Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005 released?!?!?

Now Available to MSDN Subscribers: Visual Studio 2005, SQL Server 2005
"Final release versions of Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005 are now available for MSDN subscribers to download. Redistributable packages, such as the .NET Framework 2.0, are also publicly available. (October 27, Download)"

(from http://msdn.microsoft.com, "News This Week" section)

P.S. Guess who is now downloading Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005 from MSDN Subscribers? ;-)

The New Generation of Microsoft Certifications

Microsoft is re-orienting their view about the IT certificates for developers. There are going to be 3 major *groups* for certification: Technology, Professional and Architect. Because I am Microsoft Certified Solution Developer for Microsoft .NET, I find this information very interesting and challenging. Regarding the Technology series, there are plenty of interesting certification tracks:
Technology Specialist: .NET Framework 2.0 Web Applications
Technology Specialist: .NET Framework 2.0 Windows Applications
Technology Specialist: .NET Framework 2.0 Distributed Applications
....

I am currently specializing in distributed systems and I find most of these quite relevant for my technology orientation. One thing is known for sure - I strive to start preparing for those exams! :)

For more information about the new certifications that Microsoft provides, go to http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/newgen/

Free Microsoft E-Learning Courses for Visual Studio 2005

Yes, it is true!!! Just go to:
https://www.microsoftelearning.com/visualstudio2005/

and you will see that there is no joke! There is a bunch of free, but valuable courses for the new Visual Studio .NET 2005. I have downloaded some of them. I haven't got the time to see them fo far, but I am sure that they will be amazing!

Enjoy!

P.S. There are free e-Learning course for Microsoft SQL 2005 Server as well - click here ;-)

The Nerd, The Suit and The Fortune Teller

Speaking of SOA, there is one old but very real movie on Channel9 about it. It represents not only the basic ideas behind SOA, but also shows a very real software development environment. In reality, in order to have a successful project, we should face the problem with misconception of priorities and diversity of thinking for the different positions within a software company. The sales person is only interested in quick and profitable sales, the manager is only interested in deadlines and milestones, while the developer wants to develop the masterpiece of his/her life. And here is the client - (s)he is the most capricious person in the world, who wants *all* features in no time and of course for no money. In order to have a successful project, all of these characters should try to be in the shoes of the others.

Back to the show I was talking about, it was presented at TechEd 04 (in Amsterdam) by Clemens Vasters (the nerd), Rafal Lukawiecki (the suit), and Pat Helland (the Fortune Teller). This movie really made me to think about our attitude and the way we communicate with each other. I was part of team, where we developed a business solution for a client, who had only the vague idea what he actually wanted, but still the time pressure was pretty tough. As a project manager, I had to make sure that we should try to minimize the impact of communication bottleneck as much as possible, because otherwise the project was really doomed. I succeeded to put away the usual developer's thinking these-non-techies-don't-know-what-they-want and tried to *understand* what are their ideas behind, what is feasible and what could be implemented given the time we had. So this movie will show you exactly this: the diversity in the way of thinking of every character in a usual software project and how they should behave in order to succeed. It still gives a good start for getting acquainted with SOA, though :).

You can download this movie from: http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=14961

Principles of Web service design

I am now working on my master thesis, which will be all about "Distributed transactions in Service Oriented Architecture". Just to mention that I am currently perusing my Master Of science in Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohrdiski", Sofia, Bulgaria. I am specializing in Distributed Systems and Mobile Technologies.

Before I started my research in SOA, I didn't really know how complex this is. I am not afraid, just the opposite! Web service design, security, communication scheme, interoperability are just some of the characteristics, with which each developer will have to tackle. Distributed transactions is an old topic, when it comes to distributed systems. However, in the scope of SOA, it has other challenges, which are somewhat currently not so openly faced and which I wish to research with my master thesis.

One of the articles that really caught my attention was:
Principles of Service Design: Service Patterns and Anti-Patterns

It contains a good overview of what is SOA like and what are its tenets. Afterwards it gives some very valuable directions in the form of patterns and anti-patterns, which every Web service developer must be aware of and follow.

Whenever I find some other interesting articles about SOA, you bet that I will post them here, so stay tuned for more.

My first post for real! :o)

Finally!

I've been thinking to create my own blog for a while, but recently while reading other people blogs, I finally decided to implement this idea of mine. So here it is!

More is coming soon ...