These are my notes from Nigel Ellis' talk at MIX 08

• MSFT Data Platform is evolving: Data is moving to the cloud
• New Challenge: Connecting islands of data and connecting them
• Data services vision
• Data Services interface on top of a data store
• SSDS vs. ADO.NET Data Services/Live Services
• Sync-Framework ties all data islands together
• Demo: Sync Framework
• Sync between platforms: Access, Data Services, Local VCF
• Sync app sitting in tray hosting sync framework; performs orchestration between data islands
• Value of SSDS
• Application Agility
• Scalability
• High-Availability: SLA
• Nuts & Bolts
• There is no schema - everything is a property-bag/hash table
• Everything is done using XML payload through REST
• There are "metadata properties" that describe the entity: ID, Kind, Version
• "Flex" properties
• Instance type can be changed on the fly (add/remove properties of an instance)
• Support for simple types: decimal, string, bool, etc.
• All properties are indexed (CN: Interesting... I wonder how they're efficiently doing this?)
• Containers
• Stores flexible entities
• Widest domain of search
• Authority
• A collection of containers
• Analogous to a namespace
• Unit of billing & geo-location
• API
• SOAP & REST (SSL)
• Operations
• Authority provisioning (CRUD)
• Container provisioning & querying
• Entity storage, update, delete, & query
• Query using simple LINQ-like syntax
• REST API
• Service: /v1 (CreateAuthority)
• Authority: /v1 (FetchAuthority, QueryContainers, CreateContainer)
• Container: /v1/{ContainerID} (FetchContainer, QueryEntities, UpdateContainer, DeleteContainer, CreateEntity)
• Entity: /v1/{ContainerID}/{EntityID} (Fetch, Update, Delete Entity)
• Used in a multi-tentant senario (LitwareHR)
• "ACE" Concepts (Authority, Container, Entity)
• Availability
• Closed beta 3/5/2008
• Open beta 7/2008
• Service refresh every 8 weeks
• Go live H1-2009

It seems to me that when a bunch of geeks get together, it should be seen as an opportunity to learn.  Too often, the procedure is for each person to jump into the "look what I did" game or to stand back and passively listen.  I encourage you to not look at "nerd gatherings" as a time to assert your dominance over the crowd or a time to stand back and simply observe; instead, actively try to learn as much as you can.  Ask questions; dig into how other people approach problems; find people that have achieved what you would like to achieve, and find out how they got there.

Obviously, "nerd gatherings" aren't the only place that this skill is desirable - but it's a good place to start.

"Oh crap, my brain isn't working."
- Anonymous

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I was sending out some emails this morning, and while using spell check I noticed something strange: my "Add to Dictionary" button was grayed out!?!

First thought: this cannot be! I love that button!

Next thought: check what's going on with my custom dictionary. So I checked out the options panel under the office button (in Outlook 2007.)

Under "Proofing", there is a "Custom Dictionaries…" button:

Next step: check my custom dictionary path… uh, where is my custom dictionary – and its path?

Next step: use the "Add…" button to add the custom dictionary back to the list. Fortunately, it defaulted to the appropriate path:
C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Microsoft\UProof\CUSTOM.DIC

Problem: after adding the dictionary to the list and closing the "Custom Dictionaries" dialog, I checked the list by reopening the dialog – nada… it disappeared! Outlook wouldn't let me add the custom dictionary back to the list.

Solution: restart outlook. After the restart, everything works perfectly.

Weird.