Wanted to emphasize that those in our field (specifically in computer Development/Architecture) either continue our education nearly every day, or settle into “comfortable” obscurity.  The latter being a very dangerous place to be in these times – and not someplace I ever see myself.

And I was very pleased when I received an email from InnerWorkings – a company/software application that I started using when I taught .NET training courses at FirstData ( see my previous blog posting: Case Study: Many .NET teams are underperforming… is yours? ) – with a Certificate of Achievement for my 50th Task completion – which I received as I’ve been working through some of their new training modules, continuing my exposure and enhancing my understanding of new materials.  May be trivial to some, but kudos to InnerWorkings for recognizing and inspiring.

And on another note, kudos to all the members our our Madison .NET user group ( www.MADdotNET.com ), these are the people who especially in these uncertain times, show their dedication to sharing, learning and enhancing peer-to-peer knowledge related to .NET technologies ... proving themselves to be the leaders in our field -- today, tomorrow and beyond...

Downloaded and looking at the latest ASP.NET MVC 1.0 RC1 project from Microsoft. 

Microsoft’s ASP.NET Model View Controller design pattern for Test-Driven Development of enterprise scale Web applications, is really Microsoft’s answer to the Ruby on Rails framework used by Web developers for rapid prototyping of applications.

High hopes based on feedback that I’ve seen so far.

Look at Scott Guthrie’s (corporate vice president of Microsoft's developer division) blog posting to get an overview of the release.

Detailed instructions on how to download and wire-up “Windows Live Writer 2009” to easily publish to your DotNetNuke blog engine – as I do on both www.LanceLarsen.com and www.MADdotNET.com.

1) You’ll want to download new Windows Live Writer 2009 from the following link: http://download.live.com/writer

2) Run the install. It will ask if you want to install other Microsoft “Live” products – but for this, all the matters is that you select the Windows Live Writer application.

3) Once installed – run the application. Click on “Blogs” – and select “Add blog account…”

Went down to the MDC (Microsoft Development Conference) in Chicago,  Came down early to meet up with some of our Microsoft contacts.  Great opportunity to network - and line up speakers of the Madison .NET User Group (www.maddotnet.com).

Asked by Larry Clarkin (who did a great job of running the speakers, etc.) to assist with the Community track, so we put some time aside to speak about the .NET User Group as well as the other technologies that were being discussed throughout the day.

Spent time investigating Azure (www.azure.com) - Microsoft's cloud computing implementation.  This is Microsoft's way to compete with Amazon, etc with virtual server "Cloud" application hosting -- but they're taking a spin on it by leveraging the existing .NET developer's skill base and tightly integrating it into their development tools.  Azure is currently in CTP (Community Technical Preview) - look forward to spending more time on this and identifying when and where it would benefit my clients.

Also, very excited after looking at the upcoming release of Visual Studio 2010.  Some of the features that look to be exceptional are the QA features - giving the developer not only a VIDEO of any exceptions as they occur on the tester's machine, but also give the developers the ability to debug into the very code - and hit the exact exception - to see why the error occurred.  No more wasting time chasing down errors that are difficult to reproduce...

Also VS2010 has some nice Regression / Unit testing enhancements - including the concept of a "Gated Checkin" - wherein the team can set it up that prior to any code check-in, all code is updated, and built to validate that there will no longer be any broken builds.

Finished up with getting the low down on the latest ASP.NET 4.0 features that are in planning to be rolled out.  Check out -- www.codeplex.com/aspnet -- for more details on those.

Thanks to all the folks at Microsoft, very nice one-day event.

I do a lot of development for mobile devices. 

Specifically, I needed to integrate a mag-stripe reader that fits into the CF slot of a PocketPC into a SmartDevice C# compact framework application that I am in the process of creating. 

The overall goal is to allow a credit card ( but could be any card with a mag-strip ) to be swiped directly on the mobile device and have that data integrated into the application.

Took advantage of the SerialPort class in .NET, and spun off an example application illustrating that to share with anyone else needing similar architecture.

Download: The "CardSwipe" example code ( Visual Studio 2008 )

Registered for the local Microsoft Professional Developers Conference (PDC) taking place in Chicago on Jan 13th. 

Always good to be exposed to the newest offerings from Microsoft, and then we can dive deeper into them at our Madison .Net User group meetings.

Registration is reasonable at $99 - and they will be speaking about Azure Services Platform, Windows 7, .NET, Silverlight, Surface, Parallel Programming, Live Mesh, and more.

Will Twitter about it...

A case study that details the .Net development education program that I co-lead at First-Data...

"The success of First Data’s implementation springs directly from the vision and commitment of three key individuals. ... Lance Larsen (Senior Application Architect) worked with McCarthy to guide the implementation across multiple software teams and locations."

Always rewarding to see something into which one put so much effort, work out so well.

"This case study explores how First Data Corp invested in the success of their software teams by adopting a hands-on approach to .NET developer training. They immersed their developers in a 100% practice based .NET learning environment."

Download: Case Study

"As we continue to see uncertain economic conditions around us, I would like to take this opportunity to highlight the value of a local .NET community during difficult times. Across North America and around the world, groups of people gather in person and online to share their knowledge and engage in conversations relating to software. ...and focus on a variety of aspects related to working with Microsoft .NET technologies."

"...These groups and their associated communities of software professionals represent a tremendous resource and provide some of the best training opportunities that exist today. The presentations that take place in monthly user group meetings are a great opportunity to learn more about the constant flow of new technologies we are faced with today and continue learning how to better utilize the existing tools and technologies that we have today."

"If you're a company or recruiting firm looking for some talented .NET skills, check out your local groups as well. These are the people putting in the extra effort to pay attention to technology and grow their skills."

"Getting involved in your local user group, either attending events, and/or volunteering to help or present is a great way to get involved, make new contacts, and help expand your skills and expertise."

Completely agree with the above quote from Rob Zelt - President, INETA NorAm ( rob.zelt@ineta.org )

Created a library of helper methods for integrating AutoIt into a C# application.

It's a little difficult to see what's happening in this YouTube video based on their resolution - but it give you the idea that the example application brings up NotePad, enters text automatically, moves the mouse around, can read the text and then closes NotePad - all being controlled in the code.

It has a great deal of flexibility - and being embedded into C# gives us the best of both languages.

Download: The "Automator" example code and AutoItHelper library ( Visual Studio 2008 )

Updated my site to the newest version of DotNetNuke blog engine - which now allows for integration with Windows Live Writer. 

Windows Live Writer has a slick interface - with a very cool plug-in architecture.

Here are some good links / resources to get started with:

• Windows Live Writer
• Windows Live Writer: Plug-ins
• Tips & Tricks: Setup Windows Live Writer with the DNN Blog
• DotNetNuke Blog: New Features Video