Seeing the CEO of a large company answering non scripted questions from an audience is remarkable.  Too bad people will only remember this:

While Laurent Duveau's French (from south of France) accent was a hit with the ladies at the Mix08 attendees party at Tao, my French Canadian accent only got the attention of this Rum & Coke.

Beside Elvis, I had a chance to meet other celebrities in Vegas like the famous Ben & Jerry.  Frankly, they are a little annoying but give 'em a glass of bourbon (the cheap stuff you know) and they go away annoying other poor souls.

One of the coolest demos shown at the Mix08 keynote was the Hard Rock Cafe Memorabilia Website created by the folks at Vertigo using SilverLight 2 Beta 1.  It is using a technique called Deep Zoom.  Very cool and impressive.

http://memorabilia.hardrock.com/

Check the keynote and Scott Stanfield's session on Deep Zoom here:
http://sessions.visitmix.com/

All the Mix08 sessions are now available online in streaming and download mode.  You can also the PowerPoints.  It's like attending the conference for free!

http://sessions.visitmix.com/

Yep, Elvis saw the (Silver) Light at Mix08.  That's what he told me after playing a hot guitar solo on Rock Band!

More info @ www.guvsm.net

Prochaine assemblée: lundi 3 mars

Dominic Sevigny: Les extensions ASP.NET 3.5

Nous discutons avec Dominic Sevigny des extension ASP.NET 3.5. Ces nouveautés incluent le framework Modèle-Vue-Contrôleur que Microsoft ajoute à ASP.NET, les données dynamiques, des améliorations à ASP.NET Ajax, les contrôles Silverlight et autres innovations.

Dominic Sévigny est président de RunAtServer Consulting, une entreprise spécialisée dans la consultation ASP.NET et offrant une expertise de développement Web exemplaire par la qualité de ses développeurs séniors. Dominic est reconnu comme étant un conférencier très dynamique. En effet, il donne à l’occasion des conférences sur les technologies Web telles que ASP.NET et Ajax. Il a donné plusieurs conférences au Groupe d’usagers Visual Studio de Montréal ainsi qu’au DevTeach où il a été nommé « Best Speaker » en 2007. Il est le formateur exclusif de toutes les formations ASP.NET et AJAX pour le plus grand centre de formation de Montréal, Technologia.

Télécharger l'émission

Si vous désirez un accès direct au fichier audio en format MP3 ou Windows Media (WMA), nous vous invitons à télécharger le fichier en utilisant un des boutons ci-dessous.

     

Si vous désirez utiliser le feed RSS pour télécharger l'émission, nous vous invitons à vous abonnez en utilisant le bouton ci-dessous.

Si vous désirez utiliser le répertoire iTunes Podcast pour télécharger l'émission, nous vous encourageons à vous abonnez en utilisant le bouton ci-dessous.

[Looking for opinions, links, articles and so on]

How do you implement LINQ to SQL in a classic 3-tiers (presentation, BAL, DAL) app?  A simple question, right?

So, if I create my LINQ to SQL DataAccess classes in a DAL, this is where the transport objects will reside.  I usually create a layer just for that so each layer can reference those objects.  Now, the presentation layer must reference the DAL directly.  Yuck!

OK, so let's return POCOs to the presentation layer instead.  Well, I'm losing all the change tracking stuff provided by LINQ to SQL.  Yuck!

What if I need to expose my BAL layer as a set of WCF services?  Well, I'm also losing the change tracking.  Yuck!

And what if I want to data bind my grid?  Using the designer, I need to point to the DataClasses sitting in the DAL.  Yuck!

OK, I'll lose the change tracking stuff.  Now I'll have to reload each record before saving it?  Yuck!

The way I see it, the only way you can possibly use LINQ to SQL is if you develop your app in a single layer.  I must be wrong.  I must miss something.  This can't be real.  Stunned!

 

Infragistics NetAdvantage 2008 Volume 1 is now available.  Besides new features, it provides support for Visual Studio 2008 + AJAX.

I was confused when downloading this release because you can download either NetAdvantage for ASP.NET 2008 Vol.1 for CLR 2.x and also NetAdvantage for ASP.NET 2008 Vol.1 for CLR 3.x.  If you download NetAdvantage for .NET (includes both WinForms & Web), it's labeled for CLR 2.x and does not contains ASP.NET CLR 3.x.  OK but what do you need to download & install to get everything? 

If you subscribe to NetAdvantage for .NET, install this one first then the ASP CLR 3.x (don't think the order is of any importance).

You can install both ASP.NET versions side by side but you can't use the two versions in the same project because you'll have conflicting namespaces.

http://www.infragistics.com/Default.aspx

Laurent Duveau is featured as the MVP Insider in this month MSDN Canadian Developer Connection.  Way to go le Français Québécois!

http://blogs.msdn.com/cdndevs/archive/2008/02/20/laurent-duveau.aspx

In many companies, there's an unwritten policy to wait for the release of the first service pack of a product before deploying it.  With Windows Server 2008 just out, you won't have to wait for SP1, it's already built in!

Seriously, Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008 (SP1) are now sharing the same core.

Here's a great post by Ian McDonald explaining everything:
http://blogs.msdn.com/iainmcdonald/archive/2008/02/15/windows-server-2008-is-called-sp1-adventures-in-doing-things-right.aspx

 

SkyDrive is no longer in Beta and finally available in Canada.  What's SkyDrive?  It provides 5GB online storage for free.  It's a great way to share and exchange large files.

http://skydrive.live.com/

Yep, they did it again.  Mix08 is now sold out!

Great news!  My good buddy Mario Cardinal will speak at TechEd Dev 2008 in Orlando.  Congrats Mario!

Professional Developer and Designer for students tools at no charge

DreamSpark is simple, it's all about giving students Microsoft professional-level developer and design tools at no charge so you can chase your dreams and create the next big breakthrough in technology - or just get a head start on your career.

Who can get this right now?
We are kicking this off in 11 countries/regions, giving DreamSpark to millions of students in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, China, Germany, France, Finland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Belgium. If you are not residing in one of the countries listed keep checking back, we will be adding more countries throughout the year.

Does that mean that I might not get in?
Possibly, if you are not residing in one of the countries listed, not attending an accredited university or not a member of one of the student organizations that we're connected with. But keep checking back, as we're working on adding more ways to verify your student status all the time.

What do I have to do to get this software? Not much really, just select a product and follow the steps below.

• Sign In with your Windows Live ID. If you don't have one, go get one here. Pretty basic stuff.
  
• Get verified as a student. The system is linked to schools and organizations around the world that can confirm student status. Simply choose your country and school, enter your info and hit submit.
  
• Download your products. Now remember these are professional tools. This means they are pretty big files so make sure you have the bandwidth and space to bring them to your machine. We support the latest versions of both Internet Explorer and Firefox for your download.

https://downloads.channel8.msdn.com/Default.aspx

 

I did a little research for some antivirus/antispyware utilities so i thought I'd share my findings.

On one of my computers, I had some problems with occasional spikes on CPU usage.  I was not suspecting a virus since I had Live One Care installed and running.  However, I became tired of those spikes so I looked at antivirus reviews over the Web.  PC World did a review of the latest security suites and Norton Internet Security 2008 got the top score. 

I was a long time Norton antivirus user but high CPU usage convinced me to ditch it a few years ago.  This reviewer for a local newspaper noticed high CPU usage (20%!!!) after installing Norton Internet Security 2008 so I was convinced not to go that way again. (French but with many screenshots)

After giving up on Norton, I used the free version of Grisoft’s AVG antivirus.  While free and low on CPU usage, this version is for non-commercial use only and it places this message in each email you send:
No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.20.4/1277 - Release Date: 2/13/2008 8:00 PM

What I was looking from an antivirus was:

• Simple antivirus program (not an entire suite of blotted software)
• Simple way to turn it off (I don’t need it most of the time)
• Very low CPU usage
• Cheap (even better if the license could cover 3 machines)

After searching a little bit, I found that BitDefender AntiVirus would fit the bill so I downloaded an eval version and did a scan of my PC.  Guess what?  It did found some kind of trouble in a file called smss.exe located in the \system32\drivers directory.  Live One Care didn’t detect that one.

After a few days of use, I came to the conclusion that it was meeting my needs.  I was about to buy it online when I was puzzled by the pricing.  Basically, the site shows you this pricing: 1 year/1 PC for $25.  However, if you dig a little bit, you can find a page that shows 1 year/3 PCs for $30.  Grrrr!

I then noticed that Staples/Bureau en Gros had a sale for the Internet Security Suite at $40 for 3 PCs for 2 years so I decided to go with the suite and to disable the functions I didn’t need.

While searching online, I noticed that PC World gave top marks to PC Tools’ Spyware Doctor so I decided to investigate.  Always, be careful with these magazines showdown.  Does the fact that the PC World Website is crammed with Spyware Doctor ads was a factor in the high rating?  Can’t say but  

You can buy it online at PC Tools Website for $40 for 1 computer but if you look at the different versions available, you’ll see a link for a “starter” edition available with Google Pack.  That version is free but with some disabled features, mostly the real time protection stuff.  However, that version has the ability to cleanup problems, the eval version does not.

This is a screenshot of the starter edition.  Notice that OnGuard protection is limited and there's one action required...upgrading 

You can enable the real time protection by upgrading for $25.  I decided to give the starter edition a try and guess what?  It did find one problem that Live One Care didn’t find.  Being happy with this version (you can disable it easily and it's very low on CPU), I didn’t want to upgrade to the full version until I saw it at Costco at $20 for a licence covering 3 PCs, so I bought that one.  But why does PC Tools charges $40 per PC if you buy it from their Website?  And why does it cost $25 if you go thru Google Pack?

One thing I found strange is the fact that you pay much higher prices if you buy direct even thought there are no CDs, no boxes and no manuals involved.  Go figure!

Oh, BTW, no more CPU spikes!  

Well, looks like the HD format war will end in 2008.  I bought the Xbox 360 HD-DVD player a year ago but I only bought about 5 movies knowing that it was foolish to invest in high prices HD movies while that stupid battle was taking place.  Looks like I'll have to buy a (gasp!) Sony product at some point in the future.

http://gear.ign.com/articles/852/852769p1.html

Etienne Tremblay: Les nouveautés de Team System et Team Foundation Server 2008

Nous discutons avec Étienne Tremblay des nouveautés de Team System et Team Foundation Server 2008. Entre autres, nous discutons des fonctionnalités comme Annotate, Comparaison de répertoires, l’intégration continue, les fils d’attentes pour les constructions de logiciels, les points névralgique d’exécution lors des sessions de performance et plus encore.

Étienne Tremblay est un architecte sénior chez EDS Canada avec plus de 15 ans d'expérience en développement d'applications d'entreprises. Il a travaillé dans les industries minières et manufacturières et récemment, la gestion de configuration et outillage de développement. Il a développé un système pour surveiller la qualité dans la fabrication de voitures, un système de gestion de réclamations, un système d’opération et de surveillance de mines et un système de gestion de d'itinéraires en utilisant des modèles d'application n tiers. Tout au long de ces années il est devenu un expert en matière d'outillage de cycle de vie de développement de logiciels et a été l'un des architectes de la solution corporative Visual Studio Team System chez EDS. Cette initiative l’a amené à voyager autour du monde pour donner de la formation adaptée aux développeurs .NET d'EDS. Il a été un conférencier lors de plusieurs conférences internationales en 2005, 2006 et 2007 sur Visual Studio. Il a aussi donné une conférence virtuelle pour MSDN sur « comment adopté Visual Studio Team System ». Il représente EDS sur le Conseil Consultatif de Microsoft pour Team System. Il a été attribué le statut de MVP Team System en 2006 et 2007 et a été choisi comme juge pour la compétition internationale de Design de Logiciel de l’Imagine Cup 2007 en Corée du Sud.

Télécharger l'émission

Si vous désirez un accès direct au fichier audio en format MP3 ou Windows Media (WMA), nous vous invitons à télécharger le fichier en utilisant un des boutons ci-dessous.

     

Si vous désirez utiliser le feed RSS pour télécharger l'émission, nous vous invitons à vous abonnez en utilisant le bouton ci-dessous.

Si vous désirez utiliser le répertoire iTunes Podcast pour télécharger l'émission, nous vous encourageons à vous abonnez en utilisant le bouton ci-dessous.

Congrats to ScottGu on a well deserved promotion as a corporate vice president.  Well Looks like the day to day will stay the same.

Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president, .NET Developer Platform. Previously general manager, Guthrie will continue to oversee several development teams responsible for delivering Microsoft Visual Studio developer tools and Microsoft .NET Framework technologies for building client and Web applications.

http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2008/feb08/2008ExpandedLeadershipPR.mspx