INETA

What I have been doing ?

Rai Umair — Wed, 07 Apr 2004 20:14:00 GMT

Two words 'not much'... at least not remotely as much as I would like, lazing most the past week in thoughts I have no control over or watching TV and chatting aimlessly on MSN (something I rarely do). But I still managed to do a few things geeky :).

Introducing GMail

Free email with 1000 MB of email space from Google.com! It's relatively not a new thing for geeks with there own POP accounts or people using Outlook Express or other popular mail readers but for end users stuck up with Hotmail, CoolMail and WhatNotMail offering a meager 4MB (God, a descent attachment today takes a MB or more) for such email users it will mean a lot. It will translate to better email management and sort of bring a revolution when every one saves his mails and some sort of tracking is enabled check GMail.com and read the interesting FAQ page here for more information.

My up with Avalon and Office 2003

I was really impressed updating Office XP to MS Office 11 suite, the most notable application in the package will the the Publisher, maybe because I used it for the first time. Like all office versions learning the basics was easy as sitting for 20 minutes and playing with the controls. I still can’t believe the templates I created for INETA Pakistan from email to letterheads, from newsletters to business cards without much effort at all!!!. I must say the ‘MaterSet’ in Publisher feature rocks!

InfoPath is a cool concept but without SharePoint Portal Server it is almost useless. FrontPage has gained a lot on new features, I liked the IFrame editing feature, Layer support, ASP.NET database forms and views but I am lost why they changed the table creation mechanism, and it basically really sucks for me right now.

Other then working on INETA Pakistan content using MS Office 11. I was also catching up on Longhorn and reading new articles on MSDN. My interest in Avalon (codename given to the preseantion layer of the next windows version) rejuvenated as I prepared a introductory presentation for a whole bunch of my class mates at my university as a Multimedia systems assignment. Avalon is really slick I must say. XAML is a much needed evolution and also matches with the upcoming W3C standard of Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) where vector graphics are made based on XML input.

Microsoft SAT 2004 Karachi, Notes from the Day

Rai Umair — Sun, 28 Mar 2004 09:14:00 GMT

Microsoft Software Architect Tour Karachi went away quite well. Although the event started a little later then 9:30 but the 150 seated auditorium was jam packed as we entered to take to our seats, Gurkan Sulk, Vaqar Khasmani, Haseeb (the Winqual Guys) represented Microsoft from MEA, Pakistan and USA while I from INETA Pakistan and Khurram from Kalsoft were the local speakers there.

I also met Jawad Rehman the Microsoft’s country manager for Pakistan and Dr. Wahab (former IBA chief) and had very interesting conversations on history, Pakistan and their polices and outlooks before the event started and in the lunch break.

The day was long and I got a headache in the end but I am was really pleased to be offered sponsorship of a venue by the kind MAJU people and the general reaction of the 150+ attendees to bring in the developer community revolution in Pakistan. My speech was in fact accepted quite well by all the senior architects and members. In the end 15 lucky people got Microsoft goody bags and all the speakers got bouquets of flowers and table clocks from MAJU as a token of appreciation for being there and all participants got the SAT 2004 trapper keeper with printouts of all the slides.

There was a lot of still photography and also a video recording of the event. I will get some pictures up as soon as I get my hands on them.

The Lahore and Islamabad events to happen on the 3rd and 4th of April are completely booked and Microsoft is planning to fly in speakers from Belgium. While INETA Pakistan is using the services of our User Group Leaders Misbah and Yawar to make there speeches.

Upcoming Speech at the SAT, 2004

Rai Umair — Wed, 24 Mar 2004 22:35:00 GMT

Ah...I forgot, I'll be speaking in Software Architect Tour, 2004 at the Muhammad Ali Jinnah Untervarsity (MAJU) next week on March the 29th. Its at 22-E Block-6 P.E.C.H.S, Karachi. Damn ! Why do I have to miss an important MMS hourly back here in my university? Bad timing... I guess.

I'll be giving my not so infamous (cos its the fist time):

INETA Pakistan - The Developer Community Revolution Speech

I'll talk about User Groups, INETA, INETA Pakistan, the new User Group Structure for Pakistan and our Vision Forward. My talks are very interactive, much like Ihab's (Microsoft Dubai) so even if you know about INETA Pakistan, you'll still have fun.

Should be fun, please stop by!

INETA Pakistan – A new revolution in the Planning

Rai Umair — Wed, 24 Mar 2004 22:22:00 GMT

Arsalan Minhas the INETA Chair for Pakistan and also my friend has left off to Korea to pursue a master’s degree and I have formally taken over all his responsibilities a few days ago. I have taken on me to bring a developer community revolution in Pakistan.

Right now I am in things way over my head, lots and lots of work do to which I am not deliberately delegating at this stage because I want to keep it all very tightly coupled. I sit here at home waiting for the clock to strike 10 (PST) or GMT 4 for my first weekly INETA–MEA meeting in which all the INETA MEA region chairs and managers participate online.

Wow! MSN messenger is an innovative new global conference room now. (ummm.. without the food though...)

I am very excited about the possibilities we can achieve here together (with you people). I will talk a lot about our work as we progress along our preparations. I am looking out for volunteers to assist us in our job. So if you feel passionate enough , pleae contact me, we will be gald to have your in our team.

INETA Community leaders get geeky gifts and more...

Rai Umair — Wed, 17 Mar 2004 01:14:00 GMT

INETA is sending in community kits from today… I was pleasingly surprised to be treated with 80 points which I get to spend for DNUG ordering cool ms press books and gadgets like webcams and USB drives…

Thankyou so much INETA. I wish MSDN Quarterly Kits could start coming in again too. I only got one last May 2003 and never heard from the staff responsible for the kits again.

Secondly I found this item very interesting… Have a look:

"What's the point of Mono and dotGNU?"
(http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/02/13/1416226&mode=thread)
and in The Code Project gives nine reasons not to use serialization
(http://www.codeproject.com/showcase/noserialise.asp).

.NET User Group Karachi Quiz – Security Symposium - INETA MEA

Rai Umair — Sat, 13 Mar 2004 23:11:00 GMT

I got 15 free passes to the security symposium and I am holding a quiz for my INETA based user group in Karachi, The initial response has been over whelming. I am currently thinking of some tricky questions that I will mail to all people on the DNUG mailing list by Monday, and the first 10 participants with all questions right will win a place to the Microsoft Security Symposium being held at Marriott, Karachi on Wednesday the 17th. More information about the event is available here.

I also mentioned about this on INETA Pakistan (dotnetPakistan.com) a website running but still under construction, I will finish it of as soon as I have the chance. Customizing the ASP.NET Portal Starter kit was piece of cake I even added my own RSS reader to download and show MSDN news (RSS) on the site but there’s something wrong with caching issues there, all the changes I make revert back to default values at random, I don’t know what’s going on even after going throw the source code again and again.

Lastly if you live in the (Microsoft’s) south gulf region visit dotnetPakistan.com for some very good free resources, Cd's and magazines. Lastly all INETA people can visit the INETA MEA (Middle East and Africa) site still under construction again as Zeeshan is not able to get access from the webmaster at INETA.

Content Idea #01 - For The User Group

Rai Umair — Fri, 05 Mar 2004 22:42:00 GMT

I run a INETA/MSDN based .NET User Group called the ‘.NET User Group Karachi’ and the task of moderating the online forum which we have on MSN Groups becomes a bottle neck for other tasks I am involved with namely my BCS degree and my obsession with software architecture. I want all the members to get fresh news and greater content, the reason they signed up for in the first place, but I can not do it manually so I have come up with this little idea, that I would also share here I guess.

Create an email account with a service that gives free forwarding (hotpop.com is really good) and subscribe to all the content (newsletters, flash etc.) and confirm their initial emails, once done with that register the email now with the group and voila instant content. The idea has some drawbacks like forced content and random removal by any one member can leave to no cent for others some times too but fore now on its working.

Another option is to configure a client to forward all messages with the word .NET in them to the group; you can do this in outlooks by using filters easily. I can’t run outlook all the time so I did not go for this better option.

I have tons of more content ideas in my head but as I have not slept in the past two days I will let me wait before i write them up.

Microsoft Pakistan is Great!

Rai Umair — Fri, 05 Mar 2004 11:19:00 GMT

My first visit to Microsoft Pakistan (a new office at Forum, Clifton, Karachi) went great, I met Vaqar the new ISV and DE there, the guy was very practical and reasonable in his evangelist approach.

INETA Pakistan (I lead the Karachi Chapter) and Microsoft Pakistan covered a lot of ground, we tend to pool and share in each others resources and are going to hold coordinated events in Pakistan; Do I sound like the news castor from out state TV? Never mind, there’s interesting notes to all of the talks that took place. Guess what? The latest scoop from the inside is that Microsoft Pakistan is going to have around 8 events this year and to start we have the definative security event the Security Symposium being held on the 17th of this month at Marriot, Karachi.

One thing I found very peculiar along my visits to Microsoft, Dubai a few months back and now Microsoft Pakistan is that I never happened to visit the evangelist offices instead on both occasions we had meetings in a conference room, I wonder why that is?

I got 15 free passes to this event, worth $ 50 each otherwise. Damn! I am happy alright! I plan to use 10 passes more intelligently then handing them over to my buddies :-). But that’s for another rant I guess.