Simplify-ing

Recently I spent about three hours of my life trying to determine why the SharePoint 2010 Central Administration site refused to startup on a client’s install (it had been working fine for months). The site consistently returned a HTTP Error 503. I checked all the usually things that would lead to this specific error (e.g. bad password, locked service account, etc.) but none of that helped.

An error in the event came from the User Profile Service stating the following:

HTTP Error 503. The service is unavailable. in SharePoint 2010 Central Administration 

Log Name:      Application
Source:        Microsoft-Windows-User Profiles Service
Date:          9/28/2011 11:45:04 PM
Event ID:      1500
Task Category: None
Level:         Error
Keywords:     
User:          …
Computer:      …
Description:
Windows cannot log you on because your profile cannot be loaded. Check that you are connected to the network, and that your network is functioning correctly.

DETAIL - Access is denied.

So, I knew there was some type of access problem but again I had tried all the usually things. But then I tried one more thing…deleting the profile (Control Panel > System > User Profiles) for the farm service account and the admin site was back in business! Somehow the user profile from the farm account had become corrupted.

Hi everyone! Shawn Wildermuth new Windows Phone 7.5 development book is now available for pre-order on Amazon. This is a great book if you want to learn Windows Phone development using Silverlight. You may even see my name in the credits since I was one of the technical editors for this book. Check it out!

BUILD is a new event that shows modern hardware and software developers how to take advantage of the future of Windows. Learn how to work with the all new touch-centric user experience to create fast, fluid, and dynamic applications that leverage the power and flexibility of the core of Windows.

 
Hear how the UI was designed to work seamlessly with a diversity of devices and form factors. Go behind the scenes and learn all about the new app model that allows you to create powerful new apps. All while retaining the ability to use your existing apps. Web-connected and web-powered apps built using HTML5 and JavaScript have access to the power of the PC. Touch-optimized browsing, with the full power of hardware-accelerated Internet Explorer 10 transforms your experiences with the web. BUILD is the first place to dive deep into the future of Windows.

 Learn more

Building Business Application in Silverlight 4
When: Thursday, March 10th, 5:45pm – 7:30pm
Where: AUM Clement Hall (Business Building) Room 208
Presenter: Bruce Thomas, Microsoft MVP

The Silverlight platform is an exciting development environment to build rich internet applications (RIAs). RIAs have quickly become the standard architecture chosen by a number of developers to deliver key internal, external, and cloud-based line of business (LOBs) applications.  In this session, we’ll demo and discuss some of the key capabilities for building line-of-business applications in Silverlight 4.

Hope to see you there!

Windows Phone 7 User Group Sweepstakes

Want a Windows Phone 7? Microsoft is giving away 10 more unlocked Samsung Focus Phones and your chances of winning are much better than those of the neighboring states lotteries. The process is simple! Publish your app no later than March 31, and you could be a winner. Every valid Windows Phone 7 app you upload to the Marketplace gives you one entry into the sweepstakes.  See more details below and follow the link for contest rules.

The Windows Phone 7 goodness just keeps coming and this time it’s coming to Montgomery! Microsoft Developer Evangelist Glen Gordon will be in town on October 18^th to present Windows Phone 7 development using Visual Studio 2010 at the next MADEV meeting.

So, if you are curious about how you can use your existing .NET skills to build apps for Windows Phone 7 and get those apps to market ($$$), or you have a great idea for an app but need to get little face time with an actual device, then you should definitely join us. You can find the session details as well as the registration link below. Please register early if you plan to attend so we can plan appropriately to have enough pizza on-hand. If you know someone that would be interested in attending please forward this message. Hope to see you there!

Session Summary

This session provides an overview of Visual Studio(r) 2010 for Windows Phone. Learn about the powerful capabilities of this new application platform and the developer tools experience. We’ll look at how to create applications and games using Silverlight and XNA, the new Windows Phone design language (Metro) and how to incorporate cloud services into the Windows Phone experiences that you create.

Register Now

Here’s the content for the MSDN Friday’s Webcast for Bank of America. The details for the swivel behavior include in this code can be found in the Expression Gallery. Thanks for allowing me to present today!

Source: MefDashboard.Zip

Tonight I’ll be speaking at Montgomery Area .NET Developers Group meeting at Auburn University Montgomery (AUM) from 5:45 pm to 7:30 pm in room 208 Clement Hall (Business School). The topic is SharePoint Development using Visual Studio 2010. Should be fun! Hope to see you there!

One of the perks of being awarded the MVP award from Microsoft is you receive special attention from the product teams from time to time. Once in a while a product team will decide to do something very nice for MVPs, like send us some special SWAG, put on a special chat sessions, or offer an invite to take part in face-to-face meetings. Well, this year the Developer Division decided that developer MVPs like myself would receive Not-For-Resale Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate with MSDN Subscription vouchers that we could give out any way that we chose. In case you are wondering, that’s a retail value of about $12K per voucher.

In the past, I have simply offered or given away such items at user group meeting primarily on a first-asked-first-given basis. However, other MVPs have come up with some fairly creative ways of making the most out these generous gifts from Microsoft. So I thought I would put my own spin on handing out my vouchers to see what you guys/gals in the local community can come up with.

If you an unemployed, underemployed or a developer that just lacks the necessary tools to unleash your creativity, than I am inviting you to submit a detailed software project proposal that incorporates how you will use these tools to do some good in the community. Here are some general criteria but I am open to new ideas and suggestions:

• · Your proposal should target a non-profit (503(c)(3), school, or charity organization to solve a specific problem or address a need.
• · The software project must use some combination of .NET 4.0, Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008, SharePoint 2010, Window Phone 7, etc.

The general idea is that you use your time and talent to help someone else and I’ll help you with the tools and donate some of my time and training to help you succeed with the project. So send me your ideas by September 17^th, but please keep in mind that I reserve the right to decline all responses if I believe them not to be within the spirit of what I am attempting to accomplish. Also, for those lucky few that are selected, I will personally activate the vouchers to insure they don’t turn up on Ebay.

Good luck!

Come out Thursday, July 29th and see some of the exciting new advances and features of Visual Studio 2010 at the local community launch event! I’ll be presenting several different topics so I hope one or more pique your interest. In addition, if you are in Atlanta tomorrow (Wednesday, July 28th) check out the Windows Azure Boot Camp! Both events are free, simply click the registration links soon or you will miss out!

Location:
Auburn University Montgomery (AUM)
7071 Senators Drive
Clement Hall Room 108 (business building)
Montgomery, AL 36104