Sean McBreen's WebLog
Structured (and more likely) unstructured thoughts on software development and the New Zealand software market.
TechEd ‘Live’ is live
With TechEd NZ selling out 8 weeks early one of my challenges has been to work out how to get the...
Author: smcbreen Date: 08/20/2006
TechEd New Zealand is a sell-out
It’s been a manic few weeks here at Microsoft – a lot is going on and today we closed our financial...
Author: smcbreen Date: 06/30/2006
TechEd – Selling Fast
Today 1 week after opening earlybird ticket sales we have hit our 260th registration (yes two...
Author: smcbreen Date: 05/23/2006
I’m on holiday
I’m about to go back to the UK for a few (3) weeks – I think my team will be happy to be rid of me...
Author: smcbreen Date: 05/23/2006
The 2007 Office Suite UI - Why change is good....
A great set of posts that describe the 2007 Office Suite UI changes. I'm very excited about these...
Author: smcbreen Date: 04/30/2006
VS 2005 Spellchecker
Great little tool for people like me who just can spell and who run versions of VS 2005 above...
Author: smcbreen Date: 04/26/2006
LEGO Mindstorms SDK for .NET 2.0
Way cool – you can use the Express tools to control a LOGO Mindstorms robot... I wanted an excuse to...
Author: smcbreen Date: 04/24/2006
A Good Post on Migration from David L
All about keeping skills current and getting ready for the change.......
Author: smcbreen Date: 04/16/2006
ASP .NET Overview Video Series - Must Watch Content
These how do I videos are so good that you’ve just got to look at them if you want to get started:...
Author: smcbreen Date: 04/12/2006
Scrum for Team System Released by Conchango
Conchango are a leading SI in the UK and they have just released a plug-in for Team System that...
Author: smcbreen Date: 04/12/2006
Team System On-demand Videos – Feature Walk Through
Anyone who reads this blog will know I’m a team system fan - I just think it’s a great tool for the...
Author: smcbreen Date: 04/12/2006
Our Next Big Technical Event - Strong Registrations - Get in quick
We have already seen high levels of interest for our next big technical event with record first day...
Author: smcbreen Date: 04/12/2006
Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office – Excel Hand-on Labs
Three cool hands-on labs for outlook development with VSTO:...
Author: smcbreen Date: 04/11/2006
Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office Snippets – Outlook add-in support
Well the title says it all really if you are building outlook add-in with VSTO then you should...
Author: smcbreen Date: 04/10/2006
Code Snippets Galore
We have published a whole bunch of code snippets to make your life easier for C# - these are all...
Author: smcbreen Date: 04/10/2006
Xenon 2 on VPC – Well Really DOS games on VPC
I loved this game and just noticed this post – not sure there is a whole lot of value in...
Author: smcbreen Date: 04/08/2006
ASP .NET ATLAS - Great Overview Video from ScottGu
This stuff is just cool, our AJAX framework ATLAS (https://atlas.asp.net) is a great toolset for rich...
Author: smcbreen Date: 04/08/2006
Wisdom Teeth out – At Home looking after my Wife
It’s a pretty quiet week-end for me – my wife’s just had her Wisdom Teeth pulled out and she’s...
Author: smcbreen Date: 04/08/2006
NZ TechEd 2006 - Good Points Peter
Peter, I want you to know I read your blog, this response is a little late however - sorry ;) First...
Author: smcbreen Date: 02/23/2006
Migration VS2005 – VB6 and ASP .NET
So with every new technology there comes a need to migrate an application. The following two links...
Author: smcbreen Date: 12/07/2005
CHCH - Here I Come...
I’m about to hop in plane down to Christchurch – my home town for our VS/SQL Launch event....
Author: smcbreen Date: 11/18/2005
Express Registration Resources - Free Books, Hosting, Graphics, ...
Nigel gives us the lowdown and NZ perspective on what you can get - worth looking into!...
Author: smcbreen Date: 11/18/2005
NZ ASP .NET 2.0 Hosters in New Zealand
With the launch of ASP .NET 2.0 and Visual Studio 2005 I bet you want to go out there and host your...
Author: smcbreen Date: 11/10/2005
A great set of learning resources for Visual Studio 2005 Web Developer
Videos for the beginner, intermediate and then guided tours and quickstarts!...
Author: smcbreen Date: 11/10/2005
New Zealand's First Visual Studio 2005 Team System (VSTS) Case Study
Peter is the man, he tells us how VSTS has helped Airways Corporation down in CHCH, don’t listen to...
Author: smcbreen Date: 11/07/2005
www.live.com - The Gadget Challenge
I’m loving www.live.com – I keep playing with it at home, adding and removing items and changing my...
Author: smcbreen Date: 11/04/2005
I just installed VS2005 Team Suite – No Issues
So I just installed Teams Suite on my work PC – it worked perfectly. I’m now fully operational, hum...
Author: smcbreen Date: 11/04/2005
PDC Sessions on-line
It was a great conference – go and look at the sessions:...
Author: smcbreen Date: 10/30/2005
Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005 RTM!!!!!
We made it the official launch of these products may be on November 7th but we have released them to...
Author: smcbreen Date: 10/28/2005
A new experience - TradeMe and Kayaking
I just did my first TradeMe purchase - TradeMe are NZ’s e-bay and they do a fine job… Anyhow, I...
Author: smcbreen Date: 10/23/2005
Work for Microsoft: Vacancy Auckland Architect Advisor
I’m still looking for a great candidate for my vacant Architect Advisor role in Auckland. It’s one...
Author: smcbreen Date: 10/11/2005
Go here - https://sandbox.msn.com/
Each time I look at the items in the MSN Sandbox they get cooler - this week I've noticed...
Author: smcbreen Date: 09/07/2005
NZ TechED 2005 – TechFest – Videos
So my little Pentax Optio S4 camera does video and I though I would post two clips which I liked:...
Author: smcbreen Date: 08/30/2005
New Zealand TechEd 2005 - TechFest Pictures...
TechFest was last night and I had a great time, the event was huge - I'm a little short on time but...
Author: smcbreen Date: 08/30/2005
TechEd Student Day 2005 – See a few pictures…
So I wanted to post a few pictures of Student Day…. Looking back at the crowd in the Theatre…...
Author: smcbreen Date: 08/27/2005
TechEd – It’s Started – Student Day Rocked!!!
We had over 700 students in on Friday to hear 15 (yes 15) sessions. I was just blown away by the...
Author: smcbreen Date: 08/27/2005
Game Development in C#
How cool are these gonna be – I was at TechEd Student day on Friday (see next post) and there were...
Author: smcbreen Date: 08/27/2005
What we look like...
I hope I did not trick you into clicking on this post… But we have been doing a few updates to our...
Author: smcbreen Date: 08/23/2005
Industry Development and ISV’s
Another big focus for me is assisting to develop New Zealand’s technology industry. Microsoft...
Author: smcbreen Date: 08/23/2005
TechEd – Early Keynote 8-9am SkyCity Theatre
We will be running a second (actually in order first) keynote from 8-9am in the Sky City Theatre...
Author: smcbreen Date: 08/23/2005
TechED – It’s keeping me busy...
It’s my first TechEd since I came back to NZ – I’ve been to US and Europe events but not an NZ one....
Author: smcbreen Date: 08/23/2005
Growing the Developer & Platform Strategy Team - Again:
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again 2006 will be a huge year for our team. VS2005 and SQL2005...
Author: smcbreen Date: 08/23/2005
What a manic few weeks
Well, I’ve effectively been silent for another few weeks. I though I might do a quick post to...
Author: smcbreen Date: 08/23/2005
NZ TechED 2005 – DRAFT Schedule
Nigel has put up a draft version of the event schedule for TechEd 2005 here in NZ. We have had lots...
Author: smcbreen Date: 07/14/2005
The CLR in NZ for Application Compatibility
We have a member of the .NET CLR team coming to NZ who is going to work with customers to ensure...
Author: smcbreen Date: 07/12/2005
NZ TechED 2005 – It’s going to rock – 70% Capacity Reached
Well TechEd has been taking up a lot of my time and also my teams time over the last few weeks. We...
Author: smcbreen Date: 07/12/2005
Get MSDN Universal for 48% less in NZ now!!!!!
I’ve bogged about Visual Studio Team System a couple of times: NZ VSTS Developer Competition - $100K...
Author: smcbreen Date: 07/12/2005
Look at all the great new things for NZ Developers we’ve been doing!
I shouldn’t use my blog just for announcements but we’ve been very busy and I’m excited about quite...
Author: smcbreen Date: 07/08/2005
FY06 Planning done… Life recommencing
I’ve been suspiciously quiet over the last month – so I thought I should let you know what’s been...
Author: smcbreen Date: 07/08/2005