Yesterday I had a had a chance to have dinner and drinks with another group here for a Technology Summit hosted by Microsoft.  They get a bunch of representatives from parallel and alternate technology groups such as PHP, Linux, Java, Python, etc together and discuss they reasons for Microsoft decisions, show off Microsoft focused options for solving problems, and just generally discuss the technology ecosystem. 

One of the people I managed to talk to in depth was an integral part of the Powershell team.  He helped write the language and has been with the team since inception.  I personally have pretty limited experience in the *nix environment so comparing shells is difficult for me, but he helped me understand some things.  One thing he pointed to as a the cause of some angst between *nix administrators and Windows administrators is the ease of administering a *nix system without a full blown interactive session.  A *nix administrator has the option to open an SSH session and has full shell access to the system.  Adding a DNS entry for instance is 3 lines of shell command rather than opening the DNS MMC console, expanding some trees, opening a dialog, clicking a few times, then actually adding the record you intended initially, then confirming it 3 times before closing the console.

Contrary to my understanding, it was an option to recreate the *nix shells in the Windows environment.  Instead the goal was to create a platform that would enable the end-game of creating cmdlets which can/will enable administrators to administer their systems in as productive a manner as any other platform.

One of my questions to him was regarding v2 of Powershell.  He mentioned that the focus would be in 3 areas: remote connectivity (i.e. SSH), a more powerful interface to powershell (apparently there’s more to moving around the powershell than arrow-keys and tabbing), and a more broad library of cmdlets. 

Also announced yesterday was the inclusion of Powershell in the upcoming Longhorn Server release.  Very exciting. 

Kevin Moore, Program Manager

• “Bag of Tricks”
• Templates vs Styles

Beatriz de Oliveira Costa (Test Lead)

• Data Binding/DataTemplate
• INotifyPropertyChanged, INotifyCollectionChanged
• www.beacosta.com
• blogs.msdn.com/okoboji
• www.blois.us/snoop

Exposing new “facits” (i.e. glow color on the button) as properties which can be stylized/template bound. 

WPF Partner Showcase

• Accruent Retail Store Lifecycle Manager
• Iconics
• Dassault
• Lectra
• EASY Infoworkz
• Tempworks
• Scripps Healthcare
• Skandia
• London Underground
• Electric Rain Standouts

This is pretty good stuff.  One of the cool features of the WPF/Xaml structure is a way to define the visual structure (read: look)

• DataTemplates in WPF/Expression
• WPF Threading Model/Dispatcher and long running operations: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms741870.aspx
• New Rendering model (painters algorithm).  More memory, draw off screen then move bitmap.
• Shapes vs Drawings (drawings lower level – no infrastrucure.  Good for large numbers of instances)

One of the things we have decided we really want to try with Little Ryan is Baby Sign Language.  I’ve read a number of great first hand accounts and I’m really excited.  Beyond the suggestions that family’s who’ve adopted baby sign language see a reduction in temper tantrums, I’m excited that I’ll have at least a few extra months and, maybe, even a years worth of solid communication with my son.

For those that are interested, the link above to My Baby Can Talk provides a great starting point with a dictionary of videos, Getting-Started lessons, etc.  All of the signs in the My Baby Can Talk series are ASL (American Sign Language) signs which means you are on your way to teaching your child a new language.  More and more universities are recognizing ASL as a legitimate foreign language, so why not keep going.

 At the same time that we are learning ASL with Little Ryan, I’m diving back into high school Spanish (Latin American style this time)!  As with most, I blew off my foreign language in high school, but I’ve always regretted it.  How cool would it be to strike up a conversation with someone in another language.  Not to mention being able to understand when an overworked waiter starts ripping you for being those guys at lunch.

A while back I ran across the Rosetta Stone web site and I tried out one of their demos.  They use a technique call Dynamic Immersion™ that is absolutely awesome.  Why educators feel it’s effective (or maybe the better word is efficient) to memorize the <Your-Language-Here> to English dictionary is  beyond me.  Instead, Rosetta Stone completely ignores your primary languages and uses a mix of visual, audio, and written scenes in the target language to make you decipher your way to competence.  This is what we all did as children and, with the exception of our beloved President, it worked out pretty well. 

I’ve only recently received the CD’s and spent a little time, but as I move along I will try to post my thoughts.