May 26th, 2009 at 8:47 pm
(CommunityCast Events, Design and UX, Featured, Microsoft, Speaking, Technology)
In June I’ll be the local Silverlight expert, leading a technology track on Rich Internet Applications (RIA) at a Microsoft’s BizSpark event, SparkStart.
From the official announcement:
SparkStart is a full day of business and technology discussion (open format) and learning event for startups (“startup bootcamp”). This event will also be a networking opportunity for those startups who are new to the BizSpark program and not yet enrolled in the program and would like to mingle and learn from key business and technology influencers. It will also be an event for those startups who are recently enrolled and need to keep the momentum going by learning key strategies for success, both in business, and in technology.
I’m looking forward to checking out Microsoft’s new Technology Center in Las Colinas, TX – It’s an amazing building!
It’s going to be an incredible event for startups and entrepreneurs to learn, network and get to know some of the incredible technologies that are now available. I’m especially looking forward to hanging out with some of the other people that will be presenting at the event. (too name a few)
Check out SparkStart on twitter and read some of Christian’s other related posts. Be sure to register. It’s going to be an amazing day!
2 Comments
May 24th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
(CommunityCast Events, Design and UX, Microsoft, Speaking, Technology)
I’ll be speaking at the Big Design Conference in Dallas. From the website:
The Big Design Conference is an intense day of learning within the scope of Strategy, Social Media, User Experience, and Code Development. Experts from across the country will gather to present theories, research, experiences, and best practices to students, professionals, and executives looking to stay on the bleeding edge.
My 1pm topic is “Bring Back the Sexy: What’s New in Silverlight 3 and Why Everyone Should Care”. Basically I’m going to be walking through some of the awesome goodness that’s been added to Silverlight 3 like 3D Support, hardware acceleration, custom shaders and behaviors, offline/out of browser integration, Blend 3, plus the new line of business features like data forms and WCF integrations. You know, all the awesome Silverlight sexy that I can get in to my allotted hour. it’s gonna be awesome.
Be sure to register today (tickets are selling fast!) – See you there!
- Big (D)esign Conference
- Big (D)esign After Party
- (Free) Style & Travelocity Design Challenge
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May 20th, 2009 at 10:02 pm
(Design and UX, Microsoft, Technology)
For the last 2 months I’ve working on one of the @improving macs almost exclusively. While that’s definitely had it’s annoyances, it’s also been very eye opening in a couple of areas.
Last month Microsoft released the Release Canidate1 of Windows 7. For what it’s worth I will say that I like it, more importantly, my wife likes it too. Just like Vista has nicer features than XP (no seriously, I actually like Vista!), there are features in Win7 that I really like over Vista. That being said, after spending two months on a Mac, here are the things that I wish Microsoft would “barrow” from Apple before Windows 7 RTMs.
Apple’s “Show Desktop” Implementation
I like Win7’s Desktop Peak. But let’s be real. When I want to look at my desktop, it’s probably because I want to do something on my desktop. If I click on the “Show Desktop” button, then everything get minimized and I loose my place when I’m done with the desktop (I have to go restore all of my Windows manually). Macs have this great feature that let’s me, in a single motion, push everything to the side, lets me see and work with my desktop, then with a single click anywhere on the edge of the screen and I’m back to where I was before. Awesome. Dear Microsoft, I know what they’ll say, you stole it. Mac had it first. it doesn’t matter. Go ahead, take it. It’s a better implementation. thx.
Apples “Widget” View
I like Widgets, I like Gadgets. I’m not talking about Apple’s widget “zoom in” and “zoom out” views (although those are nice!), nor am I talking about how Windows 7’s Gadgets can go anywhere on the desktop and are always on your desktop (although I like that too!) I am specifically talking about the scenarios when you have a bunch of windows open and your in the middle of working and you need to take a quick look at your widgets/gadgets. On a mac you set your Expose’s hot spots to bring up your “dashboard”, in Windows 7 you either “peak” at your desktop, or you press the Win+G keys.Here’s the thing, on a mac when you do that, they do a dark overlay on the rest of your desktop. It makes it really easy to to focus in on your widgets and see them quickly. it sounds like a small thing, but you already know how busy your screen can get when you’re working on various projects and then you try to see your gadgets and they just don’t stand out very well.Dear Microsoft, please fade out the background when I push Win+G. kthx.
Apple’s Colors.
Not all of their colors. I like some of the rich look of Vista and Windows 7, but here’s something that I noticed while working on the mac. The “system tray” (or whatever you call it) is boring. Everything is the same color. Compare that to the spectrum of color that the average Windows user is used to. It’s not that color is bad… but I’m starting to think that business is. Business and clutter compete for your attention, and let’s face it… the reason that it’s in the system tray is because it’s important.. it’s just not that important. I know that I’m focusing on the system tray, but really I’m talking an over all effort to make the things that I want to focus on, visually focusable (is that a word?). Reduce noise, increase signal.
So what does Windows 7 have going for it?
A lot. But here’s the thing that it soooo much better on Win7. The Taskbar – so much better than the dock or expose for moving between applications – especially tabbed windows. On one hand, I really like the pop and slide of exposes, and I really like the fish eye affect in the mac dock… but here’s the deal, the dock is great for launching applications, but it’s lousy for moving between open applications. The new Win 7 dock does an amazing job of organizing all of your open tabs regardless of which window their in. It really creates a nice, unified way to move between the things that you are working on and to close the things that you don’t care about. I know that it sounds trivial, but think about where you spend your time – it makes a difference.
What about you? What are you love / hates with Windows 7 or teh mac?
BTW – Travis promised to teach me some mac foo… I’ll have to post again after that!
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May 19th, 2009 at 9:18 pm
(Featured, Random)
I finally had time to announce the winners for the Fit In Feb Developer Challenge. Check out Peter’s before and after picture. Awesome!
Go see the rest of the winners over at my “Get Less of Me” health blog.
I’m looking forward to doing another event like this at some point in the future. I’ll just need to find better ways to automate more of the process and do daily leader boards and that sort of thing.
What sort of “Healthy Developer” contest would you like to see?
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April 13th, 2009 at 10:48 pm
(Improving, Microsoft, Technology)
With all of the great press that Improving Enterprises has been getting lately (6 of the most talented MVP’s in DFW area work here, we’re a Microsoft Gold Partner in multiple competencies, our Rural Sourcing offering has been making waves, even our marketing team and java guys have been making news lately.)
It’s easy for people to look at us and think that we are *just* an amazing consulting and rural sourcing company pioneering agile in the Microsoft space and providing incredible service to our customers… well, I’m writing this post to make sure that you (yes, you specifically dear reader) know that we are also an incredible Microsoft Training Company.
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April 3rd, 2009 at 11:39 am
(Featured, INETA, Improving, Microsoft, Technology)
While there weren’t *actually* any Linux MVP’s announced on April 1st, there were several new MVP’s announced. Now, over 10% of the people at Improving Enterprises are recognized by Microsoft as “Most Valuable Professionals”. By the way, that “over 10% number” is not just our .NET developers… I’m including everyone.
What is an MVP? From the official site:
“MVPs are a select group of experts representing technology’s best and brightest people who share a commitment to community. While MVPs come from many backgrounds and a wide range of technical communities, they share a passion for technology and a demonstrated willingness to help others”
So without further ado… let me introduce the 6 Microsoft MVPs from Improving :
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April 1st, 2009 at 2:34 pm
(Microsoft, Random, Technology)
Several exciting things happened today. First, I was re-rewarded with an ASP.NET MVP (thank you, thank you… I’d like to thank that academy… oh wait), Microsoft announced the *much anticipated* Silverlight MVP expertise, and finally, to everyone’s surprise, the new Linux MVP award.
“The Microsoft MVP Award Program recognizes and thanks outstanding members of technical communities for their community participation and willingness to help others. The MVP Award is given to exceptional technical community leaders who foster the free and objective exchange of knowledge by actively sharing their real-world expertise with technology users.” – Says Rich Kaplan, Microsoft Vice President
I’m especially encouraged by the first three Linux MVP’s that were named… Read the rest of this entry »
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March 2nd, 2009 at 11:59 am
(CommunityCast Events, INETA, Microsoft, Speaking, Technology)
This week I will be at the Microsoft MVP Summit in Seattle, while I’m there I will take the time to present at the local .NET User Group. If you are in the area be sure to stop by. It’s going to be a “double feature” between my “Developing Loosely Coupled Applications” talk and my friend, and fellow MVP, Dennis Bottjer will be giving his amazing talk on SharePoint Performance. It’s gonna be awesome!
3 Comments
February 27th, 2009 at 1:24 am
(CommunityCast Events, Improving, Microsoft, Speaking)
Next week I’ll be attending the 2009 MVP Summit in Seattle with fellow MVP and Improving’er David O’Hara. I’m especially looking forward to the sessions on the up and coming new technologies and to catch up with the various product teams and other MVPs! If you’ll be in the in the Seattle area next week look me up!
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February 23rd, 2009 at 1:31 pm
(CommunityCast Events, Design and UX, Improving, Speaking, Technology)
My great friend and Social Media genius, Giovanni Gallucci is putting together an amazing event to help spread his knowledge and expertise in social media marketing to the masses and we’re hosting it!. Here’s the info from Giovanni’s announcement:
Social Media Has Changed The Landscape Forever
Social media has turned advertising, marketing and public relations upside down. Giovanni Gallucci is one of the most well-respected and well-known social media experts in the industry. He’s delivered social marketing solutions to some of the world’s best known brands and garnered media exposure for clients that would make any marketing & communications professional envious.
Extreme Social Media Marketing Workshop
In Dallas on March 10, 2009 you’ll be able to learn his techniques, developed over ten years as an online community developer, search engine programmer and online marketing consultant to help utilize these tools and platforms for yourself.
This one day social media training workshop will train you to utilize the new media marketing tools of twitter, blogs, videos, photos, social networks and other social media related websites in your online marketing efforts.
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