Following my review of Chris Anderson’s book “Free: The Future of a Radical Price”, I found a few interesting interviews and presentations by Anderson and most interesting, I found that you can get the book for absolutely free.

The book is available online from Google Books and Scribd and the audio version is free at Audible.com or as zipped MP3 files from Wired.

Here’s a 5 minute overview by Chris Anderson:

Chris Anderson on Charlie Rose show talking about new book "Free":

Anderson’s speech from Wired Business Conference:

I love Wired Magazine so when I saw that editor-in-chief Chris Anderson wrote a book called “Free: The Future of a Radical Price”, I immediately ordered it because I wanted to learn more about that free economy.

The Good
Anderson describes various business models that involve something that has to do with giving away stuff.  It is quite interesting to see how a company can generate profits by giving away stuff.  If you’re involved in an Internet startup, this is a must read.

The Bad
Even at 275 pages, the book is way too long and I was bored to death for half of the reading because Anderson repeats himself continually.  I kept reading the same concepts and ideas over and over.  At around 100-125 pages, it would have been a fantastic book.  Also, some of Anderson ideas are also quite extreme so you take whatever feels right for you and leave the other stuff.

In summary, this is a great book for anyone involved in an Internet startup to help you understand how you can make money even if you give your app away.  Just be prepared to be bored by reading the same stuff over and over.

 

The Microsoft/Yahoo search deal makes front page news here in Montreal with content in pages A2 and A3 that I can summarize with this: “So what?”.  I don’t think that people yet realize how Google has become an advertizing monopoly.

http://technaute.cyberpresse.ca/nouvelles/internet/200907/29/01-888378-guerre-ouverte-contre-google.php

This morning, a Visual Studio security patch was waiting for me, thanks to Windows Update.

I launched the installation and everything worked fine, no errors.  Wait!  Windows Update prompts me again to install it.  Strange but lets do it.  No errors.  What? Windows Update prompting me again?  Lets reboot, install again and, oh well, same prompt.

Lets now look at the update’s details.

 

Wow!  A 365.2MB patch!  There’s a link to get more info, click!  Ended up here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971092

Looks like there’s a link for a direct download.  Lets try that.  Merde!  It’s a dead end.

Lets search a little bit.  Bingo!  A direct link to download the patch:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=294de390-3c94-49fb-a014-9a38580e64cb

Lets download and install it.

Doh!  Anyone found a solution?  I guess we’ll have to wait a couple of days for Microsoft to fix that fix.  BTW, I’m running Vista x32 SP2.

[EDIT: The pattern looks like the installation fails if you don't have C++ installed. BTW, this Connect page has a workaround. Thanks Tatworth! ]

[EDIT #2: Microsoft has now fixed the fix and published and updated version.  Download it here]

What else to say?

http://www.linux-mag.com/cache/7439/1.html

While speaking at the USI 2009 conference in Paris, I attended Todd Zaki Warfel’ paper prototyping session.  The purpose of paper prototyping is for a team to create screen mock-ups with simple tools like paper, scissors and Post-Its.  Team members would consist of graphic designers, engineers, marketing people and stakeholders.  The goal is to produce the mock-ups without relying on software tools because clients often focus on non important stuff instead of functionalities at that stage. 

I must say that I was very impressed at how effective the process is.  The workshop style session had 3 teams of 6 people each and Todd asked us to produce mock-ups of some fictional software in mere minutes.  Each team produced great designs complete with paper animations to represent on-screen objects, AJAX interaction and screen transitions.  This is a great technique to get the functionalities out of the clients’ head.

Todd is currently writing a book about prototyping called Prototyping: A Practitioner’s Guide To Prototyping that should be published later this year.

With the release of Expression Blend 3 comes a fantastic tool called ShetchFlow that let you build fully functional mock-ups with controls skinned with a sketched look.

ShetchFlow benefits are:

• Prototyping - quickly and efficiently experiment with the flow of an application UI, the layout of the individual screens and how the application will transition from one state of the application to another.
• Interactive Review - the SketchFlow player engages clients with working prototypes, collects annotations and feedback which get displayed directly on the design surface within Expression Blend.
• Documentation - Quickly create detailed project documentation for your prototypes.

The first part of this video shows how ShetchFlow works:

There you go: One great technique to gather information from the client and one great tool to test the concepts and get clients’ feedback.

The ADO.NET team blogged about it a month ago but I just saw it.  In .NET 4.0, the System.Data.OracleClient will be deprecated.  It will still be there and apps using it will still work but warnings will be generated at compile time but no errors will be generated at runtime.

So what do you do if you used this provider?  Well, keep your app as is, it will still work, or change the provider for the Oracle one or for a third party one.

Oracle : http://www.oracle.com/technology/tech/dotnet/msoc/index.html
DataDirect Technologies : http://www.datadirect.com/index.ssp
OpenLink: http://www.openlinksw.com/
Devart: http://devart.com/dotconnect/

The Oracle one (Oracle Data Provider for .NET) is available for free.  Lets hope it will stay free 

ODP.NET vs OracleClient
How to migrate to ODP.NET

Code Camp Montreal 2009 was held last May 30th and I thought I’d do a quick organization retrospective.

Website
I didn’t want to receive the session proposals by email, because that would mean to take some time to merge everything in a Word or Excel document and sent that to the committee so instead, I used a Wiki so people could enter their proposals directly. I found a nice open source Wiki called ScrewTurn Wiki that runs on ASP.NET and doesn’t require a database.  It works very well however there’s a small problem with this Wiki. It’s not the functionality; it’s the name! Some people reported that their Web filtering software at work would block it because of the term “screw”.

http://www.screwturn.eu

Registration
Registration is always a big problem. How do you get people to register? How do you collect the registration info? How do you send email reminders? How do you print the registration list? A quick search lead me to EventBrite.com. It’s a SAAS registration site that doesn’t charge a dime for free events. It worked like a charm and the only downside I found was that It does not support multi languages.

http://www.eventbrite.com

Dropout
Always expect at least 30% drop out when the event is free.

Location
Finding the ideal location is always hard. Downtown hotels are great because they are located well, downtown. Renting the conference rooms is not very expensive, it’s the food and drinks that are because you can’t bring your own drinks; the hotels are making their money on the drinks they sell you. You can buy 24 cans of Coke for $7-8 at the grocery store but the hotel will charge you $4.25 a small bottle of Coke. Yikes! So it’s a matter of compromise: great location + expensive food or less ideal location + the hassle of bringing your own cheap food. We went for the downtown hotel + drinks only (coffee + juice in the morning and sodas + chips in the afternoon) concept.

Lunch
The restaurants around the hotel weren’t ready to receive around 300 people. Subway went out of bread and there was only one waiter at St-Hubert. Next year, we’ll try to get a deal with St-Hubert.

Sponsors
In these tough times, I thought it would be hard to get sponsors but it wasn’t that bad. I think that the trick is to go with small sponsorship fees so it’s a no brainer for sponsors. For payment, I set the whole thing so that sponsors could pay via PayPal. Everyone except one paid that way.  Why do we need sponsors?  Well, we needed to cover for the location of 3 conference rooms, 3 giant screens + 3 projector podiums, coffee + juice in the morning, sodas + chips in the afternoon, photocopies and 100 T-Shirts.  The whole thing ended up costing around $5,200, drinks representing half of that.

Sessions length
This year, I wanted more sessions and more new blood presenting. My first thought was to have 30 minutes sessions but after much deliberation, I settled for 40 minutes. The goal was to have speakers presenting a problem and the best practice to solve that problem. Easy concept but not easy to execute; the speakers being more familiar with 60-75 minutes sessions hated it. It’s also very hard for speakers to cut the fat because we have a tendency to always have too much material. The attendees’ reaction was mixed. I’d say that it was 50%-50%. Next year, we’ll do 50 minutes sessions

Non technical content
I wanted to try something different: having a non technical session. One speaker presented on how to speed up your reading. A great skill for anyone in our industry since we have to read so much books and documentation. Well, attendees liked it a lot!

First time speakers
Code Camps are ideal for first time speakers but I think it is very important to tell the attendees that some speakers will be speaking in front of an audience for the first time and that they should write constructive comments in their evals.

That’s it!  Hope this helps.

Expression Studio 3 is now available for MSDN subscribers.

One thing you may notice is that Expression Media is longer bundled with Expression Studio 3 so if depend on it, make sure you don’t uninstall it when you uninstall Studio 2.

Microsoft has released a new Azure SDK CTP.  Basically, workflow is gone.

What’s new in the Windows Azure SDK?

• The Windows Azure SDK supports developing and deploying services containing multiple web and worker roles. A service must include at least one role, of either type, and may include zero or more web roles, and zero or more worker roles.
• The new PowershellRole sample hosts the Powershell runtime within a Windows Azure role. It demonstrates a simple remote console web role as well as a worker role whose implementation is a Powershell script. The host also includes the CloudDrive sample snap-in to provide access to Windows Azure Storage from script.

What’s new in Windows Azure Tools for Visual Studio

• New project creation dialog
• Support for developing and deploying services containing multiple web and worker roles. A service may contain zero or more web roles and zero or more worker roles with a minimum of one role of either type.
• Ability to associate any ASP.NET Web Application project in a Cloud Service solution as a Web Role
• Support for building Cloud Services from TFS Build
• Enhanced robustness and stability

http://blogs.msdn.com/windowsazure/archive/2009/07/20/july-ctp-of-windows-azure-sdk-released.aspx

Download it here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=8d75d4f7-77a4-4adf-bce8-1b10608574bb&displaylang=en

[Via Christian Weyer]

I recently blogged about the Azure pricing and I had confirmation from someone on the product team that the method I used was right.  In the meantime, someone has uploaded a Silverlight Azure ROI calculator on guess what….Azure 

http://azureroi.cloudapp.net/

Here’s the official announcement:
http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windows7/archive/2009/07/22/windows-7-has-been-released-to-manufacturing.aspx

What else to say!  Congrats to everyone and ... Asta la Vista, Vista! 

Wired has a great article this month on Google and why it might be facing Antitrust action from the US government.

"I think you are going to see a repeat of Microsoft." Christine Varney, Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust at the Department of Justice.

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/17-08/mf_googlopoly

When I install TFS 2008, I always install it with SQL 2005.  They’re like an old couple and they go well together 

 

For a change, I installed TFS 2008 with SQL 2008 SP1 today.  First thing, you need to do the merge dance by merging the application tier setup files with the TFS SP1 files.  The procedure is clearly described in the TFS installation guide.  None the less, TFS refuses to install saying that it doesn’t like the SQL Server version.   Grrrrr!

Well looks like I needed to do a second dance, this time it was the XML dance.  Basically, you need to update the Hcpackage.xml file with some different version numbers so that setup can view SQL 2008 SP1 as an OK version.  The procedure can be found here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/969985

And they lived happily ever after 

David Chappell’s Dutch DevDays talk called “The Microsoft Application Platform: A perspective” is available on Channel9.  This is a must see talk where Chappell expresses his opinion on a number of topics like:

• .NET is winning because the Java world is fragmenting
• Team development tools are finally addressing the right problem
• SOA isn’t succeeding
• Cloud computing

 

http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/matthijs/David-Chappell-The-Microsoft-Application-Platform-A-perspective/

Mary-Jo Foley reports that Microsoft has submitted some 20,000 lines of drivers code for the Linux kernel.

Pigs do fly: Microsoft unleashes 20,000 lines of Linux code
http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=3403

Microsoft's Linux code release: Not all fear and loathing in Linux land
http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=3414

What’s funny (or pathetic) is the hardcore Linux community reaction trying to find conspiracies in all of that:
http://news.slashdot.org/story/09/07/20/1643251/Microsoft-Releases-Linux-Device-Drivers-As-GPL

Like “Microsoft source code must be covered by some kind of patents.  By including the code, Microsoft will at some point enforce these patents and sue everyone on the planet.” or funny comments like “You can trust IBM but not Microsoft.”

Oh well! 

Note: This post deals with personal matters but may help other people.

Back in April, my mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.

Since then, I've been looking for information on the Web about the disease.  Over the weekend, I found a series of documentaries from HBO called The Alzheimer’s Project and I learned so much about the disease.  You can watch them on HBO but they are available for free on HBO’s Website.  You can also buy the DVDs from Amazon.  I watched them and I ordered the companion book from Amazon.

The first documentary is called “The Memory Loss Tapes” and it profiles seven people living with the disease, each in an advancing state of dementia, from its earliest detectable changes through death.  Very emotional.  It shows the road ahead and that road can be very bumpy.

The second one is called “Grandpa, Do You Know Who I Am?” and is targeted at children who have to cope with grandfathers or grandmothers suffering from Alzheimer's disease.

“Momentum In Science” is a two-part documentary that takes viewers inside the laboratories and clinics of 25 leading scientists and physicians, who seek to discover what can be done to better detect and diagnose Alzheimer's.  Very informative. 

Lastly, “Caregivers” shows the great tool that the disease puts on families.  Very emotional. 

I highly recommend this series to anyone looking for information on Alzheimer’s.  You can watch the videos here:
http://www.hbo.com/alzheimers/index.html

They also created a Facebook app that let you create a tribute to a love one.  Here’s the one I created for my mother:
http://apps.facebook.com/thealzheimersproject/tribute.php?tributeID=1682

The road ahead will not be easy and this is how I’d like to remember my mother: a fun, loving and caring person.

Love you Maman.  Love you so much.

I just came across a great blog post by Gary Short of Developer Express who shares his opinion about the Google Chrome OS announcement.  What I really like is the last chapter:

Can we trust Google?
The biggest issue I think that faces Google in this area, however, is one of trust. At the end of the day Google is not an operating system company, it is an advertising company. If you read the EULA that Google issues that cover anything you upload to their severs (and that includes your work in Google Apps) then you will see it gives them quite a lot of rights over it. Ever sent an email to a friend, in Google Mail, recommending a product, only to see ads for that – or competing products – show up the next time you use Google Mail? Think what it could be like once everyone is sending more and more of their data to the Google cloud. Is this what we really want? At the end of the day, it could be this fact, rather than it’s lack of functionality, that retards it’s uptake amongst netbook owners.

Ever sent an email to a friend, in Google Mail, recommending a product, only to see ads for that – or competing products – show up the next time you use Google Mail?
I remember Mario Cardinal saying that he saw that happened when he was using Google Apps.  Because of that and the fact that he gets emails from Microsoft containing NDA stuff, he switched to an hosted Exchange account.

At the end of the day, it could be this fact, rather than it’s lack of functionality, that retards it’s uptake amongst netbook owners.
Nah, people are so mesmerized by Google that they simply don’t see that at all.

Interesting blog post from May-Jo Foley where she writes about parallel computing projects from Microsoft Research called Dryad and DryadLINQ and how Microsoft envision them to run on Azure.

Microsoft has created an Azure resource portal for partners:

http://hub.digitalwpc.com/Azure

https://www.code7contest.com

Tabarnouche!  We’re soooooooo evil here 

Here’s a fun video made by Steve Marx explaining what Azure is.  What’s fun about it?  Steve drew the whole thing.

<a href="http://guy.dotnet-expertise.com/ct.ashx?id=4745b7e7-728a-47e7-b86f-820d798f9e60&amp;url=http%3a%2f%2fvideo.msn.com%2f%3fmkt%3den-US%26playlist%3dvideoByUuids%3auuids%3afeec9c5d-c6c9-451c-aa9a-b7f4524a6322%26showPlaylist%3dtrue%26from%3dmsnvideo" target="_new" title="What is Windows Azure?">Video: What is Windows Azure?</a>

http://blog.smarx.com/posts/what-is-windows-azure-a-hand-drawn-video

Microsoft announced part of the Azure pricing model in this blog post.  When they revealed Azure at PDC08, Microsoft said that the pricing model would be competitive (read: on par with Amazon Web Services).  A quick Azure/AWS comparison confirms that.

Here’s the pricing:

Azure
Compute @  $0.12 / hour
Storage @ $0.15 / GB stored
Storage Transactions @ $0.01 / 10K

Azure .NET Services
Messages @ $0.15/100K message operations

SQL Azure
Web Edition – Up to 1 GB relational database @ $9.99
Business Edition – Up to 10 GB relational database @ $99.99 

Bandwidth @ $0.10 in / GB
Bandwidth @ $0.15 out / GB

So basically, a virtual instance (30 days * 24 hours * $0.12) costs $86.40.

Let’s say that I need 2 servers with 10GB of storage, 500GB out and 100GB in.  What’s hard to predict is the storage and messages transactions.  Let’s just use these numbers: one million transactions and messages.

Compute: $172.80
Storage: $1.50
Storage transactions: $1
Messages: $1.50
Bandwidth in: $10
Bandwidth out: $75

Total: $261.80

Not bad considering that you get load balancing, automatic failover, 99.5% availability.

At PDC09, Microsoft will announce a second set of pricing with more predictable costs (read: packages with X amount of bandwidth, transactions and messages for a fixed monthly price).

AWS pricing can be found here: http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/#pricing

According to the Brandon LeBlanc who posted an update on the Windows Blog, Windows 7 will RTM in July.  Looks like we won’t be able to upgrade from RC to RTM.  I wonder if the previous trick (Beta to RC) will work.

Warning: this post is a joke to make a point.  It’s not real.

Opera files antitrust complaint with the EU

Urges Google to give consumers a genuine choice of standards—compliant Web browsers

Oslo, Norway and Brussels, Belgium — 13 July 2009

Opera Software ASA, the only company that can put the Web on any device, filed a complaint with the European Commission yesterday which is aimed at giving consumers a genuine choice of Web browsers.

The complaint describes how Google is abusing its dominant position by tying its browser, Chrome, to the Chrome operating system and by hindering interoperability by not following accepted Web standards. Opera has requested the Commission to take the necessary actions to compel Google to give consumers a real choice.

"We are filing this complaint on behalf of all consumers who are tired of having a monopolist make choices for them," said Jon von Tetzchner, CEO of Opera. "In addition to promoting the free choice of individual consumers, we are a champion of open Web standards and cross-platform innovation. We cannot rest until we've brought fair and equitable options to consumers worldwide."

Opera requests the Commission to implement one remedy to Chrome’s abusive actions. It requests the Commission to obligate Google to unbundle Chrome from Chrome OS and/or carry alternative browsers pre-installed on the desktop.

"Our complaint is necessary to get Google to amend its practices," said Jason Hoida, Deputy General Counsel, Opera. "The European is currently investigating Google practices with YouTube, Google Books and the Yahoo ad deal. We are simply asking the Commission to apply these same, clear principles to the Chrome tie, a tie that has even more profound effects on consumers and innovation. We are confident that the Commission understands the significance of the Chrome tie and will take the necessary actions to restore competition and consumer choice in the browser market."

Opera has long held the position of innovator in the Web browser market, having introduced and pioneered features like tabbed browsing, Speed Dial, integrated search bar, mouse gestures, Opera Link™ and many others. Absent Google’s abuse, Google would have been forced to compete on a level playing field with Opera and other browsers. Instead of innovating, Google has locked consumers to its own browser and only recently begun to offer some of the innovative features that other browsers have offered for years.

Both of Opera’s requested remedies are intended to give consumers greater freedom and flexibility while at the same time ensuring that the Web further develops into a platform for innovation. Opera believes that the remedies will help promote consumer rights worldwide and force Microsoft to begin competing with Opera and others on the merits of its browser.

About Opera Software ASA

Opera Software ASA is a Norwegian company providing innovative products that make the Web a reality on any device — from computers and cell phones to portable media players and game consoles. As the first company that brought the full Web to the small mobile screen, Opera has an unparalleled track record in giving users the full Web experience across platforms. Opera's product range includes its flagship desktop browser, a fast and free Web browser for mobile phones called Opera Mini, and Opera Mobile, a version of the browser designed for today's advanced smartphones. All Opera’s products support open Web standards which make the Web a home for innovation. Available completely free, Opera's desktop browser or Opera Mini can be downloaded atwww.opera.com.

Opera Software ASA is headquartered in Oslo, Norway and has offices around the world, including in the United States, Japan, Sweden, Poland, China, Korea and India. Opera is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange (Symbol: OPERA)

About Opera Software ASA

Opera Software ASA has redefined Web browsing for PCs, mobile phones and other networked devices. Opera's cross-platform Web browser technology is renowned for its performance, standards compliance and small size, while giving users a faster, safer and more dynamic online experience. Opera Software is headquartered in Oslo, Norway, with offices around the world. The company is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol OPERA. Learn more about Opera at http://www.opera.com/.

Of course it’s all made up and it was just for fun but why Opera Software shouldn’t sue Google over tying Chrome the browser to Chrome the OS?

Here’s the original Opera Software press release:
http://www.opera.com/press/releases/2007/12/13/

Now that Silverlight 3 is out, where do you start?

From: http://silverlight.net/getstarted/

Get Started Building Silverlight 3 Applications

1. Install the developer tools for Silverlight. If you don't have Visual Web Developer, download both using Web Platform Installer. This will install the SDK, developer runtimes, and Visual Studio project templates. You can optionally download the tools directly for offline installation. For additional information, read the Overview and the Silverlight 3 Release Notes.
2. Install Microsoft Expression Blend 3 + SketchFlow RC
   Expression Blend 3 RC allows designers to graphically create UI’s for Silverlight 3 applications.
3. Install Deep Zoom Composer
   This tool allows you to prepare your images for use with the Deep Zoom feature in Silverlight 3.
4. Download Silverlight Toolkit
   This Toolkit is a Microsoft project containing Silverlight controls, components and utilities that can be downloaded and used in your Silverlight applications. It includes full source code, samples and tests.

Google announced that they developing an OS designed initially for Netbooks computers.  Here’s my attempt to read between the lines.  Reader discretion is advised 

“Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010”
It’s quite unusual for Google to talk about a product that will only be released in a year.  I wonder why.  Oh, Windows 7 running as fast as XP on Netbooks?

“Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel”
Is this a way to prevent current Linux apps to run on the OS?

“All web-based applications will automatically work and new applications can be written using your favorite web technologies”
That’s your common browser based apps but will Flash and Silverlight run?

“And of course, these apps will run not only on Google Chrome OS, but on any standards-based browser on Windows, Mac and Linux thereby giving developers the largest user base of any platform.”
Like we can’t do that right now?

“They want their data to be accessible to them wherever they are and not have to worry about losing their computer or forgetting to back up files”
So no local storage?

“they don't want to spend hours configuring their computers to work with every new piece of hardware”
Sure but what about these printer drivers?  Oh wait, will I be able to print?

“Google benefits as well by having happier users who are more likely to spend time on the Internet”
Read: more ads are served by Google = happier Google.

When Chrome was released a little while ago, I said that the whole thing didn’t make any sense at all.  Why the heck Google is doing it?  Could it be because Google reached some kind of limit with AJAX apps in the current browser generation?  What if Google could control the browser (A.K.A., the RIA runtime)?  Makes more sense now?  This is really a RIA war between Google Apps, Flash and Silverlight and Chrome is an application runtime for Google Apps.

What about Chrome OS?  If you’re Google and you shut Flash and Silverlight out right at the OS level, would that help you? 

I might be pushing it a little so I’m curious to hear your thoughts.

http://www.visualstudiotalkshow.com

Pierre Pezziardi: L'informatique conviviale

Nous profitons de notre présence à la conférence USI2009 pour discuter avec Pierre Pezziardi de son prochain livre "L'informatique conviviale (Voyage au coeur des grandes organisations)". Architecture, organisation, agilité, lean, théorie de contraintes ... un roman, inspiré dans son fond et sa forme du best seller d’Elyahu Goldratt « Le But », et pimenté de cette spécificité qui tient aux liens profonds unissant Système d’Information et Organisation. Nous discutons en quoi cette fiction-réalité issue des plus récentes expériences d'OCTO est intéressante pour notre auditoire.

Pierre Pezziardi est membre fondateur et Directeur Technique d'OCTO Technology depuis 1998. Il aide les principaux opérateurs, banques et industries françaises à obtenir des TIC un maximum de valeur pour l'entreprise : Société Générale, Dassault-Aviation, Commission Européenne, France Télécom, BNP, Crédit Agricole, Essilor, Bred, Bouygues,...En 2005, Pierre Pezziardi a fondé l'initiative Octopus, première plateforme Open Source pour la micro-finance. Octopus est une communauté mondiale de savoir-faire en méthodes lean et agile, destinée à améliorer l'accessibilité des services financiers aux plus pauvres. Pierre Pezziardi est l'auteur de plusieurs ouvrages, préfaces, articles et conférences sur les thèmes des nouvelles technologies, des architectures, ou de la sécurité. Il est notamment l'auteur de Une Politique pour le Système d'information - Descartes, Wittgenstein, (XML) paru en 2005. Pierre Pezziardi a 37 ans, il est diplômé de l'Ecole Centrale de Lyon.

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http://www.visualstudiotalkshow.com

Olivier Bloch: Systèmes embarqués

Mario profite de sa présence à Los Angeles pour la conférence Tech*Ed North America pour discuter de systèmes embarqués avec Olivier Bloch. Entre autres, nous discutons en quoi les systèmes embarqués peuvent être une piste de carrière intéressante pour les développeurs .NET.

Olivier Bloch oeuvre dans le domaine des systèmes embarqués depuis la fin de ses études à l'Institut Supérieure d'Electronique de Paris. Il demeure maintenant à Redmond, USA ou il est "Technical Evangilist" chez Microsoft pour le groupe "Windows Embedded Business". Vous pouvez lire son blog sur les systèmes embarqués au blogs.msdn.com/obloch/.

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Derek Hatchard, Microsoft Regional Director and MVP based in eastern Canada and editor of the dev{shaped} Website, rolled out some of the site content from various contributors (RDs and MVPs) into an eBook that you can download for free.

Check it out here: http://devshaped.com/book

The SQL Server team announced that they changed the name of Microsoft SQL Services to Microsoft SQL Azure.

The also said that there will be more Azure announcements next week at the Partners conference.  Wild guess: pricing?

I’m looking for a way to create PDF files from an ASP.NET 3.5 app.  Any recommendations?

Microsoft (like Google) does not talk much about it’s data centers so I was surprised to find a that a blog from the Microsoft Infrastructure Services team.  The latest blog post briefly describe the newest data centers that are located in Chicago and Dublin and the fact that they will go live in July.

It’s also one of the first time that I see a description of their container strategy:

Two-thirds of the Chicago data center is optimized for housing containerized servers. Containers conserve energy and will help us realize new advancements in power efficiency with a PUE yearly average calculated at 1.22. These prepackaged units (with up to 1,800 to 2,500 servers each) can be wheeled into the facility and made operational within hours, so they represent important advances in the ability to quickly and efficiently provision capacity. The density inside the containers can exceed 10 times that of traditional data centers.

Here’s a picture of the Chicago data center:

A new version (July 2009 CTP) of the .NET Services SDK is now available.

What’s new?

(1) Windows 7 RC Support - .NET Services now supports Windows 7 RC, in addition to Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Vista.  The July CTP Release SDK can be installed on machines running Windows 7 RC.

(2) Set-up - There are multiple improvements in the set-up experience, which make it quicker for developers to get started and take advantage of the benefits of .NET Services:

   - One-click install.
   - Integrated installer (combined UI/ unattended install) for both the SDK and the Client Redistributable.
   - The SDK installer now also supports incremental upgrades.

(3) Workflow Service – As announced previously, after listening to customer feedback this service is being removed from .NET Services until further notice.

Here’s the announcement:
http://blogs.msdn.com/netservices/archive/2009/07/07/microsoft-net-services-july-2009-ctp-release.aspx

and the download link:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=38d8cf79-fc39-4aef-b3fd-ef280f2e9fa6&displaylang=en