Thursday, October 30, 2003
Last post before from the PDC
Well, I hear the fat lady singing (or someone's strangling a poor, defenseless little animal), and the PDC is shutting down. The vendors in the Expo are gone, the left over books have been given out (I have 30lbs of extra paper reminding me) and the last session just ended. I could share a few thoughts from that session, but nothing really strikes me right now to note. I'll save it for the travel summary report.
Overall, this year's PDC has been interesting, but not earth-shatteringly amazing. Given the financial climate and the reality of security vulnerabilities, this is probably a good thing. Evolution, not revolution. Progress, not perfection.
Today felt much more like Sunday did--much smaller crowds and I had no problem seeing the sessions I wanted. I definitely didn't feel as 'cattle-like' walking between sessions unlike the last three days. "Moo" could practically be made out while we herded from session to session, queued up for the restroom or for meals and embarassingly scrambled as we heard of a vendor's new give-away. Food, restrooms and freebies--it brings out the animal instincts. Even survival during the overcrowded sessions comes to mind. I have survived...
Still, I think I'll check out a few repositories on my way out to the buses to see if any other freebies are out there....(*chuckle*)
See you all back in Pennsylvania.
Posted at 15:24 by _bruce :: Archived :: TrackBack (<%= tbCount("1067527473006") %>)
Computing on the Beach: Visions of Mobility
No, that's not what I'm doing (unfortunately), but that is the title of this last session. It's a panel discussion about the advancements in a wireless world, and the advancements in software and devices to support that model.
We can dream, can't we?
Posted at 13:41 by _bruce :: Archived :: TrackBack (<%= tbCount("1067521281006") %>)
It's Thursday, time to wind down
Yes, Thursday is here already. This year's PDC is almost just a memory with just two more sessions to go.
This morning had a few discussion panels on SOA (Service Oriented Architectures), which, of course, Web Services can play a particularly valuable role. Now, I'm in a repeat session of one I couldn't attend before because of a conflict--New Features in Whidbey for XML and Data Access.
I did get to the Staples Center to get a ticket for tonight's LA Kings/Vancouver Canucks hockey game. Not sure how either team is doing, but hockey is always a good thing!
Alright, this session is winding down...one more to go
Posted at 13:30 by _bruce :: Archived :: TrackBack (<%= tbCount("1067520658006") %>)
Wednesday, October 29, 2003
Session evals
I'm probably like 95% (or more) of the attendees here at the PDC in that I haven't done any session evaluations. At least I haven't yet. I know that when I give talks or presentations I like to get feedback not only on the content but also on my approach, style and clarity. Because I'm thinking of it, I'll probably look to do some evals before the conference party tonight @ Universal Studios.
An Idea: By human nature, people need incentives. Perhaps Microsoft should consider doing some kind of drawing for free PocketPCs, SmartPhones, or SPOT devices for attendees who turn in evaluations. Perhaps each eval you fill out would be a ticket for the drawing--The more evaluations an attendee does, the more chance (s)he would have to win.
Wouldn't that be cool?
Posted at 16:56 by _bruce :: Archived :: TrackBack (<%= tbCount("1067446608006") %>)
Gotta love blogging!
Just as I was getting the info on PDC Central and blogging it for the people back home, I decided to jump over to PDCBloggers to check up on things. To my astonishment, I had a quote on the main page! That's cool.
Then, I clicked on the "More..." link for reading some comments from other bloggers that the site wanted to highlight and I saw that I had a second quote posted. Cool #2!
This just goes to prove how blogging helps us create virtual social networks for sharing ideas, thoughts or any kind of information. Or, in another vein, does it challenge Andy Worhol's statement about "15 minutes of fame"? Perhaps '15 minutes' is no long a sufficient descriptor in the time warp of blogging time (a.k.a. internet time).
Posted at 16:39 by _bruce :: Archived :: TrackBack (<%= tbCount("1067445594006") %>)
PDC Central web site
If you're looking to get more info on products and technologies being discussed this week at the PDC, check out PDC Central
Posted at 16:21 by _bruce :: Archived :: TrackBack (<%= tbCount("1067444519006") %>)
Speaking of a lousy network
Another reason I'm ticked that WiFi isn't working right now (no, let me correct that: WiFi is working; DHCP isn't) is because of the wildfires. I've been trying to keep up with the news but I'd really like to see how the fight last night and this morning has been going. Given the rate of these fires to the north, east and south, LA is somewhat boxed in. This is definitely not what I had in mind when I planned on spending a few extra days out here with a convertible. I guess I can try to find a place to stay near the coast, perhaps down by Laguna, Huntington or Newport beaches.
Posted at 10:50 by _bruce :: Archived :: TrackBack (<%= tbCount("1067424658006") %>)
Conference goodies
Yes, this is a vendor conference which means all sorts of goodies, freebies and software. What's in my goodies drawer back in the hotel? T-Shirts (including some SharePoint shirts for the development team), demo CDs & DVDs, some lego blocks, a lunch box from MSDN for being a Universal subscriber and, of course, the conference DVDs.
I have the current bits for Longhorn, Yukon and Whidbey. I thought about using a spare hard drive I brought with me to load up Longhorn, but I doubt this 900Mhz, 512MB laptop would handle it. It would probably just laugh back at me. That's too bad since I'd really like to try out some of the stuff in Whidbey.
There is a practical side to me here as well. My main lifeblood of communications here is my laptop. If I were to damage it while swaping drives or screw up my primary hard drive, I'd be really ticked off. Best wait for some 'sacrificial hardware' back home.
Posted at 10:43 by _bruce :: Archived :: TrackBack (<%= tbCount("1067424209006") %>)
This PDC network really stinks
More DHCP issues. I have my wireless card installed, I'm getting an excellent signal from the access point, and can I get an IP address? Nope. Nothing. Nada.
I have several blog updates to post, but without the network, I can do that and I can't access the online session schedule to find out about changes. It's a good thing I have a local copy.
Even in the Microsoft World of "always online", no one can hear my screams...
Actually, I hear that Microsoft outsources the WiFi and wired network for the conference center to some other company. I'll have to find out who that is to make sure we don't try to use their services. For a premier technical conference, this is really embarassing to both that company and Microsoft.
*sigh*
Posted at 10:37 by _bruce :: Archived :: TrackBack (<%= tbCount("1067423837006") %>)
One note from yesterday's sessions
In the Visual C# "Whidbey": IDE Enhancements for the C# Developer session yesterday, one new feature of Whidbey was shown which was very cool. Sure, it's possible to do something like it today, but not to this degree.
What I'm talking about is creating/maintaining class diagrams within VS.NET Whidbey. This goes way beyond what can be done with Visio Enterprise Architect today. Here's a short list of features:
- Create class diagrams from existing classes
- Display class information in flexible manners
- Class diagrams are automatically updated with any changes to classes
- You can edit the classes via the diagram and the changes are reflected in the code
- Diagrams can show inheritance, relationships between classes by properties and methods
A downside: the diagrams are not UML compliant because what Whidbey is doing is beyond what UML can represent (so the speaker said)
Finally, a picture (click on the thumbnail for a larger image):
[1600x1200]Posted at 10:23 by _bruce :: Archived :: TrackBack (<%= tbCount("1067423036006") %>)
Need to update the RSS feed
Apparenly, BlogWorkx does some funny stuff with the RSS feed when it generates the feed from my posts. When I consume the feed using VoxLite, all the formatting is gone. I need to see if there's something I can do with the ASP code.
Posted at 10:07 by _bruce :: Archived :: TrackBack (<%= tbCount("1067422065006") %>)
MS Research general session
Some very cool stuff!!
My Notes:
Only 10 years since we had the browser (April 1993)
Key research
GPU:
Geometry Amplification (2-D representation of 3-D surfaces for softer rendering)
Precomputed Radiance Transfer (translucency, glossyness computations in real time)
View-dependent displacement mapping
Storage:
Now that 1TB of storage on developer PC's isn't unreal and according to research, 90% of new data is stored on disk (vs. paper, optical, tape, …)
1998: TerraServer-3TB Web DB
Working on a World-Wide Telescope Virtual Observatory - picture of 1/4 of the universe; 400 attributes per object
Jim Bray: (Turning Award winner)
http://skyserver.sdss,org; data has been online for 2 years; latest is over 1TB
Sloan Digital Sky Survey
Web-Service-based
SkyQuery - a federated query across (currently) 10 research systems
http://www.skyserver.org - all capabilities but with 1GB of data - DOWNLOADABLE
"My SkyServer"
Communication:
Blogging is an example of how the computer/web is changing how we communicate
Social Computing-Lili Cheng
Social diagramming exercise - Personal Map
Hyper-tree-type of diagram which floats 'people' by your interactions through email, IM
[not unlike the FOAF effort using RDF]
Storyboarding 'Sharing Networks'
Group Shares
Today: file-centric
Future: people-centric
Blogging and media sharing
An emailed photo is more about the story & context of the photo than 'about' the photo itself (the photo is metadata)
"Wallop" - social network based blog for info sharing
The information about a person is not always generated by them-it oftimes is generated by other people
Agents are used to 'pick up' information as people do work
Smart Personal Objects
SPOT (SPO Technology) - for small devices (watches, WiFi enabled)
Everyday objects that aren't computing devices, but provide info
Tiny CLR for SPOT devices
Changing the Learning Experience
Integrated learning environment (environment, software platform)
Tablets, wifi, Internet2, home live learning, home learning from recorded session, IM for questions from remote sites
U.Washington is using this software right now for MBA classes
John SanGiovanni: MSR University Relations for piloting these ideas
MathPad on steroids - write equations, draw picture, animate picture based on equations and physics
MagicPaper - draw a picture and let it animate according to physics (all sorts of primitives are available including springs)
Posted at 10:03 by _bruce :: Archived :: TrackBack (<%= tbCount("1067421829006") %>)
Wednesday: What's on tap?
OK, another day down, two more to go. I didn't blog much later yesterday because I was involved in fighting the crowds for seating in some very popular sessions. Overall, the organization of this conference hasn't been too swift. The network (wired and wireless) has been sketchy at times--DHCP problems over and over again. A number of sessions have been closed because of full attendance-10 minutes before the session began! Maybe I'm nitpicking...
On the schedule for today:
- General session on what's going on in MS Research
- ASP.NET: Programming with the Membership, Role Management and Security in ASP.NET
- ASP.NET: Programming with the Personalization System in ASP.NET "Whidbey"
- Building Best-of-Breed Web Parts on SharePoint Products and Technologies
- WinFS: Drill Down into Information Agent and Notifications
- System.Search: Natural Language Access to Data
- BizTalk Server 2004 with SQL Server “Yukon” DTS and “Indigo”
Posted at 09:45 by _bruce :: Archived :: TrackBack (<%= tbCount("1067420742006") %>)
Tuesday, October 28, 2003
Whidbey: OK, some cool stuff
One very useful feature is the Class diagram tool. You can design classes graphically or in text or both. Unfortunately, the diagrams are not UML compatible, because they are made specific to the language. Compared to the Visio Enterprise Architect diagramming tool, this is geared towards bringing that function into VS.NET. I don't know why we need two solutions. How about one good one?
Posted at 16:03 by _bruce :: Archived :: TrackBack (<%= tbCount("1067357010006") %>)
Whidbey: Making developer tools easier
In the Whidbey-related talks so far, there's one basic theme coming out: Whidbey is looking to deliver functions that developers want in a suite of tools. It doesn't seem so much about technological leaps but rather a jump in making the tools more functional for more developers. Things like folding text editor for source code (not just classes and methods, but also other entities like HTML/XML tags). Making intellisense work across all facets of the editor (not just classes, but also code attributes, XML tags and even XML based around your custom schemas).
Sure, there are language enhancements in C# 2.0 and enhancements to ASP.NET in version 2.0, but those are evolutionary. Sure, some of the evolutions are major simplications (like the new server controls in ASP.NET 2.0) but still this is an evolution.
Posted at 14:06 by _bruce :: Archived :: TrackBack (<%= tbCount("1067349980006") %>)
I had to do it
I had to take the step to Office 2003 particularly for Outlook. I tried on Sunday and Monday to VPN in from the CommNet network here at the PDC and sync my email. No dice. Outlook just kept timing out trying to process my spam rules and download the messages. Not good. Obviously, part of the problem is the heavily loaded CommNet network. I even made sure I tried to sync using a wired connection during a low period of low utilization.
So, last evening, I considered upgrading to Outlook 2003 because it's advertised to handle poor connections. What better of a test could there be? I did the upgrade to Office 2003 (I'm glad I brought my DVD with me) and it went seemlessly and without issue. In fact, it seemed too smooth that it made me wonder if it Outlook 2003 would work and retain all my custom settings (profiles, rules, PSTs, autoarchive, ...).
The result:
It all worked. All my settings were there.What about synchronizing? Equally as smooth.
Summary
Right now I would be without email if I hadn't done the upgrade. Kudos to the Office team!!Posted at 11:48 by _bruce :: Archived :: TrackBack (<%= tbCount("1067341729006") %>)
Yes, the SharePoint Portal SDK is out
I can't seem to locate the SDK via the normal web pages (downloads, SharePoint MSDN Library, etc.), but I did get the link via another blogger.
SharePoint Products and Technologies 2003 SDK
Enjoy.
Posted at 11:28 by _bruce :: Archived :: TrackBack (<%= tbCount("1067340492006") %>)
Sessions for today
Well, let's see. This morning started off with two general sessions: one on Whidbey and another on Yukon. Shortly, the break-out sessions will begin. Here's what I'm planning on attending:
- Top Five Programming Tasks Using The Windows SharePoint Services Object Model
- 15 minutes to grab some lunch
- Visual Studio "Whidbey": New IDE Features for Building ASP.NET Web Applications
- Visual C# "Whidbey": IDE Enhancements for the C# Developer
- WinFS: Using Windows "Longhorn" Storage ("WinFS") in Your Application (Part 1)
- People and Group Controls in Windows "Longhorn": Enabling Applications for Collaboration and Data Sharing
Also, I have a few BOF sessions to attend tonight at 9pm and 10pm. There's one at 10pm on SharePoint development done as a "Top Ten". That's after the Ask the Experts session. I think I'll need a nap before those.
Given the magnitude of the change Microsoft is introducing at this PDC, its too bad I'm the only one here from APCI. Whidbey could demand all my attention but I want to make sure I cover some of Longhorn and Yukon as well. Then there's all the coding sessions, discussions, BOF sessions and other stuff (like Ask the Experts). Too much!
I also just found out that because many attendees were late in getting to the PDC because of the flight delays due to the wildfires, the a video tape of the keynote will be replayed tonight at 8:30pm. I might want to check it out to video record the "Behind the Software" spoof Bill and friends did of VH1's "Behind the Music".
Then again, perhaps not.
Posted at 11:12 by _bruce :: Archived :: TrackBack (<%= tbCount("1067339539006") %>)
West coast versus East coast
I have discovered one thing particular advantageous of coming to a west coast conference from the east--I don't have a problem waking up at 7am! (well, at least for a few days I don't). Waking up at 7am to get to the convention center for breakfast by 8am hasn't been a problem. If I had this schedule on the east cost, I'd be hurting right now.
On the flip side, those 10pm sessions are a bit tougher...
Posted at 09:23 by _bruce :: Archived :: TrackBack (<%= tbCount("1067332982006") %>)
Monday, October 27, 2003
It's 10pm...do you know where your developers are?
A major geek social event. Yes, it is 10pm and I'm in the weblogging session. It's just about to get started. Right now it's like a big cocktail party -- one where people know about other people, but are meeting them face-to-face for the first time. So far there's about 200-300 people here.
Some of the topics:
- problems of the past (XML-RPC in the vein of Radio Userland/Live Journal) versus Echo
- Atom as a new approach (Sam Ruby is leading this effort) versus RSS
A general observation: These guys are impatient to have a solution that solves the problems of RSS (Dave Winer's creation).
Bottom Line: Blogs are not a technical thing; they are a social thing.
The general problems: How to get the info you want to you. How to deal with a large number of blogs? (Scoble, the master, is reading 600 feeds; I have 514).
Actually, through all the arguments, I think I can safely say that these guys don't quite get it. They keep dancing around it, but what they really want is their content to be fully-qualified with metadata and have an engine to build inferences from that content and metadata. Hmmm.... It sounds a lot like using metadata standards (i.e. Dublin Core), stored using a standard schema (i.e. RDF) and semantic analysis of the content (i.e. Inxight tools). Communities can then be based around these things, as well as the list of raw sources (a.k.a. a blogroll) --> Communities of Practice and Team Sites.
Personal thoughts: REALLY, blogging is about sharing information. It boils down to one of two things: either the publishing of original content, or, just the replication of information from another source. If these tools would tag content as "ORIGINAL" or "REPUBLISHED", then much of the noise of 'rebroadcasts' can be elminated. Metadata standards are the key.
Wouldn't it be nice if a general taxonomy could be created and a Web Service created to allow users to categorize their feed content, and generate metadata using that common taxonomy? This would give a common basis of metadata. Inxight's tools (or any other semantic processor) could be of infinite value to the blogging community.
Posted at 23:04 by _bruce :: Archived :: TrackBack (<%= tbCount("1067295848006") %>)
Update on the PowerPad
Today has been a long day already and I still have lots of sessions. It's 5:10pm and I'm sitting in Don Box's Indigo presentation. I've been using my laptop in all the sessions since 8:30 this morning with the wireless card active, purposely trying to not be conservative (aside from power management settings). The PowerPad 160 is still holding strong. I've still got about 20% left in the PowerPad, then the internal laptop battery.
This is good(ness)! [sorry--had to do this].
This session lasts until 6pm, then I have a break until 9pm when the BOF sessions begin. The key one I want to attend on weblogging starts at 10pm tonight. I should be able to make it with the PowerPad and internal battery.
Posted at 17:15 by _bruce :: Archived :: TrackBack (<%= tbCount("1067274929006") %>)
And yet more blogging
In case you REALLY want to get overloaded with info, many of the attendees who blog have been contributing to a site called PDC Bloggers. By loading the OPML from this site into a news aggregator, you can keep up with all their thoughts.
Also, there's a BOF (Birds Of a Feather) session tonight on weblogging. I'll finally have a chance to meet some of the people who I've been reading blogs from over the last months!
Posted at 15:55 by _bruce :: Archived :: TrackBack (<%= tbCount("1067270155006") %>)
- No longer need FrontPage server extensions
- Can edit filesystem-based webs, FTP-based webs
- Major performance improvements
- No longer require compiling the entire site to a single DLL
- HTML preservation (VS.NET will not automatically reformat HTML)
- Full xHTML support
- Rich Design-time Master Page support (essentially creating templates)
- Build-in ASP.NET Web Server (no IIS required) -- developer-only IIS
- Publish web to push a project to servers over FTP, FPSE, file, DAV
- WYSIWYG Data Designer - builds data access layer
Posted at 15:30 by _bruce :: Archived :: TrackBack (<%= tbCount("1067268616006") %>)
- Contains a new membership API (in lieu of Commerce Server)
- Role Manager, Personalization, Site Navigation, Database Caching, Configuration
(Site Nav provides breadcrumbing, for example)
(Configuration is programmatic management of web.config) - Rich admin using MMC
- Master page support - inherit the look & feel from another page (like templates)
- Themes & Skins support on web pages
- Adaptive UI (for alternative platforms, including PDAs, phones, etc.)
- Approximately 45 new server controls (security, logging, navigation)
--> includes Web Parts! - Any control you build can be a Web Part
- Enabling Indigo to run inside ASP.NET
After seeing the demos, all I can say is WOW! The webparts, personalization and security features pretty much gives you a "portal in a box" developer solution.
Posted at 15:24 by _bruce :: Archived :: TrackBack (<%= tbCount("1067268277006") %>)
CA Wildfires - more info
I found some individuals who are blogging about the wildfires and collecting images. This large image from NASA shows the widespread devasation: Large CA wildfires pic
Here's the U.S. Geological Society's site: usgs.gov
And the weather service (NOAA) has an animation: NOAA satelite animation
Posted at 14:58 by _bruce :: Archived :: TrackBack (<%= tbCount("1067266739006") %>)
SharePoint Portal 2003 SDK?
During a break, I wandered over to the partners pavillion to check things out and grab some freebies. I came across a guy from the Microsoft SharePoint Portal team and decided to chew his ear a little about the still unavailable SPS2003 SDK (note that the Windows SharePoint Services SDK has been out for weeks).
According to Mike K, the SDK was internally released last night/this morning. He made it his mission to ensure the development team released the SDK before he had to face everyone at the PDC, under the penalty of losing some body parts. Apparently, the team has made it and the SDK is done. It should be available on the MSDN downloads site later today or tomorrow morning at the latest.
Not that I don't trust the SharePoint team after recent involvements with the SharePoint RDP, but I'll believe it when I have it downloaded to my own hard disk.
(By the way, he did recognize the name "Air Products" as to our involvement with the RDP. I couldn't get a read on him whether that was a good thing or not.)
Posted at 14:23 by _bruce :: Archived :: TrackBack (<%= tbCount("1067264606006") %>)
Blog this...Blog that...
Just about every presentation during the keynote this morning has had some mention of Weblogging.
Don Box [Don Box's Spoutlet blog http://www.gotdotnet.com/team/dbox/rss.aspx] and Chris Anderson [SimpleGeek blog http://www.simplegeek.com/blogxbrowsing.asmx/GetRss?] are currently doing a demo of Indigo next-gen web services. In 5 minutes they just wrote an Avalon front-end and Indigo message system to call Don's web service he uses to enter new blog entries.
Gotta Love It.
Posted at 11:08 by _bruce :: Archived :: TrackBack (<%= tbCount("1067252907006") %>)
CA Wildfires
Well, things just are so interesting...
The wildfires in San Bernardino and elsewhere are really getting bad. LAX was shut down for several hours and I hear that lots of PDC attendees, including lots of Microsoft people, haven't made it here yet. Some flights into LAX and San Diego have been cancelled and the airlines are even offering refunds on the previously non-refundable tickets!
The city has been smokey, and according to locals, it's more than the normal smog conditions. One news channel has been covering it nonstop and even the Weather Channel has had lots of coverage.
Nevertheless, I'm keeping my eye on the news...
Posted at 10:18 by _bruce :: Archived :: TrackBack (<%= tbCount("1067249892006") %>)
PDC 2003 Keynote - part 1
Whidbey, Indigo, Longhorn
Fundamentals: Any piece of software on the internet to connect to any other piece of software on the internet in a rich way.
Trusworthy Computing - using static case test tools in finding the holes
Quality of software engineering: http://winqual.microsoft.com/
"Digital Decade" - The time we're in with all things digital
Longhorn:
Focus on: fundamentals; connect, info focus, confidence for users
--> Presentation: Avalon (XML-based UI elements)
--> Data: WinFS (unified storage)
--> Communications: Indigo (messaging, pub/sub inherent in OS)
Longhorn sidebar has RSS headline viewer built-in
WinFS provides dynamic views of filesystem (like search folders in Outlook 2003) using any property from the schema
--> metadata can be assigned by drag-droping an item onto a dynamic view
People (contacts) are stored in WinFS to be generically available to any app
Current Win32 apps can leverage this
Custom Avalon views: built using XML that can do practically anything from show WinFS data relationships to animation using simple constructs
"The Longhorn Generation" - Bill Gates
Longhorn Architecture diagram will be posed on CommNet and on MSDN
more to come...
Posted at 10:05 by _bruce :: Archived :: TrackBack (<%= tbCount("1067249151006") %>)
Sunday, October 26, 2003
Day -1 almost over
It's right now about 6:15pm and the pre-conference sessions have ended. Next up is the first "Birds Of a Feather" (BOF) talks starting at 7pm. These talks are 1 hour long and meant to be a kind of 'interest group' discussions suggested by attendees. I have two I have picked out for tonight.
On the pre-conference session I attended, The XML and Web Services Perspective, was part backgrounder and part 'blow your mind with specifications'. Everything from basic XML, XSLT, XML handling in .NET all the way through the tech preview of Web Services 2.0, WS-Addressing and WS-Security. As always, it seems that the people creating and writing specifications can generate them faster than others can use them!
Posted at 18:18 by _bruce :: Archived :: TrackBack (<%= tbCount("1067192298006") %>)
Weblog RSS feed fixed
OK, after a few bugs and issues, I think I have the weblog worked out. Since I'm using BlogWorkx to manage the web files, when I do a 'publish', the RSS file and HTML files are published to my local disk. So, the resultant files all have fully-qualified URLs to "http://localhost".
So, I needed to write a small script to fix the urls before I upload them to my web site.
Now that this is done, the RSS 2.0 feed can correctly be pulled from http://bbblog.home.att.net/pdc2003/pdc2003.xml.
Phew!
Posted at 14:33 by _bruce :: Archived :: TrackBack (<%= tbCount("1067178808006") %>)
Conference goodies
I still need to inventory the conference bag's contents, but so far I see about a dozen CDs from various vendors, magazines, and a book "Writing Secure Code". Not surprised to find a book on secure code as part of the freebies given all the heat Microsoft has taken these days.
More on this later...
Posted at 10:31 by _bruce :: Archived :: TrackBack (<%= tbCount("1067164304006") %>)
Online at the PDC
Yep...got 'net (or is that "Got .NET" -- sorry, Geek joke). I have wireless connectivity in the conference center. There's also some wired kiosk areas should I want to save a little more power. Coool.
Right now, it's Sunday and I'm in the pre-conference session on XML and Web Services. It's starting very basic, but in the next 4-5 hours, I'm sure it'll get deeper.
Posted at 10:29 by _bruce :: Archived :: TrackBack (<%= tbCount("1067164183006") %>)
Saturday, October 25, 2003
Oh, I forgot to mention...
I've updated my web homepage (http://www.blanar.org/) with a link to this weblog. Now that I have my template set up and my initial posts started using w:bloggar, I'm going to try to make this work.
Here's the tech scoop on what I'm doing:
1) I'm using Blogworkx to host my blog on my local hard disk. Blogworkx is a free ASP application for doing weblogs including RSS 2.0 feeds. It provides a web interface for all the management and posting operations.
2) To have a slightly better environment for managing my posts, I'm using w.bloggar. w.bloggar is free Windows-based software which provides a GUI interface for adding/editing posts against various weblog software (Blogworkx, blogger.com, ...).
3) Since my ISP where I have web storage space is AT&T Worldnet, the only way I can post new files to my website is via Secure FTP (FTP with SSL/TLS). To accomplish this, I'm using SmartFTP. With SmartFTP I can set up a client certificate for the SSL connection and drag/drop the local published weblogs from Blogworkx up to AT&T's server.
Voila! Simple (ahem).
Posted at 22:47 by _bruce :: Archived :: TrackBack (<%= tbCount("1067122027006") %>)
I'm here, and online!
I made it. I got into LAX around 6:30 PDT (soon to be PST in a few hours), after flying past the Grand Canyon and over some of the wildfires in California. Amazingly enough, when we flew through some smoke from the fires in San Bernadino, we were able to smell the smoke inside the airplane!
Since I'll be staying in California for a few days after the PDC, I decided to rent a car for personal use while I'm here--A 2004 Mustang Convertible in dark metalic red (I believe it's called deep canyon red metalic) with a black roof and grey interior. The car is a 40th anniversary car and comes with the Mach 460 sound system. PLUS, it's so new as a rental that it has just 3900 miles on the odometer. Nice!
Now, I'm sitting the in my hotel room on the 25th floor using the broadband ethernet. It's not super fast, but it beats the heck out of dial-up. Too bad it a paid service (daily charge). I hope the LA Convention Center is set up for broadband wireless access for the PDC attendees!
Posted at 22:38 by _bruce :: Archived :: TrackBack (<%= tbCount("1067121481006") %>)
On my way...
Well, I'm currently in the air on my way to L.A. for the conference. After a 25 minute flight from ABE to PHL, and a 3.5 hour layover in Philly (yes, I should have checked my reservation beforehand--it would have been quicker for me to just drive to Philly to catch the 3:50 flight to LAX!). Nevertheless, I'm on my way.
While I was passing the time in terminals B and C, after I visited the Discovery Channel store and the Brookstone store, I had to check out the AT&T 802.11b wireless in the airport. Whip out the Thinkpad, plug in the Powerpad and insert my Linksys wireless card. Right away I found an access point and browsed over to the entry page for AT&T. My connection was Fair to Poor according to the Linksys utilities, and I kept hopping between two access points. OK, fine, but I still had a connection.
As I browsed the service, I found that I would need to sign up for it. Now mind you, I wouldn't mind paying by the hour, but in this case, no such option was available. The lowest offering was a block of 5 24-hour periods for $30. OK, but I was going to be sitting in the airport for only another 2 hours, so why would I want a 24-hour block consumed by 2 hours of use? It's not like I'll hop onto the wire at the LAX access point when I arrive! Needless to say, I passed.
As I mentioned the Brookstone store, it reminded me of something I wanted to share: Brookstone sells an external power source, like my PowerPad called the N-Gage (I think that was it). I couldn't find a brochure with the specs, but it apparently has adapters for laptops, cell phones and PDAs. It was rated for 10 hours (based on what I don't know) and it cost $299. Then I thought: wouldn't it be a great thing if Brookstone offered these things pre-charged for the traveller passing through? Or, why not offer a rental service for long-flights like what was/is sometimes done with portable DVD players? For a $40/day rental and $300 deposit (to cover the cost of the entire unit), it would probably go over well with geeks like me who can't justify purchasing a unit.
Posted at 16:59 by _bruce :: Archived :: TrackBack (<%= tbCount("1067101162006") %>)