Technology is a means, not an end.

I'm thrilled to report that I've been awarded a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional award once again in 2008, though this time I am a Connected Systems MVP, instead of a BizTalk MVP.  The difference  is nearly inconsequential, as I will still be working with the same team, but over the last year I've begun to focus more and more on things outside of purely BizTalk.  I'd like to take a moment to thank Microsoft for the award, this program is absolutely fabulous and I couldn't be happier than to be associated with it.  More corporations should examine the MVP program and think about how they can connect with their community the way Microsoft does.

So I know at least some of my friends will be pleased to hear that I've completed my upgrade to Graffiti CMS, migrating from dasBlog.  I must say that dasBlog has served me very well, but as the blog has grown in popularity, I've done screencasts, and other things I've begun to realize that I truly needed a CMS, not just a blog.  The blog will remain a major feature of TimRayburn.net and the existing feed url will continue to retrieve only my blog content, but I've now got room to grow.

I've just bought a set of Logitech Freepulse Bluetooth Headphones, these are very well reviewed Bluetooth 2.0 EDR headphones and so I was happy to grab a set as they solve another problem I've had which is that my Sprint Mobile Broadband ExpressCard blocks my headphone port.  But darned if the default directions just want you to use their little headphone jack adapter.  I knew there had to be a way to get these bound to my computer and/or cellphone, so I did some research.  For those who come after me, here are the clear details:

• Press and Hold the power button on the headphones, the light will flash slow red, then fast red, then turn off, and finally start flashing blue and red.  This has put the headphones into Discovery Mode.
• On your computer or cellphone, search for new Bluetooth devices.
• If prompted for a security code, select 0000.
• Enable Wireless Stereo when asked.

And your done.  The hard part is of course figuring out how to make the headphones go into Discovery Mode.

Let the word go out from the mountain tops, and bloggers the D/FW Metroplex and beyond link back to this post as they spread the word.  Not to be out done by our cousins to the north in Tulsa, Dallas will this year have it's very own TechFest.

Dallas TechFest 2008 will occur on May 3rd, 2008 and will be a day of .NET, Java and Ruby learning FREE to attend for all who want to.  If you are interested in attending, we need you to register on the site (www.DallasTechFest.com) so that we have an idea of who is coming.  What can you expect you ask?  Let me tell you.

Assuming most of my readers are .NET developers, I will focus on that side of things:

• Richard Campbell, Co-Host of .NET Rocks and Run As Radio, speaking on ASP.NET Scalability
• Don Demsak aka DonXML speaking on the Modelling Edition of Service Factory
• Dallas' own Trent Nix speaking on Silverlight
• Raymond Lewellan speaking on the ASP.NET MVC Framework
• Jason Kergosien speaking on ASP.NET Dynamic Data
• And more yet to come and be announced...

Mark the day on your calendar, you will not want to miss these speakers.  Trust me.  If you have a blog I ask that you help spread the word about the event by linking back to this post.

I am deeply saddened to learn that today we have lost Gary Gygax (via EnWorld), creator of Dungeon's & Dragons, from our company in this world.  I did not know him personally, but I can say without a doubt that this man has touched countless people through his games, and his ambitions.

I starting playing role-playing games when I was 13, having been introduced by a family friend to what is now affectionately referred to as "Red Box" D&D. In the 21 years since that time I've played many games, I have lived through the turmoil of the "D&D is satanic" times, but I still to this day play role-playing games on a weekly basis and I recognize that Gary Gygax's games helped me define my personality, my sense of humor, and my style of storytelling.  I have in fact just returned from D&D Experience, one of many large gatherings of those who play D&D still and who participate in events run by the RPGA and was learning about the upcoming Fourth Edition of the game.

Gary has not been involved with D&D directly in many years, and the game has moved from being owned by TSR, to Wizards of the Coast, and now corporately Hasbro though still through the Wizards of the Coast brand.  I would invite everyone reading to stop and think about the impact this man has had on our world.  While not alone, he is one of the pillars who brought about Role Playing Games (RPGs) in the United States.  From those games come so much we take for granted, it is from those games we have countless novels, movies, and computer games as direct products, but also indirectly games such as World of Warcraft and Lord of the Rings Online cannot help but acknowledge that the systems used to model those virtual worlds stand on the shoulders of D&D, and as such this man.

While I did not know him personally, I believe it is safe to say that Gary Gygax remained a fan of RPGs until his last breath on this planet, and as such I'd like to take a moment and encourage everyone here to block out some time on June 7th or June 21st to try your hand at the game again.

• June 7th, 2008  is the Worldwide Dungeon & Dragon's Game Day where game stores world wide will be opening their doors and running games for any who will be interested for free.  This is scheduled for the day after the release of Dungeon & Dragon's Fourth Edition and will be a great chance to see how Wizards of the Coast have stewarded the brand that Gary started so many years ago.
• June 21st, 2008 is Free RPG Day, and many of those same retailers will again be running tables of games, this time from a wide variety of game developers not just Wizards of the Coast.  There will be free games, and gaming supplies, being given away in most of those stores that day.

So I raise a toast Gary today, and send my well wishes to his wife, six children and extended family.  And, perhaps belatedly, I thank him for what he has done for my life without ever knowing it.

My current client is setting up an entirely new set of machines for their project running Windows Server 2008, and this includes a new Domain Controller and so we just went through the adventure of figuring out how to have a Windows Server 2008 box join a domain.  If you're having issues with this, the trick is two things:

1. Change your network properties to be a Private network instead of a Public network.
2. Go to Windows Firewall and turn it off.

Don't worry, once you're on the domain it will by policy re-enable the Firewall, so this is just a temporary change.

Service Oriented Architectures (SOAs) have been all the rage in the world of computing for quite a while now, and many companies have had great success while others have had failures.  As with all things in life, planning is key when approaching a SOA, and also like so many things, planning must be taken in moderation.

Frequent readers have likely picked up on my love of games, board games, console games, PC games, even Tabletop RPGs.  I am in love with the dynamic of engaging with a group of people in a fictional model of something. While attending a recent event put on by Sogeti about realizing success with SOA several corollaries clicked into focus for me between SOA and the type of games called Real Time Strategy (RTS) games.  This article is the result, I hope you at least get a laugh.

I'm sure more than one of you is now saying: "Real Time Strategy games are like an SOA?  Tim's popped a gasket."  But let me make my case.  In an RTS is a simulation of a struggle between two or more people to achieve dominance in a environment with limited resource availability. Most businesses (not all) are attempting to achieve dominance in a market with limited funds and other resources.  As such, since an SOA is supposed to digitally represent the core competencies of a business, it is reasonable to say that SOAs likewise are trying to move a business towards dominance in a market with limited funds and resources.

Now when planning a SOA, before you've implemented your first service even, you are much like a player who has just started a match in an RTS game.  You've likely got a small amount of funding (likely peeled away from one project or another) and one or two developers that you can have begin to work on things.  Ah, and you have your first complication as well.  The staple of the RTS genre known as the "Fog of War".

The "Fog of War" in an RTS game is a sheet of black or gray that covers any area you've not explored or cannot see currently because you have no units there.  In our comparison, this is the uncertainty of where to begin.  Somewhere out there in the fog are high value resources that will move you towards your goal, such as Gold Mines in an RTS or key areas of flexibility which open new markets in a SOA.  The problem is you don't know where.

Hence we come to the first and most important step of an SOA, planning. Different ideas have been espoused for dealing with this dilemma, we will look at those now and their RTS comparisons to see which we think we actually let us win the game best.

• "The Big Plan" - Perhaps the most popular with large corporations, this plan states that the most important thing to know about a SOA is exactly how to build it right the first time.  In RTS terms, these people want to spend a lot of time exploring the entire map so they know where all the key resources and pitfalls are before they begin to build out their game.  The problem with this is cost, not necessarily in dollars/gold (though it can cost that as well) but instead the cost of opportunity. This plan spends so much time planning that it is possible that by the time they've decided to start playing, someone else has already one.
• "Just Get Started" - In opposition to this idea, many shops (often smaller ones) try to simply start building.  They will not explore the unknown areas around them, they'll simply start building services without ever getting a lay of the land.  Those builders are your developers/IT and they are well meaning, but they are not spending enough time interfacing with business, who cares about the big picture and clearing our fog.  The results of this effort may be highly technically competent and well architected, but may be providing the entirely wrong type of resources to drive the business because they are not aligned with business.  Nothing ruins a beautiful SOA more than a sudden and unexpected attack from a horde of Zerglings.
• "Just Enough Planning" - Obviously the key to finding middle ground between these two extremes is moderation.  We must gather resources and begin to build, but we also must explore the fog and find new opportunities.  What is needed to make both these things possible is a high level understanding of where we want to go.  In real world terms, this takes the form of a document which specifies the core competencies of the business.  These are the silos that constrain IT's development, directing in the way that victory is being pursued.

In RTS terms, we're trying to make sure we're gathering the right resources, so the right types of things can be built and areas explored. As you build to the high level plan, you'll be exploring new areas, clearing away the fog and providing details.  Will this mean that you might stumble upon problems or unforeseen opportunities? Yup!  But that just means you need to plan for change ... but that's another post.

My heartfelt, sour throated from cheering, congratulations to the New York Giants and especially my friend Dave O'Hara's brother Shaun O'Hara on a gripping victory of the 18 and 1 New England Patriots.

I'm absolutely awestruck at the quarterback crushing machine of the Giants defense, and the pocket protection perfection of the offensive line.  Congratulations from a former New Yorker, graduate of P.S. 88 in Queens.  I would have preferred this to be my Dallas Cowboys, but I will sleep soundly knowing that they were defeated in the post season by the Super Bowl Champions.

Great news!  When I attended and spoke at the Microsoft SOA & Business Process Conference I was informed that they were recording all sessions to be included in a DVD of the event which would be sent out to those who had attended.  Great, wonderful, but not a lot of use to my blog readers.  Well shortly there after I received a request from the TechNet team to include my presentation as part of the "Best Of" from event online.  I happily agreed, and am happy to report that the best of the Microsoft SOA & Business Process Conference can now be found on TechNet, and that my presentation on Building HIPAA solutions with BizTalk Server 2006 R2 is amongst them.  Incidentally apparently I received a 5 of 5 rating during the conference, I thank the attendees for being so easy on me.

This talk is actually very relevant to anyone interested in EDI for BizTalk Server 2006 R2 as the HIPAA specific pieces are few.  It is a good introductory talk, it is not a deep internals talk but it does cover the configuration and setup of EDI/HIPAA in R2 in some depth.  If you're interested in this topic and can't get to an event where I'm speaking, this is a nice alternative.

I've written about Model View Presenter (MVP) several times before, once after hearing a talk and learning about the pattern, and again when I learned about extension methods.

Today I bring you a screencast on Model View Presenter using Visual Studio 2008 and extension methods.  This is my second screencast, and I've upgraded my microphone to a professional rig thanks to my father to improve the audio.

Click here to watch the screencast.