The Portland Silverlight User Group has launched with the unveiling of their website www.portlandsilverlight.net. The group is a special interest group of the Portland Area .NET User Group (PADNUG) and shares the PADNUG mailing list — a good choice IMHO.

The meetings will be on the second Tuesday each month, starting on Tuesday, 8 December 2009. Keep an eye on the website for details.

Erik Mork (consultant, trainer, and Microsoft MVP on Silverlight) and Kelly White (web technologist and self-styled part-time Silverlight zealot) are the masterminds behind this user group.

There’s never been a better time for Portlanders to get started or be excited about Silverlight, so mark your calendar now and plan to attend the kickoff meeting.

I am co-chairing the Birds-of-a-Feather track for PDC09, 17-19 November 2009 in Los Angeles, California. This is the seventh Microsoft conference that I’ve had the honor of working on behalf of INETA to organize the community-driven Birds-of-a-Feather (BOF) sessions.

A BOF session is a conversation among a community of peers around a topic about which the participants are passionate. There may be some participants who are more knowledgeable than others, or have more experience; some who have less. Some folks will be well known, some will not. Some folks may want to just listen.

The point of a BOF session is to bring together people who share an interest in the topic so they can express their ideas and experiences, questions and insights, and hear what others have to say. It’s not a presentation, there are no projectors; it’s about having a timely discussion together.

BOF sessions begin with you proposing a discussion on a subject that matters to you. If your session is chosen, you will host the session at the conference, getting the conversation started and keeping it moving forward.

Proposing a BOF session is fast and easy. Just copy and paste this simple form into an email message, fill in the title, description, some information about you, and send it to us at 2009@pdcbof.com. BOF proposals are considered on a first-come, first-considered basis, which means that submitting your session proposal early increases the chances for it to be selected.

Hosting a BOF session is a great way to network with people who are interested in the topic, and to share your experience and expertise with your fellow software developers and architects. And it is an easy way for you to give back and enrich our professional community.

What else can you do? Subscribe to the PDC BOF blog, follow the PDC BOF on Twitter, and join the PDC09 BOF event on Facebook. And, of course, attend the BOFs at PDC09!

If you have used SQL Server Express recently, Microsoft is keenly interested in your feedback so that they can improve future releases such as SQL Server 2008 R2 and  SQL Server 11. So take a few minutes to complete one or both surveys.

General survey around installing SQL Server Express

Survey that focuses on embedding SQL Server Express

Each link will take you to a blog post on the SQL Server Setup blog that has instructions and a link to the survey. Your opinion can shape the future.

The word on the street is that there is a rise of Windows computer systems infected due to the Win32/Conficker.B (a.k.a. “Downadup”) worm. Microsoft addressed this issue (MS08-067) in October 2008, as did other anti-virus vendors, but there are quite a number of unpatched, vulnerable systems in the wild.

This vulnerability affects Windows 2000, XP, and Vista; and Windows Server 2003 and 2008. Attacked systems may lock out users, disable update services, and block access to security related websites. That’s a serious matter. Don’t become a victim!

What you should do.

Earlier this month, Microsoft updated their Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRT) to help remove variants of Win32/Conficker. Download and run this tool.

If you regularly update your Windows system, either with Automatic Updates or manually applying Windows Updates, chances are you are fine. Run the most recent MSRT anyway, for your own peace of mind.

If you run Windows operating systems, turn on the Automatic Updates. You can control if updates are applied automatically or prompt to be run. If you are inside an IT-savvy organization, they may push these updates out to your machine already. If you absolutely can’t live with automatic download of updates, then add a recurring task to your calendar to check for and apply updates manually. I’d suggest doing it once a week.

Run a commercial-grade anti-virus product, and keep its malware definitions up to date.

If you want more information about this specific threat, including manual steps to remove it from your system, read this Microsoft Knowledge Base article: Virus alert about the Win32/Conficker.B worm.

Daniel Lyons of Newsweek really lets it rip with his review entitled, “Macworld, Macboring.” He found the hour-and-a-half keynote “awful” and “almost unbearable.” And that, he said, was putting it as politely as possible. Jeepers!

You might be able to watch the Macworld keynote address on Apple’s site, but at least for me, the page started to display, and then seemed to forward to another page that returned a 404 error. Huh? Guess I’ll try again later.

Meanwhile, back to the Newsweek article, the question to ponder is whether this lackluster keynote address by Apple’s marketing chief, Phill Schiller, might signal that Apple’s “run as the hottest company in consumer electronics may be drawing to a close?” Or, I am wondering, is it just that Steve Jobs an incredibly hard act to follow?

Steve excused himself from Macworld due to serious but not dire health concerns. Wishing you all the best, Steve!

After nearly four years with Corillian (now part of CheckFree (now part of Fiserv)), I have accepted a position with Aivea as chief software architect. I will be starting later this month. My initial focus will be on their Aivea Commerce Server product. Aivea is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, and their commerce server is build on the latest Microsoft technologies: WCF, WF, ASP.NET 3.5, LINQ, SQL Server 2008… you get the picture. This is a very cool opportunity, and I am excited about the product’s and the company’s potential.

I’m hoping for a seamless transition that looks something like this. : )

using ( TransactionScope scope = new TransactionScope() )
{
  var me = Identity.StuartCelarier;
  Fiserv.CheckFree.Corillian -= me;
  Aivea += me;
  scope.Complete();
}

Aivea is located in Beaverton, Oregon, just west of Portland. Folks who don’t live here sometimes have a hard time understanding that Portland is the world’s largest small town. You always run into people you know. (Note to Noobs: do not burn bridges.) At Aivea, one of my new colleagues will be Rich Claussen, president of the Portland Area .NET User Group (PADNUG). Rich and I have worked on a number of local activities including Portland Code Camp and being judges at last year’s TechStart Oregon Game Project Challenge.

I’ve had a great run with “CoriFreeServ,” working with really talented people, working on the Voyager architecture and exploring online banking domain, being involved in incredibly interesting projects, and even facing the challenges of two iterations of corporate acquisition in six months. But, at the end of the day, I simply couldn’t pass up this position with Aivea.

My 2009 is certainly shaping up to be one wild ride. I can’t wait!

Staying in touch. Around the middle of January, my old corporate email addresses at the corillian.com, checkfree.com or fiserv.com domains will become obsolete. You can reach me through my blog (under About Visual Stuart select the E-mail link) as well as my LinkedIn and Facebook accounts.

Steve Martin (no, the other Steve Martin) recently blogged about the Beta release of BizTalk Server 2009 — and there was much rejoicing. If you haven’t been keeping up — and who can keep up with everything? — Microsoft announced in September 2008 that the effort formerly known as BizTalk Server (BTS) 2006 R3 will be BTS 2009 and will be a full release of the product.

But back to our story: Steve also highlighted the release of the ESB Guidance 2.0 CTP October 2008, based on the BTS 2009 Beta, which updates the existing guidance, Microsoft ESB Guidance for BTS 2006 R2, from November 2007.

The ESB Guidance 2.0 CTP is delivered as a zip file which contains two MSI files (for x86 and x64) and an installation doc. For now, I am primarily interested in the documentation, so I performed and administrative installation of the MSI using the msiexec.exe command line utility:

msiexec /a "ESB Guidance 2.0 CTP October 2008.msi"

I don’t know how msiexec.exe determines the destination of an administrative installation, but I found the results easily enough in “D:\Programs\Microsoft ESB Guidance 2.0 CTP – October 2008”. In the Docs folder is a compiled help (.chm) file with the goods. Happy reading.

Bonus track. If terms like BTS, ESB, SOA, and BPM are the very stuff that piques your interest, then take note of the 2009 Microsoft SOA and BP Conference in Redmond, January 28–29, 2009, and the accompanying road show. Last year’s SOA and BP Conference is where Microsoft publically announced the Oslo initiative. This year’s conference looks to be quite compelling.

I received word today that I’ve been chosen as a speaker for the INETA North America Speakers Bureau. What a cool New Year’s present! Thanks to the selection committee and INETA for this opportunity.

INETA is the world-wide association of .NET user groups, and I have volunteered with INETA for several years on their membership and activities committees, and it is through the auspices of INETA that I co-chair the Birds-of-a-Feather track at TechEd and PDC conferences.

The INETA Speakers Bureau provides speakers to member .NET user groups. I believe that I’ll also be called on to contribute a webcast to INETA Live. I will be getting details on the program in the next few weeks, and I’ll let you know when local user groups can start requesting me to speak.