Dallas BizTalk User Group

Good progress is being made in forming a Dallas BizTalk User Group!  We've just launched a website where you can register to be kept informed as progress continues.  You can find it at : http://BizTalkUserGroup.com

BizTalk XmlDisassembler Problem with <?xml?>

If you're working with BizTalk, then you owe it to yourself to go read Tomas Restrepo's latest post.  In short, he has located a bug in how the XmlDisassembler handles the <?xml?> declaration to determine encoding. If the XmlDisassembler pipeline component encounters <?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?> it will throw an exception which has nothing to do with the real problem.  It has no problem with <?xml version='1.0' encoding="UTF-8"?> though.  Go read Tomas' article for the full details.  Great job Tomas in chasing this down!

HiddenNetwork.com

I've long been a fan of The Daily WTF, if you're a professional developer you owe it to yourself to take 3 minutes each day to read the posts there.  Fabulous stuff. Alex, the man in charge at The Daily WTF, is kicking off a new service called Hidden Network.  The idea is using blogs as a recruitment area for technology positions because those who read blogs are generally the "top talent".  I'm keenly interested in participating in this experiment because I agree with Alex that this is the key dillema in our industry.  A paradigm shift has to happen, and with any luck this could become such. I agree with those who posted in the comments that the key to making this work is transparency though.  The company has to be willing to step out into the open by name so you know who they are and can examine their reputation before responding.