Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Geek Post Monthly Newsletter Volume 2 Issue 11

Geek Post

Volume 2 Issue 11

November 2010

Hippolite Musings

Tena Koutou Katoa,

In November, I:

    1. Conquered the Project Management tool which Telecom uses by entering 3 months actuals and 1 months forecast work for the 8 staff in my team.  I’m a trainee Team Lead!
    2. Attended another Vex Robotics Scrimmage.
    3. Received direction on how to maximise My Personal Performance (MPP) reporting.  This is corporate-speak for complying with my quarterly performance reviews.
    4. Fixed up WHEN library database in preparation for handing it over to somebody else.  Yippee!
    5. Sat and failed my Windows Communication Foundation exam.  Ah, well, there’s always next month!
    6. Studied (before and after exam) materials for said exam.
    7. Took final minutes as Secretary for Grenada Village Community Association at AGM.  Presented finances as acting Treasurer.
    8. Assisted Fiona to handover Membership Secretary duties of WHEN.
    9. Delivered one project.  Picked up three more.  Christmas is always busy (people trying to get stuff finished before the shutdown period).

Blessings,
James


Community Development

Grenada Village Online

  • My former manager read last months blog; found out I needed training in how to give a logo a transparent background; sent me an email explaining how to do it; and now Grenada Village has a better look and feel. 
  • Here’s how:
    • Downloaded IrfanView.
    • Load the graphic.
    • Save As…
    • Specify JPG
    • Click on background
    • Specify Transparent.

Align Church Online

  • Reorganised home page and master page so that Search Widget and Login Widget are both Web Parts in the right pane. 
  • Implemented Top 5 News Items (as per Grenada Village Online).
  • Reduced size of logo.
  • Looks much better.

Wellington Home Education Network

  • Handed over Fiona’s Membership Secretary role.
  • Still to hand over my Treasurer’s role.

Wellington SQL Server Users Group

Wellington Dot Net Users Group


Developer News

Top Stories

  • Show off your Azure skills using New Zealand Digital Content
    If you want a good incentive to learn more about Windows Azure then check out the "Best use of Windows Azure cloud computing services" category in the Mix 'n Mash competition that opened today. The competition is a chance to show the world what you can do with New Zealand digital content and data. All you need to do for a chance to win $1,000 is to build a mashup hosted on Windows Azure (there are other competition categories as well).
  • PDC On Demand: The Future of C# and Visual Basic
    Technical fellow Anders Hejlsberg talks about the roadmap for C# and Visual Basic in vNext and beyond. Plus: Asynchrony in C# 5. Part II: Whence await. Part III: Composition.
  • New Release: Visual Studio 2010 Productivity Power Tools
    A set of extensions to Visual Studio Professional (and above) which improves developer productivity. In this third major release of the Power Tools we have made significant improvements to the Solution Navigator and the Tab Well to address our top customer requests.
  • ASP.NET MVC 3 Release Candidate
    Backwards compatible with ASP.NET MVC V1 and V2, this release adds a ton of new functionality and refinements.


Training

  • Complete Conference Session Schedule Now Online!
    The virtual Microsoft Certified Career Conference is almost here, and it will be packed with valuable information you won’t want to miss! Join highly respected leaders in the industry for technical and career development sessions and network with other professionals during and after the event. Check out the Conference Schedule and Register today. Microsoft Certified Professionals can use the code MCP50 for a 50 percent discount.
  • Add the MCT & Educator Virtual Summit to Your Calendar
    MCTs and registered academic educators can join us for the MCT & Educator Virtual Summit—a complimentary readiness event on November 17. To make sure you do not miss this event, add it to your Outlook calendar.
  • Certification/Exams - Save up to 20 Percent on Microsoft Certification Exam Packs with Second Shots
    Get the certification you need to keep your career on track. Find guidance on the training you’ll need, chart your training course, and save up to 20 percent when you purchase Microsoft Certification Packs of two to five exams.
  • Training - MOC/Courseware/Exams/Clinics - New Microsoft Official Courses Mean New OneNote Trainer Packs
    Eight new OneNote trainer packs are available—bringing the total number to 40. All are available at the MCT Download Center. Check them out today!
  • New IT Fundamentals Course for Windows Server 2008/R2
    Microsoft Learning is proud to announce the release of Course 6420B: Fundamentals of Windows Server 2008. This five-day course covers the fundamental concepts and skills of server administration, Active Directory, networking, and security of Windows Server 2008 servers (including Windows Server 2008 R2) for students who are new to IT.


Study News

As per last month, I finished studying Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 - Windows Communication Foundation.  I booked my MCTS exam 70-503 for Tuesday 9 November at Auldhouse.  I failed.  Now I’m doing the Skill Port on-line training (freebie offering via Telecom).  Will re-sit in the new year.

What I have learned from this experience

WCF is tricky, real tricky to get right.  And by virtue of its very nature, debugging it is hard, real hard.  For example, I had a real-life example to code.  I had a successful Web Service running inside an existing web site.  So I thought, “here’s a perfect candidate to switch over to WCF.”  Wrong.  I tried and failed for 3 days:

  • First, I discovered that because the DEV & PROD servers are Windows Server 2003 and not 2008, that therefore I can’t use WsHttpBinding but have to use BasicHttpBinding.
  • Then I spend an inordinate amount of time trying to decipher what combination of binding and address (HTTPS was not available to me) was giving me the really unhelpful “Service actively refused connection” error message.
  • Turned out that I had altered my DEV code some time back from System.Oracle.Client to Oracle.Data.Client and the DEV server didn’t have the correct Oracle client installed.  Nowhere did WCF tell me this.

I will keep trying.  I will succeed.  My success has merely been delayed.


Telecom News

Project Marley

It’s no secret that a strategic decision has been made to bring in-house as much IT work as possible.  This was caused by a number of factors, not least because of the government’s Ultra-Fast Broadband (UFB) initiative will probably force structural separation of the Chorus business off from the rest of Telecom.  This will mean the requirement for some IT resources to be split off separately to Chorus.

So, Project Marley is all about offering those HP staff who work exclusively on the Telecom account, to come over to permanent Telecom jobs.  This will be done sensitively, I have no doubt.  It doesn’t directly impact my small team, but what it does impact is that the appetite for increased permanent head count means my manager can now hire just about as many .NET developers as he would like.  So any of my Geek friends, if you’re reading this and desiring a change, let me know and I’ll see if I can arrange you an interview!


Situations Vacant

Lots

See my paragraph above.



INETA News

A summary of Significant Dot Net User Group Chatter


PASS News

A summary of  Significant SQL Server User Group Chatter


Events Schedule

In this section, I highlight dates, times and venues of events either I am presenting at, or of interest to Geeks.  I’m available for bookings.

Date Event Venue Speaker
1-Dec-2010 LINQ to Async: An Introduction to the Reactive Extensions Xero, Wellington Ivan Towlson
2-Dec-2010 SilverLight Firestarter Redmond or Online Lots
11-Dec-2010 SharePoint Saturday Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology Lots
12-Dec-2010 VEX Robotics Scrimmage Hutt Valley High School N/A
15-Dec-2010 MonoTouch and MonoDroid Xero, Wellington Nic Wise
12-13 Feb 2011 VEX Robotics Regional Competitions St Peter’s College, Palmerston Northq N/A
April 2011 ALM Conference Wellington Various


Humour

Web Designers vs. Web Developers

An infographic of the differences between them.


Thursday, September 9, 2010

Geek Post Monthly Newsletter Volume 2 Issue 8

Geek Post

Volume 2 Issue 8

August 2010

Hippolite Musings

Tena Koutou Katoa,

In August, I:

  • Discussed Team Foundation Server option for my Telecom team with Microsoft Consulting;
  • Failed (twice) to install my sister’s wireless modem;
  • Went skiing with Tane (son) and Duncan & Jamie Cowan at Whakapapa Ski Field;
  • Assisted (successfully) two friends with their home PC issues (no, I’m not taking bookings);
  • Received Fire Warden training;
  • Participated with Hamish (son) at Vex Robotics Scrimmage; and
  • Was recognized at work for my excellent attitude.

Blessings,
James


Community Development

Grenada Village Online

  • I’ve made a decision to go on Sabbatical next year;
  • This means a rest;
  • This means resigning from several committees at the end of this year;
  • Therefore, I have nothing further to report about this topic at this time.

Align Church Online

  • Implemented a new paradigm (not a major paradigm shift, just implementation of one which works for me):
  • A page has:
    • a DropDownList which lets the user move from record to record;
    • a FormView to edit existing and/or insert new master records;
    • Several buttons to choose from various child tables;
    • An UpdatePanel which is aware of the above buttons;
    • A ContentTemplate which consists of a MultiView;
    • Several Views, one for each child table;
    • Each View consists of an HTML table;
    • Each table consists of:
      • a header row;
      • an insert row consisting of:
        • a DropDownList of all possible related records;
        • a button for adding the selected value to the child table (the UpdatePanel is also aware of these buttons);
      • a display row consisting of:
        • a GridView consisting of:
          • No header row (because already displayed in the HTML table);
          • The child record; and
          • A delete button
  • The nice thing is the add button and delete button work together to give sufficient functionality (with AJAX niceness) that the page responds like a Windows app instead of a Web app.
  • Nicely sized so the HTML table and GridView look like they belong together;
  • Both the Add and Delete buttons are LinkButtons so they look like they belong together;
  • The Show Child buttons are not LinkButtons, so they are nicely differentiated.
  • The Child ObjectDataSource is linked (via ControlParameters) to the insert row DropDownList and Master DropDownList to auto-populate the Insert method.  No code behind required, other than the Add button invoking the Insert method.
  • The Show Child buttons must not only show the relevant View, but also rebind the relevant GridView.  If you don’t, when you change Master record, the hidden Child tables are not refreshed!

Wellington Home Education Network

  • Nothing new to report at this time.

Wellington SQL Server Users Group

  • We had Brent McCracken from KiwiBank come and tell us about Erwin and PowerDesigner data modelling tools.

Wellington Dot Net Users Group

  • Kevin Daly came and told us about Windows Phone 7 Development with Silverlight.
  • Dave Fellows (www.greenbutton.net) came and told us Advanced Azure Techniques.

Developer News

Top Stories


Study News

Again, not much has changed from last month.

Still working my way through MCTS Exam 70-503 – Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 – Windows Communication Foundation.

Up to chapter 11.

A funny thing happened.  This book is taking me so long to get through, that my VM Windows Activation period expired and I had to reset it all back to zero.


Telecom News

Have you got TiVo yet?


Situations Vacant

Senior Technology Consultant

Description

You're the expert

It's a great feeling to be valued for your expert knowledge and advice. Customers and colleagues alike look to you to show them the way. Join our Consulting and Design team and get the recognition you deserve. 

Your customers look to you to match high quality technical knowledge to their business drivers to create valuable technology solutions.  Be the most trusted of advisors as you consult on the issues that matter to them. Work at a variety of levels, from presenting whitepapers to the nitty gritty of technical designing.

Significant experience in an ICT vendor environment is a given. Your knowledge of Microsoft networking, virtualization, thin client and storage technologies and ideally Citrix is robust.  Equally important as your superior technical design and delivery skills, is your ability to relate technical solutions to business outcomes. You have excellent communication and written skills plus a strong customer focus. Your experience with infrastructure strategic planning and technical evaluation is impressive.

Providing a breadth of services unparalleled in the New Zealand market, Gen-i is NZ's ICT market leader.  This Wellington-based role sits within our high-performing Consulting and Design team.  We help organisations generate greater value from their IT spend by offering innovative solutions for the issues important to them.

Be valued for your expertise.  Apply today.


Training News

The MCT Community Portal is Live—Make the Most of It!

Matthew Roche, Senior Program Manager

For years, Microsoft Certified Trainers have been asking for a wiki—an online repository of living documents where MCTs can share and maintain information about the MCT program, Microsoft Official Courseware (MOC), and other topics of interest to themselves and their fellow trainers. Now Microsoft Learning has delivered the MCT Community Portal, with forums, file libraries, and wikis to take MCT collaboration to the next level.

On August 2, 2010, Microsoft Learning rolled out the MCT Community Portal website, which includes:

  • Discussion and Q&A forums to replace the private MCT newsgroups, which retire on September 1.
  • Discussion and Q&A forums for each MOC course, so it’s easy to find information about the courses you’re teaching.
  • File and media libraries for uploading videos and documents to share with your fellow MCTs.
  • Wikis for sharing tips and tricks, personal error logs, etc., about MOC courses, Microsoft products and technologies, and more.
  • Site-wide tags and search, so finding what you’re looking for is easier than ever.

Now the tools you’ve been asking for are in your hands. What will you do with them?


    INETA News

    A summary of Significant Dot Net User Group Chatter

    • Business/Work/Visitor Visa? (14 replies)
    • JavaScript magic for combining and compressing and more (14 replies)
    • Anyone here using MonoTouch? (21 replies)
    • ASP.NET Video Hosting Providers (34 replies)
    • ASP.NET MVC > HandleErrorAttribute will not return ViewResult (7 replies)


    PASS News

    A summary of  Significant SQL Server User Group Chatter

    • DateTime2 (6 replies)
    • Standby database 2005 to 2008 (3 replies)
    • CodeCamp 2010
    • How to increase font size in SSMS (12 replies)

    Events Schedule

    In this section, I highlight dates, times and venues of events either I am presenting at, or of interest to Geeks.  I’m available for bookings.

    Date Event Venue Speaker
    6-Sep-2010 WHEN Committee Meeting Hippolite Residence Fiona
    13-Sep-2010 Grenada Village Committee Association Meeting Grenada Village Community Hall Bruce Patterson
    16-Sep-2010 Trainer Readiness Sessions Online Dunno
    22-Sep-2010 Windows Phone 7 Workshop Microsoft Wellington Ryan Tarak
    22-Sep-2010 Tech-Ed Express Roadshow Microsoft Wellington Ryan Tarak
    23-Sep-2010 Final-Year Project Demonstrations VUW Engineering & Computer Science Depts Lots
    8-11 Nov 2010 PASS Summit 2010 Seattle, Washington, USA Lots
    April 2011 ALM Conference Wellington Various


    Humour

    THE BLONDE MORTICIAN

    A man who'd just died is delivered to a local mortuary wearing an expensive, expertly tailored black suit.The female blonde mortician asks the deceased's wife how she would like the body dressed. She points out that the man does look good in the black suit he is already wearing.The widow, however, says that she always thought her husband looked his best in blue, and that she wants him in a blue suit. She gives the Blonde mortician a blank check and says, 'I don't care what it costs, but please have my husband in a blue suit for the viewing.'

    The woman returns the next day for the wake. To her delight, she finds her husband dressed in a gorgeous blue suit with a subtle chalk stripe; the suit fits him perfectly...

    She says to the mortician, 'Whatever this cost, I'm very satisfied.. You did an excellent job and I'm very grateful. How much did you spend?'To her astonishment, the blonde mortician presents her with the blank check.'There's no charge,' she says.

    'No, really, I must compensate you for the cost of that exquisite blue suit!' she says.

    'Honestly, ma'am,' the blonde says, 'it cost nothing. You see, a deceased gentleman of about your husband's size was brought in shortly after you left yesterday, and he was wearing an attractive blue suit. I asked his wife if she minded him going to his grave wearing a black suit instead, and she said it made no difference as long as he looked nice.'

    'So I just switched the heads.'


    Sunday, August 1, 2010

    Geek Post Monthly Newsletter Volume 2 Issue 7

    Geek Post

    Volume 2 Issue 7

    July 2010































































    Hippolite Musings

    Tena Koutou Katoa,

    In July, I:

    • Added the new GST rate (effective 1-Oct) to a major pricing database;
    • Farewelled a long-term contractor;
    • Took back ownership of all his project work;
    • Progressed a major data conversion project;
    • Secured major funding for my team (sufficient for a new full-time equivalent) through negotiating a Maintenance Support Work Packet internally with other Telecom business units;
    • Attended the Internet Industry Awards 2010 at Parliament;

    Blessings,
    James


    Community Development

    Grenada Village Online

    • The Association has been involved in a legal dispute over the proposed use of newly cleared land in our area.  This is heading to a show-down.  A public meeting will be called soon.  I can’t say too much more than that. 
    • Stay tuned.  Keep an eye on late-breaking news on the website link above.  It should all come out by next month.

    Align Church Online

    • I’m stuck on adding functionality which will enable me to display photos (not hard) and insert photos (not hard) and add photos to an existing record (finding it difficult to do this in a GridView).
    • I’ve also been asked to remove functionality for “security” reasons.  Bah humbug.
    • I also don’t listen to the users (my wife) carefully enough (apparently) and misdiagnosed a function and have to re-do it.  Grrrr
            <Columns>
    <asp:BoundField HeaderText="Name" DataField="Name" />
    <asp:BoundField HeaderText="Birthday" DataField="BirthDate" DataFormatString="{0:d}" />
    <asp:BoundField HeaderText="Mobile" DataField="Mobile" />
    <asp:BoundField HeaderText="Comments" DataField="Comments" />
    <asp:TemplateField HeaderText="Photo">
    <ItemTemplate>
    <asp:Image ID="PhotoImage" runat="server" ImageUrl='<%# Bind("imgFile") %>' Width="100" />
    </ItemTemplate>
    <EditItemTemplate>
    <asp:FileUpload ID="fileUpload1" runat="server" />
    </EditItemTemplate>
    </asp:TemplateField>
    </Columns>



    Wellington Home Education Network




    • I’m manually editing PHP in Visual Studio without the use of a PHP editor. 


    • Managed to reduce the size of the email which is sent from the Application Form, by eliminating the fields that aren’t actually used.


    • Managed to find the magic Headers which turn a Plain Text email into HTML.


    • Instead of tabs between field name and value, now I’m outputting a table.  Much tidier.



                            function FindVal($fieldName, $varName)
    {
    if(isset($_POST[$varName]))
    {
    $varValue = $_POST[$varName];
    if($varValue!="")
    return "<tr><td>$fieldName</td><td>$varValue</td></tr>\n";
    else
    return "";
    }
    else
    return "";
    }



                            $from            = $HTTP_POST_VARS['EmailAddress'];
    $headers = 'MIME-Version: 1.0' . "\r\n";
    $headers .= 'Content-type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1' . "\r\n";
    $headers .= "From: $from"."\r\n";



    Wellington SQL Server Users Group




    • We had Chandima Kulathilake from Knowledge Cue Ltd come and tell us about SharePoint 2010 Databases – What are they and why are they required?



    Wellington Dot Net Users Group




    • Bevan Arps from Reserve Bank came and told us about Build Automation with NAnt.


    • Kirk Jackson (Xero) and Graeme Neilson (Aura Software Security) came and told us Tales from the Crypt0


    • Bohdan Szymanik from KiwiBank came and told us about F# in Action







    Developer News





    SSMS Add-In



    This http://www.ssmstoolspack.com/ may be of use.  Martin particularly likes the window connection colouring, search in grid results and generate insert statements.






    Study News



    Not much has changed from last month.



    Still working my way through MCTS Exam 70-503 – Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 – Windows Communication Foundation.



    Up to chapter 8.



    Very slow going.  Lab examples suck.  Even with a Virtual Machine with exactly the right environment, the labs fail.  Security is soooo hard to get right.










    Telecom News





    As alluded to in my opening paragraph, the financial year ended in June, and a new one commenced.  A round of budgetary begging occurred.  I contributed.  My team won some well-earned dosh.



    This probably means I’ll be doing more support work (officially) and less new developments, which is probably for the best in the current environment.  Nobody knows about Physical Separation, so investment in new development work (especially across business units) will have to slow down.



    This is all speculation, but hopefully interesting speculation.





    Microsoft News





    A summary of significant Microsoft chatter:




    • Not going to Tech-Ed next month (sniff).  Not my turn.


    • Reading about the Model-View-ViewModel (MSDN Magazine, March 2009 & July 2010).  I need to be doing this stuff, in order to separate code from implementation and improve testing.


    • Not coding F#, but still straddling C# and VB.NET.


    • I was an Imagine Cup mentor last year, but as all the meetings were held in Auckland, there didn’t seem a point to re-sign up for it this year.


    • Windows 7 Dev?  Not on my radar.


    • IE9?  Telecom only just upgraded to IE7!







    Situations Vacant



    Analyst Developer .NET




    Make it happen




    Work with industry leading technology, tools, and methodologies and let your talents shine.  Join a productive team that provides both development and support for some of Telecom's core applications.  You'll own enhancements to the functionality of the existing application, plus have the benefit of experienced developers to mentor your progression through your career milestones!



    Work with customised technologies, in a dynamic and collaborative team environment, where your actions have a direct impact on what happens in the wider business.  Support and enhance the application as you troubleshoot, overcome incidents and diagnose issues.  Get involved in projects as you take a concept from brief to reality, actioning enhancements.  



    You've gained credible commercial .NET development and coding experience in a large scale environment.  You're hungry to continue learning and build on your qualifications.  Technically savvy with HTML, SQL and Sharepoint, you're known for commitment as you take ownership of the issue until it's been efficiently resolved while keeping all who are impacted up to date. 



    In this Wellington based role you'll join our Application Delivery team who work with both an operational and project focus to produce accurate and efficient code.  We design, develop and implement quality business solutions to support Telecom's strategic business objectives



    Want to work where it all happens?  Apply today.



     



    Senior Technology Consultant



    You're the expert



    It's a great feeling to be valued for your expert knowledge and advice. Customers and colleagues alike look to you to show them the way. Join our Consulting and Design team and get the recognition you deserve.  



    Your customers look to you to match high quality technical knowledge to their business drivers to create valuable technology solutions.  Be the most trusted of advisors as you consult on the issues that matter to them. Work at a variety of levels, from presenting whitepapers to the nitty gritty of technical designing.



    Significant experience in an ICT vendor environment is a given. Your knowledge of Microsoft networking, virtualization, thin client and storage technologies and ideally Citrix is robust.  Equally important as your superior technical design and delivery skills, is your ability to relate technical solutions to business outcomes. You have excellent communication and written skills plus a strong customer focus. Your experience with infrastructure strategic planning and technical evaluation is impressive.



    Providing a breadth of services unparalleled in the New Zealand market, Gen-i is NZ's ICT market leader.  This Wellington-based role sits within our high-performing Consulting and Design team.  We help organisations generate greater value from their IT spend by offering innovative solutions for the issues important to them.



    Be valued for your expertise.  Apply today.





    Training News







    A summary of Signification Microsoft Learning Chatter




    • July is an exciting month where Microsoft Learning just announced the brand new MTA Certification for academic students, New OneNote Trainer Packs that enable MCTs to prepare for courses and to take and share notes AND we are getting ready to launch a completely revised Courseware Library.


    • Microsoft is pleased to announce the launch of Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) 2010.

      Review the planned MOS 2010 exams and get ready to certify for MOS 2010.


    • Keep your technical skills up to date with help from the latest training opportunity for SharePoint 2010. In this new training course on Channel 9, you’ll explore design considerations to keep in mind as you start creating SharePoint solutions targeting SharePoint 2010. Additional videos, labs, and code available to help you learn more about SharePoint testing, deployment, and security.





    INETA News



    A summary of Significant Dot Net User Group Chatter




    • Developer NetBook (6 replies)


    • .NET Express Edition & Commercial Software (10 replies)


    • Integrated EFTPOS (5 replies)





    PASS News



    A summary of  Significant SQL Server User Group Chatter




    • DB Compare Tool (10 replies)


    • DB Script Extract Tool(13 replies)


    • MSSQL and Schemas (6 replies)





    Events Schedule



    In this section, I highlight dates, times and venues of events either I am presenting at, or of interest to Geeks.  I’m available for bookings.









































































    Date Event Venue Speaker
    11-Aug-10 Windows Phone 7 Wellington .NET, Xero Kevin Daly
    25-Aug-10 Advanced Azure Techniques Wellington .NET, Xero Dave Fellows
    29-Aug-10 Code Camp (TBA) SkyCity Convention Centre, Auckland Lots
    30-Aug-10 to 01-Sep-10 Microsoft TechEd 2010 SkyCity Convention Centre, Auckland Lots
    8-11 Nov 2010 PASS Summit 2010 Seattle, Washington, USA Lots
    April 2011 ALM Conference Wellington Various











    Humour



    HOW TO PUT THE RIGHT PERSON IN THE RIGHT JOB



    Put about 100 bricks in some particular order in a closed room with an open window. Then send 2-3 candidates into the room and close it from outside.

    Leave them alone and come back after 6 hours, and then analyze the situation:




    1. If they are counting and recounting the number of bricks - PUT THEM IN ACCOUNTS.


    2. If they have messed up the whole place with the bricks - PUT THEM IN ENGINEERING.


    3. If they are arranging the bricks in some other order - PUT THEM IN PLANNING.


    4. If they are throwing the bricks at each other - PUT THEM IN OPERATIONS.


    5. If they are sleeping - PUT THEM IN SECURITY.


    6. If they have broken the bricks into pieces - PUT THEM IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY.


    7. If they are sitting idle - PUT THEM IN THE HUMAN RESOURCE DEPARTMENT.


    8. If they have thrown the bricks out of the window - PUT THEM IN THE MATERIALS DEPARTMENT.


    9. If they have already left for the day - PUT THEM IN MARKETING.


    10. If they are talking to each other and not a single brick has moved - PUT THEM IN TOP MANAGEMENT !!!!






    Wednesday, June 30, 2010

    Geek Post Monthly Newsletter Volume 2 Issue 6

    Geek Post

    Volume 2 Issue 6

    June 2010





































































    Hippolite Musings

    Tena Koutou Katoa,

    This month I managed to:

    • Code in PHP for the first time in years;
    • Protest the Emissions Trading Scheme;
    • Complete my annual performance evaluation;
    • Watch a World-Cup football game (my first ever);

    I’ve got a new motto: Boycott ‘Carbon-Neutral’ as a meaningless marketing term.

    Blessings,
    James


    Community Development

    Grenada Village Online

    • Simplified “Query Documents” page into “Search” page. 
    • Reduced number of text boxes to fill in down to just one Search field (as per Google). 
    • Modified business layer code to accommodate for one search term in multiple fields.
    • Learned how to include parentheses in SubSonic queries in the WHERE clause.
              public DAL.DocumentCollection GetData(


                  string searchValue, 


                  string audience)


              {


                  _qry.From(DAL.Document.Schema);


                  if (searchValue != null)


                  {


                      _qry.WhereExpression(columns.DocumentName).ContainsString(searchValue);


                      _qry.Or(columns.Author).ContainsString(searchValue);


                      _qry.Or(columns.Purpose).ContainsString(searchValue);


                      _qry.CloseExpression();


                  }


                  else


                      return null;


                  if (audience != null) _qry.And(columns.Audience).ContainsString(audience);


       


                  _qry.OrderDesc(columns.DateWritten);


                  _ret.LoadAndCloseReader(_qry.ExecuteReader());


                  return _ret;


              }





    Align Church Online




    • As above



    Wellington Home Education Network




    • I was right: this website is probably on an Apache server, as it accepted a PHP page.


    • Coded an online Application Form which is processed server-side and sends a formatted email to an administrator.
      /* 
      Sends the mail and outputs the "Thank you" string
      if the mail is successfully sent, or the error string otherwise.
      */
      if (mail($email,$subject,$message,$headers)) {
      echo "<p>Your application form has been posted.</p>";
      } else {
      echo "<h4>Can't send email to $email</h4>";
      }








    Developer News





    Run the following in any database for some stats on your tables in SQL Server.




    USE [DatabaseName]
    GO
    EXEC sp_table_count






    Study News



    My upgrade to Visual Studio 2010 on my laptop did not impact my study for MCTS Exam 70-503 (Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 – Windows Communication Foundation) as much as I had originally anticipated, as the requirements for the study material includes Vista, which my Telecom-issued COE (common operating environment) does not contain!



    So, I had to re-install a Virtual PC environment (thankfully I’m MCT and have one handily lying around) with Vista & Visual Studio 2008 installed.



    Next problem was that the requirements for chapter 4 were for Internet connectivity.  Yes, I know that Virtual PC will enable Internet, but the MCT environment I was using (Course 6461A) did not allow for it, and for the life of me, I couldn’t work out how to make it work!  Very frustrating couple of days.  If anybody has any clues how to make this happen, I’d be grateful for a link.



    Meantime, I was able to do Exercise 1 back in Visual Studio 2010 on my DEV PC (which has Internet connectivity), but not Exercise 2!  Exercise 2 introduce concurrency, and ran into the problem “cannot update control on a thread that did not create the object” error.  I didn’t manage to overcome this problem either.







    Telecom News



    Significant redundancies



    Occurring around me at present. 



    Sign of the times, unfortunately.





    Microsoft News



    This was (somewhat) useful (if slightly unprofessional):




    ASP.NET MVC for Web Form Programmers



    See the story of a Web Form developer who decided to take a closer look at this radical new approach to ASP.NET development











    Situations Vacant



    Parameter Manager



    Stretch the limits



    Lead and develop a high performing team and ensure continuous improvement of service delivery. Drive quality through the team's processes to support zero error tolerance. Utilise your commercial, analytical and business acumen and really stretch the limits. Ensure all framework, processes and tools are in place and used to develop people capability.



    Our Parameters Management Group is responsible for the management and 'gate keeping' of parameters for internal Telecom billing systems to ensure a smooth end-to-end operation across our business from customer contact to bill presentation.  Have full accountability for managing a team of 'subject matter experts' on parameter changes during the feasibility, design, build and testing phase. With a solid understanding of the complexities of our business, assist in the design of future strategies, ensure the right capabilities within the team and allocate resources effectively.



    Your previous leadership and people management skills mean you have the ability to ensure learning and growth within the team. You're capable of ensuring compliance and audit processes are adhered to. Your problem solving and negotiation skills are top notch as is your ability to work under pressure. You're strategically focussed on delivering results for the team and the wider business.



    Our Parameter team is part of the Business Operations and Finance Group which sits in the Transformation, Technology and Shared Services Business Unit.  We're a centrally managed function primarily responsible for the delivery of Shared Services processing and accounting functions to the pan Telecom Group.  Join a high performing team that's professional and motivated.



    Enterprise Architect



    Are you an experienced Enterprise Architect?



    It's a great feeling to be valued for your expert knowledge and advice.  Customers and colleagues alike look to you to show them the way. Join our Consulting and Design team and get the recognition you deserve.  



    Your customers look to you to match high quality technical knowledge to their business drivers and provide valuable technology solution roadmaps.  Be the most trusted of advisors as you consult on the issues that matter to them. Work at a variety of levels, from presenting whitepapers to applying robust technical governance practices.



    Significant experience in an ICT vendor environment is a given. Your knowledge of TOGAF and possibly other EA frameworks is robust, but you are also not a purist in how you deploy these methodologies.  Equally important as your Enterprise Architecture skill is your ability to relate technical solutions to business outcomes and to design and deliver should the need arise. You have excellent communication skills and a strong customer focus. Your experience with infrastructure strategic planning and technical evaluation is impressive.



    Providing a breadth of services unparalleled in the New Zealand market, Gen-i is NZ's ICT market leader.  This Wellington-based role sits within our high-performing Consulting and Design team.  We help organisations generate greater value from their IT spend by offering innovative solutions for the issues important to them.



    Be valued for your expertise.  Apply today.



    Senior Technology Consultant - Capacity & Availability



    Are you an expert in capacity & availability analysis across an extensive range of technologies?



    It's a great feeling to be valued for your expert knowledge and advice.  Customers and colleagues alike look to you to show them the way. Join our Consulting and Design team and get the recognition you deserve.  



    Your customers look to you to match high quality technical knowledge to their business drivers to create valuable technology solutions.  Be the most trusted of advisors as you consult on the issues that matter to them. Work at a variety of levels, from presenting whitepapers to the nitty gritty of technical designing.



    Significant experience in an ICT vendor environment is a given. Your knowledge of infrastructure capacity & availability analysis across Windows, Unix\Linux and/or EMC Storage is robust.  Equally important as your superior technical design and delivery skills, is your ability to relate technical solutions to business outcomes. You have excellent communication skills and a strong customer focus. Your experience with infrastructure strategic planning and technical evaluation is impressive.



    Providing a breadth of services unparalleled in the New Zealand market, Gen-i is NZ's ICT market leader.  This Wellington-based role sits within our high-performing Consulting and Design team.  We help organisations generate greater value from their IT spend by offering innovative solutions for the issues important to them.



    Contact James if interested.







    Training News





    http://mcitpguide.net/how-many-people-are-already-mcitp-certified-worldwide/





    INETA News



    A summary of Significant Dot Net User Group Chatter




    • 02-Jun, Video Problems with VS2010, 6 replies


    • 15-Jun, Accessing Properties of Domain Objects, 23 replies


    • 22-Jun, TFS/VS 2010 Pricing, 13 replies


    • 22-Jun, FogBugz, 9 replies


    • 23-Jun, Xero Architecture, 13 replies


    • 25-Jun, Developer Laptop, 40 replies


    • 29-Jun, Problems Using DataContractSerializer, 6 replies


    • 30-Jun, Problem with WCF Study Material, 15 replies


    • 30-Jun, Microsoft’s confusing partner programme, 6 replies





    PASS News



    A summary of  Significant SQL Server User Group Chatter




    • 15-Jun, SQL Server Data Auditing, 7 replies


    • 17-Jun, 24 Hours of PASS Recordings Now Available, 0 replies


    • 21-Jun, Using FOR XML AUTO with a synonym, 0 replies





    Events Schedule



    In this section, I highlight dates, times and venues of events either I am presenting at, or of interest to Geeks.  I’m available for bookings.









































































    Date Event Venue Speaker
    8-Jul-10 Windows Phone 7 Development Massey University, Auckland Keith Patton
    15-Jul-10 SharePoint 2010 Databases – what are they and why are they required? Intergen, Wellington Chandima
    29-Aug-10 Code Camp (TBA) SkyCity Convention Centre, Auckland Lots
    30-Aug-10 to 01-Sep-10 Microsoft TechEd 2010 SkyCity Convention Centre, Auckland Lots
    8-11 Nov 2010 PASS Summit 2010 Seattle, Washington, USA Lots
    April 2011 ALM Conference Wellington Various











    Humour



    Comments made in the year 1955!



    That's only 55 years ago!




    • I'll tell you one thing, if things keep going the way they are, it's going to be impossible to buy a week's groceries for $20.00.


    • Have you seen the new cars coming out next year? It won't be long before $2,000.00 will only buy a used one.


    • If cigarettes keep going up in price, I'm going to quit. 25 cents a pack is ridiculous.


    • Did you hear the post office is thinking about charging 10 cents just to mail a letter


    • If they raise the minimum wage to $1.00, nobody will be able to hire outside help at the store.


    • When I first started driving, who would have thought gas would someday cost 29 cents a gallon. Guess we'd be better off leaving the car in the garage.


    • I'm afraid to send my kids to the movies any more. Ever since they let Clark Gable get by with saying DAMN in GONE WITH THE WIND, it seems every new movie has either HELL or DAMN in it.


    • I read the other day where some scientist thinks it's possible to put a man on the moon by the end of the century. They even have some fellows they call astronauts preparing for it down in Texas ...


    • Did you see where some baseball player just signed a contract for $75,000 a year just to play ball? It wouldn't surprise me if someday they'll be making more than the President.


    • I never thought I'd see the day all our kitchen appliances would be electric. They are even making electric typewriters now.


    • It's too bad things are so tough nowadays. I see where a few married women are having to work to make ends meet.


    • It won't be long before young couples are going to have to hire someone to watch their kids so they can both work.


    • I'm afraid the Volkswagen car is going to open the door to a whole lot of foreign business.


    • Thank goodness I won't live to see the day when the Government takes half our income in taxes. I sometimes wonder if we are electing the best people to government.


    • The drive-in restaurant is convenient in nice weather, but I seriously doubt they will ever catch on.


    • There is no sense going on short trips anymore for a weekend, it costs nearly $15.00 a night to stay in a hotel.


    • No one can afford to be sick anymore, at $35.00 a day in the hospital, it's too rich for my blood.


    • If they think I'll pay 50 cents for a hair cut, forget it.





    Humour







    PUNS FOR THE EDUCATED




    1. A thief broke into the local police station and stole all the toilets and urinals, leaving no clues. A spokesperson was quoted as saying, "We have absolutely nothing to go on."


    2. Evidence has been found that William Tell and his family were avid bowlers. Unfortunately, all the Swiss league records were destroyed in a fire... and so we'll never know for whom the Tells bowled.


    3. A man rushed into a busy doctor's office and shouted, "Doctor! I think I'm shrinking!" The doctor calmly responded, "Now, settle down. You'll just have to be a little patient."


    4. A marine biologist developed a race of genetically engineered dolphins that could live forever if they were fed a steady diet of seagulls. One day, his supply of the birds ran out so he had to go out and trap some more. On the way back, he spied two lions asleep on the road. Afraid to wake them, he gingerly stepped over them. Immediately, he was arrested and charged with transporting gulls across sedate lions for immortal porpoises.


    5. Back in the 1800's the Tate's Watch Company of Massachusetts wanted to produce other products, and since they already made the cases for watches, they used them to produce compasses. The new compasses were so bad that people often ended up in Canada or Mexico rather than California. This, of course, is the origin of the expression: "He who has a Tate's is lost!"


    6. King Ozymandias of Assyria was running low on cash after years of war with the Hittites. His last great possession was the Star of the Euphrates, the most valuable diamond in the ancient world. Desperate, he went to Croesus, the pawnbroker, to ask for a loan. Croesus said, "I'll give you 100,000 dinars for it." "But I paid a million dinars for it," the King protested. "Don't you know who I am? I am the king!" Croesus replied, "When you wish to pawn a Star, makes no difference who you are."


    7. An Indian chief was feeling very sick, so he summoned the medicine man. After a brief examination, the medicine man took out a long, thin strip of elk rawhide and gave it to the chief, telling him to bite off, chew, and swallow one inch of the leather every day. After a month, the medicine man returned to see how the chief was feeling. The chief shrugged and said, "The thong is ended, but the malady lingers on."


    8. A famous Viking explorer returned home from a voyage and found his name missing from the town register. His wife insisted on complaining to the local civic official who apologised profusely saying, "I must have taken Leif off my census."


    9. There were three Indian squaws. One slept on a deer skin, one slept on an elk skin, and the third slept on a hippopotamus skin. All three became pregnant. The first two each had a baby boy. The one who slept on the hippopotamus skin had twin boys. This just goes to prove that... the squaw of the hippopotamus is equal to the sons of the squaws of the other two hides.


    10. A sceptical anthropologist was cataloguing South American folk remedies with the assistance of a tribal Brujo who indicated that the leaves of a particular fern were a sure cure for any case of constipation. When the anthropologist expressed his doubts, the Brujo looked him in the eye and said, "Let me tell you, with fronds like these, you don't need enemas."







    Sunday, May 30, 2010

    Geek Post Monthly Newsletter Volume 2 Issue 5

    Geek Post

    Volume 2 Issue 5

    May 2010

    Hippolite Musings

    Tena Koutou Katoa,

    This month I managed to:

    • Upgrade to VS2010;
    • Had a birthday;
    • Attended a wedding;
    • Saw a movie (Iron Man 2);
    • Presented a guest lecture at VUW;
    • Attended a committee meeting (or 2);
    • Played some squash;
    • Took ownership of another community web site (my third);
    • Indoctrinated my kids into programming (with Scratch); and
    • Moved my home wireless modem from downstairs to upstairs.

    Blessings,
    James


    Developer News

    This is where I continue the saga of documenting my learnings from actually putting a web site “out in the wild” (I usually code within a nice, safe, Intranet).

    In May I took ownership of my third community web site.  The three are (in order of ownership):

    This one follows a radically dissimilar structure to the other two, as it appears to be totally static and the web server doesn’t appear to be IIS.  This may hinder my ability to bring active (dynamic) content.  I’ll have to test the limits of what the Wellington Community Network are offering us web masters.

    Ah well, at least I’m being versatile.


    Telecom News

    I upgraded to Visual Studio 2010 on my laptop at work.  Yay!  However, it means that my study for MCTS Exam 70-503 (Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 – Windows Communication Foundation) has to be done on my desktop at work (yes, I have two workstations - don’t envy me – although it is not on my desk so it is used by a contractor) as the labs don’t work on VS2010.

    I have recommenced study, after a particularly busy few months.  Enjoying the break, caused by many projects being negatively impacted by the recent job losses.

    I learned a lot more about connecting telephone and broadband at home than I had intended this month.  I had invited my Team Leader (a man with 35 years experience with the company) around to my place to help me move my modem upstairs.  I thought it would be a simple matter of replacing my single telephone jack-box in the dining room with a double telephone and broadband jack.  Turns out the dining room was wired directly from the Point of Entry (roadside cable) with telephone only, and we didn’t possess the special triangular screwdriver to get into the POE box to enable BB to that node.  So, we followed the BB cable and found it went from POE to master bedroom to downstairs.  So we had to enable BB from master bedroom to secondary bedroom (where a telephone jack existed).  From there, we were able to extend the BB (and telephone) through the wall into the lounge.  Now the modem resides in the lounge and reception is sweet as.  It took us 4 hours!

    I won’t say I’m a qualified Telecom engineer now, but I have a lot more respect for wiring diagrams than I did before!


    Microsoft News

    Presented my “Designing & Developing Applications to Ensure Quality Code” lecture to a class of third year “Software Engineering” students at Victoria University again this month.  Lecturer Hui Ma informed me that last year’s class highly rated me, which is rewarding.  How is this related to “Microsoft News”?  Because my talk is very much based around the Microsoft Foundations architecture training for Solution Developers.


    Situations Vacant

    Solutions Architect – DEV0207S

    Want to join a company that is innovative, passionate and thrives on providing cutting edge solutions to suit our client's needs?

    Join our growing Voice & Contact Centre team as a Contact Centre Solutions Architect leading, solutions and design in Enterprise Information Technology solutions, specific to the Contact Centre environment.  As a subject matter expert in your field you will be an innovative leader driving, mentoring others to deliver to customer outcomes.

    You will scope and manage ICT strategies and translate business requirements into technical solutions.  Your experience in a similar capacity coupled with industry knowledge of Banking/Finance and Logistics, along with a strong consulting and design background, will secure you this position.

    Contact James if interested.


    Training News

    Took my kids to ScratchDay

    Scratch Day is a worldwide network of gatherings, where people come together to meet other Scratchers, share projects and experiences, and learn more about Scratch.

    Scratch is a programming language that makes it easy to create your own interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art -- and share your creations on the web.

    As young people create and share Scratch projects, they learn important mathematical and computational ideas, while also learning to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively.

    My assessment of the day (a Saturday afternoon) was it was very worth-while.  And not just because a lot of home-schoolers that we knew were there.  The hands-on, collaborative, one-on-one training each kid received got them started on some very quick and easy and rewarding little script writing.


    INETA News

    A summary of Significant Dot Net User Group Chatter

    • 6-May, CSS Cruncher (10 replies)
    • 6-May, PDF creation (5 replies)
    • 11-May, TechEd2010 Registrations are open! (10 replies)
    • 13-May, Sharepoint 2010 local install licensing (8 replies)
    • 18-May, Visual Studio 2010 (34 replies)
    • 19-May, Nhibernate and filtered collections (6 replies)
    • 21-May, TFS 2010 question (4 replies)
    • 25-May, CITCON ANZ 2010 sponsorship (4 replies)
    • 28-May, Windows Phone 7 Developer Training (4 replies)

    PASS News

    A summary of  Significant SQL Server User Group Chatter

    • 13-May, Report Builder 3.0 (4 replies)
    • 19-May, SQL Server 2008 R2 Management Studio (11 replies)
    • 19-May, Cannot open script editor in BIDS 2008 (3 replies)
    • 21-May, Error installing Sql Server 2008 R2 (4 replies)
    • 30-May, Job Vacancy – Senior DBA (2 replies)

    Events Schedule

    In this section, I highlight dates, times and venues of events either I am presenting at, or of interest to Geeks.  I’m available for bookings.

    Date Event Venue Speaker
    01-Jun-2010 Azure Boot Camp Microsoft, Auckland Chris Auld and Ryan CrawCour
    02-Jun-2010 Azure Boot Camp Microsoft, Wellington Chris Auld and Ryan CrawCour
    03-Jun-2010 Azure Boot Camp Intergen, Christchurch Chris Auld and Ryan CrawCour
    15-Jun-2010 Windows 7 Phone Development Convention Centre, Christchurch Various
    16-Jun-2010 Windows 7 Phone Development Microsoft, Wellington Various
    17-Jun-2010 Windows 7 Phone Development Microsoft, Auckland Various
    25-26 Jun 2010 Continuous Integration and Testing Conference Fronde, Queen’s Wharf, Wellington Various
    29-Aug-10 Code Camp (TBA) SkyCity Convention Centre, Auckland Lots
    30-Aug-10 to 01-Sep-10 Microsoft TechEd 2010 SkyCity Convention Centre, Auckland Lots
    April 2011 ALM Conference Wellington Various


    Humour

    Great to be Kiwi

    Young Rangi bought a donkey from a farmer for $100.

    The farmer agreed to deliver the donkey the next day.

    The next day he drove up and said, 'Sorry son, but I have some bad news. The donkey's died.'

    Rangi replied, 'Well then just give me my money back.'

    The farmer said, 'Can't do that. I've already spent it.'

    Rangi said, 'OK, then, just bring me the dead donkey.'

    The farmer asked, 'What are you going to do with him?'

    Rangi said, 'I'm going to raffle him off.'

    The farmer said, 'You can't raffle a dead donkey!'

    Rangi said, 'Sure I can. Watch me.. I just won't tell anybody he's dead.'

    A month later, the farmer met up with Rangi and asked, 'What happened with that dead donkey?'

    Rangi said, 'I raffled him off. I sold 500 tickets at two dollars a piece and made a profit of $898'

    The farmer said, 'Didn't anyone complain?'

    Rangi said, 'Just the guy who won. So I gave him his two dollars back.'

    Rangi now works for Telecom selling the new XT Mobiles