Hello everyone!

In case you haven't heard, the time is upon us for the next quarterly installment of MSDN Events. Glen is planning to present a series of talks on ASP.Net 2.0 which promise to be good stuff. All of the MSDN events are full of good information, but there's something missing. That something is the local fingerprint - the stamp of the local community. So at this MSDN event, we're going to try something new. We want to put together a series of chalk talks with some of the most skilled and well known developers and architects in the local community. We want to get three individuals to come to the MSDN event at 9am and stand around, eating muffins and plumbing the depths of your .Net knowledge for the benefit of the community.

Are you interested and available on Thursday, August 25th from 9am to noon? We'd love to have you be one of the feature "chalkers"!

— Matt Ranlett

Time for everyone to update your RSS readers.  The Atlanta .NET Regular Guys will not be posting to www.devcow.com/weblogs anymore.  We've moved to www.devcow.com/blogs.

Why?

Because the new blogging engine we're using will allow us to host other people's blogs.  We have recruited a few select individuals to blog with us:

• Todd Fine - RDA consultant/Microsoft Regional Director
• Mark Dunn - .Net Rocks co-founder/VB.Net MVP/Training guru
• Eric Thompson - all around bright guy who got in b/c he and Brendon are good friends (I suppose now I'll have to be his friend too)
• Dan Attis - co-leader of the Atlanta Microsoft Professionals User Group and part of the team designing the content for the SharePoint 1, 2, 3! event

Of course, you can continue to expect the same quality content from Brendon and myself, posting together as the Atlanta .Net Regular Guys. Feel free to read the blog's aggregate post or jump directly to the ADNRG blog.

-- Matt Ranlett

Are you a geek?  Let me assure you, if you’re reading this blog, you’re probably a geek.  If you’re a geek of the male variety (the most common variety) you might enjoy geeky things AND scantily clad attractive women.  If so, check out http://geekfantasies.com.  Be warned – this is designed to insult you and is therefore worth looking at.

— Matt Ranlett

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Try the Red-Gate SQL Data Compare.  There’s a free 14 day trial version that is full-featured.  Check it out!

— Matt Ranlett

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The installation of the latest service packs for Windows XP includes something for Internet Explorer called the Information Bar.  This is a new feature that provides the user a banner message that tells the user when web content has been blocked based on the settings in Internet Explorer Options.  By default, this info bar is turned on, and can cause issues when you attempt to launch certain ActiveX applications.  The information bar can be turned off by changing the following setting:

 Launch Internet Explorer

            Tools -> Internet Options -> Advanced Tab

 In the options under the Security heading, click the check box next to "Allow active content to run in files on My Computer".  Click OK to save the setting and then re-launch Internet Explorer.  The info bar message should no longer appear.

— Matt Ranlett

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Do you want to learn more about Visual Studio.Net?  Do you not have enough time to slog through a book?  How about some nice relaxing videos where you can learn all about Visual Studio.Net?  Check out www.learnvisualstudio.net and their rather nice library of training videos.  If you’re a member of the Atlanta .Net User Groups, you can get a 10% discount on membership.  Send me an e-mail to let me know that you’re interested and I’ll get you the contact info you need.

— Matt Ranlett

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That is right, it is 1:03AM, but registration is up and running.  Please let all of your friends know and tell them to start signing up for the SharePoint 1,2,3! sessions.  If you sign up for the Hands on labs please try to make it to the sessions so you can see how to do the HOL.  Also if you would like to use one of the computers on site please email us ahead of time so we can try to set one up for you.  

Update *** Here is the location information for the SharePoint 1,2,3! Events.  Keep the questions coming.

http://www.atlantamspros.com/Events/tabid/53/Default.aspx

—Brendon Schwartz

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I guess I'm not any more famous today than I was the Friday before.  Still - Scoble did link to me - twice!

-- Matt Ranlett

$99 gets you a full day of training from DevelopMentor (former home of Don Box and Chris Sells and our very own Doug Turnure).  It's at the Cobb Galleria and you're a sucker if you don't go.  Sign up via the banner on the SQL Server User Group - www.atlantamdf.com and you'll help earn the group a donation.  You'll also get a kickback of your very own.  If you sign up through AtlantaMDF, you'll get a $25 Amex cash card.  Of course, you don't have to tell the people reimbursing you that you'll be getting some cash back...

-- Matt Ranlett

PS - you won't see this even on the calendar b/c it's not free.

This is starting to happen with increasing regularity.  I'm using the phone (a Nokia 3650) with the hands-free headset (the wired kind, not a Bluetooth thingy) and I finish my call.  I disconnect the headset but the phone doesn't realize it.  I still have the little headphones icon on the screen and the speakers and microphone don't work.  Effectively, my phone is useless.  The thing still works if I put the headset back in, but I don't always have my headset with me.  Even more annoying, occasionally the phone switches to headset mode when I'm not using the headset - in the middle of the call.  Suddenly I can't hear or say anything!  Occasionally the phone will realize that the headset is gone if I plug and unplug the headset several times.  This morning it didn't work and I since I left the headset at home, I had to run out at lunch to get a new one.  $20 for a new headset.  I must have plugged the headset in and out 50 times before I was forced to buy it.  I get in the car and try 5 more times and the damn phone turns off the headset! 

Anyway - if this keeps up I'll eventually be getting a new phone.  Of course, I want a cool phone, but I'm fighting the forces of brokeness - so I probably won't get what I want.  Damn technology!  Why does it have to be so expensive and yet so cool and desirable?  It's like socially acceptable (albiet geeky) form of crack!  While I was at the TMobile store I asked about fixing the phone.  $70 and they mail me a replacement phone for the one I have.  But $70!?!  That's like half (or 1/5th) of the cost of the phones I want!

-- Matt Ranlett

Wally McClure, in an effort to avoid having to come up with his own content, has started producing a podcast where he gets other people to do the dirty work for him.  "I'm not sure I can let you whitewash this fence, I'm having an awful lot of fun..." (vague reference to Tom Sawyer).

Seriously though.  Wally is a great guy and it was fun to help him out with a little bit of regurgitated material.  Brendon and I basically recorded what we presented at the Atlanta Code Camp, which was a rehash of several webcasts, books, and articles.  I hope you don't get too bored if you listen.

http://weblogs.asp.net/wallym/archive/2005/07/24/420403.aspx

-- Matt Ranlett

I don't know who at Microsoft makes the travel plans for things like the Indigo Roadshow, but I want to talk to them sternly about their apparent neglect of Atlanta.  I'd love to see this show, but I'm not going to drive to Florida for it.  Seriously - 2 shows in Florida and 1 in Philly and that's it for the East coast?  Come on!  How about Atlanta?  At least think about my friends in Raleigh (apparently no one ever does)!

-- Matt Ranlett

I spent a good portion of today and I'll be spending more time tomorrow painting the interior of my house.  I'm getting ready to sell it and officially move in with Kim.  The problem is that painting sucks.  Does anyone want to buy a partially painted house inside the Perimeter for about $180K?  I'll cut you a deal if you don't make me paint or clean anymore.

-- Matt Ranlett

Brendon and I hyped the SharePoint 1, 2, 3! event to the INETA board and they loved the idea.  So much so that they want us to give them the content and they'll spread it around the community.  They all had some useful and constructive advice for us as well.

Check out www.SharePoint123.com and learn about the event being hosted by the Atlanta Microsoft Professionals - a new user group in town.  Sign up for the newsletter on www.atlantamspros.com and be among the first to know when registration for the SharePoint event opens.

-- Matt Ranlett

I had a great time at the geek dinner.  I started the evening off with great conversations with Glen Gordon, Jim Wooley, Chris Wallace, and Brendon.  Glen was telling me that at MGB they just were going over the sales analogy for the year - winning a race, all teams working together like all the cylinders and pistons working together, the race car and the pit crew, blah blah blah.  Then Mario Andretti came out on stage.  Yup - THE Mario Andretti.  Awesome!

After a while, I wandered off to chat with almost the entire INETA board, who showed up from the MGB conference happening downtown.  I had a great chat with them and ended up pitching them an idea Glen mentioned.  They loved it, Glen loved it, and it looks like we're going to do it.  I'll post more on THE IDEA when we do a bit more planning and it looks like a reality.

I chatted with Shawn and Michael about independent consulting.  Shawn's doing well and Michael is excited about the future.  I'm sure they're both going to do well - they're among the brightest people I know.

I wandered back over to the INETA people and Brendon and I sat there for a while bragging to them about the dynamic and highly active Atlanta user group community.  They loved some of the ideas we talked about with them and they were highly impressed at how much stuff actually goes on here in Atlanta.  I think Brendon and I might have come across as a bit more super than we actually are (they called us Super UG Leaders) but they were impressed by the cohesion of the entire UG leadership team and the dedication of the UG members.  I think that right now INETA is struggling to find it's value for the average UG member, and the board is interviewing the community to find out what we need.

It was also good to talk to Paul for a while.  I've not seen him for a bit as he's been working hard on stuff that actually helps him pay his mortgage.  Paul's a great guy and I hope he manages to work user groups back into his schedule on occasion.  Even if he doesn't, I'll make sure I don't lose touch with him.

Over all, I had a great time at the meeting, even though I never got a chance to talk to Robert Scoble.  Oh well.  I'm sure he's a great guy, he just kept happening to be on the opposite side of the room I was on all night until he left and skipped out on his tab

-- Matt Ranlett

Shawn Wildermuth organized a great Geek Dinner, co-hosted by Robert Scoble.  Everyone shows up and orders overpriced specialty beers and food at 5 Seasons - our favorite Geek Dinner spot.  To keep everyone's order straight with their bills, the waitress takes everyone's card and runs it through to open a tab for each individual order.  At the end of the meal, the cost is charged to the card now on file and everyone just has to sign a receipt.  Every but Scoble, that is!  He managed to leave without signing his slip and b/c his card didn't run through correctly (unnoticed by the waitress at the time) she doesn't even have a card number for him. 

So now Robert owes Paul Lockwood $45

-- Matt Ranlett

I am having a problem with Outlook.  Actually, the problem is with disorganization in my life and I want to try to use Outlook to help me sort things out.  I've got lots of stuff going on at the moment - at work, at the user groups, and in my personal life.  So I thought having all this stuff in the calendar and tasklist in Outlook would certainly help out a bit.  Then I could use some of the tips Kirk mentioned in his blog and try to keep myself on track better.

Here's the problem:

I have 2 computers - 1 work desktop and 1 laptop.  I'd like to keep the calendar in the laptop up to date with everything, but I have a tendancy to spend so much time in front of my desktop at work that I find most of my life is managed through the calendar there.  The desktop Outlook is hooked to an Exchange server, the laptop is not.  I want a way to synchronize my calendar, tasks, and notes from my desktop to my laptop.  I don't need this to be two way synchronization.  I don't want my e-mail from work "infecting" my laptop.  I don't want to have to manage multiple profiles to get this to work, and I don't want to have multiple calendars in the same view.  I want everything on one calendar.  How do I do this?

I thought that this list of helpful advice from SlipStick might help out, but I was so confused by the array of conflicting advice that I gave up.

Does anyone out there have a solution to this issue?  Thanks!

-- Matt Ranlett

It looks like the new name of Windows will be Vista!  No more of the formerly know client as Windows codename “Longhorn”

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/default.mspx

—Brendon Schwartz

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http://www.theembassyvfx.com/ - a visual effects company.  Check out the really neat (totally fictional) robot car.

Bill Baker is visiting Atlanta this week for the Microsoft Global Business conference, and he graciously volunteered to come speak before the SQL Server User Group for the second year in a row, although this is the first time I’ve seen him speak.  Bill Baker is the program manager for the SQL Server Business Intelligence products, including Analysis Services, Reporting Services, Integration Services (DTS), and more. 

 

Bill is an extremely entertaining person to watch – complete with Steve Ballmer imitations.  We talked about SQL Server 2005 in general and how the new release is going to really help everyone out with some really cool new features.  We talked about the new licensing SKUs – Enterprise, Standard, WorkGroup (a new SKU), and Express (MSDN).  The cost has gone up a bit, from $20,000 to $25,000 for the Enterprise Edition.  Standard now costs $6000, Workgroup costs $3,500, and Express is free.  Special note – the Developer Edition, which is the Enterprise Edition with a single connection license, costs a mere $49!

 

I can’t really tell you what Bill talked about because he was all over the map – the presentation was entirely question and answer.  This was the first technology presentation I’ve been to in years where the speaker didn’t even use a computer.  Not even a projected My Name Is slide!  No props at all.  We did cover lots of cool ground.  For example, did you know that the most requested feature from the community (submitted through the Ladybug system) was a bell at the completion of a query?  Who thinks of that stuff?  Did you know that when Beta 1 of SQL 2005 came out, that the favorite feature of the community was the new SQL Management Console tool that replaces Enterprise Manager?  Can you guess what the least favorite feature was?  That’s right – the new SQL Management Console!  Talk about a schizophrenic user community!  We apparently will not be getting hashed indexes.  We ARE able to run SQL 2000 and SQL 2005 side by side.  Database mirroring is a great cool new technology that requires three computers – a primary, a mirror, and a monitor that votes which system is the primary and which is the mirror.  Did you know that you could potentially have all three systems in the same box?  Sure, why not?  Hardware is way more dependable these days than software.  That’s job security for us!  We covered so many topics – ETS, OLTP, building cubes as a background process, etc, that I can’t even remember everything we talked about.

 

We had some great sponsors – Microsoft, Unisys, ProClarity, and Doug McDowell himself (or whomever reimburses him) – who brought in some incredible barbeque for the meeting.  Thanks guys!

 

Quick note #1 – when you have SQL or technology questions, be sure to post them to the MSN groups.  Doug was telling me that before the meeting he was hit with 10 technical questions and he didn’t have the time to sit and really think about the answers.  By posting to the MSN groups, you have a much wider community than just Doug looking at the questions and suggesting answers.

 

Quick note #2 – There is a SQL Server Road show $99 one day training event occurring at the Cobb Galleria hosted by Windows IT Pro magazine and the SQL Pass organization.  There will be three tracks – DBA, Dev, and BI.  Register through the www.AtlantaMDF.com banner and you’ll get a free $25 AMEX gift card.  If 25 people register through the AtlantaMDF banner, the AtlantaMDF organization will receive a donation that will help us continue to provide pizza and beverages to the members.

 

-- Matt Ranlett

 

Last night was the first time I’ve ever attended one of the Atlanta SPIN meetings.  This group seems to be targeted at project managers and seems to cover topics like Scrum and CMMI.  These are great topics, but outside of my personal area of interest so I probably won’t be going back unless they get another headline speaker like Mr Randy “Granville” Miller.  I will say this about the group – they had the most formal meeting and leadership structure I’ve ever seen in a community user group!  We had about 35 people in attendance, which one of the SPIN leaders said was extremely good turnout for their groups.

 

Randy Miller has an impressive pedigree in the Agile development community – he’s worked for years at Borland and Microsoft to bring eXtreme Programming and Agile techniques to the masses.  He’s written several books, including an upcoming book soon to be released.  Randy came to the SPIN meeting to talk about his work with Microsoft and the Microsoft Solutions Framework (he actually got “yelled” at for starting his talk too early!).

 

For those unfamiliar with MSF, you can learn a lot on the Team Systems MSF homepage.  Essentially, MSF is a set of software tools which help you stick to a software development process.  For example, you have a business analyst talk to a customer and write up a list of requirements.  The list of requirements is broken down into small tasks by project managers.  The developers estimate how long each task will take and hand the task list back to the PMs.  The PMs schedule the development cycles and turn the tasks back over to the development team.  The devs work like mad getting quality stuff (including automated test (we hope) out to the test team and finally everything is built for the customer.  In this development process, there are some tools helping you get through the process.  The business analyst might use Excel spreadsheets.  PMs might use MS Project.  Devs and Tests might use Visual Studio.  Visual Studio Team Systems can actually link all of these tools together with the built in issue tracking and reporting system so the experience of managing the software development process is seamless.  MSF for Agile is one type of software development process.  There are countless other methods which can be used with VSTS – Scrum, CMMI, Iterative, Rational, Waterfall, etc.  That’s actually the coolest part of MSF – it can be completely customized to your particular method of development.  MSF for Agile, out of the box, is simply a set of recommendations and process guidance for Agile development.

 

Randy spent 99% of his time showing us the tools, only resorting to PowerPoint to display a graphic and web links.  We watched as he started a brand new project and talked us through adding requirements, planning out iterative cycles, breaking larger tasks into smaller tasks, reporting on the status of those tasks, etc.  The “business analyst” persona created a spreadsheet of requirements, which was checked into a SharePoint work area.  The spreadsheet was imported to Project, which automatically populated the VSTS work items.  We did some fake scheduling and prioritizing and we were ready to develop.  We looked at several reports showing our status and what things would look like as they went wrong.

Randy was a great presenter and I’m sorry that he only had an hour to talk to us.  I felt that he had more to say if only he had the time.  Oh well.  If you were unable to make it to the presentation, I hope that my blog entry piques your interest and you start to learn more about the extraordinarily flexible toolset that Visual Studio Team Systems offers.

 

-- Matt Ranlett