Daily Archives: September 29, 2004

Nooo – say it ain’t so KeithBa!

Community Cheerleading

(by way of Hervey) First it was Eric Gunnerson(goin’ to the movies), now Keith Ballinger (to Media Center)? Keith Ballinger? How could it be? Well, I can understand wanting to do something new….I get to all the time! 🙂  It’s just so…hard…to….grok! (hmmm Hervey’s link to Keith’s post seems to be wrong so just go to Hervey’s post for more info…)

Keith is the first person who really got me (and SO many of us) excited about web services.

Keith is the first person from Microsoft that I had personal contact with when Microsoft started their whole community thing. He replied to a question I posted on a newsgroup and I ran into the kitchen to tell my husband “Keith Ballinger actually just replied to a question of mine in a newsgroup!!” My husband was ummm, beyond confused, and just gave up, shrugged his shoulders and said something like “that’s nice, honey.”

But the funniedst thing I have to say about Keith is my surprise the first time we met in person at how young he is. I figured he had to be at least way older than me since he new so much. So it was also my first real eye opener to how much incredible talent Microsoft has reigned in (or maybe that was my eye opener to how old I really am? since now I think young=under 40!)

Lots to learn in perusing the WSE newsgroup

Just Rambling

I have been heading to the WSE Newsgroup lately to deal with some of my questions. Since I have a policy of trying to answer at least one question if I am asking a question, I  have been reading through lots of the questions. Of course, I haven’t found one that I could answer that hasn’t been tackled yet. And…even so, not many I could have answered anyway. Hervey Wilson seems to be mostly responsible for answering questions right now until there are more people with some expertise. But I am seeing a lot of really cool questions as people are digging into some interesting scenarios. I am definitely learning a lot by perusing this list. I recommend it.

Vermont Software Developer Alliance First meeting

dotNET

Today we had the first meeting of the Vermont Software Developers Alliance. There were 40 people there and we had an amazing array of business types represented. Not only across technologies (where Microsoft had about a 60% share) but everything from contractors to businesses to upwards of 60 employees. There were companies who do consulting and companies who have software products. There were companies who consult for any type of business and companies who have expertise in particular markets – very strongly represented in Vermont is Health Care software but there was also representation of folks who have expertise in software for accounting, manufacturing, insurance and other industries.

It was really exciting since nothing like this has happened in Vermont before, while there are many state or regional software business associations around the country.

I’m equally thrilled to be able to accomplish something I have been trying to find a way to do for a long time – which is to share my now extensive resources with my local community beyond just learning about .NET programming.We have formed a temporary board to replace the steering committee which I was on and I will be on this board as we really bring this organization into being a legal entity and after that, we will vote for a real board of directors.

If you are in Vermont and are in the business of software, definitely check out the website www.vtsda.org where there is already some info, a place to list your information and take a survey so we can continue to understand what types of needs we all have as a group!

Debugging, books and Wintellect, too

Just Rambling

A number of things gelled together this morning that necessitated this post.

a) this post by Jeff Prosise of Wintellect about the conundrum he has when asked so many questions in an email that are already answered in one (or more) of his (and others’) books. But he is concerned (from experience) that suggesting the book as a reply, that the person would think he is only attempting to promote book sales. However, if you saw the email Jeff recieved, it is full of incredibly basic questions and way beyond what is reasonable to ask in an email to a stranger. Jeff is very generous with his time, but this person was basically asking for a personal education by email from Jeff.

b) I asked a question on the WSE newsgroup that turned out to be not about WSE but my own lack of good debugging knowledge. I haven’t read John Robbin’s (what I know is an) excellent book on Debugging in .NET. John is another one of the 3 founding partners of Wintellect. Also thanks to Hervey Wilson for his patience in answering my many recent questions in the newsgroups!

c) In July I had a conversation with Jeffrey Richter who was curious about how I found the experience of trying to work in C# when my real knowledgebase if coding in VB. The things that I found confusing astonished Jeff who (very politely) asked if I had ever read his book on programming with .NET.  I know that this book (Applied .NET Programming in  C# or VB version) book is a bible. I have had it here and passed it on to a vtdotnet member and had looked at bits and pieces but not read it. I actually have re-ordered it and am still awaiting my new copy (which I won’t give away this time). Jeff, of course is the 3rd of the Wintellect founding members.

So what am I getting at here? Clearly there is SO much excellent information out there. Clearly it is impossible to get to and digest it all. I wish I was able to find the time and energy (like the amazing devourer of .NET books, Jason Salas) to read all of these books that I have heard SO many wonderful things about. But I also wish I had time to take my dogs for longer and more fun walks, etc. etc.

I think it also gets back to the wonderful point made by Leon Bambrick that reminds me not to beat myself up that I am not an expert (or even 1/2 of an expert) at debugging in .NET. There are SO many things in .NET that are fascinating and important to know and leverage. I *do * know that in time, I focus on one thing after another and learn more and more and more — just not all at once. It’s been two years already! Eeek.

So I just suppose that this post is a reminder to myself and anyone else who could use it that you and I are not inadequate! <g>