03 May 2006

The Semester is Over!

Training
This semester marked the first time I've ever taught at the college level - an introduction to programming class using C#. It has been a fun semester and I've learned a lot - hopefully the students learned even more ;-).Tonight was the final exam for the class so it is officially over until next time (actually, it's not over until I finish grading the exams - but close enough :-). I'm looking forward to having some of my evening hours back for other projects (home projects, software projects, movies, etc.).Having been a contractor for eight years (not a contractor any…
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30 Apr 2006

Team System Utilities

TFS
Over the past few months I've come across several utilities related to Team System. Some of them have proven to be useful so I thought I'd compile a short list and post it in case anyone else might find them useful. Click here to see the list.If you know of other Team System utilities that I do not have listed, please let me know about them so I can add them to the list.
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29 Apr 2006

Heartland Developers Conference

Conferences
The 3rd annual Heartland Developers Conference has been scheduled for October 26th and 27th, 2006. This will be the first time the conference has been held in Omaha, NE. I'm excited to go because A: it's very close (about 15 minutes from my house), B: it's inexpensive ($125 early bird registration fee - which my company is paying for), and C: I'm looking forward to hearing some great speakers.If you live in the midwest (e.g. Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Minnesota, etc.) then you should definitely consider attending this conference. Registration starts Monday, May 1st. There will most likely be a…
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26 Apr 2006

Upgrading Team Foundation Server

TFS
Three new documents have been posted on the Visual Studio Team System User Education blog explaining the various upgrade steps for Team Foundation Server. The three documents include:Team Foundation Server Upgrade Types - this document explains the various types (i.e. versions) of Team Foundation Server and what can be upgraded to what.How To: Upgrade from Team Foundation Server Trial EditionHow To: Upgrade from Team Foundation Server Workgroup EditionClick here for more information.
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25 Apr 2006

Workspace Sidekick

TFS
A new utility for manipulating Team Foundation Server Version Control workspaces has been released by Eugene Zakhareyev and is available here. Here are some specifications from the web site: Workspace Sidekick is a tool for TFS Administrators and advanced users providing Graphic User Interface for viewing and performing administrative changes on TFS workspaces. The version 1.0 of TFS VC Workspace Sidekick provides the following features:View workspaces filtered by specific owner or computer name (owner and/or computer name may be selected from list of Active Directory users or just typed in)Delete workspacesUpdate workspace computer name (for local workspaces only)View specific workspace…
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19 Apr 2006

A GUID Debugger Visualizer for Visual Studio 2005

Utilities, Visual Studio
For those of you working in Visual Basic 2005, have you ever had a situation where you would like to view the value of a GUID variable during a debugging session?One of the nice additions to Visual Studio 2005 are debugger visualizers. During a debugging session you can just hover over a variable to view the contents of that variable. This works for almost all .NET data types. However, if you try it with a GUID value, you can't see the actual value - rather you see "{System.Guid}" or "Empty", if you expand the visualizer.I got tired of constantly typing…
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13 Apr 2006

Microsoft Releases Free eBook: Introducing Microsoft Visual Basic 2005 for Developers

eBooks
Although I prefer developing in C#, I also develop in Visual Basic 2005. Microsoft has released the complete book, Introducing Microsoft Visual Basic 2005 for Developers, in PDF format for free.Get a focused, first look at the features and capabilities in Microsoft Visual Basic 2005, Visual Studio 2005, and the .NET Framework 2.0. If you currently work with Visual Basic 6, these authors fully understand the adoption and code migration issues you'll encounter. They'll step you through a quick primer on .NET Framework programming, offering guidance for a productive transition. If you already work with .NET, you'll jump directly into…
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05 Apr 2006

Visual Studio Team System Training

Training, Visual Studio
I came across a (relatively) new Microsoft site today that is dedicated to providing technical information for Visual Studio Team System.Here you can access comprehensive resources from introductory to expert that include both online and self-paced training, the latest technical articles, videos, evaluation downloads, Webcasts by Visual Studio Team System experts and more. Take the first step to expand your opportunities!There are a few "coming soon..." placeholders here and there but there is still a lot of good information on this site if you're interested in learning more about Team System.
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19 Mar 2006

Team Foundation Server is Shipping

TFS
Team Foundation Server has been officially launched by Rick Laplante at SDWest 2006. We've been using TFS in various beta versions for several months now. It will be nice to finally have the release version available.Read more at: http://blogs.msdn.com/somasegar/archive/2006/03/16/553413.asp
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13 Mar 2006

Cleaning the Visual Studio 2005 MRU List

Tips, Visual Studio
I came across this utility a while back that allows you to easily remove project items from the Visual Studio MRU list. It works for the 2002, 2003, and 2005 versions. I saw a post today on a forum asking for a utility to do this so I thought I'd post this out for others to see (source code is included).Check it out at: http://weblogs.asp.net/egarmon/archive/2005/02/04/366825.aspx
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