Back in the 80s (way back!) Apple got a toe-hold in the PC market in part by engineering a high presence in colleges and high schools. The theory was that if you get a young person started on an Apple computer then they will want to continue using Apple computers into their adult careers, if for no other reason than they already know how to use it. This strategy actually worked reasonably well.
Microsoft has always struggled with their presence in colleges and high schools. These institutions tend to favor the JLAMP stack (Java, Linux, Apache, MySql, PHP) over the Windows platform. What mind-share Microsoft has with students seems to tend toward the "evil empire" variety.
I'm pleased to see that Microsoft has finally made a bold move to improve their visibility in the college community. My son - a college student - pointed it out to me the other day. The program, launched last February, is called DreamSpark:
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.
Looking at the list of software available for free through this program, it almost makes me want to enroll in a class or two at my local university!
For more information: https://downloads.channel8.msdn.com/
A bug is a bug is a bug, right? Not so! Most development shops treat a bug as a task. That seems reasonable - it's a bit of work that needs to be done. Unfortunately, it's not so easy. If a bug is discovered in a feature that is currently under development, and it will be fixed in the current Sprint (iteration), then the bug can and should be treated as a task. It would be considered a new Sprint Backlog Item that must be closed before the feature can be considered "Done". However, if the bug is not fixed before the feature is considered "Done" (yes this really happens), or the bug is discovered after the feature has be deemed "Done", then the bug becomes a bit of work to be scheduled into a future Sprint. In other words, the bug should be treated as a Product Backlog Item. The rule of thumb is rather easy really. If the bug is going to be fixed in the current iteration, then treat it as a task. If not, then the bug needs to go on the product backlog and be prioritized right along with all the other Product Backlog Items. Of course, this raises the question: What does "Done" mean exactly? Many dev teams grapple with this deceptively simple question. I'll explore this question in a future post.
I am a simple man. All I ever wanted was drag and drop for source control. That folder chooser dialog was a bear. Now we will get it with Visual Studio 2008 SP1. Thank goodness. From the web site: - Simplified the user experience through cleaner "Add to Source Control" dialogs, drag and drop support to the Source Control Explorer and a much easier to use "Workspace" dialog for working folder mappings.
- Version control now automatically supports non-solution controlled files.
- Various changes to the Source Control Explorer such as a new checkin date/time display column, local path hyperlink support and en editable source location field.
I am not a big fan of installing a beta SP on may dev laptop, but I gotta tell ya, I did it for that feature alone.
Last week I had a chance to meet some of the brains behind gridGISTICS - a .NET development company in Atlanta that gets it. Not only are they up to speed on the latest .NET 3.x technologies, but they have some killer products as well. The one that struck me as the coolest was their Aware Server product, which is a grid-computing based deployment and management environment. In other words, the missing pieces to Team Foundation Server's build and (ahem) deploy automation. Packaging up applications by system and version into manifests, these binaries can be automatically deployed, registered, launched, and monitored by various Aware Agents installed around a company's environment. From the development side, they provide many Visual Studio 2008 templates and add-ins to help generate Aware-compatible applications very quickly. 
Follow their story here.
I just learned about this neat editor for creating and editing Windows Installer packages (.msi files) and merge modules (.msm files). Orca is just one of many cool installer tools by Microsoft. It provides a graphical interface for validation, highlighting the particular entries where validation errors or warnings occur. This KB255905 article explains more.
Orca is part of the platform SDK and locating the correct download was difficult - a lot of redirected pages and dead ends, but I found it as part of the Vista SDK download as well as the Windows Server 2003 SDK download. Once you install the SDK, look for Orca.msi and install it separately.
Here is a screenshot of running Orca on the Orca.msi file ...
The browser support out-of-the-box for Team Edition for Testers is pretty minimal. But, you can extend this support by adding your own browsers (common ones you'll probably want to add are IE7, Firefox and Opera and there are others you can probably think of). The files which provide the configuration for the browser types are stored in the C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\IDE\Templates\LoadTest\Browsers. You will several files which end in the extension ".browser". These files simply contain the header information a browser sends with a request. The IE6.browser file looks like the following:
<Browser Name="Internet Explorer 6.0">
<Headers>
<Header Name="User-Agent" Value="Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1)" />
<Header Name="Accept" Value="*/*" />
<Header Name="Accept-Language" Value="{{$IEAcceptLanguage}}" />
<Header Name="Accept-Encoding" Value="GZIP" />
</Headers>
</Browser>
If you aren't sure of what information to enter in this file, simply open up your favorite browser that isn't in the list and go to http://www.ranks.nl/tools/envtest.html and grab the appropriate values! Use the IE6.browser file as a template. For example, if you wanted to add support to test Opera you might add the following and save it as Opera.browser:
<Browser Name="Opera 8.0">
<Headers>
<Header Name="User-Agent" Value="Opera/8.00+(Windows+NT+5.1;+U;+en)" />
<Header Name="Accept" Value="text/html, image/jpeg, image/gif, image/x-bitmap, */*" />
<Header Name="Accept-Language" Value="en" />
<Header Name="Accept-Encoding" Value="GZIP" />
</Headers>
</Browser>
There are obviously other values you can place here and some of this will be dependent on your locale, plug-ins you have loaded and other environmental factors. Once you save this file, you should be able to go in and create a new load test and Opera 8.0 will now show up as an option in your browser mix list.
Learning a new language isn't always fun, especially Javascript. Plus, when you're working in one language, it takes context switching to flip to another, even for a trivial task. Nikhil Kothari, an architect on the Web Platform and Tools team at Microsoft, has created something called Script#, which allows you to program in C# while compiling to Javascript/Ajax. ZDnet has a good blog post on the importance of this technology, and a brief comparison with the Google version which compiles Java to Javascript.
FTP Online has started a new Team System column written by me! I'll be writing about virtually anything that comes to mind or that you want me to write about! It's a twice monthly column and I'll be looking for some good article ideas from process and methodology to the technical nuts and bolts. I only have 800 words or less so they will only be point issues and not overly in-depth (unless I do a continuing series type of thing). You can view the first column on Test Driven Development in Team System today.
Here are a couple of good sites for learning about Sharepoint 2003 customization:
Brian Harry has just posted a great Word doc that gives a few ins and outs when building extensions to Team Foundation Server. It's focused on the Version Control side of the house, but many of the recommendations work for automating Work Item access as well. Head over to the blog post (here), and download the Advice for developing TFS client applications.doc document. If you build TFS extensions, it's definitely required reading! 
If you're building a web site that needs to be viewed in multiple different browsers, it has been difficult in the past to really get a good test. No longer. A site called BrowserShots.org provides a way to view screenshots of a web page as seen from over 30 different types of browsers. They actually run the site in the browser, take a screenshot, and post it. Pretty amazing! Here's a list of the browsers and options you can choose from. Color me impressed! 
Check out this article on CNNMoney. It lists the top 5 jobs in having the biggest demand for employees. .NET Developers made the list!
Here's an excerpt:
Developers who are expert users of Microsoft's software programming language .NET can make between $75,000 and $85,000 a year in major cities when they're starting out. If they pursue a job at a company that seeks someone with a background in a given field (say, a firm looking for a .NET developer experienced in using software related to derivatives) they might snag a salary hike of 15 percent or more when they switch jobs.
Don't miss the latest articles on MSDN covering one of the coolest new ASP.NET 2.0 features: Member and Role Management.
Peter Kellner, a friend of Rich and myself, from California wrote them. They're chock-full of expert goodness!
If you're working with ASP.NET 2.0 role-based security, give them a read!
Both sides have had sites like this over the years, but Microsoft finally put together a comprehensive site with research, case studies, code samples, and other resources. 
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