"Bend to Evil" is an anagram of Google's "Don't be Evil" byline. I generally hold Google in high regard for its strong vision of an interconnected world where information is free, open and shared. But I also understand their need to make money. Still, I'm disheartened by their decision to actively censor search results on their newly installed Chinese servers. The Chinese government believes concepts like freedom and democracy are not in the best interests of their subjects, and like any good nanny state, is trying to protect their people from these dangerous thoughts. Enter Google. Google, who proudly proclaimed that it did not censor search results, has decided that to best serve the Chinese market, they'll take direction from the Chinese government as to what people should be able to see. Now, i believe Google has good motives; you can read their defense here. However, I'm still dismayed for a few reasons:
- Google has officially removed their Official Censorship statement. In their FAQ, they had a heading titled "Does Google censor search results?" The very first sentence was "Google does not censor results for any search term." The entire FAQ heading has now been removed. They didn't try to explain their position, or justify why they've decided to censor. Instead, the FAQ term just disappeared. My question, if this was a common Frequently Asked Question before, do they really think it ISN'T now? (Read more: here)
- When a company decides to forgo one of their key foundation principles in pursuit of some other goal (profit, or new markets, or to benefit the Chinese people...), they are stepping down a slippery slope. Sure, maybe censoring for China isn't a big deal (and at least Google, unlike MSN or Yahoo! put a notice on the search results saying the results were censored), but once a concession has been made for China, how long before one is made for Saudi Arabia, Cuba, Canada, the United States?
Of course, there are lot's of folks poking fun, and I'd be remiss not to share a couple of those... Michelle Malkin is running a competition for new Google logos. You can find the first two batches here and here. I'll post just a couple...
One of the main sticking points with many people is the lack of integration between Visual Studio Team System (VSTS) and Microsoft Project Server. Sure, you can indirectly connect the two through a MS Project file, and there's some light integration there. But most people want to use VSTS as part of a complete lifecycle management too... and that means tracking resources across multiple projects, and many across several organizational stovepipes. That's where MS Project Server comes in.
In the future, Microsoft will likely do a great deal of integration between the two, but for right now you'll need to download the Project Server Visual Studio Team System Connector. I haven't used it yet, but am planning on taking a look at it once it's been upgraded to support either TFS RC or TFS RTM. I'll let you know!
Some changes this year from Microsoft. It seems that they are merging the usually separate and distinct Tech-Ed Europe (traditional audience of 50% devs/50% IT pros) and Microsoft IT Forum (100% IT pros) into just "Tech Ed Europe". They will be run in two consecutive weeks in November:
- Tech Ed: Developers (week November 6th, CCIB Barcelona, Spain)
- Tech Ed: IT Forum (week November 13th, CCIB Barcelona, Spain)
For more information, check out the Tech-Ed Europe site. 
Bookmark this site if you are interested in what Microsoft Research is doing to improve the quality of software through analysis, program verification and software measurement techniques. I wonder how many of these tools might make it into VSTS in the future? MUTT might be interesting.
Here are a couple of interesting articles:
This question was recently asked on the VSTS forums.
As Rob Caron explains, the integration depends solely on Borland's ability to integrate TFS into Delphi's IDE. Until then options include using the standalone Team Explorer, command-line utilities, or possibly the newly available MSSCII Provider for Team Foundation Server. 
According to Jeff Beehler's recent blog posting, we should see an RC by the end of February. We're getting closer folks!
Every now and then I REALLY need to replace some text with some other text in a whole series of directories. This is especially true when working with MOC course, with LOTS of references to a server name in all sorts of solutions.
There's a GREAT tool that does simple search and replace, through any number or type of files, regardless of directory depth called ReplaceEm. And, it's FREE! The developer just wants you think of FitSoftware when you need some software development done. Download it here.
Don't miss these chats! They're great for finding out what the latest info is, and how to solve some of your knotties problems!
Team System MSDN Public Chat
Visual Studio Team Edition for Software Developer &
Visual Studio Team Edition for Software Testers
When: Wednesday, January 18th 2006 @ 10am PST (1pm EST)
What: Join us to discuss the Profiler, Test Tools (Unit, Generic, Manual), Web & Load Testing, and Code Analysis (FxCop & PREFast). We have questions for you, will answer questions from you, and will chat about the exciting new technology.
Where: http://msdn.microsoft.com/chats
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!
Teamlook brings together the ad-hoc communications domain, specifically messaging, and the structured software engineering team domain by integrating Microsoft Outlook 2003 with Microsoft Visual Studio Team System.
Visit Personify Design's site to download Teamlook and check it out.
Also, check out their TFS Outlook Starter Kit. 
Netdesk, a Microsoft Gold-certified training center, has partnered with us to deliver a 5-day end-to-end Visual Studio Team System course from February 27 - March 3, 2006. They'll have it up on their web site soon, but I wanted to let everyone out there know what's coming! I'll be sure to link to the course registration when it's up. But you can contact them now for pricing and more information.
The course will cover all the roles in Team System, and attendees can expect to be knowledgeable in all areas of VSTS, including extensibility and custom reporting. It's an excellent class for both early Team System adopters, and also technical decision makers who are determining whether or not their companies should implement Team System.
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