Archive for September, 2004
Free Event Tickets – Connected Systems Roadshow
Sep 23rd
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The regular price is $249, but a Microsoft
rep mailed attendees saying we can take two more people for free. If you are interested
use this URL:
http://go.netdesk.com/CommunityDays/EventInfo.aspx?Event=220&RSVP=isvfree
You can attend next Mon or Tue (Sep 27th + 28th) and it lasts all day, I’ll
be there on Tuesday so as not to miss the .Net group on Monday evening.
The location is:
Hilton Atlanta & Towers-Grand Ballroom A – 2nd Floor
255 Courtland St. NE
Atlanta, GA 30303
404-221-6347
Atlanta’s Pocket PC User Group
Sep 22nd
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Show and Tell of expensive toys could sum this evening up. There were only seven developers
among the seventy or so attendees. The phrases Compact Framework or even .Net were
not mentioned once!
Still it was a fun evening, I got to live vicariously though other people’s high dollar
purchases (like I’d blow $800 on a PDA, do you know what kind of wheels $800 would
buy? Nice ones).
Unbelievably some rivaled Michael Earls on
the amount-of-tech-in-your-everyday-life front. It seemed like everyone there had
Bluetooth capable devices which talked to their car audio system + GPS receiver.
Obviously there is quite lot to learn about mobile devices apart from just programming
them; my favorite was the new nick name for the BlackBerry: CrackBerry –
apparently checking Email becomes an addiction creating a Pavlovian response
from its incoming email alert. For you single guys: If you fly often it appears a BlackBerry will
pick up more chicks than a PocketPC equivalent. My $200
Dell Axim probably means Jocks will be stand in line to
kick my nerdy ass.
The main speaker was Dale Coffing, he
showed off some cool products including a pair of kakis that I’ll be buying. The SCOTTeVEST pants
have eleven hidden pockets and compartments – ideal for stowing a PDA and blunt metal
objects discretely (in case of attack by Jocks in Airport lounges). SCOTTeVEST also
sell Jackets… get ready to salivate… Their jackets have up to 42 hidden pockets all
begging to contain an expensive gadget, the jacket even has hidden cable routing to
link any oh-that’s-so-90’s wired gadgets together. And just think of the new people
you’ll meet at Airport security. The Jackets are here:
http://www.scottevest.com/v3_product_info/features.shtml
If anyone knows of an
based Compact Framework Support User Group please let me know.
Atlanta’s Java User Group
Sep 21st
Atlanta’s Java User Group is excellent. Tonight Justin Gehtland talked about his new book Better, Faster, Lighter Java. It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening, even with the numerous (and almost all inaccurate) .Net jibes.
Prior to the main event Burr Sutter (who I already knew) led a great discussion with the audience on a raft of subjects. Our .Net groups are missing someone with his panache to work the crowd; he is at least a DCC level speaker.
A fundamental subject of the book is Why Do Many Java Project Fail? As a former Java developer I agreed with many of the assertions including:
. Complexity – Java people love buzzwords and apply any they know anywhere!
. Taking things too far – e.g. Layering everything
. EJB misuse – Been there personally!
. Peer Pressure to write ‘smart’ code
It was also interesting to see just how fragmented the Java tools/ platform extensions market has become since I booted the JVM out of my career (March 2001). The number of commercial-quality Open Source tools available is amazing. In fact commercial companies are now viewing projects like Hibernate as serious competition. In my view this fragmentation lowers each tool’s user base and hence their quality. Why is the CLR, .Net Framework and VS.Net so stable? Because a massive number of sales means Microsoft can afford serious development and gargantuan testing efforts. Java EJB Servers cost around $100K and are apparently as stable Scott McNealy’s career. Without the effort of a Microsoft style Product Development Lifecycle you just cannot create Microsoft quality products. I would love to yatter on about the evening but no one reads long blog entries, so watch this space for news from future Java meetings.