Sergey Barskiy's Blog

I will be speaking at VS Live in Las Vegas in March 2012.

Visual Studio Live is five days of practical, Microsoft-supported training for developers to help solve your tough .NET development challenges. You’ll find how-to advice and the tips and tricks that you’ll be ready to implement as soon as you get back to the office. Our expert faculty – including many Microsoft instructors – makes each session interactive so you can discuss your particular development roadblocks and come away with actionable solutions.

Visual Studio Live Las Vegas offers in-depth training in:

• Cloud Computing
• Cross Platform Mobile
• Data Management
• HTML5
• Silverlight / WPF
• Visual Studio 2010+/.NET 4+
• Web
• Windows 8/WinRT
• Windows Phone 7

Visual Studio Live Las Vegas – Expert Solutions for .NET Developers

You can keep up with a conference using one of the following

Twitter: http://twitter.com/vslive – #vslive
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com – Search “vslive”
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com – - JOIN “vslive” GROUP

Attendees who register for Visual Studio Live Las Vegas using priority code VLSPK2 will receive all-access Best Value Conference Package for just $1,595, a savings of $500.00 off the standard price of $2,095

I will be presenting on two topics

Entity Framework Code First – Beyond the Basics

This session will cover scenarios beyond the basics. Topics such as creation of object hierarchies and complex types will be discussed. Performance tips will be covered as well as usage scenarios in services. Techniques to handle schema changes will be discussed. High level overview of how to handle various RDBMS with Entity Framework will be part of the conversation.

Building Data Driven Applications Using WinRT and XAML

This session will help attendees understand data access techniques in WinRT. The talk will highlight various ways to persists the data locally and via services. Topics will include data binding implications in regard with data usages, asynchronous access to data, and binding to various XAML controls.

I got a notification today that my Microsoft MVP status has been extended for one more year.  This is a great news for me, and makes me feel even more proud of the work I do in the community.  I have always loved participating in the local Microsoft focused user groups and gatherings.  I enjoy hanging around my peers and learning from them, exchanging honest opinions, and presenting on occasion.  I believe that sharing knowledge is vital for any developer to stay current with technology, and I think this equally applies to attending events, presenting and volunteering alike.  Atlanta has a vibrant Microsoft focused developer communing, and there is always something going to match any programming interest.

I think working for Magenic Technologies has been instrumental in keeping me involved and learning.  Magenic as a company highly encourages its employees to be learners and teachers, awarding and encouraging everyone who participates in community events.

I see blogging as an activity that serves multiple purposes as well.  I blog mostly about topics that interest me, and as part of writing I also learn various aspects of Microsoft developed technologies.  The fact that some people find my writings useful just motivates me even more.  Here are the visitor stats on my blog since I moved it here after purchasing DotNetSpeak.com.

Thanks and Happy New Year.

I am going to be speaking at VS Live conference in Redmond this year.  If you never attended this conference, I encourage everyone to do so.  You will have a week packed with sessions covering a variety of topics presented by top-notch developers.

As a speaker, I get a promotional code to give to anyone who registers before September 7.  You can use code VRSPK2 to get a ticket discount to the conference.  You can click on the link below to go straight to registration page with the discount code prefilled.

https://www.1105events.com/VisualStudioLive/2011Redmond/registration/reg_general_discount.php?priorityCode=vrspk2

I hope to see you there.

General Conference Information:

Visual Studio Live! Redmond –

The Commons @ the Microsoft Redmond Campus

October 17-21, 2011

Event web site: http://vslive.com/redmond

Visual Studio Live is five days of practical, Microsoft-sponsored training for developers to help solve your tough .NET development challenges. You’ll find how-to advice and the tips and tricks that you’ll be ready to implement as soon as you get back to the office. Our expert faculty – including many Microsoft instructors – makes each session interactive so you can discuss your particular development roadblocks and come away with actionable solutions.

Visual Studio Live! Redmond offers in-depth training in:

• Silverlight / WPF
• Programming Practices
• Visual Studio 2010 / .NET 4
• Cloud Computing
• Data Management
• Web / HTML 5
• Simplification Tools
• Mobile Development

Visual Studio Live! Redmond – Expert Solutions for .NET Developers

August 6^th marks the 20^th anniversary of the World Wide Web. Coincidentally, it is also the day of the Second Annual ReMIX Conference in Atlanta, Georgia.

The past year has seen many changes in Microsoft strategy as well as new innovations in web and mobile development outside of Microsoft. ReMIX will catch you up on those changes and prepare you for the next year of development and design trends.

In the spirit of bringing developers and designers together, organizers are proud to announce Albert Shum as our keynote speaker. Albert Shum is the General Manager of the Windows Phone Design Studio, the team that formulated the Metro Design Language used on Windows Phone and Windows 8.

There are four tracks this year: User Experience, Web, Mobile & Tablet, and Kinect. Our handpicked speakers come from both the Microsoft community and beyond it. Please register as early as possible at http://remixsouth.eventbrite.com/ so that organizers can make proper accommodations for all attendees.

The UX Track will cover design practices for an increasingly complex world that includes websites, interactive, mobile, tablets and traditional desktop apps. Speakers include James Chittenden (UX Architect at Microsoft), Rick Barraza (Principal UX Architect at Cynergy), Matthias Shapiro (Veracity), and Zach Pousman (Director of Strategy at IQ Interactive), and Jenn Downs (Design Researcher at MailChimp).

The Web Track is made up of web experts from outside the usual Microsoft fold. They will walk you through the HTML5 buzz and the core technologies that make it work: CSS3 and JQuery. J. Cornelius, VP Operations at CoffeeCup Software, will talk on HTML5. Josh Netherton of Mailchimp will talk on “CSS3: More Than Just Rounded Corners.” John Agan of Epic Labs will walk us through our paces with JQuery. Mark Barilla of Home Depot will introduce us to HTML5 Design Principles, while Theo Rasendorf of Matador will school us in “Type 101”.

In the Mobile & Tablet Track, Shawn Wildermuth (Agilitrain), Rob Cameron (Microsoft), Luke Hamilton (Creative Director, Razorfish) and Jeremy Likness (Wintellect) will teach us about phone game development, design best-practices for multitouch, the new Windows Phone Mango release, Silverlight Development for Tablets and Windows 8.

Finally, in the Kinect Track we will celebrate Microsoft’s surprise hit of the year by bringing together some top players from the Kinect Hacking world for a day of talks, teach-ins and expert panels. Speakers and panelists include Zahoor Zafrulla of Georgia Tech, Steve Dawson of Razorfish Emerging Experiences, Rick Barraza of Cynergy and Josh Blake of InfoStrat, the founder of the OpenKinect forums and co-founder of the OpenNI forums.

Additionally, Microsoft will be providing all-day labs on Windows Phone development while our Commons room will be set up for impromptu conversations, hands-on opportunities with new technologies and general networking with businesses, new friends and old friends.

As I already mentioned, I delivered keynote at ESRI Developers Meet-up in Atlanta last week.  I wanted to post my short speech, as it expresses some very important points.  I talked about Microsoft developer landscape and importance of learning.  Here is the speech.  Please let me know what you think.

ESRI Key note

My name is Sergey Barskiy. I live here in Atlanta, and I work for Magenic Technologies, a Microsoft technology focused consulting company. I appreciate the opportunity to express my opinion on Microsoft technology landscape as it currently stands, with focus on Windows Phone 7, Silverlight and cloud technology stack.

Let me start with a quote attributed to Buddha. “Everything changes, nothing remains without change.”

Let’s start with the Windows Phone 7. The first phones were sold last November time frame. So far more than a million phones have been sold, which some think is a success and some a failure. Instead of talking about subjective opinions on the WP 7, let’s discuss what this release did for Microsoft. This release is arguably the first consumer oriented phone device that Microsoft put out. It is in direct completion with iPhone and Android phones. Marketplace has become very important on that market, and Microsoft put very heavy focus on that aspect of the phone. Microsoft tools have always been very good, but tools for phone were extremely well done, considering that was the first release of the tool set. So far there are over 12,000 applications in marketplace, and much more by some estimates, maybe as many as 20,000. There are tens of thousands of developers registered with the marketplace. It is hard not to say that this is not a success for Microsoft. New beta release of tools for the next revision of the phone, dubbed Mango, shipped a few weeks ago. It contains many consumer oriented as well as developer oriented features. Consumer features ultimately matter more, because phone needs to make users happy before making developers happy. Out of those features IE9 and HTML 5 support is probably the most important. Along with it users will enjoy fast application switching, better office integration and improved multi tasking. These feature set demonstrate ongoing commitment and maturation of the platform. Developers’ features include background tasks, SQL CE with ORM, better camera integration, compass access and better tooling, specifically emulator features such as GPS and accelerometer support. There will also be better integration between two developer platform on phone, XNA and Silverlight. Of course, ESRI has its own powerful API for the phone.

Let’s now move on to Silverlight. There has been some controversy about future of Silverlight, especially after comments by Bob Muglia last fall. In response to this negativity, Microsoft announced Silverlight 5 features a while ago, reaffirming its commitment to Silverlight platform in general. The beta shipped a a few weeks ago. Having said that, Microsoft’s message around Silverlight has changed since Silverlight 2 was released. It changed from cross platform cross browser application development platform to just developer platform for media applications and business applications. Since there is no mentioning of cross platform any longer, one could deduce that the focus is now on Windows development. Let’s take a look at the Silverlight 5 features and see how the next version of the platform and see how they fit into that message.

First of all, media related features. There is a lot of improvement in how media, such as videos are handled. There are performance improvements for hardware decoding and h.264 playback, including low power devices. Trick play was added, allowing the user to play videos at high speed, while correcting sounds for pitch changes. Improved power awareness keeps screen saver from coming up while media is playing. Remote control capabilities were added as well as some DRM enhancements. Enhancements to text presentation were added, allowing for text flow around images; text layout speed was increased. Performance across the board was also a focus. Graphics engine also improved, providing for more GPU acceleration as well as 3D support.

On the other hand, developer experience was taken into account. Default templates for types are now supported, allowing UI to automatically pick a template when a view model is injected into the visual tree. Additional binding options are appearing in this release, namely DataContextChanged event, XAML binding debugging, relative source binding to ancestor, proving more power for creating custom controls and custom templates. Profiling features allow for better troubleshooting of slow parts of a complex system.

There are some Windows related features as well, such as 64 bit plug-in availability. There are enhancements to out-of-browser functionality, such as multiple windows in out-of-browser mode. There is more support for process launching and PInvoke, enabling developers to write applications that integrate better with Windows desktop.

Of course, we cannot talk about Silverlight without mentioning HTML, the 10,000 pounds gorilla in the room. Based on announcement and comments from various Microsoft folks and public blogs, HTML 5 is now the official Microsoft answer for cross platform development. As to what tools can be used, those would include ASP.NET and ASP.NET MVC from Microsoft perspective. Does this mean Silverlight is dead? By no means, it just has different goals from the ones 3 years ago. It is still very much a viable platform for business applications, as long as requirements support the usage of the platform. Let’s chat about MVC 3.0, since it was also released this year.

In general, ASP.NET MVC is very powerful platform for web development. It addresses some of the issues that plagued ASP.NET. MVC gently enforces separation of concerns and improved testability of applications. Its output is platform independent. It results (one could hope anyway) in clean applications. There is no ViewState in those applications, hence in theory they should perform faster. There is no easy way to put code behind into views, although not necessarily impossible. Developers are very close to the metal, HTML in this case and JavaScript. Razor view engine that is new in version 3.0 improves view creation experience, resulting in less overall code.

Now let’s chat about cloud. In general terms cloud refers to delegating maintenance of some parts of your application, sometimes hardware, sometimes also run time to a third party provider. There are a few types of cloud platforms. IAAS – infrastructure as a service means that hardware is provided by cloud provider, and the consumer is responsible for setting up their applications and maintaining them. In typical sense this means running virtual machines in the cloud, otherwise known as some data center full of computers maintained by a cloud company. Another type is SAAS or software as a service. This means you rent the software from a company, and they are responsible for everything. An example would be SalesForce. Third and arguably most interesting aspect is PAAS or platform as a service. In this approach cloud provider supplies virtual machines preloaded with software and supplies tools for the developer to deploy and monitor software that utilizes all aspects of the platform, such as operating system, additional software and resources.

Why use the cloud? There are a number of reasons that vary from product to product. Typically reasons would include cost of entry, scalability, availability and geo-proximity. Say you wrote a brand new exciting web product, but you are not sure how many customers you will have. Could be one, could be 1 million. So you struggle with the question how much hardware and software to provision. Both under and over-provisioning are problems. If you under provision and your software’s performance is bad, the customer will run away from you. If you over provision you may spend millions for no reason. Cloud aims to solve this problem by providing on demand growth opportunity, otherwise known as pay-as-you-go model. Hand in hand with this goes scalability. Properly written software is easily scalable, usually with a couple of button clicks. Cloud vendor usually guarantees uptime of your system, thus insuring your software is available to be used. Geo-proximity allows you to position servers closer to customer, including abroad.

Let’s take a look at Microsoft presence in this space. Microsoft has offering in both SAAS and PAAS sectors of the market. SSAS includes a number of products. The most prominent one is Office 365, which include Office Professional, Outlook on line, Link which is the successor to Communicator and Live Meeting and SharePoint online. This offering allows you for just a few bucks per person per month remove a lot of pains from organizational activities that do not directly contribute to overall value of the company. This is really simple offering, and not very interesting if you are a developer.

Much more interesting is PAAS or Windows Azure. Let’s take a closer look at what Azure offers to developers, and as a result to your customers.

At a high level Windows Azure comes with a number of options to develop applications with. First and foremost, it is Windows itself and .NET framework. You further utilize the following roles available in Azure: Web role and Worker role. Web role is designed to host web applications, such as ASP application. Worker role is akin to Windows services. Its purpose is to provide sheer computing power and processing power. You have a number of storage options on Azure. You can utilize SQL Azure which is relational database in the cloud, build on SQL Server 2008. It has all the familiar features to all the developers. Furthermore you can use blob storage, suitable for storing large files, such as videos or documents. This storage is http addressable via a URL, and can be used as a result in all web applications. Developers also have table storage available. It can be used to store structure, but non-relational data. It is much cheaper than SQL Azure and much more scalable, but it is up to you to maintain transactional integrity. And finally you can also use message queues, which are durable messages that can be used to communication information between parts of one application or multiple applications. SSRS is already in beta as well, providing a complete solution for business applications.

Another very important part of Azure offering is AppFabric. AppFabric is an umbrella term used to describe a number of helpful technologies. They include Service Bus, Access Control, Caching, Integration, and Composite App (WCF/WF Hosting). Let’s break them up and take a closer look at each one.

The Service Bus provides secure messaging and connectivity capabilities that enable building distributed and disconnected applications in the cloud, as well hybrid application across both on-premise and the cloud. It enables using various communication and messaging protocols and patterns, and saves the need for the developer to worry about delivery assurance, reliable messaging and scale.

Access Control provides an easy way to provide identity and access control to web applications and services, while integrating with standards-based identity providers, including enterprise directories such as Active Directory® (ADFS 2.0), and web identities such as Windows Live ID, Google, Yahoo! and Facebook. The service enables authorization decisions to be pulled out of the application and into a set of declarative rules that can transform incoming security claims into claims that applications understand. These rules are defined using a simple and familiar programming model, resulting in cleaner code. It can also be used to manage users’ permissions, saving the effort and complexity of developing these capabilities.

Caching provides a distributed, in-memory, application cache service for Windows Azure and SQL Azure applications. It provides applications with high-speed access, scale, and high availability, to application data. These capabilities are provided entirely as a service (no installation or management of instances, dynamically increase/decrease cache size as needed).

Integration provides common BizTalk Server integration capabilities (e.g. pipeline, transforms, adapters) on Windows Azure, using out-of-box integration patterns to accelerate and simplify development. It also delivers higher level business user enablement capabilities such as Business Activity Monitoring and Rules, as well as self-service trading partner community portal and provisioning of business-to-business pipelines.

Composite App provides a multi-tenant, managed service which consumes the .NET based AppFabric Composition Model definition and automates the deployment and management of the end to end application, eliminating manual steps needed by both developers and IT Pros today. It directly executes application components to provide a high-performance runtime optimized for cloud-scale services and mid-tier components. It also delivers a complete hosting environment for web services built using Windows Communication Foundation (either natively developed or using WCF Data Services and WCF RIA Services) and workflows built using Windows Workflow Foundation.

Finally, we cannot really end without mentioning Windows 8. I am not sure how many of you follow current rumors and have seen a video put out by Microsoft that shows a glimpse of Windows 8. They showed Metro or Windows Phone 7 interface with live tiles, full gesture support and touch friendly user interface. Moreover, there are various hints as to new programming model for Windows. Does it mean none of the existing applications will run on Windows 8? Of course not. This new functionality has to be additive. Having said that, there are rumors on Mary-Jo Foley blog and WinRumors.com that mention Jupiter as the new API (the best one could decipher) that will be available in Windows 8. There is uproar already in Silverlight community, stating that Microsoft again is abandoning Silverlight. If you could look at Jupiter as new and better API and user experience, then the question is why fight it?

Let me end with another quote by Eric Hoffer, American philosopher.

“In times of profound change, the learners inherit the earth, while learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.”

The moral of the story is that Microsoft will never stop inventing new technologies, as this would spell the end to them as a company. So that a developer to do? The answer is never stop learning.

I started my blog here in November 2009 after moving it from Live Spaces, that since died as a project.  My primary goal of starting that is to share my thoughts and experiences with other folks, vet some new ideas, and hopefully help a person or two solve the same problems I found solutions to at some point in time.  Blogging also gives me a place to document my experiences.  In addition any time I research a topic, I like to write about it because the process of writing things down helps me remember better.

This month I hit what I consider a milestone of 100,000 views on my blog!

Woo-hoo!  I think that is pretty cool!

This chart shows some steady growth in views over the last 20 months.  I guess I am doing something right if that many folks can find tidbits of useful information in my writings.

Thank you.

This event is unique in that it is “for the community, by the community” and is free for all that desire to attend. In past years, the Atlanta Code Camp has provided free training and networking opportunities for 300 of the best, most motivated development professionals. With our larger facility, we’re expecting this year to be even bigger and better.

Please check out Code Camp web site for more information.  There are links there for registration, sponsors and volunteers.

Thank you.

Atlanta Code Camp 2011 is in the planning stages.  The event will occur on June 25^th.  If you would like to volunteer at the event, please contact me using Contact Me page on this blog.  We are also looking for sponsors.  Please email me if you are interested.  More information will be forthcoming in a few days.  Please stay tuned.

Thank you.

I will be delivering keynote at the local ESRI development meeting in Atlanta, GA next month.  Meeting will be held at Maggiano’s in Buckhead at 5 pm.  I will be talking about current application development landscape using Microsoft technologies.  I will be touching on Azure platform, phone development, Silverlight 5.0,  ASP.NET MVC and data platform landscape.

You can register to attend here http://www.meetup.com/DevMeetUpSoutheast/events/17703001/

Thanks.

Today’s keynote was about two topics – Cloud and Devices.

Cloud topic was first.  Here is what Microsoft Corporate VP talked about.  He relayed Microsoft’s perspective as to why cloud is important and why it will continue to grow and play an important role for many companies.  Three primary reasons are agility, focus and economics.  Agility refers to companies’ ability to scale on demand, utilizing pay-as-you-go model. Focus refers to concentration of corporations on core software products and technologies instead of worrying about infrastructure.  And economics refers to decrease need to invest large amounts of money into hardware and licenses.  All these ideas are valid and important. 

Next announcements underscored Microsoft’s realization that private cloud is just as if not more important than public cloud.  The rest of the talk applied equally to public and private cloud.  Presenters talked about Microsoft System Center 2012 codename Concero as the next generation product that will enable users to manage and maintain their cloud offerings.

Next they talked about BI and data.  They underscored two important concepts the next generation of Microsoft software is going to address – insight and oversight.

Insight means allowing users, mostly business users to slice and dice the data as they see fit to gather important information from tons of collected data points.  PowerPivot, SharePoint and project Crescent that will ship with next generation of SQL Server were mentioned.  Crescent looks like PowerPivot which shipped a while ago on steroids, with ability to visualize data in many ways in addition to ability to view it.  Crescent will be integrated into SharePoint to give other users insight into gathered data via report / Crescent project sharing as well as oversight, since user actions will be captured in SharePoint.  Developer will be able to convert these business users’ created project into Visual Studio projects.

Next set of topic points refered to devices.  Average number of connected devices per adult in the US is 4.3.  Microsoft sees this number growing in the future, and growing rapidly.  The range of devices vary, and includes phones and tablets.  Mango, the next version of OS for Windows Phone 7 has many features that are intended to entice not only general public, but also corporate users.  These features include Lync (next generation of communication software, which includes some features of Communicator and Live Meeting) on the phone as well as corporate security features and Office 365 integration.

Kinect was also mentioned with World Wide Telescope being a flag ship product that identifies strengths of the Kinect platform in education.  Also a medical product was showcased that uses Kinect in an operation room.

Windows Phone was the next topic.  Windows phone toolkit for Azure was mentioned as the tool that can speed up development quite a bit if you are coding that type of application.

TFS v. next was the next topic.  One of the goals for the next release is to bring stakeholders and operations folks into the conversion.  Stakeholders will be able to prototype features using PowerPoint.  Operations manager will be able to create TFS work items directly from system center software using system center connector, and include relevant information such as stack trace.   IntelliTrace will be available in production as the integration point between operations and development.  Developers also get some new features, such as My Work tab that identifies the work items assigned to developers.  Developers will be able to handle interruptions better via “Save / Restore My Work” feature.

OK, at a high level this is what Microsoft guys talked about in the key note.  Now it is the time for my personal opinion.  After all, why have a blog if you cannot express yourself.

One thing that jumped at me was low energy level of all presenters.  Maybe they were tried after travel?  Also, there were very few announcements that I have not heard before at different events or have not read on blogs.  Ideally I would have liked to hear a little more about other technologies, such as web or Silverlight.  I know that TechEd is supposed to be about IT as well as Dev, but one could hope for more pertinent information.  Some of the jokes were a little stale to my taste, the usual “I am your boss, so drop everything and do this” jokes get old.  Maybe Microsoft should hire a comedian to help them next time.

Now some takeaways.  One message that was pretty clear was directed toward IT professionals.  They need to be up to speed on Azure, or they will be left behind.  Private cloud is coming, and companies need to consider if that technology suits them.  IMHO, private clouds are diminishing the value of cloud in general, but with the right tooling the gains are still there, although investment into hardware is still pretty big.  Message for developers regarding TFS is clear as well.  This product will continue to grow to help companies to collaborate, develop, test and operate software.  In devices marker Mango version of the Windows Phone OS will provide a number of cool new features that will undoubtedly advance its standing amongst consumers and enterprises.  Now we just have to wait and see if Microsoft marketing can do its job to let masses know what is coming soon.

Thank you.

The CodeStock website is now open for registrations and the voting on sessions has begun.  Selections will be announced after March 21st, 2011.

I submitted a number of sessions.  If you would like to see me speak at CodeStock, vote for my sessions please.

Here is my full list:

• Using Code First (Code Only) approach with Entity Framework
• Testing SL applications with Microsoft Unit Testing Framework and Coded UI
• Using LightSwitch for Visual Studio to Quickly Build Silverlight 3 tier applications
• Working with SQL Azure
• Using CSLA 4.0 to Build Powerful Enterprise Applications
• Building ASP.NET MVC 3.0 Applications with Razor View Engine and EF Code First.
• Working with Data on Windows Phone 7

Thank you.

I got my Happy New Year present from Microsoft this morning.  They gave me Microsoft MVP award for the second year in a row.  I feel honored and humbled that my efforts in promoting Microsoft technology are appreciated.  I will continue doing my best in showcasing great technologies that Microsoft puts out year in and year out.

Happy New Year, everybody!

I moved my blog to this site in November 2009, a little over a year ago.  I did that based on an advice of fellow programmer, urging me to find a domain that is easier to remember and spell than SergeyBarskiy.Windows.Live.com. Of course, blogging was recently removed from features of Windows Live and transferred to a third party.  So, there came www.DotNetSpeak.com.  It took a few hours to try to find a domain name that was not taken that had a way to convey my programming interests.

Today I checked the stats, and my blog had over 50,000 views in a little over a year!  Woo-hoo!  Here is a screenshot of the stats

Thank you, everyone.  I never thought that my posts would attract that much attention.  Either that of my dad is really active on the internet .

On another note, I often use my own blog as a source of information.  I try to blog about all interesting work that I do, and I encourage everyone to do the same.  Chances are, if you did some work in the past, you are likely to encounter similar circumstances later.  Wouldn’t be nice to just search your own blog and find an answer in a minute.

Happy Holidays, everybody!

Mark your calendar and purchase your ticket now for Atlanta’s premiere Design & Developer Event

THE WEB BELONGS TO US, AND MOBILE WILL BE NEXT.

reMIX Atlanta is the one-day conference for developers and designers who want to take their skills to the next level. Come out to see the exciting new technologies and techniques that can be used to build the next generation of interactive websites and mobile applications.

This is a “Don’t Miss Event” with only 400 seats. Get yours today!

REGISTER TODAY!

http://reMIXatlanta.org

Tickets only $25 until 4/27, then $35

Limited seating, filling fast! Act Now!

SPECIAL BONUS

A very awesome FREE pre-event:

Friday May 7^th 6:00PM-9:00PM

Hosted by Carl & Richard, this is a .NET Rocks! fun evening about Visual Studio 2010 & .NET 4

http://dotnetrocks.com

What to Expect:

Learn about the completely new Windows Phone 7 and the excitement about quickly developing applications using Silverlight and building 2D/3D games using XNA.

Learn about the Designer/Developer workflow used to create great user experience (UX) in your applications.

Learn about building next-generation web applications with the new Silverlight 4 features, how to build with Windows Azure, and the improved ASP.NET MVC 2.0

I submitted sessions to this year’s CodeStock event.  You can vote now for all sessions here.

If you would like to see my session, please vote for them.  Here is my list

• Building Silverlight Business Applications using CSLA.NET for Silverlight
• Using Entity framework 4.0

Thank you and I hope to see you there.

I often forget about different conferences I would like to keep an eye on, so I decided to make a list of them on my blog.

• VS Live
• MIX
• DevLink
• CodeStock
• Atlanta Code Camp
• Alabama Code Camp
• South Florida Code Camp
• Orlando Code Camp
• SQL Saturday

Glen Gordon, our local evangelist is doing another road show.  Here are the event details.

Thursday, February 25, 2010 1:00 PM – Thursday, February 25, 2010 5:00 PM Eastern Time (US & Canada)
Welcome Time: 12:30 PM

Atlanta Marriot Alpharetta

5750 Windward Pkwy
Alpharetta Georgia 30005
United States

Language(s):
English.

Product(s):
Azure Services Platform, Microsoft technologies, Windows and Windows 7.

Audience(s):
Pro Dev/Programmer.

Presenter(s):
Glen Gordon, Joe Healy

Event Overview

MSDN Events presents: Take Your Applications Sky High with Cloud Computing and the Windows Azure Platform

Join your local MSDN Events team as we take a deep dive into cloud computing and the Windows Azure Platform. We’ll start with a developer-focused overview of this new platform and the cloud computing services that can be used either together or independently to build highly scalable applications. As the day unfolds, we’ll explore data storage, SQL Azure, and the basics of deployment with Windows Azure. Register today for these free, live sessions in your local area.

If you register and attend this event, you will be placed in a raffle to win a chance to bring home one (1) free copy of Windows 7 – you could be the lucky winner! Register today!

SESSION 1: Overview of Cloud Computing and Windows Azure

The Windows Azure platform is a set of high-performance cloud computing services that can be used together or independently and enable developers to leverage existing skills and familiar tools to develop cloud applications. In this session, we’ll provide a developer-focused overview of this new online service computing platform. We’ll explore the components, key features and real day-to-day benefits of Windows Azure.

Highlights include:

· What is cloud computing?

· Running web and web service applications in the cloud

· Using the Windows Azure and local developer cloud fabric

· Getting started – tools, SDKs and accounts

· Writing applications for Windows Azure

SESSION 2: Survey of Windows Azure Platform Storage Options

Durable data storage is a key component of any cloud computing offering. The Windows Azure Platform offers many options, which can be used alone or in combination. Windows Azure itself offers ready-to-use and lightweight storage in the form of tables, blobs, and queues. Another choice for storage is SQL Azure, a true relational database in the cloud. In this session, we’ll explore the highlights of these implementations and how to both create and use storage in each form. We’ll give you guidance on choosing the right forms of storage for your application scenarios.

Highlights include:

· Understanding table & blob storage

· Programming against table & blob storage

· Working with queue storage

· Managing credentials and connection strings

· Scaling and configuration

· Understanding SQL Azure databases versus local SQL Server databases

· SQL Azure firewall, logins and passwords

· Database creation, deployments and migrations

· Database management using SQL Management Studio

· Programming against SQL Azure databases

SESSION 3: Going Live with your Azure Solution

Windows Azure features a powerful, yet simple deployment model. By focusing on your application and abstracting away the infrastructure details, you can deploy almost any app with minimal fuss. In this session, we’ll walk you through the basics of Windows Azure deployment, including site monitoring, diagnostics and performance issues.

Highlights include:

· Start-to-Finish Visual Studio demonstration of a realistic XML data driven business web site from the desktop to the cloud.

· Windows Azure Deployments

· Start-to-Finish Visual Studio demonstration of a realistic SQL Server data driven business web site from the desktop to the cloud.

· Configuration of your application in the cloud

· Guidance and Suggestions to ensure your success

*Be sure to learn more about the TechNet event happening on the same day at the same location from 8:30am–12:00pm. If you are interested in attending, please register separately for that event here: http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032439495&Culture=en-US

Registration Options

Event ID:
1032439974

Here is the link to this event:

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032439974&Culture=en-US

I have just been selected to receive the Microsoft MVP award!  This is an awesome news!  I feel honored and humbled that Microsoft recognized my efforts in learning Microsoft technologies and being active in local Microsoft oriented developer communities, user groups and events.  At the risk of making cliché comments, I would like to recognize a few people and organizations that encouraged me to strive to do my best.

As much as I learned by working at Horizon Software, there is no way I would have gotten where I am without Magenic Technologies.  This the most awesome company to work for.  Great environment and great people too numerous to mention encouraged me to work hard every day.  Participating in local users group has been invaluable experience for me as well.  I have met many people smarter than me over the last number of years that helped me out a lot.  Special thanks to Glen Gordon, local Microsoft developer evangelist for nominating me.  I am very much looking forward to many exciting years learning and (hopefully) teaching Microsoft technologies.

Somehow (I am not exactly sure how) I ended up with a lot of talks that I am doing in January.  Between that and two projects I am working on simultaneously at Magenic, I have been extremely busy lately.  Those two projects will continue through end of January.

In January I will talking at Gwinnett Georgia Microsoft Users Group on SQL Azure, at Atlanta Leading Edge Microsoft Users Group on Velocity, and at Atlanta .NET Users Group on building an Azure application step-by-step.  I am also wiring an article on Entity Framework for a magazine that is due on December 31st.  Also, I am going on vacation this Saturday – my wife and I are talking our kids to Washington, DC.

I will probably be doing much blogging for a few weeks as a result.

Could I possibly have more fun than this?  Not likely.

At out next Atlanta Leading Edge Microsoft Users Group Rocky Lhotka will be talking about Oslo.  Please visit ALEMUG.NET home page to register for this exciting event!

Here are the details of this event.

Microsoft code-name “Oslo” includes the ability to define your own domain specific  language (DSL), a metadata repository hosted in SQL Server and a graphical tool (“Quadrant”) to edit that metadata. One part of the Oslo vision is that you might define a DSL, build code in your language, compile that code into the repository and then create a runtime to dynamically execute that metadata. Taking this vision and combining it with the popular CSLA .NET framework, the result is MCsla. This is a prototype DSL grammar, repository schema and runtime that dynamically creates and executes CSLA .NET business objects with a WPF UI. The result is a fully functional application that you can create with a fraction of the code you’d need to write with traditional programming techniques. Learn how MCsla was created and how it works in this rapid-fire walk through the depths of the Olso technology.

Rockford Lhotka is the creator of the popular CSLA .NET development framework, and is the author of numerous books, including Expert C# 2008 Business Objects and Expert VB 2008 Business Objects. He is a Microsoft Regional Director, MVP and INETA speaker. He contributes to several major magazines and regularly presents at major conferences around the world. Rockford is the Principal Technology Evangelist for Magenic (www.magenic.com), a company focused on delivering business value through applied technology and one of the nation’s premiere Microsoft Gold Certified Partners. For more information go to www.lhotka.net.

Atlanta Leading Edge Microsoft Users Group is meeting tomorrow.  Our topic will be new features in C# 4.0 and .NET Framework 4.0.  Some of the topics are contra-variance and co-variance, dynamic types, office interop, named and optional parameters, code contracts.

Please join us tomorrow for an exciting meeting.  See the website for directions and times – www.alemug.net.

See you tomorrow.

I will be speaking at the upcoming SQL Saturday in Atlanta on April 25, 2009. 

What is SQL Saturday?  It’s a one day free training event for SQL Server professionals organized by a local user group. It takes a lot of work and a lot of volunteers, but it’s also a lot of fun!  It is held at Microsoft’s offices in Alpharetta, GA.

My topic is CLR integration – Integrating CLR assemblies to support custom image creation and encompassing complex business logic in SQL server/SSRS.

Here is the link to the event: http://www.sqlsaturday.com/eventhome.aspx?eventid=17

Yep, I broke down and joined the Twitter.

www.twitter.com/SergeyBarskiy

had a ton of fun yesterday at Atlanta Code Camp.  I always enjoy hanging around fellow developers.  In this instance Magenic also had an impressive showing at the event.  Colin Whitlatch, James Ashley, Jason Rainwater , Whitney Weaver and I had presented at the code camp.  I would like to thank everyone who spent their Saturday at this happening, and particularly those who attended my session :-)

I encountered one more aspect of collaboration, and I would like to elaborate on.  This involves communication with the user.  Here is how the story goes.  A designed lays out the UI.  Proposed UI is discussed  with the user, who subsequently approves the design.  At this point the UI is given to developer to work on.  Well, developer finds that the UI is not workable within the constraints of the development environment.  For example, UI design results in highly inefficient communication between UI layer and business layer or database layer.  Or, the sample UI lists a handful of items on the screen, but database has hundreds, and the full list does not even fit on the screen and looks unreadable.  So, what is the solution you ask?  Involve a developer in review process prior to demonstrating UI to the user.  I think this procedure should minimize the changes to UI after the user’s sign-off.

We now have a new site for Atlanta area .NET users’ group.  The group’s focus is more broad than just .NET.  It actually focuses on all Microsoft development technologies.   Here is new address: http://www.atldotnet.org/default.aspx.  There is also an RSS feed on the new site so that you can stay current with what is going on at the users group.

Yeah to me!!!  My first article on Code Project just got published.  Click here to see it!   I wrote a POP3 email client in .NET, utilizing TcpClient, NotifyIcon, Browser Control (for email preview) and other classes.  Check it out.

Yesterday I went to my first SQL Server Users Group meeting in Atlanta.  There were about 50 people there, way more than I expected.  I went to see Whitney Weaver’s, my colleague at Magenic, presentation on dynamic management views.  I enjoyed the presentation as well as overall environment of the users’ group.  I am definitely planning to attend more of their meetings whenever I have a chance.

Yesterday I attended the first meeting of GGMUG.  There were about 30 or so people there, which is really more than I expected for the first meeting.  Both Microsoft developer evangelists in Atlanta, Glen and Doug, attended the meeting.  Doug presented on WCF.  There was one more presentation by Noah Subrin on WF.  Overall I was very pleased with how the first meeting turned out.

It is sometime hard to make it all the way to Alpharetta from Gwinnett to attend Atlanta .NET Users group.  It is much easier to stay in  Gwinnett.  Having said that, I will probably keep on trying to attend meetings at Microsoft headquarters anyway.

The first ever Magenic Technology Summit is being held on Friday June 20 in Downers Grove near Chicago, and yours truly is invited.

This is a full day of Magenic-provided training, available by invitation only to customers and potential customers of Magenic. We have lined up an impressive array of speakers and topics in two tracks, .NET development and Microsoft servers. And we have lined up two keynotes.

Our first keynote speaker is Jay Schmelzer, who is the Group Program Manager for RAD tools. This basically means he runs the teams for all the Visual Studio designers and related RAD tools. He’s an excellent good speaker and should provide some great insight into the present and future of RAD development tools from Microsoft.

Our second keynote speaker is Rockford Lhotka, Magenic’s Technology Evangelist and the creator of the very popular CSLA .NET development framework.

But more importantly, two tracks of in-depth technical content straight from the experts at Magenic. Topics covering the present and future of .NET development and key Microsoft server products. An event like this doesn’t come along every day, and shouldn’t be missed!

The event is FREE to customers (though they’ll need to cover any travel costs), and includes lunch and a reception at the end of the day.

Click here to see the agenda.

Today I went to Microsoft Launch Event.  It was dedicated to the launch of Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008 and SQL Server 2008.  I registered for developers’ track and attended three training sessions as well as keynote address.

Here are the sessions I went to:

1. Breakthrough Challenges with Visual Studio 2008

This session was not impressive.  The presenter seemed unprepared, and no running code samples were shown.  The presentation seems to be very marketing-oriented.  The presenter’s demeanor seemed inappropriate, as he kept “begging” for a round of applause almost constantly.  I have not learned anything at this session.

2. Reach End-Users with Next Generation Web Applications

This was a good session in my opinion.  The presenters were familiar guys that I have meant on numerous occasions at the user group events.  The key features that were shown were:  Java script debugging and intellisense, various asp extenders object, such as watermark extender, password strength extender, etc…  Update panel feature was also demonstrated, although it is not really “new.”  Linq was part of presentation.  I found it easy to understand conceptually, although I have looked and “played” with Linq already.  Presentation overall was good.  Split code/preview screen for ASP applications was shown.  This feature looked pretty cool.

3. Exploring Business Intelligence and SQL Server 2008

This session I have to admit went over my head a bit.  It was oriented toward BI folks though, so the result was not at all unexpected.  Ability to predict future results based on existing data I found super cool.  This feature actually could be used by itself inside Excel as long as there is SQL server SSAS is running somewhere.  Performance Point and Excel applications also looked impressive.  I can see why many companies would spend a ton of money on this technology.

4. New guidance documents.

If you would like to review new Microsoft guidance documents, now called Software plus Services blueprints, here are the links:

Software Plus Services Blueprints on Channel 9

Software Plus Services Blueprints on CodePlex

On March 29th I had my first ever talk at Atlanta Code Camp. You can click on Speakers menu to see my name.  It really was a fun experience for me. I enjoyed spending the entire day with my piers. There were quite a few folks at the code camp who work with me at Magenic. I attended as many sessions as I could in time allotted.
My own presentation went pretty well, based on the feedback that I got after it.  I taught a session on CSLA.  You can download the Power Point presentation here. 

I certainly hope that I will get an opportunity to talk more in front of other people. I guess I am a glutton for attention…