Please click on the image below to watch the “Lightning Talk” (5 minutes) I did at WordCamp earlier this year in Phoenix, AZ.

Originally posted in 2005

I have a managed heap of memories regarding you - none of which are IDisposable.  Therefore I am compiling my references, and persisting them to you in this file, which is ISerializable and will last for generations (at most 3).

I remember how I met you... heartbroken over java (how slow that old relationship was).  When I first heard of you, I heard you were COOL.  Then I found out how diverse you were in so many languages.  You marshalled right over to my world.  How easy it was for you to communicate over so many platforms!  You understood my profile, and now I could see sharp-ly into your IIdentity.

You took me to your visual studio - it was RAD.  So many views and hidden regions!  You were so organized with your task list.  I love how everything was color coded.  It was in that environment when I broke down and stated: "You auto-complete me..."

We had our bugs to work out - we were not the exception.  One time you thought we had a break-point.  But we would continue to try.  Nothing went unhanlded.  We caught everything, and finally we come to this moment.

How do you do it?  You stay true to so many standards, yet manifest so much.  You have such class!  There is no other type like you.  As I reflect about you, I see that you have many methods - some very internal, some private, and some very protected.  Some of your ways are too abstract to know.  But what is public about you, anyone can see why you encapsulate so much inside.  From what I derive, we can override anything (unless we sealed it).

Let's not box ourselves into the typical cast.  We should look to the future - is it generic?  I don't know - I may be partial.  I will have to iterate over this until I yield.

How long will we survive?

while (this!=null)
{ continue; }

I was recently moved to comment on a blog post from a gentleman who turned down being re-awarded the MVP designation from Microsoft.  After giving it more thought, I decided to write this blog to promote more discussion regarding the value and challenges with the MVP program.  So please comment on the following:

• If you are an MVP, what do you regard as the benefits?  Challenges?
• If you are not an MVP, would you want to be?  Why?  Why not?

On Monday January 24th between the hours of 3pm and 5pm, I enjoyed spending time at my “office” in Denver.  I relaxed at the Starbucks in the Bellevue Promenade.  The place was quite busy – which was perfect.  The highlight of my Denver experience is when Ely Lucas (organizer of the upcoming Rocky Mountain Tech Trifecta) came to pay a visit.  Thanks Ely for a great fireside chat!

From time to time, I will be hanging out at my various “offices” around my assigned geography – Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah.  Usually for a two hour period, I will chill-ax with a beverage and broadcast how to find me.  The point?  Allow developers in the area to chat with their local Developer Evangelist about anything and in a less formal setting.

Today I became a hero!  Sadly, not because of any personal accomplishment.  I was simply a messenger.  I was invited to speak at a special assembly for all students at Happy Valley School in Peoria, AZ.  The topic?  Officially it was “How to Prepare to Become a Software Engineer” (yawn).  I accomplished my objective, but I was sneaky about it.  From their perspective, my presentation was “How to Make Games for XBOX 360” (oohs ahhhs hoorays).

Thanks to a suggestion from Lynn Langit, a Microsoft Developer Evangelist on the west coast, I introduced my eager audience to Kodu, a visual programming platform for developing games on the XBOX.

During my demo of how easy it is to learn “visual conditional logic”, the entire assembly became very quiet – something a few teachers commented never happened before.  When the presentation was over, so many students approached me with excitement, and assured me they were going to make some cool games.  One student approached me sadly and said “I don’t have an XBOX, I only have a PS3.”  The students weren’t the only ones wanting in the action.  Some teachers and parents also asked a few questions about the platform (there is a gamer in all of us).

UPDATE!

Dear Mike,

Thank you so much for the fabulous assemblies last Friday. Many of the children are still talking about it and Mr. McCurley has raved that it was the best special assembly we’ve had! We greatly appreciate you, and the time you spent enlightening our students about the wonderful world of technology.
Thanks again!

All the best,

Marcia Phillips
Happy Valley School

It was a great time, and the energy level was contagious.  At the end, one student asked me for an autograph.  As I said, I am just the messenger.  Nonetheless, I obliged and signed away.  Is that so wrong?

While attempting to record with Camtasia, you may receive the following error dialog box:

If you receive this message, it is because the recorder is configured to save the recording in a temporary folder that does not exist.  To correct the problem, navigate to the tools menu option in the Camtasia Recorder and select Options.  Make sure the path for the Temporary folder: text input is valid.

I had a fun time visiting the folks at Gangplank today.  I was invited to do a presentation on dynamic styling via jQuery.  Code samples can be downloaded below.

Nice crowd of developers from a variety of platforms, and very courteous – despite working for Microsoft :)  It was also nice meeting up with Scott Cate and Joseph Guadagno, both very active Microsoft MVPs in the southwest.

Microsoft Web Platform Installer 3 is available for download!

Look at the cool things you can install…