The schedule for SQL Server 2005 Web casts is quite packed in December:

• Webcast 12/6: Overview of the new Developer features in SQL Server 2005—Level 200
• Webcast 12/6: Introducing the New SQL Server Management Studio—Level 100
• Webcast 12/6: SQL Server 2005 as a .NET Runtime Host—Level 100
• Webcast 12/7: T-SQL Enhancements in SQL Server 2005—Level 200
• Webcast 12/7: Introducing XML in SQL Server 2005—Level 200
• Webcast 12/7: Introducing ADO.NET 2.0 for SQL Server 2005—Level 200
• Webcast 12/8:The New Security Model in SQL Server 2005—Level 200
• Webcast 12/8: Introducing Web Services in SQL Server 2005—Level 200
• Webcast 12/8: Introducing Service Broker in SQL Server 2005—Level 200
• Webcast 12/9: Introducing Reporting Services for SQL Server 2005—Level 200
• Webcast 12/9: Introducing SQL Server Integration Services for SQL Server 2005—Level 200
• Webcast 12/9: Introducing SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services for Developers—Level 200
• Webcast 12/10: Introducing Full-Text Search in SQL Server 2005—Level 200
• Webcast 12/10: Introducing Replication in SQL Server 2005—Level 200
• Webcast 12/10: Introducing Notification Services in SQL Server 2005—Level 200

I'm about to get started with Windows Mobile development - I dl'ed the SDK for Windows Mobile 2003-based Pocket PCs, SDK for Windows Mobile 2003-based Smartphones and Mobile Application Development Toolkit (I talked about the latter one before). The only thing I "hate" about Windows Mobile development is that I have to do it on the host instead of inside a VPC image (where everything else runs) - there's no USB support with VPC. Dam as the little beavers tend to say.

I think I can safely assume that everyone knows about SourceForge.net, where first-class .NET projects such as NUnit, NAnt, NProf as well as many others are hosted. Much less known is GForge, which is a fork that you can host yourself based on the GPL version of SourceForge before it was made closed-source by VA Linux in 2001.

Since that time GForge was improved, and it has reached version 4 just recently. To give you a really high-level idea of what it is, a short quote from the project page itself:  GForge has tools to help your team collaborate, like message forums and mailing lists; tools to create and control access to Source Code Management repositories like CVS and Subversion. GForge automatically creates a repository and controls access to it depending on the role settings of the project.

Additional Tools:

• Manage File Releases
• Document Management
• News announcements
• Surveys for users and admins
• Issue tracking with "unlimited" numbers of categories, text fields, etc
• Task management

Tool-wise, this package can come in handy when you want to get started on a development process in your company, covering the entire lifecycle. For free.

Ingo recommended the book to me during the Connect Event in Barcelona. Because I had read Peopleware, I was game to get another book from Tom DeMarco. Over the weekend, I easily managed to get through The Deadline. Why? Because it is a really great book (even hilarious at times) and the “resulting” Mr. Tompkins journal is a treasure-trove of project management advice.

Definitely worth checking out too is the Tom DeMarco interview done by his publisher, Dorset House Publishing.

Note to self: need to grab a copy of Version Control with Subversion. We have been using Subversion even while it still was in Alpha and Beta stages - and I am really convinced that it is more than up to its commercial counterparts, especially when it comes to platform and tool support!

"Don't assume because it makes an ASS out of U and ME". Right, should've taken that to heart when I switched from a Nokia cell phone to my new SPV C500. What happened?

Well, on my Nokia it worked this way: calls on line one had call waiting notifications turned on. So when I was in a call, I was notified that a call was waiting to be picked up when someone else called. However, for line two, I hadn't activated it. So when I was in a call, the caller was routed to the voice mailbox immediately. When I wasn't in a call, the phone rang when someone called on line two.

Not so on the SPV C500: here, callers on line two are always (!) routed to the voice mailbox, no questions asked - unless you turn on "Provide call waiting notifications" on line two. Whoops. That was quite a nasty surprise because line two is the incoming line for business calls.

Speaking of snags: my Nokia provided indication of whether a call came in on line one or line two - the SPV C500 doesn't seem to have this functionality, or I haven't yet found how to activate it. If you, dear reader, happen to know, let me know.

Bijan Javidi, Senior Principal Consultant at Microsoft, held a two-day Trainer the Trainer (TTT) event in Augsburg for the GLS Development Process Best Practice training. In the audience: Alexander Zeitler, Peter Koen (soon to be Softie), Bernhard Spuida, Hannes Preishuber, Achim Oellers and others (no specific order, just to name a few).

As rehashing the entire two days would be a tad lengthy, I only pick two items that are important to understand why anyone would attend such a training:

• Why Development Process?
• Definition of Development Process Best Practice

Let's start with "Why Development Process?"

• Make development
  • Predictable
  • Repeatable
  • Manageable
• Reduce costs
• Streamline application construction
• Establish standards
• Reduces risk in .NET projects

After those incentives to have a process at all, let's dig into what DPBP is - here is the definition:

• Process based development methodology
  • Ultra light-weight, pragmatic and prescriptive
  • End-2-end development process model
    • From requirements to deployment
• Minimum set of documents
  • Small number compared to UP
• Step-by-step guideline
  • How to create these documents
• Uses Office and Visio formats (UML)
  • DOC, XLS, and VSD templates
• DPBP is agile
  • Leverages many XP features
• End of prose text in development process
  • Minimizes text
  • Uses structured information
• Lazy modeling
  • Model only if you have to
    • Architecture metaphor (XP)
  • Uses minimum of everything to do the job

Bascically we are talking initialization, analysis, design, implementation and deployment. And that was then the contents of the two-day workshop in Augsburg.

Networking was commenced at the evening event on Monday, in the Welser Kuche with a medieval meal:

Want see more fotos? Look no further (German titles and description though)

The November issue of MSDN Magazine is completely about security: attack surface, application lockdown, cryptography, trustworthy code, intrusion prevention and much more. If you ain't already a subscriber, make sure you grab at least this issue at your local newsstand.

Got my Channel 9 guy at the Connect Event (more on this later with photos once I have managed to shrink my backlog) in Barcelona this week from Lenn Pryor. This photo will serve as a reminder that I have to get myself a Bluetooth headset for my shiny new C500.