Dan K Blog

CT MSDN Event announced - August 31, 2006

posted @ Friday, June 30, 2006 12:06 PM | Feedback (0) |

Great Deal from Apress

Head over to the Apress site for a great deal on a bundle of VB 2005 books.

They are offering:

From June 16-30, purchase this limited edition VB 2005 eBook bundle for $50 (a $110 value!). That's right, instead of the standard eBook discount of 50% off the list price, you'll pay just $12.50 for each eBook. The four titles included are listed below. Sorry, but no substitutions allowed.

This is a great deal for anyone who works with VB 2005. I’ll be ordering mine at lunch today! Check it out.

posted @ Tuesday, June 20, 2006 7:42 AM | Feedback (1) |

Virtual Mobile User Group - Wow

Wow, Don Sorcinelli is a genius! Head over to the Boston Pocket PC site for the announcement of their new user group. From the site:

Our meetings will be held live via Microsoft Live Meeting every other 3rd Wednesday of the month from 12 Noon - 2 PM EDT/EST.

What a great way to meet the challenges of starting a new user group! If you develop applications or web sites that target Windows Mobile devices, check this out. Don is a great presenter and a great guy all around. Make sure you mark your calendars for Wednesday, July 19th from 12 - 2 PM EDT.

posted @ Monday, June 19, 2006 8:13 AM | Feedback (0) |

SQL Prompt Not for me.

Ok I tried to love the new wonderful, highly acclaimed SQL Prompt, but can’t. It says it works with VS2005 and, although I no longer take the short yellow bus to work, I feel like I should. I cannot get it to work in the IDE. I checked all my settings, emailed friends, etc and… nothing! The conflict between SQL Prompt’s ‘hot keys’ and the ones I know and love in VS2005 just confuses me. I think I’ll stick with snippets and TextPad copy-pastes from my existing library of SQL ‘code’. Sorry SQL Prompt, it’s not you, it’s me, and I hope we can still be friends?

p.s. Shame on me because I was up at Tech*Ed last week in Boston and I saw people walking around with Red-Gate shirts, so they were probably there, I was just too busy to go see them and have them hit me over the head with my laptop to get SQLP to work

posted @ Monday, June 19, 2006 6:31 AM | Feedback (0) |

CodeSmart for VB6

Ok, I now know I am not the only one still writing VB6 code. I think the number I keep hearing is something link 50%? Well I am one of that whatever percentage. We have some apps that will never need enough maintenance / upgrades / enhancements to warrant a migration, but we work on a lot. The VB2005 upgrade wizard took *all* weekend when we analyzed the app to see what we needed to do to move it, just for laughs. I do a talk called VB2005 for VB6 Developers, and it usually draws a pretty good audience. Today I was checking out Roy Osherove’s blog and I came across this. I quickly downloaded and installed the demo and I have to say I quiet like it! I haven’t even checked out all the features but it looks like this app is a keeper!

It kinda makes VB6 look and act like all the parts of VB2005 that I use every night. Trust me, if you are still doing work inVB6 land, this *is* the tool for you. The web page has a ton of information on it, but really, you have to see it to believe it, so download the trial today, I just have to warn you, you’ll be either begging your boss by noon for this or trying to calculate how many lattes you would have to skip to be able to buy this yourself .

Try it today and let me know what you think, and, *NO* I do not work for any of the companied involved here, I just love great tools.

posted @ Monday, June 19, 2006 6:18 AM | Feedback (2) |

Getting Sh-t Done

I think I am still stuck in my analog world for task management. I love my moleskine and 3x5 cards from Levenger I needed to find a way to get my personal, fulltime job, side jobs, household and speaking tasks in order. I couldn’t find one I really loved, GTD was probably the closest, but I wasn’t in love with it. Enter Bill Westerman and his wonderfully simple Getting SH-t Done (GSD) Check out the article and his photo stream for all the details, I love it.

It’d also integrate easily into a text based digital system. Use [ ] [.] and [x] or [/] and keep the list(s) in something like gmail or backpack to have it always accessible. Thanks Bill for a great system!

posted @ Monday, June 19, 2006 6:05 AM | Feedback (1) |

TechEd Bot

Hey I just found out, if you add the bot teched06@hotmail.com to your MSN messenger you can get all kinds of TechEd info, pretty cool. Can you find the hidden game? I’ll be up at TechEd on Thursday and Friday.

posted @ Tuesday, June 13, 2006 11:01 AM | Feedback (0) |

NJCode Camp II another success!

Ok, despite what the timestamp might say, it’s midnight here in CT. A late end to a long day. It started around 530 AM when I got in my car and headed to Iselin New Jersey. Many hours and many miles later, I do declare the day to be another success for Don, Scott and Peter, as well as all who attended and presented. I did 2 talks VB2005 for VB6ers and Meet Visual Web Developer Express. Although the ‘intro’ sessions weren’t as popular as they were at the last Boston Code Camp, those who *did* attend my sessions seemed to have learned a few things and enjoyed themselves. I caught a great presentation by Chip Lemmon called ‘Down With Datasets’. I recommend catching this talk if you happen to see it at a user group or code camp in your area. Got to see some old buds like Don, Kevin, and Robert Holmes, and meet some new and interesting people like Chip and Mr Community Server, Scott Wateramsysk. Another great Code Camp put on by the NJ guys. We ended up at Bertucci’s after and managed to get the wait staff to sing Happy Birthday (complete with a candle and cake) to Don, as thanks for pulling the thing together. After another 3 hours of driving through night and rain, I am home and looking forward to the next NJ Code Camp. Keep an eye on NJCodeCamp.Org for more information on the next round! Next time I’ll leave the ‘intro’ stuff at home and bore you with some crypto! Sam Gentile was definitely missed, dunno much about the situation, but I wish you good health and a speedy recovery Sam. Miguel, where the hell were you? I’ll get my code and slide decks up on the site for all who are interested.

<posted from Word 2007>

posted @ Saturday, June 03, 2006 9:31 PM | Feedback (0) |