Shawn Weisfeld

Reporting Services 2008 is still using the XLS (BIFF) file format

Shawn Weisfeld — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:41:16 GMT

Rant start . . . .

I was in a meeting and we were talking about SSRS and I have heard yet again that Excel 2007 is great because it breaks the 65k record limit. That is wonderful, but IMHO, Microsoft has dropped the ball with SSRS 2008 since it is still using the BIFF file format.

From my read of Books Online (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms159836.aspx), “Excel places limitations on exported reports due to the BIFF's format capabilities” but why are we still using BIFF and XLS? Why are we not using XLSX and the newer (heck it is 3 years old now) file format?

Ok, rant over. . . . thanks for listening.

Understanding Databinding with XAML in WPF and Silverlight Part 1 by Vince Blasberg @ Dallas XAML UG on 03/02/2010

Shawn Weisfeld — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:15:00 GMT

Another in the series of recordings I have done for INETA Live.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Abstract:

A fast pace walkthrough of databinding in WPF and Silverlight. Well move into variations of using the path statement and move into using converters to make databinding flexible and powerful. This meeting will throw pointers and hints at the next meeting that will cover using databinding with the MVVM pattern in both WPF and Silverlight.

Microsoft Visual Studio 2010: Breaking the walls between developers and testers by Mike Azocar on 03/02/2010

Shawn Weisfeld — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:12:00 GMT

Another in the series of recordings I have done for INETA Live.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Abstract:

Join us for a sneak peek at some of the new capabilities in Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2010, a landmark release of the premier development and testing toolset for Windows®, Web and Cloud development.

Microsoft has made significant investments to improve the Testing/QA tools in Visual Studio 2010. The Next Generation Testing Event is your exclusive opportunity to experience the incredible power and capabilities these new tools bring to the QA and testing process. At this event, you’ll get a comprehensive overview, as well as a deep dive, into the range of new tools and how they can enable you to improve the way you develop and test software on the Microsoft platform.

This will be an invaluable opportunity to learn how to take software development to the next level with Visual Studio 2010’s new testing features

Writing ETL Jobs with C# using Rhino ETL by Paul Barriere @ Dallas C# SIG UG on 03/04/2010

Shawn Weisfeld — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 14:18:00 GMT

Another in the series of recordings that I have done for INETA Live.

Video:

Abstract:

ETL stands for Extract, Transform, Load. For example, you receive files or other data from vendors or other third parties which you need to manipulate in some way and then insert into your own database. Rhino ETL is an open source C# package that I have used for dozens of production processes quite successfully. By using C# for your ETL tasks you can create testable, reusable components more easily than with tools like SSIS and DTS.

Bio:

Paul is currently working a contract for Improving Enterprises. He has been enjoying software development since 1996 for multiple industries such as small software ISVs, insurance, control systems, retail and finance/hedge fund companies. For more info see http://webpaul.net

Sponsor My Rig

Shawn Weisfeld — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 00:55:17 GMT

If you have been watching my blog over the past few months you would have seen that I have been doing a large amount of recordings for local user groups (90+ hours of video with over 1700 views). To do this I have invested about $6,000 in hardware & software. In an effort to recover some of that I am looking for willing companies that would like to purchase ad space. Here is the deal for a $500 donation you will get to put a 2 slide advertisement at the beginning of my next 5 videos (these are permanently embedded into the video), and if you send me a sticker I will place it on the case I put the rig in to haul it to all the meetings. This offer is limited to the first 12 companies that want to participate. Please note I am NOT doing this to make money. I only need to recoup the funds that I have put into it. Please also note that while I am involved with INETA and most of the stuff I record gets posted to INETA Live, this sponsorship has NOTHING to do with INETA or any other company I work for/volunteer with, it is a sponsorship of/for me personally.

If you are interested or have any questions please drop me an email at shawn@shawnweisfeld.com.

Here are some links to some of my recent recordings:

Expose your Entity Framework Data Models with WCF Data Services by Shawn Weisfeld @ Dallas ASP.NET UG on 02/23/2010

A Look at Windows Workflow 4.0 by Anderson Imes @ D/FW Connected Systems UG on 02/10/2010

A Tale of Two Threads by Casey Watson @ Dallas C# SIG on 02/04/2010

Event Driven Architecture by Chris Patterson @ North Dallas .NET UG on 02/03/2010

Visual Studio 2010 and Team Foundation Server 2010 Overview by Trent Nix@ Dallas .NET Users Group on 1/14/2010

Here are the details of what is in my recording rig: Click Here

Here is a picture of the case the rig lives in:

My Recording Rig v2

Shawn Weisfeld — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 00:26:03 GMT

A while back I wrote a post about the contents of “My Recording Rig”, well it is undergoing a makeover and I figured I should update everyone. Read the original post (http://www.drowningintechnicaldebt.com/ShawnWeisfeld/archive/0001/01/01/my-recording-rig-v1.aspx) for the background information behind the rig.

Now I was having 2 problems.

1) The first was it was a pain to run 50 foot of Ethernet from the front of the room to the back. To that end I have added a wireless router to my “plastic box”.

2) The second issue was with the wireless microphone. The Audo Technica microphone I originally had gave me lots of static, I swapped it out for one from RadioShack (http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2131022) while a bit better this one had the same issue. I have ordered a Shure PG1288/PG185 Vocal/Lavalier Combo Wireless System (http://www.shure.com/ProAudio/Products/WirelessMicrophones/us_pro_pg1288-pg185). This looks to be a better quality system then I had before, additionally it supports “Dual Channel”. this means that I should be able to record 2 people at the same time. I system I got has one hand held and 1 lapel microphone, we will see how it works when it gets here. . . .

The third thing I did was purchase a large hard sided suit case and a bunch of foam padding to build a “travel case” for my rig. When I get that part all put together I will take pictures and post it to my blog.

Here is a picture of my “plastic box”:

Here is an updated parts list:

Item Qty Price Ext. Price URL

VGA2Ethernet (aka Frame Grabber) 1 $ 1,600.00 $ 1,600.00 http://www.epiphan.com/

Wireless Router 1 $ 55.00 $ 55.00 http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/711445/Linksys-By-Cisco-WRT54G2-Wireless-G/

2 Port VGA Splitter 1 $ 30.00 $ 30.00 http://www.frys.com/product/5944664

Plastic Box 1 $ 2.00 $ 2.00

25 foot extension cord 2 $ 15.00 $ 30.00

Power Strip 2 $ 10.00 $ 20.00

JVC GR-D870 Mini DV Video Camera 1 $ 200.00 $ 200.00 http://camcorder.jvc.com/product.jsp?modelId=MODL028241&pathId=26&page=10

Wireless Lapel Microphone 1 $ 550.00 $ 550.00 http://www.shure.com/ProAudio/Products/WirelessMicrophones/us_pro_pg1288-pg185

10 foot 1394 cable 1 $ 46.00 $ 46.00 http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/311615/Iogear-IEEE-1394-Firewire-4-Pin/

Headphones 1 $ 10.00 $ 10.00

Powerful Laptop 1 $ 1,600.00 $ 1,600.00 64 bit, quad core, lots-o-ram

Wirecast from Telestream 1 $ 450.00 $ 450.00 http://www.telestream.net/wire-cast/overview.htm

Camtasia 1 $ 300.00 $ 300.00 http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.asp

Expression Encoder 1 $ 600.00 $ 600.00 http://www.microsoft.com/expression/

Suitcase for Rig 1 $ 180.00 $ 180.00

Foam Padding for Rig 1 $ 95.00 $ 95.00

$ 5,768.00

DFW Technically Speaking on March 27th

Shawn Weisfeld — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 16:59:16 GMT

If you are looking to brush up on your presentation skills, or just want to be better prepared the next time the boss wants you to demo your work this is a must attend event.

More Information at http://technicallyspeaking.dfwnav.com

Developer: Utilizing .NET Generics to write better code by Shawn Weisfeld @ UT Dallas .NET UG on 02/27/2010

Shawn Weisfeld — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 01:45:54 GMT

This Saturday (2/27) I will be giving my .NET Generics talk for the UT Dallas .NET UG in Richardson TX. If you are in the area please check it out (http://www.usergroupsupportservices.com/UGEventView.ugss?EventID=9160). If you cannot make it but are interested in seeing the talk, you can watch it online.

Abstract:
Generics let you tailor a method, class, structure, or interface to the precise data type it acts upon. In this session we will discuss what capabilities Generics provide to you the developer and how to use them in collections, and with delegates. We will also talk about creating your own generic classes and methods.

Download
PowerPoint & Demos

Bio:
Shawn Weisfeld (shawn@shawnweisfeld.com) is a Staff Developer at a fortune 100 company, currently located at Dallas TX facility. There he specializes in intranet & smart client development for internal line of business applications. Besides his day job Shawn also is an Adjunct Professor at The Florida Institute of Technology (http://www.fit.edu). He also does freelance software development work for local small businesses and training. In his free time he volunteers with INETA NorAm (http://www.ineta.org) and is a member of the Board of Directors and Mentor for North Texas. Shawn started his career at his family business in Port St. Lucie FL while working on his undergraduate degree in Business Administration at the University of Central Florida and after a year off Shawn moved back to Orlando to pursue a Masters degree in Management Information Systems at The University of Central Florida and has since earned a second Masters degree in Computer Information Systems from Florida Institute of Technology. Shawn was awarded the Microsoft C# Most Valuable Professional award for 2007 - 2010. Shawn is an avid technology presenter and since July of 2005 Shawn has presented at many user group events, and even got to speak at the launch of Visual Studio. Shawn has served as the President of the Orlando .NET UG (http://www.onetug.org) from 2006 – 2008, and started the Developer Round Table UG (http://www.developerroundtable.com) in 2009. Shawn regularly attends, and records for INETA LIVE (http://live.ineta.org), many of the local user groups in the D/FW metroplex, including; D/FW Connected Systems UG, Dallas .NET UG, Dallas ASP.NET UG, Dallas C# Programming Sig, Dallas VSTS UG, North Dallas .NET UG, North Texas PC UG, UT Dallas .NET UG. So be sure to say hello if you see him.

Expose your Entity Framework Data Models with WCF Data Services by Shawn Weisfeld @ Dallas ASP.NET UG on 02/23/2010

Shawn Weisfeld — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 22:54:24 GMT

Another in the series of recordings I have done for INETA Live.

Video

Slides/Code Download:
Click Here

Abstract:

The WCF Data Services (a.k.a. ADO.NET Data Services or code name Astoria) framework consists of a combination of patterns and libraries that enable the creation and consumption of data services for the web. This is implemented in done in a standards based (OData) RESTful way serializing the data to JSON or AtomPub. In this talk we will introduce the WCF Data Services platform, talk about the basic underpinnings of the technology. Then we will build a simple Entity Framework Data Model and using WCF Data Services expose it to a simple web application. Through this process we will discuss retrieving data via URI and LINQ to ADO.NET Data Services.

Bio:

Shawn (http://www.shawnweisfeld.com) is a Staff Developer at a fortune 100 company. There he specializes in intranet & smart client development for internal line of business applications. Besides his day job Shawn also is an Adjunct Professor at The Florida Institute of Technology. He also does freelance software development work for local small businesses and training. In his free time he volunteers with INETA NorAm (http://www.ineta.org/) where he serves at the Director of Community Activities. Shawn started his career at his family business in Port St. Lucie FL while working on his undergraduate degree in Business Administration at the University of Central Florida and after a year off Shawn moved back to Orlando to pursue a Masters degree in Management Information Systems at The University of Central Florida and has since earned a second Masters degree in Computer Information Systems from Florida Institute of Technology. Shawn was awarded the Microsoft C# Most Valuable Professional award for 2007 & 2008. Shawn is an avid technology presenter and since July of 2005 Shawn has presented at many user group events, and even got to speak for Microsoft at the launch of Visual Studio 2008.

A Look at Windows Workflow 4.0 by Anderson Imes @ D/FW Connected Systems UG on 02/10/2010

Shawn Weisfeld — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 21:22:24 GMT

Another in the series of recordings I have done for INETA Live.

Abstract:

Come join us as Anderson Imes gives us an overview of Workflow 4.0 features, including Workflow Services and the Windows Server Application Fabric.

Bio:

Anderson Imes is a Senior Programmer for Mary Kay and an active member of Microsoft's Connected Technology Advisor program. Anderson is currently delivering software solutions built on .NET, including Windows Communication Foundation and Windows Workflow. You can learn more about Anderson from his blog http://theimes.com.

Item	Qty	Price	Ext. Price	URL
VGA2Ethernet (aka Frame Grabber)	1	$ 1,600.00	$ 1,600.00	http://www.epiphan.com/
Wireless Router	1	$ 55.00	$ 55.00	http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/711445/Linksys-By-Cisco-WRT54G2-Wireless-G/
2 Port VGA Splitter	1	$ 30.00	$ 30.00	http://www.frys.com/product/5944664
Plastic Box	1	$ 2.00	$ 2.00
25 foot extension cord	2	$ 15.00	$ 30.00
Power Strip	2	$ 10.00	$ 20.00
JVC GR-D870 Mini DV Video Camera	1	$ 200.00	$ 200.00	http://camcorder.jvc.com/product.jsp?modelId=MODL028241&pathId=26&page=10
Wireless Lapel Microphone	1	$ 550.00	$ 550.00	http://www.shure.com/ProAudio/Products/WirelessMicrophones/us_pro_pg1288-pg185
10 foot 1394 cable	1	$ 46.00	$ 46.00	http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/311615/Iogear-IEEE-1394-Firewire-4-Pin/
Headphones	1	$ 10.00	$ 10.00
Powerful Laptop	1	$ 1,600.00	$ 1,600.00	64 bit, quad core, lots-o-ram
Wirecast from Telestream	1	$ 450.00	$ 450.00	http://www.telestream.net/wire-cast/overview.htm
Camtasia	1	$ 300.00	$ 300.00	http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.asp
Expression Encoder	1	$ 600.00	$ 600.00	http://www.microsoft.com/expression/
Suitcase for Rig	1	$ 180.00	$ 180.00
Foam Padding for Rig	1	$ 95.00	$ 95.00
			$ 5,768.00