By Kent Sharkey on 1/7/2010 4:03 PM

 In my ongoing role of attempting to get everyone to prove me wrong, I've decided to write down a few predictions this year about where I think our little corner of the industry will be this year. Then, in December, I can either brag about the no-brainers that I got right, or ignore this entirely as I got too many wrong.

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By Kent Sharkey on 10/21/2009 2:05 PM

 Well, now that we really know for certain that Visual Studio 2010 won't be launching at PDC, it's time for my annual look at what we can learn from looking at this year's PDC session schedule.

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By Kent Sharkey on 9/27/2009 4:39 PM

 Say what you will about Joel Spolsky, one thing he is really good at is starting a discussion.The latest discussion is about Duct Tape Programmers vs. Architect Astronauts. While the discussion is valid, many are getting confused by the analogy, so I dare to join in.

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By Kent Sharkey on 12/24/2008 4:15 PM

It used to be that a sample from Microsoft was guidance that would be copied into thousands of programs. Now, not so much.

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By Kent Sharkey on 10/26/2008 3:00 PM

With this year's PDC (Professional Developers' Conference) only a few days away, I decided to go looking at the session list to see the topics. PDC is traditionally Microsoft's future-looking conference, as opposed to TechEd, which traditionally is intended to help developers and IT professionals understand currently shipping software.

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By Kent Sharkey on 9/12/2008 1:00 PM

Mark your calendar: Dec 4 marks Winnipeg's episode of TechDays 2008. For only $124.99 (until Oct 15), you get a full day of in-depth coverage on the products you use (or should be using), and enough software to build your future.

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By Kent Sharkey on 9/9/2008 10:41 AM

Winnipeg has a long history of great participation in User Groups, so it's good to see a new Biztalk User Group forming in the city. Details are a little sparse at the moment, but stay tuned to this blog and http://www.winnipegdotnet.org/ for details.

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By Kent Sharkey on 8/25/2008 3:46 PM

Like a lot of other people lately, I've been having a botnet play with my Web site. I decided to take a closer look at the attack, and how I can minimze its effect using the free tools LogParser and URLScan.

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By Kent Sharkey on 8/21/2008 2:00 PM

I have to admit that I really like the upcoming ASP.NET MVC ("It will ship in a month ending in -ber") Web framework. It's not as mature as the existing Webform model, but I like how it gives more control over the pages, and navigation of the site. Now, to prepare, Microsoft has negotiated five free chapters out of some of the upcoming books on ASP.NET MVC. Definitely worth taking a look at if you're planning (or developing) a site using that technology.

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By Kent Sharkey on 8/13/2008 3:14 PM

By now, I'm sure you've heard that Service Pack 1 is out for Visual Studio 2008
        and the .NET Framework 3.5. The arrival of SP1 for a development tool is often a
        sign that it is the moment that it is safe to start working with the product; so
        if you've been holding off, it's time to take another look at 2008.

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