There's a fairly new u.g. in town - it's the VTFUG. They meet monthly in Burlington and have been doing so since November 2004. It's nice to keep some friends with design skills around, y'know? They meet on the 2nd Tuesday of the month, which is one night after VTdotNET.

There is another Flash/Macromedia group in Brattleboro. They have been around for a while. That is the Northern New England Macromedia User Group, aka NNEMUG. They meet on the 1st Tuesday of the month.

http://www.AcehAid.org

http://www.AcehAid.org

SqlDependency is really easy to get working if you are an admin, but when using it in a web app (whether via the System.Data.SqlDependency or System.Web. Caching.SqlCacheDependency) it is not so easy when you are not running under an admin account, which is what you should be doing (although maybe Don Kiely and Andrew Duthie will make exceptions for Betas!) When  you deploy your apps to a web server, you will need the Network Services account to the SqlDependency work.

In addition to enabling the service broker, I had to do two additional steps when working as a non-admin.

Grant Notification Permissions to specific database
  GRANT SUBSCRIBE QUERY NOTIFICATIONS TO [MyDomain\MyGroup]

Grant NotificationErrorsQueue Perms to user (this is for all of SQL Server, so do it from Master)
GRANT RECEIVE ON dbo.[QueryNotificationErrorsQueue] TO [MyDomain\MyGroup]

But this still didn't do the trick. In Beta2 there is still a problem when SQL Server is trying to send notifications to the web server that requires opening up ports. There is a wide range of ports to open up. I tried a few but still was unable to get through. This is a known issue and will not persist through to the release mode. I will keep at it and blog the key to success when I find it.

During my presentation at the MAD Code Camp, when I got to this demo, I had to log in as admin to run it.

http://www.AcehAid.org

I use SQL Server nearly every day and I know nothing about it. Two months ago I saw Rod Paddock running stored procedures line by line in SQL Query. I never knew you could do that. (highlight the lines you want to execute and hit run.)Today I was trying to do a query that was case sensitive. I guess in all the years I have used SQL, I have never needed a case sensitive search. So I didn't know that I had to have my field as a varchar so that I could cast it to varbinary in order to do the comparison. (See Michael Kaplan's post on an even better way to deal with case sensitivity!)

It is really pathetic (and kinda scary) to know that there are thousands and thousands of people like me who end up being responsible for doing all of the SQL Server work, but we are too busy learning our development tools to *also* be a pro at the database tools, too. Oh, to have Roman Rehak spend just *one* day a week working with me. Heck, I'd take one day a *month*. Boo hoo. I know that looking at my database would probably give him a coronary anyway, so maybe it's better this way. Actually it would be better not to have someone wiht a public blog look at my db anyway. That way they couldn't humiliate me as readily. Of course, maybe I could bargain with him using my ADO.NET 2.0 deck and demos for his PASS talk!!

http://www.AcehAid.org

Thanks to everyone who attended my Web Services Security and ADO.NET 2.0 sessions. I have had so much awesome feedback on the security session which I really appreciate.  The ADO.NET 2 talk is also one of my favorites. I could go on for days with that one as well.

If you are looking for the slides for the sessions and the demos from the ADO.NET talk, they are all posted on the MAD Code Camp site (that Andrew created using the ASP.NET 2.0 Clubs starter kit!!) for download as well as on my own site, on the presentations page.

Keep spreading the word that security does not have to be a mystery!!!

http://www.AcehAid.org

[I wrote this while at Devscovery]

When I FIRST learned about exceptions 3 years ago, I was told that exception handling was for handling exceptional situations. Jeffrey tells us that this is a myth and is just wrong. Exceptions are when a method cannot perform its expected behavior. There may be many reasons for this. There are plenty of exceptions to allow you to handle much of what comes along.

Of course, performance came into question since it more expensive to catch and exception than to test for it. A good example of this is looking at catching a DivedbyZeroException vs. testing for zero and not wasting the resources used by the exception. This is a matter of balance. If the possibility of a zero being passed in is a rarity, then the exception won't be hit very often, yet an if statement would be hit 100% of the time.

Jeffrey is on a mission to get the word out on this because the myth has been alive for way too long. I realize that based on this myth, I do more error handling than exception handling in my code. Of course, this is especially important for component developers, who may not know how their components are being used down the road.

Of course, I learned a lot more than just this about exception handling. I won't be able to look at my old code in the same way again and will probably end up going through and making some serious revisions.  

I have been at Devscovery for two days now and am learning so much. I am jumping around into different tracks and getting a fantastic smorgasbord of information. It would be nice to just have every session lined end to end and attend them all. Or just have them zap it all into our brains. Like any conference, picking and choosing is always hard. But having to constantly choose between deep internals with Richter, serious asp.net with Jeff Prosise, hard core debugging with John Robbins and the many other great topics and Wintellect presenters is really just a big pain in the butt.

Sara Faatz has done an amazing job of putting together a top-notch and intimate conference. Sara is also our marketing guru for INETA and her contributions there are beyond amazing.

In his unit testing and code coverage talk today, John Robbins pulled up the www.CodeBetter.com website and said I wish Darrell was here just so I can ask him to take a bow. He had such great stuff to say about the work that Darrell, Grant, Sahil and others are doing on that blog site.

Our Microsoft D.E., Thom Robbins, drove up from NH yesterday to present at the VTdotNET user group. It's a longish drive, so happily it was a beautiful day and he had lots of geek toys to entertain him on the way up.

Our pre-meeting preamble was a little longer than usual, because there is so much going on (starting .NET Newbie sessions in June, considering doing a Code Camp, a few conferences in our area, etc) so Thom didn't get started until 6:45. Also, because there were so many new people at the meeting, I asked everyone to go around the room and do their 10 second elevator pitch. It took less than 10 minutes and I think was a really valuable exercise.

Then we let Thom go to town. The first and most important thing he did was explain all of the SKUs for VS2005 and Team System. I know there is so much confusion and misunderstanding about that, so it was really important to get that cleared up. There aren't any huuuuuuge development companies here, outside of IBM. Although there are  large companies, like Goodrich (but not with a large group of developers) and IDX which probably has a few hundred developers, none that fit into the typical Foundation Server model, as far as Thom was able to explain. There are a lot of small consulting shops (3-10 employees) and also gobs of indies like me. The rest represent develoeprs who work at non i.t. companies.

There are a handful of people inthe group who have already been either playing with the Beta (and even Beta2) and even someone who is already working on a serious application. Thom went over the IDE and showed lots of new enhancements, and given the short time, highlighted a variety of different things - many new features in ASP.NET (master pages, personalization and membership, the SqlDataSource and ObjectDataSource components) as well as things like Edit & Continue, Code Snippets and partial classes. People who had already been playing with the beta were able to ask Thom pointed questions about things that they were having trouble with. I tried really hard not to say "ooh show them this, show them that" but apparently was not able to control myself quite enough.

It was nice that local Susan Wisowaty was able to make the meeting. She is now working as one of the D.C.C.s but unfortunately is doing this in the midwest and has to travel a lot. Thom is an excellent presenter. I know that even I was watching him as much to learn from his presentation style as much as I was trying to absorb what I could about VS2005.

If Thom didn't have to make the drive back after the meeting, I'm sure we would have been happy to let him show off VS2005 for as long as he liked! I hate making him drive up to VT, especially when he just drives up just for the meeting and then has to go back, but we really love having him present at the group so everyone truly appreciated his being there.

I think with all of the new stuff coming down the pipes, we could easily have 2 meetings a month. Maybe I'll have to make a bargain with the devil to get the MSDN events to come back to Burlington.

http://www.AcehAid.org

We are very happy to have our very own D.E., Thom Robbins, coming all the way to Vermont tonight to present on what's new in VS2005 and also show a little of Team System to the Vermont.NET User Group. I also plan to talk more about our .NET Newbie Sessions (starting with our next month's meeting) and see what the concensus is on my dream of having a VTdotNET Code Camp.

 

http://www.AcehAid.org

Rob Garrett was at the Mid Atlantic Code Camp (and I think Devscovery, too, since he looked so familiar) and wrote up his thoughts about the sessions he attended.. I was thrilled to see that my Web Services Security talk had the affect I was looking for, but his write up also made me very disappointed that I wasn't able to attend Sahil Malik's talk on Concurrency with ADO.NET 2.0.

I have also been getting some nice emails from attendees thanking me for finally demystifying security for them. Since I do this talk because I used to be mystified as well, and didn't think it was fair for experienced programmers like me to have a topic that made us feel like dopes, it makes me really happy to know that I am able to get the info across successfully.

http://www.AcehAid.org

Camey says that Logicalis, the company where she works (and she loves her job and the company) is hiring.

http://www.AcehAid.org

Wow. Here is a company that listens to its employees!

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/misc/05-06-05StevebPublicPolicy.asp

(via Microsoft Watch)

http://www.AcehAid.org

I had my favorite geek t-shirt on yesterday for my WS Security talk at Code Camp. It is the shirt that the WSE team did for the WSE 2.0 release last year. Below is the best picture I have of it, which I scraped from Bill Ryan's blog. Below the image it says “I'm Secure“.

I didn't even think about this when Wally dropped me off at the airport. When I went through security and had to take off my fleece, the security guys had a good laugh over it.

I was just a little embarrassed.

http://www.AcehAid.org

Code Camp in D.C. was a blast. Though there were a lot of people helping to make it happen, Andrew Duthie went above and beyond. I know how hard he was working as I stayed at his house on Thursday and Friday night. There is lots to talk about and I can't get it all in at once. I met *so* many people that I have never met in person before and I met a lot of new folks. Andrew pulled together a user group leader meeting on Friday night so I got to meet 12 u.g. leaders from all over Virginia and Maryland. Many I had been acquanted with from some type of communication with INETA over the past three years. I also had a great time talking at dinner with Anil John, who I hadn't seen in over 2 years and Wally McClure.

The highlight however was the new love of my life, Andrew and Jennifer's two year old son, Joseph.  

http://www.AcehAid.org

Flying home from D.C. to Burlington late last night, on a small plane, I sat in an aisle seat with Judy Dean on my right and Howard Dean on my left, on the other side of the aisle. I didn't realize that it was Judy until we were departing the plane in Burlington. She is a lot more like me than any kind of Washington political wife. She was reading a book that I had wanted to like but gotten bored with and only made it half way through. I asked if she liked it and she said she was finding it kind of slow. Howard was wearing a suit. But like me, Judy was wearing jeans and a fleece, no makeup, nothing specially done to her hair. Some call it weekend attire - although that's how I dress seven days a week. I remember criticism that she wasn't wearing makeup for his public appearances. I totally understand that (not the criticism, but her desire to just be hersefl). I guess the older I get, and the more some people think I might need makeup, the less willing I am to wear it. All of this visibility must be really hard for her.

The stewardess, a pretty young girl from the midwest, said to Dean while she was serving the beverages, "If you ran for president in 2008, my whole family would vote for you!" He asked if she was from Vermont and she said, no, from Missouri. It was as though he thought maybe only Vermonters would vote for him? Everyone else was ignoring Dean, really just trying to give him his personal space. Also, in Vermont, everyone is like neighbors. Phish is the local band. Dean had been governor for 10 years. Despite his rise to national fame during 2003/4, he is still one of us - someone who loves Vermont and chooses to live here. The stewardess was clearly excited to have him on the plane so I thought it was very sweet of her to pay him a little homage.

It was only an hour and a half flight. We all just kind of read, looked out the windows and snoozed. I was thinking how cool it would be to tell him about the Vermont Software Developer Alliance and some of the things we are hoping to do to help the software industry in Vermont. I wondered what Robert Scoble would do if he were in my seat. I wondered if I had had my tablet and started working on it if Dean would have taken interest in it. But in reality, we were all just some really tired people flying home to the place we love the most. Napping and looking at the stars and lights below was really all any of us wanted to do.

http://www.AcehAid.org

I have been at Devscovery for two days now and am learning so much. I am jumping around into different tracks and getting a fantastic smorgasbord of information. It would be nice to just have every session lined end to end and attend them all. Or just have them zap it all into our brains. Like any conference, picking and choosing is always hard. But having to constantly choose between deep internals with Richter, serious asp.net with Jeff Prosise, hard core debugging with John Robbins and the many other great topics and Wintellect presenters is really just a big pain in the butt.

Sara Faatz has done an amazing job of putting together a top-notch and intimate conference. Sara is also our marketing guru for INETA and her contributions there are beyond amazing.

 

I have already posted this in the comments to Robert Scoble's blog about restarting Team99, but I highly recommend Amanda Murphy. (I hope she doesn't kill me )

Amanda is a blogger, a .NET User group leader, a sharepoint geek, an XBox fanatic and a tablet pc enthusiast. This is definitely one person who is very excited about technology, knowledgable, smart and loves to talk about it all!

I am really excited that Amanda is coming to the INETA NORAM User Group Leaders Summit at TechEd. She was one of the scholarship winners.

Carl and the insane gang have created mini-outtakes from Mondays for busy people who need a good laugh but have to work harder to find the window for the full show. Here are two really silly ones that had me laughing pretty hard.

First one is a good poke at the finger in the chili at Wendy's: here

Second is some more silliness with high tech and a guy with an unfortunate name here

http://www.AcehAid.org

Well, a cover at least. HEck, it's like hanging out at the MVP summit. I know all those guys! <G>

http://www.AcehAid.org

One of the killer problems I originally had with SqlDependency was that I was trying to use it against an old pubs database. Finally I discovered the database property called "Database Compatibility Level" and it was set to Version80. When I changed it to Version90 the SqlDependency worked again.Well, I didn't have to do that this time and the "Database Compatibility Level" property is nowhere to be found. Well, at least *I* can't find it anymore. So that's one less thing to worry about with SqlDependency. Here is all that I had to do to get things working with the latest bits of SQL Server 2005.

http://www.AcehAid.org