Sunday, May 30, 2010

Geek Post Monthly Newsletter Volume 2 Issue 5

Geek Post

Volume 2 Issue 5

May 2010

Hippolite Musings

Tena Koutou Katoa,

This month I managed to:

  • Upgrade to VS2010;
  • Had a birthday;
  • Attended a wedding;
  • Saw a movie (Iron Man 2);
  • Presented a guest lecture at VUW;
  • Attended a committee meeting (or 2);
  • Played some squash;
  • Took ownership of another community web site (my third);
  • Indoctrinated my kids into programming (with Scratch); and
  • Moved my home wireless modem from downstairs to upstairs.

Blessings,
James


Developer News

This is where I continue the saga of documenting my learnings from actually putting a web site “out in the wild” (I usually code within a nice, safe, Intranet).

In May I took ownership of my third community web site.  The three are (in order of ownership):

This one follows a radically dissimilar structure to the other two, as it appears to be totally static and the web server doesn’t appear to be IIS.  This may hinder my ability to bring active (dynamic) content.  I’ll have to test the limits of what the Wellington Community Network are offering us web masters.

Ah well, at least I’m being versatile.


Telecom News

I upgraded to Visual Studio 2010 on my laptop at work.  Yay!  However, it means that my study for MCTS Exam 70-503 (Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 – Windows Communication Foundation) has to be done on my desktop at work (yes, I have two workstations - don’t envy me – although it is not on my desk so it is used by a contractor) as the labs don’t work on VS2010.

I have recommenced study, after a particularly busy few months.  Enjoying the break, caused by many projects being negatively impacted by the recent job losses.

I learned a lot more about connecting telephone and broadband at home than I had intended this month.  I had invited my Team Leader (a man with 35 years experience with the company) around to my place to help me move my modem upstairs.  I thought it would be a simple matter of replacing my single telephone jack-box in the dining room with a double telephone and broadband jack.  Turns out the dining room was wired directly from the Point of Entry (roadside cable) with telephone only, and we didn’t possess the special triangular screwdriver to get into the POE box to enable BB to that node.  So, we followed the BB cable and found it went from POE to master bedroom to downstairs.  So we had to enable BB from master bedroom to secondary bedroom (where a telephone jack existed).  From there, we were able to extend the BB (and telephone) through the wall into the lounge.  Now the modem resides in the lounge and reception is sweet as.  It took us 4 hours!

I won’t say I’m a qualified Telecom engineer now, but I have a lot more respect for wiring diagrams than I did before!


Microsoft News

Presented my “Designing & Developing Applications to Ensure Quality Code” lecture to a class of third year “Software Engineering” students at Victoria University again this month.  Lecturer Hui Ma informed me that last year’s class highly rated me, which is rewarding.  How is this related to “Microsoft News”?  Because my talk is very much based around the Microsoft Foundations architecture training for Solution Developers.


Situations Vacant

Solutions Architect – DEV0207S

Want to join a company that is innovative, passionate and thrives on providing cutting edge solutions to suit our client's needs?

Join our growing Voice & Contact Centre team as a Contact Centre Solutions Architect leading, solutions and design in Enterprise Information Technology solutions, specific to the Contact Centre environment.  As a subject matter expert in your field you will be an innovative leader driving, mentoring others to deliver to customer outcomes.

You will scope and manage ICT strategies and translate business requirements into technical solutions.  Your experience in a similar capacity coupled with industry knowledge of Banking/Finance and Logistics, along with a strong consulting and design background, will secure you this position.

Contact James if interested.


Training News

Took my kids to ScratchDay

Scratch Day is a worldwide network of gatherings, where people come together to meet other Scratchers, share projects and experiences, and learn more about Scratch.

Scratch is a programming language that makes it easy to create your own interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art -- and share your creations on the web.

As young people create and share Scratch projects, they learn important mathematical and computational ideas, while also learning to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively.

My assessment of the day (a Saturday afternoon) was it was very worth-while.  And not just because a lot of home-schoolers that we knew were there.  The hands-on, collaborative, one-on-one training each kid received got them started on some very quick and easy and rewarding little script writing.


INETA News

A summary of Significant Dot Net User Group Chatter

  • 6-May, CSS Cruncher (10 replies)
  • 6-May, PDF creation (5 replies)
  • 11-May, TechEd2010 Registrations are open! (10 replies)
  • 13-May, Sharepoint 2010 local install licensing (8 replies)
  • 18-May, Visual Studio 2010 (34 replies)
  • 19-May, Nhibernate and filtered collections (6 replies)
  • 21-May, TFS 2010 question (4 replies)
  • 25-May, CITCON ANZ 2010 sponsorship (4 replies)
  • 28-May, Windows Phone 7 Developer Training (4 replies)

PASS News

A summary of  Significant SQL Server User Group Chatter

  • 13-May, Report Builder 3.0 (4 replies)
  • 19-May, SQL Server 2008 R2 Management Studio (11 replies)
  • 19-May, Cannot open script editor in BIDS 2008 (3 replies)
  • 21-May, Error installing Sql Server 2008 R2 (4 replies)
  • 30-May, Job Vacancy – Senior DBA (2 replies)

Events Schedule

In this section, I highlight dates, times and venues of events either I am presenting at, or of interest to Geeks.  I’m available for bookings.

Date Event Venue Speaker
01-Jun-2010 Azure Boot Camp Microsoft, Auckland Chris Auld and Ryan CrawCour
02-Jun-2010 Azure Boot Camp Microsoft, Wellington Chris Auld and Ryan CrawCour
03-Jun-2010 Azure Boot Camp Intergen, Christchurch Chris Auld and Ryan CrawCour
15-Jun-2010 Windows 7 Phone Development Convention Centre, Christchurch Various
16-Jun-2010 Windows 7 Phone Development Microsoft, Wellington Various
17-Jun-2010 Windows 7 Phone Development Microsoft, Auckland Various
25-26 Jun 2010 Continuous Integration and Testing Conference Fronde, Queen’s Wharf, Wellington Various
29-Aug-10 Code Camp (TBA) SkyCity Convention Centre, Auckland Lots
30-Aug-10 to 01-Sep-10 Microsoft TechEd 2010 SkyCity Convention Centre, Auckland Lots
April 2011 ALM Conference Wellington Various


Humour

Great to be Kiwi

Young Rangi bought a donkey from a farmer for $100.

The farmer agreed to deliver the donkey the next day.

The next day he drove up and said, 'Sorry son, but I have some bad news. The donkey's died.'

Rangi replied, 'Well then just give me my money back.'

The farmer said, 'Can't do that. I've already spent it.'

Rangi said, 'OK, then, just bring me the dead donkey.'

The farmer asked, 'What are you going to do with him?'

Rangi said, 'I'm going to raffle him off.'

The farmer said, 'You can't raffle a dead donkey!'

Rangi said, 'Sure I can. Watch me.. I just won't tell anybody he's dead.'

A month later, the farmer met up with Rangi and asked, 'What happened with that dead donkey?'

Rangi said, 'I raffled him off. I sold 500 tickets at two dollars a piece and made a profit of $898'

The farmer said, 'Didn't anyone complain?'

Rangi said, 'Just the guy who won. So I gave him his two dollars back.'

Rangi now works for Telecom selling the new XT Mobiles 


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