Meeting Sponsor: UDig Techforce Solutions

August's Presentation: SharePoint for ASP.NET Developers
by Joshua Carlisle

Thursday, August 7, 2008, 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
Social Time starts at 6:00!
Location: Markel Plaza
4600 Cox Road
Glen Allen, VA 23060 [map]

Registration is not required, but please take a moment to register so we'll know how many people to expect. Thanks!

UDig is bringing dinner from Jersey Mike's subs (meat and veggie) and they will give away a $100 gas card!

Abstract

SharePoint for ASP.NET Developers - Whether it be by choice or by company directive many traditional ASP.NET developers are being asked to implement and support SharePoint based solutions for their company. Previous versions of SharePoint only utilized the .Net Framework but SharePoint 2007 has been rebuilt from ground up on the .Net Framework. Many have gone as far as referring to SharePoint as application extensions for ASP.NET. In this session we'll cover many of the common elements found in ASP.NET and we'll compare and contrast the implementations of those elements in SharePoint in order to get a better understanding of how to leverage your skills and knowledge as an asp.net developer within the SharePoint context.

About Joshua Carlisle

Joshua Carlisle is a principal consultant in Raleigh based Viewfusion Solutions LLC. He specializes in collaboration solutions based on the .Net Framework, ASP.NET, and SharePoint. He has been developing with Microsoft tools for over 13 years and with SharePoint since 2003. In his current role he works with clients to design and implement enterprise and commercial solutions based on the SharePoint platform. He is on the Triangle .Net User Group Leadership Council, active in many community projects, and can be found speaking at many user groups and code camps across the east coast. His blog can be found at http://www.sharepointbrainfreeze.com.

I'm not a big fan of having Visual Studio 2008 automatically trying to connect to my TFS server. Sometimes you just want to open VS and bang out some code!

I've found the registry hack for TFS 2008 is a bit different than 2005.  It's simple enough, though.

1. In the registry editor, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\9.0\TeamFoundation\Servers\<TFS SERVER NAME HERE>
2. Open the AutoReconnect DWORD
3. Change the value to 0 (zero) decimal

Let me know if you've found a different or better way to do this!

Kevin Hazzard
presents Accessing Web Services from Silverlight 2 Beta 2

Thursday, July 10, 2008, 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
Social Time starts at 6:00!
Location: Markel Plaza
4600 Cox Road
Glen Allen, VA 23060 [map]

Registration is not required, but please take a moment to register so we'll know how many people to expect. Thanks!

July's Presentation: Accessing Web Services from Silverlight 2 Beta 2
by Kevin Hazzard

Abstract

Silverlight is a client-side technology. So it’s not really a part of your SOA strategy, right? You may want to think twice about that. SOAP and WSDL support are coming to the web desktop via Silverlight. And Silverlight has good client support for REST+ JSON/POX and RSS/ATOM-based web services, too. During this discussion, we’ll dive into data serialization, security and cross-domain access policy capabilities inside Silverlight 2 Beta 2. We also talk about the nuances and pitfalls of provisioning your web services for an Internet audience. This presentation will be heavy on coding, demonstration and interactive discussion.

About Kevin Hazzard

Kevin is currently the Software Architect for SnagAJob.com in Richmond, Virginia. He has served on the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and as an advisor to Virginia’s Joint Commission on Technology and Science (JCOTS). While serving as a Senior Engineer in the Intel Architecture Lab, Kevin successfully authored patents and designed ciphers, protocols and peer-to-peer networking components used by millions of users worldwide. Kevin has been writing software for 25 years and loves the art and science of his job as much today as he did in the very beginning. Kevin is a father to five, a husband to one and a servant to many others. He speaks a bit of Portuguese and enjoys doing missionary work in South America. He also enjoys motorcycling, welding, hiking, etymology, bird-watching and friendly discussions about world politics and history.

  I found a cool iPhone-like theme for my BlackBerry 8830 called bPhone for BlackBerry.  Please do NOT leave comments saying that the iPhone is better. Work pays for my BlackBerry - FREE is better than iPhone. Thank you.  :)

Faroo is P2P web search built with .NET.  They only require .NET 2.0 so it wasn't built using WCF PeerChannel.  They have add-ins for IE and Firefox.

Very interesting.  I wonder if peer-to-peer searching will work.

A few people have found out about WeeWar.com from my blog. I can tell since I see how many people have joined from my referral link.**

Weewar is an addictive turn-based strategy game. The cool part - the entire game is an AJAX app that you can play from any standard browser.  Units include ground, air, and naval types and games include from 2 to 6 people.  There are bonuses and penalties for terrain, artillery, multiple attacks and direction of attacks, unit types versus other unit types (mechanized units do well against infantry, etc.), and more.  Turns can last from 5 minutes to 3 days, so you can fit it into your busy schedule.

And if you have a Pro account ($24 per year) you can create new maps.  And the map editor is completely AJAX as well.  You have to see it to believe it.

To learn more, take the tour.  Or register for your FREE account using my referral link.

** Weewar does not pay referral fees, however every 5 people I refer extends my Pro account by 2 weeks.  That works out to the equivalent of 18.5 US cents per referral at no cost to you.

Mark Griffin, chief investment officer will leave the company to “pursue other career interests.” Dan Sheehan, senior VP of portfolio management, will replace him on an interim basis.

Like Douglas MacArthur's quote about old soldiers, corporate executives never get fired, they just "pursue other career interests."

From Holly Springs, GA:

The surging price of gasoline has come to this: a "fuel surcharge" on your next speeding ticket.

Drivers caught speeding in this north Atlanta suburb soon will have to pay an extra $12 — to cover $4-a-gallon gas costs for the police officers who stop them.

According to the article, the increase in gas had eaten up 60% of the gas budget already.  This is just another example of poor management blaming their inability to manage on "unforeseen" circumstances. Like nobody could tell that gas prices were continuing to rise last year.

Of course, surcharges and fees can backfire.  Consider the case of hotel phone surcharges in the current age of the cell phone:

To compensate for the loss of revenue caused by widespread cell phone use, some hotels are adding a "phone use fee" to guest room bills. That fee is applied automatically whenever a room phone is activated -- even if it is never used or used only to call the front desk.

And the lengths to which customers (this would include me) go to avoid using the phone:

Clever guests can often find a way to circumvent such charges. Bringing a laptop to a lounge or lobby, or connecting to a wireless router from a nearby source (such as a neighboring hotel)....  Although cell phone reception is often spotty in high-rise hotels, it is relatively simple to find a nearby location -- such as a pool deck or open-air patio -- with better service.

I wonder how long until a lawyer gets his client off by challenging the surcharge.