I'm planning to teach the Spring quarter's edition of Visual Basic II.  The class is designed to pick up for students who have been through an introductory .NET Framework class and an initial Programming with Visual Basic I class.  Previously the class has focused on .NET 2.0 but with the recently released .NET 3.0 now available we'll be spending some of the additional class time looking at things like XAML, WPF, WF and LINQ (part of the .NET 3.5 feature set).  Additionally for those interested in handling existing VB6 code we'll be talking about the Visual Basic Power Packs which allow you to interoperate between Visual Basic 6 and Visual Basic .NET code within your existing application.  My goal is to ensure that students completing this class have an  understanding not only where .NET is today and how to work with Visual Basic - but where Visual Basic and .NET are going and how to be positioned so that what happened with Visual Basic 6 doesn't again happen to those working in Visual Basic.

The class can be registered for through UCSD at:

http://extension.ucsd.edu/studyarea/index.cfm?vAction=singleCourse&vCourse=CSE-40616&vStudyAreaId=14

One of the items which came up at the MVP Summit involved the availability of VB Samples online.  It's funny how sometimes you'll see the difference between those in Redmond and internal to Microsoft and those of us on the outside.  In this case the response of the VB Team was effectively: "What are you talking about we ship samples along with each CTP, the C# team has their posted because they aren't all in the product."  (Note I'm paraphrasing what I recall hearing here.)

Anyway the MVP's made it quite clear that from a perceptions standpoint the fact that the C# samples were easily available via the web while the VB samples were MIA was a problem.  So the VB Team committed to making their samples available online.  The result is that if you head over to the LINQ Samples page you’ll find both C# and VB Samples.

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/bb330936.aspx

Which reminds me of a second link to LINQ - For those of you who are still getting up to speed you'll find alot of great introductory information related to LINQ at: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vbasic/aa904594.aspx

For those of you working with WPF, WF, WCF and other cutting edge .NET technology Microsoft made Beta 1 of Visual Studio Orcas available today you can download it here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=36B6609E-6F3D-40F4-8C7D-AD111679D8DC&displaylang=en

Update:

The link above is for the VPC version.  MSDN Subscribers should have access to an MSI to install the tools (in ISO format) but it isn't publicly available.  For those of you more familiar with or looking for a smaller download that can be installed there are also Express Editions of Orcas available here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/future/default.aspx

One last entry as I'm preparing to wrap for the day.  Found this new site which indicates that as of today, what was previously called WPF/E is now known as "Silverlight" - http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/asp.net/bb187358.aspx

Lots of good information and links for Silverlight at that location.

A new story on how they've discovered the gene responsible for a genetic pre-disposition to diabetes (and all you ever hear is it's because people eat too many carbs... wrong - even before the gene was found it was known to be a genetic problem.)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18122308/site/newsweek/wid/11915773?GT1=9303

Apparently according to this article the the gene in question is #10.... you might have one copy that's bad or two but having even one increases your risk of Type 2 diabetes significantly.  As for me - well I already have Type 2 Diabetes so no reason for me to get tested - and as for my son - why would I possibly want to have him tested?  I don't plan on telling him I have Diabetes once he's old enough to really understand because I don't want him to be black-listed for insurance and other activities - thus what possible benefit would there be to getting him tested?  The fact is leading a healthy lifestyle with exercise and diet is the only defense until and after you get diagnosed so unlike say a breast cancer risk where you might choose surgery to remove the risk, the test really doesn't provide any value.

Since this afternoon has become blog update I thought I'd relate and record a few note from my biking ride this weekend.  After a mountain bike ride on Thursday with Kevin, Friday was Roadie to and from work with a couple extra miles on the way home.  Then Saturday it was time to return to the scene of the crime.

When I first got my road bike I also got a free biking mag, one of those which sits near the door of your local bike shop for free.  In it was a route through North San Diego County that took you from Oceanside into Fallbrook and back.  Since I didn't know where else to ride and was training for the Tour de Cure of 42 miles I decided to try out this 32 mile ride.  Well it kicked my butt - it went up this little road called Sleeping Indian.  Let's just say that in terms of climbs this road should be renamed Ambush Indian because after you make it to the top you want to know if someone got the name of the Indian who just kicked your butt.  When I first started riding I couldn't make it up this climb with out stopping (two stops the first couple times, then I got it down to one until I finally made it.)

Most everyone familiar with riding in North San Diego County is familiar with the Torrey Pines climb along the coast.  To compare - riding the coast the climb up the outer (shore side which is steeper) of Torrey Pines is 331 Feet of elevation gain spread across 8/10ths of a mile.  This is considered one of the more difficult climbs in the county for a recreational rider.  Sleeping Indian has a section within it which involves 330 Feet of elevation gain spread across 7/10ths of a mile, a steeper climb for what is essentially the same elevation gain.  More importantly however, that is only part of the Sleeping Indian climb, overall Sleeping Indian climbs to the base of that steep section and has additional climbing after that section which brings your total elevation gain to somewhere in excess of 750 Feet.

So back to my Saturday route.  After I first rode that original route a couple times, and got a second rider for a few rides we found a problem in that route required riding along the Rt. 76 Highway.  Not the safest of trips we eventually stopped riding this route.  Fortunately however, as my cycling experience continued I learned other routes and have been able to work in a route which takes me from home up this climb and back without needing to ride along the shoulder of a two lane highway.  Thus Sleeping Indian is my fitness test, and so I headed out to put myself to the test.

The good news is I made it up without needing to stop - the bad news is that it was way closer then it should have been.  It's one of those things where had it not been a cool day with a nice breeze I probably would have needed to stop.  My heart rate was pounding up at 180 bpm and I was struggling forward at a full 3.6 mph.  It wasn't pretty but now I know that I can make it through the upcoming Tour de Cure ride and how much further I have to go in getting back into shape.  Overall I did the ~33 miles in just under 2 and a half hours riding time or 2 and three-quarters elapsed time with an average speed of 13.8 mph.  The route includes over 3,300 feet of elevation gain over the course of the 33 miles, since Sleeping Indian isn't the only large climb on the route.  Other noteworthy items from the ride include the fact that I hit 40+ mph on three different downhill sections and had a max speed of 44.9 mph.

This weekend I'm hoping to go more for distance and looking to head down the coast to Torrey Pines and return.  It'll probably be 40+ miles with maybe 2,500 feet of elevation gain...

One of the items I learned when I was requested to speak to the LA C# User Group, was that they were essentially affiliated with the SoCal .NET User Group (http://www.socaldotnet.org/).  Apparently the same speaker coordinator works both groups and they meet one after the other.  Thus I was also requested to speak to the Orange Country group on the following night April 4th.  Since some people attend both meetings I agreed to adjust my topic slightly.

In this cas I adjust my presentation to focus on WPF and Interop.  The focus of course being the ability to take applications built with Windows Forms 2.0 and have the user interface work with new components being built with WPF.  The presentation again introduces .NET 3.0 and WPF but doesn't include much of the XAML focus from the previous night's presentation.  It instead spends more time looking at Crossbow.

Crossbow is the code name which Microsoft used when it was building the Interop libraries to allow the new WPF windows graphical libraries to work alongside the existing Windows.Forms libraries.  The key message was: if you are using the Interop controls, the WindowsFormHost and ElementHost controls should ALWAYS be used to host User Controls.  Yes they CAN host individual controls such as a TextBox or DataGridView, but if you need to Interop you have business logic in place and you should always encapsulate the controls in a User Control prior to having those controls placed in one of the Interop controls.

In addition I spoke about how this Interop direction is really a lesson learned from the initial Visual Basic 6.0 to Visual Basic .NET migration based path which Microsoft provided.  Microsoft learned that trying to take an entire real world application and migrate it's entire code base to a new implementation language was a cost prohibitive scenario.  It tended to be difficult for engineers to imagine and they constantly wanted to start with the backend components which made it that much more complex. 

Instead with WPF Microsoft has pursued an Interop strategy.  There won't be any tools to migrate your Windows Forms based application to a WPF UI.  After all many components such as the DataGridView control just don't have a single equivalent under WPF.  The key being that when you went to move the implementation from Windows Forms to WPF you'll want to change the implementation completely.

As I also note, not only did Microsoft learn this lesson when planning WPF, the Visual Basic Team has been leading the way.  They have released a set of tools which will allow you to create new .NET Forms and have these forms compile into classic VB6.0 applications.  In this way you can begin to extend your existing VB 6.0 applications with new .NET based capabilities without needing to spend 6+ months migrating your code base.  The new VB Interop tools although not the focus of this presentation are every bit as exciting as the WPF Interop tools.  You can get the latest version of the VB Power Tools from MSDN or from the Visual Basic Team blog at: http://blogs.msdn.com/vbteam/archive/2006/11/02/interop-roadmap-usercontrols-mdi-and-data.aspx

Here is a copy of my slides from the SoCal .NET User Group Presentation:

I know most speakers like to announce where they'll be speaking in advance (helps drive attendance...) but a couple weeks ago I was contacted by the speaker coordinator for this group and asked if I could speak in a couple days.  In talking with them they said they hadn't really gotten much info yet on WPF and XAML so I agreed to do a brief presentation on these topics to this group.

So on April 3rd, I gave the LA C# User Group (http://www.lacsharp.org/) a presentation discussing XAML and WPF.  The focus of the presentation was that you shouldn't think of XAML as being an adjunct or WPF.  The two technologies are separate and have different goals.  WPF is a set of class libraries which are part of the larger .NET 3.0 Framework.  XAML is a declarative language which can be used to create .NET applications.  The point being that XAML is a full fledged .NET application language like C#... (VB of course is still easier to read...)

Attached to this post is a copy of the slides that I presented to this user group meeting.

WPFIntro.zip (1.09 MB)

So I'm currently planning my next MSDN presentation which will occur May 9th and focus on the Microsoft Office Suite.  I'll have more details and a link to that presentation in the near future.

In the interim I suggest checking out the upcoming "Live From Redmond" web cast series which the VB Team is putting on.  This series will focus in on the new features in Orcas (next version of Visual Studio) and Visual Basic 9.0 (VB 9.0).  The presentations are linked as a group on the Visual Basic team blog and this is a great resource if you are trying to get a feel for what new features are shipping with the .NET 3.5, which is the version of .NET Framework.

The first session is this Wed April 18th and is an Orcas overview.  They are also adding more as the series continues so keep up to date by checking this post on their blog:

http://blogs.msdn.com/vbteam/archive/2007/04/09/live-from-redmond-webcast-series-beth-massi.aspx

I plan on attending several of these as I had the pleasure of hearing many of these speakers at the MVP conference and know they have some great content.

As I've noted I'm getting ready for the Tour de Cure and riding my bike for 60+ miles.  Of course my training time has been less then ideal what with having a new son, a full-time job, plus various work related activities (teaching, writing, editing, etc.) -if it weren't for that job why I'd have so much free time

However, in surfing this weekend this comic caught my eye as the opinion of many who share my affliction when it comes to exercise.  It was originally posted on the editorial cartoonist's site at: http://www.coxandforkum.com/archives/001083.html with a discussion of childhood obesity.

At any rate I like many other cyclists will continue training and suggest that everyone do their best to make exercise a priority in their life.  You can support my efforts to raise funds and awareness for the American Diabetes Association with a donation here:

http://main.diabetes.org/site/TR?px=1001265&pg=personal&fr_id=4403