Off to Seattle for an all day INETA working group meeting that is tomorrow and then to SF on Monday for VSLive/WindowsAnywhere. (I live in the NorthEast - so "off to seattle" is an all day affair.)

Really looking forward to seeing some new toys while at WindowsAnywhere!!

http://www.AcehAid.org

Ooh - this I gotta see! I still have a lot to learn about WSE2 and hearing every possible different person's perspective even on the intro stuff is always helping me grok this all more and more. Even though I'm speaking at Windows Anywhere, I get to go to VSLive sessions as well. There will be so much to choose from. Lots of new content.

http://www.AcehAid.org

Not only is it full articles on Web Services and WSE 2.0, but it means that the April issue is next!!

http://www.AcehAid.org

Stuart Celarier is organizing an informal get-together of INETA folks and user group leaders who might be in San Francisco next week at the VSLive/WindowsAnywhere conferences. It will be fun to hook up with people we do con-calls and instant messengers with all of the time, eh? I'll be there. Not sure who else. Contact Stuart at stuart.celarier at ineta dot org  if you want to join us and he will let you know where and when (which is as of yet undetermined).

http://www.AcehAid.org

You have 2 more weeks to submit sessions for Code Camp 3, Mar 12-13 in the Microsoft Waltham Office! We would love to see more people making their debut doing presentations here! Come one come all. I only see on other woman on the list, too. And I am only ASSUMING that someone named "Hilary" is a girl. I have met men named Hilary, you know!

http://www.AcehAid.org

Werner Vogels is looking for someone who knows their stuff re Distributed Systems. Read more here.

http://www.AcehAid.org

The auction has ended. We had a lot of people bidding! The lowest winning bid was $152.50 so even if the winners only pay what eBay requires them to pay ($152.50), we have raised $4575 for Aceh Aid at IDEP. I have heard many people are planning to pay the actual maximum amount that they bid (which we can't see) so I expect the final tally to be much higher. This was great! Thanks for everyone's contributions - whether they were a bid, an hour, an offer for a future hour or some p.r. on their blogs.

Here is the final list. Perhaps we will translate it into real names at some point (with everyone's permission). We will let everyone know what the final true amount is!!

EBay sorts them in the order of the highest bid yet only shows the lowest winning bid. The draft will be based on what people actually pay (per consultant). It will be in one week. Check back for more info!

http://www.AcehAid.org

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=5552696499

Remember it's a CHARITY auction. Don't be nickel and diming those bids!!

It's all for www.acehaid.org

http://www.AcehAid.org

Keith Brown's new article on MSDN Online  is high on my reading list and will be incorporated into my WSE2 talk at DevConnections. UsernameTokens will be much more highly used than I think was originally planned for with WSE2.

http://www.AcehAid.org

blogs I love, bloggers I admire, but every time I see that "sponsored" note it just annoys me and so I am probably going to be unsusbscribing from those blogs. :-(

 

http://www.AcehAid.org

(If you are a vermont.net member, you are not allowed to apply for this job and move away. )

SQL Server 2000 Expert

** Full-time position, Location is Connecticut, Salary is negotiable and highly competitive **
Responsibilities:
• Maintain production SQL server environment which supports a substantial base of mostly custom applications
• Serve as subject matter expert in working with Database/Software Developers and Data Analysts to define data models, schemas and database application architectures
• Implement and Manage best practice based security model and auditing including delegation, Kerberos and encryption
• Gain intimate familiarity with normal usage and operations of database applications in order to troubleshoot real-time issues and optimize databases, indexing and data allocations for efficiency and issue avoidance
• Design, development and installation of SQL monitoring systems and solutions
• Responsible for the implementation and operation of disaster recovery strategy, architecture, and detailed plan for all database applications
• Design and implement high availability, clustered, and replicated SQL environments where desirable and feasible
• Establish and document coding standards and best practices for schema design and T-SQL queries
• Establish and monitor procedures and technologies for creating and maintaining data dictionaries
• Establish and monitor procedures and technologies for change management within SQL Server
• Research and advance new technologies affecting SQL Server development that may provide value to enterprise applications
• Lead SQL Server in-house training efforts through the development of syllabi, course materials, and core knowledge requirements
Experience:
• Expert level experience with Microsoft SQL 2000 – including usage, administration, monitoring, optimization, architecture, etc
• Substantial experience with large data sets – over 100GB in size
• Expert in profiler, real-time analysis, monitoring solutions
• Expert in Performance Optimization of queries and SQL code
• Significant experience in resolving complex, multi-component failures
• Must be able to create all aspects of documentation that follows traditional systems design methodologies
• Must have excellent organization, communication, teamwork and leadership skills.
• Must have demonstrated, strong attention to detail and quality.
• Must provide examples of analyzing and optimizing business processes in past roles
• Experience with OLAP services is desired
Near-term Projects in Addition to Ongoing Responsibilities:
• Baseline and gap analysis of current SQL environment vs. ideals and best practices
• Develop short and long term strategy for SQL environment monitoring and alerting
• Design and implement a SQL basic training course for in house developers to ensure a minimum threshold of consistent and appropriate SQL knowledge
• Create and begin the preparation process for an eventual migration to the SQL 2005 platform

For immediate consideration, please contact:
Anne Keehan
Partner
Brandywine Technology Partners
Phone: 302.656.6100 x225
Email: akeehan@btpartners.net

http://www.AcehAid.org

For Christmas, I got my hubby a 4-month membership in this great beer of the month club. I have given him this in the past. Who knows, it might have helped provoke him to propose to me! They send awesome beer from microbrews all over the u.s. that you might never have heard of. The first one arrived today. I laughed my ass off when I opened it up. It contained 6 bottles of  Wolavers beer which is made by Otter Creek brewery in Middlebury - 25 miles from our house. Wolavers is also currently Rich's favorite - he just loves their Wit Beer which was a special release. The other beer selection  was from Michigan's Arcadia Brewing Company. Of course it's all a big lead up to the Vermont Brewer's Fest this summer. I drive. Rich drinks. You can get pretty goofy on ten 3-oz samples!

http://www.AcehAid.org

Not so fast there buddy. Do you know that you cannot boot from the USB DVD drive? (the one I just got yesterday....). I had a chat with Markus Egger last night who discovered this in the middle of his repave. Oops. A little googling found a workaround  in the www.tabletpcbuzz.com forums that was so good (and needed) that it generated this comment in the thread:

WOW!

Those of you that haven’t followed the above thread closely may have missed the great significance of this discovery.

OSU-JCM has discovered a way that you can restore your M200 using the Factory restore DVD without the need for an attached DVD drive. People no longer need to buy a bootable DVD if all they want it for is to run the restore DVD! All they need is a networked Windows machine with a DVD drive. It could even be another M200 with a non-bootable DVD drive!

http://www.AcehAid.org

Almost every year, someone gives me a wall calendar of newfies. This is a calendar you can buy at any of those calendar kiosks in the malls around the country. They are made from stock photos. What is funny about the calendars though is that every year there is at least one a dog that was bred by my parents in there.

This year it is Sequoia. If you look at the last picture on this calendar's back cover, you can see it was from the same series of shutter clicks as this picture on my parent's website.

http://www.AcehAid.org

Michele posted something funny on her blog. An image of VS2005's "New Project" dialog suggesting that C# is THE language of choice and VB.NET is just one of those "other" languages.

This is just really based on some settings in VS because mine looks quite different!

http://www.AcehAid.org

I love the concept of Nullable<T> being able to deal with null data coming out of the database - especially ints and datetimes. The only problem is that I cannot figure out how to leverage Nullable<T> with data coming from a database. I still have to test for null. I have also talked with Sahil Malik at length about this. He is just as confused. I have tried it in a number of different spots -- from the data layer to the business layer --  with no luck.

Let's say I'm working with a Nullable<Int32>. I have created a SqlDataReader from some SQL Server data.

Nullable<Int32> does not seem to grok System.dbNull. (Invalid Cast). That means I cannot assign mySqlDataReader.item("myintfield") directly to my Nullable<Int32> when it is null.

Though you *can* cast an Int to a Nullable<Int>, you cannot use DataReader's GetInt32 method on a null database value. (SqlNullValueException). Therefore I can't get at the null value this way either (without explicitly testing for Null myself).

So, let's say I load the data into a DataTable.

I happen to know that my null integer is in the "someintdata" column of my 2nd row - so I am just coding specifically to test that data. This column is an Integer.

.NET will not implicitly  cast myTable.Rows(1).Item("someintdata") into my Nullable<Int>. It won't even compile and helpfully suggests that I explicitly cast it.

Nor can I explicitly cast it. That attempt throws an InvalidCastException. It doesn't like the null.

So it seems that no matter what,  I still have to test for Null before I can extract the data. And if I have to do that, what is the Nullable<T> buying me in this case?

(This is one of those posts that I worry I have *really* missed something obvious and am going to look like a total fool, but I am just going to go for it anyway...)

http://www.AcehAid.org

In preparation for ASPConnections, I am revising my What's New in the Whidbey Base Class Libraries talk for the 3rd time. I first wrote it against the PDC bits and presented it last February. Then I revised it with the May 2004 bits to present at DevTeach in June. For ASPConnections in November, I used the October CTP (which I put on my demo box just days before the conference). Now I am updating it again using the November CTP. I am also trimming it down and shifting some of the focus. Most importantly for this version of the talk (as for what I did in November) is to focus on what is of use and of interest to developers writing ASP.NET Applications. I think these bits are really close to what we will see in Beta 2. If it is out before this conference, I will definitely update the demo box before the show.

http://www.AcehAid.org

That Casey is too much!

And you've gotta love this response.

http://www.AcehAid.org

You would think that by now I would be used to the amazing places that there are .NET user groups. But I think I will never be jaded. I loved reading this post about some Microsoft folks presenting at the Romania .NET Users Association (yes of course, an INETA member!)

http://www.AcehAid.org

Starting with a keynote by Bill Gates and filled with .NET stars from the Middle East (including INETA MEA Region Head, Goksin Bakir) and also some from the states (Kimberly Tripp, Patrick Hynds and Stephen Forte), this years MDC starts in a few days. Over on geekswithblogs, Mohamed Ahmed Meligy writes about how excited he is to attend this event.

http://www.AcehAid.org