January 2004 Entries

This seems to be a reoccurring theme for me over the past couple days. Now, I can't tell you about a couple of the things I am keeping quiet about. But, there is one I can tell you about.  It is about my experience at the dentist during my root canal. Now, the root canal was not so bad. It was, however, strange to have to keep quiet for an hour and listen to people having a conversation about movies, dinner, driving in the snow and regular everyday stuff. I could not say a thing.  I wanted to say “no, they only had one kid in True Lies” and “Sade is a single person, not a group” but, no. Nothing. I could only listen like a strange voyeur as they chatted about their previous evening at home and the crazy drive in that morning.  For those of you who know me, you know I don't tend to keep quiet if I have something to say.  This was a very strange experience for me. I learned that I could do it - if forced. And I learned that sometimes you don't need to say a thing.   

Brad posted chapter 3, “The .NET Base Class Libraries” from Kate Gregory's Microsoft Visual C++ .NET 2003 Kick Start on CodeGuru and Developer.com.  So, choose your favorite site and check it out. 

I am one of the lucky ones this week and I am going to see Train play at Schuba's in Chicago on Saturday and then in San Francisco's Cafe du Nord next Thursday.  I lucked out and our sales meeting is in San Francisco next week.  I missed last week's Atlanta leg of this great little tour. That's what it is - a little tour. Train (Grammy award winning, stadium packing, everyone singing along about Virginia) Train is playing the old venues that only hold a couple hundred people.  I can't wait.  It also looks like they are giving people CDs of the show on the way out.  I hope that is true for all the venues - I know it happened in Atlanta. 

The reason I know what has happened in Atlanta is that Brandon Bush has been playing with Train and doing a great job chronicling the daily activities.  It is nice to see the set lists and read about who has jumped up on stage at the shows - Edwin McCain amongst others.  You can check those out in the journal section of Train's site.  A little bit of the non-glamour of the musician's life and lots of talk of the music which is a refreshing change from what you normally hear about your favorite bands.  Thanks Brandon and keep up the journal entries! See you later this week.

Never too early to start thinking about TechEd! Thanks Dave for giving the heads up that INETA will be coordinating the TechEd BOFs.  The PDC BOFs were great and even kept me at the conference center late.  I will be encouraging folks I know who are attending to submit BOF ideas. 

Pretty exciting stuff!  Sams will be sponsoring the DevConnections show - ASP Connections, Visual Studio Connections and SQL Server Magazine Connections - in Orlando, April 18 - 21, 2004.  Lots of our authors and friends will be presenting sessions there including Rob Howard, Steve Smith, Steve Walther, Doug Seven, Bill Evjen and more.  Should be a good show.

The Colts will be wearing a darker shade of blue next season.  Maybe that will help the team!

I have had the opportunity over the past couple of weeks to have some medical tests that have employed technology that just was not around a few years ago.  The coolest by far was the echocardiogram. It probably would not have been as cool if they had found bad things but everything is fine.  Basically, with an ultrasound they look at your heart and each of its components.  I could see all four chambers of my heart doing their thing and the little valves opening and closing.  I could see the spark of white on the screen where my valve leaks (thus the reason for the test). I could see each valve and its parts doing its work. The most amazing thing was even being able to see the red blood cells rushing through the artery - all right there on the monitor while I was perfectly comfortable on the little bed.  Amazing stuff and much more pleasant than the far off memory I have of spending days in the hospital when I was about 5 having the invasive heart catheterization.  It makes the work that everyone does in technology really hit home.

There are some great new interviews posted from Stephen Ibaraki.  This round includes notables: Scott (4GuysFromRolla) Mitchell, Kate Gregory (Visual C++ .NET) and Rand Morimoto (Windows Server 2003).  Well worth the quick read!

This month I beat the system, I have 500 daytime minutes and I used exactly 500 daytime minutes! I just wanted to note this for my own personal history.  Go me!

A researcher at MIT is working on this project and the survey results could help me in my thesis too!  So, please take the survey if you have a minute and blog - it is short.

The Colts are psyching up for the Patriots this Sunday!  A 3 point favorite and even bigger favorites in the hearts of everyone in Indy. Catch the madness here. Fans are stopping traffic all over town for posters and stickers. I wish I had that power! I am not sure about this though...

Go Blue! Go Colts!

So, maybe we can be social!  http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/internet/01/14/geek.study.reut/index.html

Now, I am not suggesting a calendar or anything boys!  I am just saying that I have been very lucky this week to get to visit with lots of the men of INETA.  On Monday when I went to Chicago for the ASP.NET Exposed tour (and got to see Rob), I got to visit with Keith Franklin. It sounds like Chicago is planning some cool stuff with local colleges and universities.  Then on Wednesday, Brad Jones from the Indy group came to talk to me about lots of stuff the Indy group is planning for 2004. The group is growing its regular meeting attendance and keeps having to find bigger venues! So, the news in Indy couldn't be better.  Then tonight I get to have dinner and catch up with Jose Berrios. I am sure I will find out about all the great stuff happening with INETA LATAM.  I also spoke with Les Pinter moments ago who is an INETA LATAM speaker and is a very active member of Bay.NET.  And Doug Seven is in Alberta tonight at the user group meeting with a box of books to give away.  And Rob is taking the tour to Orange County, CA tonight.  My week can't get any better!

ASP.NET Exposed in Chicago – 1/12/03 - A chilly but full house in the River West area, Rob walked through ASP.NET starting at a level even I could understand! The audience dealt with the chill and kept coats on but listened carefully.  (Despite being slightly afraid of the lights! - see photos)  Always heavy with great demos, Rob showed Chicago what ASP.NET can do  - performance, caching, a quick preview of Whidbey, and much more.  You can see the deck here.  I even got the point that Whidbey is going to make lots of lines of code go away and developers very happy! You can check out my photos of the event here.

 

And by the way St. Louis....it sounds like Portland is really going to give you a run for the money on number of developers in attendance. 

I am heading to Chicago tomorrow to witness the madness of the ASP.NET Exposed tour.  I know that almost every venue has had to be upsized and Chicago is no different.  I am hoping not to get mobbed for free books, but I am excited to see what legends are made of tomorrow!  I am sure of one thing - Rob will put on a great show.  I did also see that Rob mentioned that new dates/locations will be added soon! The demand for this kind of event is great for the community and .NET!

That is the motto of Indy this week. The mayor has declared it - the people have listened. There was a traffic jam around the Dome yesterday afternoon as Colts staff handed out free posters and stickers. Today you can see for yourself what some of the local folk are doing to themselves here and here.  My favorite is really here about the people who actually stripped for tickets.  It is madness!  And here are a few of the facts...SERIES HISTORY: Indianapolis has won six consecutive meetings in the series and hasn't lost to the Chiefs since 1985, grabbing a 9-6 all-time advantage. The Colts registered a 35-28 victory over the Chiefs in their last meeting on October 25, 2001 at Arrowhead Stadium. And the Chiefs have not won in the postseason since 1994.  Go Blue!  Go Colts!

I think that Rob must be keeping the good stuff to himself!  Anyone want to cruise .NET style? I am (of course) trying to figure out how I can justify the trip - Rob will definitely need PR support for his book on the beaches of Tortola!

If you or yours are speaking at a DevDays event can you let me know, please. Sams will be supporting Dev Days and you know me - I like to make sure the events where our friends and family are speaking get some extra attention! 

We are a Bronze Sponsor of Tech Ed 2004! This is very exciting for us as we have not been able to sponsor much with our tiny budget. But, Kim figured it out and collaborated with our sister imprints Que and Addison Wesley and we are bronzed!  And, of course, I already have my hotel reservations.  Some things I am organized about!

According to ESPN.com I live in the  number one sports city in the nation. It does make the city lots of fun to have the Colts, Pacers and, of course, racing around.  And right now, the Indy teams are doing great.  People are having parties to watch the games, talking up the teams all week, and going to games in this town is a lot of fun - the energy is amazing (especially when we are winning). 

I am finally catching up with being back to work! It is going to be a very busy January and it looks like it won't stop though all of 2004. A couple of things coming up in the next week...

Tomorrow, January 7th - Paul Litwin will be speaking at the Microsoft main campus at 6:30 pm

Saturday, January 10th - Jason Beres , Steve Smith, Rob Howard and Dave Wanta (plus more!) are hitting Wisconsin and it looks like an awesome event!

Monday, January 12th - Rob hits Chicago with the ASP.NET roadshow. I am still planning to be there!

I am giving up the YMCA. Oh wait, I'm suppose to have a goal! I am going to be in great shape this year, I have been in the past and all the travelling takes a toll.  I am going to do it though. Who's going to workout with me on the road?  At the Y it is fun to see people and chat between machines and all that but the fact that I can't get on the weight equipment during the times I can go sucks.  So, the breakdown happened and we bought an eliptical machine and treadmill.  I love it. I alreay had a weight bench and now the basement is like a small gym. It is great, I can run and sing loudly! Watch out next time I see you all I should be in good shape...

I added a photo from TechEd '03 of the INETA clan out at the developer party to my photo gallery.  More photos to come as I clean up my machine and the galleries feature is working!

Watch out Jeff...our boys are coming! Go Colts! A commanding defeat of Denver and now they are on to take down KS. (I'm really just posting this to get Jeff a bit :) )

Is updated in the previous post thanks to Jeff! Hopefully, once we move to the INETA server I can add a couple small photos every once and awhile! But for now, here are the dogs. Happy New Year!