Category: Misc Page 2 of 3

BAND – Chris Bowen, Windows Azure and VS 2010

On 2010.02.17

The February BAND gig is next Tuesday (Feb 23) at 6:00 pm, in the Libra Conference Room at Husson University in Bangor! Come hear Chris Bowen, our Microsoft developer evangelist, speak on Windows Azure and what’s new in Visual Studio 2010/.NET 4! He will be giving full hour presentations on each so you are sure to come away with lots of knowledge and understanding of where these new technologies can be used in your development projects.

As always the meetings are free, and we just ask for a $3 donation if you want to have pizza and soda. We hope to go out with Chris afterwards so you can hang out with him, ask questions, or just have a fun time with other developers.

Description: Chris Bowen from Microsoft will be joining us to talk about Windows Azure and Visual Studio 2010/.NET 4! Come see what these new technologies will do for your development projects. Windows Azure: What? Why? And a Peek Under the Hood — What is Cloud Computing and where can it take you? In this session, Chris will first focus on showing the potential benefits of creating applications for the cloud with Windows Azure. Then, we’ll pop open the hood to show you around the main parts of the engine, including web roles, worker roles, and queues. You’ll see how Windows Azure plugs in for interoperability with other on-premises and cloud applications via the App Fabric. You’ll also learn how Windows Azure can be used to host technologies other than .NET – such as Java and PHP – and get a glimpse into what’s coming next with project “Sydney” and the integration of Windows Workflow into the cloud. Visual Studio 2010: That’s a 10-4, Good Buddy — There’s a buzz in the air as Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 are arriving soon, and they’re bringing plenty of cargo that developers will enjoy, from new features to improved productivity. We’ll hop on and take a tour, giving you the lay of the land in terms of what will help you as a developer. The sights will include parallel application development, new editor features and debugging capabilities (including a new historical debugger), improvements for web and Windows development, new .NET language features, and much more.

Information courtesy of the BAND – Bangor Area .NET Developers

BAND – WPF – A little further down the rabbit hole

By Eric D. Burdo

On 2009.06.10

In Misc

Daniel will present at the next Bangor Area .NET Developer (BAND) meeting (June 23rd, 2009):

WPF – A little further down the rabbit hole

Probably most of us have seen at least one slick demo of WPF or Silverlight. Such demos are inspiring, but they don’t convey what it’s like to actually use WPF in the real world. Fresh from completing our first business-centric application that uses WPF extensively, I’m excited to share from my experience of using WPF in the real world.

Daniel is a developer for Tyler Technologies in Bangor.

More information on: Bangor Area .NET Developers

More from Daniel: http://www.danielgpratt.com/

Reposted from The Blomsma Code

Launch Tree

By Eric D. Burdo

On 2009.05.07

In Misc

Two of Internet Marketing’s “Heavy Hitters”, Mike Filsaime and Anik Singal have joined forces this year and have created a brand new money getting system.

It’s called “Launch Tree”.

Launch Tree will teach you EXACTLY how PPC Classroom built a $10M+ Business by giving away free DVDs for 6 days…

How Mike Filsaime Built a $10M+ Business giving away Free software…

===> How you’re leaving 456% of your money on the table…

===> How 3 “15 Second” tweaks made a marketer $350,000 more in 90 days…

Launch Tree is scheduled to open on May 12, 2009.
Launch Tree

Christmas Fun #2 – Night Before Christmas – Internet Marketing Style

By Eric D. Burdo

On 2008.12.11

In Misc

Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house,
I could still hear him frantically clicking the mouse.
Was he still building websites? Could it be PPC?
I looked at the clock-it said quarter to three.

For months he has said it will soon change our life,
but faith can be hard for an IMer’s wife.
The stockings were hung and we’d put up the tree,
with no help from him, just the children and me.

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
while their daddy was posting on more forum threads.
I don’t own a kerchief, but had jammies on
and I hoped he would come on to bed before dawn.

When all at once there arose such a clatter,
I had to get up to see what was the matter!
I raced to the den and peeked ‘round the door,
his chair was turned over and lay on the floor.

The shade on the desk lamp was sitting askew,
and my dear IMer was nowhere in view.
When what to my wondering eyes should appear,
but my wild-eyed IMer who shouted “Come here!”

He’d been on the floor and I didn’t know why;
I thought he was hurt and I started to cry.
He gave me a smile that could not have been cuter
and drying my tears I approached the computer.

More rapid than eagles his words, how they came,
and he whistled and shouted and called out these names;
On Google! On Yahoo! On MSN, too!
With Adwords, and Adsense and articles too!

To the top of the list! To the number one spot!
I’ve launched my campaign and the sales are red-hot!
His eyes, how they twinkled, his dimples so merry,
I wondered if he had been nipping the sherry!

A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
soon let me know I had nothing to dread.
He laughed and he whistled, just like St.Nick,
as the sales just kept coming, click after click.

He sprang from his chair and he hugged me real tight
and he whispered these words on that Christmas Eve night.
“I found a great system to rinse and repeat…
and from this Christmas forward our lives will be sweet.”

I’d heard this before so I asked how he knew.
He gave me a folder – it was labeled CommBlue.
He spoke not a word, but went straight back to work.
I felt bad for the times I had called him a jerk.

That one little site became two, and then three,
and I knew we would soon be financially free.
So to all you CommBluers, don’t give up the fight…
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Written by Honey and posted on one of the Commission Blueprint (aka, CommBlue) forums. If you haven’t checked out Commission Blueprint, and want to get into Affiliate / Internet Marketing, I suggest you check it out today!

Christmas Fun – The Night Before Startup

By Eric D. Burdo

On 2008.12.09

In Misc

‘Twas the night before startup
and all through the house
not a program was working,
there clicked not a mouse

The users were nestled all snug in their beds
with visions of systems alive in their heads.
The programmers slumped round their screens in despair
and felt that a miracle now would be fair.

Then from the back office there rose such a chatter
I sprang from my desk to see what was the matter
and there to my marveling eyes did appear
a wonder programmer with a six pack of beer.

His resume glowed with experience so rare
he turned out great code with that bit-pusher’s flair.
He spoke not a word but went straight to his work,
turning specs into code like a sitcom berserk.

A wink of his eye and a nod of his head
soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.
More smoothly than salesmen his programs they come;
he whistled and shouted and called them by name.

On update, on add, on inquire and delete,
on batch jobs, on closing on functions complete.
His eyes all glazed over, hands nimble and lean,
from long days and nights spent in front of a screen.

He tapped and he hammered, he nothing did shirk,
turning specs into code; then he turned with a smirk,
and laying his finger upon Enter key,
the system came up and worked perfectly.

The updates updated, the deletes all deleted,
the inquiries inquired and the closing completed.
He tested each whistle, he tested each bell,
and with nary an append it all had gone well.

The system was finished, the tests were concluded,
the client’s last changes were even included.
Then the user explained in apocalypt font,
"It’s just what I asked for, but not what I want."

Author unknown… Just some Christmas fun I was sent via email. Thanx Chad!

Microsoft Roadshow – Augusta Maine

By Eric D. Burdo

On 2008.11.15

In Misc

The Northeast Roadshow will be in Augusta this year (well, the Maine venue is). It’s scheduled for December 16th (a Tuesday). They’ve moved the venue, since the previous location was packed to overflowing.

Chris Bowen (one of the speakers) has more details (including the agenda) on his website. I’m planning on attending.

Want to play the old Super Nintendo games?

By Eric D. Burdo

On 2008.10.07

In Misc

I started to use ZSNes. But I found that the development had pretty much died about 1.5 years ago. So I checked to see what was good, but still had active development. I found BSNes. It doesn’t play all the games, but it does play most of the ones I want to play.

You can download the emulator here. I’ll let you find your own Roms. I’ve been playing Super Mario World, Legend of Zelda and Mechwarrior no problems.

bsnes – Super Nintendo Emulator

Here are the system requirements. They are a little hefty compare to many emulators, but, it plays very smooth on my dual-core machine. :)

Minimum system requirements:

2ghz Athlon 64 or Core Solo
32mb RAM free

Recommended system requirements:

2.4ghz Core 2 Duo
64mb RAM free
Video card that supports Direct3D9+
Sound card that supports non-standard sampling rates natively (32khz, 64khz, …)

One quirk I found. It didn’t automatically detect and use my MadCatz XBox 360 controller. All I had to do was configure the “joypad” and it worked fine.

PHP Development? From a .NET Perspective

By Eric D. Burdo

On 2008.09.24

In Misc

I’m a .NET Developer. Primarily Visual Basic, but I’ve worked in C# before too. I’ve also done some RPG (on the AS 400) and some PHP.

I’ve recently been contacted to do some contract PHP/MySQL work again. So I started looking to see what was available for IDE tools. I wanted something that would appear familiar to me. I didn’t want to have to relearn the PHP language, AND learn a new IDE.

I found VS.PHP – It’s a PHP IDE that sits in the Visual Studio IDE. They have several versions depending on what you need. I chose the Standalone version, since I develop in a Virtual PC Windows XP box. I didn’t want to install my VS 2008 license there, and not be able to use VS 2008 under Vista (where I do most of my .NET development.

I’ve only completed some sample projects, but so far, I’m impressed. The IDE is familiar to me, and I get syntax checking, intellisense and the F5 functionality to test. Reminds me a lot of doing ASP.Net development. I’m still using the free trial, but for the price of $99, it’s a definite “Must Buy” if I get the contract.

For the MySQL front-end, I’m trying MySQL-Front. It has a trial version, so I’m using that. So far, it’s decent. The UI is a little old, but fairly easy to figure out. I’ll be looking around for other visual front-ends for MySQL. I like the SQL Server Management Studio, and I’d like something similar for MySQL.

Northeast 2008 Roadshow

By Eric D. Burdo

On 2008.09.23

In Misc

Chris Bowen and Jim O’Neil are on the road (starting today).

I’ll be at the Augusta show, on October 3rd. I’m definitely looking forward to the RoboLunch.

Here is the address for the Augusta show (you can find the other addresses when you register).

Riverview Psychiatric Center

250 Arsenal Drive
Sebago Room Augusta Maine 04332-0011
United States

Here are the available dates, with the link to registration:

Burlington, VT: September 23rd [registration] New Venue

New City! Albany, NY: September 24th [registration]

Rochester, NY: September 25th [registration] New Venue

Augusta, ME: October 3rd [registration] New Venue

Farmington, CT: October 14th [registration]

Waltham, MA: October 15th [registration]

The Agenda:

8:30 – Registration

9:00 – Understanding the ADO.NET Entity Framework

Abstraction is frequently used to create difficult-to-appreciate artwork, but when applied to software, abstractions can improve flexibility, independence, and the ability to compose higher-level concepts. ADO.NET Entity Framework, now shipping as part of Visual Studio 2008 & .NET 3.5 Service Pack 1, helps you create models of your data that enable a familiar object-oriented programming experience. Entities map flexibly to data sources while providing insulation from schema changes at the same time. LINQ makes an appearance as well, using the familiar syntax we’ve seen with LINQ to Objects, SQL, and XML to query entities. You’ve got the picture, so get out there and model some works of art!

10:30 – Discovering Dynamic Data

ASP.NET Dynamic Data, introduced with the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 release, breathes immediate (i.e., code-less) life into LINQ To SQL and Entity Framework data models by providing a customizable, template-driven, scaffolding framework. Put on your wizard hat, you now have dynamic power at your fingertips.

11:15 – Exploring Internet Explorer 8

Ahoy, developers! The release of Internet Explorer 8 is just around the bend. Of course, we’ll pull out the spyglass and take a look over the sea of new consumer features, but what does this next version mean for you as developer, and what should you do to navigate to glory? You’ll see how treasures like accelerators and web slices can be a differentiator for your company, see the new wave of compatibility features and options, and unearth the tools available for developers to make for smooth sailing on the sometimes turbulent web development waters.

12:00 – RoboLunch

Grab a lunch and join in as we delve into the world of robotics programming with Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio. Think robotics is mostly for manufacturing systems, toys, and those cool little floor cleaning bots? You may be surprised at how the things we cover may come to affect your professional development life! Perhaps you’ll find yourself saying, “Thank you very luncho, Mr. Roboto!”

1:00 – UI, UX, U Confused?

One thing not missing from Microsoft’s development offerings is a choice of options. In this session, we’ll compare and contrast the various .NET technologies available for building client experiences (Windows Forms, WPF, XBAP, ASP.NET, Silverlight, and Windows Mobile) to give you some insight in to making the best choices for reaching your applications’ target audience.

1:45 – A RESTed Development

REST (Representational State Transfer) is what all the cool developers are using these days to communicate among distributed resources and services. So that you’re not left standing idly by on the sidelines, we’ll look at the rationales of the approach, why it’s cleaner than SOAP, and how Microsoft has adopted REST in technologies such as WCF and ADO.NET Data Services.

3:15 – Befriending Unit Testing

Unit testing could be your new best friend, and we’re here to help make the proper introductions. A practice that ultimately results in reduced overall efforts, unit testing is a focus on crafting test code that verifies your application code isn’t misbehaving. In this session, we’ll focus on what unit testing is, how it can be done, and some of the proven and effective practices you can employ to help your unit tests pay dividends over time. If Humphrey Bogart were a developer, he would have agreed, this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

4:00 – Wrapup, Giveways, and Bon Voyage!

Information and links courtesy of Chris Bowen’s Blog. And remember, Chris Bowen will be doing the BAND meeting on October 2nd (topic is XNA Game Studio!)

BAND – Bangor Area .NET Developer

By Eric D. Burdo

On 2008.09.10

In Misc

The next BAND meeting is scheduled for October 2nd. That’s a Thursday. Usually our meetings are the last Tuesday of the month, but sometimes they get moved.

This time, it’s for good reason. Chris Bowen is coming back. And he’s talking about the XNA Game Development.

Free pizza, games development, and a bunch of geeks. What more do you want?

Oh yeah.. if you are coming, be sure to register, so we can make sure we have enough pizza. No need to stage any Death Matches to determine who gets the last piece of pepperoni!