Today was a little dizzying. It started with running late to the keynote - apparently the trolley service (though very very cheap @ $1.25) doesn't really run on time - and when I say doesn't really, I mean doesn't AT ALL run on time - it just kinda shows up sometime... but there is a nifty schedule online, which is apparently useless. Missed the breakfast, decided on a Dr. Pepper as a means of caloric injection. It wasn't very satisfying. Neither was the keynote. It lacked energy, the speakers were ok. The keynote certainly wasn't a Steve Balmer typical energizing pick up a gun and blow up Google either. What it was, was a conservative statement about the coming of the cloud, how it will enable your business to be smarter, and how Microsoft is now eating it's own dog food. Meaning, many of these products have been in use within Microsoft for years and they've been making them better for us before we had to live with them.
Something that has a significant push, something that's been a quiet peice of software for a while, is the UC - Communication Server. There are some very neat elements built into it and it's collaboration with all of the MS suite of tools. I'm not really sold because you need to be running Sharepoint, Comm. Server, etc... etc... to have the majic work.
A few emergine technologies that I think are worth looking into that was shown VERY fast are:
Codename Dallas - An open data information look up and provisioning service that is tightly coupled to the .Net dev tools.
MS Excel, specifically Power Pivot - Seriously. This looks intense. Though I got into a very good discussion over lunch with a fellow techy about if they can make some of this work SOOO well with the Excel application, why can't they get it into SQL Server? Seriously, Pivot on 100,000,000 records would be devistating. This has brought back memories of building SQL queries and connection into Excel and allowing it to do most of the hard work. Seems that just might be the way to do it again.
Intelli Trace (great msdn article on it) - I mentioned this yesterday, but forgot to mention the actual tool name. It's getting close to being a DVR for the .Net plateform. Unfortunatly, you need VS 2010 Ultimate to use it. Get this - it's $11,899 if you want to buy this thing... yeah I tuck a little poop as well. Too bad they don't have a SAAS model for it. Wow... seriously? Maybe I should just hit backspace on this paragraph since 12K is a little steep.
Once again, lots of hype about WP7 - I got verbal confirmation from a few people who shall remain nameless that the BETA SDK should be delivered within 30 days. Can you say AWESOME? I saw some pretty impressive feats with Expression Blend and WP7/Silverlight today... I'm just saying.
Finally I went to an Azure bootcamp, signed up for an Azure account (7 free days!) and walked through the steps nessisary to deploy my first Azure Web App. It's not nearly as intuitive as you might think for a Microsoft Tool.
Anyhoo - time to get some work done and try and get enough sleep to pack in 10-12 more hours of this tomorrow.
Monday, June 7, 2010
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Day 1 - MS Tech Ed - Strategic Architecture Seminar
Amazing Session.
Norm Judah started it all off with a great vision into 2015, discussing the evolution of Cloud computing. This concept of Cloud and an overtone of software as a field of Engineering were really being drilled home. Norm highlighted how Cloud computing is really going to revolutionize and bring about the 5th generation of computing. (previous generations mainframe, PC apps, client/server, Internet). One thing Norm really got right here is breaking down the word 'cloud'. Making sure we understood that not all clouds are made the same - EC3, Azure, Rackspace cloud, akamai, limelight, etc...
Juval Lowy followed up the concept of Engineering and discussed the inflation of terms from the 1990 explosion of the high tech industry and the boom that brought about an influx of under rated under talented and certainly not properly trained software professionals. His idea - Software Architects are really Software Engineers. Software Developers - really are software technicians. This terminology is radical and for some insulting. But what's in a title? Really it's about what you do. He highlighted that the architect should NOT be the domain expert. I couldn't agree more - that's for SMEs and developers. Architects deal with patterns and processes that can be re-used over and over again to solve problems.
Angela Yochem really inspired me with as my current role as a dev manage for Macadamian Technologies, more specifically as someone who is helping his employees reach their potential through a single statement - "How do you want to finish your career?: Forget about the - what do you want to do in 5 years question we've all be asked.
These three alone were enough to make my mind nearly explode with new energy and ideas. Idea's I want to disseminate within Macadamian as fast as I can. Cloud computing, re-invigorate the role of the architect as the engineer (something I've been thinking about a lot lately, how software developers are the craftsmen - but how I haven't really put words to paper on what that makes the architects).
But there was more...
Jim Wilt went into the details of Cloud computing, how it's new, immature, and the architects out there need to get their hands dirty with it. Like Norm Judah said - this is a new frontier of computing. If you don't make this paradigm shift in how you design software, in 5 years you will be scrambling to keep up. Another interesting topic he went into was how private clouds don't really make sense in the long run, but will help quench the fear of the enterprise of lose of control.
Eduardo Kassner - The only IT Infrastructure Architect of the group - really hit home with a rapid fire overview of a great study about building efficient, well managed IT infrastructures. This is something most start ups don't get right. The report was great, it went into massive detail about the total cost of ownership (something very difficult to explain to customers as it's not something immediate).
Sam Guckenheimer went into some deep dives (and demos). But his key message that really stuck with me had to do with technical debt. More specifically how lean process/enterprises and the concept of Muda, Mura, Muri brought in by Taiichi Ohno at Toyota. These 7 type of Muda (waste) really hit home, the biggest one was absurdity that creates a reliance on heroism to save the day (or build or release). Furthermore, it's great to see that MS is moving towards a solution with testing that Replay Solutions (replay Editor) brought about earlier this year. The ability to log bugs that can launch you directly into a debugger session in VS2010. The caveat is that the easiest way to deploy this is with TFS and Lab Manager as your dev environment. Though he did mention a way to build your own custom tie ins. Can you say plug ins?
Finally Futureist, Ulrich Homann, flew 50,000 feet above sea level and got into some very interesting topics about how some of the leading edge corporations in the world are shedding old paradigms and looking at some very new ways of developing solutions.
And to top this all off. I won a MS Web Camera. This is ironic because the old Creative Notebook Web Cam I have was giving my laptop blue screen's of death when trying to video chat with my daughter. All in all, very happy times.
As a small side note the reason I won the web cam was from a question I asked the panel about Geo Fencing services built into cloud computing services in Azure. With that said, Geo Fencing of clouds doesn't seem to be on the horizon for Azure. What MS is doing is lobbying governments to reduce their views on 'location' of the data storage. The strong argument about how the information using the Internet gets routed to you is key here. It might be stored a block away, but it may get routed through 5 states and 3 provinces before it gets to your computer.
Norm Judah started it all off with a great vision into 2015, discussing the evolution of Cloud computing. This concept of Cloud and an overtone of software as a field of Engineering were really being drilled home. Norm highlighted how Cloud computing is really going to revolutionize and bring about the 5th generation of computing. (previous generations mainframe, PC apps, client/server, Internet). One thing Norm really got right here is breaking down the word 'cloud'. Making sure we understood that not all clouds are made the same - EC3, Azure, Rackspace cloud, akamai, limelight, etc...
Juval Lowy followed up the concept of Engineering and discussed the inflation of terms from the 1990 explosion of the high tech industry and the boom that brought about an influx of under rated under talented and certainly not properly trained software professionals. His idea - Software Architects are really Software Engineers. Software Developers - really are software technicians. This terminology is radical and for some insulting. But what's in a title? Really it's about what you do. He highlighted that the architect should NOT be the domain expert. I couldn't agree more - that's for SMEs and developers. Architects deal with patterns and processes that can be re-used over and over again to solve problems.
Angela Yochem really inspired me with as my current role as a dev manage for Macadamian Technologies, more specifically as someone who is helping his employees reach their potential through a single statement - "How do you want to finish your career?: Forget about the - what do you want to do in 5 years question we've all be asked.
These three alone were enough to make my mind nearly explode with new energy and ideas. Idea's I want to disseminate within Macadamian as fast as I can. Cloud computing, re-invigorate the role of the architect as the engineer (something I've been thinking about a lot lately, how software developers are the craftsmen - but how I haven't really put words to paper on what that makes the architects).
But there was more...
Jim Wilt went into the details of Cloud computing, how it's new, immature, and the architects out there need to get their hands dirty with it. Like Norm Judah said - this is a new frontier of computing. If you don't make this paradigm shift in how you design software, in 5 years you will be scrambling to keep up. Another interesting topic he went into was how private clouds don't really make sense in the long run, but will help quench the fear of the enterprise of lose of control.
Eduardo Kassner - The only IT Infrastructure Architect of the group - really hit home with a rapid fire overview of a great study about building efficient, well managed IT infrastructures. This is something most start ups don't get right. The report was great, it went into massive detail about the total cost of ownership (something very difficult to explain to customers as it's not something immediate).
Sam Guckenheimer went into some deep dives (and demos). But his key message that really stuck with me had to do with technical debt. More specifically how lean process/enterprises and the concept of Muda, Mura, Muri brought in by Taiichi Ohno at Toyota. These 7 type of Muda (waste) really hit home, the biggest one was absurdity that creates a reliance on heroism to save the day (or build or release). Furthermore, it's great to see that MS is moving towards a solution with testing that Replay Solutions (replay Editor) brought about earlier this year. The ability to log bugs that can launch you directly into a debugger session in VS2010. The caveat is that the easiest way to deploy this is with TFS and Lab Manager as your dev environment. Though he did mention a way to build your own custom tie ins. Can you say plug ins?
Finally Futureist, Ulrich Homann, flew 50,000 feet above sea level and got into some very interesting topics about how some of the leading edge corporations in the world are shedding old paradigms and looking at some very new ways of developing solutions.
And to top this all off. I won a MS Web Camera. This is ironic because the old Creative Notebook Web Cam I have was giving my laptop blue screen's of death when trying to video chat with my daughter. All in all, very happy times.
As a small side note the reason I won the web cam was from a question I asked the panel about Geo Fencing services built into cloud computing services in Azure. With that said, Geo Fencing of clouds doesn't seem to be on the horizon for Azure. What MS is doing is lobbying governments to reduce their views on 'location' of the data storage. The strong argument about how the information using the Internet gets routed to you is key here. It might be stored a block away, but it may get routed through 5 states and 3 provinces before it gets to your computer.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Headed to Tech Ed in New Orleans
I've just spent the first 5 hours in New Orleans. This place is hot. No seriously, it's warm. 41C with the humidex. Regardless, I'm not sure what to think of it yet. I've come across some rather interesting sights and sounds.
A few interesting things that I'll be doing besides hunting for a Muffuletta (update found one - central grocery and franks... tried franks this evening it was pretty good and the service was nice and chatty) will be to try and sync up with a few MS Evangelists and discuss some of the crazy stuff we are doing in the mobile space right now.
There is a buzz around the service industry with the MS conference coming to town. Usually this time of year tourism is slow. They are excited for the influx of 40,000 people. So am I. Lets get this conference started.
I'll be posting updates as I get them with interesting technologies and thoughts as they happen. Ultimately, I'm most interested in WP7 - will they have hardware - will I get to touch it? Will they announce a new SDK CTP? Lets hope we get some answers.
A few interesting things that I'll be doing besides hunting for a Muffuletta (update found one - central grocery and franks... tried franks this evening it was pretty good and the service was nice and chatty) will be to try and sync up with a few MS Evangelists and discuss some of the crazy stuff we are doing in the mobile space right now.
There is a buzz around the service industry with the MS conference coming to town. Usually this time of year tourism is slow. They are excited for the influx of 40,000 people. So am I. Lets get this conference started.
I'll be posting updates as I get them with interesting technologies and thoughts as they happen. Ultimately, I'm most interested in WP7 - will they have hardware - will I get to touch it? Will they announce a new SDK CTP? Lets hope we get some answers.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
JSC Compiler - This could be cool
This just in from mwnw - very cool and promising new compiler that lets you compile to java, php, actionscript, javascript - based on a similar concept as GWT.
Have a peek at the source fourge project: http://jsc.sourceforge.net/
Warning: I haven't had a chance to download and see how well this works or see what limitations. But I'm kinda stsoked - thinking MS will buy this and make it a feature of VS?
Have a peek at the source fourge project: http://jsc.sourceforge.net/
Warning: I haven't had a chance to download and see how well this works or see what limitations. But I'm kinda stsoked - thinking MS will buy this and make it a feature of VS?
Make Web Not War - Very cool little conference in Montreal
Right now i'm just finishing up the morning at Make Web Not War. It's a cool little Microsoft sponsored conference talking about interroperability between Open Source (PHP being the big one here) and MS (Azure etc...).
Very cool, very neat debate. One of the things I just learned about was that Azure (Microsoft's answer to EC3 and rackspacecloud.com etc...) . Details: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/interop/. What's neat here is PHP, Ruby and Java have SDKs!!
This I think represents a real change of direction within MS to push to support more then frameworks they build.
Cool... just cool.
Very cool, very neat debate. One of the things I just learned about was that Azure (Microsoft's answer to EC3 and rackspacecloud.com etc...) . Details: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/interop/. What's neat here is PHP, Ruby and Java have SDKs!!
This I think represents a real change of direction within MS to push to support more then frameworks they build.
Cool... just cool.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Windows Phone 7
I've always been a fan of my iPhone. It's done everything well, and when tethering was enabled, I was able to do my job from anywhere (as long as my 15lb boat anchor of a dell vostro could be hiked along with me). I've found myself working from under a tree near the river or in a secluded park while doing some code reviews.
Regardless, the iPhone and I have gotten along splendidly. But looking at the CTP release and Mix10 videos of WP7, I'm stoked. It's the first phone to come along since August 2008 (the month my iPhone and I met!) that really gets me excited.
Android never excited me, it was cool, it was well engineered, but there was no emotional response. This is where I think big ol' Microsoft has their $hit together. The WP7 looks amazing. It's clean, simple, elegant and well integrated. Having started to build a WP7 application with my team, and finding out it's easy as heck to develop on (to a certain degree, the CTP is still missing some key elements to really make life simple) but C# and WPF (Silverlight subset) are a breeze compared to the obtuse and almost confusing objective C iPhone approach.
Anyways, I'll put the technical details into our team's blog the mobile experience.
Final thought: WP7 is cool, I'm excited to see it, and if the price is right, features good enough, you might just find my iPhone going on Ebay... She's been a good friend. But you know what they say: "When the love is gone..." buy a new phone ;)
Regardless, the iPhone and I have gotten along splendidly. But looking at the CTP release and Mix10 videos of WP7, I'm stoked. It's the first phone to come along since August 2008 (the month my iPhone and I met!) that really gets me excited.
Android never excited me, it was cool, it was well engineered, but there was no emotional response. This is where I think big ol' Microsoft has their $hit together. The WP7 looks amazing. It's clean, simple, elegant and well integrated. Having started to build a WP7 application with my team, and finding out it's easy as heck to develop on (to a certain degree, the CTP is still missing some key elements to really make life simple) but C# and WPF (Silverlight subset) are a breeze compared to the obtuse and almost confusing objective C iPhone approach.
Anyways, I'll put the technical details into our team's blog the mobile experience.
Final thought: WP7 is cool, I'm excited to see it, and if the price is right, features good enough, you might just find my iPhone going on Ebay... She's been a good friend. But you know what they say: "When the love is gone..." buy a new phone ;)
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Things are getting Nutty!
My day job is getting kinda busy. But good busy.
Right now I'm just starting to run three concurrent projects all building the same application on three different mobile platforms. It's an experiment, and it's fun.
Android (Java), iPhone (Objective C) and Windows Phone 7 (C# and Silverlight).
Each of them are unique, have their own craziness but also their challenges. I'll post some updates soon. But We'll be talking about it, and talking about it lots. I'll post some links to the new blog ASAP for anyone out there listening.
Right now I'm just starting to run three concurrent projects all building the same application on three different mobile platforms. It's an experiment, and it's fun.
Android (Java), iPhone (Objective C) and Windows Phone 7 (C# and Silverlight).
Each of them are unique, have their own craziness but also their challenges. I'll post some updates soon. But We'll be talking about it, and talking about it lots. I'll post some links to the new blog ASAP for anyone out there listening.
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