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...
I'm giving a talk next week at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC). I happen to be in the fun position where I'm directly following the keynote. I've sat in on content reviews and keynote writing sessions so I know the messaging from that talk and the overlap that there will be with my session.
One of the services that they offer to their speakers is a speech coach. It's the first time that I've worked with one one on one. I sat through a class offered by a different conference a number of years back. It was fairly useless so I didn't have high hopes for another speaker coach. Boy was I wrong.
More on my blog at Public Speaking - Great Beginnings.
Writing good error messages is an art form. It's important though because the error messages are often the only communication with the user in an already frustrating situation for said user. More about this sensitive topic on my blog at Solid Error Messages.
I've been at Microsoft a little over a year and a half. I'm very excited about a number of the new technologies that are here and on the coming roadmap. Microsoft is at a point where it's more open than it's ever been. The level of community involvement in projects like the ASP.NET MVC framework, IronRuby and much more has been historic.
I get that it could always be better. But don't (as Joe Brinkman put it) throw a brick through my window to tell me that... More on my blog at Ranting and Raving or Getting Results?
A few weeks back John Hopkins forwarded me a video from TED. Specifically he sent me a talk by Clifford Stoll called "18 minutes with an agile mind" that he thought reminded him of me. Not because of the brilliance that he showed but because of the ADD nature of the speaker. I was blown away. Much more on my blog at My Daily TED.
Jeff Blankenburg called me out with his Software Development Meme. It's actually a funny thing that he did because I have a much different background than much of the industry. My undergrad is actually English with a minor in Drama and a minor in Communications. When others are talking about programming outside of the box, I ask the really simple question of "What box? - nobody told me about a box..."
More on my blog at Software Development Meme
As I've started writing about public speaking, I have started getting great questions that lead to more blog posts - keep those coming! I was talking to a fellow speaker (who can identify himself in the comments if he so chooses) and they brought up the fact that it's hard for them to prepare a demo. So I've tackled this tough issue on my blog at Doing a Demo while Public Speaking
In my ongoing series about public speaking, I'm writing about preparing for a presentation. Preparation is key in giving a great presentation. More on my blog at Prepare Yourself To Give a Great Talk.