All posts by : Nigel Parkers Outside Line

1 of 77 | Expression around the Clock - It has taken me quite some time to get my summary post out for the Expression around the Clock event and part of this has been due to getting the material together to post. I am doing a wrap up on the event at the Usability Professionals Association meeting at the BNZ on Tuesday night so come along if you are interested in seeing more. By a stroke of luck my car blew a head gasket (luck because I have insurance) and I have been catching the train to work for the last couple of weeks. During the walk I have been watching/ listening to the rest of the world's Expression around the Clock sessions (well at the least the ones that are in English) and during the train ride I have been editing t......

2 of 77 | Emerging Web Technologies - I presented today alongside David Bolocker amongst others on Service Oriented Architecture, Web 2.0 and Mashups. I even came up with my own quote... "Software Convergence, is not the reduction of solutions but the expansion of presentation & information to user combinations." Check out my presentation at http://gobeyond.net.nz/brightstar and tell me what you think. Michael Sampson live blogged the event....

3 of 77 | A Spate of Infectious Disease - First of all I would like to apologise to anyone that attended the Technical briefing in Wellington yesterday and was looking forward to my session on "Building Applications Users Love". I will be making a video of this session available after next weeks event in Christchurch to share with you all through my blog. For those of you that are not parents you may not be familiar with the NZ tradition of coffee group. Mothers with babies the same age living in the same area meet once a week at a different home to socially interact. This is a great outreach for mothers that have after years of being powerfull business woman left the work force to embark on a new journey. Last Friday was coffee ......

4 of 77 | Just saw this .NET 3 training - "The .NET Framework 3.0 training kit for WF, WCF, and CardSpace includes a set of hands-on-labs, demos, and presentations. The content was originally designed as part of the Windows Server Ascend training and has been used several times for training classes. Consequently, the content is organized into a four day agenda. You can also browse this content by technology." Get it here Also if you are an interactive designer and are looking for a good tutorial on using Expression Blend take a look at this one that Lee from Frog design has put together. "It is called Expression Blend Beta Preview and it covers all of the basics of using Blend to create WPF applications. At the end you put what ......

5 of 77 | My Response to Nat's "Threads Considered Harmful" Post - I don't normally do this but Nat's post on Professor Edward A. Lee piece about The Problem With Threads drew a response from me straight away. The comment I made on the post was never approved so I thought it was worth sharing here. I Wrote... In the summary of Professor Edward A. Lee paper - "he observes that threads remove determinism and open the door to subtle yet deadly bugs, and that while the problems were to some extent manageable on single core systems, threads on multicore systems will magnify the problems out of control. He suggests the only solution is to stop bolting parallelism onto languages and components--instead design new deterministically-composable components and lan......

6 of 77 | Expand Your Portfolio... it's a wrap! - Hey there, Two weeks ago we met and presented to over 200 people from more than 85 companies across New Zealand! We got some great feedback and had heaps of fun doing it! I have got great feedback via email and I have had truck loads of people wanting to show their friends... learn more and try things out themselves! What sites did we update/release? http://www.microsoft.com/expression http://www.microsoft.com/design http://www.microsoft.com/wpfe What did I showcase last week... WPF firstlook.nytimes.com Blend (Beta 1) thirteen23.com, harmony (itunes/Amazon desktop mashup), denounce (next gen rss/podcast reader) Tools SWF2XAML (v1), demo, video ......

7 of 77 | TradeMe Design! - I was talking to Rowan a few weeks ago and he mentioned that TradeMe was working on a new CSS designed site (amongst other changes). How did Rowan put it? "it's an evolution rather than a revolution"... I think you could use this same quote when talking about IE7! Check out the sneak preview at http://preview.trademe.co.nz, and also go and check out the commentary and provide your feedback! I was hoping to see Natasha talk about this at UPA event in Auckland this week but unfortunately she didn't make it up... next shot WebStock Mini! On another note a couple of weeks ago I was down in Wellington and I met with Rachel and the team at heliocell. We discussed their site ht......

8 of 77 | We're Gold Baby! Now we can have some real fun! - Today we announced the RTM of the .NET Framework 3.0, availability of Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office for the 2007 Microsoft Office System, ASP.NET AJAX Beta 2 and the Visual Studio 2005 Extensions for the .NET Framework 3.0 CTP and upon RTM’ing, Windows Vista and Microsoft 2007 Office System will be available for download by MSDN Premium subscribers.   Oh yeah and we also announced today the completion of the 2007 Microsoft Office system code and confirmed its release to manufacturing (RTM). These RTM milestones mark a critical step toward worldwide business availability of the 2007 Office system, Windows Vista and Exchange Server 2007 on the 30th of this mon......

9 of 77 | .NET Framework 3.0 eLearning clinics - Free Until the Launch of .NET 3.0! - This collection of 3 2-hour premium clinics teaches about the new capabilities provided by the .NET Framework 3.0. These clinics are for experienced Developers and Software Architects who are looking to adopt Microsoft's next generation technology within their solutions. Topics covered within the collection include: • Windows Presentation Foundation • Windows Workflow Foundation • Windows Communication Foundation Don't procrastinate you don't have much time to grab these for free and once you have them they are valid for 1 year! Quick tip... log in to eLearning first and then don't change the "Prices for the United States are shown in US Dollars." dropdown......

10 of 77 | .NET 3.0 at Tech.Ed NZ – 15 Sessions! - I was asked what .NET 3.0 sessions were being held at Tech.Ed this year in New Zealand so I thought I'd take a moment to call out all 15 .Net 3.0 sessions. .NET 3.0 has 4 key pillars… and we have a key person from Microsoft Corp representing each of these pillars. Windows Presentation Foundation - http://wpf.netfx3.com/              Arik Cohen, is the lead program manager for Windows Presentation Foundation at Microsoft Corp. Windows Communication Foundation - http://wcf.netfx3.com/                  Payam Shodjai is a product manager for Web......

11 of 77 | MicroISV’s and Project Glidepath - I’ve talked a little bit about MicroISV’s recently. The release of Windows Vista will create a new wave of demand for applications that MicroISVs supply. We’ve just launched a new program to help small developers build apps for Windows Vista… since NZ has plenty of 2 or 3 people development shops I definitely recommend you take a look at http://www.projectglidepath.net and the accompanying video on channel 9. Project Glidepath is two-fold 1. The Project Glidepath Software Factory A freely available VS2005 Software Factory add-in that provides specific content, technology and templates for building applications for Windows Vista and .Net Framework 3.0. Workflow-based guidance regarding......

12 of 77 | .netfx3.com Is Live - We have just launched the NetFx3.com site, a new developer community that focuses on the four new technologies included in the.NET Framework 3.0. The existing Windows Workflow Foundation and Windows Communication Foundation sites are now represented as “sub-communities” within NetFx3.com.  We have also created new sub-communities for Windows Presentation Foundation and Windows CardSpace. The site has been designed to aggregate information on the .NET Framework 3.0 technologies from product team and community bloggers, MSDN forums, and Channel9.  It will also provide a location for the product teams and the community to easily share samples, code snippets, and other resources. S......

13 of 77 | Where you been? - If you wonder where I've been since Easter, and why I'm missing code camp this coming weekend... the answer is hospital and birth care! That's right the new family unit is due home tomorrow. I know blogging from a hospital just isn't cool but I thought I'd make a couple of announcements. Meet Indigo May Parker at 1 day old... please no jokes about naming her WCF for short! Oh yeah and I twisted Scott Guthrie "the machine" little finger and he has confirmed he is coming to Tech.Ed ANZ! Yup you heard it here first, it's been a hard secret to keep and as I've been waiting until Scott said that I could tell you all! This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no ri......

14 of 77 | Tech.Ed 2006 - Tech.Ed 2006.... oh yes.... 2006! Michael Kleef is on point for content for Tech.Ed this year in New Zealand and Australia. Remember if you want to submit a technical paper to speak at the event do so here this month! We are changing the way we do things this year by having a different person responsible for each technical track! Yup ultimately it is the track leaders call who speaks and what is presented in the track. Each track lead has started to stack rank the top 16 session across each track and Michael has blogged these and is looking for feedback. The web dev ones aren't up there yet even though I have submitted them! Things are falling into place this year and I'm hoping to m......

15 of 77 | XPS Paper Specification - Wow this is cool... IMO the limiting factor in wide adoption of XPS was that it required the WinFX framework and that framework is only supported on WinXP (SP2), Windows Server 2003/R2, and Vista. Today the XPS team have announced that the Beta 1 of the XML Paper Specification (XPS) Essentials Pack has been released! "We built the Essentials Pack with an independent parser and renderer on Win32 platforms to provide XPS viewing on Windows 2000 and Windows systems without WinFX Runtime Components. This is a great validation that independent XPS implementations are possible." Very Cool~ if you want to read more about XPS go here. Tags: xps, wpf, XPS Essentials Pa......

16 of 77 | Open XML Developer - yes it is an org! - In light of the comment I got to my blog post yesterday I thought I would elaborate a little more on the Open XML Format. I demonstrated the Open XML Format during the breaks at the security summit last Friday. I got some interesting questions from customers... so much so that I started developing a little application of my own that talks to the new Office 2007 api's. Bill Gates talked about this today at the Microsoft Office System Developers Conference 2006. We have launched a new community site www.OpenXmlDeveloper.org... this community has an unusual twist in that it is openly allowing and even promoting development efforts that do not use Microsoft tools at all. One of the firs......

17 of 77 | IE7 "Layout Complete"... ATLAS "Go-Live"... Day 1 @ MIX06 - This morning Nathan commented that the Mix Beta 2 Refresh of IE7 has been released! As I mentioned in a previous post... Microsoft has been doing great work continuing their support for standards with commitments to Web Standards in IE, WASP, the Open XML Submission to Ecma, XHTML Compliance in ASP.NET Whidbey and also Windows Communication Foundation. Standards are of growing importance as Web developers and designers strive to make their sites work across all browsers and accessible by the broadest set of customers.  Accomplishing this today using any platform and tool is difficult. Microsoft is committed to delivering standards-compliant tools and platform. The IE7 team had th......

18 of 77 | Link Link Link Link Link... - I haven't had much time to blog but I thought I'd throw out a few new links that have been floating around in my inbox. See you Thursday and Friday. http://www.curekidsauction.co.nz http://on10.net http://www.origamiproject.com http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/umpc http://ideas.live.com Great ASP.NET 2.0 Tutorial Videos Online http://www.techtalkblogs.com http://gdayworld.thepodcastnetwork.com Simple Human Workflow with Windows Workflow Foundation (8 March 2006) The North Face In-Store Explorer White Paper and Sample Karsten eats a carrot and shows of WPF Expression Graphic Designer March CTP download This posting is provided "AS IS" with no w......

19 of 77 | So it's official it is "Office 2007" - The part that I have been itching to talk about...  Is the unveiling of Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007 and Microsoft Expression Web Designer. Yeah I know I've talked about Expression Web Developer (EWD) quite a bit now... but what I haven't done is compare EWD to Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007. For those of you that have been enrolled in the early beta of Office you will have noticed a mix between the use of the term Frontpage and Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007. This is because Frontpage is being replaced! Both EWD and SharePoint Designer share a core code base that is based on FrontPage but IMHO improves the experience ten-fold! I have been experime......

20 of 77 | WF & WCF Beta2 "Go-Live" licenses & the Jan WinFX CTP. -   First of all Happy New Year! I have been "in a cave for almost a month"... half of which I spent relaxing diving catching cray's... the other half I spend learning and networking in rainy Seattle. I have so much to share and talk about but I need to be careful not overload and throw everything out at once... so here goes my first post of the year. Ari Bixhorn has let the cat out of the bag that we are supporting "Go Live" licenses for the Windows Workflow Foundation Beta2 Runtime (WF) and Windows Communication Foundation Beta2 Runtime (WCF)... it is important to be clear these are isolated releases of these two foundation frameworks outside of the WinFX runtime components.... the......

21 of 77 | PDC wrap user group session Auckland. - *For those that attending the User Group Meeting last night in Auckland* It was fun I enjoyed the whirlwind futures tour! It was great talking to a lot of you after the session and feeding off your "excitment" around these technologies! As promised here is my resources slide... (Full slide deck will be available after my South Island tour). PDC Powerpoints Slides    http://commnet.microsoftpdc.com/content/downloads.aspx “ATLAS”    http://atlas.asp.net Windows Vista & WinFX Developer Centers    http://msdn.microsoft.com/windowsvista     http://msdn.microsoft.com/winfx      &nbs......

22 of 77 | MSDN Subscribers get WinFX on Vista on the RTM builds of Visual Studio 2005 just in time for Christmas! - You may not have noticed yet but the December CTP of Windows Vista is now available for download to MSDN Subscribers. This is important as it is the first version available to MSDN subscribers that supports the RTM version of Visual Studio 2005 and the compatible WinFX bits (including the Windows Communication, Workflow and Presentation Foundation bits). Note that after you install Vista you will need to enable the WinFX runtime this is disabled by default in this version. You can do this by going to the Vista Software Explorer, checking the box next to the WinFX runtime and click ok. Do this before you install VS2005 the Windows SDK and the Visual Studio Code Name Orcas CTP WinFX Developme......

23 of 77 | MSDN Flash Archive and wrap up from Launch. - So you may have noticed that I haven`t been bogging a lot recently... I have been on the road for our launch events for VS, SQL & BizTalk... I have also been head`s down completing an offline training course on Windows Workflow Foundation. Well one thing I have been doing through all this is writing the MSDN Flash... I mentioned in this week`s newsletter how to get the code and slide deck from my ASP .NET 2.0 session at launch. " I really enjoyed presenting the "Developing Cutting Edge Applications with ASP.NET 2.0" session and for those of you that were there I have hosted the demo site that I built during the session taking advantage of the 30 Day Free Hosting. If you would like to downl......

24 of 77 | Launch VS SQL & BTS - * Firstly I wanted to clarify a question I got from a few sources regarding this weeks MSDN Flash* I wrote -  "We are coming down to the finish line for the launch of Visual Studio 2005, SQL Server 2005, and BizTalk Server 2006 on November 7th, and momentum and excitement are really building. The product teams are going through the final checklists to prepare these products for release to manufacturing." I should have written "The Visual Studio & SQL Server product teams are going through the final checklists." Scott Woodgate clarifies all confusion about the BizTalk 2006 Release Date (Yup his team is targeting the first half/ first quarter of 2006 to ship BTS 2006) Also Team Foundation S......

25 of 77 | It is all... too cool & so so addictive! - Well it`s 8:30pm and I`m about 2/3rds of the way through preparing my presentation for the Auckland .NET User Group meeting tomorrow night ;) The problem I am facing is this stuff is just TOO COOL & SO SO ADDICTIVE! It is one thing to watch it and it is quite another to use it hands on. As I am collating all the material and preparing my demos I find myself straying further and further into each of the cool new technologies... I could spend all night working through the Hands On Labs for Windows Workflow Foundation... I just lost myself somewhere between ZAM 3D and Sparkle.... there I am playing with WinFS... oops you`ll have to excuse me from LINQ it`s time to make dinner... someone kick m......

26 of 77 | Connect 05` Technical Sessions - Visit the Microsoft New Zealand: Connect `05 site to register. Dates and Cities for the Technical Sessions: Wednesday 16th November - Wellington Tuesday 22nd November - Christchurch Tuesday 29th November - Auckland KEYNOTE Visual Studio Team System: Managing the Software Lifecycle with Visual Studio 2005 Team System Speaker - Wayne Ewington (Microsoft Consulting Services) Visual Studio 2005 Team System is an extensible life-cycle tools platform that significantly expands the Visual Studio product line and helps software teams collaborate to deliver modern service-oriented solutions. This session spotlights key features of Visual Studio 2005 Team System and demonstrates how integrating ......

27 of 77 | WinFS! - Last night in Computerworld I read a fantastic article on WinFS by Jon Udell. I know we burst through the gate early when it came to launching WinFS. Well now that the dust has settled I`m really starting to get excited about this technology. I attended Shishir Mehrotra`s DAT209 "WinFS" Future Directions: An Overview session at PDC last week in LA. The vision of WinFS is to have a relational file system that acts as a single store for all data on Windows. WinFS is being refactored into the same set of data access API`s as the rest of the Microsoft data stack. What this means is that WinFS will use the next generation of ADO.NET to interact with data including DLinq. WinFS is a file system ......

28 of 77 | MSDN Flash Volume 9, Number 18, September 20, 2005 - ------------------------------------------------------ MSDN Flash Volume 9, Number 18, September 20, 2005 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I was lucky enough to go to PDC I thought it only fair to bring all of you back a little gift. So here it is... "The Finalizer" wallpaper! I saw this lethal little guy hanging out in the market place today and I couldn`t resist going in close for a photo!WPF + WWF + WCF = MAGICIn the last few days Microsoft has made a huge number of exciting announcements! Mike Torres from the spaces team put it well in his post when he said..."The biggest year in Microsoft`s 30 year history starts right now. Come along for the r......

29 of 77 | Paul Andrew & team just launched Windows Workflow Foundation WWF at PDC in LA. - Paul Andrew and team just finished launching Windows Workflow Foundation at PDC. PDC05 This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. ...

30 of 77 | Off to PDC 2005 - Stay In Touch! - I`m flying out to PDC tonight and right now is the first chance I`ve had to think about it and get excited! PDC05 is sold out an important indicator of the buzz around the developer community. All sorts of people are coming in from all over to be there. However, if youre not going to PDC, you can still stay in touch with the event. You can watch Bill Gates and Jim Allchin`s opening keynotes streamed live on Wednesday 14th 3:30am - 6:30am new Zealand time! The webcast will be available here. You can follow the rest of the show and view PDC presentations, newsgroups, and other content as it becomes available, on the PDC05 site on MSDN, and follow the blog posts of attendees at http://pdcblo......

31 of 77 | MSDN Flash Volume 9, Number 17 - September 5, 2005 - Jarvis Cocker, epitomised Tech.Ed New Zealand 2005 for me in the following simple verse:"The dust has settled,replaced the bulbs in all the lights.A revolution happened.Oh, sorry you haven`t heardThey say the future`s beginning tonight.The revolution begins & ends with you."Maybe this is being a little dramatic but this is exactly what it felt like for me. Others have their own opinions... what is everybody else sayingThe week before Tech.Ed I setup SmartRss on my phone so that I was able to read blog posts in real time during the event. Here are some of the great summary posts from Peter Jones (Day 1,2,3), Rod Drury (Day 1,2-3), Betsy Aoki (Student Day 1,2 & Tech-Ed 1,2) & Jeremy Boyd (Day......

32 of 77 | MSDN Flash Volume 9, Number 17 - September 5, 2005 - Jarvis Cocker, epitomised Tech.Ed New Zealand 2005 for me in the following simple verse:"The dust has settled,replaced the bulbs in all the lights.A revolution happened.Oh, sorry you haven`t heardThey say the future`s beginning tonight.The revolution begins & ends with you."Maybe this is being a little dramatic but this is exactly what it felt like for me. Others have their own opinions... what is everybody else sayingThe week before Tech.Ed I setup SmartRss on my phone so that I was able to read blog posts in real time during the event. Here are some of the great summary posts from Peter Jones (Day 1,2,3), Rod Drury (Day 1,2-3), Betsy Aoki (Student Day 1,2 & Tech-Ed 1,2) & Jeremy Boyd (Day......

33 of 77 | Tech.Ed Podcasts! - We have podcasts from NZ... thanks Chris XNA - Tony Goodhew (.wmv, 119MB) *NEW Windows Communication Foundation - Indigo - Ari Brixhorn (.wmv, 59MB, 16 mins) *NEW Blogging - Betsy Aoki (.wmv, 10.7MB, 14min) *NEW Also we have some footage of the Feelers from the TechFest Party... thanks Sean Venus - The Feelers (.avi, 6MB) *NEW Stand Up - Betsy Aoki (.avi, 4MB) *NEW Tech.Ed has kicked off on the Gold Coast and the first set of mediacasts from Tech.Ed are now online... thanks Frank Hands On Labs - Frederique Dennison (.wmv, 9.6MB, 2min 42sec) *NEW Tech.Ed Opening Party (.wmv, 16.5MB, 4min 31sec) *NEW Windows Embedded - Don Kerr (.wmv, 10.7MB, 2min 58sec) *NEW Tech.Ed 2004 Events (.......

34 of 77 | Tech.Ed Podcasts! - We have podcasts from NZ... thanks Chris XNA - Tony Goodhew (.wmv, 119MB) *NEW Windows Communication Foundation - Indigo - Ari Brixhorn (.wmv, 59MB, 16 mins) *NEW Blogging - Betsy Aoki (.wmv, 10.7MB, 14min) *NEW Also we have some footage of the Feelers from the TechFest Party... thanks Sean Venus - The Feelers (.avi, 6MB) *NEW Stand Up - The Feelers (.avi, 4MB) *NEW Tech.Ed has kicked off on the Gold Coast and the first set of mediacasts from Tech.Ed are now online... thanks Frank Hands On Labs - Frederique Dennison (.wmv, 9.6MB, 2min 42sec) *NEW Tech.Ed Opening Party (.wmv, 16.5MB, 4min 31sec) *NEW Windows Embedded - Don Kerr (.wmv, 10.7MB, 2min 58sec) *NEW Tech.Ed 2004 Events ......

35 of 77 | MSDN Flash Volume 9, Number 16 - August 16, 2005 - I read a great quote last week "If technology doesn`t work like magic its probably obsolete".Recently I have been away in Atlanta for my first MGB.The first day was long... really long... over 12 hours long. I was blown away by the presentations the demos and the technology displayed! Bill Gates presented on the new digital lifestyle initiative (view his speech from the International Consumer Electronic Show in January)... Windows Vista was launched and we were given 30 great demos in 60 minutes of the new operating system. We were in the Georgia Dome... this place is huge during a presentation we took a look at it on the newly launched MSN Virtual Earth (some people even think that Frank l......

36 of 77 | MSDN Flash Volume 9, Number 16 - August 16, 2005 - I read a great quote last week "If technology doesn`t work like magic its probably obsolete".Recently I have been away in Atlanta for my first MGB.The first day was long... really long... over 12 hours long. I was blown away by the presentations the demos and the technology displayed! Bill Gates presented on the new digital lifestyle initiative (view his speech from the International Consumer Electronic Show in January)... Windows Vista was launched and we were given 30 great demos in 60 minutes of the new operating system. We were in the Georgia Dome... this place is huge during a presentation we took a look at it on the newly launched MSN Virtual Earth (some people even think that Frank l......

37 of 77 | Resources for Visual Studio 2005 & SQL 2005 -  Sean asked me to compile a list of resources for Visual Studio 2005/ SQL 2005 so since I did the work I thought I`d share it with all of you! Visual Studio 2005 Developer Centre Downloads and Samples    - Starter Kits    - Code Sampleshttp://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/vs2005/downloads/ 101 Samples for Visual Studio 2005 - http://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/vs2005/downloads/101samples/ Hands on Learning for Visual Studio 2005 (Free Until November 8th 2005)https://www.microsoftelearning.com/visualstudio2005/ Free Skills Assessment for SQL 2005 and Visual Studio 2005http://assessment.learning.microsoft.com/test/ MSDN Virtual Labshttps://msdn.demoservers.com MSDN Developer Centreshttp://msdn.microsoft.......

38 of 77 | Resources for Visual Studio 2005 & SQL 2005 -  Sean asked me to compile a list of resources for Visual Studio 2005/ SQL 2005 so since I did the work I thought I`d share it with all of you! Visual Studio 2005 Developer Centre Downloads and Samples    - Starter Kits    - Code Sampleshttp://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/vs2005/downloads/ 101 Samples for Visual Studio 2005 - http://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/vs2005/downloads/101samples/ Hands on Learning for Visual Studio 2005 (Free Until November 8th 2005)https://www.microsoftelearning.com/visualstudio2005/ Free Skills Assessment for SQL 2005 and Visual Studio 2005http://assessment.learning.microsoft.com/test/ MSDN Virtual Labshttps://msdn.demoservers.com MSDN Developer Centreshttp://msdn.microsoft.......

39 of 77 | Microsoft Integration Technologies: When to Use What - A question I have been asked allot recently is "When to use what". Microsoft has released a number of Integration tools and this whitepaper has been written by members of the MSMQ, "Indigo", SQL SSIS, SQL SSB, SQL Replication, Host Integration Server and BizTalk Server teams. The whitepaper describes the core use-cases for these technologies and when to use which technology and will accompany the tech-ed session that will be delivered at tech-ed in Auckland in late August. This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. ...

40 of 77 | Darren Neimke... Microsoft Office Information Bridge Framework... This weeks .Net User Group Meetings - Darren Neimke is coming to New Zealand to talk at the .Net User group Meetings this week (Tuesday in Auckland, Lunchtime Wednesday in Christchurch and Wednesday evening in Wellington) on Information Bridge Framework. I haven`t met Darren but from what I have read he has heaps of street cred. I have had a few .Net developers ask me... Why it is important for me to know about "Microsoft Office Information Bridge Framework"... with these sessions coming up this week I though it was a great time to offer you all a reply. Programming for Microsoft Office has had a long and painful history... anyone who has needed to create an Excel spreadsheets or word documents on the fly using .Net will under......

41 of 77 | BizTalk 2006 will make it to CTP next week. - Scott Woodgate has confirmed that BizTalk 2006 will make it to CTP (Community Technology Preview) before Tech Ed starts next week in the US. http://blogs.msdn.com/scottwoo/archive/2005/06/02/424428.aspx This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. ...

42 of 77 | Tech-Ed 2005 Get It Now! - Let`s try this again... for some reason the server ate the post I did on Saturday! The early bird catches the worm... and this time it`s no different! Charles "Chuck" Sterling has added the latest track list to his blog for Tech-ed 2005 I know there is a few hyper link and abstract problems (that will hopefully be sorted shortly) but allot of our current thinking around session planning (although this is no ways final) is up there and I implore you to go and check it out... The best news is that you can register now for tech-ed for $1,499 (plus GST)... this price is more than %15 cheaper than what it will cost if you leave it until after the 1st of July. We are on the home stretch with so......

43 of 77 | Pssst... I`ll let you in on a little secret. - The days of walking up to an event and expecting to be able to buy a ticket are over... think back to when you missed out on that Big Day Out ticket because you left it to the last minute and thought "hey BDO never sells out"... or tonight when you were planning on walking up to buy a ticket to the Blues - Hurricanes match but half of Wellington had flown up and beaten you to it...  the score 22-10 to the canes, just as well Carlos wasn`t playing! ... Well the same goes for Tech-Ed tickets this year! That`s right they will become the next hot item on Trademe ...  so if you`re not doing anything (or even if you are) on August 29-31 buy you ticket and come along to the biggest conference of t......

44 of 77 | Tell me more about Visual SourceSafe 2005 Beta 2. - So you just found out that Visual SourceSafe 2005 Beta 2 has been released and you`d really like to find out more about it Download and watch the on demand webcast... The webcast consists of demos of new features, including: SourceSafe Web Service Configuration, Remote Access via HTTP, Performance Improvements, Globalization, Visual Studio Integration: Rename/Deletes, File Dialogs, Asynchronous open....

45 of 77 | I`ve Moved to Microsoft! - Hi all, I started a new job at Microsoft New Zealand, three weeks ago. I have setup up a new blog so please update your feed readers http://blogs.msdn.com/nigel/default.aspx. Any BizTalk related posts I will be posting to a new category I`ve set up called BizTalk 2004 & Beyond. Thanks, for all your support. Nigel...

46 of 77 | Using XML schemas effectively within the BizTalk 2004 XSD Schema Editor - I was reading this article http://devresource.hp.com/drc/slide_presentations/schemaWSDL/index.jsp and it got me thinking about how I have been designing schemas in BizTalk… Yes I know I can already hear your groans about the “BizTalk XSD schema editor”. Well contrary to popular believe you don’t need to use monolithic structures in BizTalk schema design. From the BizTalk Server 2004 book… p78 – Building Message Specifications – Imports – “Only schemas that are part of the current project may be imported”… I thought I’d take on building the xsd structure described in the above article using Visual Studio armed with only the BizTalk Editor and the XML Schema Editor. TIP For those that don’......

47 of 77 | Using XML schemas effectively within the BizTalk 2004 XSD Schema Editor - I was reading this article http://devresource.hp.com/drc/slide_presentations/schemaWSDL/index.jsp and it got me thinking about how I have been designing schemas in BizTalk… Yes I know I can already hear your groans about the “BizTalk XSD schema editor”. Well contrary to popular believe you don’t need to use monolithic structures in BizTalk schema design. From the BizTalk Server 2004 book… p78 – Building Message Specifications – Imports – “Only schemas that are part of the current project may be imported”… I thought I’d take on building the xsd structure described in the above article using Visual Studio armed with only the BizTalk Editor and the XML Schema Editor. TIP For those that don’......

48 of 77 | Using XML schemas effectively within the BizTalk 2004 XSD Schema Editor