All posts by Julie

On “The Business of Software” by Eric Sink

Community Cheerleading

I’ve been reading Eric Sink’s collection of blog posts and articles (with additional commentary) in his recently published book “The Business of Software” (APress) and I’m very pleased that these have been published this way. Though I have seen many of these online, I don’t believe I have actually read too many of them all the way through. This is such a big problem with anything on-line because when you are online there is so much info coming at you and it’s too hard to stay focused. So if something isn’t a quick read, you think “okay, I’ll read it later” and later never happens. Then it get’s lost, buried in the past. [read more …]

[A DevLife post]

 

Posted from BLInk!

Huntsville Alabama VS.NET User Group

Ineta

Today I flew from Burlington to Detroit to Huntsville, Alabama to speak at the Huntsville VS.NET User Group. Lori McKinney was a wonderful host. Lori reads my blog and knows about my donut woes and actually bought me my very own doughnuts (for people who leave the state to go to work!) – yes dOUGHnuts, not just donuts. She also put together a goodie bag of great Huntsville mementos. Huntsville is an incredibly historic city with amazing antebellum buildings juxtaposed against the space center where things like space shuttles are designed. Here’s a Kate Gregory style photo of my treats except it’s on the hotel room desk not the bed.

She was also thoughtful in putting some late night snacks in the bag which was great because I didn’t eat very much pizza during the meeting and was a little hungry when I got back. Thanks Lori.

Although I hear that most of the INETA speakers stay at the Marriott by the Space Center so they can be near and go there before they leave, I opted for the Sheraton that is literally IN the airport. But I did get a post-meeting tour and got to see some rocket ships. Okay that was pretty cool!

The user group was great. I got some great feedback too  that will make me think twice about showing HOW Pablo Castro’s awesome query processor works and just show it do it’s magic. His code is so well documneted, that the few people who might want to see the internals can discover that for themselves later. Dave Burke would laugh. He teases me about the starry eyed look I get when I talk about ADO.NET and tries to remind me that not everyone finds the internals as fascinating as I do (which is very important to remember when speaking to a user group with broad variety of interests and experience. Korby Parnell swears that I said ‘excited" 23 times in my 90 minute ADO.NET talk at Deeper in .NET. A little embarrassing, but hopefully in a good way.

There were definitely some ringers in the group who asked some questions I couldn’t answer off the top of my head. With all of the high tech companies here, there are some amazingly smart people in the user group. I told them that if I wasn’t a walking encyclopedia, at least I was a walking rolodex and I can find someone to answer the questions for me. So I will blog those q’s and a’s in the near future.

Thanks to the Huntsville VS.NET group for being so very warm and welcoming. And thanks to INETA for getting me here!

Vermont IT Job: (well New Hampshire) .NET Software Engineer

Jobs

Software Engineer positon in the Lebanon, New Hampshire. The qualified candidate will work as a member of a software development team designing, developing and unit testing company applications. Company applications provide billing, account management and energy analysis functionality for utility customers.

Requirements
The successful applicant will possess the following qualifications:

  • 2 + years software development and programming experience
  • Experience in programming with VB.NET and/or C#, ASP.NET, JavaScript, XML and XSLTs
  • Experience with SQL, source control software, and Visual Studio required. Experience with build and installation tools a plus
  • Experience in maintaining code written by others
  • Strong problem solving skills

We are looking for a candidate with some software development experience who is very excited about growing their skills within a fast-paced environment. The ideal candidate for this position is looking to develop software in a collaborative, team environment using solid software development processes and practices. They communicate well and also have good writing skills, as they will be called upon to document technical details. This candidate has strong personal management skills and is willing to handle multiple assignments that include new development and maintenance.
A BSCS or BSEE is strongly preferred.

If you would like more information regarding this opening feel free to call or send me a message.

Paolo Aurilio
Senior Recruiting Consultant
TechFind, Inc.
P.O. Box 626
Natick, MA. 01760

paolo@techfind.com

(508) 647-0111×14

Don’t Forget: www.acehaid.org

The Old School on Women in Business

Purely Personal

I was flipping through the latets Forbes Small Business (May 2006) this morning and nearly fell out of my chair when I read the last sentence of this letter to the editor. It was in reference to a recent issue filled with a number of articles on women-owned businesses. I can’t believe the guy actually signed his name and business name, too!

As a senior man in the small-business world (I’m 64), I read with great interest your articles about the growth of woman-owned businesses. You discount why men succeed at a greater rate than women – which I think is because men are more realistic. From the time they are little girls, most women are taught that looks, rather than learning to be smart, matter in business. Women cake on a fake face every day to alter their looks, yet expect everyone, especially men, to comply with feminine prerogatives. That has a chilling effect on business negotiations. Incessant narcisism is rampant in the feminine mind, and it can and does cloud business judgement.

Richard Royce
President
VenturEXPO Group
Pasadena, Calif.

I wonder if he knows that the Narcissism began with a man named Narcissus.

Don’t Forget: www.acehaid.org

The new improved Alentus web host

Community Cheerleading

Alentus has always been one of the ASP.NET hosts out in the front of the pack. It is where my own website and also the Vermont.NET site is hosted for nearly 4 years.

I just happened to cruise to their home page and saw that it has been totally spiffed up! That struck me because I have watched their “visual branding” evolve over the years. They really now finally have a good solid look that evokes the professionals that they are.

I also see they’re now hosting WordPress and DotNetNuke.

They now have a basic $8.95 ASP.NET 2.0 hosting plan. I tend to stay the heck away from hosting that is that low-priced because it is usually cheap for a reason. But this is no “budget” host. They are very technical and knowledgable about ASP.NET.

Though they offered to let me have some space on a test ASP.NET server before RTM, I have been too busy to update any of my sites. But a new VTdotNET site is in the works and it is time! Yay.

Kudos guys.



Don’t Forget: www.acehaid.org

One of the pleasures of owning a small business in a small state

Vermont

Last week I had to send in all of my paperwork for my business quarterly taxes. There’s the 941 to the Feds,  a tax & withholding to the State of Vermont Dept ofo Taxes and one other to the Vermont Dept of Employment and Training.

I inadvertantently switched the checks for the two Vermont agencies, sending the E&T check to the tax people and their check to E&T. I am a sole proprietor … these are not big checks.

I actually got a phone call from someone this morning telling me that she had the right form, but the wrong check and she was going to “pink it over” (office internal mail) to the tax department. A phone call! Can you imagine? So I called the other department which is more automated and won’t be able to get their hands on the check I sent them – it will just get processed, but they will send me a refund. So I called the first woman back who was so nice and told her I would just send her a new check. No forms, no notes no explanation. She said just put my employer i.d. on the check and she’ll know what to do with it.

I know people with larger companies have issues with doing business in this tiny state, but it suits me just fine!

Don’t Forget: www.acehaid.org

Code Camp 5 Schedule – WOW!

dotNET

I just took a look to see how the schedule is filling out for Code Camp 5 in Waltham, MA next weekend and was really impressed!

The stats

  • 47 sessions
  • 5 tracks
  • 19 speakers
  • 3 out of towners (I think that’s right)
  • 1 speaker who seems to be planning to do 6 sessions – maybe Thom is just supposed to select from them… 🙂


Don’t Forget: www.acehaid.org

More thoughts on TabletPC Killer App

Tablet

This is definitely something that’s on my mind a lot. I’m not marketing person and it’s not something I’ve been tasked with by a marketing person or the TabletPC team. It’s just something that keeps popping up and is very interesting to me.

This weekend while visiting friends outside of Madison, WI after Deeper in .NET, I learned that my friend’s partner, a painting contractor who is extremely non-technical, has a TabletPC. [read more …]

[A DevLife post]

Don’t Forget: www.acehaid.org

Pictures from Deeper in .NET and Wisconsin

Just Rambling

Some pics of my fun trip to Deeper in .NET in Wisconsin and a look around WI afterwards!

Flying out of Burlington VT, I finally got a decent picture of Lake Champlain. Of course this is nothing compared to what I was looking at.

Flying into Chicago here is the torquoise Lake Michigan.


Avonelle and Val
Bill Hatfied and Korby Parnell
Dinner at a local brew pub

The wings of the Milwaukee Art Museum.
This building is amazing. Look for pics
on the MAM site.
Local legend Dale Chihuly at MAM
My dear friend Martha Downs and
Korby at MAM.

What? Skiing in Wisconsin!
The Tyrol Basin Golf Course, err,
Ski and Snowboard Area.


a VERY impressive woodpile!