I was having a discussion with Eric Nelson on his blog the other day. I was having a rant about requirements, which I think is one of the most vital aspects of software today.

For instance, I've been told by a number of developers that MVC is the 'correct' way to develop a web application. However, I disagree strongly with this.

I don't doubt that Model View Controller is very useful for certain applications. It is a valid design pattern for solving certain problems.

However, it's not 'the correct' way to develop a web application. The only thing that is correct is the requirements. If you use MVC, and it either hinders achieving the requirements, or it adds nothing to those requirements, than MVC is not the correct design pattern to follow. Simple as that.

There have been similar patterns used in security that added no value. I worked on a project three years ago that used WS-Security, because it was the latest 'cool thing'. At the end of the day, it added no value, as SSL matched the security requirements more efficiently.

So, when should you use WS-Security? I wrote an article recently that is on the MSDN Developer Security page.

The article matches requirements to technologies, and has been used by various clients as I was writing it. I hope you find it useful.

The SOAP and WS-Security formats, although very verbose when compared to RESTful implementations, have a much more advanced security model. They give the ability to override the authentication used within IIS (which uses Active Directory). By moving the credentials (username and password) from the HTTP headers into the XML of the message, one can use the UserNamePasswordValidator class to implement custom authentication.

Here's an article I wrote for the Next Generation User Group giving all the technical details.

Well, Fest 08 was a great success with 'Data Today, Data Tomorrow'. Loved the sessions and the usual Dave and Rich game show.

Here's a write up of the day:

http://www.nxtgenug.net/Article.aspx?ArticleID=283

and here's a shot of Dave McMahon giving a live demonstration of various yoga positions. Don't ask......

I was fortunate enough to be invited to the IMTC this year to speak on WCF security. Had a great time, but what a busy day!

I left my home at 7am and travlled continuously until 2.30pm, when I arrived. And I was speaking at 3.15!

Thanks to the (large) audience that came to see me. I promised to put up the slides and code, so here it is.

Last month saw the launch of stacks of new Microsoft technology, so to celebrate we gave away loads of swag (Vista, VS 2008 and more!). Barry even had the foresight to set up a raffle.

To top it all, we had the fabtastic Simon Sabin speaking on SQL development. Really enjoyed hearing about all the new facets of the world's best database, and the co-ordinates tool that Simon showed us was awesome.

The usual suspects:

Barry hurling swag:

Simon Sabin speaking on SQL Server 2008:

Great news for me - Microsoft have renewed my MVP status for Visual Developer - Security. I'm really honoured to have received this renewal, and am very proud to be the recipient of this award.

Even better - my mate Barry Dorrans has been awarded his. He's a great speaker, so please make the effort to see him if he's visiting your user group.

Jean-Paul Boodhoo from Calgary, Canada spoke at Next Gen UG in Oxford on 17th September.

His subject was Generics, but he went much further than his, sharing his experience as both a presenter and a technical expert.

The audience were spellbound - Jean-Paul gave the presentation without slides, just code, all completely from scratch. This is no mean feat!

Here, Jean-Paul is speaking, taking questions, coding - and taking a quick bite of pizza when he got the chance!

This was one of the best evenings yet, and many thanks to Jean-Paul for coming all the way down from London to give the talk.

Another great night last night. Barry spoke on Duck Typing. Or Duct Taping, if like me you get your worms ..err... words mixed up. Is it the same as using the old vbs var? Not really, and Barry Dorrans gave a good overview of the specifics and its uses.

The main speaker was Dave McMahon, who gave a brilliant talk on office integration. He demonstrated how to use Access (an always underrated tool) to create queries across SQL, XML, text files, Excel spreadsheets.

He then went on with a demonstration of how to create a web service within the SharePoint site that queried lists.

This was my favourite talk so far at the Oxford NextGen.

Carig Murphy has videoed my talk at DDD, and put it on the internet! Very strange to watch yourself speaking - I remember having to do this when I was doing teacher training.

Best to look at the slides as you watch. Enjoy!

Last week's meeting saw Roger speak on a subject that's becoming increasingly relevant to all of us.

Roger not only has an incredibly strong, hands on knowledge of the subject, but he is also able to communicate across all levels on a very technical subject.

Here you can see Tim Leung at the front. Pay attention, Tim! Ignore the guy with the camera.

This was one of our best meetings yet at RM in Abingdon.

RM is one of our corporate sponsors. Roger works for Charteris, our other sponsor. Without these two organisations, we wouldn't be as successful as we are, and we very much appreciate their help.