Category Archives: Community Cheerleading

Sys-Con Web Services Edge was a blast

Community Cheerleading

I had a great time at the Edge East conference in Boston over the last few days. I was able to meet some people I know via emails, blogs etc. This includes Philly area D.E. Stan Spotts – who i hope is feeling better, Atlanta D.E. Doug Turnure and Raj Das from Magenic. I also unexpectedly got to catch up with Andrew Duthie. Best of all was seeing all my New England pals  – some of the user group leaders that I konw and others, like Robert Hurlbut. I also enjoyed seeing Michael Stiefel’s talk on SOA and WSE2.0. He and I consulted in advance so that our talks didn’t overlap. I got to focus soley on the security fundamentals – all concept no code! That talk is becoming my raison d’etre these days!

There were some fantastic session, including the workshops and Ari Bixhorn did a super job of the keynote. Though the keynote was the same focus as the keynote that he did with Eric Rudder at VSLive, he really made it his own at this show. It’s always entertaining to get a chance to catch up with Ari!

Thom Robbins got me to actually sit down to do a Hands on Lab with Whitehorse, but I didn’t get too far as I was having too much fun chatting with Jim Murphy and Tim Ewald from Mindreef which was right by the HOL area. I got to hear about some interesting features that are upcoming in their already awesome product. I think those guys are going to do a group road trip to speak at VTdotNET after this summer. That will be a blast. What great luck for the user group!

The Cabanas (sponsored by INETA, no less <g>) last night were great. I ended up in the VB room with Carl Franklin and Markus Egger. People asked awesome questions. It seems that STILL the #1 most difficult new concept for VB6 devs coming into .NET is delegates. (it was mine as well…)

I went over this morning for a bit and sat in an amazing (and entertaining) workshop called “Security, the new reality” doen by Patrick Hynds and Duane LaFlotte of Critical Sites. It is a REALLY good thing that these guys are not on the wrong side of the law when it comes to hacking website. I pity any hacker that tries to get into their sites.

All in all it was a great show. Thanks especially to Derek Ferguson and Grisha Davida!!

And I can’t complain about the very clear weather for driving to Boston and back either!

http://www.AcehAid.org

ahh – I can blog it now -Microsoft scoops up Shawn Van Ness

Community Cheerleading

I loved meeting Shawn finally at the WMA conference in San Francisco. While we chatted at the Varnish Gallery (where the Tablet party was being held – excellent choice, by the way, Elliot!) I let him know that I had started pestering my MVP leads (plural because I refer to my current and my former) that he should be an MVP, maybe C#. Although he is known for many tablet pc development articles, he is a whiz bang developer and I’m always impressed by his wealth  (and depth) of knowledge in responding to many questions on the Developmentor list that I am a voyeur on. Well, I guess we can say “great minds think alike” – because he told me that it’s a little late for MVP since he had just committed to swallowing the red pill. He is going to work at Microsoft and will have a very very cool job – as the PM on the team responsible for integrating Tablet PC platform into Avalon and WinFX.

Although I’m a little embarrassed (though highly flattered) by something he says in this post, I need to link to it anyway so you can read more…

Congrats Shawn!

http://www.AcehAid.org

Unofficial INETA gathering at VSLive/WindowsAnywhere

Community Cheerleading

Stuart Celarier is organizing an informal get-together of INETA folks and user group leaders who might be in San Francisco next week at the VSLive/WindowsAnywhere conferences. It will be fun to hook up with people we do con-calls and instant messengers with all of the time, eh? I’ll be there. Not sure who else. Contact Stuart at stuart.celarier at ineta dot org  if you want to join us and he will let you know where and when (which is as of yet undetermined).



http://www.AcehAid.org

Excitement brewing over upcoming MDC (Middle East Developer Conference)

Community Cheerleading

Starting with a keynote by Bill Gates and filled with .NET stars from the Middle East (including INETA MEA Region Head, Goksin Bakir) and also some from the states (Kimberly Tripp, Patrick Hynds and Stephen Forte), this years MDC starts in a few days. Over on geekswithblogs, Mohamed Ahmed Meligy writes about how excited he is to attend this event.

http://www.AcehAid.org