Marten’s blog

If you’re looking for an unbiased blend of practical and immediately-applicable Visual Studio training, look no further than VSLive! Interact one-on-one with the Microsoft development team and industry experts to learn how to build better applications with the latest version of Visual Studio.

Over 5 days, you’ll attend up-to-the-minute sessions on:

• Silverlight / WPF - Silverlight, Windows Phone 7, WPF, XAML, WCF RIA Services
• Web - jQuery, Web Forms, ASP.NET MVC and ASP.NET AJAX
• Visual Studio 2010 / .NET 4 - Visual Studio features, IntelliTrace, .NET Framework 4.0 new features, ALM/TFS, Windows Server AppFabric, WCF, MEF
• Cloud Computing - Includes cloud, server and messaging technologies - Windows Azure, REST services programming, Project “Dallas”
• Data Management - SQL Server, NET Data Access, WCF Data Services/OData
• SharePoint SharePoint Foundation, SharePoint Server 2010, Visual Studio 2010 SharePoint Tools and SharePoint Designer 2010

Read more: VSLive

Uncategorized conference

I was lately on Google developer day which is really great. The only disadvantage was that it’s not possible to be on all presentations, luckily Google provide videos for all presentations. Few days before this event I started experimenting with Google Website Optimizer.

The Website Optimizer allows you to test changes in the website content of your pages in order to determine what will be most effective in getting conversions. You choose what parts of a page you’d like to test — headline, image, promo text – and we’ll run an experiment on a portion of your site traffic to determine which content on your site users respond to best. When we’ve collected enough data, we’ll provide you with reliable reports and a suggested course of action in order to optimize your site for maximum business results.

One week after the developer day I found one book I shelf at work. I was just what I need to dive deeper into this problematic. Not even written in nice style, but with lots of best practices and comparison them to what will really increase your conversion rate and salary. This can be done be testing your site.

Websites testing

Internet Retailer reports that 76% of online retailers are not testing their websites. Have you taken the plunge yet?

Maybe you still have questions over your head like:

• How long does testing take?
• What’s multivariate testing?
• How much can I test at a time?
• What if I don’t get much traffic?

Or you’ve dismissed the idea because:

• Testing sounds hard.
• Testing sounds expensive.
• We don’t have time to test.
• We spent $60K on web design already!
• I’m not technical!
• I’m not a statistician!

Always Be Testing by Bryan Eisenberg, John Quarto-vonTivadar and Lisa T. Davis of Future Now / GrokDotCom addresses each one of these questions and excuses. After reading it, you’ll come away with an understanding of testing (even if you’re technically or mathematically challenged), types of tests, the testing process, how to use Google Website Optimizer and how to read its reports. Plus, how to determine your test length/quantity, what elements to test and how to prioritize your laundry list of testing ideas.

With over 250 ideas for testing, Always Be Testing will be a book you can constantly refer to for ideas in crafting your ecommerce marketing strategy.

You can check out a sample chapter (PDF), buy a copy from Amazon.com or download webinar with Bryan Eisenberg. The last think which can persuade you to buy this book is that you will get $25 AdWords free voucher when you buy the book for price less than $20.

Uncategorized books, google, testing, web optimization

I do all development stuff on virtual machine. Mainly because of trying new software and to have installation which I can always restore without any problem. Today I made update of Windows Vista and reboot problem where it gives the “configuring updates stage 3 of 3″ then reboots ad infinity. What I need to do as one of the steps is to boot from the original CD.

When you restart the virtual machine you will see vmware splash screen. Hit F2 right away to get into the VM’s BIOS settings. It can show only for really short time.

After that you will be in vmware BIOS. Use the right arrow key three times to move over to the “BOOT” menu selection. Use the UP/DOWN arrow key and the +/- keys to toggle the boot order such that “Removable Devices” is the very first (top) in the boot order. Removable Devices includes Legacy Floppy Drives.

Hit F10 to save and exit

Uncategorized VMWare