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

Microsoft® Robotics Developer Studio 2008 enables hobbyists, academics and commercial developers to create robotics applications targeting entertainment, educational, home, commercial, or industrial segments.

This presentation specifically focuses on the Microsoft Visual Programming Language in conjunction with Robotics Studio.

Microsoft Visual Programming Language (VPL) is an application development environment designed on a graphical dataflow-based programming mode. Rather than series of imperative commands sequentially executed, a dataflow program is more like a series of workers on an assembly line who do their assigned task as the materials arrive. As a result, VPL is well suited to programming a variety of concurrent or distributed processing scenarios.

VPL is targeted for beginning programmers with a basic understanding of concepts like variables and logic. However, VPL is not limited to novices. The compositional nature of the programming language appeals to more advanced programmers for rapid prototyping or code development. In addition, while its toolbox is tailored developing robot applications, the underlying architecture can be applied to other applications. As a result, VPL may appeal to a wide audience of users including students, enthusiasts/hobbyists, as well as professional programmers.

Presented by: Lance Larsen

Lance is an enthusiastic and knowledgeable independent consultant focusing on the latest Microsoft technologies. Lance balances his career, hobbies ( such as Robotics ) and his family life, including raising his two beautiful and way too smart for his own good, 4 and 7 year old daughters.

Always fascinated with Robotics, this has driven him educationally to get his bachelors in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and followed that up with a Masters in Computer Science ( with a focus in Artificial Intelligence ).

Combining both his educational background with Microsoft's Robotic Studio minimally gives him the ability to realize his ambitions to create an unstoppable robotic hoard to take over the world…. errr… sorry was that my outside voice again?