Encountered the following error today on a SOAP [Send] Port:
Failed to serialize the message part “[PART NAME]” into the type “[MESSAGE TYPE]” using namespace “[NAMESPACE]“. Please ensure that the message part stream is created properly.
The error is a little misleading, especially ‘ensure that the message part stream is created properly‘ – the message part stream […]
Mary Jo Foley reported about this yesterday and now it's all over the news. Microsoft is gearing up to launch a $300M advertising campaign to combat the negative ads launched against them in recent years, and to rebuild the company's fading image. Since the "Get a Mac" ad campaign first started, and proved sooo effective, I've been dumbfounded by the fact that Microsoft has just sat back and taken it, one hit at a time. I even started to wonder if Microsoft would ever launch a counter strike. I finally started to conclude that maybe Microsoft isn't actually able to orchestrate a successful counter-campaign given their historic lack of creativity with all things marketing, and maybe it was better that way. Because if they actually tried to do something, and it flopped, that would make things even worse for the company.
Well, it looks like the day has finally arrived like it or not.
The key question was always…who would they use as spokesperson? Given the Mac ads, they really need just the right guy to pull it off and resonate. Well, they've chosen Jerry Seinfeld for the spokesperson role (he gets $10M), which made me really happy when I first heard about it.
Since then, however, I've been poking around to see what others are saying, and many are questioning if he's the right choice. Some say he's out-of-date. Some point to his ineffective AMEX commercials. And some say the biggest problem with Jerry is that he actually seems more like a Mac Guy. In fact, didn't Jerry have a Mac in his Seinfeld set apartment all those years? Apparently, some Microsoft partners aren't completely convinced either.
Despite Microsoft's latest attempts to improve Vista perception via The Mojave Experiment, there are some who believe that Microsoft's fundamental problem isn't lack of marketing but rather a flawed product (Vista) and that they should spend the $300M fixing that first. Some say this is just a pathetic attempt by Gates to get back at Jobs (apparently the Mac ads really ticked him off). Who knows.
I personally believe that Microsoft's move to get more aggressive with their marketing is the right call. There's simply too much negativity targeting them to withstand it sitting still. While some of the negativity may be merited, a lot of it clearly isn't, and perception is king. And I'm glad to hear that they're taking this seriously — a $300M campaign is significant — they need to do it right. Now they just need to nail the creative.
It will be very interesting, and hopefully entertaining, to watch these new ads roll out combined with the celebrity of Jerry Seinfeld.
I sure hope it works…Microsoft needs a win here.
Lutz Roeder, creator of the ever-so-popular .NET Reflector, sent out the following email today announcing a big change for his tool:
After more than eight years of working on .NET Reflector, I have decided it is time to move on and explore some new opportunities.
I have reached an agreement to have Red Gate Software continue the development of .NET Reflector. Red Gate has a lot of experience creating development tools for both .NET and SQL Server. They have the resources necessary to work on new features, and Reflector fits nicely with other .NET tools the company offers.
Red Gate will continue to provide the free community version and is looking for your feedback and ideas for future versions.
For news and updates on Reflector, sign up for the .NET Developer’s Newsletter from Red Gate. To find out more about the agreement, see the interview on Simple Talk.
I've personally used .NET Reflector extensively over the years, ever since its earliest release, and it has never let me down. It's come to my rescue on many occasions as I've struggled to understand different areas of the .NET Framework. My experience wouldn't have been the same without it.
So I guess I just wanted to say…thanks Lutz!
And best of luck to Reg Gate in continuing his great work.
Microsoft has announced the publication of the new "Performance Optiomisation Guide" written by Ewan Fairweather and Rob Steel. The guide can be found here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc558617.aspx Subscribe in a reader Join my Read More……(read more)
Good introduction article by David Chappel on Cloud Platforms. The article was sponsored by Microsoft. http://www.davidchappell.com/CloudPlatforms–Chappell.pdf Subscribe in a reader Join my blog network on Facebook Blog Networks Share this post: email Read More……(read more)
If you are debugging pipelines or adapters in BizTalk, you can’t just ‘debug’ the said component in Visual Studio (however, there are rumors of that changing in v.Next), you have to deploy and run it in the service.
You need to attach to the BTSNTSvc.exe and if you are lucky, all of the pdb files are in the correct place, and you can instantly start debugging.
However, if you are like me, and the dlls are in separate locations from the pdb files (GAC for example), you need to associate the dll with the pdb. This can only be done via the Module window.
According to the Module Window definition on MSDN you should “On the Debug menu, choose Windows, and then click Modules.”
However, this is what I see:
The easiest you can bring it up is by pressing Ctrl – Alt – U
As Cliff mentioned, the second installment in the WCF/WF Developer Screencast Series just went live.
This one is called Configuring WCF Services with Endpoints. In this screencast, I build on the service I showed you how to create last week and show you to configure it with different endpoints — you'll learn about addresses, bindings, and contracts — and you'll see how to use the WCF Service Configuration Editor to create/modify different endpoint configurations.
Previous Screencasts (RSS for all posts in the series)
I announced earlier this week that we've joined forces with the WCF/WF teams at Microsoft to produce a weekly screencast on ramping-up with these .NET 3.0 technologies. This is the first installment in the series, entitled Creating your First WCF Service in Visual Studio 2008.
This short video guides you through how to create your first WCF Service from scratch in VS2008 – defining a data contract, a service contract, and testing/hosting the service using the new built-in WCF tools found in VS2008.
Note: I want each of these screencasts to have a unique URI, hence the separate post. Apologies if you've already seen this clip.
Had a really fun time at the San Gabriel Valley
.NET User Group meeting last night, great crowd for a Wed night in August!
As I promised to them – here are the slides:
and the code:
Thanks again to everyone there – its always a fun group to speak at.
Check out my new book on REST.
Great pointer from Mike Walker yesterday to an IASA blog post highlighting their Architect Taxonomy and what it means to be an architect. Reading things like this are always a reminder to me that I’m not remotely great at my job yet.
The author of the IASA post, Paul Preiss, first links to the list of […]