# Wednesday, 09 April 2008

The Code Trip is near its end at the MVP summit. Join us Thursday at the Corillian Cafe to cheer the team on through the final leg of their journey.

WHAT: April PADNUG Meeting
WHEN: Thursday 04/10/2008
6:00 p.m. Pizza (by Ascentium)
6:30 p.m. Presentation
~9:00 p.m. After Words at Cornelius Pass Roadhouse
WHERE: Corillian Cafe, now part of CheckFree
3400 NW John Olsen Place
Hillsboro, OR 97124
WHO:

The Code Trip Team

TOPIC:

Mix-a-Lot
Join us at the Portland Area .NET User Group (PADNUG) where we run through the newest technologies to emerge from MIX08, including Silverlight 2 Beta 1, Internet Explorer 8, SQL Server Data Services, Windows Live, and more.

Also, don't forget to register for the PDX Webfoot event on Saturday! It should be a great event and it looks like it will be a fabulous day to bring the family out to an event. We're using Yahoo!'s Upcoming for registration at: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/468242/. There'll be food and lot's of give-aways.

While you are at it, consider visiting our Premium Sponsors that make these meetings possible:

Aivea - http://www.aivea.com/
Ascentium - http://www.ascentium.com/
Microsoft - http://www.microsoft.com/
Online Business Systems - http://www.obsglobal.com/
O'Reilly - http://www.oreilly.com/
Robert Half Technology - http://www.roberthalftechnology.com/
SubMain and CodeIt.Right - http://submain.com/codeit.right
JetBrains - http://www.jetbrains.com/resharper/

Looking forward to seeing you all there!

.NET | Developer | PADNUG | SQL | Technology | Tips
Wednesday, 09 April 2008 04:58:45 (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)  #    Comments [0]
# Monday, 31 March 2008

You know it's been coming...

It's almost here...

PDX Webfoot is coming April 12 at the OGI School of Science and Engineering. For the latest information, go to the PDX Webfoot Website.

Some of the topics and people already on the agenda (subject to change at this point):

Topics:

  • Safe Internet Browsing
  • Silverlight 2
  • Internet Explorer 8
  • XNA
  • Adobe Flex/Air
People:
  • Scott Hanselman
  • Adam Kinney
  • Tim Heuer
  • Jason Mauer
  • Ryan Miller
  • Kelly White
  • Erik Mork

There will be good food (not just pizza) and there will be games and activities for spouses and kids (think Rockband and Mindstorms, though we can't guarantee either of those yet).

Monday, 31 March 2008 22:03:56 (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)  #    Comments [0]

InnoTech: Oregon’s Largest Technology Event

InnoTech – The Business & Technology Innovation Conference & Expo
Presented by Easystreet Online Services & Software Association of Oregon
April 16 & 17, Oregon Convention Center

The InnoTech folks have come through again to help our members attend the show. This year, you have two options: a discount for the full package or free access to the general admission portion.

Check out the Developers Track and the new Open Source Summit at InnoTech on April 17.
Information and registration at www.innotechoregon.com.

Option 1: Discounted InnoTech Oregon Conference & Exhibits Pass includes Breakfast Presentation with Don Tapscott, Author, WIKINOMICS, at the reduced rate of $45.00 per person ($60.00 per person standard price.) Click to select INNOTECH GENERAL REGISTRATION and enter Discount Code ES345 to confirm your place at the breakfast.

Option 2: Complimentary InnoTech Oregon Conference & Exhibits Pass does not include breakfast presentation with Don Tapscott. Click to select INNOTECH GENERAL REGISTRATION and enter Discount Code ES303.

This year includes an impressive line up of national and local sponsors and supporters (all posted on the www.innotechoregon.com web site...check it out!)

Here are a few of the InnoTech conference tracks & special events (ALL great reasons to take part in InnoTech):

  • Green IT/Clean Technology – April 16
  • Open Source Summit – (five distinct presentations about open source and the business of software)
  • Virtualization, data storage, cloud computing, security and much more
  • InnoTech Happy 45-Minutes (the perfect place to mingle over complimentary beverages, appetizers, live music and exhibits)
  • Developers Track – (Ruby, Agile, LINQ and more)
  • And more!
Monday, 31 March 2008 21:58:01 (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)  #    Comments [0]

I almost hate to admit that I found this humorous, but Scott Adams of Dilbert fame made me genuinely Laugh Out Loud today when I read his thoughts on the Large Hadron Collider. The first paragraph:

My favorite story recently is about the lawsuit to stop the $8 billion Large Hadron Collider out of fear that it might shrink the universe to the size of a gnat turd. And I don’t mean the plump and juicy kind.

....

Too much fun. I'm sure my mom would not like to know I laughed at that, though.

Monday, 31 March 2008 21:26:59 (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)  #    Comments [0]
# Monday, 17 March 2008

Next week Adam Kinney will be coming down from Microsoft to present an "Overview of Silverlight 2" and answer questions about other content presented at this year's MIX conference. This is a meeting you'll want to be sure to attend. Details are included below and can also be found at http://pdxux.net/.

WHAT: March PDXUX Meeting
WHEN: Tuesday 03/18/2008
6:30 p.m. Pizza (by White Horse)
7:00 p.m. Presentation
~8:30 p.m. Drinks and continued discussion
WHERE: Corillian Cafe, now part of CheckFree
3400 NW John Olsen Place
Hillsboro, OR 97124
WHO:

Adam Kinney
Adam works for Microsoft as "a guy who loves UI platforms like
Silverlight, WPF and Microsoft Surface." He often talks about these
technologies from a developer and designer prespective.

TOPIC:

Overview of Silverlight 2
Adam will be presenting an overview of Silverlight 2 and answering
questions about other stuff from MIX. I'm not one to speak for Adam,
but I'm betting you'll be seeing Deep Zoom related content, and maybe
even something about what the Olympics are doing with Silverlight.

Be sure to join us afterwards at Cornelius Pass Roadhouse for drinks and continued discussion.

Monday, 17 March 2008 12:39:20 (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)  #    Comments [0]
# Tuesday, 19 February 2008

Arnie is one of the top SQL Server people in the area. He is going to give us a look ahead at the coming release of SQL Server 2008.

WHAT: February Bonus PADNUG Meeting
WHEN: Tuesday 02/19/2008
6:00 p.m. Sandwiches
6:30 p.m. Presentation
WHERE: Microsoft Portland Office located in Lincoln Tower
10260 SW Greenburg Road
Suite 600
Portland, OR 97223
WHO:

Arnie Rowland

TOPIC:

SQL Server 2008 Intro Part 1
Come see what's new in SQL Server 2008. This is part one of two meetings we'll hold.

While you are at it, consider visiting our Premium Sponsors that make these meetings possible:

Aivea - http://www.aivea.com/
Ascentium - http://www.ascentium.com/
Microsoft - http://www.microsoft.com/
Online Business Systems - http://www.obsglobal.com/
O'Reilly - http://www.oreilly.com/
Robert Half Technology - http://www.roberthalftechnology.com/

Looking forward to seeing you all there!

.NET | Developer | PADNUG | SQL | Tips
Tuesday, 19 February 2008 05:22:08 (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)  #    Comments [1]
# Tuesday, 29 January 2008

When I heard Matt on Hanselminutes, I knew we had to get him to come speak at PADNUG. It had been long enough since I'd seen him, I didn't realize that he was still right here in the Portland Metro area - Perfect!

Matt and Earth Class Mail are definitely ahead of the curve on using the .NET 3.5 Framework. Not only that, but they came to the platform from LAMP.

WHAT: February PADNUG Meeting
WHEN: Tuesday 02/05/2008
6:00 p.m. Pizza (by Ascentium)
6:30 p.m. Presentation
WHERE: Microsoft Portland Office located in Lincoln Tower
10260 SW Greenburg Road
Suite 600
Portland, OR 97223
WHO:

Matt Davis

TOPIC:

WCF and LINQ in the Wild
Come out and here first hand war stories and tips & tricks on .NET 3.5 from Matt Davis, Architect at Earth Class Mail. ECM recently converted their bread and butter application to .NET from PHP on Linux, and went live on .NET 3.5 Beta2. Matt will share real world stories and demos about what works and what doesn't, using WCF 3.5's new Web Programming model, LINQ, Compact Framework 3.5, and others recent Microsoft technologies.

While you are at it, consider visiting our Premium Sponsors that make these meetings possible:

Aivea - http://www.aivea.com/
Ascentium - http://www.ascentium.com/
Microsoft - http://www.microsoft.com/
Online Business Systems - http://www.obsglobal.com/
O'Reilly - http://www.oreilly.com/
Robert Half Technology - http://www.roberthalftechnology.com/

Looking forward to seeing you all there!

Tuesday, 29 January 2008 22:47:55 (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)  #    Comments [0]
# Monday, 28 January 2008

Gosh. Again, a lengthy pause between trips to the mall. Cinetopia has been pretty good to us over the last year, but I'm starting to forget what crappy mall food actually tastes like.

We can use this trip to the mall to recalibrate our nerdiness.

What: Portland Nerd Dinner
Where: Washington Square Food Court (Second Floor "Food Court"; typically, straight out from where Picture People was)
When: Thursday, January 31, starting around 6:00 PM (vCal link)
Why: TOO LONG HENCE!

Be There and Be Square!

Monday, 28 January 2008 23:25:59 (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)  #    Comments [0]
# Saturday, 12 January 2008

clip_image001[8]

Invite you to
Products of Tomorrow!

As a Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner, Robert Half Technology would like to invite our valued clients and consultants to a free and interactive event to preview Microsoft Business Solution products such as SharePoint, SQL Server and more! We have scheduled various demonstrations and presentations that will run throughout the course of the event. Please join us when the Microsoft Across America Mobile rolls in to town!

Date:

January 23, 2008

Location:

Microsoft’s PacWest Briefing Center Facilities in Portland
10260 SW Greenburg Road, Lincoln Tower, Suite 600
*Parking is available at no cost, in the the 3-story garage next to the building

Time:

2:00 PM to 5:00 PM

RSVP to:

Stacy Davenport

Email:

Stacy.Davenport@rhi.com or call 503-222-0946

clip_image003[8]

Saturday, 12 January 2008 23:43:10 (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)  #    Comments [0]
# Monday, 07 January 2008

The answer, according to Scott, is:

No, it's pretty harmless. If you look in the Object Browser in Visual Studio you'll see that one assembly you already have has had some additions and its version rev'ed....

I wouldn't go slapping it on a production machine unless you're living on the razor's edge, but it should be fine on a development machine if you know how to pay attention to what versions your projects reference.

So, for those who got their appetite whetted with Scott's introductory presentation at the InstallFest or for those of you that haven't seen what the new extensions are all about, this will be a great chance to find out more.

WHAT:

January PADNUG Meeting
WHEN: Tuesday 01/08/2008
6:00 p.m. Pizza (by Ascentium)
6:30 p.m. Presentation
WHERE: Microsoft Portland Office located in Lincoln Tower
10260 SW Greenburg Road
Suite 600
Portland, OR 97223
WHO:

Scott Hanselman

TOPIC:

Should I Fear MVC for ASP.NET?
ASP.NET MVC provides model-view-controller (MVC) support to the existing ASP.NET 3.5 runtime, which enables developers to more easily take advantage of this design pattern. Benefits include the ability to achieve and maintain a clear separation of concerns, as well as facilitate test driven development (TDD). The ASP.NET MVC Toolkit provides HTML rendering helpers and dynamic data support for MVC.

If you would like to get a jump on things, download the ASP.NET 3.5 Extensions from <here>.

While you are at it, consider visiting our Premium Sponsors that make these meetings possible:

Aivea - http://www.aivea.com/
Ascentium - http://www.ascentium.com/
Microsoft - http://www.microsoft.com/
Online Business Systems - http://www.obsglobal.com/
O'Reilly - http://www.oreilly.com/
Robert Half Technology - http://www.roberthalftechnology.com/

Looking forward to seeing you all there!

Monday, 07 January 2008 08:27:30 (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)  #    Comments [0]
# Wednesday, 26 December 2007

I published this post originally on my blogger account on June 19, 2003. I was reminded again today how much I appreciated the company behind my home office chair. They have pretty much replaced the chair through parts they were willing to supply to make me a happy customer. They never asked for any money. I'm finally considering buying a new chair and you can imagine, they will be at the top of my list.

Ok, I am not going to expect a lot of visitation here since I am considering this 'just practice' for blogging. BUT, in case this is read, I need to let anyone know that there is a GREAT company out there making office chairs. Global Upholstery out of New Jersey (and built in Ontario) has taken exceptional care of this customer without asking anything in return.

They get something in return, though - I want to tell everyone to buy their products.

Wednesday, 26 December 2007 13:44:37 (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)  #    Comments [1]
# Tuesday, 25 December 2007

Blink… there it went.

Another year passed so quickly.

Rich continues to work on his software career; loving every minute of it even through the frustrating times. In addition to work, he’s Nerd Herding and running a local developers user group – PADNUG – and continues to connect with new people in the industry. Jesann is proud of all his hard work and his passion towards all he puts his mind to.

As has become our tradition, we spent our Thanksgiving evening helping with the family dinner for several of Jesann’s clients’ families. In addition, we helped one of Jesann’s clients’ Christmas party, too. Jesann has worked for these folks for almost 25 years!

Jesann is truly blessed to have the clients she does. They are all so wonderful to her.

Baby and Ninja

This spring, we lost our girl, Baby (she and little sister Ninja to the right), to cancer. She spent sixteen years taking care of Jesann and had truly adopted Rich as her papa. We really miss her little shadow around the house. Even our other girl, Ninja, felt the loss and appeared saddened for some time.

In September, we decided it was time to get Ninja a playmate. We visited Cat Adoption Team in Sherwood, Oregon to see if there was someone waiting for us. Boy, was there. As we entered the kitten room, one little, black-furred girl raised her hand to us. Despite looking through the whole facility (they have over 300 cats!), we had to go back to visit this little girl.

Trashed Rastus After spending a few minutes in an office alone with her, we were bringing Rastus home with us (that's her getting trashed on the left).

It turned out that that day was her four month birthday, too. She will be seven months soon and has about doubled in size. She is a sweet girl and she and Ninja are getting along great. And, if there is any way that kitty spirits can move along, we’ve seen it here. She has so many traits that Baby did, it’s uncanny. Right down to her love of the bathwater when momma is trying to get clean.

Our FamilyWe have had a great 2007. We wish you all the very best for 2008 and thank you for being in our life.

 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Santa Claussens!

Jesann, Rich, Ninja, & Rastus

Tuesday, 25 December 2007 08:46:48 (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)  #    Comments [0]
# Monday, 26 November 2007

We're having a PARTY!!!

Microsoft is running an InstallFest for Visual Studio 2008 and you are invited! Everyone that attends will have a chance to get a licensed copy of Visual Studio 2008 Pro for their very own.

We're meeting at Corillian for this one since they have more space. Also, note that we are starting the fun a bit early; this will give you a chance to install the trial copy of VS2008 and ask some questions before we begin.

Note that you must sign up for this event. The sign-up page is at
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032361177&Culture=en-US

WHAT: December PADNUG Meeting
WHEN: Tuesday 12/04/2007
5:00 p.m. Food (by Microsoft)
6:00 p.m. Presentation
WHERE:

Corillian Cafe
3400 NW John Olson Place
Hillsboro, OR 97124

WHO:

Jason Mauer, et al

TOPIC:

Visual Studio 2008 InstallFest
ATTENTION DEVELOPERS! Are you ready to be one of the first to get their hands on Visual Studio 2008? Join Microsoft and the Portland Area .NET Users Group (PADNUG) for a Visual Studio 2008 InstallFest and Holiday Party on December 4th, 2007 at Corillian in Hillsboro.

Visual Studio 2008 is HERE and this event is your opportunity to get your hands on the released version before anyone else. Every person that installs Visual Studio 2008 on their computer at the event will receive a FREE fully licensed copy of Visual Studio 2008 Professional in the mail shortly after public release. Don’t miss out on a great evening of food, fun, and your very own copy of Visual Studio 2008 Professional!

Space is limited so register today.

While you are at it, consider visiting our Premium Sponsors that make these meetings possible:

Aivea - http://www.aivea.com/
Ascentium - http://www.ascentium.com/
Microsoft - http://www.microsoft.com/
Online Business Systems - http://www.obsglobal.com/
O'Reilly - http://www.oreilly.com/
Robert Half Technology - http://www.roberthalftechnology.com/

Looking forward to seeing you all there!

Monday, 26 November 2007 13:28:24 (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)  #    Comments [0]
# Monday, 12 November 2007

Storms of Fall are upon us!

This means it's time for another Nerd Event. This will be the third Nerd Event at the Cinetopia Theaters this year.

One of the extra special things about this event is that Cinetopia has installed the new 3D Digital Cinema system from Dolby Labs. They were one of just five theaters worldwide to launch this new system.

Jesann and I went to see The Nightmare Before Christmas there a couple of weeks ago on this system and it was incredible. It's going to be difficult to watch movies in two dimensions after seeing a few on this.

Note that we are shooting for the late afternoon showing, too. 1:45PM seems just a little too early and the 7:00PM will have too much contention with non-nerds. Also note that we will not be going to the Living Room Theater this time as the 3D system is only installed in the Grand Theater.

To that end, consider buying your tickets early. I'd imagine that there will be a pretty good turnout for this movie.

What: Portland Nerd Dinner Movie
WhereCinetopia Theaters11700 SE 7th St, Vancouver, Washington
When: Saturday, November 17, 2007, 4:30PM Showing
Why: It's Freakin' Beowulf! In Freakin' 3D!

Let any and everyone that might be interested know. And of course...

...Be There and Be Square!

Monday, 12 November 2007 09:44:12 (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)  #    Comments [0]
# Sunday, 04 November 2007

Notice I'm calling it as it is now: November. One might look down the list of meeting announcements and think, "Gosh, there really wasn't an October meeting?!?" That's one way to look at it. On the other hand, we've had twelve meetings this year. So maybe we added a month, eh?

I've been looking for a chance to bring Wayne in to do an Agile presentation for a long time. Many of you may know Wayne from his time at Corillian. He's now working with Integrated Services, Inc.

WHAT: November PADNUG Meeting
WHEN: Tuesday 11/06/2007
6:00 p.m. Pizza (by Ascentium)
6:30 p.m. Presentation
WHERE: Microsoft Portland Office located in Lincoln Tower
10260 SW Greenburg Road
Suite 600
Portland, OR 97223
WHO:

Wayne Allen

TOPIC:

Introduction to Scrum
Agile software development processes such as Extreme Programming (XP), Scrum, Feature Driven Development (FDD) and Crystal have become mainstream in many organizations. Come find out more about Scrum and some of the .NET tools that makes agile software development fun!

While you are at it, consider visiting our Premium Sponsors that make these meetings possible:

Aivea - http://www.aivea.com/
Ascentium - http://www.ascentium.com/
Microsoft - http://www.microsoft.com/
Online Business Systems - http://www.obsglobal.com/
O'Reilly - http://www.oreilly.com/
Robert Half Technology - http://www.roberthalftechnology.com/

Looking forward to seeing you all there!

Sunday, 04 November 2007 08:26:32 (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)  #    Comments [0]
# Monday, 29 October 2007

It hasn't been that long since the last PDXUX.Net meeting, but I wanted to get the word out early on this one. A couple things to note up front:

  1. This meeting will be held at Corillian in Hillsboro
  2. The meeting will be on the 2nd Tuesday instead of the 3rd to avoid Turkey-Day conflicts.
WHAT: November PDXUX.Net Meeting
WHEN:

Tuesday 11/13/2007
6:30 p.m. Socializing & Pizza (by White Horse)
7:00 p.m. Presentation

WHERE:

Corillian Cafe
3400 NW John Olson Place
Hillsboro, OR 97124

WHO:

Scott Vandehey
Scott is a web developer and CSS Ninja working at Pop Art who has been making websites for over ten years. He lives in NE Portland with his wife and baby daughter, and is probably not a Cylon.

TOPIC:

Introducing sIFR
Scott will be introducing sIFR 2.0, a method of inserting rich typography into web pages without sacrificing accessibility, search engine friendliness, or markup semantics. sIFR is meant to replace short passages of plain browser text with text rendered in your typeface of choice, regardless of whether or not your users have that font installed on their systems. It accomplishes this by using a combination of javascript, CSS, and Flash. It is this technology which provides the nice looking custom type headlines you see on sites like Nike, ABCNews, Aston Martin, and others.

Look forward to seeing everyone there!

Monday, 29 October 2007 08:38:24 (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)  #    Comments [0]
# Sunday, 07 October 2007

Just in case you've missed it, we're going to have a bit of an event this week.

Halo 3 on the REALLY big screen.

Thursday, October 11 from 7PM to Midnight (vCal reminder), we are gathering at the finest of movie theaters - Cinetopia Theaters - in Vancouver for an evening of fun and function. All proceeds from the $25 admittance to this event will be given to the American Diabetes Association.

Cinetopia has come through with two theaters for us. This means we will be able to pit two networked teams against one another and enjoy the show on their huge, Digital Super Hi-Def projectors.

Popcorn and a soda will be available, but don't limit yourself; the theater hosts a fabulous concession stand and Best of Citysearch Audience Winner Vinotopia Restaurant and Wine Bar, too.

Thanks to the efforts and contributions of Aivea, Robert Half Technology, Microsoft, PADNUGSAO and others, we will be able to contribute thousands to the ADA in the Fight Against Diabetes, too. This is a big deal, folks.

Space is limited. Sign up now at http://iammasterchief.com with the RSVP code of "FIGHTDIABETES". Feel free to ignore the text mentioning the 'prelaunch' party; we're using the same site as was used for that event.

Scott is making it possible to prepay, too. You are welcome to visit his ADA site at http://www.hanselman.com/fightdiabetes/donate (takes you to the diabetes.org site) and make your contribution there. Print the receipt page and bring it with you to the event as your admission. All contributions made after October 2 will qualify. Otherwise, bring your contribution (feel free to bring more than $25 :-)) to the event.

Join us. You will have a great time!

Sunday, 07 October 2007 22:26:24 (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)  #    Comments [1]