Geek Post Monthly Newsletter Volume 2 Issue 4

Geek Post

Volume 2 Issue 4 April 2010

Hippolite Musings	Tena Koutou Katoa, Stake in the ground: the April issue should come out at the end of April, documenting what happened in April.  (That decision was never necessary, when the newsletter used to be weekly on a Sunday documenting what happened in the previous week.)  So far, I’ve failed this test! This month I managed to: wrangle some more training; attended a launch event; took some unplanned leave; made some deliveries; started a new church (and website). Blessings, James
Developer News	Grenada Village Online 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 April I launched my new church website: Align Church Online Essentially follows very similar structure to Grenada Village Online, but I suspect I shall be putting more time into this one, as I have a close team of interested individuals giving me plenty of advice about what next needs to go up. Discovered a quick way to send up only the necessary changes: Make my edits locally Publish to local folder Zip the local folder, being careful to exclude the web.config file and images folder.  (Web.config,  because I don’t want to overwrite the different connection string between DEV and PROD, and images folder in order to decrease the size of the zip file.  Since the images don’t change from update to update, there is no need to continually send them up.)  However, the slightest HTML change (let alone code behind) requires a recompile and the entire BIN folder to be updated. I also delete the SubSonic.dll file from the zip archive, because although it is in the BIN folder, it doesn’t change from version to version.  And it’s comparatively large. My ISP admin website allows for me to upload and unzip files to a folder.  By uploading the entire zip file into the web site root folder, I overwrite all files there, thus a quick and easy way to update my site. There is one distinction I made between these two sites, which I think I need to retrofit into GVO: When someone signs up with ACO, they are not granted any extra rights, until I go in as admin and assign them to a security group. When someone signs up with GVO, they are automatically granted Membership.  I think this was a mistake. Membership allows you to see the Directory of all other users.  Potentially, this is a security breach. I made a couple of design decisions: I had a number of photos and a video which we wanted to put up on our site. I discovered that FaceBook has a 200 image limit per album. I decided to upload approx. 600 images to FaceBook in 3 different albums for 3 different events, but make those images private to my friends. Then I decided to upload only 12 of the best photos each for those 3 events and  make them public on the ACO website. Then I converted the 90min video into 11 x 9 min (approx) clips. Then I uploaded those clips to YouTube. Then I created a page which lists, displays and names those 11 clips, on the ACO site. Talk about using Social Media to our advantage!
Telecom News	Share Price Fell Note: the following is my personal opinion.  I have no “extra” knowledge of Telecom business other than what is publicly known. CEO made big announcement.  200 managers were going to lose their jobs in a massive scale-back.  That’s approximately 10% of the managerial layer, so expect management layoffs in May, and staff layoffs in June. Personally, I’m not too concerned: Telecom sees itself as three components: Wholesale, Retail and Shared Services. I’m Shared Services. Whatever happens to the company, (i.e. apparently physical separation between Wholesale and Retail is a possibility), both will still need Shared Services.  We just might need to split up. My skills as a .NET Developer are still in demand elsewhere, if necessary.
Microsoft News	What I did for Microsoft this month (I don’t work for them, but sometimes it feels like I do) Attended Test Technologies Training event at Microsoft on Thursday 15 April.  Training by Jeremy Boyd. Attended Visual Studio 2010 and Windows Azure launch event at Holiday Inn, Featherston Street on Friday 23 April with work colleagues. Downloaded Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate edition.  I’ll install it next month.  Let you know how I get on. Attempted to get to the bottom of why Telecom had a Team Foundation Server, but it’s only available in a Virtual Environment.  Let me explain: Workgroup Solutions Team (WST, to which I belong) have exemption to be allowed to install and use Visual Studio IDE on our PCs in order to do our jobs. However, Intranet Support (our sister team, with the same manager) do not have this exemption and must run Visual Studio in Virtual PCs. Therefore, when they evaluated they had a need for Team Foundation Server (TFS), they were informed/advised the only way to achieve this was to install it on a separate domain from Telecom. Therefore, they run this server on a separate domain, which is only accessible via wireless network on our floor of our building. Therefore, they are unable to code from home. Therefore, WST doesn’t want a bar of it. But, WST does want TFS and wonders why we can’t install it on one of our servers. But, if we were to install TFS on one of our servers would cause two issues: Licensing, I imagine, because then there would be two instances of TFS.  However, we can’t merely decommission the existing TFS because then Intranet Support wouldn’t be able to connect to our instance, because they’re all running Visual Studio on Virtual PCs! Somehow, I surmise, somebody gave poor advice initially, and now we’re stuck with an untenable position.  Hopefully, Network Operations will hear of this, my tale of woe, take pity and remove restrictions from Intranet Support to be able to emulate the WST working environment.
Situations Vacant	Paradoxically, given the current restructure, there are plenty Network Planner - Bring forward the future Experience the challenges and complexities associated with working for New Zealand's largest access network services business.  As a key member of the Chorus team help manage our field services and access network (copper, fibre, ducts, radio, cabinets and exchanges) to better support our customers and give all service providers equal access to the local network through its exchanges.  Work alongside a team of true professionals responsible for developing projects to expand the capacity and the reach of the Chorus network. Complex Provisioning Coordinator - Be the Oil in the Engine Join this fun and supportive team responsible for handling managed provisioning requests for Chorus's customers and keep the pistons turning as you get to know all the latest network and data products.  You'll be an integral part of this team as you lead and develop end to end customer experience initiatives to achieve consistently superlative results! Project Analyst - Portfolio Management Office This position is being introduced within the Service Introduction Portfolio Management Office (PMO). The PMO is responsible for providing consistent management and reporting across all Service Introduction managed projects.
Training News	Learned all the new testing methodologies Visual Studio 2010 integrates with a new tool for testers.  It looks sweet.  It’s not the VS IDE, so shouldn’t freak out non-coders, but it does integrate with TFS, so can create, edit, assign and close work items. Also, it allows for very detailed recording of tests (including video!) so that developers can quickly see the error occurring and quickly diagnose it. Also, it allows for testers to very easily set up a test harness and repeatable tests, so that regression testing is easier. It’s got some instantly forgettable long name which I’ve been avoiding because I had to go look it up: Visual Studio 2010 Test Professional (remember: it has the name, but not the look and feel of the IDE).
INETA News	A summary of Significant Dot Net User Group Chatter 01-Apr-2010 - Entity Framework (V4) Use – 18 replies 12-Apr-2010 – SilverLight – 34 replies 13-Apr-2010 - VS2010 is RTM - 54 replies 14-Apr-2010 – SharePoint mail list? – 10 replies 25-Apr-2010 – New VS2010 IDE Features – 14 replies 28-Apr-2010 – Silverstripe CMS – 11 replies 29-Apr-2010 – VS2010 IntelliSense Drop-Down Size – 24 replies
PASS News	A summary of  Significant SQL Server User Group Chatter 07-Apr-2010 – Auckland SQL Saturday – 10 replies 08-Apr-2010 – Wellington SQL Server User Group Meeting – Windows Azure – 6 replies 09-Apr-2010 – Dynamics CRM – 5 replies 21-Apr-2010 – What is the best alternates to avoid using Cursors? – 6 replies 22-Apr-2010 – Protecting SQL Server Data – 4 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 06-May-10 BizTalk Roadmap DataCom Systems Myles Matheson 07-May-10 How to Code for Quality VUW Software Engineering class James Hippolite 18-May-10 NZ SharePoint Conference Bay of Plenty Lots 19-May-10 12:00 GMT 24 Hours of PASS Internet Lots 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 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
Humour	JACK was in the airport VIP lounge en route to Seattle some weeks ago when he noticed Bill Gates sitting comfortably in the corner, enjoying a drink. Jack was meeting a very important client who was also flying to Seattle, but she was running a little bit late. Well, being a straightforward kind of guy, he approached the Microsoft chairman, introduced himself, and said: “Mr Gates, I wonder if you would do me a favour.” “Yes?” “I’m sitting right over there,” Jack said, pointing to his seat at the bar, “and I’m waiting on a very important client. Would you be so kind when she arrives as to come walk by and just say, ‘Hi, Jack?’” “Sure.” He shook Bill Gates’ hand, thanked him and went back to his seat. About 10 minutes later, Jack’s client showed up. They ordered drinks and started to talk business. A couple of minutes later, he felt a tap on his shoulder. It was Bill Gates. “Hi, Jack,” he said. Jack replied: “Get lost Gates, I’m in a meeting.”