Monthly Archives: January 2005

American Red Cross ASP (not .net quite yet) Giving site proves its worth

Community Cheerleading

I was so happy to see Scott Locks’ post about how the American Red Cross website, the ASP site that is soon to be replaced by a brand spanking new ASP.NET site, really shone during the incredible use and abuse (the good kind … lots and lots of donations) of the last 10 days after the devastation of the tsunamis in SouthEast asia.

Scott is a user group leader (www.caparea.net) and an INETA User Group liaison. He works at American Red Cross and that website is his baby. He has a lot to be proud of.

http://www.AcehAid.org

Vermont.NET – Mario Cardinal on Microsoft’s Application Blocks

dotNET

Our next meeting (this monday, Jan 10th) of Vermont.NET features the ebulient and really dang smart, Mario Cardinal who is coming down from Montreal. Mario is going to teach us all about Microsoft’s Application Blocks.


 

Date: 01/10/05
Speaker: Mario Cardinal (Mario Cardinal Inc. ) —
Location: Gardener’s Supply
Topic: Introduction to Microsoft Enterprise Library and Application Blocks


Application Blocks are Microsofts implementation of reusable code (and documentation) that provide proven solutions for commonly recurring problems. Enterprise Library, to be released to the general public in early 2005, is the next generation of the Microsoft’s Application Blocks. The first release will deliver 6 Application Blocks into a single integrated package. This reusable code is a ready-to-use solution to solve problems that you often waste time solving over and over again in enterprise programming. This presentation provides a short introduction to the Microsoft Enterprise Library and shows what each block might be good for. The idea is to present the types of problems Enterprise Library try to solve and where to apply it in your own solutions.

Speaker Bio: Mario is an independent senior consultant specialized in enterprise application architecture. His primary areas of involvement are object-oriented software development, design patterns, application blocks, code generators and software development process. He spends most of his time training and mentoring companies to build well-designed enterprise .NET applications. He speaks frequently for user groups and writes articles in various technical journals. Mario holds Bachelor of Computer Engineering and Master of Technology Management degrees from the École Polytechnique in Montreal, Quebec. He also holds the titles of Microsoft Certified Solution Developer (MCSD) and Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT). Mario is based in Montreal, Canada

http://www.AcehAid.org

Thanks MAXTOR for 2 One Touch external hard drives for Aceh Relief efforts

Asia

My brother in law, Greg, works for Maxtor in Colorado. I knew from him that there was location in Singapore which is not quite as far from Indonesia. So with Greg’s help, I contacted some people in the Singapore location and they overnighted two of their One Touch drives to the folks at www.AcehAid.org in response to this plea that Susi made on her blog for fear of losing all of the precious information they have to in conjunction with the work they are doing.

Thanks Maxtor!!!!

http://www.AcehAid.org

How to reach decision makers?

Asia

One of the current lead stories on CNN.com is about how the web played an instant and important role after the tsunami disaster. I couldn’t help notice this paragraph

Both Apple.com and Amazon.com feature links to the American Red Cross. EBay allows sellers to donate 10 to 100 percent of their proceeds to UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund, through eBay Giving Works, as well as other charities.

Apple had their home page changed really quickly. Microsoft’s is now all about links to aid also, but it took them longer to get to it. So Apple and Amazon get the great mention here and deserve it to for their speed in making the decision to switch the home page and carrying it through.

It’s really hard to make things happen quickly at big companies. I’m finding that as we are trying to get donations from companies. I emailed the p.r. person from a hard drive manufacturer asking for a hard drive. You think that would be GOOD p.r. But she has to ask around. It will take a few days. It’s a $200 hard drive (retail).

http://www.AcehAid.org

Colin Powell goes to Aceh

Asia

“We’ve all seen pictures on our television sets and in our newspapers of the damage that occurred here, but only by seeing it in person from a helicopter flying low over the city can you get a real appreciation of what it must have been like when the tsunami came through and caused so much death and destruction.”

from cnn

http://www.AcehAid.org