It looks like the folks in Boise are planning on having a code camp next month. It is on March 18. If you would like to attend or even better speak at this event you can get more information at http://www.boisecodecamp.org.

I have never attended a code camp but from everything that I hear they are a lot of fun. It is also a wonderful opportunity for people who are thinking that they might want to get into speaking to start to get some experience talking about something that is interesting to them.

I was catching up on some old e-mail and saw that .NET-2-The-Max site at http://www.dotnet2themax.com/ is back in operation. I haven't spent a lot of time looking over their newly designed site but I loved the original version. I am looking forward to lots of good articles, tips, and code from them.

On March 20-22 Microsoft will be holding the MIX conference at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas. If you want to go but can't get your company to pay for it, or you work for yourself and can't convince the boss to let you go :) you still have a chance to attend. You can enter a contest to redesign the MIX homepage. 3 lucky winners will get a pass to the show. You can get the full details at http://blog.mix06.com/blog/archive/2006/02/05/154.aspx or register for the conference at http://www.mix06.com.

I just registered so I will plan on seeing you there.

I just read an editorial at http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=13568 entitled UNIX Security: Don't Believe the Truth. Aside from the authors assertion that UNIX is more secure than Windows and his refusal to entertain any other opinion (for the record I think it is somewhat akin to saying Orem, UT is safer than New York, NY because there are fewer crimes) I thought it was a good piece. The main point is that even though most users do not run with sufficent privileges to allow the OS to be damaged by a virus, the stuff the user cares about can be damaged. The exact same thing is possible when running Windows as a non-administrative user. I had an experience where not being an administrator saved me from a virus infection.

One other interesting tidbit was the advertisement that was playing along with the article. I normally ignore the ads but this one was for the Microsoft sponsored "Get the Facts" campaign on whether Linux or Windows Server 2003 is a better purchase for enterprises. It seemed ironic to me.

I will be teaching a class on ASP .NET 2.0 in the Microsoft offices in Salt Lake on February 14 & 15. I promise that we will be done early enough on the 14th to let you get home to your sweetheart. Here are the details from Microsoft.

You are invited to attend a ASP 2.0 Web Applications training class.  Microsoft is pleased to offer this training at no charge

Developing Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 Web Applications

 

REGISTRATION ENDS February 10, 2006 by 12 noon

Elements of this syllabus are subject to change.

This two-day course provides students with the knowledge and skills to create ASP.NET 2.0 applications. It will show the advancements from ASP.NET 1.x to

ASP.NET 2.0 in creating applications. The course focuses on the new features and functionality of ASP.NET. The course includes sample code in both Microsoft® Visual Basic® .NET and Microsoft Visual C#®.

Audience

This course is intended for experienced, professional Web application developers, including those employed by software companies or working on corporate development teams.

At Seminar Completion

After completing this seminar, students will be able to:

§       Describe advancements from ASP.NET 1.x to ASP.NET 2.0 in creating applications.

§       Develop new Web solutions using ASP.NET 2.0 features and functionality.

§       Creating ASP 2.0 Applications

§       Using Master Pages

§       Working with Data and the new source model

§       Handling State Management

§       Working with Web Parts

§       Personalizing web pages using Profiles and Themes

§       Implementing ASP 2.0 Security

 

Prerequisites

Before attending this course, students must have:

§         Experience developing .NET Web applications using ASP.NET 1.0/1.1

§         HTML

§         XML

§         ADO.NET (1.0/1.1)

 

Lunch

In appreciation for your attendance to this seminar, Microsoft will be providing lunch for the duration of the event.

 

Seminar Dates and Location:

February 14^th and 15^th, 9:00 am - 5:00 pm

Microsoft Corporation

123 Wright Brothers Drive, Suite 100

Salt Lake City, UT 84116

801-257-6400

http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/info/usaoffices/rockymtn/saltlakecity.mspx

 

Register today at: http://www.microsofttraining.com/devonsites

Class/Invitation ID 304420 or click here

 

Here is the blurb from an MSDN flash on how you can get your very own Source Force Action Figures.

You might also want to sign up for some MSDN webcasts or virtual labs. Here's the deal: if you don't sign up for MSDN webcasts and virtual labs this very minute, the world stands a very real (or, at least, not insignificant) chance of coming to an end. Or, at least, it's not completely impossible. Okay. Maybe it won't "end," per se. But it will get a whole lot more embarrassing. And sometimes that's even worse than the end of the world. Remember middle school?

Thing is, if you don't attend at least four live MSDN webcasts or virtual labs per month, from January through April, you won't get to collect the Source Fource action figures. And then where will you be? While everyone else in your office is playing with their Source Fource action figures at lunch, you'll have to paint a potato red and blue and squint your eyes. Oh, sure ... everyone will pretend to play along as you run through the room, holding your potato over your head and making "whoosh" noises ...

Scared? Good. Here's the skinny: From January through April 2006, we'll unveil a new super dude or dudette and send them to developers who get their act together and attend at least four live MSDN webcasts or four MSDN virtual labs in a given month. Hey, not so fast! In order to confirm your shipping address and receive credit for attendance, you must complete an evaluation at the end of each webcast or virtual lab.

So now is the time to leap over tall developers in a single bound. Remember - you need to fill out the evaluation for four live webcasts (on-demand or dead webcasts don't count), or four MSDN virtual labs in a given month to qualify.
- Brad McCabe

So, with January gone you will have to sign up and attend more webcasts in February to make sure you get you Source Force Action figure. Even if you don't get the action figure attending webcasts is a good way to learn without spending a lot of money on training.

Just in case you have missed the announcement, Microsoft has said that support for Windows 98 and Windows ME will end on June 30, 2006. This means that there will be no new patches or support articles written. The current documentation and patches will still be availaible. Realistically, if you are running a Windows 98 or ME machine connected to the Internet you should really look at upgrading to Windows XP SP2 or if you are daring you can wait until later this year and upgrade to Vista.

   I was pointed to this blog post by Rich Strahl who says he is a Microsoft MVP. In the article he explains why your WinForms application appears to take a lot of memory when it starts up and then drops down significantly if the window is minimized. He then provides a hack to help you reduce the working set. I was intrigued by the idea but I am not sure how useful it is. If the problem is really startup code then the memory manager should be swapping out the unused code for more relevant code as the application executes. I haven't done any profiling to verify it but I would think that running an application over time would end up with the same working set size whether you left all the startup code loaded after the form loads or if you used this method to shrink the working set right after loading and then let it grow.