Jason Bock will be speaking at this week’s WI .NET Users Group meeting.
Evolutionary programming and computation have been used in the past to produce amazing and unexpected designs, yet a lot people don’t know how powerful these concepts are. This session will describe these principles and show how you can use them as you develop .NET code by using LINQ expressions.
The meeting is on a special night this week: Thursday, August 11. More info and registration is at the link above.
Surely by now you’ve heard that Silverlight 2 is being released tomorrow (Tuesday, October 14). Coincidentally, the WI .NET Users Group is having a Silverlight 2 presentation the same night.
There has been a lot of interest in this meeting and registration numbers are already very high. If you are interested in coming, there is still room, but please sign up quickly so we can have an accurate headcount.
Passion is elusive. It’s sneaky and slippery. It hides and taunts you. For those lucky enough to have found it, you are truly fortunate. For years now, I’ve been looking for something to be passionate about. Something I could really devote myself to. Something I would be willing to do even if I wasn’t being paid.
All this time, I’ve been looking in the wrong place. I’ve been hunting passion at work; that’s not where it is. I’ve tried devoting myself to the job, making sacrifices and working hard, but I always felt like something was missing. It’s been such a struggle for me that I’ve seriously been thinking about finding a new career. The problem is that I just don’t know what else to do.
As it turns out, the passion has been just off to the side, right in plain view, but not where I was looking. I’ve always enjoyed working with the WI .NET Users Group and wished that I could do it for a living somehow. Now while working on GiveCamp MKE, I think I’ve found the passion I’ve been looking for. There’s something about organizing something with the sole purpose of benefiting someone else that satisfies me.
The really cool thing, though, is that once you find passion, you can take it with you where ever you go. I can now feel passionate about work as well (working at a great company helps by the way). Things are different all around once you’ve found passion.
If you are feeling unmotivated and complacent, keep looking. Passion is there — just maybe not where you think it should be. Maybe in a few months I’ll have to write about Maintaining Passion? Let’s see how successful I can be at that.
For the first time since — ummm — since ever, I am looking forward to an upcoming conference call. And I’m really looking forward to it. I don’t want to say too much, yet, because I want to get some very basic details ironed out first, but I will say that it is about a special project we are working on for the WI .NET Users Group.
I’ve been thinking about this project for a few weeks now, and I’ve actually taken notes. If you have ever been with me to a meeting, that statement alone should let you know how serious I am about this. I am a terrible (appalling, horrendous, atrocious, apocalyptic) note taker, so much that I often don’t even take a pen and paper with me because I will get more out of my memory of the meeting than from my notes. But I have notes for this. And they make sense!
So, if you work in technology in the Milwaukee area, keep an eye on my blog over the next couple weeks. If this call goes even half as good as I expect, I will be asking for your help!
If you’re in the Milwaukee area and have nothing to do today (4/5/08), why not come to Deeper in .NET? It starts at 8AM and will go until right around 6PM. We have 5 great speakers on the agenda so come on by and see what’s going on.
Deeper in .NET 2008 is 3 days away — this Saturday! I can’t believe it myself. The time has flown by and I’m amazed that everything managed to get worked out. If you haven’t already, go register to attend — you won’t be disappointed.
Also, we just made an announcement on Monday that we are adding an Attendee Party after the conference. Just stick around at the hotel for a while and enjoy the food and fun. At the time of this writing, there are only about 40 spots left at the party, so if you want to go, be sure to sign up right away.
You can sign up for both the Deeper in .NET 2008 sessions and the Attendee Party at www.deeperin.net. Tell all your friends, coworkers and clients that they should come. I hope to see everyone there!
Chris just mentioned this so I thought I’d write a follow up post.
Several months ago I created a Facebook group for the WI .NET Users Group, although I never really publicized it, and had actually forgotten about it until today. Well, today, Chris created a LinkedIn group for the UG, and that prompted me to create a Twitter account for the UG.
If you are a member of the WI .NET Users Group and are on any of these networks, please feel free to join the groups (or follow us on Twitter).
And yeah, I know — it’s a corny title…
Tomorrow (Saturday) is the first ever Fox Valley Day of .NET in Appleton, WI. I’m planning to attend, and if you’re anywhere in the area, and are a software developer, I’d recommend you go as well. They have a good looking lineup of speakers and sessions, and I’m looking forward to it.
Best of all, it’s free.
Their automatic registration process is closed now, but you can still show up and register on site. If you’re planning to go, I’ll see you there.
If you attended a VS2008 InstallFest in the last couple months and registered your trial copy of VS2008, you have probably received the final media in the mail in the last day or two (or probably will in the next day or two). Someone sent me a note today asking about activated the installed trial version with the "real" software key. He (and I) thought that it would be done from within the VS2008 IDE.
We were wrong. In case anyone else is missing it like we were, this tip is for you. You have to actually run the installer on the new disc. Choose the option to "modify or uninstall" and after the installer finally loads, click next and you’ll see a handful of choices, including one to add a license key. Copy the key from the disc jacket and you’re all set.
If you were at the last WI .NET Users Group meeting, you already know, but for those that weren’t, there is a Milwaukee chapter of the ALT.NET User Group forming. Dan Miser is heading things up and the first meeting is Weds, March 5. Details are here.
If you’ve been following the movement, and are interested, you should definitely try to make it to the meeting and get involved. The format of the meetings will probably be different than our normal WI .NET UG meetings. From Dan’s blog post: "be prepared to be engaged, discuss, and share (bring your laptop to showcase code and/or slides)".
Dan and I got to talk a little after the last UG meeting, and we had a few ideas about collaboration between the two groups. I’m looking forward to talking to him some more and getting some joint meetings and/or coordinated topics setup.
Wednesdays are tough for me, but I’m going to try to make it. Please spread the word, and be sure to sign up for the meeting so Dan knows how many to expect.
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