Thom Robbins: Don’t just move your code to .NET, move your mind

dotNET

Thom Robbins is the Microsoft D.E. for New England. He blogs this morning about a recent presentation at a corporation that is heavily invested in VB6 and ready (?) to move to .NET. He makes a point that I have tried to deliver over and over again to developers.

Many times what people miss is that even though the code moves, you aren’t getting the full benefit of the .NET platform. …. In order to fully leverage the architectural paradigm shift and full power of .NET, it is essential that developers and architects approach applications with these expanded concepts in mind.

This is really one of my mantras when I talk to other developers. There is just so much in the framework that will make your life and your applications better. I understand that there are many situations where it is just not feasible to just redesign a whole application. As in independent who has total control over what tools I use, I had the good fortune to make a decision in the spring of 2002 that going forward, 100% of my new projects will be done in .NET.

GirlsGoTech.Org … Girl Scouts promote tech for young girls

Just Rambling

Thanks to Corey Gouker for not only blogging about this, but emailing me to make sure I hadn’t missed it!

The Girl Scouts have a website called www.GirlsGoTech.org and a t.v. ad campaign to go with it. They are trying to encourage young girls who are interested in tech to stay with it.

Forget Seventeen Mag , hooray girlscouts. There’s even an area to read about careers.

There is definitely a part of me that thinks – hey, let 12 year olds play – don’t push careers at them at this young age. But what’s the difference between the way we used to look at what it was like to be an astronaut or whatever when we were growing up?

Now they also need to educate adults abouto this too. I have heard a lot of stories about adults discouraging young girls’ interests in tech.

CAN-SPAM Definition and musings

Just Rambling

I never really knew exactly what the name of the law “CAN-SPAM” actually stood for. Thanks to Jon Galloway, I learned that the acronym stands for “Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing”

Oh, it has nothing to do with Canada!

But wouldn’t it have been better if they had worked it out to be “CAN’T SPAM”? Because that’s what the law (actually it’s an Act) is for – so that people can’t spam. Here are more details .

And if CAN-SPAM means the above, then does that mean “SPAM” refers to “Solicited Porn and Marketing?”

This is what happens when you try to think late on a Saturday night.

practical .net tidbits on Dave Burke’s blog

Community Cheerleading

I love Dave Burke’s blog because he is always talking about really practical stuff – “I had this problem and here is how I solved it“ kind of posts. I’ve gotten so that I can always pick his posts out of the whole (non-ms) feed from weblogs.asp.net just by his titles. I say “that’s gotta be a D.B. post” and 9 times out of 10 I’m right. His recent foray into code generation is a great read for anyone who has been thinking about it, but too timid (or busy or whatever) to try it out. I have also managed to pick out his “coding for charity” posts as his also. My first real intro to Dave was when he showed us, at our very 2nd VTdotNET meeting, how he had figured out to share session state between classic ASP and ASP.NET. This was in March 2002 and Dave had been using his church’s website as his playground for learning .NET. I had not even installed VS.NET on my computer yet!! Definitely an early adopter.

This also makes me realize, even though I have been coding, that none of my recent posts have been technical. I guess I’m kinda funny that way.

Cycling again

Purely Personal

Well, we put the skiis away and then I went out for a wonderful ride. Even when it started raining – it didn’t matter. I was already in my groove and just going with the flow. Over the course of the winter, my passion for skiing always seems to make me forget that I love to ride more than anything. Hmmm, I’ll say that about paddling my kayak, too, when the water warms up. Avonelle and her hubby are big cyclers also and she just got a new recumbant. I’m trying to talk myself into justifying a new bike purchase. Mine’s 10 yrs old and has already been rebuilt once. I have been dreaming for about 6 years of getting a Colnago frame. I love the beautiful Italian steel framed bikes with their beautiful lugs which can only of course, be complemented with some perfect Italian components. But now they are all carbon fibre- well, I guess I’ll just have to settle. Heh. Ahh, to dream…. My first real bike was a Bottecchia. I had it for 6 years and it was stolen. I bought it in 1985 and it cost me almost 10% of my annual salary back then. Even though I wasn’t a great cycler (though absolutely devoted) many of the racers in NYC would ride a few laps with me in the park just to check out my bike! 🙂  God, I loved that bike. The frame was SO beautiful – all bright red and white. I actually saw someone riding that same frame when I was on a week long tour riding in the Colorado rockies with my homies (check ’97 & ’99 – omg, seeing those pictures of when I was in great shape, definitely inspires me to lose weight – egads!) five years ago. I was still SO drawn to it. The bike I have now I have zero passion for like this.

Kids and Karate

Just Rambling

Sam Gentile posts that his 6 (or now 7?) yr. old son Jonathan just earned his orange belt in Karate. My nephews take karate and it has been an incredible thing for them at these young ages. They learn to focus at a young age, they learn about the reality of their strength and to redirect anger, aggression etc. My nephews are 5 years apart in age. The elder of the two, Josh, began taking Karate at the age of 7 (hmmm I think a different one of the martial arts – but the lessons are the same), my brother and sister-in-law were astonished at how careful he was with Zach as well as how much better he got in school and they attribute it to these classes. I’ve met Sam’s son, Jonathan. He is (naturally) a very bright and curious kid, so I can guess that he, too, is grasping these lessons pretty easily as well.

Chris Pels Blogging

Community Cheerleading

I canNOT believe that Chris didn’t tell me he started a blog! Sheesh sheesh and sheesh!  I figured it out because of a few referrals in my inbox. Chris, Chris, Chris! (rolling eyes)

Chris runs the incredibly active Boston.NET group that even has a Longhorn Study Group already! He has become a good friend as well as my right hand in running the very busy INETA User Group Relations committee. And best of all, Chris is a fellow Mad River Glen skiier – he grew up spending many a weekend in his family’s shared ski house at the bottom of othe mountain.

Chris went out to Seattle a few days early and has some wonderful photos of the Seattle area. Looking at his pics of Mt. Rainier makes me regret not taking the extra time to do the same. He also got some great shots of Eric Ewing’s wonderful and interesting home where we attended a party (and I was an overnight guest – thanks again Eric!). He has some pics of the cruise that Keith Pleas took a bunch of INETA folks on  his very groovy trawler. There’s more. I recommend that you read the text along with the pictures. Chris is a wonderful tour guide. Check it out.

Utopian Entrepreneur – on creating software for girls

Just Rambling

Elizabeth Grigg chimes in on recent discussions on Lora Heiny’s blog and here with a mention of what sounds like a fascinating book “Utopian Entrepreneur“.

Here is the description from Publisher’s Weekly:

Although Brenda Laurel’s start-up venture, Purple Moon (a company dedicated solely to creating software for girls) failed, she walked away from the experience with a cornucopia of knowledge about technology and economics. She shares those lessons in Utopian Entrepreneur, a guide to those seeking socially positive work in the business world. A stream-of-consciousness style and unique layout come together to present important messages, like “good research is never done,” “be a realist” and “pay attention to what you learn.”  Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Know any .NET Developers in Binghamton, NY?

Just Rambling

I’m doing my “ASP.NET Defenses and Countermeasures” session from DevDays at SUNY Binghamton on Monday night, thanks to coordination by Student Ambassador, Kenneth Weiss. The talk is in Science Library room 212 from 5-7 pm. Here is a page with directions to the university and a campus map. I discovered that there is some c-tech training in Advanced VB.NET and Advanced C# that week. I called the company and hopefully someone will get back to me so that I can suggest they tell their clients about my presentation.

MSDN even has events in Binghamton so there MUST BE .NET developers there. How on earth do I find them? If anyone knows, let me know. Thanks.