Tuesday marked the beginning of my second year with Teamprise and today I'm very happy to report that we have just released Teamprise 2.0. To celebrate I thought I'd give you a quick run through of some of my favorite features.
[via James and Roy] Leon Langleyben (MVP) has just posted a version of his TFS Permissions Manager. It looks pretty good, I am just downloading it right now. Leon is addressing a key need with TFS V1, that is to help around managing user permissions in the multiple places necessary and he has somehow managed to create a UI that doesn't make my eyes bleed - in fact it looks very nice!
It is great to see that he is not just addressing the problem of syncing up TFS, Reporting Services and Windows Sharepoint Services permissions - he is also exposing the AreaPath and Source Control permissions in a well presented way that is, no doubt, going to expose more people to the fact that this functionality exists. Hopefully this will allow TFS users to get even more control over their software development process.
Anyway - good work Leon, and thanks for sharing.
I'm loving Windows Vista RTM. I'm actually considering moving my main development PC over - just need to be certain that everything I use will work just fine - in the meantime, I'll stick with it running from my Core Duo based Mac Mini. Today, I stumbled over a great blog from Tim Sneath, a Windows Vista Evangelist. He has a series of "Windows Vista Secret's" that are well worth subscribing to. One of the things I've found when using Vista is that my hands can stay on the keyboard much more - making me significantly faster to navigate around the system. I was particularly please to read his Windows Vista Secret #10: Open and Elevated Command Prompt in Six Keystrokes.
The "trick" in the tip is that if you press Ctrl+Shift+Enter on a command in the search bar, it will run that command with Admin rights - therefore to run a command shell as admin Tim recommends you do "Win key; type cmd; press Ctrl+Shift+Enter; and then hit Alt+C to confirm the elevation prompt". But you can also use the Ctrl+Shift+Enter shortcut to fire up Notepad as admin and then have the ability to edit your hosts file etc.
Personally, I have a shortcut to Cmd that opens it up with Admin rights and a different background colour (called "Admin Console") - that way I can get to an admin console by typing "a" at the search bar and the console is always a different colour so I remember which console is the admin one. To do that, copy the "Command Prompt" shortcut from the Accessories group in Program Files, rename as "Admin Console" or whatever you want. Go to the "Shortcut" tab and select "Advanced...", then check the "Run as administrator" box. Press Ok, and then press Apply. Finally you can go to the Colors tab and edit the background colour - I use the dark red to signify danger.
On the off chance that you read my blog and not Scott Hanselman's (shame on you) then I wanted to draw your attention to some invaluable registry tweaks he just posted - especially if you've been forced into installing Windows Desktop Search 3.0 to enable Outlook Instant Search - but also if you are a developer.
The first is how to make the normal windows search the default again after installing Windows Desktop Search, the second is how to get the full text search to search through *every* file (such as .cs or .java ones). The latter tip is one I always do when I build a new Windows box, but the former is a new annoyance I was struggling with. I can see why the new behaviors are the defaults for "regular" users - but it would have been nice if there was a way to change the defaults in the UI without resorting to regedit...
I was very excited to read that "Professional Team Foundation Server" is available in the shops just in time for Christmas. I've had the pleasure meeting all three of the authors through my involvement with Team System and I certainly respect what they have to say. I also have high hopes that the topic will be presented in an easy to understand way with plenty of good advice born out of real experience in the field.
My copy is on order from Amazon - due to arrive December 4th. I'll be sure to post a review once I've read it.
Just as a follow up to my previous post, I was having trouble switching back into Mac OS X once booted into Vista. As part of the Boot Camp process, Apple allow you to burn a CD containing the Windows XP Drivers and Utilities. Included is a handy utility to select the default Startup Disk. Using various tools, I was able to extract the Control Panel extension and install it into Vista. However, I was unable to get this to work - even when elevated to Administrator - it would always complain about not being able to get Administrative rights. Reading around the problem a little I think this may be either a Vista security thing or a driver thing (probably the former). I think pn XP the utility somehow manages to write a variable into the EFI telling it which boot partition to use - whatever mechanism is trys seems to not be working on my installation - but they again I may have just installed it wrong in my attempt to hack around BootCamps "Drivers for XP" installation program that really doesn't work on Vista.
The alternative is to press the (alt) Option key on startup. However, I have a cheap Belkin KVM that I'm running this through and it didn't seem to work (think it is something to do with the USB keyboard detection). Thankfully, this tip came to my rescue, by holding the menu key of my Mac Mini's Apple Remote I got the bootloader screen allowing me to select my OS X partition - nice. Then I booted straight back into Vista, because I really am loving it :-)
At the moment, we are going through a heavy testing phase on Version 2.0 of the Teamprise Client Suite. This happily coincided with the RTM of Windows Vista, so - like any self-respecting Early Adopter, I figured I should go install the RTM edition of Vista and see how Teamprise performs.
Initially, I tired out Vista on a laptop that I've had for a while (yes, that one). The Vista RTM experience was a lot better than with any of the pre-releases, but the latest graphics drivers for the ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 inside the Compaq nx7010 were still no good at driving the built in display so I had to switch back to the XP drivers again. Even then, the graphics card only scored a 1.9 on the Aero experience index - making it unable to run with the Fancy Aero interface. Obviously that wasn't quite good enough - so I had to look around for another spare machine that wasn't too important (i.e. not my main development machine).
Recently I acquired a new Intel Core Duo based Mac Mini for testing Teamprise on Mac OS X. It's an awesome little machine - but the dual processor, 2Gb RAM, 120Gb HD little machine was crying out for more abuse - so I downloaded and installed Boot Camp and then installed Vista on my Mac Mini.
I have to say, the whole installation process worked flawlessly. All the "out the box" drivers just worked allowing my to connect to Windows Update and download the latest versions of everything. The Aero experience score on the Mac Mini is 3.4 - and that experience feels great I must say. I really do like Vista as an OS. I spend a lot of my time on other operating systems, and I feel like I have the familiarity and productivity of Windows but with the extra security and UI bells and whistles that previously came along with Mac OS X and Ubuntu. In fact, I'm writing this blog post right now from the loveliness of Windows Vista on a Mac Mini.
Anyway, the good news to report is that under the RC of Java 6, Teamprise runs just great. No security issues, nothing. So far not a single Vista related issue has been reported. Also, I got that lovely excited feeling back - like when I first started using Teamprise on the Mac. It should shouldn't look this pretty and work so well, don't you love it when the "write once, run anywhere" promise of Java holds true...
At the moment, we are going through a heavy testing phase on Version 2.0 of the Teamprise Client Suite. This happily coincided with the RTM of Windows Vista, so - like any self-respecting Early Adopter, I figured I should go install the RTM edition of Vista and see how Teamprise performs.
Initially, I tired out Vista on a laptop that I've had for a while (yes, that one). The Vista RTM experience was a lot better than with any of the pre-releases, but the latest graphics drivers for the ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 inside the Compaq nx7010 were still no good at driving the built in display so I had to switch back to the XP drivers again. Even then, the graphics card only scored a 1.9 on the Aero experience index - making it unable to run with the Fancy Aero interface. Obviously that wasn't quite good enough - so I had to look around for another spare machine that wasn't too important (i.e. not my main development machine).
Recently I acquired a new Intel Core Duo based Mac Mini for testing Teamprise on Mac OS X. It's an awesome little machine - but the dual processor, 2Gb RAM, 120Gb HD little machine was crying out for more abuse - so I downloaded and installed Boot Camp and then installed Vista on my Mac Mini.
I have to say, the whole installation process worked flawlessly. All the "out the box" drivers just worked allowing my to connect to Windows Update and download the latest versions of everything. The Aero experience score on the Mac Mini is 3.4 - and that experience feels great I must say. I really do like Vista as an OS. I spend a lot of my time on other operating systems, and I feel like I have the familiarity and productivity of Windows but with the extra security and UI bells and whistles that previously came along with Mac OS X and Ubuntu. In fact, I'm writing this blog post right now from the loveliness of Windows Vista on a Mac Mini.
Anyway, the good news to report is that under the RC of Java 6, Teamprise runs just great. No security issues, nothing. So far not a single Vista related issue has been reported. Also, I got that lovely excited feeling back - like when I first started using Teamprise on the Mac. It should shouldn't look this pretty and work so well, don't you love it when the "write once, run anywhere" promise of Java holds true...
I logged into my MSDN subscription account this morning to find the following additions in my Operating Systems section! Obviously, the first thing I did was to start the download of the (single) DVD image for all 32-bit versions of Windows Vista. I tired to request my product key for Windows Vista Ultimate Edition, however there was an error in the MSDN Application - I guess that they are still getting those set up. Anyway, the current estimate is that my download will finish in 20 hours 10 minutes (and that's while the US is asleep), so I'm guessing the keys will be available by the time I finish downloading.
Update: It's 2pm now and my download got to 16% complete before it was interrupted. Now I cannot get a connection at all probably because everyone else in the world is trying to download it. I think I'd better wait until the weekend...
Update: It's now 6pm and my download speed has picked up to 246Kbs (the maximum for my ADSL link), also the product key section of MSDN is now working and I am the proud owner of a Windows Vista Ultimate Edition key!! Hmm, I wonder what I'm going to be doing this weekend :-)
I logged into my MSDN subscription account this morning to find the following additions in my Operating Systems section! Obviously, the first thing I did was to start the download of the (single) DVD image for all 32-bit versions of Windows Vista. I tired to request my product key for Windows Vista Ultimate Edition, however there was an error in the MSDN Application - I guess that they are still getting those set up. Anyway, the current estimate is that my download will finish in 20 hours 10 minutes (and that's while the US is asleep), so I'm guessing the keys will be available by the time I finish downloading.
Update: It's 2pm now and my download got to 16% complete before it was interrupted. Now I cannot get a connection at all probably because everyone else in the world is trying to download it. I think I'd better wait until the weekend...
Update: It's now 6pm and my download speed has picked up to 246Kbs (the maximum for my ADSL link), also the product key section of MSDN is now working and I am the proud owner of a Windows Vista Ultimate Edition key!! Hmm, I wonder what I'm going to be doing this weekend :-)
I'm back home from sunny Barcelona, and just wanted to post a quick note to thank all the folks who stopped by. It was great to meet some old friends again, and also to make some new ones.
The week went very well after such an inauspicious start. After my power-supply incident, I went out for some lovely tapas and drinks at the MVP dinner, however I must have caught something or eaten a dodgy prawn as I woke in the night and was violently ill. I stumbled into the conference centre for a full day at the booth on only 2 hours sleep - sorry if you came to speak to me on Tuesday...
After that things went really well. I noticed a huge difference in Team Foundation Server awareness from previous shows. Conversations typically used to be like this:-
Person: Oooh, a that's a nice shiney Mac - what's that doing at a Microsft show?
Me: Have you heard of Team System?
Person: Eh?
Now it is more along the lines of:-
Person: Oooh, that's a nice shiney Mac, what's it's Windows Vista Experience Index?
Me: Have you heard of Team System?
Person: Duh, of course - we've been running TFS for a while now.
Needless to say, there were a lot more people immediately interested in not only our product but also some people who just wanted to see something they had heard about actually working in the flesh. While the demo on Windows is always pretty interesting, with the resounding sentiment being "it looks just the same". On the Mac, the same things just look too good to actually be true. A year on, I still love talking to Team Foundation Server from the Mac, it just shouldn't work as well as it does - kinda feels naughty. Fellow Team System MVP Lorenzo Barbieri did a great write-up from the conference floor on his impressions of the Mac client.
Anyway, back to work and we are all heads down putting the finishing touches to V2.0. I'm looking forward to blogging some more about that soon :-)
I'm back home from sunny Barcelona, and just wanted to post a quick note to thank all the folks who stopped by. It was great to meet some old friends again, and also to make some new ones.
The week went very well after such an inauspicious start. After my power-supply incident, I went out for some lovely tapas and drinks at the MVP dinner, however I must have caught something or eaten a dodgy prawn as I woke in the night and was violently ill. I stumbled into the conference centre for a full day at the booth on only 2 hours sleep - sorry if you came to speak to me on Tuesday...
After that things went really well. I noticed a huge difference in Team Foundation Server awareness from previous shows. Conversations typically used to be like this:-
Person: Oooh, a that's a nice shiney Mac - what's that doing at a Microsft show?
Me: Have you heard of Team System?
Person: Eh?
Now it is more along the lines of:-
Person: Oooh, that's a nice shiney Mac, what's it's Windows Vista Experience Index?
Me: Have you heard of Team System?
Person: Duh, of course - we've been running TFS for a while now.
Needless to say, there were a lot more people immediately interested in not only our product but also some people who just wanted to see something they had heard about actually working in the flesh. While the demo on Windows is always pretty interesting, with the resounding sentiment being "it looks just the same". On the Mac, the same things just look too good to actually be true. A year on, I still love talking to Team Foundation Server from the Mac, it just shouldn't work as well as it does - kinda feels naughty. Fellow Team System MVP Lorenzo Barbieri did a great write-up from the conference floor on his impressions of the Mac client.
Anyway, back to work and we are all heads down putting the finishing touches to V2.0. I'm looking forward to blogging some more about that soon :-)
I've been having one of those days today. It's setup day at TechEd Developers and I'm down at the Teamprise Booth. Still not really ready as the pedestal that we've got turned out to be far too big and we're swapping it for a couple of smaller ones. Hopefully everything will be ok for 10.00 tomorrow when the exhibition floor opens to delegates.
The personal highlight of my day was when I plugged in the brand new demo computer, freshly shipped from the states. There was a very loud bang with a nice puff of blue smoke coming from the back of the computer - leading me to see the big notice on the back of it saying "Read instructions before connecting to supply". Turns out that the power supply wasn't auto switching and I should have removed a sticker on the back and switched to 230 VAC. Dope.
There then followed an interesting conversation with a guy at the local PC City in my extremely poor Spanish. Mind you - turning up with a smoking power supply in my hand helped get the message across.
Anyway, power supply works a treat (reminder to self, this one is 230 VAC only so shouldn't be plugged in back in the states without a new power supply being installed)...
I've been having one of those days today. It's setup day at TechEd Developers and I'm down at the Teamprise Booth. Still not really ready as the pedestal that we've got turned out to be far too big and we're swapping it for a couple of smaller ones. Hopefully everything will be ok for 10.00 tomorrow when the exhibition floor opens to delegates.
The personal highlight of my day was when I plugged in the brand new demo computer, freshly shipped from the states. There was a very loud bang with a nice puff of blue smoke coming from the back of the computer - leading me to see the big notice on the back of it saying "Read instructions before connecting to supply". Turns out that the power supply wasn't auto switching and I should have removed a sticker on the back and switched to 230 VAC. Dope.
There then followed an interesting conversation with a guy at the local PC City in my extremely poor Spanish. Mind you - turning up with a smoking power supply in my hand helped get the message across.
Anyway, power supply works a treat (reminder to self, this one is 230 VAC only so shouldn't be plugged in back in the states without a new power supply being installed)...
This morning I took the sort and pleasurable flight over from Belfast to Barcelona to join the Teamprise / SourceGear advance party ready to set up at the TechEd Developers conference in Barcelona. As usual, the Teamprise marketing manager has done us proud and we're into a Hotel directly opposite the conference centre. After the long bus rides of TechEd 2006 in Boston - the trip to work this week is going to be a breeze. The mini-bar in the hotel is actually complimentary and they restock it if you leave your room - how cool is that ??
I'm pretty excited about this conference. The traffic by the booth will probably not be as busy - Microsoft seem to be concentrating on Team System for Database Professionals this week so I don't expect we'll be showing up any keynotes this time (when your product has a Microsoft VP on stage demonstrating your product on Ubuntu Linux, it tends to get a few people dropping by :-) ). However, I'm really looking forward to talking with folks about Teamprise and Team System. We're based in stand B24 in the Visual Studio Partner zone of the exhibition hall (near the ask the experts section) - so do drop by. I'll also be giving a demo on the stage in the partner zone at 14.45 on Wednesday, if you happen to be between sessions at the time then please drop by to lend some moral support.
I'm hoping to see some old Team System community faces, as well as putting some faces to some names. Not to mention the parties...
If you are coming along to TechEd Developers in Barcelona then drop by the booth and say "hola". I'm going to be brave and load up the latest build of V2.0 onto the demo machines so you'll get an exclusive look at the latest and greatest version in what will be it's last public outing before we ship V2.0.
