Sam Gentile's Blog (if (DeveloperTask == Communication && OS == Windows)

Winter has finally set in with single digit temps and minus degrees wind chills but still no snow.

WPF/Avalon

• Adam's WPF book is out and flying off the shelves apparently! I have been looking forward to this one as his COM Interop book is the bible there.
• Feb CTP of WPF/E!
• New Docs, SDK and QuickStarts for the above
• Via Mike Harsh, Dave has put up a new WPF/E sample he built for a recent INETA talk that is a Reflection Editor
• .NET 3.0 Crash Course - Part 8: WPF Conclusion
• Tim Sneath, from the WPF Team, has been doing a series on great WPF applications that is up to 6. This hopefully proves that WPF is more than some pretty 3D demo thing and being used in real applications. #1: British Library Turning the Pages,  #2: Electric Rain StandOut, #3: 90 Degree Radius Reports, #4: Otto, #5: TF1, and #6: fnac.com

LINQ/ADO.NET Orcas

• Entity Data Model 101: Part 1
• Type safety - LINQ to DataSets Part 2

SOA

• As mentioned before, Dale Churchward is doing a series on "Proper SOA." He adds A Proper SOA is a Framework, A Proper SOA Must Work With Your Current Infrastructure and Legacy Applications, and A Proper SOA is Flexible Enough to Support Multiple Vendors, Software, and Hardware
• Harry on the Web Service Software Factory
• Kzu wrote a niece piece called "Building Software Factories Today" where he outlines some of the challenges and techniques you can use (and we will be using) to make effective factories on today's platform. [via Peter]

Financial and Banking Vertical/Architecture

1. Mike has more on a topic near and dear to me: Software Factories for Financial Services
2. Mike also shows how Microsoft is a clear leader in standards support for our Financial Industry. For us support for standards like SWIFT are critical 
3. BizTalk Accelerator for SWIFT

Architecture

1. Nick says, "In think that one of the most valuable traits of an enterprise architect is the ability to push gently.  In other words, if you find that a team is developing a solution that cannot be integrated or creates an entirely new definition for the word, customer, you recognize that this is a negative for the business, but you don't wave your arms and scream... you push gently, but firmly, on the people who made that decision to 'unmake' it within the scope of the planned iterations." This is something that I have learned to do a lot better in 2006 and I continue to strive for.

Vista

• Microsoft has officially released Windows PowerShell 1.0 for Microsoft Windows Vista
• One of the best parts of Vista: Windows Mobile Device Center RTMs!
• Ed Bott is collecting Vista Tips

I'm listening to I Wanna Be Me by The Sex Pistols on the album The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle