Here's the install script for TFS, both Dual and Single server install.  Thanks to Etienne Tremblay (VSTS MVP) for all his hard work in putting this together, and updating it for SQL Server 2005 SP1.  

The best tool is the simplest.  It shouldn't get in the way of doing things, and it should be incredibly easy.  One of my favorite Agile dev tools is the digital camera.  Simply snap a quick photo of your whiteboard and you've got a good replacement for a $10,000 whiteboard with print / scan capabilities.  Plus, you then have it in digital format!  No need for scanning.

The problem is that you have flash reflections, etc, and that makes the image harder to read.  You need to do some image manipulation to really make it easy to read and understand.  And it should be in TIF or PDF format if you want to do OCR.  So, head to www.scanr.com  This great little web site takes a digital photo of a white board, and converts it to a very nice PDF document.  It eliminates most of the flash, rotates the image if you've taken a photo of the white board from the side, and saves it as a nice, high-quality PDF.  Check it out!

Check out Chris Birmele's MSDN article "Branching and Merging Primer" on MSDN.

The article is short and sweet, but states the case well for SCM and even includes a few branching patterns.

I just found Protolize.  It's a great resource for web development - everything from Ajax to XHTML.  It's basically a collection of pointers (done very nicely) to various web resources.  Very nice!

It's been a long time coming, and will address many common problems people have been running into. Get your hands on the beta and start giving feedback today!

Read Brian Hary's post for more details. You can find SP1 at the Microsoft Connect Site. (Remember that it is beta software)

TFS SP1 is out!  it takes a while to get on the list, and to start the downloads, but it's worth it!  There are lots of improvements in SP1 and I'll be running a few tests against it myself.  Remember, it is Beta, so unless you have a very compelling reason, keep it off your production servers.  But get in there to play with some of the new features!  Especially the ability to host your own WIT controls, so you'll be able to more easily add functionality to the Work Item viewer!

Some other areas of improvement:

• Version Control, WorkItem Tracking and Datawarehouse performance/scale improvements
• "Extranet support"
• WIT Custom Control support
• Support for Office 2007 (Project and Excel - no Sharepoint 2007 support yet), Vista and the new WAP project support
• Detailed Merge History

The release includes fixes for a total of 85 issues!  For more information on the release see Brian Harry's weblog posting, and to sign up for the download visit the Microsoft Connect Site.

Good work, Microsoft! 

Finally, my German last name on a book in German!

I picked this up when I was in Stuttgart last summer at the World Cup. This one now sits on my shelf next to the Russian version.

Here are a couple of good sites for learning about Sharepoint 2003 customization:

• MSD2D - Sharepoint
• SharePointCustomization.com

Reporting in Team System is handled by SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services. As such, team members get to enjoy (and are restricted-by) the built-in report rendering extensions (CSV, Excel, HTML, Image, MHTML, PDF, and XML). What's missing from this list is the Microsoft Word DOC format and a richer Microsoft Excel XLS format.

This is where a product called OfficeWriter comes in. It enables you to use Excel or Word to create templates utilizing data markers and merge fields for databinding sections of the document to the various Team Foundation Server data items. After a quick configuration of Reporting Services, your reports can generate documents/spreadsheets based on these templates without the need for Microsoft Office on the server. There's also an integration with Reporting Services that will let you create these documents without any coding at all. Users will design their RDL reports using Excel or Word, without the need for Visual Studio or SQL Report Builder.

Check out their latest version of OfficeWrite (v3.6) at http://officewriter.softartisans.com

Microsoft works when they get feedback about their software and services. Their Connect site enables this and allows you to participate in several ways, such as downloading the latest software and written material, taking surveys, exchanging ideas in newsgroup forums, and, most importantly, providing and reviewing feedback about your experiences.

Here are the types of resources you will find at Connect:

• Announcements - New information for connection participants
• Articles - Articles that are related to the connection
• Surveys - Surveys can be used to collect information
• Events - Dates for upcoming events that are related to the connection
• Links - Web site links that relate to the connection
• FAQs - Frequently asked questions about the connection or program
• Downloads - Software, whitepapers, and other information
• Product Keys - The product keys that you need to run the downloaded software
• Newsgroups - Forums for discussing current connection issues