In this musing Clark and Mark chat with fellow blue badge Wader Wegner.  We recap what Wade took in while attending the 2010 Google IO Conference.

Listen Here –> Play Now

Show Notes

Who is Wade Wegner?

Wade Wegner works for Microsoft, as a Technical Evangelist for the Windows Azure AppFabric.  You can follow him at http://www.wadewegner.com or reach him on twitter at http://www.twitter.com/wadewegner.

Here is the list of sites and\or resources mentioned in this musing:

• Google IO Conference
• WebM
• Google Wave
• Google TV
• SilverLight for Windows Embedded
• XBox Kinect or Code Name Project Natal
• Media Center’s Life Extender
• Windows Phone Marketplace
• Windows Phone Developer Tools

Tips and Tricks

Due to the length of the show, we skipped this musings tip or trick.

In this musing Clark and Mark chat with Pragmatic Bookshelf author Brian Hogan.  We explore some of the different aspects of HTML5 and what it offers.

Listen Here –> Play Now

Show Notes

Who is Brian Hogan?

Brian Hogan has been developing web sites since 1995 as both a consultant for his company New Auburn Personal Computer Services and as a developer at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. He has five years of Rails development experience and over ten years of web application development experience with ASP and PHP. He maintains the HTML5 and CSS3 learning tool Rendera, the portfolio site FeelMySkills, code sharing site SnippetStash. He provides small group or one-on-one training and mentoring for developers on topics such as web design, accessibility, Ruby on Rails, test-driven development, and graphic design concepts. He is the author of Web Design for Developers published by the Pragmatic Bookshelf, and has contributed a chapter on Windows deployment to the book Deploying Rails Applications. He is also the co-author of the book "Rails for Windows", published by O'Reilly.

You can catch Brian and all of his great work at:

• BPHogan.com
• WebDesignForDevelopers.com
• Pragmatic Bookshelf
• http://napcs.com/

Here is a great list of resources mentioned in this show:

• IE9 Download
• Symantec Web Markup
• WebM
• h.264
• HTML5 WebSocket
• HTML5
  • Wikipedia
  • W3C
• Firefox
• Firebug

The following is a short list of books mentioned:

• HTML5 and CSS3
• Web Design for Developers

Tips and Tricks

• Feature Builder PowerTool
• When Can I Use
• Rendera

In this version, Clark and Mark chat with Steven Murawski and talk a bit about PowerShell.  This isn’t a show about what PowerShell is but rather why it should be an upfront design tenant of everyone’s application. architecture.

Listen Here –> Play Now

Show Notes

Who is Steven Murawski?

I’m the Director for Research and Development for ProPhoenix, a public safety software company. This position allows me to investigate new and existing technologies and incorporate them into our product line, with the end goal being to help public safety agencies to do their jobs more efficiently and safely.

I’m an advocate for PowerShell, as I believe it encourages administrative best practices and allows developers to provide additional access to their applications, without needing to explicitly write code for each administrative feature. Part of my advocacy for PowerShell includes my blog, appearances on various podcasts, and acting as a Community Director for PowerShellCommunity.Org

I’m also a co-host of Mind of Root (a weekly audio podcast about systems administration, tech news, and topics).  We stream our show live on UStream.tv on Wednesday evening at 8:30 PM CST. 

We started the show off referencing something Clark heard on the ThirstyDeveloper.com. That was show #54 and #64

You can catch Steven and all of his great work at:

• Mind of Root
• His Blog
• PowerShellCommunity.org
• Twitter
• and of course the Greater Milwaukee PowerShell Script Club

Here is a great list of resources mentioned in this show:

• PowerShell Code Repository
• Runspaces
• Polymon
• New-PSSession
• Win RM
• CmdLet Defined
• PowerShell Pipeline
• Common Engineering Criteria
• Layman’s Guide To PowerShell 2.0 Remoting

The following is a short list of books Clark finds helpful:

• Windows PowerShell in Action
• Windows PowerShell 2.0 Administrative Consultant
• Windows PowerShell Step By Step
• Windows PowerShell 2.0 Best Pratices

Tips or Tricks

Mark’s tip this week is to check out the Windows PowerShell Quick Reference.

Steve’s tip of the week was more like a plethora of tips.  I guess that will make up for the fact Clark was unprepared.

• Get-Member
• Get-Command
• Get-Help
• Windows PowerShell Pack
• SQL PSX
• PowerShell v2 Download

In this version, Clark and Mark sit down with Travis Feirtag and talk multi-touch.  We explore the importance of user experience and what role multi-touch plays in applications today.  Of course we dive into what that means to .NET.  Listen along as we start touching UX.

Listen Here –> Play Now

Show Notes

Who is Travis Feirtag you ask?

First and foremost, I am a proud father and loving husband for my wonderful family.  My wife, Julie and our four children live in Lake Mills, Wisconsin.  It is unbelievable watching our children grow and learn.  My chest puffs up with pride when I speak of them.  They are the best part of my life.

Secondly, I have been an engineer since I got my first computer when I was ten years old.  It is my second love after my family, of course.  If there is such a thing as destiny then it was fateful that I have become an engineer.  I drive my wife crazy talking about technology.  Of course, if our children love tech as much as their dad then mommy is in trouble :)

I have spent many years working, exploring, making mistakes and learning from them.  In my opinion, it is truly through our mistakes that we gain the most useful experience in life.  I believe that I am open-minded about new technologies but I do not adopt a technology simply because it is new.  I have a considerable amount of experience but there always is so much more to know.  For the last nine years, I have been spending most of my time using .NET technologies.  Microsoft has done their homework when creating the .NET framework.  It is the most cohesive set of development technologies from them to date.

I was on the executive committee of the Wisconsin .NET User Group for 3 years. And was the president of the Madison .NET User Group for two years and I now serve on the Board of Directors, which means that I am involved in the regional and national .NET developer community.  I have been a full-time engineering consultant in the Southern Wisconsin region for over 10 years now.

You can catch Travis and all of his great work at:

• http://www.devmobiles.com
• http://www.robotgeek.net
• Twitter: http://twitter.com/therobotgeek

Multi-Touch Screen Types:

• Infrared - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrared
• Resistive - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resistive_touchscreen
• Capacitive - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitive_sensing

Flick Gestures:

• Flick Gestures Explained - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms694980%28VS.85%29.aspx
• System.Windows.Input - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms604577%28v=VS.100%29.aspx
• Application Gestures - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.ink.applicationgesture%28VS.90%29.aspx
• Simple Gesture Sample - http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ptorr/archive/2010/03/23/simple-gesture-sample.aspx

Windows Touch Pack - http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/whats-the-microsoft-touch-pack-for-windows-7

Looking too start doing development for Windows Phone 7, check out http://Developer.WindowsPhone.com

Bamboo Tablets - http://www.wacom.com/index2.php

In this version of The Smackdown, Clark and Mark introduce OData. Our goal was to simply bring some awareness to what is this thing called OData and how can you start finding more information about it.

Listen Here –> Play Now

Show Notes

Great Sites:

• http://odata.org
• http://odataprimer.com
• WCF Data Service Team Services Blog

Downloads:

• OData Protocol Visualizer
• OData Client for Windows Phone 7
• .NET Framework update

Tips and Tricks

Internet Explorer Feed Reading View

To toggle the the feed reading view of an ATOM or RSS feed in Internet Explorer do the following:

1. Select Tools
2. Select Internet Options
3. Select the Content Tab
4. Select the Settings button
5. un-Check the “Turn on feed reading view”

Debugging Silverlight Out of Browser Applications

• Silverlight Out-of-Browser Support - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd550721(VS.96).aspx
• Channel 9 Silverlight Out-of-Browser debugging video - http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/MSDNSweden/Debugging-Silverlight-4-Out-Of-Browser-applications-in-Visual-Studio-2010/
• Silverlight 4 debugging overview - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc838267(VS.96).aspx

This time we talk about our vast experience with failed projects. Project "X" is the big topic but there were others.

Listen here –> Play Now

Show Notes

Why do so many projects fail?  Well, in our experience, it has to do with some combination of the following:

• Statement of Work
• Conditions of Satisfaction
• Define "Done"
• Define Assumptions
• Requirements
  • Can change - just not constantly
  • Good ones can actually be tested
• Use Business Analysts for appropriate context
• Build and Deployment: How to get the application created and installed - always underestimated

Cover your ass with detailed status reports (Weekly!)

• What did you do this week
• What is planned for next week
• What did you do that was unplanned (KEY! - This is why you didn't finish everything you planned)
• What resources do you need to get the job done
• What issues are blocking you

Document, Document, Document!!!

Resources:

Failing project sound effect: http://www.SadTrombone.com

Developer.WindowsPhone.com

Tips or Tricks

Generate from Usage - Visual Studio 2010 Refactoring Tool

It’s even better when it has a DeveloperSmackdown.com sticker on the back of it.

This is *NOT* mine, nor do I have one. Having said that, thanks @cjibo for the DeveloperSmackdown.com love!

YEP, WE GOT STICKERS.

Over the years I have become quite a fan of stickers. Why? I really don’t know. It’s funny for about 10 years now every time I get a sticker it goes on my air compressor.

OK, back to the DeveloperSmackdown.com stickers.  We want you to have one.  If you see us, please ask.  In fact we want everyone to have one, so please don’t be shy.  These stickers are 1” x 5” high grade vinyl indoor outdoor stickers.

I know everyone doesn’t live where I am.  In fact it’s quite the opposite.  Soooo…..

Simply mail a Self-Addressed Stamped Envelope to:

You don’t have to include your twitter handle, but we would sure love to connect.

Do you run a user group or company meeting? If you do and would like a batch of stickers to provide at your next meeting, please send a short letter on company/group letterhead requesting stickers to the above address. Also indicate how many you’re requesting.  Please remember we make negative money on DeveloperSmackdown.com so while we have a stack we are also limited. If you ask for 500 you will not get it. Just being honest

If you’re outside the United States, an SASE is a bit tougher. You have two options here:

1. Include US $1 in the envelope to cover international postage.
2. Include an International Reply Coupon with your self-addressed envelope.

Our very first batch of stickers was actually a misprint.  We are missing the c in .com.  You know someday these might be worth something on eBay. Maybe even as much as they cost to print.  If for some crazy reason you want one of those, feel free to ask.

Want to show us where you put yours? Email a picture to FansOf@DeveloperSmackdown.com, and we will compile everything and post it somewhere on the site.

Here is a little love on the back window of my truck!

MIX10 - Live from MIX day 3 (official day 2)

Today the quick update turned into a group discussion with Lance Larson, Travis Feirtag and Aaron Hoffman about what we all saw and heard at MIX10.

Listen here –> Play Now

Show Notes

Keynote

Today's show includes several guests.  Many thanks to Lance Larson, Travis Feirtag and Aaron Hoffman for joining us in what was going to be a quick recap of the day but turned into a really interesting conversation about what we all got out of the day at MIX10.

The keynote this morning was awesome again, quite a few presentations and demos around things to come and some that are already here. 

Internet Explorer 9 (a current work in progress) - you can install the testdrive version now. Following HTML5 standards was the first point.  The ultimate goal is to display the same output across all browsers. Performance demonstrations were also shown and very impressive.

Scott Guthrie highlighted several new features in Visual Studio 2010

OData - Open Data Protocol which is a standard way to provide data feeds that open up huge possibilities of using web/intranet data

Because of the taste of OData, we went to a few specific sessions.  The first was "OData: There's a Feed for That" (Pablo Castro) and he talked about where the OData protocol evolved from and their goals.  After that he showed how to access the data through the feeds.  Good discussion for consumers of web data and how OData improves the capabilities.

After getting a taste of that we needed to know how to publish so we went to OData: How to Create a Feed for That by Mike Flasko.  He demonstrated how to publish OData feeds in a .NET service environment.

There's a lot more in here.  Too much to list.

Resources

• Internet Explorer 9 - Testdrive
• OData.org - tools, SDK, articles, examples
• Open Data Protocol Visualizer
• PowerPivot
• Project Gustov - if you are a digital artist, take a look at this
• OData Example: http://api.visitmix.com/odata.svc/Sessions

MIX10 - Live from MIX day 2 (official day 1)

Today we got to hear an amazing keynote at MIX10 about Silverlight 4.0 and Windows Phone 7 Series. Saw some really impressive demos of applications for the phone that were created in only 3 weeks. Then, went to some sessions talking about the phone, MVVM, app development and more.

Listen here –> Play Now

Show Notes

Notes from some sessions we saw today:

From Cheesy Sample to Social Platform - Scott Hanselman

Scott used the NerdDinner.com site and code to demonstrate some conveniences that you can build into your web site to promote social activities.  You've seen this done on a lot of web sites and Scott pointed out some specific ideas.

• Use Geo-Location to do things like display information relative to the user's current location.  So using services you can use the client IP address and find where the user is "calling from".  With that you can show maps, do more contextual lookups, etc.
• Implement hooks into social connections like Twitter and Facebook.  Though user click permission, post what the user is currently doing, or planning or reading about, etc.
• Use approaches like Open Search to create more standardized search results within your site
• Use MicroFormats which is additional markup attributes to provide metadata for information displayed in your site pages to promote better searching, crawling, etc.
• Provide flexibility in the way users are authenticated through multiple login services (OpenID, YahooID, etc.) possibly in addition to standard forms authentication
• Provide for RSS feeds on your content

Overview of Windows Phone 7 Series Application Platform - Charlie Kindle

This session was packed! Charlie showed the concepts and goals that went into the development of the application platform for WP7 and demonstrated how all of it became a reality.

• Integrated Experience - "Hubs" and the "3 Screens" (People, Office, Pictures, Music/Video, Marketplace and Games)
• Hardware
  • Consistent capabilities across all phones
  • 1 resolution at launch (800x480)
  • 2nd added later (480x320)
  • Same touch capabilities
  • Consistent CPU
  • Consistent RAM
  • Optional physical keyboard
• Experience = People + Standards + Server Code + Client Code (Demo: MIX Scheduler on the phone)
• Users need to be able to customize the phone
• Developers need the ability to be profitable
• Enable all this through the cloud
• 2 types of applications
  • "Apps" - Silverlight
  • Games - XNA
• Useable sandbox
• Service-based application deployment
• Emulator has to be realistic (Phone OS compiled for x86 in a VM)

Build Your Own MVVM Framework - Rob Eisenberg

He is the creator of Caliburn which is a very popular MVVM framework.  In this session he showed a Caliburn influenced very lightweight MVVM framework.

Resources

• Windows Phone Developer Tools CTP
• NerdDinner.com
• NerdDinner.Codeplex.com
• OpenSearch
• MicroFormats
• OpenID

MIX10 - Live from MIX day 1

Today is the pre-conference sessions and we talk about the new Silverlight 4.0 capabilities and a little about ASP.Net MVC 2.0.

Listen here –> Play Now

Show Notes

Silverlight 4, New Features

This is a non-comprehensive but still big list of new features coming with Silverlight 4

• Out of browser:  Version 3 provides this capability BUT you were in a very restricted sandbox.  In V4 you now have access to much more of the system resources which means you are in an elevated trust mode.
  • Native Integration: means you can do COM interops.  For example, from Silverlight, you could launch Excel, control it, pass data into it and retrieve data from it.
  • Full Keyboard in full screen mode: Useful in kiosk applications
  • File Access: Read/write to the file system
  • Full File Path on Open/Save dialogs
  • Cross Domain Capable: For example, if you want to interact with
    Twitter.  In the past, you would have to do work arounds like creating intermediate services that you would interact with.  Now you can go directly to Twitter and call the API's.
• Enhanced bound data validation:  You can declaratively set up individual field validations as well as cross-field validations.  There's a new ValidatesOnDataErrors property within a bound data entity that tells the framework to initiate a notify event when there's a validation error.
• More out of the box controls - too many to list here
• More out of the box media capabilities
• Socket-level programming
  • UDP Multicasting
  • TCP Streaming Sockets
  • TCP WCF Capability using net.tcp protocol giving you WCF programming model and great performance
• Right-click: you can program against the right-mouse down and right-mouse up events so you can do things like context-menus instead of just getting the Silverlight configuration dialog
• Drop targets: you can build a Silverlight app to be a drop target so drag pictures from your file system into the app is possible
• MEF integration: You will be able to compose applications at runtime with the Managed Extensibility Framework

There's more but even this list has a lot of great stuff.

ASP.Net MVC 2.0

As mentioned previously, ASP.Net MVC 2.0 has been RTM'd.  So, you can go get it from the official web site here.  I sat in on a boot-camp session today but had to leave.  The presenter was just not hitting on all cylinders and it got a little painful to watch.  I came away with a couple tips before I had to bail though:

• Go download and install the RTM release.  You can get it here.
• The old ASP.Net syntax of <%= Html.Encode(item.Title) %> has been deprecated.  The new syntax is <%: item.Title %>.  Not a huge change but definitely simpler.
• Use ViewModel's to interact with the data rather than straight up with the models themselves.  This lets you provide only what is necessary to the view.
• Especially when working with VS2010/.NET 4.0 and interacting with databases, use Entity Framework to create the models.  EF 4.0 is a definite improvement and works well with MVC (that includes working through ViewModels from the point above).

If you want to use ASP.Net MVC 2.0 and need some training, there are several tutorials/videos out on the site.

Resources:

• Silverlight.net
• Silverlight.tv
• John Papa's web site (Silverlight)
• Mike Taulty's blog (Silverlight)
• ASP.Net MVC 2.0

Mix10 Smackdown – Were kicking off things.

In this musing Clark and Mark kick off their trip to the Microsoft Mix 2010 Conference in Vega$.  We will explore some of the different techniques they use to navigate such a conference.

Listen here –> Play Now

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Show Notes:

DeveloperSmackdown.com got stickers.  We would love to give you one.  If yo

u see us, feel free to ask.  If you’re not in the area just email the show and we will figure out how to get you one.

ASP.NET MVC2 Released!!! Now that makes us really happy!!

Some great Mix10 links:

• VisitMix Site
• Tommy Lee’s Devils Guide to Mix10
• Orchard Project
• Mike Swanson’s All about Mix10

Want to see Clark on This Week in Channel 9 show 98?

Have you missed the buzz that is Windows Phone 7 Series?  I am sorry if you have.  Make sure you check out both Mix and Charlie Kindel’s Blog for a ton of great information.

This week we announced Chicago Code Camp 2.  While the site isn’t anything special yet, we are working on it.  We would love to see you there, so go register at the Chicago Code Camp site.

Tips and Tricks:

Symbolic Links Defined per msdn.com

“A symbolic link is a file-system object that points to another file system object. The object being pointed to is called the target.”

Useful links

• Hanselman
• MSDN Symbolic Links
• Junfeng Zhang's blog

Rocket Dock.  What is Rocket Dock, well this following was taken directly from RocketDock.com:

“RocketDock is a smoothly animated, alpha blended application launcher. It provides a nice clean interface to drop shortcuts on for easy access and organization. With each item completely customizable there is no end to what you can add and launch from the dock.

Now with added Taskbar support your minimized windows can appear as icons on the dock. This allows for better productivity and accessibility.”

Bamboozled in the Office

It's the first show of the new year and decade. Mark and Clark talk about, well, nothing that they planned on. The show gets bamboozled right from the start and the discussion turns toward where most development is done and that's in your office at home. We talk about what went into the design and what makes the office work from two similar but still different points of view.

Listen here –> Play Now

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Show Notes

Design thoughts for your home office

• Isolation - Use every opportunity to separate your office from the world (insulation, doors, walls, etc.)  It will help you create a space where you can think.
• Design the desk - sketch out the space on paper and figure out how much desk you can fit into the space
  • How will you use the desk space - keyboard, mouse, monitors, laptops, writing area.  Space == Goodness
  • Get those monitors off the desk with monitor support arms.  You gain not only desk space but also flexibility in positioning.
• Make sure you have plenty of power.  Don't just plug in a surge protector in a surge protector to get more outlets.  More outlets doesn't equate to more power.  Get an electrician to help if you can.
• Same thing goes for networking.  You'll never have enough.  Wireless is great for general internet/network access but if you are going to run servers or push a lot of media (audio/video) around the house then go gigabit!  With that you need Cat5E or Cat6 cabling EVERYWHERE.  The first cable that isn't rated high enough will slow the network down.  Also, plan your network to get the most speed and flexibility - use switches not hubs!
• Make sure there's plenty of light
• Audio and video - from just listening to your Zune for music and Smackdown podcasts to watching UTube, DVD's or training videos.  Make the space enjoyable.
• If you're a book whore like the two of us (Clark is way more than me by the way), plan on lots of shelf and cabinet space.  Cables and boards and DVD drives and mice and keyboards have to go somewhere.

Resources:

• IKEA - Great place for inexpensive but highly effective office furniture
• Workspaces.com - More expensive but more customized office solutions
• Software KVM's Clark is using and has tested
  • Multiplicity
  • MaxiVista
  • KaVoom
• IOGear - Hardware KVM that Mark is using

Tips and Tricks

Clark's Tip #1 - Workspaces.com - he recommends them HIGHLY and for good reason.  His "command center" desk is something to envy.

Mark's Tip #1 - NewEgg.com - Great prices for all things technical very quick response.  Awesome place to shop.

Mark's Tip #2 - In Visual Studio, use "Control -" (Ctrl and the minus key) to walk or navigate yourself back from things like "Go To Definition".  Each time you hit it, it will step you back one jump.

Clark's Tip #2 - In Visual Studio, use "Control ." (Ctrl and period) to resolve references and insert the using statement or the full type qualifiers in your code.