Rob Caron

Ski & Snowboard Guide to Whistler Blackcomb

robcaron — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 22:53:29 +0000

I picked up a copy of the Ski & Snowboard Guide to Whistler Blackcomb: Intermediate Edition the last time I was up at Roundhouse on Whistler. I highly recommend it. It is a far more useful guide to the runs and lifts on both mountains than the “artist impression” trail maps, which only name a fraction of the runs and don’t give you any sense of what to expect onthem. I’ve learned the hard way that some runs are just too damn flat for a snowboarder to enjoy.

Tour Visual Studio Test Professional 2010

robcaron — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 18:28:21 +0000

Unlike most Visual Studio products, Test Professional does not use the familiar IDE. In addition, Test Professional requires Team Foundation Server to function. As a result, someone who installs the Test Professional trial bits may be in for a surprise when they try to use it – an unfamiliar UI that doesn’t do much of anything until you connect with Team Foundation Server.

To help the uninitiated, we created the Visual Studio Test Professional 2010 product tour. This product tour helps you Get Started (learn the concepts and fundamentals), Dive Deeper (watch someone demonstrate how to use Test Professional), and Go Hands On (use virtual hands-on labs or install Test Professional yourself).

I’m planning to build similar product tours for Team Foundation Server and Ultimate (focused on the advanced tools that are only found in Ultimate), so let me know what you think.

Visual Studio Marketing Website

robcaron — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 06:29:51 +0000

In July 2010, I took on a new role in Developer Marketing – online marketing manager for the Visual Studio and Express marketing websites. I previously worked on the Visual Studio marketing website and developer center back in 2006-2008 when both were hosted on MSDN.

Occasionally, I’ll blog on here about significant changes I’m making to the website and about things I learn from the experience.Should be fun!

Coding Faster: Getting More Productive with Microsoft Visual Studio

robcaron — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 10:18:38 +0000

A little over two years ago, I wrote about Sara Ford’s book, Microsoft Visual Studio Tips (Coming Soon: Microsoft Visual Studio Tips by Sara Ford). I just learned that she worked with a co-author, Zain Naboulsi, to update the book: Coding Faster: Getting More Productive with Microsoft Visual Studio. Although I haven’t seen the manuscript for this one, I’m certain that it’ll be a welcome reference to anyone who is seeking to master Visual Studio 2010. Once again, Sara is donating all of her royalties to the scholarship fund she established at the Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College.

Sara left Microsoft last year, but you can follow her exploits on her new blog at: http://saraford.net/.

Gamestorming: A Playbook for Innovators, Rulebreakers, and Changemakers

robcaron — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 18:09:23 +0000

Gamestorming: A Playbook for Innovators, Rulebreakers, and Changemakers is for anyone who wants to engage a group in collaborative, creative thinking. Written by XPLANE founder and business design mastermind, Dave Gray, XPLANE consultant James Macanufo and Sunni Brown of Bright Spot Information Design, Gamestorming is a collection of 80 games to help teams break down barriers, communicate better, and generate new ideas, insights, and strategies.

I went to the first VizThink conference (established by Dave and others from XPLANE) a couple of years ago and attended one of Dave’s sessions. It’s still one of the best conferences I’ve ever attended, which was a mental reboot.

Visual Studio Theme for Windows 7 with Support for Widescreen and Portrait

robcaron — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 15:19:00 +0000

Based on feedback and my own need for a theme that’ll work for a widescreen and a portrait-oriented monitor, I created another theme. This one is a bit larger to work with a wider variety of resolutions. It also includes 6 more backgrounds. I also changed the default picture position to Center.

As before, I wasn’t able to host a .themepack file directly on this Web server, so it’s in a ZIP.

Visual Studio 2010 Trials, Express and .NET Framework 4 Download Links

robcaron — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 21:51:00 +0000

To put these all in one place, here are the links to the Visual Studio 2010 trial editions and .NET Framework 4 downloads on the Microsoft Download Center.

.NET Framework 4

Visual Studio 2010 Express Editions

Visual Studio Express, which includes:

Visual Basic 2010 Express
Visual C++ 2010 Express
Visual C# 2010 Express
Visual Web Developer 2010 Express
Windows Phone Developer Tools

Visual Studio 2010 Trial Editions

My Visual Studio Theme for Windows 7

robcaron — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 06:28:00 +0000

This is a simple Visual Studio theme I put together for Windows 7 on my laptop. Enjoy!

Okay, I think this should be working now. I wasn’t able to host a .themepack file directly on this Web server, so it’s in a ZIP. Unfortunately, I’m unable to update the tinyurl.com link that I had originally posted.

The current link is: http://blogshare.members.winisp.net/Downloads/My%20Visual%20Studio%20Theme.zip

Now Available: Visual Studio 2010 Keybinding Reference Cards

robcaron — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 17:04:00 +0000

Keybinding reference cards are now available for the following languages in Visual Studio 2010:

Visual Basic
Visual C++
Visual C#
Visual F#

You can download them from here: Visual Studio 2010 Keybinding Cards.

Martin Woodward on Why Software Estimation is Hard

robcaron — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 21:15:35 +0000

I’m so far behind on reading blogs that I no longer pretend to actively read them. That said, I was on Martin Woodward’s blog today to check out his new site design and came across this post he wrote a couple of months ago on software estimation (Why Software Estimation is Hard).

Suduko is the closest analogy to computer programming that I can find for "normals" – i.e. people that don’t code. This only really works if the person does Suduko puzzles, but my wife does so it works in our house. Suduko is a numeric analytical problem solving activity. While there are tricks and techniques to solving some puzzles, there is a significant challenge and difference to each one. Looking at the puzzle, it is hard to know if it is going to be hard or easy. You can get stuck down blind alleys and have to start all over. Also when you "get into the zone" you can often make surprising intuitive leaps that often defy verbal explanation afterwards. Finally, solving a hard Suduko puzzle quickly involves a fair degree of luck and depends on your state of mind at the time of trying the puzzle. There is a great amount of satisfaction to be gained from solving a Suduko puzzle along with a high degree of frustration when you cannot solve one – you know that it must be possible after all.

Equating Suduko puzzles to programming challenges is an interesting idea, and it makes it easier to explain the challenges of software estimation to those who don’t write code, but who are familiar with doing Suduko puzzles. This is a great post, Martin!