Can anyone from Microsoft or anywhere else tell me why, when I register for a MS event, under the drop down box for where you heard about the event, there still is no specific entry for “Saw it in a blog”? I know with Channel 9, weblogs.asp.net, and blogs.msdn.com, MS knows that blogs exist, but every time I have to chose “Saw it on the web” I kinda feel, um I can’t really explain it. I really wish they would just add it and save me countless hours and dollars of therapy already!
There’s something quaint and charming about Yankee Magazine. It’s about as New England as a magazine can get. Whenever I pick up a copy, I feel like I am taking a trip thru time. With all the colonial era sights and sounds of New England, hayrides, ice fishing events, tall ships converging on an old port town like Mystic or Newport, and everything else old, classic, and New England in general, I can’t believe what I found.
On the Yankee Magazine website, they have listings for podcasts, online maps, and get this Fall Foliage RSS feeds. Check it out for yourself! I am having a hard time with this. The geek in me is foaming at the mouth, but the New England Leaf Peeper in me was just fine with cellular-less, pager-less weekends of old stone walls, maple sugar candy, quaint town greens, 200+ year old churches and tons of town, county, and fire department fairs and festivals. How can a techie thing like RSS feeds possibly fit in here? I dunno.
I subscribed, but I think I might have felt a little something special fizzle away inside me as I did.
Is there room for things like podcasts and RSS feeds in the realm of that awesome, magical time of year in one of the oldest, most classic and colonial places in America? I guess time will tell.
Last I heard, there were something like 50% of the VB developers out there that were still using VB6 and writing and maintaingn VB6 code. Based on the feedback and uproar of the developer community over the discontinuation of the VB6 support by Microsoft, there are still TONS of folks out there in VB6 land (present company included). Face it there are thousands of companies out there with lots of time and money invested in millions of lines of VB6 code. Can they upgrade it all over night and move on? NO WAY, but it never hurts to stay up to date and on top of things when it comes to development and languages and upgrades. From what I hear and see ( I am using VB.net 2003 for quite a few projects, and am currently developing a few soon to be production apps in VB.net 2005) the jump to .net just got even easier with Visual Studio and Visual Basic 2005. If you need to start or continue on the path to .net, NOW IS THE TIME!!! There are tons of resources, free ebooks, blogs, classes, seminars, podcasts and webcasts that will help you make the move.
MSDN has a great new roadshow out touring the country, the Methods and Masters Visual Basic Migration Roadshow. From the MSDN page:
Are you a Visual Basic 6.0 developer? Are you creating the same kind of tired applications that you have been building for the last 5-10 years? If so, its time for you to experience first hand what the latest advances in Visual Basic 2005 have in store for you. Whether you need to build Windows applications, Web applicatiVB6ons, Pocket PC or SmartPhone applications, or applications that exploit the functionality that exists in Microsoft Office, today’s Visual Basic does it all.
What can you learn about Visual Basic 2005 in three hours? How about creating smart client applications that understand when they’re connected to the network and when they’re not? How about deploying these smart clients with just a click of your mouse? That’s just the beginning. You’ll get powerful lessons from Brian Randell, a master Visual Basic developer.
There are still a few dates left, so check it out! I’ll be at the Boston one for sure.
I was looking for a small flash memory based MP3 player for podcasts and a few tunes I wanted to have portable. I never owned a small MP3 player before now. I started with a 20GB Archos, and when that died, I moved to a Creative Zen 40GB, which I am still very happy with, but when you want a few hours worth of podcasts or tunes, the Zen can be a bit big and heavy. I also recently started biking again and the thought of my 40GB Zen somehow falling, crashing to the ground and self destructing was enough for me to start shopping for a flash player. All I knew was I wanted as much storage space without an actual hard drive (no moving parts actually) and I wanted it light and fairly usable. I looked at the Mobi Blu and thought I found a winner. 
Alas when I shopped around (Wal-Mart was the only store that claimed to have these little hotties at the time) a few stores and came up empty handed, I had to make a choice. All I had for time to make up my mind was the 15 minutes it took the elderly (not old, *elderly*) man to open the MP3 player case at my friendly neighborhood Wal-Mart. In the end I went with the 1GB Sony Network Walkman.
I like Sony, I like my PSP, I like my Cybershot camera, so I went with the Sony.
All in all I have to say the user experience is very satisfying so far. I like the AAA battery, no fancy schmancy battery to replace when the built in one stops charging, and if the battery needs to be charged and I am out somewhere, there are a million places I can go to get a batt, no waiting till I am near an AC outlet to recharge. That was an added bonus I didn’t think of. The only thing I miss is the drag and drop convenience of my old Archos. When I wanted to add music to my Archos, I took out my USB cable, let Windows find it as a removable drive, copy my audio over to it and away I went. Now with the Creative Zen, and the Sony, I can plug my USB cable in and move audio to my removable drive, but the built in MP3 player does not see the music. It kinda gets treated as a great big memory stick. If you want the music to show up and be playable as music on the MP3 player, you have to use the manufacturer supplied software to move the music to the device. Not a deal breaker, and I think most MP3 players work this way now anyways, but I miss that drag and drop audio convenience. If I am away from home and there is a podcast someone wants to share with me, I can copy the audio to the device, and then when I get home, copy the audio off the drive to my PC, and then back in thru the software. That’s my only complaint with the Sony Network Walkman so far. All in all, I am very happy with the device and can recommend it to anyone looking for a reliable, bigger flash based MP3 player.
Looks like Code Camp 4 (the original one baby!) is coming together well. Thom has the work in progress version of the agenda up on his site. Code Camp 4 will be held on Sept 24th and 25th at the Microsoft office in Waltham, MA. I think we should all petition that the governor of MA officially change Waltham’s tagline to Waltham, MA: home of the original Code Camp and the best developer community in the WORLD! I’ll have a petition ready that weekend for everyone to sign : )
Check out the agenda, register, book your room at the Westin, and get ready to get your geek on! Haven’t heard anything yet but there may be a get together after camp ends Sat night at the bar of the Westin? Can anyone confirm or deny this? Last Code Camp there was, it was a smash, and I think the temporary restraining order the Westin got against the developer community has expired : ). Hope to see you there!
There is still time to register yourself as a speaker if you wish. Have something you want to see presented that isn’t on the agenda, fill this out, send it to Thom, and present it your damn self!
I have to say, I have *NO* affiliation with the folks at Backpack or Basecamp. I *have* been using Backpack for a while and feel free to contact me if you have any questions or comments.
I had on my personal to do list, for some time, a web app that would serve as a catch-all for my ideas, to-dos, files, links, and other misc. debris, bit never was able to find the time to even start planning it. Maybe if I had a place on the web where I could store my ideas and notes on the app, I would have.
Enter Backpack. From the folks who brought us Basecamp comes another great idea. Backpack is basically a catch-all for my ideas, to-dos, files, links, and other misc. debris. There is a “reminders” feature where you add reminders to yourself and the app will email the reminder to you when you specify it to. I love it. You get to organize your backpack into “pages” where you can store to do lists, notes, links, and even files and pictures (files and pictures require a very very reasonably priced paid account).
There isn’t enough room here to list all the things I like about backpack. They have a developer API where you can write code against web services for retrieving, updating and adding content to your backpack. You can also email stuff right into your backpack, they give you a random email address for each page that will add the body of your email to your page. If you want, you can even specify in the subject line of the mail message that the email be added as a to do item, reminder or a note! Wow, great stuff.
I have one page in my backpack for links I want to look into further when I have time, one for links that I want to share with other people or clients, one for myself with general notes and reminders that are business related, a similar one for personal stuff, and individual ones for a few of the projects I am working on.
The interface / presentation is awesome, the app makes it very easy to add, edit, and delete content, as well as re-arrange and re-organize it. The whole experience is very comfortable and intuitive. I also have to say that pretty regularly, on their backpack blog, they are announcing a new change or feature.
And the feature list continues… You can share your pages out and even include a list of email addresses of people you want to be able to change your page, great for interaction with clients or partners! The sharing option has a cool “changes” feature where you can see, and even subscribe to via RSS, all the recent changes.
There is nothing new about any of these tools or features, but the idea / presentation / implementation of backpack makes for a very portable “home away from home” for me and I see myself using it for a long long time. Check it out today. They have a free version that is very useful. I love having all the “stuff” I want and need just a few clicks away; at home, work, on the road (if you want to get at your backpack from the road, point your mobile browser to your backpack address with /mob appended to the end and there you go, a lightweight, functional mobile version of your backpack. For example: http://whatever.backpackit.com/mob Note: You may need to add /mob/login if /mob alone isn’t working.
For the first time in a while, I found a product that I can’t actually say “hmm, is good, but it would be great if they only added…” I love it, check it out and you will too!
Again, I have to say, I have *NO* affiliation with the folks at Backpack or Basecamp. I *have* been using Backpack for a while and feel free to contact me if you have any questions or comments.