Community

[UK] Microsoft Product Launch – “SWAGGILY FORTUNES”

Product Logo

Be part of it…http://www.nxtgenug.net/2008launch/swagfortunes.aspx

Wednesday March 19th 2008 see the UK 2008 Launch Event. As part of the event, those NxtGenUG Boyz are running one of their game-shows, which will take place about 6.00pm during the evening drinks and nibbles. “Swaggily” Fortunes is a take on the well known TV Quiz show in which teams of contestants are asked, for example, “We asked 100 Developers … To Name a .NET Language”. Those teams that guess correctly what the answers were get to win some fantastic “swag” — after a few rounds of mayhem!

You can help be part of this ‘great’ occasion by going to http://www.nxtgenug.net/2008launch/swagfortunes.aspx and answering 8 short questions. Your answers will go towards making up the choices which the teams have to guess. The NxtGenUG lads have run this several times in the past always to great reviews, and it makes for a fun, relaxed way to wind down from the days sessions.

Technorati Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Community, Developer Events

[UK] Fancy winning some uber swag? Become a Speaker Idol!

Ready Steady Speak!

Microsoft are looking for candidates to take part in a Speaker Idol competition at the upcoming Launch event of Visual Studio 2008, SQL 2008 and Server 2008.

“Ready Steady Speak!” is a mini Speaker Idol in which the contestants have been given predefined subjects to speak on for 5 mins in front of a panel of judges. There will be 3 categories: VS2008, SQL2008 and Windows Server 2008. We want to give your members an opportunity to speak at a major event rather than have recognised community speakers. So spread the word that there is an opportunity to a learn about the new products by giving a short Community talk at the Launch, with a chance to win a great prize too! Hosts and Judges will be in conflict over who is the best, so watch out for some banter and controversy!

In terms of numbers, we need about 4 Dev volunteers and 4 IT Pro volunteers to ensure we have a full competition. So far we’ve 2 volunteers for Dev presentations and one probable for IT Pro, so we spread the word out there to your members, particularly those active ones who may have dabbled in speaking and want an opportunity to have a crack at a large event. Excellent prizes up for grabs as well as accolades !!

If you are interested please contact Dave McMahon (of NxtGenUG fame) – Dave’s e-mail address is Mr McMahon’s first name at-sign nxtgenug.net

Technorati Tags: , , , , , ,

General

Walking whilst using a mobile ‘phone…

Last night, I missed a train because of an old coot who was on his mobile ‘phone – here’s the tweet. Walking whilst using a mobile ‘phone (texting or calling) can be a dangerous thing. The old coot in question happened to be going down stairs at the time, staggering left to right, making direction changes at exactly the same time I was, just as if he had eyes in the back of his head. His meandering cost me 15 minutes. Yes, a whole 15 minutes, doesn’t sound like a lot, but these things add up. Get a couple of those close proximity butterfly effects and it’s easy to see 10-20% of your working day being affected by the actions of other people.

I was, therefore, pleased to read Lucy Mangan’s Shortcut in today’s edition of The Guardian. It should come as no surprise to learn that mobile ‘phone users walk into things whilst trying to keep themselves on the cyber-pavement – so it’s no wonder that they are banned from use whilst driving. However, it gets worse. Seemingly Brick Lane in east London has padding surrounding its lampposts – to prevent mobile ‘phone users from inflicting too much personal damage when they walk into them.

On the subject of self-inflicted injuries, Lucy’s choice of words made me chuckle::

…these are injuries caused by people who do not understand the importance of peripheral vision. Until, that is, they compromise it by texting as they walk along the street and into lampposts, signs, bollards and other pedestrians.

In future, dear mobile ‘phone user who happens to be in front of me, if you are using your mobile ‘phone whilst walking in public, do be considerate of others: slowing down may impact those behind you, as does aimless meandering.

Technorati Tags: , , , , ,

Community, Developer Events

DDD Ireland – Registration is now open!

I am pleased to announce that registration for DDD Ireland is now open!

The registration page is here:
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?culture=en-US&EventID=1032370583

The agenda is here:
http://www.dddireland.com/agenda-1.htm

DDD Ireland Special – WCF In Depth
We are pleased to announce that Dominick Baier and Christian Weyer (both from thinktecture) and Daniel Fisher and Michael Willers (both from devcoach) will be delivering a full day of WCF.

Dominick and Christian will be taking half a day to cover WCF In Action, including a practical introduction and tips & tricks. Daniel and Michael will be also be taking a half day to cover Distributed Apps using AJAX and WCF.

Dom, Christian, Dan and Michael are mainstream speakers, normally seen at major conferences. Similar training would normally entail a financial outlay – not this training, it’s completely free! This is a rare opportunity to immerse yourself in the WCF, not to be missed!

Ah go on.

Technorati Tags: , , ,

Community, Developer Events

DDD Ireland – May 3rd 2008, Galway – FREE developer event

2 Comments

DDD Logo

Phil was, AFAIK, first to get the drums out and start the DDD Ireland beats sounding here in blogsphere!

The web-site itself carries most of the salient information, however do expect it to change its look’n’feel over the next few weeks – we’re planning to adopt the full Silverlight experience!

This is a DDD-styled event, insomuch as it’s held on a Saturday, it’s free, there are no Microsoft speakers on the agenda, there’s a mix of regular experienced speakers and a few fresh faces and there’s an excellent opportunity for a social activity afterwards!

As of today, there is an agenda available: please, do expect this to change a little bit between now and the event itself. One or two of the speakers are still awaiting the outcome of other commitments.

Over the weeks leading up to the event, we are hoping to publish a number of 5-minute videos from the speakers. These videos will give you a sneak peek at the session content, the speaker and will hopefully help you decide which sessions you want to attend!

In addition to the agenda’s five tracks, there is a WCF In Depth track where you can immerse yourself in the Windows Communication Foundation, learning from Dominick Baier, Christian Weyer, Daniel Fisher and Michael Willers (blog/URL tbc, podcast here). This is essentially a full day’s worth of training that won’t cost you a penny in attendance charges!

In the mean-time, please feel free to keep the jungle drums beating by passing news of this event on to all who might be interested. If you are a Facebook user, we do have a group and an event setup already.

Technorati Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Craig Murphy: author, blogger, community evangelist, developer, speaker, runner