Blogus Maximus

I haven’t had many opportunities to blog lately because I have extremely busy on some rather demanding/challenging back-to-back projects lately, but a couple things happened recently that I want to announce…

FIRST: This last Friday (June 19, 2009), I was called into my General Managers office at Magenic and informed that I had been promoted to Principal Consultant. This is something I have been working towards for some time, and I am very excited about the new responsibilities and challenges that will come with this role.

SECOND: Those of you that know me well are aware that I’ve been struggling with my health for some time. My weight tends to fluctuate (more than “just a couple pounds” in either direction) and lately I’ve been feeling like complete hell, partly because of my diabetes and partly because of my weight.

I’m not one to do much of anything in moderation… When I quit sodas, I had to go from a 12-pack a day to none (and stay there for a couple months) before I could “just” have 1 or 2 a day. This is also how I quit drinking (alcohol) a while back. Going cold turkey has never really been an issue for me. I’m gradually rebooting myself and focusing on eliminating a lot of unhealthy habits.

So, anyway, I’ve decided to do the same thing with meat. I don’t know for how long, or if I’ll even switch back once I’m used to being away from it, but I’m going to give it a shot.

I've been working with MVC for a little bit lately, and I've run into a really bizarre problem. I'm hoping someone can help me figure it out.

Everything "appears" to work fine when the page first loads. I have a dropdown with three values and a chart which displays some data based on the value selected in the dropdown.

Making a selection from the dropdown causes a roundtrip to the server. (This is good)

I can SEE new data if I step through the code in my View. (This is good)

The dropdown displays the newly selected value on the page. (This is good)

However, nothing else on the page changes! None of the new data shows up. It's all still the data from the initial page load (except the dropdown list).

WTF?!?!

I put in some temp variables in the View and grabbed some values from the ViewData and Response.Write them to the screen. When I step through the code, they have the correct value, but when I look at the web page, where I did the Response.Write calls, it still displays the values from the initial page load.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Recently XNA 3.1 was released and I think one of the coolest additions by far is the use of Avatars in game. Really brings a lot of ideas to mind.

The Creators Club site has posted their rules for Avatar use. My comments are inline.

Xbox LIVE Avatars are unique and personal items you can make available to players. We have a very specific set of rules for Avatar use to prevent abuse. Any Xbox LIVE Indie Game that contains Avatars must be Peer Reviewed to check for the following prohibited content:

• Player interacts with their avatar as if it’s a separate character

A player’s avatar does not have an autonomous personality or instinct.  The avatar is under the control of the owning player. It can have idle animations and can respond appropriately to game events but it should not interact with the user as if it is separate from the player, try to get the player’s attention in an annoying manner

ok, so I can kinda see this one. Nobody wants an annoying avatar. Still it would be interesting to have a game where your Avatar broke free from your control and you had to hunt it down. Oh well…

• Violence which causes blood, gore, dismemberment, decapitation, maiming, or mutilation

Cartoon violence is allowed.  Violence is allowed as long as there is no blood, gore, dismemberment, decapitation, maiming, or mutilation.  An example of allowable injuries includes injuries that might befall an avatar in a sporting event such as American football.  Avatars can die temporarily to depict failure.

I love how they specify “American” Football here. So Avatar Football is ok, but Avatar Hangman probably isn’t. Avatar Paintball is probably fine, but Avatar Sniper may not be. Avatar Fight Club (which I would absolutely pay for) is unlikely, it would seem.

• Player’s avatar talks

The player’s avatar should not have their own voice. They are allowed to make individual sounds, such as laughing and crying but otherwise cannot use a voice

I guess Avatar Psychotherapist is out of the question.

• Acts of sexual innuendo or mildly explicit sexual descriptions or images or sexual posturing

Sexual acts or terminology cannot be insinuated or enacted

See above. This also likely excludes Avatar Mansion, Leisure Suit Avatar and a variety of other interesting titles.

• Excretes obscene bodily fluids or substances

No sexual or bodily fluids or substances can come from the avatar

Well, yeah… it’s sad that we even need to say this. On the other hand, does this mean Avatar Snot Rockets probably won’t happen?

• Glamorized criminal act

Criminal activities need to be relevant to the story and are presented unfavorably

So much for Grand Theft Avatar.

• Acts of an aggressive or threatening manner

Gratuitous insults, bullying, intimidation or otherwise violent or emotional abuse of a position of power are not allowed. Avatars may leave innocents or bystanders slightly injured, but not dead.

So “Bully, Avatar Edition” probably won’t see the light of day. Wait, no gratuitous insults?  So I guess that means most of the Avatar Quiz Show games will be pretty dull too. There goes my “Are You Smarter Than An Avatar?” idea…

• Vulgar or profane act

Game-controlled avatars cannot use profane, racist, or discriminatory language, nor can they make obscene gestures.

Sorry guys, this means no “Avatar Hate Crime” (probably a good thing.)

• Use of controlled substances

An avatar is not allowed to hold, be seen around or partake in any controlled substances or paraphernalia including, but not limited to, alcohol, tobacco and drugs

So I can have a beer while I play, but my avatar can’t? Bummer. Avatar’s can’t even be seen around any controlled substances either, so I guess my idea of Avatar Drug Task Force might not fly.

• Replace Avatar features

The features of an avatar cannot be hidden or in obscured and cannot be replaced with alternative items. Items such as, but not limited to, masks, hats and alternative clothing,  are not allowed

All joking aside, this one is a real bummer, because I think an Avatar Baseball or Avatar Bowling would be super cool if we could replace the shirts with jerseys or bowling shirts, etc…

• Avatars proportions are not modified

The proportions of an Avatar cannot be modified form their original settings. An Avatar can be resized as long as the proportions don’t change

Ok, so as long as the proportions stay the same, I can make Attack of the 50 Foot Avatar. Now we’re getting somewhere.

The INETA Regional Speakers Bureau was announced today. I’ve been fielding questions on Twitter ever since the news came out, so I figured I would share some of the most common questions with you here, until we can get the INETA site updated.

Q: Why should I do this? Who does it benefit?
A: This program benefits User Groups and Speakers alike by providing funds for events. Speakers get increased exposure. UG gets a speaker. This also helps the group discover people adjacent to (rather than just in) their local community.

Q: Who gets the money?
A: Money goes directly to speaker for Travel & Expenses (up to $50)

Q: Why so little money?
A: Mostly budget reasons. Remember the intent is for semi-local travel, not national.

Q: Will there be Pizza for UGs that have Regional Speakers?
A: Nope, limited budget means money gets spent on providing max # of speakers. No pizza at this time. maybe in the future.

Q: How many Regional Speakers can a group request?
A: INETA will reimburse up to 2 speakers from the Regional Speakers Bureau per group, per year. This is separate from the National Speakers Bureau.

Q: What criteria will be used to determine how requests are approved (i.e. is it first come, first served, etc?)
A: Requests will be approved so as to ensure maximum coverage around the country, as budget allows.

Q: Why this instead of the National Speakers Bureau?
A: Not everyone is ready for the National Speakers Bureau. People who do well in the Regional SB will certainly be considered/encouraged to move up to the National SB. Think of it as a Farm Team for the National Speakers Bureau.

Q: What criteria are they considering "regional"? Drivable? Or is it up to the speaker's convenience?
A: Mostly up to the speaker, with a $50 cap on T&E, except for really remote locations (case by case basis for those.)

Q: Can National Speakers Bureau members participate in this program as well?
A: Yes, but they fall under the same financial limits.

Q: Sounds awesome, where do I sign up?
A: http://www.ineta.org/RegionalSpeakers/Default.aspx 

More to come…

June 9, 2009 – Twin Cities Developers Guild Meeting, featuring Mike Benkovich

When: 6:00 PM.

Where: New Horizons of Minnesota (4510 West 77th Street - Edina, MN 55435)   MAP

Mike Benkovich

Topic: Advanced Debugging with Visual Studio 2008
The system’s down, things are broken, what do you do? Before they panic you whip out your trusty Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 instance and attach to the troubled process. Use the tool the way it was meant to be used, quickly to identify the issue and save the day. Join us for this session as we look at tips and tricks for leveraging the power of the Visual Studio Debugger. We look at the scenarios and tools that are available to help you figure out what's broken.

Speaker Bio:
Mike Benkovich delivers technical presentations around the U.S. as a developer evangelist on the MSDN team at Microsoft. He has worked in a variety of professional roles, including architect, project manager, developer, and technical writer. Mike is also an author of two books, published by WROX Press and APress, which show developers how to get the most from their SQL databases. Since appearing in the 1994 Microsoft DevCast, Mike has presented technical information at seminars, conferences, and corporate boardrooms across America.

Please RSVP to DevelopersGuildEvents@gmail.com so we may obtain an accurate count for the meeting. Thank you.

Next INETA:Career Webcast - June 4, 2009, 6:00 PM ET 
Unlocking the hidden value of your organization through people, technology and innovation...

The implications of collaborative innovation are many—the most important being its potential to reshape not just individual enterprises, but whole industries, perhaps even entire economies. Hector believes in investing in innovation in good and bad times. This session covers the alignment of business and technology to create a flexible environment that fosters innovation without permission. How do we get the most out of your employees and how does the employee get the most out of management. Its a WIN-WIN proposition. This session will provide insights on how to unlock all of the assets that are hidden in an organization. i.e., technical, communications, services, experiences, and most important, the employees capabilities and desires. Unlocking thought leadership and innovation is at the heart of this presentation.

Hector Hernandez and Alex Funkhouser of Sherlock Technology Staffing ( http://sherstaff.com ) will present.

Register at http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=81190787250 or simply attend the LiveMeeting June 4 at 6 PM ET at https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/usergroups/join?id=43ZWP7&role=attend

If you missed the first two webcasts in this series, recordings of both are available on the INETA Live site ( http://live.ineta.org ).

You don't need talent to succeed, but Everything else Counts...
http://live.ineta.org/Videos/Player.aspx?video=debb517c-5f70-47b3-98c3-421eb667a80e

How to talk to your manager about your career and actually make it happen...
http://live.ineta.org/Videos/Player.aspx?video=9d2a4d7d-69ab-47ae-8a23-aa5fc4e492c6

Got this email yesterday.  wow this sucks… thanks for buying them and then putting them out of business… WTF?

Dear Caligari customer,

You may have heard that Microsoft Corporation, reacting to difficult business conditions, has been evaluating many of the products it produces and making the difficult decision to reduce investment in certain areas.

It is with regret that I have to tell you that trueSpace is one of the products affected. As a consequence, you will see reduction or elimination of services offered for trueSpace. For example, there will be no phone or email support offered for trueSpace by Microsoft, and our web site may also be affected. While the dates are not absolutely fixed, some services and contacts may come to an end as early as Friday May 22nd 2009, while others will continue as long as possible with no firm cutoff date available yet.

While we are working to minimize negative impact for the community, here are some things you may want to plan for in near future:

1. For those who have purchased and paid for Caligari products, download a copy of all purchased software from the repeat downloads area.

Please log in with your username and password at:
http://cart1.caligari.com/ebuy2/enterdownloads.asp

If you have forgotten either your user name or password, please visit:
http://cart1.caligari.com/forms/memberform.asp

Ensure you keep the copies and information in a safe place, as they may not be available for download again. Be sure you also have a copy of all required serial numbers, as there will be no support staff to assist you after a certain date.

2. For those who have downloaded trueSpace7.6 since it became free, if you do not already have a copy of the installer kept on your hard drive or on CD / DVD, you may wish to download the trueSpace7.6 installer and keep a copy in a safe place.

Please log in with your username and password at:
http://cart1.caligari.com/web/Truespacemainreg.aspx

If you have forgotten either your user name or password, please visit:
http://cart1.caligari.com/forms/tsmemberform.asp

3. Download a copy of any training that you wish to keep from our main website.

4. Download any useful plug-ins you wish to keep from the forums.

5. Download any useful information, training, tips etc from the forums that you wish to keep.

6. Contact any Caligari staff or forum users who you wish to keep in touch with, and arrange to have an alternative email address to contact them.

As a community you may decide to set up a new forum or meeting place. Please use the existing forums to announce the location of that new meeting space, and we will also strive to put that information onto our main website. I personally plan to visit any such meeting place to keep in touch with you and hear about your new plans.

All of us here in the Caligari team would like to thank everyone in our community for your long-standing support of trueSpace and Caligari. Our community – that is, all of you – were truly one of our best assets, and you have created incredible work, and we hope you will continue on to do even more amazing things.

I personally want to thank all of the Caligari staff for their amazing contribution to development of trueSpace and building of this community. During 25 years of trueSpace history the product made a difference in lives of many people and the world is a better place for it.

Roman Ormandy,
Caligari Founder

Microsoft Learning has just launched three free eLearning Clinics that you may be interested in. These Clinics are geared towards three different audiences, and focus on introducing new features and functionality to those interested in simply learning more about the OS or those that are already considering deploying in the near future. 

What’s New in Windows 7 for Consumers (1 Hour)

What’s New in Windows 7 for IT Professionals (2 Hours)

What’s New in Windows 7 for Information Workers (2 Hours)

Also, in case you are interested in more Windows 7 training and skills development information, the Windows 7 Learning Portal is now live as well!

This site is currently showcasing great readiness content, including 7 Silverlight Learning Snacks, free sample chapters from upcoming MS Press Books, Learning Plans, links to clinics/HOLs and more. This page can be found here - http://www.microsoft.com/learning/windows-7/default.mspx

Check it out: NINEQuestions.net

Also, follow @NINEQuestions on Twitter for updates whenever a new interview is posted.

If you plan on attending Tech·Ed, stop by the INETA booth in the Technical Learning Center Community Lounge for your chance to meet other members of the community, including members of the INETA Board, speakers from the INETA Speakers Bureau and User Group leaders from all over.  The INETA Walk of Fame will feature well known INETA Speakers Bureau stars and up and coming stars from local communities.  Come by and add yourself to the Wall of Stars.

During Tech·Ed, like always, we want to hear from you! What can we do to make INETA better? What can you do to help INETA? Got a question about running a user group? Want to start a new group? Want to get out and share your knowledge with others? Long story short, this is your chance to get your voice heard!

Stop by the INETA booth to register to win one of several great prizes, one of which is a Dell Mini 10 NetBook.^*  Winners will be drawn on Thursday evening at the Community Night event. Oh, and don't forget to pick up your Birds-of-a-Feather blinky flamingo pin. Take part in the fun and games and leave with some treasure from the ".NET of prizes".  See you at Tech·Ed.

^*INETA reserves the right to substitute a similar item with comparable value.

You can access all the old 9Q interviews, along with any new ones at this address: http://www.NINEQuestions.net

Also, for updates and notifications, follow @NINEQuestions on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/NINEQuestions

Thanks!!

If you’ve been to a community event anywhere in the right 50% of the continent (and possibly a few on the left) there’s a better than even chance you’ve shared some air with Steve Andrews at some point. This guy really gets around, and he’s a man on a mission. I’ll let him tell you more about that in these NINE Questions:

1. Where are you from? 
I was born at a very young age to my parents in West Chester, Pennsylvania, where I currently reside. Between then and now I have lived in upstate New York (about an hour from a stoplight), New Jersey, Indiana, Maryland, and I lived on a boat near Philadelphia for a year and a half. Currently, I am working to sell my house and buy a motor coach. The plan is to live on the bus for a year which will enable me to travel and promote community across the country through some programs I am developing.

2. Who do you work for? Give me the 10 second pitch on them. Why would I want to buy their product? 
You should totally buy their product! I am an independent consultant specializing in Application Lifecycle Management, Microsoft Visual Studio Team System, and custom application development.

3. What brought you to your current employer? 
Given the current economic conditions, my former employer was forced to lay off a significant percentage of their workforce. I decided it was a good opportunity to go independent and I’ve been doing that ever since.

4. You're also the Director of Technology with INETA, which means what exactly? 
Hah, it sounds fancy doesn’t it? It basically means that I’m in charge of INETA’s technology and everything is urgent. Seriously though, in a nutshell I am responsible for the technology assets across the organization. This includes the website, version control, email, and hosting as well as general the development process methodology and technology architecture strategies. One of my initiatives is also to build and promote the INETA Live brand and provide more regular content to the community through that medium.

5. How did you end up with that position? 
See, Rob told me I was signing up for a Code Camp… Actually it was something I had my eye on for awhile as a way to further continue engaging the community. Back in January, the INETA newsletter announced that nominations were being accepted for Board of Director positions for INETA North America, so I proceeded to email all the UG leaders I knew asking them to nominate me. Then somehow INETA made a mistake and I was elected to the board.

6. You do more community events than anyone else I have ever met. Do you think we're hitting any kind of critical mass with all the Conferences, Day of This, Codefoo, User Groups, Camps etc...? 
Definitely not: less than 1% of developers regularly attend community events. I think there is a lot of work still to be done in reaching more people, but I don’t think anyone’s figured out the magic formula to do that yet. I do however think we need more initiatives that engage high school and college students. As well I think we need to make conscious efforts towards providing more beginner level content. A couple local events have done that recently, and they were incredibly well received and resulted in an increase in attendance. I think a lot of us have been engrossed in the newer technologies for years, and we tend to forget that there are still a significant number of developers who haven’t ramped up to the newer technologies yet, even to .NET in general.

7. Ok, so obviously you're a strong supporter of the local and regional dev community, but that's just part of who you are. What's something the world doesn't know about you? 
Hmm, I do have a hotel keycard collection. At last count I had 44 from over 14 states including Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Washington, California, Hawai’i and Quebec. Does that count?

8. Any non-technical hobbies? What are they and why? 
I’m a bit of a closet songwriter. I have a couple guitars and a Korg Triton workstation that I play around with. Music has always been a big part of my life. I also enjoy outdoor stuff, like hiking, rock climbing, biking, kayaking, sailing, SCUBA, etc.

9. Last of all, any tattoos? 
I’ve thought about it, but so far I haven’t gone down that road. If I ever get one though, I have two simple rules for myself: 1) it shouldn’t be visible in casual summer attire, and 2) that I won’t regret it in 10 years. This means the decision to not get a VB6 tattoo on my forearm was probably a good idea <g>

{Edit: What exactly is he trying to say here, I wonder…}

The players…

I have 2 files, File1.txt is 9.6mb, File2.txt is 42k.  Both are just regular text files with no special characters other than the usual \r\n at the end of each line. I also have a Win Form with 2 buttons that have the code below attached.

The puzzle…

Button1 reads in File1 via a StreamReader and works perfectly.
Button2 reads in File2 via a StreamReader and does not work.

The code…

private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    SortedDictionary<string, string>[] SD;

    StreamReader sr = new StreamReader("file1.txt", System.Text.Encoding.UTF8);
    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
    while (!sr.EndOfStream)
    {
        char[] buffer = new char[10 * 1024 * 1024];
        int xx = sr.ReadBlock(buffer, 0, buffer.Length);
        sb.Append(buffer);
    }

    SD = Parser.ParseFile1(sb.ToString());

    //do something with it
    --snip--

}

private void button2_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    SortedDictionary<string, string>[] SD;

    StreamReader sr = new StreamReader("file2.txt", System.Text.Encoding.UTF8);
    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
    while (!sr.EndOfStream)
    {
        char[] buffer = new char[10 * 1024 * 1024];
        int xx = sr.ReadBlock(buffer, 0, buffer.Length);
        sb.Append(buffer);
    }

    SD = Parser.ParseFile2(sb.ToString());

    //do something with it
    --snip--

}

If I click Button1, the code runs as expected. The file is read in, dumped into the StringBuilder and then into the ParseFile1 routine as a string. Life is good.

If I click Button2, the file appears to be read in ok, I can examine the contents of the StringBuilder and the entire file is there, but once I hit the ToString() method on the StringBuilder and try to examine the contents of the string, I get a “serious error in the debugger” with no other information, and have to restart Visual Studio.

What’s the problem?

The answer…

I did eventually figure it out.  This one wasn’t obvious (to me, at least) so I’m hoping it stumps at least a few of you.

Select the text to read the answer.

UPDATE:

After getting a fair amount of feedback on this post, and some suggestions of different code to try, I’m happy to say the “problem” is no longer a problem, and the code is MUCH cleaner as a result.

Instead of:

    SortedDictionary<string, string>[] SD;

    StreamReader sr = new StreamReader("file2.txt", System.Text.Encoding.UTF8);
    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
    while (!sr.EndOfStream)
    {
        char[] buffer = new char[10 * 1024 * 1024];
        int xx = sr.ReadBlock(buffer, 0, buffer.Length);
        sb.Append(buffer);
    }

    SD = Parser.ParseFile2(sb.ToString());

I now have:

    SortedDictionary<string, string>[] SD = Parser.ParseFile2(File.ReadAllText("file2.txt", Encoding.UTF8));

No more memory errors, nice and clean. Thanks guys!!  (I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I didn’t know File.ReadAllText existed. I would have certainly started with that, had I known.)

Julie Lerman is one of the hippest, smartest people I know. If you haven’t already heard of her, this is your chance to crawl out from under that rock and get a glimpse of an industry legend. Don’t worry about that giant ball of fire in the sky, that’s just the sun. Those of you that HAVE heard of Julie probably already know how awesome she is, but keep reading anyway. My first introduction to Julie was hearing Bill Ryan refer to someone as “Julie Lerman smart.” I figured that was enough of a recommendation for me to find out who this person was. I’ve babbled long enough, and yes, this is quite possibly my longest intro ever… so I’ll shut up now. Here are NINE Questions with Julie Lerman:

1. Where are you from?
I live on a mountainside in the beautiful little state of Vermont that is tucked in between New York State, Canada and New Hampshire.

2. What do you do / Who do you work for / What is your product? Give us the "10 second pitch" on why I should use your product or services.
I am self-employed and work as a .NET mentor/consultant for development teams who are looking for additional guidance with their .NET applications as well as those who are specifically working with Entity Framework.

3. How did you get to where you are now?
I have worked for myself for over 20 years. I was a self-taught developer with a History degree. I worked alone for so many years but was fortunate enough to work with an architect on a short project at one point that opened my eyes to how beautiful software can be. When .NET came out, I was definitely challenged by so much power and flexibility and I was inspired to really explore it in a way that I had never done with dev tools before. Being involved with INETA in its early days as well as being an early blogger gave me exposure to a lot of new people and ideas as well as exposed me to the world for the first time. It’s been a crazy 7 years since then!

4. You're also a Microsoft MVP. What's your area of technical expertise? 
My MVP award is in Visual Basic which is the language I code in most of the time.  I also have a secondary discipline in Data Access. I work in smart client, web apps and services and I have developed a special knack with ADO.NET Entity Framework.

5. You recently wrote THE book on Entity Framework. What was that experience like?
In a word, “intense”. Now that it’s done I can add another word, “rewarding.” I have never focused on an individual topic so deeply before and it is amazing to have the in-depth knowledge on this topic that I have acquired. But it was a lot of work. I can’t emphasize “a lot” enough!

6. You do a lot of speaking, blogging, etc. What's the most recent event you spoke at and how did it go?
Just today, I did a presentation at the Communities2Communties event in Warsaw, Poland. This is the 2^nd year that this user group driven conference has been held. It’s a great event with a very warm and inviting community. I had a blast doing my presentation, Entity Framework Tips and Tricks, and managed to get the room filled with C# programmers to laugh with me, not at me, when I made the usual goofs when coding in C# on the fly.

7. Any words of wisdom for women just starting to enter IT, or considering a career in IT?
I think the most important for me is not to be daunted by the fact that this is a male-dominated field. It does not mean that you are out of place or don’t belong here. It just means that more men happen to be geeks. If nothing else, you can revel in being special. I’ve found that for women who do feel uneasy about being an anomaly, seeking out a mentor who is experienced in our field  is really helpful.  And while that mentor does not necessarily need to be another woman, a woman might have better insight into some of the special challenges women face when it comes to doing what it takes to continue learning – especially those of us who have children.

8. Any non-technical hobbies / interests? What's something the world doesn't already know about Julie Lerman?
I’ve been blogging for so many years that I can’t imagine that there’s anything left to tell! They’ve seen my garden photos and my dogs and read about my new skis and some of my cycling and kayaking adventures here in Vermont. I think by now everyone even knows that I have worked at Penthouse and Playboy magazines and been to a party at Hugh Hefner’s mansion. I don’t think I have anything to share that can top that.

9. Last of all, any interesting tattoos?
Not yet, but just keep working on me.

I’ve known Shawn for a few years now, mostly through his work with the developer community and of course his affiliation with INETA. I figured it was time you got to know him as well. Here are NINE Questions with Shawn Weisfeld:

1. Where are you from? 
I was born in Brooklyn New York and moved to South Florida when I was still in grade school. After graduating from high school I moved to Orlando to go to college at the University of Central Florida. There I was introduced to my first User Group, the Orlando .NET User Group.

2. Who do you work for? Give me the 10 second pitch on them. Why would I want to buy their product? 
Well my day job is for a large defense contractor, and as you might think you would want to purchase stuff from them if you wanted the bad guys to go BOOM. All joking aside defense is allot more than bombs and airplanes now  a days, with IT playing a huge role in everything from logistics to cyber defense. In addition to my day job I also teach Information Systems online for the Florida Institute of Technology.

3. What brought you to your current employer? 
I started at my day job when I was still a student at the University of Central Florida as an intern. The great thing about working there is that it is a "career" company. Unlike most smaller companies where you have to leave that company get new challenges, the size of my company allows for employees to be exposed to a wide range of different challenges and positions in locations literally all over the world.

4. You're also the Director of Community Activities with INETA, which means what exactly? 
Since I have only been the Director of Community Activities with INETA for less than a month now I am still trying to wrap my arms around this a bit. However I do know I am responsible to help organize INETA's presence at conferences like TechEd and PDC. Additionally I am responsible to oversee the CHAMPS program. I am also responsible to oversee any contests that INETA runs within the community. I say oversee because it is the volunteers that I work with that actually make these programs happen.

5. What are some of the challenges / pet projects / etc you have in this role? 
One of my favorite programs that I am responsible for is the CHAMPS program. We started this program about one year ago as a way to recognize members of the community that have gone above and beyond to make Community better for all of us. The CHAMPS program has two awards, an annual award that is given out quarterly and an lifetime achievement award that is given out semi annually. To be eligible for the annual award you can either tell us what you are doing by going to the INETA website, or you can get nominated by a INETA Membership Mentor or Microsoft Developer Evangelist. On the other hand the only way to be eligible for the lifetime achievement award is to get nominated by your peers on our website.

6. Given your high level of involvement with community, do you think we're hitting any kind of critical mass with all the Conferences, Day of This, Codefoo, User Groups, Camps etc...? 
Well I think for the regular developer the more conferences, CodeCamps, User Group meetings, etc. we have the better. I feel this provides folks more options as to what fits into their schedules the best and what topics they are the most interested in. However from my perspective, where I try to attend as many as I can, it gets a little tiring adding sometime up to four user group meetings a week. That being said, would we do it if we didn't love it?

7. Ok, so INETA is just part of who you are & what you do. What are your technical specialties? 
First and foremost I am a developer, just like the rest of you. I write my fair share of web and windows applications, usually in C# but sometimes in VB. Since most of my applications deal with huge amounts of data I tend to also do allot of TSQL.

8. Any non-technical hobbies? What are they and why? 
I am a big fan of television and movies. Sitting down in front of the TV and letting my brain turn to mush is my favorite way to relax after a long day. However unlike most fans of TV and movies I have a hard time remember who what in what movie.

9. Last of all, any tattoos? 
No tattoos, but I am currently sporting a vicious sun burn after spending the afternoon at the Special Olympics. We were responsible to cheer and clap for all the athletes when they crossed the finish line. While it was a long afternoon and I have never done as much clapping in my life it was rewarding to see how much the athletes got out of the event.

In the next few weeks, I'll be wrapping up my current assignment in South Dakota, taking a week for TechEd and then (assuming all goes well) starting my next assignment. In the middle of all this, I'm also studying for one of the MCSD -> MCPD Enterprise Application Developer upgrade exams (there are 2.)

As you can imagine, all of this (coupled with my recent Mafia Wars addiction) is rather time consuming, so I'll be cutting back on the blog entries for a while, aside from the occasional announcement or NINEQuestions interview. I've already cut back substantially on Twitter though I'll still drop stuff out there now and then.

Hopefully once I get past this exam, finish my old gig and start my next gig I'll be able to take a few breaths and resume blogging on a more regular basis... see you then.

Thanks!

for those 6 of you not on the mailing list…

CodeStock 2009 is quickly approaching, and I wanted to let you know some of the things we have in store for this years event.  We’ve partnered again withRecruitWise to bring you a full, two day conference with room for 50+ sessions, an expanded Open Spaces conference, and are adding a few panel discussions.  We have some twists this year, the big one being attendees can vote for sessions.  Anyone that registers before May 15th 2009 will be able to look through the 185+ sessions submitted and vote for their “top five” to be selected at CodeStock.  Results and session lineup will be announced May 18th.

Keynoting this year is Josh Holmes, User Experience Architect Evangelist for Microsoft.  Don’t let the title fool you, Josh has a long history in emerging technologies, software design and development with an emphasis on mobility and RIA (Rich Internet Applications). 

Panel discussions will be a new addition to CodeStock this year.  Nick Bradbury, creator of HomeSite, TopStyle, and FeedDemon, will join us as part of a panel discussing creating a business from software.  John Kellar, founder and chairman of devLink Technical Conference, will join others in a panel on running a community conference and user group.

With help from Wintellect, we’ve lined up Jeffery Richter and John Robbins to do virtual sessions. If you’ve ever had a tough .Net debugging question, or been curious about the internals of garbage collection here’s your chance to talk with the experts.

I know you come to CodeStock for the great content and experience, but winning a nice prize doesn’t hurt.  This year includes great software from our sponsors, such asTelerik, Infragistics, ComponentOne, Nevron, and SyncFusion along with a hot-off-the-press line-up of books from Wrox Press.  AgiliTrain has contributed a seat to the SilverLight Tour.  The grand prize this year will be a copy of Visual Studio Team System 2008 with MSDN Premium (the “I’ll have it all” Microsoft package) provided by Scalable Development and Wally McClure, host of the ASP.NET Podcast.

David Silverlight will hold a round or two of the Unbeatable Geek game.  This was a huge hit at the South Florida CodeCamp this year, as contestants saw who can code the fastest while eating Spam, Nerds, and drinking Red Bull.  A second challenge was held for “broken arm programming” where one team member instructs the other what to write.  The player at the keyboard is blindfolded, and the player giving instructions must also eat Saltine crackers.

In the South, we hold some traditions very dear.  Deep frying anything that will fit in a vat of hot oil is one of them, and this includes podcasts. Deep Fried Bytes hostsKeith Elder and Chris “Woody” Woodruff will join us at CodeStock this year and record an episode live!

Who’s going to CodeStock this year?  Check out the Twitter Directory.  If you want some bling for your blog, check out the marketing page (which can also help if you want to blog about CodeStock, but are at a loss for words).  CodeStock registration is $25 before June 1st, $45 after.  Register at CodeStock.org and follow us on twitter as @CodeStock.

Codestock Developer's Conference
Knoxville, TN
June 26-27th, 2009
http://www.codestock.org

Use this promo code 'MCPBACK' and get a $25 USD Certification (Normally priced at $125 USD). This offer is valid for any exam in the MCTS/MCPD/MCITP track. Does not include Microsoft Office or Windows end-user (non-IT) focused exams.

Go to: www.Prometric.com/microsoft to sign-up for your next exam.

But you better hurry!! You must take your exam by June 30, 2009.

Like any neighborhood though, you need to help cultivate it... run a little neighborhood watch now and then. That way, when the occasional "loud stereo guy" or crackhouse moves into your neighborhood... it gets handled pretty quick.

John and Jeff do a great job of providing us this community for FREE. Sure we get a little spam now and then, but these guys take very fast measures to respond and delete whenever there's a problem. There's a couple ads here and there, but by and large, the cost of this site comes out of their pockets.

They do all this because they love community, they love blogging... and they've made something pretty awesome here. Greater than the sum of it's parts, and all that.

So it really pisses me off when I see crap like this in my neighborhood.

If you blog here, and you appreciate what Jeff & John do for the community... and YOUR neighborhood... click on the link above and welcome this guy to the neighborhood. Maybe he'll straighten up, or maybe he'll leave... either way, it's our community, and we need to take care of it.

ugMIX Event Coming to Minneapolis on May 8th!!!

Join us for a special event co-sponsored by the .NET User Group & Silverlight User Group. This month we’re bringing highlights from the MIX09 conference to you!! You’ll get detailed information and in-depth demonstrations on the upcoming release of Silverlight 3 and Expression Blend 3 as well as see some of the great new technologies that were introduced at MIX09.

Following the event, we’ll roll out the red carpet and treat all attendees with a private screening of the new Star Trek movie, which opens in theaters the day of this event. Don’t miss out, register today for this premier event!

Seating is limited, so please register ASAP.

and of course, if you ARE playing, and we're FB friends... well, I'd like to make you an offer you can't refuse.

Dear Mr. President:

Please find below my suggestion for fixing America 's economy. Instead of giving billions of dollars to companies that will squander the money on lavish parties and unearned bonuses, use the following plan. You can call it the Patriotic Retirement Plan:

There are about 40 million people over 50 in the work force. Pay them $1 million apiece severance for early retirement with the following stipulations:

1) They MUST retire. Forty million job openings - Unemployment fixed.

2) They MUST buy a new American CAR. Forty million cars ordered - Auto Industry fixed.

3) They MUST either buy a house or pay off their mortgage - Housing Crisis fixed. It can't get any easier than that!

If more money is needed, have all members of Congress and their constituents pay their taxes...

Throughout my life, as I get older and (hopefully) wiser, I have this philosophy for a happy life. I figured now was as good a time as any to put it in writing and share it with whomever else might need it. I don't necessarily follow all of these to the letter, but in general, I try...

1) Sometimes a joke is just a joke. People will occasionally say stuff in an effort to be funny, that ends up offending you. If the intent is to offend, that's different. Otherwise, don't take yourself so damn seriously. If people joke with you one on one, it's usually because they assume you can take it. Why prove them wrong?

2) Don't touch other people's stuff. People can get really weird about their stuff. If someone hands you something and says "hey, look at this..." it's probably ok though. Otherwise, remember what your momma told you and look with your eyes, not your hands.

3) Don't complain about every little thing. If your life, job or relationship sucks then do something about it or suck it up and take it. Nobody wants to hear about it unless they are getting paid to do so, or you can tell the story in a funny way. The STFU philosophy can help here.

4) Politeness and courtesy go a long damn way. This shouldn't require an explanation, but it does. People are a lot more forgiving when you screw up, if you haven't made an ass of yourself up to that point. Remember: everyone screws up eventually. Your turn is coming.

5) Some things have no place in "polite conversation." There are plenty of people interested in debating your beliefs on religion, politics, gun control, etc... and ten times as many people that aren't. Figure out which you're talking to first.

6) You aren't special. Chances are, you are not the only person going through whatever unfairness gets tossed your way. Don't assume you are. You aren't being persecuted, harrassed or singled out. Sometimes the world just sucks. Finding someone to commiserate with is fine, complaining to everyone in sight is not. To quote Tyler Durden, "you are not a beautiful and unique snowflake."

7) Don't be annoying. Being deliberately obtuse is not clever. Constantly making the same joke doesn't make it funnier. Finding people's sore points and poking them doesn't make you "thought provoking", it makes you disliked. The corollary to this is: Don't be easily annoyed. That's the most annoying trait of all.

8) Nobody owes you anything, except maybe money. Regardless of what you may think, nobody owes you an explanation, a second chance, a better gig or a favor. Do what you do because you want to, or because you have to... or because you're getting paid to. 

9) Set expectations up front. This applies to nearly every aspect of life: friends, family and work. Make sure people know what you expect of them, and know what they expect of you. Mastering this one will prevent most problems before they happen.

and last of all...

10) Assigning blame doesn't fix a damn thing. When everything around you is on fire, it doesn't matter who started it. Just handle it. Chances are, the person responsible knows they screwed up without you having to point it out to them. (Closure is bullshit anyway. That's just trying to make yourself feel better by making someone else feel guilty.)

So yeah, that's pretty much it. There's probably more I could add, but these cover most instances. I might not follow every one of these every day, but in general I try to. Your mileage may vary.