[Follow up from my previous post]

OK, more info....

A quick call to Business Objects lead to this:

• CR 2008 Basic is NOT a scaled down version of CR 2008 "Full".  It is in fact version 10 + some features from version 11
• There are NO versions (9,10,11,2008) of CR that are compatible with VS 2008
• BO will release an update to CR 2008 that will make it compatible with VS 2008
• It will be possible to load the reports created with the "Basic" version in the "Full" updated version.  I must say that the person at the end of the line was very vague about this. 

After that call, I did a little research and found that CR 2008 SP0 was released just a couple of days ago.  That version is now compatible with VS 2008.
http://technicalsupport.businessobjects.com/cs/forums/thread/19171.aspx
http://support.businessobjects.com/communityCS/TechnicalPapers/cr_2008_supported_platforms_windows_sp0.pdf.asp
http://support.businessobjects.com/downloads/service_packs/crystal_reports_en.asp

I'd like to thank Rod Paddock for doing his Annual Canadian User Group World Tour again this year.  He spoke on Monday in Montreal, then Tuesday in Ottawa and finally Wednesday in Toronto.

The fun part was getting to Montreal.  Rod attended Mix08 in Las Vegas the week before and instead of flying home to Seattle then fly again to Montreal, he decided to fly from Vegas to Montreal. 

Rod'd original itinerary was to fly from:

1. Las Vegas to Detroit
2. Detroit to Montreal

Well, the North East was hit with a major snow storm so Rod final itinerary looked like this:

1. Las Vegas to Detroit
2. Detroit to New York
3. Saying no to a 10 hours bus ride (+ 3 hours at customs) to Montreal
4. New York to Detroit
5. Detroit to Montreal

Thanks a lot Rod for really really wanting to do this tour!

BTW, Rod is a fantastic speaker and he is on the INETA's speakers bureau.  If you're an INETA user group, make sure to invite Rod at some point.

Any Crystal Reports experts here?  Not sure if I get this right....

There are 2 versions of CR 2008: the one that is bundled with Visual Studio 2008 called "Basic" and the "Full" one that you buy from Business Objects.

• CR 2008 Basic cannot load CR 2008 "Full" reports.
• CR 2008 "Full" is not compatible with VS 2008 until Bussiness Objects release a SP/update in Q2 2008.
• CR 2008 Basic reports can't migrate to CR 2008 "Full".

So I can't use CR 2008 "Full" right now in my VS 2008 projects and by using the Basic version, I will be cornered because I won't be able to upgrade my reports to the "Full" version.

That can't be right!

 

More info @ www.guvsm.net

Prochaine assemblée: lundi 10 mars
 
Conférencier: Rod Paddock, éditeur de CoDe Magazine, Seattle USA
(English presentation)

Part 1: News from Mix08
In the first part of his talk, Rod Paddock will report on the announcements made at Mix08 the week before.  Mix is the Microsoft conference dedicated to Web development.

Part 2: Top 10 NET Open Source tools
The title says it all. This session will cover some of the best open source project for .NET developers. Unit testing, version control, control kits, AJAX tools and so on. This session will cover a plethora of open source .NET projects.

Rod is president and founder of Dash Point Software, Inc. DPSI is an award winning software company based in Seattle, WA, specializing in application development and software training. Dash Point specializes in Visual Studio .NET, VB 6, Visual FoxPro, and SQL Server development. Dash Point Software was the winner of the 1999 Visual FoxPro Excellence Award and a finalist in 1998. Dash Point was also a finalist in 1996 at Windows World Open. Rod has been a very popular speaker at a wide variety of developer conferences in North America and Europe since 1995. His most recent speaking appearance was at the XML Connections conference in October 2002. Rod is the editor for CoDe Magazine and his writing credits include articles for database publications such as Data Based Advisor, FoxTalk and Dbase Advisor. He has also authored a number of books including Visual Basic 5 for Web Development, Visual Basic 6 for Web Development, and Visual FoxPro 6.0 Enterprise Development. Rod is also the V.P. of Technology for Red Matrix Technologies and the architectural visionary behind the DataClas middle-tier component and SQLAudit product lines.

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.

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[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