John Alexander's Blog

a developer survey - PC for dev environment

John Alexander — Tue, 19 May 2009 22:16:33 GMT

My good friend and fellow Microsoft Regional Director Adam Cogan asked me the following question today. I was curious what you thought so I decided to ask you as well:

What are you going to be using going forward (and why)?

1. WINDOWS 2008 R2 Release Candidate

2. WINDOWS 7 Release Candidate

3. VISTA ?

4. OTHER

Respond in the comments if you would. I'm really curious! Thanks!

WCF / WF 4 Training Kit released - proves life is better than it was 15 minutes ago

John Alexander — Mon, 18 May 2009 22:06:46 GMT

The hits keep coming! First they announced Beta 1, now here's a link to the piping hot WCF/WF4 Training Kit from Ron Jacobs!

"The WCF/WF 4 training kit contains a set 6 hands on labs that will help you quickly get up to speed with Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) and Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) in .NET 4. The labs include Introduction to Workflow, Workflow Services, Flowchart, Workflow Designer, Service Discovery and Monitoring. "

Ps. Here's the video version from endpoint.tv

Visual Studio 2010 and .NET FX 4 Beta 1 ships!

John Alexander — Mon, 18 May 2009 15:04:40 GMT

Soma posted about the BETA 1 RELEASE of Visual Studio 2010 and .NET FX 4!!!! He waxes eloquently here about it! This is a major release and you should be evaluating it to determine how best to apply it.

Here are some resources to speed you on your way:

Articles here at the MSDN .NET Framework Developer Center

Forums here

Microsoft .NET Framework: Overview and Applications for Babies - Scott Hanselman

Enjoy! I know I will!

This is great! A Magnum tribute with Microsoft Style!

John Alexander — Thu, 07 May 2009 19:03:09 GMT

The Microsoft Web Platform guys have released a video on youtube that pays homage to one of my favorite detective shows. Check it out here! This is just a teaser and I can't wait for Episode 1!

Who knew that installing apps could be this exciting! Go Cannon PI!!!! Soma and ScottGu rock!

Upcoming SOA Design Patterns Webcast -- Check it out!

John Alexander — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 16:15:52 GMT

I saw this yesterday and think it looks like its going to be very worthwhile! I'll see ya there!

Safari Books Online invites you to attend an exclusive webcast with Thomas Erl during which he will discuss some of the most important SOA design patterns in use today.
Don’t miss this opportunity to hear Thomas Erl, author of the newly published SOA Design Patterns, a catalog of 85 design patterns for service-oriented architecture and service-orientation. In development for over three years, the catalog has been subjected to comprehensive reviews by hundreds of industry professionals and is in use by many of the world’s leading technology companies.

The webcast will be on Thursday, March 26 at 10:30am Pacific/1:30pm Eastern.

Click here to register!

Live Search 2.0 Announces Contest And Becomes Latest Ingredient in GeeksWithBlogs.net Secret Sauce!!!

John Alexander — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 16:10:27 GMT

Thursday during the keynote at PubCon in Las Vegas Microsoft announced “Project Silk Road” which is a collection of services, including a new version of the Live Search APIs for developer community – basically Search API 2.0 Beta + Search Ads pilot.

I can tell you all from firsthand experience that this is very slick! As one of the first implementations of the Live Search API 2.0 Beta , we got it up and running on GeeksWithBlogs.net very quickly and couldn’t be happier with the results. Search API handled the huge volume of archives and indexed them very quickly. Kudos to Ani Babaian and the Live Search team for a job well done.

Ani and the team want you to try your hand with this great new API so they are sponsoring a contest!

Create COOL implementations of Search API 2.0 Beta + Ads

--- SDK can be found here ---

From Ani -----

We are looking for some really cool implementations from the developer community which will be displayed on our website! We’re looking for as many implementations as possible! Come on team, put your developer skills to use and share your passion about Microsoft technology!

Win a Prize:

All submissions entered by (12am) midnight PST US on Dec 5^th 2008 will be eligible for our prize drawing of a $120 gift certificate to the Microsoft Company store.

Please note: All submissions must be on live websites (so we have to be able to navigate to the website or be able to download the application to see it) and must follow our Terms of Use – present on Search API and Ads web sites respectively. Drawing will take place on Dec 8^th 2008 and the winner will be notified via email by Dec 9^th 2008.

Send all links/information about implementations to: AniBATMicrosoft.com (Replace AT with @).

Learn more about: Search API 2.0 (Beta) + Ads pilot

The Live Search API 2.0 Beta enables you to embed as a custom component a flexible and powerful search engine on your sites and applications. With the addition of XML (POX) and JSON formats, as well as the previously supported SOAP API, the Live Search API 2.0 Beta allows you to integrate the power of search using the code and formatting you choose. In addition, some source formats types are also accessible through an OpenSearch-compliant RSS interface.

Step 1: Get an App ID

Go to http://search.live.com/developers to create your AppID which you will use to gain access to all the great search results from Search API 2.0.

Step 2: Select your URI type

When you want to query the HTTP endpoint you first start with an HTTP GET request to the appropriate URI (Uniform Resource Identifier). There are two URIs, one for XML results and one for JSON results: http://api.search.live.net/xml.aspx and http://api.search.live.net/json.aspx respectively.

Both URIs expect at least three required query string parameters: AppID, query, and sources. The AppID query string parameter is a value you get when you sign up as a developer with the Developer Center program (http://search.live.com/developers). The query value will be the query you want the API to execute for you, and the sources value indicates which Live Search Engine indexes you want the query to be run against.

Step 3: Select your source type

The following are the source types supported by the current release of the Search API 2.0 Beta.


web	Searches for web content
image	Searches for images on the web
news	Searches news stories
instantanswer	Searches Encarta online
spell	Searches Encarta dictionary for spelling suggestions
phonebook	Searches phonebook entries
relatedsearch	Returns the query strings most similar to yours

Step 4: Select your front end

RIA - Silverlight

Silverlight is a framework from Microsoft that enables developers to build Rich Internet Applications (RIAs), using the same .NET framework and programming languages they are familiar with using in their typical .NET applications. Because of its strong integration with browsers, as well as with images and other media, it is a robust and very interesting client for building applications using the Live Search API 2.0 Beta.

Like JSON applications that live in the browser, Silverlight applications can’t normally invoke services (raw HTTP or SOAP) on domains other than the domain where the Silverlight application is downloaded from. But because Live Search API 2.0 beta publishes a crossdomain.xml policy file at the root of its domain, http://api.search.live.net/crossdomain.xml, it allows RIAs to access its endpoints, making it possible to use the Live Search API 2.0 Beta from Silverlight.

Interoperable – PHP

Another reason to maintain a more open API using HTTP (and raw XML and JSON) is to enable interoperable scenarios with Live Search API 2.0 Beta. It isn’t just for .NET programmers. For example, PHP has a powerful JSON parsing mechanism, which, given PHP is a dynamic language, enables PHP developers to program against a JSON object graph in a very straightforward way.

RSS

In additional to the XML/JSON APIs which allow a user to make explicit search requests of the different Live Search sources, these sources are also exposed via a web feed mechanism formatted using Really Simple Syndication (RSS). In addition, the RSS endpoint is open and doesn’t require an App ID. Any user can make a feed request of the API and subscribe to that feed using his favorite feed reader. The feed reader can then take care of maintaining state, and the user will be notified whenever there is new data.

This is the only part of the new Live Search API 2.0 beta that can be used by end users, since it is the only URI that doesn’t require an App ID as part of the query string.

Step 5: If you want to Monetize

Another feature of Live Search 2.0 is ad-serving capability. If you sign up for a Live Search API 2.0 Beta App ID and opt into the adCenter terms of use, and apply for an Ads unit ID thru adCenter as listed on our Developer Center (http://search.live.com/developers) once approved, you can integrate ads into your web pages using simple XML or JSON APIs. Ads are just another content source, so all the information about the other search sources applies to the ad source, although there are a few additional required query string parameters and an additional adCenter Unit ID.

BOOK REVIEW: More Effective C#

John Alexander — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 15:31:42 GMT

Capsule Review of

More Effective C#: 50 Specific Ways to Improve Your C#

by Bill Wagner

I really found Bill's previous book (Effective C#: 50 Specific Ways to Improve Your C# (Effective Software Development Series)) very useful. I've recommended in many classes I've taught and also to clients while consulting.

More Effective C# enhances the original with C# 3.0 and LINQ additions. Bottom line: If you want to be a serious developer that continually hones his (or her) craft, then you need this book. Bill has done an excellent job of taking his considerable development expertise and distilling it into very practical pointed advice. I cannot recommend this great book enough!

UX @ Mix : Lou Will Give Ya a Clue!!

John Alexander — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 19:09:15 GMT

If you are going to Mix (If not, then why not? -- It's still not to late to register) and are interested at all in honing your User eXperience mad skills then you need to be at this session by "Clued In: How to Keep Customers Coming Back Again and Again" author Lou Carbone.

Come chew with Lou on Wednesday, March 5th at 1:30 PM.

PDC08 Announced Today!!!!!!

John Alexander — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 20:02:02 GMT

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

The next Microsoft Professional Developers Conference (PDC) has been announced!!! It's October 27–30, 2008 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Mark your calendars and save the date.

We'll see ya there!!!!!!

More information to follow....

http://msdn.microsoft.com/pdc2008

I am now a Microsoft MVP for Team System...

John Alexander — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 13:58:58 GMT

I've just been informed that I am now an MVP for Team System! I'm very honored with this award and pumped because the TFS VSTS team has great stuff coming out continuously (blog posts, power tools, etc) and are VERY hard chargers. They are a pleasure to work with and I'm excited to continue to spread the goodness of all that is Team System!!!

Need a SharePoint VPC to play with?

John Alexander — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 19:46:51 GMT

If you're like me you love to try out different technologies but you may not want to disrupt your box in the process. That's when a virtual PC can come in very handy.

The Microsoft VHD Test Drive Program provides customers with an enhanced server-based software evaluation experience that’s faster, better supported and more flexible. You can now access the entire catalog of pre-configured Microsoft and partner products and solutions in the VHD format and start evaluating and testing today from www.microsoft.com/vhd.

Microsoft has released a vpc as part of this for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. Its good for thirty days. Click here to go...

Professional SharePoint 2007 Development sells out at TechEd!!!

John Alexander — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 14:46:28 GMT

Our book, Professional SharePoint 2007 Development just released this week and was one of the top 3 sellers at the TechEd bookstore, selling out completely! Wow!

Visual Studio Team System Chat – TODAY - Two Chances!!!

John Alexander — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 16:14:29 GMT

From the Team System Product Team... Two different times to accomodate more Time Zones!!!!

Visual Studio Team System Chat – This Friday

Join members of the Visual Studio Team System product group to discuss features available in Visual Studio Team Foundation Server, Team Editions for Architects, Developers, Database Pros, and Testers. In addition, discuss what's new in the in the Visual Studio code name “Orcas” Beta 1 releases for Team Suite and Team Foundation Server.

Join the first chat session on Friday, April 27th, 2007 from 10:00am - 11:00am Pacific Time.

Add to Calendar

Additional Time Zones

Join the second chat session on Friday, April 27th, 2007 from 4:00pm - 5:00pm Pacific Time.

Add to Calendar

Additional Time Zones

GeeksWithBlogs.NET V2 now up!

John Alexander — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 23:19:53 GMT

It's 1:20 am. We are finally back up!!! Jeff, Dru and I have moved GeeksWithBlogs to SubText!!! Hurray!!!!! Good Night all....

If you find any issues, please email support@geekswithblogs.com.

Free ETraining! New Code!!! Get Yours Now!

John Alexander — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 15:26:00 GMT

Steve Loethen has updated the code for you to get 4 classes of Microsoft eTraining for free. The original code ran out of capacity but the new one should be sufficent... Get it here.. Its good!!! Real good!