Work:

Just got back from the Microsoft Office developers Conference down in London.  We were down there for two days with loads of sessions and Hands-On labs to get through.  It was  very good for a free event, it was amazing what a good show they put on.  One of the highlights for me was an ask the experts session after the first day.  We had a lovelly meal, It was  5 star Hotel so the standard was pretty top drawer,  And there was all the free beer and wine we could drink and we could just question the MS guys about various stuff and chat to other developers.  The Softies (MS Guys n Galls) just kept bringing the beer and wine over to us and in return we just kept upping the eval points we were going to give them.  So what did I find out?  Found out about Live Communications Server,  basically Microsoft have now got a third instant messaging system to join MSN and Windows Messenger.  It’s call Office Messenger.  The difference is it uses secure communications and can be installed inside a corporate network.  One of the cool points about it is a little active X control you can drop onto a windows form to give a Messenger style icon that changes colour depending if the name it is hooked up to is online.  And what do they call this wonderful little control….If memory serves me it’s a Gum Ball (or jelly bean or something like that).  I think it’s released some time in July but it certainly encapsulates all the normal instant messaging functionality.  Loads of VSTO (Visual Studio Tools for Office) stuff Most of which I’ve already looked at but there were a few items that were cleared up like a VSTO enabled document needs full trust given to the document as well as the assembly.  We found out what the Information Bridge Framework is.  It is another tool for collaborating data from various sources.  It’s quite a complex beast and is another use of the task pane in office.  There is a client installation and a server engine.  It uses the Biz-talk data designer to map data from different sources.  I think it was good to understand what it is although I don’t see an immediate use for us.  I’m not too sure who exactly it’s targeted at as the designer is used within Visual Studio and if you were a Visual Studio user you’d probably be looking to other solutions.  Still It does show one thing with all these new products that keep rolling out (there’s a new CRM system out soon) It shows how Microsoft now are harnessing their various technologies and pulling them together to make new products,  this is what we should be looking to do with the next incarnation of our product,  Lots of pluggable parts where we can build up solutions based on the selection of various parts.  I’ve heard that the new CRM product due in September is going to show case the best practices of a Service Orientated Architecture.  After my facial expression the MS guy said “no seriously this time it doesn’t suck”, so I’ll look forward to seeing this just a pity we have to wait that long, can we wait that long more to the point.  I snapped a few pictures over the two days so see the gallery if you are interested, but don’t get too excited I’ve even got a picture from one of the rooms we stopped in at the Taj Mahal.

Rest:

I’ve just watched the second episode of the second series of the American version of The Apprentice.  I don’t usually go for this type of program but as I’ve caught it at the start I’m gonna watch it and with the wonders of Sky+ I should never miss an episode, well that I if I don’t accidentally switch the box off,  or accidentally delete the wrong item, or the kids get hold of the remote, or Suzanne gets hold of the remote, or the dog gets hold of the…..you get the picture.  These are all scenarios that have happened except the dog one of course.  The dog only plays the Xbox ‘Extreme Beach fetch-ball’  lots of bitches running up and down the beach and you have to catch the ball.

Play:

Had our last sailing lesson on Tuesday and this time we had a bit of wind in our sails.  I started out crewing on a boat called an RS200.  It was quite scary as these boats are quick and very tippy.  I managed to survive without capsizing and then went out in one of the single handed Toppers.  This time I didn’t manage to stay right side up and ended up swimming.  Not as bad as Suzanne though as I looked over I saw her fall out of the boat and it carried on without her.  Good stuff.  I’ve now got to try and tax Suzanne’s car online and I’ve lost the paperwork so I don’t think I’m going to have much success…. Here goes fingers crossed.