Path Notes

Kicking Off 2009 In Style

Chris Eargle — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 19:17:11 GMT

I opened my email this morning to discover that I received two awards. First of all, I was awarded 7th place in the Community Credit December 2008 contest. I wasn't able to log into Community Credit for months because my user name didn't appear to be working. However, last night I was determined to submit my points for the INETA Community Champion Program before the year ended, and that program links to the Community Credit program. I eventually figured out how to get my user name, then submitted everything I could remember from the past year. My prize? The Plug Mug!

More importantly, I was awarded MVP Visual C#! I am very honored to be recognized by the MVP program for my contributions to the development community over the past year. I hope to live up to the title and deliver even more for the community in 2009!

If you're not an MVP and haven't received "stupid prizes to smart people"; here's how you do it. Get involved. If you're reading this, you're likely already a software developer of some caliber. Join your local user group. If one doesn't exist, start one. Give presentations on something that interests you. Answer questions in forums. Blog about technology. Once you do this, you may even discover that the official awards given by organizations aren't the true awards. The true awards for being involved are the people you meet, the connections you make, and the personal growth you experience.

End of 2008

Chris Eargle — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 02:04:43 GMT

It's the end of the 2008, and I will be celebrating the new year with Kitty and some friends from work tonight. Although this is a time for fun, I feel it's important to look back and analyze what I've done and identify areas of improvement.

Here is what I have accomplished this year:

1) Ran Columbia Enterprise Developers Guild
2) Presented at 13 events.

It may not look like much, but doing all of that takes a good amount of energy. Running a user group is a constant process with many surprises that crop up each month. You have to email members about meetings, arrange speakers, arrange sponsors, and facilitate the meetings to ensure things run smoothly. Presenting requires a lot of preparation and travel to places like Miami or Boston on your own dime.

However, I feel like I could have done more. I didn't blog as much as I would have liked. I was off and on in the forums. I didn't write many book reviews. I didn't present in as many places as I could have. I didn't maintain my Community Credit account (costing me stupid prizes).

Although I don't make resolutions, I do want to look back at 2009 and be more amazed at my accomplishments than I am looking back at 2008. So, that is my personal goal this year: contribute more to the community than I did the year before. I want to blog more, present more, and answer more questions. Most importantly, I want to grow the developer community in Columbia, SC.

Dev InTENsity

Chris Eargle — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 23:56:02 GMT

I will be presenting at New England Code Camp 10: Dev InTENsity! this weekend. Chris Bowen has posted the schedule on his blog.

Here are my presentations:

Sunday, September 21st 9:00am, Room MPR B, New Features in C# 3.0
Sunday, September 21st 12:30PM, Room MPR B, Introducing MSBuild

Braving Fay

Chris Eargle — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 22:27:57 GMT

I was surprised to hear that the Jacksonville Code Camp wasn't cancelled. A major tropical storm was coming through the area at the time, but the organizers for the Code Camp weren't going to let that stop them. I decided if they were brave enough to hold a conference during a tropical storm, I should be brave enough to drive into it. Just not in my rag top; we took my wife's car.

Friday, my wife and I packed our bags and headed out the door. We were picking Lou Vega up from Charleston, and it was going to take 6 hours total with that detour. We hit the largest storm immediately outside of Columbia. Life is so ironic. The worst we encountered from Fay were strong winds. It's not fun when you're inches away from a concrete barrier and you can feel the wind pushing your car to and fro.

We were quite lucky that the storm had cleared the streets. A certain direction web site changed E Coastline Dr to Line St. This caused us to end up in a very unsavory part of town. Once we determined that there wasn't a Hyatt Regency between what appeared to be crack houses, we called the hotel to get directions. The most eventful part of the evening was when Lou wrestled an alligator driven from its habitat by the storm... but that's a story for another day.

The Code Camp went very well considering the circumstances. The location was moved to a different part of town, but we didn't have trouble finding it due to my spidey senses. It felt kind of odd giving a presentation from the back of a room, but all was well in the end. I was able to meet up with some old friends, Scott Dorman and Russ Fustino, and made a few more. Later that night we went back to the Regency for the after-party. One benefit of the reduced attendance was the proliferation of blue tickets. It ended up being like a pub club with better food and a nice view of the river.

If you haven't made it to a Code Camp before, I recommend you try it out. It gives you a chance to learn, win books and software, and hang out with other members of the development community. The best part is they're always on the weekend, so it will not interfere with your regular work schedule.

Sessions Galore

Chris Eargle — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 17:10:08 GMT

I've been busy since the South Florida Code Camp. I've been promoted to the Architecture Team on the South Carolina Integrated Tax System project, and I've been to two more code camps.

The speaker list was already full when I tried to get in on the Raleigh Code Camp. I was still able to do a session on Continuous Integration due to another speaker's VM crashing. I had very few attendees since it wasn't advertised. However, as long as I have one person interested in the topic then I'm good to go.

Last weekend I did two sessions at the Roanoke Code Camp. The Design Principles presentation went very well, with enough crowd participation to keep it interesting. The Continuous Integration session went smoothly, but the crowd was somewhat quiet. Afterwards, one of the attendees told me that he thought it was a follow-up to the Design Principles session (apparently confusing MSBuild with Building Software). So, it's possible the crowd was quiet because they had no background in what I was presenting on. This was exacerbated by the fact I was in the same room.

From now on, if I'm going to do multiple sessions I will try to do related topics (design or agile processes) or request to be in different rooms.

This coming Wednesday I will be presenting on Continuous Integration at the Triangle .Net User Group in Raleigh. I've currently been running two 30 minute modules: 1) MSBuild, 2) CI / Cruise Control.NET. I will put together a new module this weekend so I can fill out the time more appropriately for a user group meeting. I'll probably take it back to fleshing out the build process with running more tests and integrating the generated reports into CruiseControl.NET.

After next week, I will have done 8 sessions at 6 events in 5 locations. It's still early in the year so perhaps I should set my goal to 20 locations instead of 20 events? When do you want me to come to Charleston, Lou?

Redeemed

Chris Eargle — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 04:51:08 GMT

Earlier I wrote about how I felt pwned during my first session at the South Florida Code Camp.

Luckily, things turned around during my second session. I was unable to turn it in a discussion as I had planned. The room was still set up to serve presentations, and some of the people I would have liked to have in the discussion (like Scott Dorman) were busy with their own sessions. However, everything went smoothly during my second presentation. I had great crowd interaction, and I received good applause at the end. It was definitely a contrast to the earlier session.

I was unable to make it to the after party. My wife doesn't turn 25 until March, so I had to drive her back to the hotel to freshen up. Car rentals don't cover under-25s unless you want to spend an arm and a left. We ended up on the wrong side of Miami in the process. You know, when you head north on a highway, you expect to go south to return from whence you came. This proved untrue with the Florida Turnpike, which apparently has three directions. We ended up eating at a great Argentinian restaurant though, so not all was lost.

I had a great time at this code camp, and I learned new lessons on presenting. I also met some great people like Dave Noderer, Joe Healy, and David Silverlight. Next time there is a Code Camp in Florida, I hope to make it down. I even have a great new presentation planned that should be ready by April (with an accompanying project I will release to the community).

pwned

Chris Eargle — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 18:12:23 GMT

I just finished my session on Design Principles in the South Florida Code Camp. I feel kind of pwned by what happened at the beginning. I should have expected it. After all, there are over 600 people here, and I warned everyone at the beginning that it was meant to be an introductory class (hence the 100 level). The presentation still has good nuggets even if you're an experienced developer.

My room was packed. About 5 minutes into it, 20-30 people walked out. Having all those people get up, walk by me, and opening the door distracted me. I lost my focus, and it took a while to get my bearings. I need to keep in mind that this can happen and not let it get to me. I can't believe I actually faltered.

I realize I didn't write about my experience in Philadelphia. I had an incident there as well. At the beginning, the projector messed up. I spent a few minutes trying to get everything working but eventually realized I would lose the audience if I didn't move on. I ended losing my local screen, and had to move the desk around and look at the projection This prevented me from using my slide deck. Luckily, I knew my material well enough to talk while doing demonstrations (though I strained my neck). It ended up being successful. albeit unstructured.

After I did my presentation here in Miami, I spoke to Joe Healy about it. He mentioned something about my session at the end of the day. I didn't even realize I am doing another one! This time it's in the Birds of a Feather and Panel Discussion room, so I'm going to make it a discussion rather than a presentation.

Missed Airplanes and Automobiles

Chris Eargle — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 02:40:37 GMT

There's a reason you're supposed to arrive at an airport an hour before your flight. I arrived 35 minutes before my flight, and as they were confirming my information, it kicked the guy off and refused to issue my tickets. Luckily, another flight was found for me, but now I will arrive 3 hours later. I am currently sitting around Charlotte waiting for my next flight. It's a good thing they have free wireless Internet here.

I'll arrive in Philadelphia sometime after midnight. Then, I've got to get my car and drive 40 minutes to my hotel. I have a feeling I'm going to be dead tomorrow. I guess it's nothing a few cups of coffee can't fix... hopefully by my session at 9:30.