, pleased to meet you...'

Forgetting people's names

We all do it. Don't try to hide it.

If you obviously recognise them, and think the chat is going to be more than a passing hello, then bite the bullet and 'fess up. A simple 'I'm sorry, I've completely forgotten your name...' is better than dancing around the 'good to see you mate' routine.

And if like me you've been in situations where you chat with them later at the same event and you've forgotten their name again, just 'fess up again: 'I'm so sorry, this is embarrassing, but I've forgotten your name again...' - they may be a little peeved, but that is still better than them realising via your use of 'mate'.

What's the point?

User groups, events and other community gatherings are about getting to know each other better.

So, focus on the good of ensuring everyone is included, and less on the etiquette and social dance that can otherwise detract.

Technorati Tags: Tip, Community, Introductions

SBTUG: Mitch Denny speaking on Enterprise Software Development this Wed + Prizes!

2008-04-28T16:52:00.001+10:00

This Wednesday 30 April 2008 at the Sydney Business & Technology User Group (SBTUG) we've got another great meeting organised.

This month: The Evolution of Enterprise Software Development presented by Mitch Denny.

When: This Wed 30 April 2008
Time: 6pm (until approx 8:30pm)
Where: Microsoft, North Ryde
Contact: Craig Bailey : 0413 489 388
Cost: Free (Pizza all provided)

Plus:

Prize: Full version of Visual Studio 2008 Professional & Windows Server 2008 Standard
Guest: Special guest appearance by Schnubbs
Details: full details on the SBTUG site

Sessions

Mitch Denny (Principal Consultant at Readify) will be leading a discussion on The Evolution of Enterprise Software Development. Current forces in the industry are challenging our traditional (and even not so traditional) approaches to developing software to meet business requirements. In this session Mitch will introduce one way that he has been approaching some internal systems development problems at Readify and looks how this approach could be used within your organisation to deliver greater business value through technology.

Craig Bailey (Technical Director at Elcom) will be giving a high level overview of the Microsoft 2008 Stack including Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008 and SQL Server 2008. He will be outlining the business benefits of each product (as opposed to just a feature review) including examples of how Elcom has gained from using them.

Prizes

We have some great prizes this meeting and in upcoming meetings. This month we have a full version of Visual Studio 2008 Professional and Windows Server 2008 Standard to give away!

All you need to do is hand in your business card and we'll be picking a winner at the end of the night.

Member spot

Plus, we’ll have a quick ‘Member Spot’ – this is a new item each meeting where we get to meet one of the SBTUG members and find out a bit more about who they are and what they do.

Schnubbs

Schnubbs will be attending - make sure you come along and get your photo with him.

Facebook

Don’t forget, if you haven't already, you can join the SBTUG group on Facebook.

And please RSVP for Wed night’s event here. This helps us know how many people are coming (for catering).

Twitter

Last but not least, you can always follow us on Twitter here.

Technorati Tags: SBTUG, Sydney Business & Technology User Group, Microsoft 2008 Stack, Mitch Denny, Software development, Craig Bailey

COMMUNITY: CodeCampOz 2008 report

2008-04-28T12:49:00.001+10:00

When: 25-27 April 2008

Where: Wagga Wagga, NSW, Australia

This has easily been the best CodeCampOz I've been to (and I've been to all of them :-). Mitch and Greg have done another stellar job organising this event. All of the sessions have been high quality and relevant. Big thanks to Microsoft, Readify, IT Masters, SSW and CSU for their involvement.

The Twitter coverage has been a highlight (view the Hashtags summary here), and meeting people who I've been following for a while has been a bonus. Photos have been put up on Flickr thanks to Roger.

As Angus has reported, we've got tons of ideas and suggestions to take back and implement at Elcom.

I'm not really one for gratuitous praise or for singling out people, but I have to say that during Paul Stovell's session I had the distinct feeling we were in the presence of greatness...

Technorati Tags: CodeCampOz, Wagga

REVIEW: Premium Economy on Air New Zealand

2008-04-28T12:38:00.001+10:00

On my recent trip to the MVP Summit I flew Premium Economy class over to the US. Premium Economy is new for Australia-USA trips and is only available via Air New Zealand (to LA) and JetStar (Star Class to Honolulu) as far as I know. Qantas will be offering the class later in the year.

I thought I'd give a quick review of how Premium Economy stacks up.

I'll break this in to 3 main areas: Staff, Stomach and Seat.

Staff

I'll start with the staff - because this is generally the first experience you have with an airline. Check-in staff were OK. Not great, but not bad. They were helpful but not outgoing. I was wondering whether I'd be allowed to use the business class check-in lines, but no - stick to the economy lines (it may be premium economy, but it's still economy right?). No problem, the line wasn't long and the staff were efficient.

On board staff were a different story. I was upstairs, and we had two main stewards covering our section. One was bland and average, the other was bordering on annoying. He sported what I describe as a bored look of disdain on his face and seemed to be concentrating hard on doing the bare minimum his job required. I asked for him to repeat the selection of drinks and he gave me the 'bother, bother' look and simply handed me an orange juice. Not to worry - people like this are usually reflecting some kind of internal issue - and I suspect are not representative of the airline in general.

The Customer Services Manager (ie the bloke who hands out US entry cards) was a different story. Super helpful, cheery, and outgoing. If only he and the bored one could have shared some energy and come to an equilibrium...

I'm glad I waited until the flight home before posting this, so that I could include the return experience, on which the staff were better. Much better. The lovely Tracy looked after us efficiently and thoughtfully, all the while coordinating with her colleague. The Customer Services Manager was freakishly happy and cheerful just like on the flight over - they must have come out of the same factory :-)

[As an aside, the best staff - at both check-in and on board - that I have experienced were with a little airline called Sunshine Airlines from Minneapolis to New York (and back). Virgin tends to have good, happy staff on board but their quality of check-in staff can be unreliable in my opinion.]

Stomach

On the food front the meals were surprisingly scrumptious. They were well prepared and had good quality ingredients (no tough & chewy chuck steak stroganoff here). I have no complaints about food at all, in fact I'd say it was better than expected.

Seat

This is the main point I guess. For me, being over 6' 3'' leg room is pretty crucial. On the long haul flights I need two main things -

To be able to stretch my legs out
Neck support

I'm pleased to say that on both counts the Premium Economy seats are satisfactory. They aren't fantastic, and if you've flown business class then you'll certainly be pining for those Skybeds. But then again, the fare is less than half that of a business class ticket, so I wasn't expecting wonders.

The important thing is that I could sleep fine and thus arrive at my destination well rested. Sure the business class seats have all the comforts, but as long as I can sleep comfortably I'm happy. I've flown plain economy to LA before and - excuse my complaining - it was hell. On one flight I had the exit row and thus adequate leg room, but the lack of seat height really took its toll. I spent the first couple of days nursing a sore neck. For a gangly bloke like me I need to have neck support. Even those inflatable neck supports aren't very helpful, because they don't have anything to rest on...

But all that changes in Premium Economy - the leg room is extensive, the seats are higher, they lean back further and they have the neck support. Note that although they lean back further, they don't recline that far, and no where near what the business class seats do. Sleep is definitely in the seated position. Also, the seats don't seem to be any wider than normal, so you tend to find yourself bumping against the arm rests.

Using a notebook or laptop is easy in these seats (no problems with posture and hand position) and they have power sockets in most seats (2 sockets between 3 seats). The sockets take a variety of adapters. You may have to ask the steward to ensure power is on.

Below is 3 photos of my Premium Economy seat on the flight over from Auckland to LA (on Air New Zealand).

And by comparison here's 2 photos of the plain economy flight from LA to Seattle (flying Alaskan Airlines). To be fair, domestic aircraft tend to have tighter seating than the international ones, but generally not by much. My knees are 'resting' on the seat pocket in front. And if the passenger ahead decides to recline, it gets very painful. I find it very difficult to use a notebook in these seats. I have a Dell D830 with a 15.4 screen and whilst not a huge footprint, I could only use it by awkwardly angling it on my stomach. After an hour or so it becomes unworkable in my opinion. Smaller machines may be more versatile. And there's no power in economy on most domestic craft.

I made it to LA happy and refreshed, and was out the plane pretty quickly.

[I then had to wait in the customs line for over 2.5 hours and missed my connecting flight - but that's another story.]

Overall, but predominantly based on seating comfort, I give the Air New Zealand Premium Economy experience a rating of 7/10.

Here's my rating scale guide:

1/10 : Flying plain economy in a non-exit row, in a middle seat

2/10 : Flying plain economy in a non-exit row, in an aisle or window seat

3/10 : Flying plain economy in an exit row, in a middle seat

4/10 : Flying plain economy in an exit row, in an aisle or window seat

5/10 : Flying plain economy in an empty row and they let you lie down across the seats

6/10 : Flying Premium Economy, in a middle seat

7/10 : Flying Premium Economy, in an aisle or window seat

8/10 : Flying Business Class, in a middle seat

9/10 : Flying Business Class, in an aisle or window seat or in the new self-contained lounge beds

10/10 : Flying First Class (not that I ever have)

Or, put another way, I don't dread the flight. Heading overseas, facing a 14 hour flight in economy is something no-one looks forward to, and I'm no exception, I definitely dread the inevitable pain to both legs and neck.

But I'll happily fly Air New Zealand Premium Economy again, and will even look forward to the flight - which is perhaps the most telling point.

Bonus traveller tip: New Zealand airports (eg Auckland) accept USD and AUD at most stores and cafes. You probably know this of course, but it was a nice surprise for me, especially since I only wanted to buy a bottle of water.

Technorati Tags: Air New Zealand, Premium Economy, Australia, USA

A quick catch up with Frank Arrigo

2008-04-21T12:53:00.001+10:00

There's plenty to talk about after the MVP Summit last week. But that'll have to wait. For now, you can either read the shenanigans courtesy of Schnubbs' blog, or... you can watch this quick 2 min video where a bunch of us caught up with Frank Arrigo. Can you believe he's been in Seattle for 9 months already? Time flies.

Technorati Tags: Frank Arrigo, MVP Summit 2008

TIP: Hiding the Office 2007 Ribbon

2008-04-07T16:13:00.001+10:00

A simple one. Sorry if you all know this already - but I keep coming across people who've missed it - so please read on.

You can easily hide the ribbon in any of the Office 2007 programs simply by double clicking on the tabs.

Thus

becomes

with just a double-click on the Home tab (or any tab).

Oh, and I assume you know you can customise the Quick Access toolbar easily enough:

As usual this Tip is covered under my 'well duh' Disclaimer.

Technorati Tags: Tip, Hide Office 2007 Ribbon

TIP: Dates in Outlook

2008-04-04T10:36:00.001+11:00

I don't know if you read the Outlook Team Blog, but if not I recommend it - there's stacks of goodies over there.

Take this one for example, on entering dates in Outlook. I didn't realise you could enter a date as easily as 'next tue' and Outlook would work it out for you automatically:

Gets converted to

As Kristel explains, there's a bunch of terms that work, including 'tomorrow', 'Christmas day' and 'in 6 days'.

Technorati Tags: Outlook, Tip

THOUGHT: When will recruiters take to Twitter?

2008-04-01T09:08:00.001+11:00

These days it seems the best indication of when a particular social media source has reached it's used by date is when recruiters are using it more than your 'real' connections :-)

Take LinkedIn for example. A year ago, this was a valuable tool, allowing us all to connect to business associates. These days, all I seem to get is requests to connect with recruiters, and poorly targeted job offers. Facebook isn't so bad, but that's more likely to be because I don't have technology related keywords against my profile.

So, I'm wondering how long before the recruiters start swarming over Twitter? How long before we get shotgun broadcast @replies to everyone about new jobs?

My guess, the wonderful Twitter landscape we enjoy today will be polluted within 6 months. The Block button will be a regular in our daily use, and the 'continual conversation' we enjoy now will regularly be little more than a prelude to a job offer...

But hey, on the flip side, maybe there's an opening for someone to develop a Twitter app for recruiters...

Here's what RecruiTwit could do:

1. You seed it with a few people to follow (eg Scobleizer). Then it goes along following the followers of the seed people (all automatically of course)

2. Then, when you are ready with your job ad, you type in the description and click Send. RecruiTwit creates individual @replies to everyone you follow, spamming them with a 'personal' job ad tweet

3. In the Premium edition it'd allow you to use multiple Twitter accounts so you can avoid the Twitter API limitations (60 an hour currently I think)

4. In the Platinum edition it automatically creates new Twitter accounts for you every 7 days, since everyone will have blocked your existing ones by then

Am I being too cynical? You can reply to me on Twitter here if you like.

Technorati Tags: Twitter, Recruiters

TIP: Fixing IE so it doesn't go mental with lots of tabs open

2008-03-28T10:06:00.001+11:00

This one has bugged me for ages - you open up stacks of tabs in IE and after a while weird things start happening. Perhaps its the menu not appearing on some tabs, another tab has missing toolbars, etc.

And it affects other programs as well including File Explorer, shortcuts, and in my case SharePoint Designer (and even Live Writer - with which I am currently writing this post).

Well, thanks to Jon Galloway we now have a (Microsoft non-supported) solution. Jon points to posts by Ed Bott and Kevin Dente, the latter being almost 4 years old. Some things never change huh?

Warning: All registry changes are 'do at your own risk' affairs, so be careful as always with this one.

Technorati Tags: IE tabs, Mental

CLARITY: CRM Live becomes CRM Online

2008-03-28T09:33:00.001+11:00

The main interest in this article from Mary Jo is not about CRM (who cares about a name change after all) but rather how Microsoft are clarifying their terms:

Live: Consumer focus

Online: Business & Enterprise focus, hosted by Microsoft

Hosted services: hosted by Microsoft partners

And don't miss the revenue sharing snippet at the bottom - Microsoft will share 10% of the CRM Live charge with reseller partners (its at the bottom of page 10 of the linked document).

(via Mary Jo Foley)

Technorati Tags: CRM, Live, Online, Microsoft

TIP: Repairing Outlook .ost and .pst files

2008-03-25T16:25:00.001+11:00

I've had issues recently with Outlook crashing when I shut it down. Initially I thought this was due to a rogue Outlook Addin (eg I've got Xobni, ClearContext, OutTwit and others installed). So I went through systematically getting rid of them. Put the problem persisted.

Finally I found the issue was to do with the actual .ost file being corrupted. The way I discovered this was by chance when trying to clear my Deleted items. Outlook gave me a message informing that the file was corrupt, and even better recommended using scanpst.exe to fix it.

I'd never heard of scanpst.exe but a quick Google check shows it has been around since the dark ages, and has been a regular in the Sys Admin's toolbox for years.

If you are looking for it you can find it in your c:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office 12\ folder or equivalent.

Everything Outlook related needs to be closed down (eg Mobile Device Sync) and then you run it up. It'll prompt for the ost file and away you go.

Since repairing my file I've had no further issues with Outlook.

Technorati Tags: scanpst.exe, Outlook, ost, pst, fix