If you haven’t heard about Microsoft PDC 2008, then check out this post: http://www.danrigsby.com/blog/index.php/2008/08/18/microsoft-pdc-2008/

The PDC team announced today (via the speakers page) that Chris Anderson and Don Box are going to join Ray Ozzie and Rick Rashid as keynote speakers.  Chris has been at Microsoft for 10 years and has been heavily involved in things such as WPF and XAML, but has been working on Oslo for the last couple of years.  And we all know who Don Box is. The addition of these 2 keynote speakers only helps solidify what we have already assumed: PDC 2008 is all about cloud programming.

The speakers page still states: “More keynote speakers will be announced soon!”.  So we may see more keynote names coming soon.  There are 3 keynote slots in the agenda right now, but most of these slot will have multiple speakers.

Back in the day before Visual Studio 2008 was released, there was a set of extensions you could install on Visual Studio 2005 to give you WPF, WF, and WCF templates, and other tools to work with .Net Framework 3.0. This set of extensions made it up to CTP 3 in November 2006.  However, when Visual Studio 2008 came out, these extensions never got any further attention.  So they never made it out of the Community Technology Preview cycle.  Microsoft wants everyone to upgrade to Visual Studio 2008.

You can still get the Visual Studio 2005 extensions for .NET Framework 3.0 (Windows Workflow Foundation) from here (for now):  http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=5D61409E-1FA3-48CF-8023-E8F38E709BA6&displaylang=en

However, the official link for Visual Studio 2005 extensions for.NET Framework 3.0 (WCF & WPF): http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=F54F5537-CC86-4BF5-AE44-F5A1E805680D&displaylang=en has been removed for many months.

So why is the link broken?  There have been a few posts on the MSDN Forums asking where these extensions went.  The basic answer is that, according to Microsoft, Visual Studio 2005 was never meant to be used to develop WCF, WF, and WPF.  Visual Studio 2008 is the correct tool to use, and on June 30th 2008, the license for this CTP expired (see this post).

While you cant get  Visual Studio 2005 extensions for.NET Framework 3.0 (WCF & WPF) from the official Microsoft site, you can still find it at these locations:

• http://www.download.com/The-Visual-Studio-2005-extensions-for-NET-Framework-3-0-WCF-WPF-November-2006-CTP/3000-10253_4-10727672.html
• http://downloads.zdnet.co.uk/0,1000000375,39328336s,00.htm

However, due to licensing concerns, these links may go down over time too.  So, if you need these extensions, you will want to grab them soon.  But if you are doing any development in .Net Framework 3.0, you need to move to Visual Studio 2008.

Some companies out there will have issues with this, but you can still use .Net 3.0 technologies in Visual Studio 2005.  It’s just the tools that are no longer supported.

I didn’t think it was possible, but I am heading to Microsoft PDC 2008 this year.  I was lucky and fortunate enough to have someone hook me up with a miracle ticket to the event.   The ticket does come with a “price” though: I have to speak at a couple of events afterwards. That isn’t much of a price really, I appreciate any opportunity to share with others and to be able to speak at bigger events (expect more information on these events later as I learn more).  This will be my first major Microsoft conference and needless to say, I am quite excited.

For those you attending PDC, drop me a line and we can try to meet up.  I would love to get together with old friends and meet those of you that I have haven’t had the opportunity to run into  I expect to live blog and stay active on Twitter while I am out there.  However, if you can, register and come to this event.

What is PDC

Since 1991, Microsoft’s Professional Developers Conference (PDC) is the definitive Microsoft event for software developers and architects focused on the future of the Microsoft platform. This is the first PDC event in 3 years. There are many well known and excellent speakers lined up over many sessions.  Expect a lot of product announcements and get a view for Microsoft has in store for the future of developers.

PDC is part of a family of three Microsoft technical conferences for developers:

1. PDC (Los Angeles, CA) is usually a bi-annual event focused on the future of the Platform and technical strategy.
2. Tech-Ed Developers Conference (Orlando, FL) is an annual event focused on in-depth technical training on Microsoft’s current products.
3. MIX Conference (Las Vegas, NV) is an annual event aimed at developers, designers and business decision makers who build next generation consumer web sites.  This conference is used to announce new technologies for web development as well as training for current products.

When and where is it

Pre-Conference: October 26, 2008
Conference: October 27–30, 2008

Location:
Los Angeles Convention Center
1201 South Figueroa Street
Los Angeles, CA 90015

How to register and cost

You can register directly online at: http://www.microsoftpdc.com/Registration/.  When you register you can also sign up for your choice of 23 different hotels that you can stay at ranging in price from $139 to $279 a night.  You can always register now, then come back in and choose a hotel later.  You will want to stay at one of the hotels listed on the web site so that you can take advantage to shuttles to the various events as well as being able to hang out with other developers in the bar.

If you want to book a room in the same hotel as me or want to meet up for a drink. I will be staying at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel and plan on checking in Saturday afternoon (October 25, 2008) and heading back Friday morning (October 31, 2008).

Cost:

The cost of the conference itself is $2395.  However, they have extended the early bird registration price of $2195 until September 8th, 2008.  So you have some time still to get a “discounted” ticket.

The cost of the pre-conference is another $400, but is worth it if you are going to be making the trip out to LA anyway.

Registration assistance and questions:

Registration Team hours are Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, Pacific Time.

Who should attend

The marketing definition:

“The PDC is designed for leading-edge developers and software architects. If you’re interested in the future of the Microsoft platform, you’re responsible for the technical strategy in your organization, or you’re a highly skilled developer who likes to delve deep into the heart of the platform, then the PDC is for you!”

My definition:

Anyone who uses or works Microsoft technologies, particularly with .Net, should really consider attending this conference.  I am not going to suggest that your entire team goes, but I do think it is a good idea for each company to try to send 1 or 2 people to this event.  Those people can always come back and present to the rest of the company about what they learned and experienced.  This will be worth your time and your company’s time/money. If you like to learn or ask questions, you should make your best effort to get to this event!

This year looks like it will focus on cloud programming with Oslo and Live Mesh.  If you do any kind of work with distributed systems in .Net such as Wcf, Remoting, Web Services, etc, then you should pay extra close attention to what is announced at this conference. I’m sure there will be quite a few surprises for everyone though.

Why you should attend

They haven’t hosted a PDC since 2005 when they announced Office 2007, Asp.Net AJAX (Atlas), Silverlight (WPF-e), and LINQ. You can bet there will be some other big announcements this year too.  Almost everything announced at the 2005 event has been released.  However in the past there have been a few announcements that never saw the light of day (Hailstorm, WinFS, etc).  In any case, I am sure the Microsoft marketing engine will make all of us very excited about the future.

Here are my Top 5 reasons for why you should attend:

1. Learn about the future of Microsoft technology.  This is what you will be working with, so get learning early.
2. Meet up with friends, Microsoft Employees, and industry bigwigs.
3. The Attendee Party will be a Universal Studios Hollywood again this year.  This means free food and booze.
4. All sorts of swag and freebies. Be sure to bring an empty suitcase or two just for this.
5. Sessions, Sessions, Sessions!

Sessions

The session list has been posted, but I bet there will be changes and additions before the event.  There are currently 84 sessions listed on the web site with speakers such as Don Box and Anders Hejlsberg.  I wish I were speaking at this event too.  Perhaps someday I will work my way up to something of this caliber.

I am planning on attending all the sessions I can on Wcf, Oslo, and Live Mesh.  Here are some of the sessions that I won’t be missing:

• A Lap around "Oslo"
• "Oslo": The Language
• "Oslo": Repository and Schemas
• The Future of C#
• Live Platform: Building Mesh Applications
• Live Platform: Mesh Services Architecture Deep Dive
• Windows Workflow Foundation: Futures
• Securing Your Service Using the Federated Identity Services

Conference Extras

What is a conference without all of the “extras” outside of the major event?

Keynotes
This year’s keynote speakers are Ray Ozzie (Chief Software Architect) and Rick Rashid (Senior Vice President, Microsoft Research).  According to the speaker site though, we should expect to hear about more major keynote speakers soon.

Pre-Conference
Unlike PDC which is focused on new technology, the pre-conference sessions will give deep training on current technologies.  If you are going to make the trip out there anyway, you should consider joining one of these sessions for extra training. Personally, I would love to attend the “Working with Wcf” session presented by Juval Lowy and Ron Jacobs!

Attendee Party
Tuesday night all attendees are invited to enjoy a night at Universal Studios Hollywood.  Attendees have the park to themselves with food and drinks (both alcoholic and non-alcoholic) provided complimentary by Microsoft.   You can even bring purchase Guest Passes for others for $125 each.  So, if your spouse makes the trip out with you, they don’t have to stay in the hotel all week.

Show Off
Got some code, tools, tips, architecture, etc you want to “show off” to others?  PDC gives you an opportunity to show off your work to a large number of interesting and influential people.  Not only that, but winners of the best “show off” will win some non-announced prizes.

Even if you don’t show off your own code, you can still attend this event to see what others are doing and to enjoy the free theater-style food.

Partner Expo
Throughout the conference there will be a partner expo with over 100 sponsors and exhibitors ready to teach you about their products and technology.  This is a great chance to learn more about 3rd party products, enter giveaways, take home swag, etc.

Amazing Scenarios
Want to see how others are using Microsoft and 3rd party technologies?  Perhaps you want to learn how to make use of some technology, but never quite understood what all it could do.  Amazing Scenarios are demonstrated Monday – Wednesday to show off how real customers are making use of of the products in the PDC Expo area.

Ask the Experts
Wednesday night from 6-9pm is your chance to ask the experts the questions you have been dieing to ask.  Over 200 tables will be set with speakers and staff knowledgeable in all of the areas presented at PDC.  This is an excellent opportunity to really dig in deep on a technology.  I like that it is near the end of the conference.  This gives you plenty of time to formulate questions and comments.  Do not miss this event.

Hands On Labs
Hands on labs will be available to help you learn and drill down into the latest Microsoft technologies.  The list of labs hasn’t been posted yet, but expect it to cover current technologies and maybe some of the new futures.

Microsoft Product Pavilion
This is your chance to learn and demo Microsoft products and technologies. Have you ever seen a Surface PC? I bet they will have at least one here to demo. The best part of this is that the hosts are the product team members who worked on these products, so you can ask some detailed questions and learn all you can.

Open Spaces
You gotta love ad-hoc speeches and discussions.  I am hoping we will see some interesting open spaces from some big names in the industry.  Open spaces are interactive discussions about any topic the group deems worthy.

PDC Lounges
There is a lot to learn at PDC.  The lounges offer you a place to unwind or meet up with friends.  It’s the perfect place to share what you have learned, blog about the event, relax, etc.

Women in Technology Networking Event
There are women in technology and they are making a huge impact on the industry.  the Women in Technology (WIT) networking event gives the opportunity to share stories and learn about women in the industry.  Discussions will cover challenges that women face in the IT world and tools and organizations to help support women in the male-dominated field.

Social Networking

There will be a lot of blog buzz as the event gets closer, but here are some sites you can start looking at now:

• Become a fan of Microsoft PDC on Facebook
• Follow PDC2008 on Twitter for up to date information
• Check out what others are saying about PDC2008 with Twitter hashtags:
  • #PDC
  • #PDC08
  • #PDC2008
• Post and explore PDC2008 images on Flickr 

Everyone has goals in their lives: some big, some small.  Many times people make goals just because the challenge is there such as beating a video game, running a marathon, or going for Olympic gold .  Early this year I laid out a number of professional goals that I wanted to accomplish this year.  Many of them I have reached, but one of them would take more work than the others, and I wasn’t sure I could hit.  I wanted to reach 5 out of 5 stars on Microsoft’s MSDN message forums.  These forums are setup by Microsoft for people in the community to ask questions about Microsoft technology.   There are a lot of people out there doing development who need assistance, but don’t know where turn.  And no one can know everything about all of Microsoft’s products, so even the most technically savvy people need help when learning something new.  The forums are a venue for asking these questions and getting response from the community. The great thing about this community site is that anyone can attempt to answer the questions even if they aren’t Microsoft employees.  This gives everyone a chance to share knowledge and learn from one another.  So I set out to help out on these forums and see if I could learn some things myself.

As with many “social” sites, there are little rewards for contributions.  MSDN Forums offers contribution points that are automatically given out based on a user’s level of activity and helpfulness on the forums.  These points turn into stars that appear under a persons name once that have reached a set number of points.  Up to 5 stars that can be earned.  I am ecstatic to report that I have finally reached the maximum level of 5 out of 5 stars.   It is quite an honor that takes an amazing amount of time to accomplish. There aren’t many out there that have reached this level yet, but there are a handful who have, and I am sure there will be many more after me.

I snapped the following screenshot after I finally broke 15,001 participation points.  I had a beer to celebrate and my wife congratulated me.  She, more than anyone, knows how many hours and evenings I have put in over the last many months helping people and gathering up these points.   I have to give her a lot of credit for letting me spend so much time on this.  I probably averaged 10 hours a week just on the forums (some weeks much more). These stars are a nice “badge of honor”, but at the end of the day, they don’t buy you anything tangible. The real joy is knowing that you are helping out others and learning in the process.

Getting 5 stars isn’t an easy task. As previously mentioned, points are accumulated for activity on the forums, and each star requires an ever increasing number of points.  According to the MSDN Forums FAQ here are how points are awarded:

And here are how many points are required to get to the next star level:

An average response to a question takes at least 2 posts.  So there is around 4 points per question average.  If the user marks your post as an answer, that turns into 14 points.  Sometimes people mark your posts as helpful and you can turn that into 19 points.  However, I have never sees posts marked as bug workarounds, or bug validations.  The annoying part of working on the forums is that about 80% of the time, the person who you helped doesn’t mark the question as answered.  This not only means that you don’t get points, but also means that this post won’t really help others in the future.  How many times have you searched for something .net related and got back a result that was on a MSDN Forum page?  I think I get back MSDN Forums pages about 99% of the time.  If these posts are marked as “answered”, then other users can work off the solutions.  Fortunately, there are quite a few Microsoft employees that help monitor the forums and do come in and help keep posts marked as “answered”.  However, they still miss around 30% of the answers.    I am only saying this so that if you start playing on forums, you know what to expect and don’t get too frustrated.

My primary reason for becoming active on the forums at first was to help me come up with blog ideas.  It is a great way to see where people are struggling with a technology and where the gap in documentation is. Early this year, I was active on over a dozen forums.  I racked up a large number of points fast, but the time commitment was too great.  Since, I have been primarily focused on Windows Communication Foundation (Wcf) right at work at speaking engagements, I  have been most active on the Wcf forum.  They keep a chart at the bottom of each forum to show the top answers for a 30 day period.

So now that I have reached this goal, what is next?  I am not going to stop my participation.  I have come to enjoy them too much, and I have found its a great way for me to learn too.  I may cut back a bit on the amount of time and so that I can concentrate on producing quality blog posts again.  Once I hit 4 stars I was got more active on the forums and put a lot of things on the back burner.  I need to regain some kind of balance in my life again now.  Who knows, one day with enough participation and patience, I might get an email asking me to become a moderator on the forums.  I am not going to hold my breath for this, but that would probably be the pinnacle of my MSDN Forums experience.

I’ll leave you with two closing pleas:

• If you know a lot about a particular Microsoft technology, I encourage you to jump on the forums and start helping others.  I am sure you will find it as rewarding as I have.  It may even help gain you some exposure.  About 30% of my blog traffic comes from links I have placed on the forums.  It important to help out others as others have helped out you.
• If you have any questions about Microsoft technology, I encourage you to also jump on the forums and start asking questions.  There are a lot of bright and eager people out there who can help you.  And if you have a Wcf question, I would love to help you out on the forums!

BTW, Nicholas Allen has a blog post about how to get help with Wcf: http://blogs.msdn.com/drnick/archive/2008/03/17/how-to-get-help-with-wcf.aspx.  In this post he specifically mentions and links to the MSDN Forums for Wcf.  Nick is currently probably the most active and prolific Wcf blogger right now.  If you are interested in Wcf and don’t subscribe to his blog, here is a link to his RSS feed: http://blogs.msdn.com/drnick/rss.xml.

Bill Steele is back out and speaking again.  Bill is a Microsoft Evangelist for the Heartland District, but he is an “adopted” evangelist for the Midwest District too (Indianapolis is in the Midwest District).  If you haven’t heard Bill speak before, you simply have to attend this event.  He is a phenomenal speaker full of wit, charm, and valuable insight and knowledge.  He is definitely one of my speaker role models.  If you had heard Bill speak before, I think you will agree that he is reason alone to come to this event.  Plus the topics looks fairly interesting.

The Indianapolis MSDN Event will be held:
Wednesday, September 17, 2008 1:00 PM -  4:00 PM Eastern Time
Welcome Time: 12:30 PM

At:
Microsoft Offices
500 E. 96th Street – Suite 460
Indianapolis Indiana 46240

Click here to register:
https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032386193&culture=en-US

Check out Bill’s blog or the MSDN Event site for other locations:

http://blogs.msdn.com/wsteele/default.aspx
http://www.msdnevents.com/

Event Details:

Session 1: Demystifying WPF

Today’s applications need to do more than simply work. They need to draw in the user, and provide a differentiated experience. This means moving beyond battleship gray forms, boxy UIs, and providing a positive user experience. Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) provides powerful capabilities to develop a compelling user interface, the kind that makes an application stand out. In this session, we’ll examine the core concepts of WPF such as layout panels, data binding, styles and control templates, and we’ll use them to develop an application UI from the ground up.

Session 2: Developing Applications with Visual Studio 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1

Service Pack 1 and Visual Studio 2008 introduce a wide variety of new features for targeting Windows, Office and the Web. This includes more controls, a streamlined setup, improved startup performance, fresh graphics features, improved AJAX support, and much more. We’re also introducing the ADO.NET Entity Framework and ADO.NET Data Services, which are designed to simplify application data access by providing an extensible, conceptual model for data from any source, while enabling this model to closely reflect business requirements. Don’t miss this lively session and learn how to use these powerful new features in your applications.

I have a new 7 min 3 sec training webcast out over creating WCF services and hosting them in IIS.  This is short, entry level WCF video designed to assist those moving over from webservices or who want a simple start into WCF.

The video is available through JupiterMedia and can be viewed at http://www.internet.com/video/. Just look for the "Developer Video" titled "Simple WCF Services".  Direct link is:

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1431564240/bclid1433966034/bctid1727929931

We knew it would be released soon since SQL Server 2008 went RTM with .Net Framework 3.5 SP1.  Visual Studio 2008 SP1 is now RTM and available for download off the MSDN subscriber’s web site:

They are available for general download here:

• Download .Net Framework 3.5 SP1 here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=AB99342F-5D1A-413D-8319-81DA479AB0D7&displaylang=en
• Download Visual Studio 2008 SP1 here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=fbee1648-7106-44a7-9649-6d9f6d58056e&DisplayLang=en

Get downloading!  The servers are busy at the moment, but this is worth the wait.

  When installing SQL Server 2008 RTM, it failed with the following error:

The SQL Server 2008 install installed a new version of .Net Framework 3.5 SP1, but if you have Visual Studio installed, you must upgrade to SP1 which isn’t officially released yet.  This does appear to be the final version of the .Net Framework 3.5 SP1 since it is shipping with SQL Server 2008 RTM.  Expect an official release within days along with Visual Studio 2008 SP1!

SQL Server 2008 was launched as part of the Heroes Happen {Here} event, but it wasn’t yet “released”.  Today, I am happy to report that Microsoft has finally released SQL Server 2008. (This was originally announced at TechEd South Africa) .  It is available now for download from TechNet and MSDN and will be available tomorrow (August 7th) for evaluation download.  You should expect to be able to purchase it within a couple of weeks.

You can check out the key new features here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc434690.aspx. There are also numerous videos out there including:

• SQL Server 2008 Videos
• Webcasts: 24 Hours of SQL Server 2008 for IT Professionals
• Webcasts: 24 Hours of SQL Server 2008 for Developers

During my Heroes {Community} Launch talks I previewed SQL Server 2008 and introduced my 10 favorite new features for developers:

Top 10 SQL Server 2008 Features for Developers

1. LINQ
2. Intellisense for SQL Server Management Studio: T-Sql, database objects, & parameters
3. FileStream Datatype:
   • Designed to solve unstructured LOB (large object) storage, provides performance of native NTFS with transactional support. Data is stored in NTFS, and SQL Server manages relationship between the columns and files. SQL Server manages the transactional integrity such as backing up and restoring data.
4. Date & Time Datatypes: Separate data and time types. Time can now go down to hh:mm:ss[.nnnnnnn]
5. DateTime2 & DateTimeOffset Datatypes: Supports years 0001 to 9999 (much like in .Net); DateTimeOffset is timezone aware, but not daylight savings time!
6. Hierachical Datatype: Allows storage of hierarchical data such as org charts, etc.
   • Only 1 root per table though
7. Spatial Datatypes:
   • Geography: Uses a geodetic (round earth) model and stores points, lines, polygons, and collections of Latitude & Longitude coordinates.
   • Geometry: Uses a planar (flat earth) model which stores the same types of data, but is used primarily for navigation and mapping.
8. T-SQL MERGE Statement: Allows merging of rows from multiple tables. You can choose to update matched rows, insert unmatched rows, or delete unmatched rows from the primary table.
9. Table-Valued Parameters: Tables can be passed as parameters to sprocs.
10. Data Change Tracking
    • Change Data Capture (CDC): This allows you to capture all changes to data in a table into a tracking table.
    • Change Data Tracker (CDT): This similar to CDC, but it doesn’t actually capture the changes made, but captures only that some change was made.

Many companies out there won’t be able to jump on SQL Server 2008  for some time.  Some companies like to wait until new server software has been “proven” first.  However, the SQL Management Studio that is included in SQL Server 2008 has a ton of new features including intellisense.  The best part is that this version can read not only SQL Server 2008 databases, but also those for 2005 and 2000!  You can start using this today and make your life easier!

If you are able to download the software, try it out as soon as you can.  I know what I will be playing with tomorrow!