Microsoft Pakistan Touchdown Program for VS 2005/SQL Server 2005

These days I am conducting trainings as a part of "Microsoft Touchdown " for VS 2005 (Whidbey) and SQL Server 2005 (Yukon) Launch program. These trainings are being conducted by Microsoft Pakistan at a training fascility provided by Kalsoft's KalAcademy. Participants have been invited from Microsoft ISV partners. I am conducting these sessions on the behalf of Kalsoft which happens to be employer and Microsoft's Gold Certified Partner.

Yesterday I conducted two sessions. One on SQL Server 2005's Web Service Support and second one on SQL Server 2005's Service Broker Architecture.
As this is a month of Ramadhan, it was very difficult to speak for whole day while fasting and that on as sunny and hot day as it was yesterday. I believe sessions went well as I gave hands on demo on web service development and client accessibility and i believe audience liked it pretty much. The best part was that amongst participants/attendees were a couple of my friends, a relative and an old time trusted comrade and MVP Adnan Farooq. I have got more sessions comming up for next week.

This all buildup is going to help me and INETA a lot in prepapring for VS/SQL Server 2005 Launch.

Here comes Imagine Cup 2006!

I just receieved an email from Mr Vaqar Khamisani announcing launch of Imagine Cup 2006 ! (final round to be held in New Delhi, India)

Last year INETA Pakistan played a very important role in evangelising Imagine Cup and as a result we got more than 100 entries from all over the Pakistan and a couple of semi finalists. So it was a success! but this time around we have to make it even bigger and ensure multiple entries to the final round! Lets join hands together to evangelise Imagine Cup 2006 and let the world know how good we are in IT!

Folowing are the details:
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With pleasure and excitement, Microsoft Pakistan Developer & Platform Evangelism (DPE) Group is formally announcing the participation in Microsoft World Wide Student Competition: Imagine Cup 2006!

Imagine Cup 2005 was a great success. We had more than 100 students from about 12 Universities participating in the competition with a team reaching the semi finals of this prestigious global competition.

IC2006 Theme: “Imagine a world where technology enables us to live healthier lives.”



IC2006 Categories:

Software Design
Algorithm
IT
Short Film
Visual Gaming: Project Hoshimi (Programming Battle )
Interface Designer




Make sure you promote this in your university and ensure registrations starting from November 1st using theSpoke site: http://www.theSpoke.net



Key Dates:

November 1, 2005 – Registration Opens for all categories

November 1, 2005 – Competitions starts for Visual Gaming

All other categories will begin competition on February 6, 2006.
All other competitions follow very similar deadlines and round schedules;

May 5, 2006 – All competitions will be over and the process of choosing the WW Finalist will be underway

May 22, 2006 – All WW finalists will be announced.

WW Finals - Mid to late July (Exact Date To Be Confirmed!)
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Ready to LAUNCH?

Introducing Phoenix

Phoenix is a software optimization and analysis framework that is the basis for all future Microsoft compiler technologies. The Phoenix framework is an extensible system that can be adapted to read and write binaries and MSIL assemblies, represent the input files in an IR which can be analyzed and manipulated by applications by using the Phoenix API and then the code can be written in binary, or JITable form for execution.

source Microsoft Research

INETA User Group Event Updates

I had so much to blog but couldnt get enough time and energy to get going. Over past month or so i was invited to speak at 1- SSUET, 2- Karachi University and 3- NU-FAST.

Following is a summarized event update:

1- NU-FAST.NET Event

Event at NU-FAST went good some 75 students/faculty members attended the event. It was the first of Ramadhan so it was a tough one to go there and speak for almost an hour or so.
FAST UG Leader,Munir Usman, picked me up from my office at 9:15 and we reached at about 10 AM at FAST main campus. It was my first speaking assignement at FAST and it was good being there.Following is an event report submitted by UG Leader.

We had an excellent event today at our campus by FAST.net user group. Event started with the recitation of holy verses followed by a brief introduction of FAST.net user group and topic by one of our user group members. Mr. Hammad Rajjoub was, then, invited to speak about the topic.He started the discussion with the description of the need of distributed computing with introduction of some old methods of distributed computing. He, then, came towards the main part of the discussion, i.e. XML Web Services, after telling audience about challenges and problems associated with Distributed Computing using previous methods.He gave a detailed introduction of XML Web Services and told about how to use XML Web Services for distributed computing and how this method is different from its legacy formats. In depth explanation of underlying technologies, used by XML Web Services i.e. SOAP, WSDL and UDDI, was also given by him.After that he told about implementation of XML Web Services in MS .NET platform.

By practically demonstrating, He easily convinced the audience that implementation of XML Web Service in Visual Studio.net is just a matter of few clicks.Throughout the discussion, his focused was to explain Service Oriented nature of XML Web Services. Some drawbacks and limitation of XML Web Services were also told by him. Finally he shared some really good resources with audience for further study of this topic.The audience actively participated through out the session and some really good and interesting questions were asked in Q/A session which were treated with satisfied answer from the speaker.In the end, our Chief Guest, Mr. Ayaz Ahmed, Assistant Professor at FAST-NU, gave his views about the event. He encouraged the activities of FAST.net and thanked speaker for sharing his knowledge with students. Then the speaker, Mr. Hammad Rajjoub, was awarded Shield of Honor from Chief Guest.I would like to thank the speaker for conducting the technical session excellently, student volunteers for arranging a well managed and successful event, FAST-NU Faculty members for their support and audience for their great participation.

2- CSKU.NET Event
Here I talked about Application Frameworks and Design Patterns . Head count was good and i believe some 100 students and professional attended the event. I already blogged about the event details. Following is an event report from Ali (CSKU.NET UG Leader).

CSKU .Net User Group for Department of Computer Science, University of Karachi in collaboration with ACM (Association of Computing Machinery) CSKU arranged a seminar at Dept. of Computer Science, University of Karachi on October 01, 2005. The Venue for this event was BS-Lecture Hall, at DCS. Topic for this event was “Design Patterns and Application Framework”.

Mr. Hammad Rajjoub, an MVP (Most Valued Professional), Chairman UG Relations Comm., BS (Computer Science) from Karachi University, and most importantly a senior Speaker in Speakers Bureau for INETA in Pakistan was the speaker. Event that was scheduled to start at 11:00 am was a bit late, due to some reasons it started on 11:30 am with head start by the Speaker with introduction of Design Patterns and Application Framework.

Speaker told attendees about different problem solving paradigms and then a brief introduction to Design Patterns. Then he introduces Application Framework and finally discussed MVC (Model View Control) with respect to a scenario of a database application with some business rules. The point of concentration during the session was what design patterns and application framework is and where to use it. Abstract Factory pattern was discussed with respect to an example of ADO.NET. In the last whole information presented was overviewed by speaker.


We had around 100 attendees during the event comprising of both professionals and students. Students from other universities also took part in our event which is a really boost for us. Attendees rated Mr. Hammad Rajjoub knowledge as excellent, and found him quiet fluent in the overall discussion. They rated content delivered during the session as the best content. All attendees encouraged INETA user group CSKU .Net and ACM CSKU to arrange more of these kinds of sessions. According to attendees such kind of presentations and opportunities to learn will provide students a path to explore themselves, so they encourage User Group Leader to have further opportunities like this. Session ended at 1:15 PM but before ending there was Q/A from the students.

CSKU .Net is further looking forward to have more sessions like these. The Credit goes to Mr. Hammad Rajjoub and honorable Chairperson Department of Computer Science, Prof. Dr. Nasir Tauheed, for providing such a good support and opportunity to CSKU .Net User Group panel.

In last, CSKU .Net User Group & ACM CSKU would like to thank all the attendees and students from Department of Computer Science, University of Karachi, Prof. Dr. Nasir Tauheed (Chairperson DCS-KU), Mr. Hammad Rajjoub (Speaker at our Event), and All User Group Leaders and Members, in making our event successful.

3- SSUET - .NET Project Ideas:

One of the topics that we have presented before. This time however it was tag show. I and Adnan were to conduct the event (infact had Saqib sahib been there we all 3 would have presented it - each bringing in a different aspect to the discussion).
Event went good some 40-50 participants were present and I again got late to reach the event but made it some how. I talked about possibilites of working on Smart clients and Quantum Computation etc.

How to become a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) ?

Recently I recieved an e-mail asking about "How to become an MVP?" on one of the technical groups that I am subscribed on. I felt oblijed to respond to these questions and following is my response. (Feel free to comment!)

You are not the first one to ask these question and definately not the last one either. I believe its natural ask these questions and i will be really happy if my answers can help you understand things better.

So here goes my response to your queries .. but ...one be one!

1) First of all can any one tell me that what and who is a MVP,what type of people are awarded MVPs by Microsoft I mean to say that what profesisonal qualities and skills does these people have.

Microsoft’s Most Valuable Professional (MVP) is an individual whom Microsoft recognizes for his community participation and willingness to help others. MVP is an individual who provide invaluable online and offline expertise to the technical community in a specific or a group of Microsoft Technology areas.

So as for the best of my understandings MVP program is all about identifying people in technical community who are active participants and are always willing to share their experiences and knowledge, pertaining to particular technology area (like C# , ASP.NET or XML Web Services etc), with other developers in the community.

2)2) My second question is that how to become a MVP, do we have to pass some kind of Test or some certification like MCSD.net/MCP/MCAD.net etc , I think that we have to prove our skills in any one of the Microsoft Technologies fo eg C#,SQL Server etc but what is the crieteria of Microsoft for which it accepts that some person is really expert in one of the technologies I mean to say that how does Microsoft judges the skills of a person for some technology,do we have to develop some world class Software or any other product but again what is the Microsoft's defination for a world class Software .

My answer is No!. You don’t require any certifications or such credentials, you need not to have worked on any world class software etc. But the point is you need to have expert level skills in some Microsoft technology area. Believe me that area could be any thing from MS Word to BizTalk Server, i.e. any thing. But remember doing certifications, working on development of great software can always help you become a guru!

Now the second part of your question was how does Microsoft judge some one's skills? Now there are multiple channels where Microsoft can get to know about such individuals (aspiring/would be MVPs), one place where Microsoft is carefully observing techies is msdn newsgroups (http://msdn.microsoft.com/newsgroups/) another very important platform where Microsoft looks for such individuals is INETA User Groups (http://www.ineta.org), and then there are other places like blogs, mailing lists etc.

3) The third and last question is that what benefits one gets by becoming an MVP,does he gets some kind of financial benefits or ny other such benefits and if not than whats the use of becoming a MVP?

Well, MVP is an award its not a designation so there aren’t any financial or such benefits associated with it. Being an MVP within itself is a great achievement and I am sure not a single MVP looks for financial aspects or such gains while becoming MVP.
Becoming an MVP is the biggest benefit within itself i.e. if you understand.

However there are certain other benefits associated with MVP program as well. Following is a brief introduction to them:

A) Technical Resources·
MVP Source Licensing Program enables eligible MVPs to gain access to Microsoft source code.
· MVP Academy virtual learning center delivers timely instructor-led online courses that help Microsoft MVPs realize their full potential.
· Downloads host key documents and files on the MVP Member’s Web site so Microsoft can securely distribute information to MVPs on the MVP Members (Web) Site.
· Microsoft Learning Opportunities offers resources, skills assessments, books, online reference materials, course, workshops and certification programs.
· Knowledge Base Resources give MVPs opportunities to get articles published, view articles on pre-release products and issues, and rights to republish KB articles to the web.
· MVP Private Newsgroups provide forums for MVPs from around the world to share ideas on Microsoft products and technologies with Microsoft employees.
· MVP Product Feedback allows MVPs a direct channel to submit comments, suggestions, and reports of abnormal behavior or potential viruses related to Microsoft products and technologies through the MVP Member’s Web site.
· Technical Support includes 3 free technical support incidents per MVP for use during their award year.
· MVP Webcast offers eligible MVPs the opportunity to deliver web-based sessions on relevant topics for the Microsoft community.
· MSDN or TechNet subscriptions provide MVPs with one-year online priority access to products and expert advice.

B)- Relationship services:

Microsoft assigns an MVP Lead as a relationship owner between Microsoft and MVP community. Like here in Pakistan we have Mr Vaqar Khamisani. MVP Lead is a person who acts as a bridge between MVP community and Microsoft, he is the one who advocates and keeps MVP community updated with latest happenings, initiatives and other opportunities. Through MVP Lead, MVPs get to know about conferences and events where MVPs can participate. A good example of such an event would be "Global MVP Summit", every year Microsoft invites MVPs from all over the world to acknowledge their services and to maintain a close relationship with them. Like this year Adnan Farooq went to attend it and got a special mention from Steve Ballmer.

So thats it from my side and I hope I have been able to answer your queries.

ps: I would also like to refer you to Robert Mc Laws blog entry on "How to become an MVP?".

ZoomInfo found me "On the Web"

ZoomInfo found me on the web.

Its a cool search engine that summarizes "People" information. I like the idea very much!

KPL : Kids Programming Language

KPL (Kids Programming Language) is an awesome initiative and could well replace Basic as "Beginners Programming Language". I cant seem to wait see yound kids/teens writing their code in KPL.

Some people have raised their doubts and have become speculative. Some have event started comparing it VB and feeling disgraced as VB programmers. Which I believe is absolutely ridiculous. We need to see things in right perspectives.

Building COM+ Applications Using Microsoft .NET Enterprise Services

I have started teaching a small course titled Building COM+ Applications Using Microsoft .NET Enterprise Services at KalAcademy which is a Microsoft Certified Learning Partner Company and a sister concern of Kalsoft (www.ekalsoft.com)/

See course details here:

Design Patterns and Application Frameworks : Event at KU Gone Good!

Last week was invited to speak at an event organized by CSKU.NET and ACM-CSKU. Ali, a new UG leader of CSKU.NET organized the event.

My talk revolved around "Re-usability" in software engineering domain. I talked about different levels of "re-usability" spanning from programming language to design and architecure of a software. This time around i kept Q/A for the end of the session and ensured the smooth flow of presentation. I showed the audience how to implement MVC framework by considering a real world example and writing some pseudo-code. I like the way audience responded and they really enjoyed the idea of using MVC, the next they do any GUI based development.

In the end of the session I discussed "Abstract Factory Pattern". I showed audience the class diagram and talked about usage scenarios of Abstract Factory Pattern. This all followed with a brief Q/A session where i discussed the use ORM (Object
Relational Mapping) in a layered architecture for an application.

After the Q/A session i was presented with a certificate from ACM-CSKU and CSKU-INETA by Mr. Badar Sami of Dept. Of Computer Science, University Of Karachi.
Presnetation can be downloaded here