At a recent Central Region Evangelism offsite meeting, we did something fun. The first morning was setup as a skills training day. The skill? Improv! We hired Chris Miller from LifePlays to work with the group on improv as a communications and collaboration technique.
I learned a lot from it and our whole team is working together better as a result.
I blogged the experience on my blog at And We Might Even Improv...
I was just on a cool webcast called the .NET Coffee Break Show. I did a short show on getting started with IronRuby and Silverlight.
Because the show is supposed to be just 30 minutes or so, I didn't get into my usual preaching about the Ruby programming language or why people should use a dynamic language. Instead I just stated the fact that I really like Ruby and I really like Silverlight and I especially like the combination of the two.
I've got a walk through on getting started with IronRuby and Silverlight on my blog at .NET Coffee Break Show on IronRuby and Silverlight
It's an exciting time here at Microsoft. Last week we announced Microsoft BizSpark!
Microsoft BizSpark is a global program designed to accelerate the success of early stage Startups. Microsoft has realized that most startups have more time than money. This means that in an attempt to save some cash up front, many will pursue free technology paths rather than spending the money on a more complete solution. The issue is that even though they have more money than time, if they don't get to revenue quickly, they will fail. To help out here, Microsoft has taken cost off the table as an issue for the startups adopting any of the Microsoft technologies in their products and offerings.
Much more about the offer on my blog at Microsoft BizSpark
We've got a fantastic opportunity for you here in the Heartland district. Visual Studio 2010 is the next generation of tools for building .NET applications of all varieties. One of the things that we are taking to heart is testability and testing tools. You can come meet the guy that's in charge of building all of those tools. Do you want to know how they test the testing tools? Do you want to know how to use those tools to the best of your abilities? Do you have any questions at all? Come meet Mark Mydland
Dates and more on my blog at Meet the Principal Group Manager of VSTS Test!
I've been a long time supporter of PreEmptive Solutions. They've done a great job of supporting .NET. As a Cleveland based company, they are in my territory as an evangelist.
Microsoft just released a huge press release on the new things that PreEmptive is doing - specifically, they are expanding well beyond obfuscation to anti-tampering, run time intelligence, licensing support for ISVs and much much more.
More on my blog at Microsoft and PreEmptive Solutions - new features for VS 2010
I did a joint session with James Ward from Adobe at the JAOO conference. As you know I'm an evangelist for Microsoft focusing on RIA and UX. James is one of the Flex evangelists for Adobe.
This is a talk that James and I have been talking about trying to pull off for quite a while and I was thrilled that we actually got to do it. James and I have been going back and forth for over a year and a half now talking about the definition of RIA as well as what are the best and worst architectural patterns. Some of this was based on an article that James co-wrote for InfoQ called “Top 10 Mistakes when building Flex Applications”. I borrowed the mistakes that applied across the board regardless of what RIA technology you were using and added the best practices part.
You can find the slide deck and an extensive walk through of the entire deck at Architecture of RIA from JAOO.
It's been an amazing month. I had the opportunity to take a tour around Europe speaking about Silverlight. I got to see a lot of different countries, speak to a lot of different people, hear a lot of different visions and opinions and really experience how global of a company Microsoft truly is.
So what was I talking about? I was really talking about building Rich Internet Applications with Silverlight from an architect's perspective. The first part of the talk is really more about usability and user centric design than it is Silverlight in specific. The second part of the talk is an expanded version of a talk that I first did with Mike Labriola and later with James Ward. I added a ton of specific material about Silverlight to it. The whole deck is linked on my blog...
Much more on my blog at - European Silverlight Tour...
I'm sitting in the back of day 3 reflecting on the previous two days. It's amazing the group of people that Joe has put together here to speak on Ruby in the enterprise.
A lot more on my blog at eRubyCon 2008 Day 3
Yesterday I wrote a write up of eRubyCon 2008 Day 1. I'm learning a ton - the only issue that I've had is that my brain is filling up. It's an amazing conference.
I wrote up day to at eRubyCon 2008 Day 2.
There's something surreal about blogging by the campfire watching the sun rise. I'm out with my boys on a guys day out. Ok, I didn't post this from the campfire but I could have since I had cell signal and can tether my phone... But I resisted the urge. What you've got here is what I happened to jot down while my boys were sleeping.
More on my blog at Blogging by the Campfire
This past weekend was the Ann Arbor GiveCamp 2008. The idea is Geeks Giving Back. The GiveCamp organized a number of charities(15) and a number of developers (over a hundred signed up and 90ish showed - I don't have exact numbers). We showed up on Friday night at 5:00 and started work. At 3:00 on Sunday afternoon, we showed what we had accomplished. In many cases, the charities just needed a web site or a better web site. In some cases, they needed real programming work done.
Lots more on my blog at Ann Arbor GiveCamp 2008...