Bryant Likes

From Clemmens talking about technology overload:

Enter VS2005 and the summary of trying to achieve the same knowledge density is: “Frustrating”.

I feel his frustration. I remember going to PDC 2003 and realizing that it was getting very hard to keep up on all the new stuff coming out of Microsoft. Clemmens continues...

For “generalists” like me, these are hard and frustrating times if they’re trying to stay generalists. Deep and consequent specialization is a great opportunity for everyone and the gamble is of course to pick the right technology to dig into and become “the expert” in. If that technology or problem space becomes the hottest thing everyone must have – you win your bet. Otherwise you might be in trouble.

This statement not only applies to technology in general, but also to specific technologies: think SQL Server 2005. As Kimberly Tripp says, you must become a “Jack of all trades, master of some”. The hard part, as Clemmens mentions, is chosing the some.

For me it all comes down to what I'm working with. For instance, I just found out today that I will not be getting renewed as a Microsoft MVP for SQL Server. I expected this because I haven't had the time to contribute much to the SQL Server community lately. I tend to contribute based on what I'm currently working on. I haven't been a project that used SQL Server 2005 yet, so I haven't had time to really dig into it. If you read this blog you can probably figure out what kind of projects I have been on recently: a SharePoint (and RS) project last year and mostly BizTalk projects this year. I learn based on need.

I'm sure at some point in the near future (at least I keep telling myself this) I'll have time to dig into the new SQL Server 2005 and Visual Studio 2005 stuff (team system and all), but for now I'm pretty much focused on BizTalk 2004, test-driven development,  continuous integration, etc., since that is where I'm at.

I'll miss hanging out with the other SQL Server MVPs who are a great bunch of guys, but it has been fun being an MVP for the last five years.

From Eli Robillard:

After a year and 32065 web views, I've reorganized and moved the SharePoint resource page into an article. In addition to giving it a more sensible URL, the switch reflects the fact that this is a continuously updated resource and not a one-time posting. I've also added hand-tuned searches, making it easy to locate the most current information for each topic. Don't forget to update your bookmarks and links, and as always, enjoy!

I noticed that the RsWebParts are not listed in the Web Parts section, but other than that it looks like a great list of stuff. My own SharePoint Resource Page has gotten pretty stale (though that isn't entirely my own fault, it is a wiki after all :)

There is another Get Ready for SQL Server 2005 Roadshow going on:

The Get Ready for SQL Server 2005 Roadshow was a huge success last
spring, so we're extending the tour to 15 more cities this summer and
fall, starting in Portland on July 26. Once again, we invite you as our
guest to attend any venue of the roadshow tour, which kicks off in
Portland on July 26.

This event will follow a similar format as the first show: technical
content in three tracks -- administration, development, and business
intelligence -- presented in this round by our roadshow training
partners Hitachi Consulting, Scalability Experts, and Solid Quality
Learning. Keynoters for selected cities will include Bill Baker. As our
guest at the roadshow, you'll receive a special attendee bag, a "Get
Ready" logo shirt, and the SQL Server 2005 Upgrade Handbook.

Also, if you have a blog or an email communication that you send out,
we'd appreciate a mention of this terrific opportunity for SQL Server
professionals!

For more information about the show, visit the event Web site at
http://www.windowsitpro.com/roadshows/sqlserverusa/. Cities and dates
for the tour are as follows. We hope that one or more of these locations
will be convenient for you.

Portland, July 26, Hilton Portland & Executive Tower
Seattle, July 28, Sheraton Seattle Hotel & Towers
Kansas City, August 9, Sheraton Overland Park Hotel (at the Convention
Center)
St. Louis, August 11, Sheraton Westport Chalet Hotel St. Louis
Minneapolis, August 16, Hyatt Regency Minneapolis
Washington, DC, August 18, Wardman Park Marriott Hotel
Phoenix, August 23, Arizona Biltmore Resort & Spa
Denver, August 25, Denver Marriott Tech Center
Atlanta, August 30, Cobb Galleria
Tampa, September 1, Grand Hyatt Tampa Bay
Los Angeles, September 8, Los Angeles Marriott Downtown
Detroit, September 13, Hyatt Regency Dearborn
Philadelphia, September 15, Hilton Philadelphia City Center
Cincinnati, September 20, NKU/METS Center for Corporate Learning
Columbus, September 22, Greater Columbus Convention Center

Update: I'm hoping to attend the Los Angeles event. See you there!

I've been working for Avanade for about two months now, and I really like it. I've gotten a few emails from people who are interviewing with the company and want to know what it is like. It is a great company to work for, especially if you like working with Microsoft technology. In fact, Gartner just released a publication that listed Avanade as one of the “cool” vendors (along with three other companies). The big issue with working for Avanade is that you will travel. How much depends on what region you work for. The region that I work for, the west region, has a lot of work in each area so the traveling I do is all close by (at least so far).

The west region is also looking to hire developers (especially in SoCal). So if you live in the Western US, like to work with MS technologies, and don't mind some travel, this is a great opportunity. The company is mainly looking for .NET developers with skills in other MS products like SQL Server, BizTalk, SharePoint, Reporting Services, etc.

If you're interested, send your resume to me and I'll pass it along to the right person.

Some of the benefits of working for Avanade include things like $1000 every six months to spend on gadgets and a trip to one major conference per year. They want all developers to get MCSD certified and will pay for your training materials and exams (pass or fail). You are also allocated three weeks per year for training and this is allocated in the same way that vacations are allocated. Plus you get to work with a bunch of great people and have a lot of fun.

Here is a basic job description:

Short Description : Join Avanade and you will be part of a premier consulting organization focused on the Microsoft
enterprise suite. You will help build reliable, scalable solutions.

Description : Avanade is the only global technology integrator dedicated to the Microsoft enterprise platform. Avanade helps customers use Microsoft technology to cut costs and improve business results through standardization, consolidation, and integration of IT infrastructure and applications.

As a Developer, your focus will be developing and testing mission critical enterprise solutions. You will build management, technical and planning skills by participating in internal development projects. You will improve your abilities to think creatively and design solutions.

Responsibilities:

• Participate in business requirements gathering and rules definition.
• Participate in design of desktop and web-based application architecture.
• Develop components/modules/scripts implementing business process rules.
• Perform code walk-through of software components.
• Document software components sufficient for on-going support and enhancement.
• Effectively communicate status of tasks and projects

Minimum Requirements:

You will be degree qualified with excellent communication skills and will have hands-on experience working on component based applications in a distributed environment. Qualified candidates should possess:

• 1+ year technology consulting
• 2 to 4+ years as a programmer
• 1+ years experience with C#
• Deep MS platform Skills
• .NET Framework
• Full lifecycle experience developing large scale, scaleable applications
• Willing to travel

Preferred Requirements:

• MCSD Certification

Are you ready to learn about SQL Server 2005, Visual Studio 2005, and BizTalk 2004/2006, but you lack the motivation required to take on this monstrous task?

I present to you: the carrot.

[L]ast years developer competition was so much fun we are doing it again but bigger. This time in conjunction with SQL Server 2005 and Visual Studio.NET there is a joint connected systems developer competition.  The top prize is only $50,000.  Check out the details here.

Nice. Now you just need to come up with an entry. That shouldn't be too hard as there are fifteen categories:

Best Extension of a SQL Server 2005 database using the SQLCLR
1. Best integrated application using XML in SQL Server 2005 and Visual Studio 2005
2. Best Application using the Business Intelligence features of SQL Server 2005
3. Best extension of a video gaming experience using Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005
4. Best I-Worker solution using Microsoft Office System and Visual Studio Tools Office
5. Best integrated/SOA application utilizing SQL Server 2005, Visual Studio 2005 and BizTalk
6. Best SmartPhone application using Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server Mobile Edition
7. Best Tool to provide additional functionality to SQL Server 2005
8. Best Occasionally Connected Smart Client Application using SQL Server 2005 Data
9. Best use of Managed DirectX, Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server Express
10. Best Visual Studio 2005 PowerToy utilizing SQL Server Express
11. Best extension of Visual Web Developer and the Personal Web Site Starter Kit
12. Best sample demonstrating key functionality not already included in the BizTalk Server SDK
13. Best BizTalk adapter not already supplied by Microsoft or other adapter vendors
14. Best implementation of a generic pattern on the BizTalk Server platform

I think those categories cover just about every possible app you could build and they probably will help you think up some connected app to create as an entry. Good luck and have fun!

Via Andrew Watt:

Service Pack 2 for Reporting Services 2000 is available for download.

Visit SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services Service Pack 2.

Bug fixes in SP2 are listed at Microsoft Knowledge Base article 889640.

I'll be interested to hear what people think of the new web parts versus the RsWebParts. The fact that they are included out-of-the-box makes a big difference in what people use.

Just finished uploading the RsWebParts 1.3 package to the project site. I added in a quick fix for the parameters issue. The fix is that you can now include the standard Reporting Services toolbar and parameters which should fix the problem. It isn't as flexible and it takes up some of the report view space, but it works until I come up with something better.

Thanks to everyone for all the great feedback, especially David Korn for testing out the new version.

Not a very exciting release. You can get the installer and the source code (and the DwpGenerator binary and source) at the RsWebParts SourceForge Project.

I'm still working on resolving the parameters issue. I think I'm close on a solution but there were several people who needed the source files ASAP so I went with a much simplier release for now.

Mads created a GotDotNet workspace for tracking issues with SharePoint and non-IE browsers. I installed Firefox some time ago but but it aside since I didn't appear to do NTLM authentication which is needed for SharePoint access. One of the first posts in the form there is TIP: Use current Windows credentials in Firefox (warning: we are talking about GotDotNet so the link to the post may be unusable about 50% of the time while the GotDotNet crew does some “maintenance“). The tip explains how to enable NTLM in Firefox. However, it didn't work for me and after some googling I found this post which adds another setting to the mix but didn't solve the problem for me either. Turns out I had to add the server names to the bypass proxy list for it to work.

SharePoint seems to work except for ActiveX controls, which I see Mads already posted about. The most interesting thing to me though was checking out Reporting Services from Firefox which is pretty much unusable. Very ugly. I will have to look into seeing if I can make them work using the RsWebParts (which I'm still working on version 1.2 (parameters are a pain)).

Note to self:

The Page.RegisterStartupScript just outputs the text you pass to the method and doesn't add script tags. If you don't add script tags your text will be output at the bottom of every page (which is embarrassing). Why can't I remember this....

P.S. - In case you were wondering, I just discovered this is a bug in the RsWebParts version 1.1 which will be fixed in 1.2.

P.S.S. - I hear this is “fixed” in ASP.Net 2.0...