According to Scoble there is a DevDays blogging contest. DevDaysBloggers.Net will be tracking the number of blog posts from each city aggregated throught their site.  

The only problem is that currently only Keynote Speaker, Developer Evangelist, Doug Turnure and I are the only two people listed for the Raleigh-Durham event. Say it isn't so! Please tell me there are more of you out there. Signup and be heard! My only other option is to try and convince Doug to blog his keynote one line at a time! (Hmm... will there be wifi?)

If you're going to be at the Raleigh-Durham event  on March 9th, drop me a note. If you're not going to be there, go sign up now! (Speaking of Raleigh events, the next local MSDN event will be held on March 2. (For more info on this and upcoming events)

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Now that nearly every portable computing device is being made with some for of wireless connectivity device inside we see more and more locations offering their services as an access point. Some companies like T-Mobile are partnering with destinations like Starbucks and Borders. I personally still have a tough time accepting their rate plans, but they're getting closer.

And then there are the locations that offer free network access to their customers. I've been amazed at how my destinations of choice have changed because of free wireless access availability. Now don't get me wrong, it's not that I wouldn't be willing to pay for some level of service at an appropriate price point. After all, I definitely spend more going to site that has network access. I often end up having that extra cup of coffee or eventually give into the fresh baking just added to the display I'm sure it helps them increase their sales at the end of the day and I go away happier with a better perceived value for my money. More customers and increased sales per customer, how can you go wrong?

My current locations of choice include:

Bear Rock Cafe

Bean Traders

and I hope to check out the Jump' N Java Cafe' and the Gateway Cafe in the near future.

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In a number of recent conversations people have complained about not being able to find the source code for many of the old red cover Wrox titles that are now apparently out of print. APress, which has republished some of the titles also has the source code online for many of the other titles here. Now I can find it again and so can you.

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…and the rockets' red glare…

Tuesday, February 17, 2004

7:32 PM

This is off topic for the usual content of this site, but this Saturday I was able to witness the launch of a Titan 4B rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. There is certainly something special about space travel. While touring the exhibits including the Apollo program one can not help think what it would be like to be apart of something that big. While there are many large scale accomplishments being achieved by large groups of people, is there anything else like putting a man on the moon? At PDC I heard how Microsoft is spending more on Longhorn than it cost to put a man on the moon ($450,000,000) [There, this post is now on topic] I hope that NASA is able to refocus on a large goal like heading back to the moon, or to Mars. There have been so many spin-offs that have benefited society as a result of their efforts.

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Tech Engage is a non-profit organization  in North Carolina with the goal of providing technology training to those that are unemployed or under-employed in the IT industry including courses on ASP.NET and SQL SERVER. A lot of hard work goes into this by some great people. Check it out...

TechEngage - Essential Tools for the unemployed.

With a continued sluggish economy and technology jobs being shipped overseas every day, having market-relevant technical skills is more important than ever.  TechEngage is a non-profit organization created specifically to provide Essential Tools that unemployed technology workers can use to improve their chances of gaining employment in today's rapidly changing economy.

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Jim Duffy Presents DotNetNuke

Wednesday, February 11, 2004

7:00 PM

Tonight at the TRINUG meeting Jim Duffy presented DotNetNule, a free content management portal.

A walk through in how simply it is to setup and administer a DotNetNuke portal. The Triangle .Net User Group site has recently been converted over. The framework provides a nice way to separate the site administration activities from the content entry/update roles.

One of the cool thing that Jim went on to discuss was the creation of your own modules for use within the portal framework. While the main portal code is in VB, you are able to use any .Net language to extend the portal to meet your needs, with the benefit of having built in security and administrative capabilities. Jim used DotNetNuke for his corporate website www.takenote.com. The coolest thing is that you can have info from the site automatically syndicated in RSS for aggregator consumption!

A new version 2.0 is apparently on it's way in the new future with skins and a new data provider model.

Tonight's meeting sponsor was SyncFusion who provided pizza and brought some great door prizes and product samples.

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Joe Hummel, PHD is currently offering a highly enjoyable and informative 15 webcast series on software development using .Net. This is yet another great opporunity to learn through webcasts provided by Microsoft. Joe Hummel is a Computer Scientist specializing in .NET training, as well as general Computer Science education. He is a trainer for DevelopMentor, an assistant professor at Lake Forest College

If anybody is interested in learning a good combination of .Net and programming fundamentals I suggest you check this out. If you can't make the webcasts live, they are available afterwards for replay on demand. This is a great way to learn, and I thank whoever it as a Microsoft that is looking after bringing us this content!

If you're intersted in more webcasts, Microsoft has a list of upcoming and previously recorded events.

I better get back and listen before I miss something...

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After spending the last month getting to know my Tablet PC I've decided that I need to make some time to start writing some code for. Moving to a Tablet has been a great experience and has opened a world of opportunities to me.

Since the helloworld of ink seems to involve taking a picture, adding some text and doing something with it, I've set my mind on creating postcards. Living some 3000 miles from the majority of my friends, family, and co-workers I always enjoy sending images from my digital camera. So here begins my journey in ink....

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3/9/2004 - Intro to the Prescriptive Architecture Group

Microsoft has bolted an extended event to the end of DevDays on March 9th in Raleigh-Durham. This extra session is open to the public. It will run from 5:30 to 6:30 and will be at the Marriott Durham at the Civic Center, Ballrooms 1 and 2.

A number of us from the Triangle .Net Users Group will be at the event promoting the group as a great information resource to the local developer community.

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Welcome back Mr. Scoble!

Robert Scoble is one of the reasons that I started to read weblogs and eventually started my own. I think many would agree that he is a poster child for blogging. He always seems to come up with some real gems. To me the real value is when he applies his own experiences of the technology industry to current events. His insights are well worth noting.

Over this time, there has been another Mr. Scoble that has been taking form. As part of his role as a Microsoft “Evangelist” for Longhorn, he has made himself very accessible to the community. I think that Robert by far has a better understanding and relationship with the users of MS products. He is easily one of the most approachable faces Microsoft has ever seen. He really seems to care about the issues and truly gets involved with the issues that corss his desk. This s the real value, to us and to the “New“ Microsoft, a publicly accessible, well connected Robert Scoble.

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Stevex has posted some extremely handy code to make a service self installable (and un-installable). Another nice touch is adding a debug mode to run and test your code without installing as a service. Recently I've talked with a number of people that are writing services that will also find this usefull.

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