Entries tagged with ukdevteam - Channel 9

Meet the Azure team at PDC09

David Gristwood — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 08:54:00 GMT

David Gristwood goes roving with his video camera at the PDC to meet some of the Azure team who are responsible for building Azure and deciding the features make it into the product set. This is a great chance to hear some of the team talk about their areas of focus across Azure, including:

- The Azure developer experience

- What the Azure fabric controller is and how it works

- What the new Codename “Dallas” project is about

- The newly announced Appfabric and how it relates to .NET Services

- The role of the newly released Windows Identity Foundation

And last, but by no means least, take a tour round one of the new Azure storage containers that was on display at the show.

(There is a bit of background noise in some of the interviews, but that’s the buzz from all the folk attending the PDC, but we hope it doesn’t detract from the video interviews).

Entity Framework 4: Part 1 - Simple Model First

Eric Nelson — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 10:57:00 GMT

This is part 1 of a series of short introductory screencasts to the new features of ADO.NET Entity Framework 4, which is part of .NET 4 and Visual Studo 2010. It was created using Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2.

In this 10 minute screencast I explore the new Model First capability of Entity Framework. Model First allows you to create your Entity Data Model from scratch, focusing on defining the conceptual model from which we can then generate a database schema and mapping.

It is based on the demos I delivered during my Entity Framework session at TechEd Europe in November (DEV305).

Links:

Companion walkthrough on my blog
The relationship between the betas and ctps explained
The related series of blog posts on Entity Framework 4
Entity Framework 4 Resources
My blog, twitter and team twitter

How Azure is being used in the real world - Azure Deep Dives

David Gristwood — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:31:00 GMT

Microsoft runs occasional Azure Deep Dive events, with a small numbers of customers and partners, to help accelerate their progress building real world solutions on the Azure Platform, and providing feedback to the product team. This video looks behind the scenes at one of these 5 day Azure Deep Dives, meets the Microsoft folk mentoring the sessions, and the customers and partners building their solutions.

Check out the video to see:

- The features in the Azure Platform that early adopters are finding most compelling

- The emerging architectural patterns being used, such as the use of queues for durable messaging

- Discussion of recently released features for Windows Azure, and some hints for new features being announced at the PDC

- Real customer and partner solutions that are being built on the Azure Platform.

Talking Architects - Angela Yochem

Matt Deacon — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 10:31:00 GMT

"Architects need to be partners of the business" is what Angela Yochem, an Executive IT Architect with a large multinational organisation, believes is key in delivering value to the enterprise.

MSDN Flash Podcast 011 – Steve Marx on Windows Azure

Eric Nelson — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:36:00 GMT

Also known as “that’s where I left my shoe” (you will need to listen to understand that)

This is a bonus edition of the podcast recorded on the 6th of October in London with Steve Marx, Technical Strategist working on Windows Azure.

It starts slow and a little quiet, it needed a few edits (deletes!) as we battled with “what is still not public” but picks up to be a pretty useful look at the improvements we have made to Windows Azure over the last few months with a specific focus on storage.

Topics covered include:

Entity Group Transactions
StorageClient library
Queues
Blobs and Shared Access Signatures/Blob Container Access Policies
Communication between nodes without queues
Logging

Show Links:

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MSDN Flash Podcast 010 – Paul Jackson on Memory Mapped Files in .NET 4, Oslo and more

Eric Nelson — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 11:30:00 GMT

This podcast accompanies the October 8th edition of the MSDN Flash newsletter.

It is an interview with Paul Jackson which is meant to be about the article he wrote on Memory Mapped Files in .NET Framework 4.0 but tends to go off in different directions – but we both certainly enjoyed doing it :-) I was interested to hear how he was getting on with Oslo and why he was revisiting ASP.NET after many years of focus on XAML.

Show Notes:

WebsiteSpark Program
Microsoft Ajax CDN
Web Platform Installer Version 2
Web Toolkits series of screencasts
Casestudy on F#
Poll How many lines of code did you write yesterday?
Memory Mapped File .NET 4.0 preliminary MSDN documentation
Microsoft Oslo
Book Pro ASP.NET MVC by Steven Sanderson
Book Professional ASP.NET MVC 1.0 (with nerddinner sample) and the free chapter (pdf) from Scott Guthrie

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MSDN Flash Podcast 009 – Tom Quinn discusses Test Doubles, Mocking and Coding Dojos

Eric Nelson — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 11:28:00 GMT

This podcast is an interview with Tom Quinn in which we start off discussing his article on Test Doubles before moving on to Coding Dojos and finishing with a spot of “has software development really improved in the last 20 years”. The interview starts 7 minutes in after I complete a brief summary of the newsletter.

Show Notes:

“Boot to VHD” – very cool stuff.
New Doloto tool for AJAX optimisation
32 Silverlight 3 and Expression 3 Videos
Last newsletter Poll on “How did your software team score in the Joel Test?”. 45% of you scored 6 or below ... hmmm, disappointing :-)
This editions Poll looks at how we approach unit testing code
UK South Scrum User Group
Rhino Mocks, Typemock, NMock and Moq
Tom summarises the first Coding Dojo he run
http://southamptoncodingdojo.ning.com/ sign up details. Next is on Sep 24th in Southampton.
Summary of Test Doubles, Fakes, Stubs, Dummies and Mocks from the work of the folks at ThoughtWorks

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MSDN Flash Podcast 008 – Gary Short on using XAF to build WebForm and WinForm apps

Eric Nelson — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 11:26:00 GMT

This podcast is an interview with Gary Short in which we discuss the DevExpress eXpressApp Framework™ (XAF) for quickly building WebForm and WinForm applications. Along the way we manage to mention testing frameworks, home-grown source control, rabbits feet, British Rail and Microsoft Access (Apologies in advance to the Access User Group) but most of it is about understanding what XAF is and when you would use it.

Show Notes:

XAF
Posts on the Project Management application being built in XAF
eXpress Persistent Objects (XPO) – the ORM beneath XAF
UK Access User Group

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Hands on with SQL Azure (CTP 2)

David Gristwood — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:37:00 GMT

With the release of the second CTP (Community Tech Preview) of SQL Azure, many developers are starting to get to get to grips with SQL Azure. However, quite a few aren’t aware that many SQL Server features will also work against data stored in the cloud, in SQL Azure. In this video, David Gristwood and Keith Burns discuss these features, as Keith demos SQL Server Integration Services, Reporting Services, and BCP in action.

Talking Architects - Neil Ward-Dutton

Matt Deacon — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:41:00 GMT

Matt Deacon, host of Talking Architects talks to Neil Ward-Dutton from the Industry Analyst firm MWD Advisors about the value of IASA, of architects and what they all think of cloud computing!

UK Silverlight Apps: Codify Ltd

Mike Taulty — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:38:00 GMT

Codify are based in Aberdeen, Scotland and build bespoke applications for the oil and gas industry. They've been on .NET since version 1 and have largely built desktop applications and deployed them in web-like manner via ClickOnce.

Silverlight was then a natural fit for their recent applications and here we get some insight from their MD, Ops Director and one of their Senior Developers around the sort of applications that they've put together, what's driven them to use Silverlight, their experience with it and some more detail about the patterns (MVVM) that they're using to build their apps.

MSDN Flash Podcast 007 – Mike Ormond discusses ASP.NET 4.0

Eric Nelson — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 23:10:00 GMT

This podcasts accompanies the UK MSDN Flash newsletter. The normal format of the podcast is a few minutes summarising the contents of the newsletter and then a 20 to 30 minute interview with the author of the technical article which appears in the newsletter.

The podcasts were originally published on the blog of the editor of the Flash, Eric Nelson but Channel 9 could potentially make a much better home.

This podcast accompanies the August 12th, 2009 edition of the MSDN Flash newsletter. It includes an interview with Mike Ormond discussing the new stuff in ASP.NET 4.0 plus an opportunity to ask Mike “Which are you? MVC or WebForms?”. Other areas discussed in the intro section include the RTM of Windows 7, the UK launch event of Expression 3 and Silverlight 3 plus the results of the poll of how developers scored in the Joel test.

Show Notes:

Silverlight 3 LOB applications in the UK
Silverlight 3 training videos from Mike Taulty and others
Sketchflow and Blend 3 session from MIX earlier in the year
Tool Shed: Episode #4
Building Testable ASP.NET MVC Applications
New development platform Kodu ... for your children on their Xbox 360!
UK SOA/BPM User Group
ASP.NET 4.0 Whitepaper
+ lots more links in the original newsletter

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Talking Architects with Len Bass

Matt Deacon — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:54:00 GMT

Quality Attributes (Non-functional requirements) as first class citizens of a project? Too far fetched? Len Bass, co-author of Software Architecture in Practice and longstanding member of the Software Engineering Institute (SEI), thinks he has an answer.

But how does this fit in an agile world?

Prism & Silverlight: Part 10 - A Larger Example - "Email Client"

Mike Taulty — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:31:00 GMT

This is part 10 of a series of screencasts illustrating some of the ideas found in "Prism" or the "Composite Application Guidance" from the Patterns and Practices team that can be used to build Silverlight applications in a way that lends itself to testability and modularity.

In talking to customers building business applications with Silverlight I find that Prism (and it's friend Unity) is frequently mentioned but not everyone has seen it and so I thought I would explore it myself and capture some of the results of that exploration here.

We start off with some fairly basic code which we move towards making use of dependency injection and modularity;

and then we move that code into the Silverlight world and try to illustrate some specific areas of Prism;

and then finally we try and bring some of these concepts together in a longer, more realistic example of a simple Email application built using the Prism framework - warning, this is a much longer session but I wanted something that draws things together;

Part 10: A Larger Example: "Email Client"

The recommendation would be that you watch the 10 screencasts in order but if that feels like too long a process or if you're already very familiar with concepts like dependency injection and containers like Unity then perhaps watch the last screencast first and then refer back to the previous screencasts if certain areas need more illumination.

I put the source code for Video 10 here for download as it's a bigger set of source and something you might want to explore after the video - this does not necessarily represent "best practise" but is, instead, just meant to illustrate some of the Prism ideas.

Prism & Silverlight: Part 8 - Loosely Coupled Events

Mike Taulty — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:30:00 GMT

This is part 8 of a series of screencasts illustrating some of the ideas found in "Prism" or the "Composite Application Guidance" from the Patterns and Practices team that can be used to build Silverlight applications in a way that lends itself to testability and modularity.

In talking to customers building business applications with Silverlight I find that Prism (and it's friend Unity) is frequently mentioned but not everyone has seen it and so I thought I would explore it myself and capture some of the results of that exploration here.

We start off with some fairly basic code which we move towards making use of dependency injection and modularity;

and then we move that code into the Silverlight world and try to illustrate some specific areas of Prism;

Part 10: A Larger Example: "Email Client"

Prism & Silverlight: Part 7 - Commands

Mike Taulty — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:30:00 GMT

This is part 7 of a series of screencasts illustrating some of the ideas found in "Prism" or the "Composite Application Guidance" from the Patterns and Practices team that can be used to build Silverlight applications in a way that lends itself to testability and modularity.

In talking to customers building business applications with Silverlight I find that Prism (and it's friend Unity) is frequently mentioned but not everyone has seen it and so I thought I would explore it myself and capture some of the results of that exploration here.

We start off with some fairly basic code which we move towards making use of dependency injection and modularity;

and then we move that code into the Silverlight world and try to illustrate some specific areas of Prism;

Part 10: A Larger Example: "Email Client"

Prism & Silverlight: Part 6 - Shells, Regions, Views

Mike Taulty — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:30:00 GMT

This is part 6 of a series of screencasts illustrating some of the ideas found in "Prism" or the "Composite Application Guidance" from the Patterns and Practices team that can be used to build Silverlight applications in a way that lends itself to testability and modularity.

In talking to customers building business applications with Silverlight I find that Prism (and it's friend Unity) is frequently mentioned but not everyone has seen it and so I thought I would explore it myself and capture some of the results of that exploration here.

We start off with some fairly basic code which we move towards making use of dependency injection and modularity;

and then we move that code into the Silverlight world and try to illustrate some specific areas of Prism;

Part 10: A Larger Example: "Email Client"

Prism & Silverlight: Part 4 - The Unity Bootstrapper

Mike Taulty — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:30:00 GMT

This is part 4 of a series of screencasts illustrating some of the ideas found in "Prism" or the "Composite Application Guidance" from the Patterns and Practices team that can be used to build Silverlight applications in a way that lends itself to testability and modularity.

In talking to customers building business applications with Silverlight I find that Prism (and it's friend Unity) is frequently mentioned but not everyone has seen it and so I thought I would explore it myself and capture some of the results of that exploration here.

We start off with some fairly basic code which we move towards making use of dependency injection and modularity;

and then we move that code into the Silverlight world and try to illustrate some specific areas of Prism;

Part 10: A Larger Example: "Email Client"

Prism & Silverlight: Part 3 - Modularity with Prism

Mike Taulty — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:30:00 GMT

This is part 3 of a series of screencasts illustrating some of the ideas found in "Prism" or the "Composite Application Guidance" from the Patterns and Practices team that can be used to build Silverlight applications in a way that lends itself to testability and modularity.

In talking to customers building business applications with Silverlight I find that Prism (and it's friend Unity) is frequently mentioned but not everyone has seen it and so I thought I would explore it myself and capture some of the results of that exploration here.

We start off with some fairly basic code which we move towards making use of dependency injection and modularity;

and then we move that code into the Silverlight world and try to illustrate some specific areas of Prism;

Part 10: A Larger Example: "Email Client"

Prism & Silverlight: Part 9 - Sharing Data with Region Contexts

Mike Taulty — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:30:00 GMT

This is part 9 of a series of screencasts illustrating some of the ideas found in "Prism" or the "Composite Application Guidance" from the Patterns and Practices team that can be used to build Silverlight applications in a way that lends itself to testability and modularity.

In talking to customers building business applications with Silverlight I find that Prism (and it's friend Unity) is frequently mentioned but not everyone has seen it and so I thought I would explore it myself and capture some of the results of that exploration here.

We start off with some fairly basic code which we move towards making use of dependency injection and modularity;

and then we move that code into the Silverlight world and try to illustrate some specific areas of Prism;

Part 10: A Larger Example: "Email Client"

Prism & Silverlight: Part 5 - Moving to a Modular Silverlight Project

Mike Taulty — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:30:00 GMT

This is part 5 of a series of screencasts illustrating some of the ideas found in "Prism" or the "Composite Application Guidance" from the Patterns and Practices team that can be used to build Silverlight applications in a way that lends itself to testability and modularity.

In talking to customers building business applications with Silverlight I find that Prism (and it's friend Unity) is frequently mentioned but not everyone has seen it and so I thought I would explore it myself and capture some of the results of that exploration here.

We start off with some fairly basic code which we move towards making use of dependency injection and modularity;

and then we move that code into the Silverlight world and try to illustrate some specific areas of Prism;

Part 10: A Larger Example: "Email Client"

Prism & Silverlight: Part 2 - Dependency Injection with Unity

Mike Taulty — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:29:00 GMT

This is part 2 of a series of screencasts illustrating some of the ideas found in "Prism" or the "Composite Application Guidance" from the Patterns and Practices team that can be used to build Silverlight applications in a way that lends itself to testability and modularity.

In talking to customers building business applications with Silverlight I find that Prism (and it's friend Unity) is frequently mentioned but not everyone has seen it and so I thought I would explore it myself and capture some of the results of that exploration here.

We start off with some fairly basic code which we move towards making use of dependency injection and modularity;

and then we move that code into the Silverlight world and try to illustrate some specific areas of Prism;

Part 10: A Larger Example: "Email Client"

Prism & Silverlight: Part 1 - Taking Sketched Code Towards Unity

Mike Taulty — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:29:00 GMT

This is part 1 of a series of screencasts illustrating some of the ideas found in "Prism" or the "Composite Application Guidance" from the Patterns and Practices team that can be used to build Silverlight applications in a way that lends itself to testability and modularity.

In talking to customers building business applications with Silverlight I find that Prism (and it's friend Unity) is frequently mentioned but not everyone has seen it and so I thought I would explore it myself and capture some of the results of that exploration here.

We start off with some fairly basic code which we move towards making use of dependency injection and modularity;

and then we move that code into the Silverlight world and try to illustrate some specific areas of Prism;

Part 10: A Larger Example: "Email Client"

David Chappell in conversation about Windows Azure and the cloud

David Gristwood — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 19:17:00 GMT

“If I ruled the world”, says David Chappell, “I would make the phrase ‘private cloud’ illegal”. In conversation with David Gristwood, David Chappell, during his recent world tour, discusses Windows Azure, its importance and role in the partner ecosystem, and other cloud players, such as Google, Amazon, Salesforce.com, VMware and more.

UK Silverlight Apps: Trader Media Group & Autotrader

Mike Taulty — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 12:25:00 GMT

Autotrader is one of the UK's biggest websites offering the public and the car trade a web-based mechanism for buying and selling of vehicles.

The website is owned by Trader Media Group (TMG) and in this video we talk to Pete Hanlon and Chris Kelly of TMG around the work that they're doing with Silverlight on applications that they offer to the car-trade and around possible future uses of Silverlight at TMG.