February 28th, 2007 at 7:00 am
(Random)
I just heard that Marc Mercuri is going to give a key note presentation, you know THE Marc Mercuri, at the TulsaCodeCamp next month. This is very cool - I had introduced Jim Arrowood, a friend of mine from Dollar Thrifty, to David Walker. I thought that Jim might be a good person to present at the CodeCamp. It turns out that Jim went a step further and was able to pull in Marc! You gotta love that!
Marc, being the cool guy that he is, agreed to do an interview while he was out for CommuityCast. His only request was that we host the interview in another format, in addition to QuickTime. This wasn’t a big deal since we were planning on doing that anyway… and some people have already given me a hard time about only having the pilot episodes in QuickTime format. Marc also pointed out the new service from Microsoft, SoapBox. I already knew about SoapBox, but in honor of Marc I thought I look at it again… this is the result of that exercise:
Time well spent… well spent indeed. 
Video: White Nerdy
Video: PC vs Mac
Video: Axel-F - Crazy Frog (video exclusive).mpg
See you at the TulsaCodeCamp!
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February 24th, 2007 at 6:00 am
(Random)
There are a ton of things going on right around the corner; this could get a little crazy!
First, the Dallas Refresh is this Monday! (Feb 26, 2007) Join a group of local web designers and developers for a round table discussion of the Amazon Web Services.
Saturday March 3rd, is Action Movie Night at Cory’s House. (Although I will most likely miss this month to race pine wood derby cars with my son.
Thursday March 8th is the Community Vista Launch at the Dallas .NET Users Group.
Friday March 9th is the Refresh Meetup at SXSW and BarCampAustin! It looks like Chris Bernard from Microsoft will be on a very cool panel discussion. Woot!
Saturday March 10 is the TulsaCodeCamp that David Walker and the Tulsa Developers Group are putting on. I’m hoping to spend a couple of hours here to record some CommunityCast.tv interviews. This is shaping up to be a great event!
Sunday March 11 – While SXSW and BarCampAustin are continuing the rest of us will be over at the Second Annual Bowling Extravaganza! Monday March 12 – Wednesday March 14th – I’ll be interviewing Microsoft MVP’s from all over the world at the Microsoft MVP Summit! This actually goes until Thursday, but I have to get back for work!
2 Comments
February 23rd, 2007 at 6:00 am
(Technology)
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February 22nd, 2007 at 6:00 am
(Technology)
Go vote… let the throw down begin.
(Inspired by Adam’s recent post)
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February 20th, 2007 at 6:00 am
(Technology)
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CommunityCast.tv is a project that I initiated right when I left Microsoft. The idea is to have informal interviews with people in the community. It sort of follows the format of Channel 9, except that Channel 9 is all focused on stuff that happens in Redmond, and we are focusing on everything else. It's like Channel 9, for the rest of us! When I attend an event, I'm trying to focus on the event, rather than any single presenter, so I try to grab interviews with the presenters, organizers and attendees of events.
So far, we've interview people at the North Dallas .NET Users Group, BarCampDallas and the pre-BarCampDallas Pre-Mixer, the OKC Vista Launch, the Chicago Expression Launch and the DemoCampDallas.
Mr Media man and Pod Casting Extraordinaire himself, Giovanni Galluci, has posted the first two (pilot) episodes of CommunityCast.tv on a temporary holding spot off of Media Swamp.We're still very early in the show development. We still don't have an official logo and the sort of thing set up! We'll have all of that set up soon enough.
Go check out the first two episodes, and then let me know what you like, what you'd like to see more of and what you'd like to see done differently! Also, we did a different intro song on the two episodes; I'd love to know what you think of the audio clips and which one you like best. Thanks! I'm looking forward to hearing back from everyone... and to seeing you out in the community!
Some of the places that we've been, and are going to soon:
This Month:
Next Month:
By the way, all 5 of these are in the same week! I'm going to have to catch up on sleep after that!
Direct Links to the episodes:
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2 Comments
February 19th, 2007 at 6:00 am
(Random)
Thanks to everyone that participated in the “Guess My Job – Win a Zune” contest! I hope that everyone had a blast. When it was all said and done 14 people guessed it right and there were a total of 76 winning “tickets”.
To be fair, I printed out the tickets,
cut up the squares,
put them in a hat,
shook it up
and did a random drawing.
I’ll see you at the TulsaCodeCamp next month and give it to you then!
2 Comments
February 15th, 2007 at 6:00 am
(Technology)
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I blogged about this last week. I just wanted to remind you that DemoCamp is tonight from 6pm to 8pm. If you are in the DFW area and can get over to Southlake, then you should go check it out!
See you then!
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February 15th, 2007 at 6:00 am
(Random)
Thank you to everyone that participated in the recent contest. Since I keep getting pinged on IM over this. I’ll just say it. It’s Improving Enterprises! I’m really excited to be with a company the meets the criteria that I discussed here and here and the hints that I posted here.
Don’t believe me? Let’s review the hints:
Hint #1 - I am working for a company that is headquartered in Dallas
Lot’s of great companies are in Dallas, but this clue should have ruled out WinTillect and DevelopMenor (the two largest guesses before the contest)
Hint # 2 - The company is a Microsoft Certified Gold Partner.
This is a significant accomplishment and recognition for any company. It’s one thing to be a CPLS (Certified Partner Learning Solution) it’s a whole other thing to be Gold Certified.
Ok, if you just search for that phrase Improving Enterprises doesn’t come up until the 7th or 8th page (we’re working on that!), but if you combine that with the words Microsoft and gold, then they are number 1!
This announcement is list on the Improving site. This would have been pretty hard to track down by itself, but should have helped to solidify Improving in your mind if you had already found them. For some reason, I can’t find this on Jef’s blog. I thought that it was there as well. Anyways, go check out his blog – there is a lot of other great info.
That would be Jef Newsom. Go say hi at the Dallas Vista / Office 2007 Launch on February 21st. (I might be there somewhere too!)
Hint # 6 - As I said before, the new company is a Microsoft Gold Partner. I’ll add to that that they specialize in promoting agile methodologies, object oriented analysis and design (strong Java background) in .NET through training and mentoring development teams. They have a Microsoft Gold competency recognition for Learning Solutions and for SharePoint (Office Productivity)… in short they are a CPLS.
Not just a partner – a learning solutions partner
Hint # 7 - They are a training company (above), but they don’t believe in training. Here’s the thing, if you go to a traditional class, as soon as you leave the class you just lost 50% of what the instructor said. With this new company, we focus on a mixture of traditional learning combined with a project mentor for effective knowledge transfer.
Yep. A training company that doesn’t think that traditional training works. Remember in high school algebra how (most) everything would make sense when the teacher explained it in class, but then when you got home, none of it made sense? It’s the same concept. People learn by doing, and people learn best when they are doing something that they do every day… where they do it. You get the idea.
<img src=”http://www.calebjenkins.com/v2/Portals/0/dilbert_certified.gif” alt=”Dilbert Certification” border=”0″
Hint # 8 - A guy named Sean works there. More people work there, but that might give too much away.
Sean Godfrey is our marketing / web guy extraordinaire.
Hint # 9 - They believe that a company’s people are its most valuable asset and are happy to work themselves out of a job wherever they go – in other words… the role of true consultants.
The first part of this quote came straight off the website.
Hint # 10 - I work with a couple of SCRUM masters… it’s cool to see a company run (not just a project) using SCRUM techniques. Every day we have a SCRUM meeting. Once a month, there is a sprint planning meeting. It’s very flat and organic, yet effective and efficient!
This is true. That’s exactly what we do. It’s very refreshing.
Hint # 11 - Oh yeah, Todd works there too.
Todd Girvin founded the company with Jef Newsom. I’ve know Todd and Jef since the days when I worked at Geniant (before Microsoft). In fact, Todd is the one that did my phone tech-screen for Geniant, go figure.
Hint #12 - The founders of the company met when they worked at Object Space (back in the day).
That was a long time ago… by the way, that’s also where most of the principals from Geniant
and ValTech came from… amazing history.
The post title was “…So far, nobody has guessed it!…” that was, of course, a lie. Several people had already guessed Improving Enterprises.
Hint #14 - As I mentioned before, the company specializes in mentoring and training. They also do consulting, Microsoft technology briefings and seminars. Why is mentoring so important? For a couple of reasons. It’s been said that when you take a traditional training class, as soon as you leave the class room, you loose around 50% of the content that was just explained. Also, traditional training can help give you knowledge, but only doing the work with a strong mentor can truly pass on the skills. INMO
This is one of my favorite reasons for working with Improving. They actually care about knowledge transfer and don’t just sell classes. Mentoring is a proven way to pass on knowledge and skill.
Hint #15 - Someone named Jef works there.
Jef Newsom. He spells his name with one “f”. I figured that would narrow down the search!
Hint # 16 - After yesterday’s hints, someone pointed out to me that I’ve only mentioned some guys that work here. So here you go, a person named Rachel works here as well.
Rachel B. McKane. I think that Rachel is at Microsoft more that I was when I worked there. I’m serious, she is the networking queen (it says so on her card.)
Hint # 17 - When you think of someone that can help your team improve their business, you should think of us. We have a slogan, and it could be re-worded “Making things better, that’s how we roll.”
See it? See the play on words… “help your team improve” ha! Our slogan is Improving… It’s what we do. Personally, I want to have bowling shirts made that say “Improving… that’s how we roll.” Wouldn’t that be cool!?
Hint # 18 - No one in the company has a title on their business cards… instead each person has a favorite quote and or tag cloud that represents that person’s unique role and personality.
Yep. This is true.
Hint # 19 - Their website does not use any tables for layout. They use clean CSS the way that it should be used. Use the IE Developer Toolbar to check out Tables vs Div on websites that you visit. Yeah!
Go download the IE Dev Toolbar and check out the Improving site for yourself! This is one of those “attention to details” things that I like about working with Jef and Todd.
Hint #20 (Bonus Hint) - Their initials are the same as the browser that you should be running!
Ok, this was the gimmie. So many people had already guessed Improving Enterprises LLC, that you had to know that IE was them… and I just knew that someone would make a FF comment. And (*ahem* giovanni) they did.
What about the drawing? Who is the winner?
Now I have 14 people that guessed it right and a total of 76 winning tickets. Wow… great job everyone!
Maybe we’ll do the drawing at tonight’s DemoCamp?
2 Comments
February 15th, 2007 at 6:00 am
(Random)
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February 14th, 2007 at 6:00 am
(Random)
<![CDATA[
As I mentioned in hint #18 in the “Win a Zune” contest earlier today, no one in my new company has a title on their business card. Instead each person has a favorite quote and/or tag cloud that represents that person’s unique role and personality.
My tag cloud will probably look something like this:
Designer Developer Architect
IllusionistMentorTrainer
CommunityPeople Builder
FatherHusband
FriendEmcee UX
Organizational Change Leader
Follower
but I'm having a difficult time deciding on a favorite quote. Here are the ones that I've narrowed this down to:
“We would accomplish many more things if we did not think of them as impossible.”
Vince Lombardi
Leaders are made, they are not born. They are made by hard effort, which is the price which all of us must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile.
Vince Lombardi
The quality of a person's life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor.
Vince Lombard
It's easy to have faith in yourself and have discipline when you're a winner, when you're number one. What you've got to have is faith and discipline when you're not yet a winner.
Vince Lombardi
I firmly believe that any man's finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is the moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle-victorious.
Vince Lombardi
Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. Accordingly a genius is often merely a talented person who has done all of his or her homework.
Thomas Edison
Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
Thomas Edison
If we're growing, we're always going to be out of our comfort zone.
John Maxwell
A great leader's courage to fulfill his vision comes from passion, not position.
John Maxwell
The greatest mistake we make is living in constant fear that we will make one.”
John Maxwell
The whole idea of motivation is a trap. Forget motivation. Just do it. Exercise, lose weight, test your blood sugar, or whatever. Do it without motivation. And then, guess what? After you start doing the thing, that's when the motivation comes and makes it easy for you to keep on doing it.
John Maxwell
A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them.
John Maxwell
A big man is one who makes us feel bigger when we are with him.
John Maxwell
I know... I can hear it now, “this is your narrowed down list?” Yes, it is.
This is not a contest, I'm not offering a Zune to Guess My Favorite Quote, but I would really like to know which quote you think best fits me, and would go best on a card that I will be giving out to millions of people... maybe not millions, but you get the idea.
Thanks!
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12 Comments
Episode 1: North Dallas .NET Users Group
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