After a couple of trips to Europe to teach Application Platform Optimization classes I think I might have a few readers in Europe who might be directly interested in this contest. Even if you aren't elegible to participate in the contest you might want to check out the results because I am sure they will be spectacular.

1^st European Silverlight Challenge

This competition is taking place in different European countries (e.g. Italy, United Kingdom , Germany, The Netherlands, Ireland, Poland, France, Spain , Belgium, Croatia, Ukraine, Bulgaria) at the same time starting right now. As an example - the German and Spanish version can be found here:

http://silverlightchallenge.ineta-germany.org/
http://desafiosilverlight.bcndev.net/

The winners of all national competitions (there are great local prizes as well) will get the chance to compete against each other on a European level and win one of our 3 master prizes – paid trip to MIX 08 in Las Vegas including conference passes and some more goodies!

http://www.silverlightchallenge.eu/Premios.aspx

http://www.silverlightchallenge.eu/

PDC08 is scheduled for October 27-30, 2008 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. There will be a pre-conference day on the 26th. From the announcement I got...

PDC is the definitive Microsoft event for software developers and architects focused on the future of the Microsoft platform. Mark your calendars and save the date. More information coming soon.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/pdc2008

No, this post is not about the 10 types of people who either understand binary or do not. This is in reference to a comment made in one of the early shows of .Net Rocks! where either one of the hosts or a guest said something like "Soon there will be 2 types of people in the world. Those who understand batteries and those who use them." I don't remember the context of the quote. I don't even remember the exact wording of the quote but I do remember hearing that and laughing. Since that time I have decided that I am definitely one of those people who uses batteries but doesn't understand them. I do know that I want batteries that last a long time, don't over heat and cause a fire, and are environmentally friendly. Not being one who understands battery technology I am not sure if all 3 if those goals are achievable. Today I saw an article on nextenergynews.com about a battery that claims to hit all 3 of my points.

The article claims that the battery will run for 30 years, power a laptop without getting hot, and when it runs out of electricity it will be inert and will therefore not harm the environment.

The first thing I did was to look for the date that the article was published. I was sure it was an April Fools joke that someone had finally gotten around to sending to me. The date looks legitimate. I also saw a lot of comments about the article that make it sound like the site is a legitimate site and not some subtle form of satire that I just didn't get. If all of that is true then my only regret will to have not put a 4th condition on my batteries which would be that they be affordable to just about everyone in the world. I have a feeling that any company selling something designed to last 30 years will put a large price tag on it since they won't be selling a lot of them. I really don't want to pay as much as I did for my house for a battery to run a laptop that will be obsolete 28 years before the battery is.

On Scott Guthrie's Blog there is a post about source code for parts of the .NET Framework being made available at the same time that Visual Studio 2008 is released. You will be able to set up your debugging to allow you to download the latest version of the source code and symbols so you can debug into the framework code. This will be much more useful than running relfector to see what is going on as the locals window and breakpoints will work so you will be able to see exactly what your code is doing in relation to the base class libraries.

The source code is released as part of the Microsoft Reference License so you will be able to look at, but don't touch, the source code to make modifications or try to build your own framework with the code. I really love that Microsoft is trying to be more open about their code and what is happening while at the same time providing a framework that protects the IP (Intellectual Property) and trademarks in their code. I see that as being a somewhat (note I don't say ideal) happy medium between the completely closed source model and the completely open source model.

I can't wait to be able to debug down into the BCL and see what I am doing that doesn't work with what Microsoft is doing. I can't help but think that will give us better, more stable code on the .NET Framework.

Looking at the calendar I realize that had I not left Keane 5 weeks ago I would be celebrating my 15th anniversary with the company today. Looking back over the last 5 weeks I have learned a lot and had a chance to work on projects that I think will prove to have a bigger impact than the work I was doing at Keane. I do and will continue to miss my friends and colleagues at Keane but I am loving the chance I have to learn and do new things with Advaiya. In the end I think the decision to change jobs was a good one. In a bit of irony, my last day with Keane I came home and had a letter directing me to a web site to pick out my 15 year anniversary gift from the company. I did go and look but didn't order since I knew I wasn't going to be working there today.

I got back from Malaysia over the weekend. I intended to post after each talk at TechEd but for some reason I couldn't connect to my web server. I had a good time speaking at the event. I met a lot of smart people who asked good questions. The only thing that I would have liked to do better is to have my demos work better. I was really disappointed at the one that worked in the hotel room and the speakers room but when I got on stage it broke :(

I think the best part of the speaking was when I went off on a tangent on Tuesday and successfully associated an information card with my Windows Live account on stage. It was the first time I had tried it and I was hoping that the beta wasn't closed or that I wouldn't hit an error with the process in front of 200+ people. It worked and I have been using CardSpace to log into my HotMail account ever since then. I will post the steps I followed in a subsequent entry.

I am really excited about the direction that CardSpace is taking and the different scenarios that it will enable.

I also got to do a little sight seeing before I came home. I  had the chance to visit an elephant sanctuary at Kuala Gundar. I saw an add for a credit card in the airport today. It had a family with some of the children touching an elephant. The tag line was something like "reminding your children what awesome really means". I felt that touching and feeding the elephants was truly an awesome experience. The saddest part was seeing this little elephant.

She is about 8 years old and she lost her left front foot in a poachers trap. It was a very sobering sight and makes you think about the impact you have in the world

After the conference was over I went on another tour where I got to feed some silver leaf monkeys. They really loved the green beans that we were feeding them. I was surprised when they started to climb up me. I was really surprised the first time one of the monkeys jumped on my shoulder but I found that they didn't really care about me. They just wanted their food.

I hope to be able to go to Tech Ed South East Asia again next year.

As I prepare to head off to Kuala Lumpur I realized that I hadn't published my schedule. Just in case you are in the area this is what I will be speaking on and when

Sorry for the short notice but we had to cancel the Utah County .NET User Group meeting this month. We will meet again next month on the 19th. Please see our web site at http://www.ucnug.org for more information.

I have been dying to post this announcement here but I thought I would send out personal e-mails to all the people I worked with and let them know before they heard it here. Unfortunately, that turned out to be a bigger task than I thought and I haven't sent out all the e-mails I wanted to. I finally decided that it is better to read it on my blog than to suddenly find out that my Keane e-mail account doesn't work any more.

This Friday will be my last day with Keane. I will be leaving 5 weeks short of my 15 year anniversary. I have enjoyed my time at Keane and the many people that I have had a chance to meet and work with along the way.

I will be starting work for Advaiya on the 20th. I am excited about the challenges that await me and the chance I will have to work with and contribute to a team working on different challenges.