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Session Abstracts
While the call for speakers is open the sessions are listed in the order in which the submission was received. Once the community voting opens they will be re-ordered by category.
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- What's New in C# 4.0?
-
At PDC 2008 Microsoft unveiled C# 4.0 and all of the new features within. So now we start the roller-coaster of catch up all over again as we desperately struggle to keep up with what’s new and why we should be interested in the latest flashy feature. In this session we will look at dynamically typed objects, optional and named parameters, type embedding, type equivalence, loose type coupling and more. In addition if we have time we will look at the “compiler as a service” feature to be released after C# 4.0.
- How To Achieve World(-Ready) Domination In Silverlight
-
So you’ve written your Silverlight application and you want it to work in another language? Then this session is for you. World-Readiness is all of the work that a developer needs to do to globalize an application and make it localizable (i.e. capable of being localized). Whereas these concepts are well established in Windows Forms and ASP.NET, Silverlight is not only a cut-down version of the .NET Framework but also cross platform and client-side. In this session you will learn how to localize Silverlight applications using .resx files, download culture-specific resources on demand so that users only download resources for the culture they need, understand what System.Globalization types and properties Silverlight does not support and why, what CultureInfo and RegionInfo support you can expect on Windows, Linux and the Mac, what the Silverlight installation user experience is for non-English users and what language support you can expect from the Silverlight framework.
- Top 10 WCF Tips & Tricks
-
A personal selection of things to help your development with WCF from not using using, bad behaviours, migrating ASMX and another 7 useful pointers.
- Microsoft Source Analysis (or How To Start A Fight)
-
In May 2008 Microsoft finally released Source Analysis (aka StyleCop). Source Analysis does for C# source code what FxCop does for assemblies – it applies ‘good practice’ rules to your source code. This means all those controversial code beauty issues like spaces, where to put curly braces, how and when to use blank lines and over 200 similar rules. This session gets you started using Source Analysis, investigates a selection of rules, shows how to integrate Source Analysis into Visual Studio and your build process and finally shows how to write your own custom rules. This is a low tech session on an essential tool that all C# developers should be using.
- Automating Testing With Virtual Server 2005
-
Virtual Server 2005 is a free virtualization download from Microsoft. It allows you to run and maintain multiple virtual machines running different Microsoft operating systems in different configurations. Virtual Machines allow you to test your software in different configurations without the need for buying and maintaining separate physical machines. Virtual Server 2005 includes an API for programmatically controlling these virtual machines. This session describes this API and shows you how to use it to run automated tests on multiple platforms.
- Visual Studio 2005 & 2008 IDE Tips and Tricks
-
Visual Studio is a treasure trove of functionality and productivity. The problem is that many developers don’t know what’s there. In this session we will cover some simple and not so simple tips and tricks and improve your productivity and enjoyment of Visual Studio. The majority of tips and tricks are common to both Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio 2008.
- 10 Things To Know Before Internationalizing An Application
-
The global market place is creating an ever increasing demand for internationalized Web and Windows applications. The basics of .NET internationalization are easily acquired in a short timeframe. However, the gotchas & best practices of internationalization demand specialised knowledge & experience. This session shows you the top 10 nuggets of .NET internationalization facts & tips for Web & Windows applications that you should know before you start your next internationalized application.
- Overview of Creating a Custom DSL with BOO
-
- Speaker:
- Paul Cowan
- Level:
- Intermediate
-
Prerequisites:
- CLR, C#
Domain Specific Languages is a topic that is very 'in' with developer buzz word popularity. Boo is a statically typed OO language with a Python based syntax. It supports Macros, an open compiler pipeline and has specific features that were explicitly designed to make DSL building easier. This overview will walk through the creation of an English like grammar that is used to build, configure and install software components as used on the horn project.
- The SQL Server 2008 Optimiser – Expansion, Making better plans through Constraints and real-world techniques to aid the Optimiser.
-
- Speaker:
- Tony Rogerson
- Level:
- Intermediate
-
Prerequisites:
- SQL Server
The SQL Server 2008 Optimiser is a wonderful piece of technology, however, it still does not possess the ability to fully understand your data. We take a look at Expansion – how Table Expressions are expanded and optimised; we then look deeper into how we can influence the optimiser to gain our optimal plan. As part of the talk we also look at how we can now move away from Dynamic SQL for optional parameters and use a little known feature of SQL Server 2008.
- REST Double Session
-
- Speaker:
- Alan Dean
- Level:
- Intermediate
- Prerequisites:
- Web Development
- NOTE:
- This is a 2 hour presentation with a break in the middle.
Part 1 "REST: Separating Facts from Fallacies"
Still not sure what REST is or why it might be important to you?
REST(Representational State Transfer) is still a deeply misunderstood architectural style. This presentation is designed to dispel some of the myths surrounding REST.
Part 2 "Delivering RESTful systems with Azure"
The new Windows Azure platform allows .NET developers to deliver a variety of cloud-based systems. In particular, Microsoft provides support for REST (Representation
State Transfer) style architectures.
This session will provide a tour around the key enabling features of the platform allowing highly scalable systems by leveraging the benefits of REST -
identifying patterns for success and warning of anti-patterns.
- Customizing ASP.NET MVC Framework
-
- Speaker:
- Chris Canal
- Level:
- Intermediate
-
Prerequisites:
- ASP.NET MVC
The new Microsoft ASP.NET MVC Framework represents a new direction Web Developers can take when creating Web Application on the .NET Platform. Offering fantastic extensibility points, the MVC Frameworks work allows developers to easily replace core parts of the Framework for tools they are comfortable with. In this presentation we will explore taking advantage of these extensibility points by integrating an Inversion of Control container, using IronRuby or IronPython to write our views and take a look at other extensibility points supplied by the ASP.NET MVC Framework.
- Unobtrusive JavaScript with ASP.NET MVC Framework and jQuery
-
- Speaker:
- Chris Canal
- Level:
- Intermediate
-
Prerequisites:
- ASP.NET MVC, jQuery
With jQuery being officially bundled with the ASP.NET MVC Framework, the number of JavaScript powered Web Applications will only increase. However, one of the most overlooked aspects of creating JavaScript based applications is supporting Unobtrusive JavaScript (UJS). Developing your applications to support UJS will guarantee a pleasant end user experience with and without JavaScript and should be something that all Web Developers are aware of. In this presentation we will cover what is involved in achieving this with the ASP.NET MVC Framework and jQuery; from the client side code to what’s involved within our Controllers and Actions.
- Stop your web site being stung
-
The OWASP Top 10 vulnerability list is the resource for discovering the most popular attacks on the internet right now. This session aims to go through them,
demonstrate them and show you how to protect your ASP.NET web site from them.
- AOP with Castle Windsor and PostSharp
-
- Speaker:
- Chris Canal
- Level:
- Intermediate
-
Prerequisites:
- -
Aspect Oriented Programming is one of those fuzzy buzzwords that are thrown around without too many solid examples and has left me and a good few other people scratching their head. In this presentation we will cover that AOP is and two options available on the .NET Platform: Castle Windsor and PostSharp. We will looking beyond the oft used logging example and see what value AOP can bring to our applications.
- Make Patterns With Patterns
-
- Speaker:
- Ray Booysen
- Level:
- Intermediate
- Prerequisites:
- C#, Basic WPF
You can draw nice patterns and stuff with WPF, but unless you get organised, the design suffers. Using the MVVM design pattern, you reign in defects, allow for
top down unit testing and better change management. In a nutshell, allowing your developers and designers to do what they do best.
With code demonstrations throughout, this presentation's aim is to show a proven method of development and demonstrate how real-world WPF applications can be written and
to make your life easier!
- How do you do - Hierarchies?
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- Speaker:
- Martin Bell
- Level:
- Intermediate
- Prerequisites:
- -
The most common way to model hierarchies in a relational database is to use the Adjacency List model, with the new hierarchyid in SQL Server 2008 should we all
be using the Materialised Path model or not? In this presentation Martin will look the methods used for each method and the advantages and disadvantages of
using each method, so that you may decide which is the best for you!
- What use are the different new security features in SQL Server 2008?
-
- Speaker:
- Martin Bell
- Level:
- Intermediate/Advanced
- Prerequisites:
- -
There are many great new features in SQL Server 2008 including 3 new types of auditing feature. In this presentation Martin will demonstrate the
difference between the new Auditing features, Change Tracking and Change Data Capture along with Transparent Data Encryption which are particularly
useful for anyone implementing forms of compliance.
- Everything you wanted to know about Refactoring but were afraid to ask.
-
- Speaker:
- Gary Short
- Level:
- All levels
- Prerequisites:
- -
Refactoring is a skill all modern developers need. In this presentation
we'll take a deep dive into refactoring, starting with what problem
refactoring solves, before moving on to look at some refactoring patterns
and finishing with a look at tooling and why we should use a refactoring
tool. Throughout this presentation there will be many code examples
demonstrating the patterns and topics being discussed.
- Authentication and the internet
-
So you have a web site and you want to allow your users to register and authenticate. There are lots of options out there from forms authentication,
through OpenID, LiveID and even Information Cards. This session aims to take you through all of your options, comparing and contrasting, pointing and
laughing and showing you how to implement each one.
- The Science of Social Networking
-
- Speaker:
- Gary Short
- Level:
- Advanced
- Prerequisites:
- -
Social Networking is now a fact of business life. It touches many facets
within the enterprise. As such it needs to be measured against other
business practices, but how can you measure the effectiveness of a Social
Network? In this presentation we will look at the science behind Social
Networking and I will demonstrate a number of techniques that you, as
developers, can use to firstly understand what constitutes a Social Network,
and then to measure how effective a Social Network is for any given
scenario. Using these techniques you can write software that will allow you,
or your company, to target social networking effort where it is most
effective.
- Oh I do Like to be beside the Seaside!
-
- Speaker:
- Gary Short
- Level:
- Beginner
- Prerequisites:
- -
Seaside provides a layered set of abstractions over HTTP and HTML that let
you build highly interactive web applications quickly and with reusability
and maintainability baked in. It is based on Smalltalk, a proven and robust
language that is implemented by different vendors. In this presentation I
will introduce you to this framework and give you a primer that will enable
you to download it and become productive straight away. This presentation is
a must for those developers already interested in Ruby on Rails or ASP.Net
MVC.
- Snake charming : A demonstration of IronPython via communication in Second Life
-
IronPython 2 is about to hit .Net, and it can make your .Net life much easier. In order to demonstrate some of the capabilities of the language,
I'll demonstrate an app I wrote against a C# Second Life library ( http://www.libsecondlife.org/wiki/Main_Page
) to create a bot in second life.
No previous experience of Second Life or IronPython is required. Everything you need to know will be explained during the session.
- jQuery Deep Dive
-
- Speaker:
- Andy Gibson
- Level:
- Intermediate
- Prerequisites:
- JavaScript, HTML, CSS and AJAX preferably
The javascript framework jQuery is now being used by the big hitters of the internet world: Google, Dell, Digg, Technorati, etc. But what is it that this
very compact (and unobtrusive) framework does that draws attention and how? This session will dig deep under the jQuery hood and will show you some of the
powerful features of the framework, how to use them and how you can get the most out of them. Items covered include the jQuery core, selecting and traversing,
manipulating the DOM / CSS, event handling and Ajax. If you are looking to implement jQuery in your projects and need info on the "juicy bits" then this session
is for you!
- Array of Light
-
- Speaker:
- Martin Bell
- Level:
- Intermediate/Advanced
- Prerequisites:
- -
With the release of SQL Server 2008 and the new Table Valued Parameter feature, should we all be using them or are they still the spawn of the devil?
Martin will look at what options are available in the different versions of SQL Server and compares the performance and practicalities of using each one.
- Oslo, Microsoft's Vision for the Future of Modelling
-
- Speaker:
- Robert Hogg
- Level:
- Intermediate
- Prerequisites:
- -
Microsoft unveiled Oslo at the PDC its future direction for Modelling. Oslo is a wave of products forming the foundation of Microsoft’s next
generation modelling platform along with Dublin which will provide new ways of developing, hosting and managing WF, WCF bound with a modelling
solution to allow focus on business design that is the future centre of IT architecture. This session will aim to provide an overview of the unified
future of WCF, WF, BizTalk, Dublin, the Oslo core, end to end modelling in an enterprise environment and how Oslo delivers these models into the business.
- Developer Testing for Sharepoint
-
The development of components for use in SharePoint is a complex process, and often seems to fly in the face of what is considered good development practice in
a Test Driven Development world.
In this session I will show how using some good design practices and tools such as Typemock Isolator you can develop testable components for Sharepoint
without even having to have Sharepoint on your development PC.
- Make your own search engine with Lucene.Net
-
- Speaker:
- Scott Cowan
- Level:
- Beginner
- Prerequisites:
- C#, ASP.NET
Learn how to use the popular indexer Lucene to power a .Net based search website. This session will take you thru implementing a site including
crawling, indexing, and using NHibernate.Search for querying.
- Natural Language Parsing with ANTLR
-
A set of tutorials showing how to parse a natural language input using ANTLR and C# when Regular Expressions just aren't powerful enough.
ANTLR is a lexer and parser generator which you build using grammar files. It is used primarily for compiler design but can be used easily
for DSLs and letting your applications understand natural languages.
- The Principle of Least Astonishment - Developing Custom Web Applications in SharePoint 2007
-
- Speaker:
- Iain Angus
- Level:
- Beginner/Intermediate
- Prerequisites:
A lot of companies are moving to SharePoint 2007. If you want to develop custom ASP.NET applications using SharePoint, where do you start?
What choices are available?
This session will look at some of the development possibilities - web parts, custom ASP.NET pages and the Business Data Catalog.
- Virtualisation for developers - What, Why, Where?
-
Not used virtualisation technology yet? As a developer, you are missing out on some great time saving technologies. Concentrating on the use of Virtualisation
for developers on workstations and servers; What is virtualisation ? What virtualisation tools are available (especially for free) ? Why is virtualisation
advantageous ? Where should you utilise virtualisation ? Tips and tricks - configuration and tweaking performance. Legacy application development
(VB6, VS2003), installation tests, clean client images, documentation for screen capture as well as confirming how to get to configuration settings,
consolidation of development hardware, internationalisation, breaking the 3Gb memory barrier, CI/build/test servers? .....
- Hyper-V for Developers
-
We'll be taking a thorough look into Microsoft's latest virtualisation technology Hyper-V. How do you install Hyper-V under Windows Server 2008 and as
the standalone Hyper-V Server. What management tools are available? How to write your own code or use Powershell to automate your Hyper-V installation to
automate tasks such as scripting VM backups and scheduling automated testing across multiple VMs.
- CI Factory - Continuous Integration 101
-
You might already realise that unit testing your code is becoming more important and that it is a crucial aspect of continuous integration.
But what are the principles of continuous integration? If you're too afraid/poor to install TFS what are the options? If you've looked around at open
source solutions but were wary of the learning curve of Cruise Control .Net, NAnt and MSBuild, CI Factory might be the solution for you.
This will be an introduction to CI Factory (see
MSDN Magazine, March 2008). CI Factory is a setup program written be Jay Flowers which installs a default
project layout complete with various code analysis tools, hooking into your version control system and running automated builds under Cruise Control .NET.
We will conclude by installing a complete CI server (.Net Framework, SubVersion, code analysis tools, and Cruise Control) on a blank Windows Server 2003 Server,
and within 25 minutes have it ready for a Vista client check in code for the CI server to build.
It's time to kick start your use of unit testing with continuous integration.
- Pay Attention People!
-
- Speaker:
- Ray Booysen
- Level:
- Intermediate
- Prerequisites:
- C#
C# is pretty and all with all the 3.0 features but have you got the lowdown on what
it can really do? Join us for an in depth discussion on some cool ideas and concepts
that the C# language can do. We'll cover LINQ, XLINQ, lambdas, anonymous types and
all the other goodness that is out there.
- WPF - What's in it for me?
-
- Speaker:
- Ged Mead
- Level:
- Beginner
- Prerequisites:
- .NET, Visual Studio, WinForms
If you saw any of the Beta version demonstrations of WPF, you’ll probably remember that a lot of them
seemed to focus heavily on eye-catching glitz, like flying animations and video displayed on spinning 3D
cubes. Impressive though they may have been, you may well have wondered what earthly use all that eye
candy could be to you as a developer in the real world.
This presentation sets out to discover what practical benefits WPF can offer. There will be a complete
absence of flying ducks and spinning objects, but there will be plenty of examples based on the day to
day tasks of a Windows Forms developer. If you are still not sure if it is worth your while setting out
on another learning curve to master yet another new technology, this session may help you decide.
Code samples will be a mix of C# and VB, plus XAML.
- This One Goes Up To 11, or How To Write Scalable ASP.NET
-
So you've written the new MySpace and it's getting lots of use - but the more users you get, the
s-l-o-w-e-r the whole thing runs.
In this session we'll discuss strategies, hints and tips that you can use to write ASP.NET that scales
effectively as your user base grows. This will include: How to cache HTML output so your page doesn't
have to render every time. How to cache data so you don't have to get it from the database every time.
How to reduce your Viewstate to a few bytes in just three lines of code. How to shrink your JavaScript so
it gets to the client faster. Why letting the GridView do its' own paging is a bad idea. How to do
successful load-balancing.
- Selenium - from the first crush to a healthy relationship
-
Selenium is a very attractive tool for web application front end testing. It is very easy to get
started with thanks to Selenium IDE. But soon the early crush fades and Selenium starts to show its
real persona.
But there is no need to dump Selenium because there are ways to cope it and get most out of it.
Selenium can be used as part of continuos integration and it is even capable of testing AJAX
applications. The presentation covers necessary steps to get serious with Selenium.
- Azure to WPF – What’s good in .NET 4 and Visual Studio 2010
-
- Speaker:
- Alex Mackey
- Level:
- Beginner/Intermediate
- Prerequisites:
- -
We will take a look at some of the great new features available in Visual Studio 2010 and .net 4. I am
currently writing “Beginning .NET 4.0 with supporting technologies” for Apress and will share my
discoveries & thoughts so far. The contents of this session will be partly dependent on what
Microsoft release in the coming months but will probably include the more finished areas such as Azure,
Language enhancements and Parallel programming.
- Real-world MVC Architecture
-
- Speaker:
- Steven Sanderson
- Level:
- Beginner/Intermediate
- Prerequisites:
- Traditional ASP.NET (i.e. Web Forms)
If you could rewrite your current web application from scratch, how would you architect it?
In this session I'll show how ASP.NET MVC supports up-to-date thinking in clean software design,
including key domain driven design principles, test-driven development, and swappable data access
technologies using repositories. I'll even throw in a bit of Silverlight, to show how a strong domain
model lets multiple UI technologies share not just data but also a single set of business rules. The
focus will be on code, not slides or abstract explanations.
- Web 3.0 (The Semantic Web) and the technologies that drive it
-
- Speaker:
- Seb Rose
- Level:
- Beginner
- Prerequisites:
- -
The Semantic Web (a.k.a. Web 3.0) was first popularly articulated by
Tim Berners-Lee in an article in Scientific American in 2001. Since
then there have been a lot of acronyms under the bridge but precious
little visible progress to the end user. The use of
RDF by the largely
ignored RSS 1.0 specification was a highpoint in a process that has
had precious few widespread successes (FOAF is one).
However, there has been a lot of progress in the areas of
standardisation and tooling and we may see an accelerated uptake of
Web 3.0 technologies over the next few years.
This tutorial will very briefly cover the motivation behind the
Semantic Web before diving into some of the technologies that underpin
its potential. We will examine the basics of RDF,
RDFS and
OWL before
developing a minimal
ontology. This will enable us to explore some of
the similarities and differences between modelling in RDFS/OWL and
Object Oriented modelling and introduce us to some of the simpler
patterns used by ontologists. Finally, we will look at
SPARQL, the
standard query language, and look at the usage and adoption of SPARQL
endpoints in some of today's commercial and open source software.
- C++/CLI - Why, oh why?
-
- Speaker:
- Seb Rose
- Level:
- Intermediate
- Prerequisites:
- .NET, C++
Focussing on interoperation between .NET assemblies and 'legacy' C++
code we will explore why C++/CLI was invented and what it is for. This
session will visit most of the extended syntax and explain why it was
considered necessary. We will briefly compare C++/CLI to other popular
.NET languages in the context of interoperation with legacy code.
Particular attention will be paid to what is going on 'under the hood'
to give a feel for some of the issues that must be considered when
designing in C++/CLI.
- Using Data Mining from your Application
-
You've built, trained and proved your mining model but now you actually need to use it in your
business. Instead of concentrating on the design of your mining model let me show you how to take
your carefully designed mining model and use it in your LOB application.
- Creating extendable applications using MEF
-
- Speaker:
- Ben Hall
- Level:
- Beginner/Intermediate
- Prerequisites:
- -
Creating extendable applications has always been troublesome and
time-consuming, there are many different approaches you could take
each with their own set of issues. However, this is changing with the
release of the Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF) which is
available from CodePlex and will be included with .Net framework 4.0.
MEF makes extensibility more effective and can be taken advantage of
both from within your application allowing for a more loosely coupled
system, but also externally to allow 3rd parties to create extensions
to hook into your application. In this session, you will learn how you
can integrate MEF into your application for creating extensibility
points, how to create the addins themselves and understand how MEF
handles multiple versions of your core application and external
addins. Finally, we will look at the relationship between MEF and MAF
(Managed Addin Framework) and how MEF can be extended to meet your own
requirements.
- Embracing a new world – dynamic languages and .NET
-
- Speaker:
- Ben Hall
- Level:
- Beginner/Intermediate
- Prerequisites:
- -
.Net developers are about to enter a brave new world. With Microsoft's
Dynamic Language Runtime (DLR) developers can start taking advantage
of dynamic languages, such as IronRuby and IronPython, on top of the
.Net platform. However, why is this important? In this session, Ben
will provide an insight into when dynamic languages should be used and
why they could result in a simpler, quicker solution. By using the
DLR, you will learn how you can take dynamic languages and integrate
them into your existing C# applications, allowing you to choose the
appropriate language for the appropriate feature. Finally, Ben will
look ahead at C# 4.0 and the changes it will bring in terms of dynamic
language support and bring the two worlds even closer together.
- Building maintainable and testable WPF applications
-
- Speaker:
- Ben Hall
- Level:
- Beginner/Intermediate
- Prerequisites:
- -
WPF is the future for desktop applications! While Silverlight is
changing the way we create rich web applications, WPF is changing the
way we create rich desktop applications. This session will look beyond
the designer and flashy graphics and focus on how you can build
maintainable, testable applications. Many people feel that UI code is
always unmaintainable, untestable and simply a hack. This is not the
case, while building testable applications is difficult, with careful
consideration you can create a maintainable and testable UI. In this
session, you will learn how to build and test a decoupled WPF
application, how Inversion of Control (IoC) frameworks and patterns
such as ViewModel (Presentation Model) and MVP can make life easier.
The session will also /cover how guidance, including the Composite
Application Guidance for WPF (formally PRISM) and the WPF Application
Quality Guide can help us in our quest for a testable desktop
application.
- Look! There's my Data! Virtual Earth sans Javascript
-
The Windows Live team have recently made available ASP.NET Server side controls for Microsoft Virtual
Earth. In this talk Colin Angus Mackay will show you how to use this control to visualise your data,
from sticking pins down for store locations, to drawing thematic maps. All this without writing
javascript.
- SQL Server TEMPDB - is this your performance bottleneck?
-
How many times you have sized the TEMPDB, in a week? Are you monitoring the TEMPDB size? NO! We will
look at solution for the questions like: What is stored in tempdb? Is tempdb a performance bottleneck?
What are the differences between temporary tables and table variables? What is stored in the transaction
log file and how can its size be kept under control?
Audience Key Learning #1 Everything about TEMPDB - optimization and setup of this system database
Audience Key Learning #2 Lessons learn from the field on TEMPDB sizing
Audience Key Learning #3 Best practices in setting up in production environment
- SQL Server Extended Events - diagnose and resolve production issues!
-
This session covers the introduction and concepts of SQL Server Extended Events Architecture. Deploying
and configuration of Extended Events can dramatically reduce the time required to diagnose and resolve
production issues and also find out deep visibility into SQL Server internals. We will also cover the
online analysis that brings information about an incident closer to the incident itself and by using
Extended Events lowers time to resolution for production problems. Let us also dive into best practices
in diagnosing the production problems.
- Integration of Sharepoint, Office 2007 and SQL Server Analysis Services:
Lessons from the field.
-
Microsoft Office Excel 2007 has improved Excel BI capabilities dramatically. Better connection
management, better pivot tables and better support of Microsoft Analysis Services 2005 features.
New to Excel 2007 is a family of functions known as the cube functions which can bring Online
Analytical Processing (OLAP) data to individual cells. Using a combination of pivot tables and cube
functions, Excel power users can create analysis platforms that are both dynamic and richly formatted.
Such solutions can combine data from multiple OLAP cubes, OLAP and non OLAP data, and Excel calculations.
In this session we spend an hour building such a solution from scratch. The last part of the session is
about publishing the solution to Excel Services, part of Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server 2007.
- Top Ten Strategies to Secure Your Code - a tour with SQL Server features too
-
For some reason, many people think security knowledge is out of their grasp, and such expertise belongs
only to the security high-priesthood. First, there is no such thing as a "security high-priesthood," all
software developers should have some security expertise. Second, regardless of the programming languages
you use, or the operating systems you deploy on, there are some very simple rules you can follow that
will help secure your applications. Come listen to Satya's thoughts on how to secure code based on his
work with thousands of software developers inside and outside Microsoft. There are, of course, plenty of
security war stories!
- Testing the SQL Database - best practices
-
It goes almost without saying that testing is a core aspect of any properly structured software
development effort. Yet when it comes to the database layer, we often see developers shy away from a
proper testing regimen. The prevailing attitude is often that database testing is either not necessary
or simply too difficult to properly accomplish. But the truth is, database testing is just as doable,
and certainly just as valuable, as testing of any other layer. In this panel we will discuss why you
want to test your database, and the various types of database testing that you should be doing as you
develop and deploy your application. We will cover testing scenarios to handle functionality, regression,
performance, scalability, and other key metrics as they relate to your database infrastructure. Without
testing, your database's runtime behaviours are effectively an unknown. Listen to this panel to learn how
not to leave things to chance.
- Internationalisation and SQL Server: Sorting out Collations between Windows and .NET
-
The collation support in SQL Server has been based on Windows since Version 7.0, even though the data has never
been the same between them in any version of SQL Server or Windows. This panel will look at the technical
and philosophical differences between them and the effect on results, as well as the impact of the .NET
Framework on both of them—and the effect of all of these various differences on developers of any or all
of them.
- Successfully navigating (upgrading) from MS Access to SQL Server
-
- Speaker:
- Satya SK Jayanty
- Level:
- Advanced
- Prerequisites:
- SQL Server, Microsoft Access
“Use SQL Server, not Access”, is advice commonly handed out when the Jet database engine outgrows its
usefulness. However, that’s often easier said than done. Each database application is unique; some may
have salvageable components, whereas others may need to be redesigned and rebuilt from scratch. In
addition, there are substantial differences between the Jet and SQL Server database engines that can
make a straight port unworkable in many situations. This panel discusses criteria for deciding whether
to migrate data from Access to SQL Server, and for determining the optimal migration path once the
decision is made. The panelists will share their real-world expertise to help you determine a successful
strategy that best suits your business needs.
- Data, is it too much? Patterns and Practices with SQL server
-
“If You Have Too Much Data, Then Good Enough Is Good Enough.” In this session we cover the topics
include, among others, where things are breaking when you have too much data, maintaining data
integrity, and analysing patterns.
- Does Architecture Really Help?
-
Building an application is not simple. Building an application turns out to be actually rather hard. Which is odd - as each year we get better languages,
better tools, better databases, better resources. Yet still applications are really hard to build. This session will explore the reasons behind this and
examine such questions as "Is choice a good thing?", "Is there a perfect architecture", "Does architecture matter?" and "What are we trying to solve with
architecture?". To help make the discussion concrete and relevant, we will drill into the impact of specific Microsoft technology releases on the quest for
a great application and a great architecture - by looking at technologies which span 10 years! From the arrival of MTS and ASP to the most recent releases
of ADO.NET Data Services, Entity Framework and Windows Azure. It should be fun!
- Who needs schema when you have SQL Data Services?!
-
- Speaker:
- Eric Nelson
- Level:
- Beginner
- Prerequisites:
- Any RDBMS (e.g. SQL Server or Oracle)
Microsoft® SQL Data Services (SDS) is part of the Azure Services Platform and offers highly scalable and Internet-facing distributed database services
in the cloud for storing and processing queries. SDS can help you develop and provision new applications quickly with REST and SOAP based web protocols.
The services are built on robust SQL Server database and Windows Server technologies, providing high availability and security. This session will look at
what SDS delivers today, how to take advantage of it in your own applications and what the future may hold.
- .NET Mesh Applications with the Live Framework
-
The Live Framework SDK surfaces functionality from Windows Live such as Contacts and Profiles but, more intriguingly, it also makes available a “Mesh” of
data containing objects that can be shared with other users and which can be accessed from a dazzling array of clients that work both online and offline
including HTML or Silverlight applications that are themselves installed in the Mesh. Confused? Come to the session and we’ll explore the Live Framework SDK
and the Mesh applications we can build with it.
- Understanding the Parallel Extensions to .NET Framework V4.0
-
The next version of the .NET Framework will come with new classes that start to chip away at the difficulties in building multi-threaded applications
that are well placed to take advantage of the modern multi-core processor architectures. In this session, we'll introduce what that Parallel Extensions
are, what they can do for you and take a tour around what's available in the current previews for you to start evaluating what’s coming.
- A Tour of Workflow Foundation V4.0
-
- Speaker:
- Mike Taulty
- Level:
- Intermediate
- Prerequisites:
- -
Workflow Foundation consists of a designer, a set of pre-built activities, a runtime and a set of services for plugging in to the runtime to add
functionality. It is also extensible to support adding your own activities and services. In version 4.0, all of these areas of designer, activities,
runtime, services and extensibility are changing so in this session we’ll take a tour around Workflow Foundation V4.0 and look at all these areas.
Come along for an introduction or an update on where we are with Workflow Foundation.
- Beyond Silverlight with Windows Presentation Foundation
-
- Speaker:
- Mike Taulty
- Level:
- Intermediate
- Prerequisites:
- -
Silverlight? Pretty cool. No doubt about it. Declarative UI in XAML? Code behind it in C# or VB? .NET running in a browser? Expression Blend to make it look
sexy. Very, very nice.
But sometimes you need a little bit more. Windows Presentation Foundation is into its 3rd version and takes the capabilities and development model offered
by Silverlight and expands upon them in a whole bunch of areas such as 3D, Documents, Hardware Acceleration and Speech. It also offers deployment flexibility
from running in a tightly secured browser sandbox all the way to full installations on the desktop with integration and interoperability with existing UI
frameworks.
In this session we’ll take a fun look at what the WPF capabilities are “Beyond Silverlight”, working with XAML, Visual Studio and Expression Blend to explore
some samples and build others.
- When Good Architecture Goes Bad
-
- Speaker:
- Mark Dalgarno
- Level:
- Beginner
- Prerequisites:
- None - Technology neutral
As software evolves its architecture ‘as-is’ deviates from its architecture ‘as-hoped-for’ – the architecture is said to decay. Architectural decay can be a
problem because the time, effort and risk in implementing further changes increases; the effect of further changes becomes harder to predict; further changes
typically cause the ‘as-is’ architecture to deviate further from the ‘as-hoped-for’ architecture – the situation becomes worse.
This session looks at examples of architectural decay and explores practices to prevent or slow such decay.
- .NET Development on Linux
-
A guide to .Net development on Linux; setting up the environment, framework support, writing applications for running cross platforms, IDE support,
current state of support for the framework on other platforms, running ASP.Net.
- Using FIT (Framework for Integrated Test) to drive a UI for Acceptance Testing
-
I will introduce FIT (Framework for Integrated Test) and Acceptance Testing. Demonstrate how I have used FIT to drive Acceptance Testing of a WinForms
UI and the discuss how developers, testers and business interacted using FIT as a common communication mechanism.
- Let’s Make (3D WPF) Models
-
- Speaker:
- Mike Ormond
- Level:
- Beginner
- Prerequisites:
- Some familiarity with Visual Studio, Expression Blend, XAML would be useful
Working with 3D has traditionally been a complex and challenging business. WPF's native 3D support reduces the barrier to entry and makes the inclusion of
3D in your applications a realistic proposition.
In this introductory session we'll explore the basics of 3D and WPF's 3D support before building a simple 3D model and incorporating it into a WPF
application using some wizzy lighting, animation and user interaction effects along the way.
- ASP.NET 4.0
-
- Speaker:
- Mike Ormond
- Level:
- Intermediate
- Prerequisites:
- -
This session is focused on what’s coming in the next release of ASP.NET. We’ll take a look at new controls, enhancements to existing controls, and
improvements to the level of control you have over your controls! We’ll also examine the latest AJAX enhancements, as well as what’s going on with
ASP.NET MVC and Dynamic Data.
- An Introduction to the Azure Services Platform (Pie in the Sky or Next Big Thing?)
-
No doubt you've heard of Windows Azure and the Azure Services Platform first announced at Microsoft’s PDC2008. You'll no doubt also have heard the
term cloud computing. Where does Azure fit, what does it look like and (how) is it relevant to you?
In this session we'll take a look at the components of the Azure Services Platform and build a simple cloud application to explore the architecture,
developer model and foundation services.
- An Overview of Quantum Computing
-
Quantum Computing sounds a bit like science fiction, but then again 50 years ago, so did personal computers. In this session Dave examines the reasons
why scientists are looking at the idea of Quantum Computing, why it would fundamentally change the world of computing as we know it. He will do this by
covering the basics of Quantum Computing, demonstrate a model of a simple quantum computation and how this model leads to the possibility of new modes of
computation. He will also examine where we are currently in the development of Quantum Computers.
In terms of helping you in your day-to-day job, this session will be of no earthly use to you. If you love ‘off-the-wall’ sessions or ‘left-field’
sessions and want to stay in touch with the possibilities of what computing can do in the future, Dave looks forward to seeing you at DDS!
There are no dependencies for this talk. But it is assumed that attendees know that Quantum Mechanics is used primarily to model the sub-atomic world,
though absolutely no prior knowledge of Quantum Mechanics is required!
- TDD? I don't have time
-
- Speaker:
- Craig Nicol
- Level:
- Beginner
- Prerequisites:
- None, but code examples are in C#
There's plenty of excuses not to use tests in your code. Hear some reasons why you should and why it will help you. Questions welcome.
Everything you need to know will be explained during the session.
- A peek at Silverlight 3
-
- Speaker:
- Chris Hay
- Level:
- Beginner
- Prerequisites:
- -
In this session you will get an overview of the new Silverlight 3 features that were announced at Mix09.
- The Mobile Web: Avoid the hype and improve your site
-
- Speaker:
- Matt Lacey
- Level:
- Beginner
- Prerequisites:
- -
"The Mobile Web" can be a confusing term. It's not about squeezing web pages on to the small screens
of phones but ideas that can improve almost any website. In this session we will look at what the mobile
web can mean for you and the websites you maintain and develop.
It's not all theory and because it is quite likely that you will one day need to, we'll look at some
tips, tactics and techniques that can be used when you want to improve the experience of navigating a
site from a browser with extremely limited screen real estate and/or functionality.
- Scrum Pain: Lessons learned swimming against the current
-
- Speaker:
- Abid Quereshi
- Level:
- Beginner/Intermediate
- Prerequisites:
- -
The Scrum process is easy. The transition to a Scrum culture is hard. One of the most underestimated
challenges in introducing Scrum is creating a culture that fosters Scrum values. This talk discusses
the Scrum values and how they support the different scrum roles: Product Owner, Scrum Master and
"The Team".
- What is Functional Programming
-
- Speaker:
- Barry Carr
- Level:
- Intermediate
- Prerequisites:
- Scala
The past few years or so has seen a resurgence of interest in functional programming. In addition,
some functional language features are finding there way into imperative languages. Why is this? There
are couple of reasons; firstly, functional languages are well suited to certain problems. Secondly,
functional languages have features that can help the developer to take advantage of the current and
future generations of multi-core computers. This presentation aims to provide you with insights into
what Functional programming is and show you how functional languages can help you develop software that
takes advantage of multi-core machines. This presentation will use Scala (http://scala-lang.org) to
demonstrate the concepts that will be introduced.
- Everything you wanted to know about Delphi Prism but were too afraid to ask
-
- Speaker:
- Barry Carr
- Level:
- Intermediate to Advanced
- Prerequisites:
- Delphi Prism
Delphi Prism is an advanced Object Pascal for .NET (and Mono). Delphi Prism has all the features of
C# plus several more powerful features unique to itself. These include: Interface Delegation which
provide a similar behaviour to Mixins; A null safe member access operator; Full support for "Design by
Contract"; Virtual static members and Virtual constructors that can make writing object factories a
breeze. Delphi Prsim also has several features that support Parallel programming, these include: Async
methods and statements, which run on a background thread; Futures, calculations that can run on a
background thread or provide lazy initialisation; Parallel loops, where each iteration is run on a
separate thread. A full list of Prism's features can be found here:
http://www.codegear.com/products/delphi/prism/feature-matrix/
This presentation will demonstrate Delphi Prism's power features as well show you how Delphi Prism
parallel coding constructs can do some of the "heavy-lifting" associated with developing reliable
multi-threaded applications. If you're interested in parallel programming or a Delphi for Win32
developer then this presentation should be of great interest to you.
- Sharing your code between the Compact Framework and Win Forms
-
- Speaker:
- Barry Carr
- Level:
- Intermediate
- Prerequisites:
- C#, Compact Framework
Do you need to share code between the Compact Framework and Win Forms? If so, this presenation aims to
show you just how to do it. It will show how to organise your projects as well as show you haw to design
your applications so that you only need to write the mininum amount of platform dependent code. Finally,
this presentation will show you how to write a deployment project that will install your application on
to a mobile device via active-sync. All the example code will use C#.
- SQL Server Architecture: The life of a query
-
In this session I will be bringing together all the components of SQL Server to illustrate
what happens when you issue a query from a client. From the TDS packet, through ODS, the
optimizer and the buffer manager to returning the result. I'll walk you through when the
transaction log is used, what happens when a checkpoint occurs and what the lazy writer does.
I’ve illustrated the process in a way that's easy to consume and helpful to put SQL Server's
architecture into context.
- SQL Server Architecture: Query Processing
-
Processing a query in SQL Server consists of two stages: Query Optimisation and Query Execution. In this
session I will be looking at the Optimization Framework including the multi-stage optimization process,
statistics, issues with cost-based optimization and hints you can use to influence Query Plans. Finally,
I'll look at Query Execution or more specifically how to read the Query Plans.
- SQL Server Policy Based Management
-
- Speaker:
- Rob Carrol
- Level:
- Beginner
- Prerequisites:
- SQL Server 2008
Policy-Based Management is a system for managing one or more instances of SQL Server 2008. When SQL
Server policy administrators use Policy-Based Management, they use SQL Server Management Studio to create
policies to manage entities on the server, such as the instance of SQL Server, databases, or other SQL
Server objects.
Policy Based Management (PBM) is based on SQL Server Management Objects (SMO). This sessions shows how to
author and manage policies in SQL Server 2008. It will also show you how to use PowerShell to automate
policy execution against SQL Server 2000 and 2005.
- ASP.NET MVC Best Practices
-
Building an application on a new technology is always a thrilling challenge. But with new technology
comes new problems and little guidance.
In this session you’ll discover some of the patterns and practices that have been learnt on real-world
ASP.NET MVC projects.
- An introduction to OpenRasta, an MVC framework with strong opinions
-
Everybody seems to rediscover the MVC model, and new frameworks seem to appear all the time. Most of
those hide away the richness of the web.
Come discover OpenRasta, a very opinionated framework that help you write MVC-style web applications
and data services, using a unified API. You’ll also see that OpenRasta is by far the best platform on
.NET for writing REST services.
- WPF Tips 'n' Tricks
-
Using WPF is like opening a Pandora box of niftiness. In this session, you’ll discover useful tips
and bits of code that makes coding with WPF much easier or more fun!
- Code Faster for Faster Code
-
As a SQL Server Developer/DBA, you're responsible for writing SQL and T-SQL and to do this effectively requires a special set of skills. Some of the
challenges with this is that not only do you have to use multiple native tools, you have to search all over for scripts and stored proc templates, and
you have to be an expert in SQL tuning – just to name a few.
In this presentation, Systems Consultant Iain Kick will explore some of the ways you can code faster for faster code using native tools, then will demonstrate
a methodology designed to make work easier and more efficient for anyone coding Transact-SQL scripts and routines.
- SQL Server Optimisation: Best Practices for Writing Efficient Code and Finding and Fixing Bad SQL to Improve Performance
-
It can often take years of on-the-job experience as a Developer/DBA to learn how to understand when a problem is occurring, diagnose its root-cause, and
then resolve it using manual techniques. To compound the challenge, you must be knowledgeable and efficient in re-writing code– all the while dealing with
such pressures as time constraints, revisiting old code is challenging and less interesting, and knowledge limitations. This presentation will focus on
techniques and tools for detecting, diagnosing and resolving performance issues in SQL Server, and demonstrate a methodology to automate those processes.
- How to get the most out of XML in SQL
-
XML has been in SQL Server for a number of releases now and as with many technologies there are now a number of ways to achieve the same thing. If
you choose the wrong way you could be seriously hurting your performance. In this session we will look at the typical scenarios that people use XML
in SQL. We will identify best practices for the different scenarios from a performance and a maintenance perspective. You will be able to go away from
this session with some solid tips on why you would want to use XML in SQL and if you do how you should go about doing it.
- 77 SQL Server Myths
-
Do you think you know everything about SQL? In this session we will dispell many myths that have established in the SQL world. Some you just won't believe.
Are you ready?
- Top tips to fail your agile process
-
So many companies are now trying to achieve agility by practicing XP and Scrum, we run as an industry the risk of actually having confidence in delivering
software.
In this session, you'll explore the top ways to stop the craziness and ensure that your software is delivered whenever it is, and will let you rest
peacefully in the knowledge that no one really knows what success or quality means.
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