A nice guide on configuring IIS 6 for team development. While an older article, this topic seems to be coming up a lot lately.

Good read on the seldom used sandboxing capabilities in ASP.NET.

This article on MSDN provides a decent look at using WSE to route SOAP messages. Worth a read in conjuction with samples if you need this functionality.

The Spartans roll baby!

Oh my.... this guy, Andy Tripp, just totally cracks me up. Read some of the things he posts in response to the trip report posted to the Java Lobby from one of the attendees at the Influential Summit. Can anyone be more ignorant but post more drivel as if he is an authority?

Lets see... based on various comments

• Andy says Office changes file formats all the time. Well, considering that the Office file format has not changed since Office 2000 (maybe even Office 97, can't remember exactly) this is a completely wrong statement. Yes, new capabilities are stored in that format via "markup", but that is only to be expected when new features are added.
• He makes a statement that "I just assumed and last I heard" that Office spits out some kind of proprietary XML. Dude, if you don't know what the hell you are talking about, be quiet. It's normal XML. Maybe a bit ugly, but normal.
• Once again, from "what he as heard", XAML won't help anything. Well, since XAML is a programming model and markup language, and not data, let's try and keep things relevant to your argument.
• He goes on about areas where MSFT is not compatible and lists some things that just make me fall out of my chair. IIS? Hmmm... seems to support all the major standards to be a good web server. We are not talking about portability Andy. Outlook - huh? Supports POP3, IMAP, what else do you want? XBOX!!!!! LMAO! He actually knocks us for not running PlayStation games? Holy crap. Does Sony run Nintendo? I still have some Sega games lying around that Sony doesn't run. Messenger? Last I checked AOL was the huge barrier to interop in that space. Sure, there may be a valid point or two in his list, but his hyperbole totally blows any limited credibility he had left.
• He talks how Outlook is "tied to IIS"!!!! Say what? This is either a blatant lie or just total stupidity.

There was other stuff but those were the best. Total clown and sad that others in that community do not call him on some of the crap he is spewing. And if they don't know enough to at least recognize the most blatant BS this guys is spitting out, then I doubt they are qualified to make decisions of any kind.

Make sure you share with family and friends that need a good laugh.

You can check out Raible's recap for a pretty good overview of what went on yesterday. Of course, I have a few exceptions!

• SQL Comment: Not sure where the "SQL ass kicked" comments came from since I think the Microsoft position was we will do well in some, not as well in others. We will be doing industry standard benchmarks for SQL Performance - no problem with that. Standard benchmarks are that for a reason and groups that come up with other benchmarks basically do it to change the rules. Hey, MSFT did it in the past as well. Suprisingly there was no mention of some real world SQL implementation with 1000s of tx per second and multi-terrabyte databases used in such mission critical places as NASDAQ. Not very "fair and balanced"... to borrow a phrase.
• No Demos: I think that was a conscious decision on MSFT's part. Demos sometimes can be construed as being a "sales activity" and this event is more about dialogue.

Best comment I have received from an attendee so far... (paraphrasing) "I see now that Microsoft is not really evil, just stupid". It was said with a smile and the comment is a bit out of context, but the point was well made at the time and it actually showed we are making progress! LOL

Well, we just finished the introductions. I didn't keep an exact count, but somewhere around 35 or so attendees. Yes, the Microsoft organizers told us earlier how many actual attendees where here, but I wasn't really paying attention. It is indeed an impressive array of folks attending. Folks from the JCP arena, Java and Linux user groups, enterprise customers, Java events, etc. Should be a good group to have some dialogue with and get some words straight from the source.

As posted earlier by Matt Raible, a good number of Java/Linux/et al folks have decended on Redmond to engage with Microsoft big wigs. It should be an interesting few days.

Oh, btw, I am here attending as a fly on the wall so stay tuned for more updates. Unlike Matt, I have access to the web via the Microsoft Corporate Network. A bit of a story on why there is not general Internet access, but to be clear, it was not the fault of the great Microsoft folks that put this event together.

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