Here it is in the waning hours of 2005 and I haven't put together my predictions for 2006 yet. Considering how badly I did predicting 2005 maybe I should stay out of the prognostication game. In any case 2005 has been a very good year for me and my family. We have been blessed to be healthy and prosper. I know a lot of people who suffered through and are still sufferning from hurricanes, floods, fires, and all sorts of other natural and man made disasters can not say the same thing. It is my hope that 2006 will bring to you and yours health and happiness.

Are you looking for something to do over the holiday break? Do you want to sharpen up your Visual Basic or ASP .NET skills? Well then Microsoft has a deal for you. Just go to http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/learning/elearning_promo/default.aspx and read the details on how to sign up for one of the following 15 free e-learning classes.

Upgrading from Visual Basic 6.0

• Course 4335: Upgrading from Microsoft® Visual Basic® 6.0: Microsoft Visual Studio® 2005 Development Environment

  This three-hour online learning course teaches Visual Basic 6.0 developers how to use their existing skills with the Visual Studio 2005 development environment. Specifically this course covers the wide range of features included in the Visual Studio development environment, how to open and save projects, and how to build and debug projects. This training is designed with the Visual Basic 6.0 developer in mind to allow for a simple transition to the .NET Framework.   

• Course 4336: Upgrading from Microsoft® Visual Basic® 6.0: Introduction to the Microsoft .NET Framework

  This three-hour online learning course teaches the Visual Basic 6.0 developer about the .NET Framework 2.0 including the Common Language Runtime, the Common Type System, Garbage Collection and COM interoperability. The course also introduces the .NET Framework namespaces and base classes. This training is designed with the Visual Basic 6.0 developer in mind to allow for a simple transition to the .NET Framework.   

• Course 4337: Upgrading from Microsoft® Visual Basic® 6.0: Microsoft Visual Basic 2005 Language Enhancements

  This three-hour online learning course teaches the Visual Basic 6.0 developer how to develop applications with Visual Basic 2005. The course covers, variables and types, decision and loop structures, managing data using arrays and collections, and error handling. This training is designed with the Visual Basic 6.0 developer in mind to allow for a simple transition to the .NET Framework.   

• Course 4338: Upgrading from Microsoft® Visual Basic® 6.0: Introduction to Object-Oriented Programming

  This three-hour online learning course teaches the Visual Basic 6.0 developer how to benefit from an object oriented approach to application development with Visual Basic 2005. The course covers classes, including properties, methods and attributes, and also how to control the lifetime of an object. The course also covers both interface and implementation inheritance and how to override methods and properties. This training is designed with the Visual Basic 6.0 developer in mind to allow for a simple transition to the .NET Framework.   

• Course 4339: Upgrading from Microsoft® Visual Basic® 6.0: Deploying .NET Framework Applications

  This three-hour online learning course teaches the Visual Basic 6.0 developer how to deploy an application written with Visual Basic 2005. This course covers creating deployment projects, managing deployment applications and making assemblies available to other applications. This training is designed with the Visual Basic 6.0 developer in mind to allow for a simple transition to the .NET Framework.   

• Course 4340: Upgrading from Microsoft® Visual Basic® 6.0: Upgrading Visual Basic 6.0 Applications

  This three-hour online learning course teaches the Visual Basic 6.0 developer the considerations and methods for upgrading an application written in Visual Basic 6.0 to Visual Basic 2005. The course includes upgrading best practices, the Visual Basic 6.0 Code Advisor, and the Migration Wizard. This training is designed with the Visual Basic 6.0 developer in mind to allow the Visual Basic 6.0 developer a simple transition to the .NET Framework.   

ASP.NET 2.0

• Course 2913: Creating Your First Microsoft® ASP.NET 2.0 Web Application

  This three-hour online course covers the entities that form the foundation of Web applications written with ASP.NET 2.0. This course is a great starting point for anyone who has not worked with Visual Studio 2005 or ASP.NET 2.0 before.   

• Course 2914: Writing Master Pages and Content Pages in Microsoft® ASP.NET 2.0

  This three-hour online course covers the exciting new features of ASP.NET 2.0, Master Pages and Content Pages. Master Pages allows you to easily create a consistent look and feel across your Web applications. This course will teach you how to create Web Applications with Master Pages and Content Pages.   

• Course 2915: Working with ADO.NET 2.0 Within Microsoft® ASP.NET 2.0

  This three-hour online course covers the exciting new ASP.NET 2.0 data source model, the data-binding mechanism, and the process of connecting a Web control to a data source element. You will learn how to use these new data access features.   

• Course 2916: Working with Microsoft® ASP.NET 2.0 Wizards and Site Navigation

  This three-hour online course covers the exciting new ASP.NET 2.0 application services including Wizards and Site Navigation. You will learn how to use these new application service features.   

• Course 2917: Working with State Management in Microsoft® ASP.NET 2.0

  In this three-hour online course, you will learn how ASP.NET 2.0 goes beyond the ASP.NET 1.x Cache object and ASP Application and Session objects. ASP.NET 2.0 introduces control state for custom ASP.NET controls, custom session-state management options, and a mechanism for handling custom cache dependencies, including SQL Server database dependencies.   

• Course 2918: Working with Web Parts in Microsoft® ASP.NET 2.0

  In this three-hour online course, you will learn how the Web Parts framework provides a simple and familiar way for ASP.NET developers to create modular Web applications that support end-user personalization.   

• Course 2919: Working with User Profiles and Themes in Microsoft® ASP.NET 2.0

  In this three-hour online course, you will learn how to build an effective personalization layer into a Web application by employing two new features of ASP.NET 2.0, user profiles and themes.   

• Course 2920: Improving Security in a Microsoft® ASP.NET 2.0 Web Application

  In this three-hour online course, you will learn how forms-based authentication in ASP.NET 2.0, which is arguably the only viable approach to restricting access to real-world Web sites, is even easier and quicker to use.   

• Course 2921: Working with Microsoft® ASP.NET 2.0 Configuration and Instrumentation

  In this three-hour online course, you will learn how to use the tools that ASP.NET 2.0 supplies to programmatically update the configuration files.     

If you are having a hard time breaking the habit of querying sysusers then maybe this download from Microsoft will help. It is a PDF with the system views in SQL Server 2005 along with the relationships between them. Now if I can just get access to that plotter to print out a poster size version that I can put up on my cubicle wall.

I realize that Christmas is over but I wanted to let everyone know that I wish them a Merry Christmas. I love this time of year, especially the way that people seem to take the time to think of others. As I was reading the news this morning and looking at the stories of the memorials on the one year anniversary of the tsunami in Asia I remember what a sick feeling I had that morning and then later the feeling of pride as I saw the world pull together to help those affected. This year has seen hurricanes and earthquakes that have tested the faith, charity, and resources of a lot of individuals and countries. I hope that we will always band together to help anyone who is suffering.

I checked my e-mail this morning and there was an invitation to the Utah Geek Dinner tomorrow night. Now, I know it is not much notice but it is more than the last one. The dinner will be held at the Mayan resturant. You can get more information and sign up for the event at http://www.devutah.com/geekdinners.htm. I am not sure what the topic will be but I look forward to seeing you all there.

Yesterday I spent all day at a MSDN and TechNet events showing the "best of launch" in the 2005 products. It was great to meet up with some people that I have not seen for a long time. There was an excellent turn out. Between the morning and afternoon sessions there were just under 1000 people attendees. A lot of them were there for both the morning and afternoon sessions.

The training I will be teaching on the 13th and 14th was also announced. I heard that the class already has 35 people signed up. It sounds like there is a lot of interest in the new development products.