Hello, I'm   Jason

According to the GotDotNet Workspaces website, “Many of Workspaces’ errors and access issues have been fixed, and we’ve upgraded to a new version of Passport.” I’m not quite sure what this means :-), but I was using it last night and believe it or not (nearly 5 years later), it is much better. Kudos to the GotDotNet team for finally improving the workspaces. Now I feel like I can use them again.

Microsoft has released a SQL Server 2005 Business Intelligence webcast list. You can view the list of webcasts and other events here: http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/sqlserverbi.mspx

The first release of the Photo Gallery module for ASP.NET 1.1 has been posted. It is a modified port of the photo gallery module that the ASP.NET 2.0 team wrote for the Personal Starter Kit. If you make any modifications to this download, please post your modifications to Source Control or the Message Board.

A working example of the PhotoGallery module can be found at www.jasongaylord.com. However, I’ve made some additional modifications to this site that I will be posting soon.

You may find out more information about the project at http://www.jasongaylord.com/projects/photogallery.aspx

Finally, I’ve added search capabilities to my site. After reviewing many ASP.NET search engines, I chose EasySearchASP.net. EasySearchASP.net allows users to begin to type in a search phrase and see what search terms can be found in a “drop-down” box. It also is an engine that runs with the site application and does not need to be setup as a Windows Service. So, if you host your site with an ISP, it will work for you. To see how the search engine integrates with a website, visit my site at www.JasonGaylord.com.

.NET Valley (PA) - Microsoft announced at the Microsoft MVP Engagement yesterday in Malvern, PA that they will be increasing their support for user groups. As part of this initiative, .NET Valley will be handing out a free copy of Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Beta 2. This year, Microsoft will release two of the most anticipated releases in the company’s history; Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 and Microsoft SQL Server 2005. The DVD includes Microsoft Visual Studio 2005, Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition Community Technology Preview, and the newest edition to the Visual Studio 2005 family, Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team System.

In addition to receiving Visual Studio 2005, everyone in attendance will receive other swag including a copy of the latest ASP.NET Pro magazine. Also, we will be raffling off three copies of Microsoft IT Professional software. The winner will have their choice of receiving Microsoft Project, Microsoft Virtual PC, or Microsoft Digital Image Pro.

In continuing these efforts, Microsoft will sponsor the .NET Valley events in June and July at Luzerne County Community College in Nanticoke, PA. More information about these events will be release at a later date and time.

I must say that the RSS feeds with Gmail are nice for feeds that you check out from time to time. However, for feeds you read through every day, it’s not. I don’t see how viewing one item at a time can be beneficial for users. The other problem with it is that they finally decided to sneak in sponsored links. I had a feeling that it would only be a matter of time. Free email with a capacity of over 2GB (and climbing daily) is too good to be true. Let’s see what else they have up their sleeves…

I usually try not to blog about my favorite sports teams, but I just had to post about the ESPN Page 2 article titled “A tale of two empires”: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=bakay/050518.

During next weeks .NET Valley event, WindowsAdvice.com will be introduced to Northeastern Pennsylvania. Following a presentation about two of Microsoft’s most anticipated software releases ever (Visual Studio 2005 and MS SQL 2005), information regarding WindowsAdvice.com will be shown. The event will be held at Keystone College in LaPlume and will be sponsored by Microsoft. Click here for more information about the event.

On Wednesday, May 25th, .NET Valley and Keystone College will host an Introduction to Visual Studio 2005 and ASP.NET 2.0 Beta 2. The presenter will be our very own Jason N. Gaylord. For directions, please visit the >directions link on the website. Room information can also be found on the >directions page.

In a recent interview at VS!Live, Tom Rizzo, the director of product management for Microsoft SQL Server, answered some questions about SQL Reporting Services and SQL Server 2005. You can read the transcript here: http://www.ftponline.com/channels/database/2005_03/rizzo/.