Archive for May, 2005
Atlanta Code Camp: All the reviews [Updated: and some photos]
May 22nd
This is a list of the relevant posts from msn search for Atlanta “code camp“.
I was interested in what other bloggers thought about the day, and thought
others may be too. Please send any more links you know about over and I will
update the list. The longer entries come first:
http://msmvps.com/williamryan/archive/2005/05/16/47242.aspx
http://www.solexinc.com/site/301/default.aspx
http://geekswithblogs.net/cwilliams/archive/2005/05/15/39700.aspx
http://tamasii.com/blog/archive/2005/05/17/48969.aspx
http://blogs.simplifi.com/brucet/archive/2005/05/16/181.aspx
http://weblogs.asp.net/wallym/archive/2005/05/16/406918.aspx
http://www.ipattern.com/simpleblog/
Update:
Pics (via Matt and Pat Piccolo):
http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2126645832&code=16061296&mode=invite&DCMP=isc-email-AlbumInvite
Star Wars Relevations professional fan film
May 16th
Update: Installation of Aureus from SourceForge and
waiting a little over a day left Revelations.iso on my HD. Minutes later a DVD-RW
was burned and placed in my DVD player. If you are downloading Revelations wait
for the DVD download. The effects are still impressive but at DVD quality
they do look like effects since they are too clean.
Bittorent coupled with non commercial content like this movie and the twenty plus
podcasts I listen to each week must surely have media companies rethinking their future.
How long until even my basic cable subscription is not necessary? Already cable TV
would be redundant if I (illegally) download the Simpsons etc – I know more than one
person with a modded Xbox who is doing this. Personally I prefer to stay on the right
side of the law for $40/ month, but is it really worth $40/month for a handful of
shows? Micro-payments for legal downloads of ABC News and the Simpsons would have
me calling Comcast tomorrow. I know first hand that Atlanta based cable companies
hire smart developers. I hope their strategic planners are just as smart. It interesting
to note that the BBC is already
producing podcasts – doubt I’ll listen to live radio ever again.
News of Star
Wars Revelations is exploding. Yesterday I finally got around to downloading it
and was pleasantly surprised.
Apparently Mr. Lucas is fine with fans making Star Wars films, so long as they are
not for profit. Take a look at the screen captures below (darn Media Player got me
for a while with overlay mode so I swiftly installed BS
Player on the laptop + switched to RGB mode).
Any more questions on why, how much and how did you achieve this for little cash etc
are answered on the creator’s faq:
www.panicstruckpro.com/revelations/revelations_faq.html
The film is free – you will soon find torrents and direct downloads all over the web.
My mini review: sets are stellar, spacecraft are better than any of the original three
films and you will see some familiar faces like storm troopers, R2D2, regulars of
the cantina bar etc. The plots was a little weak, but if you like Star Wars you must
take a look – good luck downloading it though, my torrent did not even start whereas
podcasts often come down at up to 800k/s.
Code Camp: Getting the hang of this presentation thing
May 15th
This is a huge thanks to the great folks that attended my presentation
yesterday. We had a scream, everyone seemed to be having a good time, with both the
audience and me cracking jokes – it was just like hanging out with friends except
that over 50% of the faces were new.
‘Pauls tries to Write VB Code’ could have been written as a comedy sketch – first
semicolons, then learning how to write a Dim statement. Finally an audience member
realized that I had called the demo solution IsNumeric which became the default
namespace and hence meant that using the IsNumeric keyword was not going to work.
When coding it is great to have audience of forty sharp developers looking over your
shoulder – perhaps a bit costly in real life though?
Well thanks again guys, whoever said ‘Paul Rocks’ during the applause totally made
my day. It was good to see the somewhat ‘on-the-fly’ style is working out. Preparation
for an hour long presentation used to take me close to forty hours (seriously!) but
I have it whittled down to about ten now including some dry runs. It would be easy
to recite a prepared script, but I think my ‘never-quite-the-same-twice’ style is
working out. The disadvantage is that we always miss a couple of fairly important
points during demos; still that seems a fair price to pay for having fun too.
Maybe eventually the nervousness/anxiety/ panic will totally subside and I can last
a hour without missing a beat.
If anyone is thinking of trying out presenting, then please volunteer for a 30 minute
slot at one of the study groups in town (don’t try the main .Net group first
off unless you are uber-confident!!). The first time will undoubtedly be a total
trauma – building up to the day is the worst part, the 30 minutes itself will fly
by. Once over you’ll feel great, even it was a little lame – because you will know
that you could have done better and will have increased confidence to present again.
Every presentation after that your confidence will improve and who knows you may even
start to enjoy giving them one day 
That day took a year and almost ten presentations
for me to achieve but it was worth it. Thanks guys!