The day after VSLive! wrapped up I stood outside the casino waiting for a shuttle bus to the airport. Unfortunately, the bus drivers seemed mostly grumpy that day and unwilling to cooperate, so another guest and I decided to split the cost of a cab.

The cab driver, a tall man with a cowboy hat, lifted our bags into the trunk while the other gentleman and I exchanged the typical pleasantries: where we were from, where we were going, and why we were in Las Vegas.

When the cab driver heard I was in software development he asked me if I ever developed any websites. “Yes”, I replied, “I’ve done a few websites”. Then the driver asked what database I had the most experience with. “Mostly Microsoft SQL Server”, I replied, “although some Oracle, too”. The next question was: “What technology do you use to write your web sites?” “Visual Studio and ASP.NET”, I say. “Really?” he says, “I like .NET”.

By this time I’m beginning to suspect I’m being driven by a software developer moonlighting as a cab driver, but before I get to ask he drops a loaded question: “What language do you use – C# or VB.NET?”

Now, my co-fare had no idea where the conversation was going – he was in town for some kitchen appliance convention, but I shot him a glance that said – “I hope you got my back – because this may get ugly”. We all know discussions about language preference are rarely civilized.

“C#”, I announced.

C# was an OK answer I guess, because we went on to talk about host headers, tablet PCs, and smart phones with 3GB hard drives inside. It turns out this fellow was a taxi driver who wants to start a website with forms for other drivers.

This would have been one of the best conversations I’ve ever had in a cab, except the automatic transmission was about one shift away from puking out gears and engine parts onto the road. Each time the car went to shift, there was breathless second of hesitation, followed by a head snapping lurch forward.

When it came time to pay up, I gave the driver a pretty good tip. I told him to download Visual Web Developer Express and jump into development with version 2.0!

A good place to see the new ReportViewer control in action is in the Web Log Analyzer Starter Kit for Visual Studio Beta 2. This news is via Brian Welcker’s new blog: Direct Reports. Brian is a Group PM for Reporting Services, and the blog is already trove of tips and information.

I’m on the last stop of “the tour” in Las Vegas, Nevada. There are two conferences in town – VSLive! and MEDC. I’ll be presenting twice at VSLive!, and them I’m going to relax with an open schedule for the foreseeable future. Hopefully I’ll get back to doing more writing in the evenings.

Here is some old news I’m just catching up on….

Reporting Services Service Pack 2 came out a few weeks ago. One anticipated feature was the client side print capability which adds a print icon to the report toolbar. Behind the little icon is a downloadable ActiveX control that will allow the user to preview and set print orientation for reports – without using Internet Explorer’s report mangling “print” features.

Also new, and report related, are the stand alone report controls in VS 2005 Beta 2. A new project item type Report (a file with an RDLC extension) is now available to add to your projects. Everything works very similar to the report designer included with the Reporting Services server product – but these controls don’t require a server. The only dependency is the .NET Framework 2.0.

There is also be a ReportViewer component in the toolbar that you can drag onto a Web or Win Form. You can point the viewer to a server based report on a report server, or to a local RDLC file in the same project.

Rajeev Karunakaran [MSFT] has written up a useful FAQ on the new components at sqltalk.org.

I had a great deal of fun presenting at the Code Camp today, even though one of my Virtual PC’s flaked out and I had to improvise a great deal. Argh!

The entire IIS / Visual Studio .NET coupling cannot die soon enough for me.

Congrats to G. Andrew D, the MS staff, all the volunteers, and all the speakers for putting on a great camp.

Here’s a quick pic of Bill Ryan, Sahil Malik, Wally McClure and Julie Lerhman hanging out by the mobile devices. Hopefully it's legible - the sunlight coming in the window killed my camera

.. it's uplifting to find kind words at the Inbox :

... I feel empowered now that the website modification is performing as I designed it. The instructions in Chapter 8 of your book have been my bible the last couple of months in my early a.m. efforts; and now they've paid off. I really feel that I understand the CSK. I wish you much success and entreat you to call upon me if I can somehow humbly be of help to your efforts ...

Blue skies to you too, Mike.

Every so often, someone asks me a question about a topic covered in a C# database book with my name on the cover. I sometimes have difficulty answering the question – because I’ve never seen the book.

Last October APress contacted me and said that a book I wrote for the old Wrox company was about to be tweaked and republished. I was told to expect paperwork and copies of the book in the mail. The book went on sale in November. The last contact I had with APress was in February. I’m still waiting for anything to arrive in the mail from APress.

Actually - I’m not really waiting. I went through a waiting phase. Then I went through a phase were I was disappointed in APress. I’m now in a phase where everyone involved can take a big flying leap - because I just don’t care if ever hear from them again. From my perspective, I can only assume the feeling is mutual.

Actually, saying I don’t care is not true either. I do care about anyone who has purchased the book and has a question. The point of this post was to say I will do whatever I can to answer any question about the book.

Just remember - for this specific book you may have to provide me with the sample code or an excerpted paragraph. I have no idea what is inside this edition of the book. I can only hope the book brings joy and enlightenment to every reader, whatever is inside.

Job ads these days are monotonous. They all seem to blur into the following:

Come put your skills to work at a fast paced and growing company! Our work environment is highly collaborative, exceedingly innovative, and vastly stimulating!!

Required skills:
    - blah
    - blah
    - blah de blah de blah blah

This position also requires excellent communication skills from a detail oriented self-starter who likes to mentor others and thinks out of the box.

Salary commensurate with experience and our mood. We offer a competitive benefits package, meaning it’s the least we can get away with.

Email your resume for immediate consideration by our automated resume scanning tool, which will shred your document into keywords and bulk insert records to a database for someone to search. When they feel motivated. Maybe next month.

Our lawyers would like to point out that we are an equal opportunity employer, even though it is safe to assume this fact considering U.S. federal laws like the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Equal Pay Act of 1963, the Age Discrimination Act of 1967, and the Disabilities Act of 1990.

No agencies, H1B visas, or ugly people need apply.