When L2S came out I was fan and have been ever since, however there were some concerns of what was going to happen to it with EF closing in on its heels. As with any technology there is a couple of factors that can help make technology adoption decisions.

1. Meeting a need
2. Support
3. Future

Even though Support and Future can be the same the can also be different as in this case. For example, VB6 is no longer supported however it has no future either! L2S and EF are both supported however what is their future? Obviously, Microsoft has chosen EF as their primary ORM framework because it plays better with other non-Microsoft technologies, but L2S has less of a learning curve when compared to EF which makes it fairly easier when connecting to Sql Server. At this point a decision could be made based on which technology "meets the need", but as a consultant I think it is equally important on understanding how both technologies work and what features can be taken advantage of during development. Here are some of the changes that were added into .Net 4.0.

 Post initiated from this Visual Studio article

 

Just wanted to send out Kudos to Tim McAliley for a great presentation on TFS2010. Tim is a personal friend who recently started sharing his knowledge with others on Sql Server and TFS by presenting at Florida events. Looksing forward to seeing you at the next event Tim!

We finally have our Codecamp site up! If you are interested in speaking please feel free to regsiter at here!

Some of the buzz you might have heard around town is the Azure SQL size limitation of 10gb. Well yesterday at TechEd we heard that this will be raised to 50gb. Also announced was that .Net 4.0 Framework support is available which makes things even more interesting:)

Here is a pic of me in the cloud...

This month has been crazy with everything going on. Early this month we held our VS2010 Community Launch here in Jax and had a great turn out, but planning and speaking at those events takes a lot out of ya. As I was creating this blog post I noticed that I had three WF posts that I had started and never finished from April. Well since Brian Knight and I are roadtripping it over to New Orleans, maybe he can drive so I can finish them!

I am so excited about heading to TechEd this year! I was really hoping to speak at it however  I never got an envite. Probably a good thing with everything going on with my career changes. The last conference I have been to was VSLive 2008, when I spoke on WF/WCF integration...Boy have things changed since then. Back then we had to walk up hill 3 miles in the snow, barefooted to integrate the two:) Well while at TechEd, I will make sure to blog/tweet about the cool stuff going on!

Just got back from Orlando's VS2010 Launch and the content was great. Some really cool take aways were...

1. Improvements in data binding with WPF
2. Debug bugs through a visual recording of what a tester did to find a bug using intelliTrace
3. New and improved integration with WSS2010.
   1. installation on Win7.
   2. interface to WCF services and Silverlight.
   3. WF implementation for developing custom workflows
   4. easy debug and deployment of code.

Many thanks to Microsoft for putting on the event. JaxDUG will be hosting our very own VS2010 Launch, May 11, 2010! if you are interested you can register here.

VS2010 was release two days ago, so last night I installed it to my work laptop. I had RC1 installed in HyperV, which is what AI use for demos but to finally have the RTM on my work environment was a nice change. I wound up staying up later than normal because I was so excited playing with everything. Almost like a giddy kid on Christmas Day. While I was running the install I started thinking of the road Visual Studio has been down and where it is now. VS2010 really revolutionizes how we develop .Net apps by providing a mature toolbox of new technologies when comparing it to the past releases of .Net 3.5 and VS2008.   You start seeing a more mature change from Web forms and MVC and windows forms to WPF, a more robust Silverlight and Entity Framework and how building WCF services is no longer questioned as a taboo, but now just a part of everyday development from connected distributed solutions to working with AJAX. Also, major improvements and more limelight for WF4.0 which makes it more adoptable as a process engine and building declarative business rules.

I really think customers will adopt VS2010 much faster than they have previous Visual Studio because of the maturity with these new technologies. Developing applications with VS2010 is just faster and more flexible than anything we have had in the past. However this can also be confusing with all of these new options, but Microsoft is doing a better job than ever by getting "How To's" out and seasoned developers should be able to quickly understand how to benefit from the new framework patterns and technology. Kind of interesting, but "how we" architect solutions also gets new names and patterns.

Hopefully when or if you have already cracked open the box for VS2010 you are pleased too. Obviously, the best thing to do is to embrace this paradigm shift by grabbing it with both hands and pulling it to you!

"Times they are a changing"....Bob Dylan said it best! Just got the word that VS2010 RC was released to MSDN Subscribers yesterday. Looks like MS will be opening up to everyone else tomorrow(Feb 10, 2010). It also seems that from Beta 2, there have been significant performance improvements. It also seems it is pretty straight forward making the migration from Beta 2, which only requires an "Add/Remove Programs" and then overlay of the RC.

Since my career started after graduating college, I have always maintained a job until two Fridays ago. At that point I had a fear that I had never realized before and that was how I was going to support my family. It really did not even hit me till I sat at the dinner table that night with my family. I actually got choked up while observing my kids and wife. I think it hit me that I did not have a job anymore. All of a sudden I realized that I needed to make some quick decisions. Since I had a side company, I decided to setup a quick website and start working on the dream I had always had... working for myself.

I was laid off on a Friday and the next Monday I was able to land my first consulting gig with a team of great people which was a huge boost for my morale. I owe it all to great friends that helped me find the job and others who helped keep my chin up. When some people lose their job, they get so depressed that it is hard to think positive and bounce back. This is the main reason why I decided to write this post, because for a short period of time I thought the same and I wanted to share with others that they can bounce back too. I never thought this would ever happen to me and it did! This tells me it can happen to anyone but the important thing is to understand that this is a tough economy and it is sometimes not anyone's fault, it is just the side affect of the current market. The most important thing is to never let the skills you are good at fade away. Even if you move into a management role, it is important to keep your chops up to date.

Once again I have been awarded Microsoft MVP! Each year I am humbled to receive it because it is a reward based on giving which makes it better each time, because Microsoft is constantly raising the bar on who gets the reward. It is nice to know Microsoft takes note and rewards its community leaders and people who are constantly try to help other IT professionals. This year I have set goals for supporting the Microsoft Community that will top my previous years. I hope every first blog post for coming years can be titled he same:)