Brian H. Prince

Let's face it, we have all dreamed of programming robots to do cool things, like fetch batteries for our wireless mice, pick up that stray d20 that fell under the table, or just to chase cats around the scale model Lego Death Star. There have been several games over the years that I have played (on almost every platform) that had a variation on this theme. One, on the Apple IIe, had you wiring together logic circuits and sensors to make the robot solve a challenge in a room (navigate force fields for example). Microsoft is starting a new competition that taps into this endless pool of hope we all have (still waiting for the flying cars!). RoboChamps.com . There will be a series of challenges over the next few months, with contestant rules and everything. You compete by using the MS Robotics Developer Studio, and a challenge kit. You program the robot to complete the goals in the challenge. The robot you program is a simulation of a real robot, as well as the environment. The ...

WCF is awesome technology. I think it is the second most important technology an enterprise .NET developer should learn today. The first being LINQ (which is far easier to learn). With great power and flexibility comes some cost. WCF has to build the channel, proxies, etc etc. (You thought I was going with the Spiderman quote, didn't you?) This cost is worthy if you are talking across physical boundaries. But a lot of teams are using WCF now just to talk to services that happen to be hosted on the same machine. There is an interprocess binding called netNamedPipeBinding that will use Named Pipes to communicate through memory instead of the wire, with a service hosted on the same machine. That's great. But what if you want to communicate with a service hosted in the same app domain without having to jump out and back in? The Null channel adapter covers this scenario. This is very useful if you have different WF workflows running on the same box that need to communicate ...

Jeff Blankenburg and I have been dog-fooding a new platform called Windows Live Mesh for the past month or two. On the surface, it just looks like another cool Web 2.0 application with some Software + Services architecture for fun. But Live Mesh is leveraging two big trends we have all seen in our lives. The explosion of the web's role in our lives, and the vast array of digital devices we have. Many of these new devices can access the Internet (cell phones and cameras), or are network aware. Can you imagine what the Apollo program might have looked liked with today's technology? I was talking to a friend that has a new phone, and he is trying to get all of his contacts (how many places do you store contacts?) synchronized everywhere, and easily accessible wherever he is. How many computers do you work on throughout the day, and forget something on the other? See some sample screen shots, and read the official announcement at Introducing Live Mesh . Our lives are f...

Larry Clarkin is a colleague of mine. Apparently he likes baseball. I haven't paid much attention to baseball since I ended my career in fourth grade to focus on computers. He posted an article " Architecture by Baseball: 5 tool architect " on the five core skills an architect must have, using baseball as a metaphor. You should check it out. I don't know a thing about baseball, and it made sense to me. Except for the field goal. He didn't mention what those mean in his metaphor.

The tour continues. I will be at the Northwest Ohio .NET Users Group presenting my 'Soft Skillz : They aren't just for Humans anymore' talk. I haven't been up there in about year (maybe longer?) so it will be good to get up into Jason's and Greg's area. I will be bringing a copy of VS2008 Pro to give away. If you miss me in Toledo, I will be at the West Michigan Day of .NET as well this May 10th.

I gave my Soft Skillz talk at the Central Ohio Day of .NET this past Saturday. The event went really well. The organizers (led by Jim Holmes , Mike Wood , and Carey Payette) did a great job putting a team together, and running the event. The new space worked out well, and there were a lot of great speakers. It's amazing how far our community has come in five years. My session was pretty full, and VERY interactive. That is why I went over! If people had not interacted, I would have been on time. ;) Yeah, that's the story! I would always rather have an interactive group and go over, than a quiet group and finish early.

Alexei Govorine and Jeff Hunsaker have started a new user group called Central Ohio ALM Group. Their web site is www.COALMG.org . They plan on meeting every other month, opposite of the the MOCSDUG.org user group. They are going to focus on Application Lifecycle Management, and related tools. Join them for their inaugural meeting Thursday May 1st at the Polaris Microsoft office. An agenda will be announced soon. COALMG meets on the odd 1st Thursdays of the month (Jan, Mar, May, Jul, Sep, Nov) at 6pm - 8pm on the 4th floor of the Microsoft Offices off Polaris Parkway in Columbus, Ohio. Address: Polaris Center 8800 Lyra Dr., Suite 400 Columbus, OH 43240 Phone: (614) 719-5900 Fax: (614) 719-5319

Spring is here, and there are DODN's popping up all over! The team in West Michigan has been busting their humps all winter to get this great event off of the ground. The event is FREE, and is on May 10th, 2008. Check out their web site, West Michigan Day of .NET 2008, for all of the details. I will be presenting my 'Soft Skillz - They aren't just for humans anymore' talk. I will be also showing off some great news that will be released April 21st.

Date:    4/30/2008 Where: Microsoft Corporation            8800 Lyra Dr.            Polaris Center, Suite 400            Columbus, OH 43240 Welcome Time: 8:30 AM Eastern Time Event Time: 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM Registration Link: http://www.clicktoattend.com/?id=127766 or go to www.clicktoattend.com and enter Event Code: 127766 Recommended Audiences: Business Decision Maker, Technical Decision Makers Business and technology executives and IT managers are being asked to do more with less. Maintenance of legacy systems and current technology support consumes vast amounts of a typical enterprise IT budget, leaving few resources to develop new standards-based, adaptive applications that meet the core needs of the business. So how can you measure the real value of IT, and how can you ensure that i...

Max Technical Training, and three of the local user groups are banding together to put on their own HHH launch event for VS2008, SQL 2008, and Windows Server 2008. If you missed the other cities, here is a great chance to get in on the action. Max is a great community supporter in southern Ohio, check them out! Apr 15 - CINNUG ~ Visual Studio 2008 Register Here (only 4 seats left) Venue - MAX in Mason Speakers Kirk Wilson (MAX) – New features of VS 2008 Stefan Kyntchev – What is LINQ? Dan Hounshell – ASP.NET 3.5 New Features Hands-on 2 classroom set up for a hands-on experience Q & A Stations May 7 - CiNPA ~ Windows Server 2008 Register Here Venue - Cinci State in Evendale Speakers CiNPA member - What’s New In Windows Server 2008 Tim O’Connor (MAX) – still finalizing presentations Q...

Microsoft has done it again. Having shipped an updated version of WCF, we have now released a new version of SOAP. I like this version a lot better, it is lighter weight, and is much faster. Also comes with a great Silverlight video interface. Stay to the end to see how to make your own SOAP.     Check out http://preview.microsoft.com/video to see more!

I will be attending the WMDODN on May 10th. The event will be held at the Davenport University, W.A. Lettinga Campus in Grand Rapids, MI. Microsoft will be a sponsor this year. While they haven't announced the sessions yet, the agenda shows that they will have four tracks of content! The date for their speaker submissions was March 24th, but the site hasn't bee updated. They may still be accepting speakers. I submitted some talks, hopefully they have room left. Go register now! What could be better than hanging out with other geeks, free food, and 'conversatin' about .NET? Anyone coming from the Columbus area (or along the route) is welcome to ride along with me. I may or may not be spending the night before. If you are a company in the area, this is a great event to sponsor. This crowd represents the passionate .NET developers in the area. Who else would take a Saturday to hang out with other geeks?

Continuing my thoughts on my last post, Manage a Job Change , I want to talk about a special set of people that have 'Career ADD'. These are people that quickly tire of a job, and not for the reasons I outlined in the last post. They simply find no challenge left in the current project or position. These people thrive on that challenge. Once the challenge is gone, they get bored and go find a new mountain to climb. This can quickly lead to breaking the 'stay at least two years' rule. What can such a horribly afflicted individual do to avoid being branded a job hopper? I see a few options: 0. Get a job at large company that values and expects their people to excel and seek new roles with new challenges. Microsoft does this VERY well. Be careful you don't get stuck in a large company that prefers to drain the soul out of you. 1. Become a serial entrepreneur. Get an idea. Start a company. Launch it. Sell out. Start over. 3. Do so well at your current company ...

There has been a lot of conversation around careers and jobs lately (perhaps due to the recent Soft Skillz presentations, and because a friend is changing jobs right now). You should manage your job change in a proactive and healthy way. Always negotiate a start date that works for you, and supports a fair and clean exit from your current employer. ALWAYS give at least two weeks notice. But, take into account any project milestones or events that are close to your exit date, and adjust for those. It is up to your current employer to decide if they don't need you for those two weeks. I have experience where some will ask politely for you to leave that day, others choose to work out a transition plan for those two weeks. When you do resign, bring a transition plan with you. The plan should cover what tasks, responsibilities and projects you are working on, who those should transition to (in your opinion), and how you plan on doing the transition. The higher level or more import...