The bi-annual Microsoft Women’s Conference was held last week on the Microsoft Redmond Campus. I keep enjoying this conference more and more each year.
In my humble opinion, the Executive Roundtable event was by leaps and bounds the most productive, most rewarding event I have ever seen offered to Women in Technology. I often wonder what more we can do to retain the current talented women in the technology field. This event hit a home run in retaining me.
Highlights
- For 2 days, I was surrounded by thousands of my own kind. It really makes a difference.
- Overall quality of speakers. Wow.
Lowlights
- Dear Speakers: Before you start with Hurricane Katrina references, please acknowledge for a second that this isn’t a “past” event for some people in the audience. It’s almost like a cheap shot to be all introspective in these session and then hear a Katrina reference. But I know, I’m in the minority that felt like this.
- They kept running out of hot water for tea. (yeah, yeah, I’m struggling to find some lowlights.)
Top Sessions I Attended
Despite popular belief, I do not have enough energy to be in two places at once. These are my personal favorites, based on the sessions I was able to attend. In no way is this meant to be a reflection of the overall top session at the conference.
Key takeaways from these sessions are below.
Achieving Peek Performance… No Matter What
Wow, what a session to kick-off the conference. Bonnie St. John won the Bronze medal for downhill skiing in the Paralympics, but if you check out the picture, you’ll notice that she has one leg. Besides being an Olympic athlete, she’s a White House economic official, a Rhode scholar, and a consultant to the Fortune 500. NBC Nightly News refers to Bonnie as one of the five most inspiring women in America.
Key Quote
"Winners aren't those who don't make mistakes. Winners are people who can get up after a fall the fastest."
Main Takeaways
- The most successful people are those who accepted the most help.
- Courage is just like a muscle. It has to be built step by step by taking risk after risk.
- Never forget to find joy in life.
Other Notable Quotes
- “You have to take that first risk, and when you get through it, you get stronger, than you take another, and you get stronger, until you get to a place where fear has no power over you.” – via President of Liberia
- “I [Bonnie] thought I would never get a date, since I have only one leg. But my sister said, ‘Just think. You’ll never have to date jerks!’”
- “Disable sport is all about world class excellence, since you are competing in a world without perfect resources, just like today’s business world.”
1-1 with Bonnie
Bonnie asked me what was my biggest takeaway was from the talk. I said “it was the story about never forget to find joy in life. I get so focused on problem solving that I forget to see the forest for the trees.”
Working for You Isn’t Working for Me
They brought in a Harvard-trained psychotherapist to explain how to get along at work! I love it! Katherine Crowley, a Harvard trained psychotherapist, and Kathi Elster, a management consultant, started their company K Squared Enterprises. They also wrote the book Working with You Is Killing Me.
Quite possibly the best session at the conference. The speakers not only clearly defined their objectives, but also delivered them. The pace, the format, the audience interaction was spot on.
Key Quote
“Do NOT take the other person's behavior personally. They are not attacking you as much as you think they are.”
Main Takeaways
- Handle yourself first, then handle the situation
- Don’t forget to breathe. It really does change things.
- Partnership are challenging. First thing you have to do is build trust. Put in the time, and handle with care.
Other Notable Quotes
- “Revengeful thoughts is where you take poison and hope for someone else's demise"
- “Your mind is dangerous if left to its own devices"
- "Slow motion gets you there faster"
Become a Change Master: Mastering the art of mind and body change
This was a fun talk! But then again, since I was 5 years old, I’ve wanted to be a 97-year old bodybuilder so I can be featured on the local news. Dr. Pamela Peek is the Chief Medical Correspondent for Discovery Health TV. She also wrote the book Body for Life for Women.
Key Quote
"Take your dog for a walk, even if you don't have one."
Main Takeaways
- Scientists have just recently discovered that we create new neurons. It was previously believed that we only have as many neurons as we’re born with. The upside to this is that it is possible to change habits. We just need to retrain our brains using reward as a positive reinforcement.
- When afraid of change, honestly ask yourself “what’s the worst that can happen?” Say the answer out loud, step on the fear, and move on. But you have to say it out loud to confront your fear.
Other Notable Quotes
- “Not having a friend to talk to is as dangerous to your health as being a smoker.”
- “If Nike had a women’s brand tagline, it would be ‘Don’t overthink it.’” Because we’re hard-wired in our DNA to care, we can’t stop trying to problem solve.
- “The fundamental piece is taking care of yourself, so that you can make good decisions.”
1-1 with Dr. Pamela
I told her how I wanted to be a 97-year old weightlifter and how motivating it was to see 90 year old women competing in athletic events. She suggested that I try out powerlifting, even though I tried to explain to her that I am really not that strong. She also told me if I was interested in starting triathlons, I should check out http://www.irongirl.com
Microsoft 2.0: An interview with Mary Jo Foley
This was fun to see the interviewer and interviewee swap seats. Mary Jo Foley is a journalist and blogger who has covered the technology industry for more than 25 years.
Key takeaway
Not surprising, my key takeaway was her answer to my question during the Audience Q&A session. For a second there, the format of the session and ambiance of the conference room made me feel like I was one of the theater students at Inside The Actors Studio, especially with the dramatic waiving of my arms for the microphone person to see me in the back row.
My question was “You’ve stated that you picked journalism over broadcast because you wanted to stay behind the pen. But, when you became a blogger, you now had your personal bio out there in the public light. If you could go back in time, what is the one thing you wish you could tell yourself about blogging.”
Her answer was, “To grow thick skin. Knowing this would have helped to avoid many sleepless nights.”
I wholeheartedly concur.
And this concludes my 3rd Microsoft’s Women’s Conference. Thank you Microsoft for yet another AWESOME event. Until next time.
Just like the kiwi bird down here in New Zealand, I proved that I too am flightless. The 7 minute video explains it all.
You can find this full version at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcc4KRrZpI0
Or watch just the jump from the ground looking up at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKvQLb2UKXg
Special thanks to Sky Jump! for lettings us film and TechEd Online New Zealand for making the jump happen and for putting the full edited video together.
Thanks for coming to today’s session! As I’ve said (or about to say), don’t take notes! Here are all the tips for you. Just sit back, relax, and enjoy the show!
0. Know your Keybindings! All these are in the General Development Settings.
Searching
1. How to behold the power of incremental search
http://blogs.msdn.com/saraford/archive/2007/07/23/did-you-know-behold-the-power-of-incremental-search.aspx
Command: Edit.IncrementalSearch
Shortcut: Ctrl+i
2. Ctrl+F3 to search for currently-selected word
http://blogs.msdn.com/saraford/archive/2007/10/26/did-you-know-ctrl-f3-searches-for-the-currently-selected-string-without-brining-up-the-find-window.aspx
Command: Edit.FindNextStatement
3. F3 to search for last thing you searched for
http://blogs.msdn.com/saraford/archive/2007/10/25/did-you-know-f3-searches-for-the-last-thing-you-searched-for.aspx
Command: Edit.FindNext
4. Customize what files to find in
http://blogs.msdn.com/saraford/archive/2007/11/07/did-you-know-how-to-customize-what-files-to-find-in.aspx
Find In Files – Look in – Choose Search Folders
5. You can use a reg hack for customizing search results
http://blogs.msdn.com/saraford/archive/2008/11/24/did-you-know-you-can-customize-how-search-results-are-displayed-in-the-find-results-window-363.aspx
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\9.0\Find String Find=$f$e($l,$c):$t\r\n
Editing
6. How not to accidentally copy a blank line
http://blogs.msdn.com/saraford/archive/2007/09/28/did-you-know-how-not-to-accidentally-copy-a-blank-line.aspx
Tools – Options – Text Editor – All Languages – General, Uncheck Apply cut or copy to blank lines
7. How to cycle through the Clipboard ring
http://blogs.msdn.com/saraford/archive/2007/10/01/did-you-know-how-to-cycle-through-the-clipboard-ring-to-paste-different-things.aspx
Command: Edit.CycleClipboardRing
Shortcut: Ctrl+Shift+v
8. How to use box/column selection in the editor
http://blogs.msdn.com/saraford/archive/2007/07/27/did-you-know-how-to-do-box-selection-in-the-editor.aspx
Command: Edit.LineUpColumnExtend, Edit.LineDownColumnExtend, Edit.CharRightColumnExtend, Edit.CharLeftColumnExtend
Shortcut: Shift+Alt+Arrow
9. You can copy a file’s full path / open windows explorer from the file tab channel
http://blogs.msdn.com/saraford/archive/2008/01/09/did-you-know-you-can-copy-a-file-s-full-path-from-the-file-tab-channel.aspx
Command: File.CopyFullPath
10. Drag and drop code onto the toolbox’s general tab
http://blogs.msdn.com/saraford/archive/2008/04/10/did-you-know-you-can-drag-and-drop-code-onto-the-toolbox-general-tab-191.aspx
11. You can use Ctrl+. to show a smart tag
http://blogs.msdn.com/saraford/archive/2008/11/18/did-you-know-ctrl-shows-a-smart-tag-359.aspx
Command: View.ShowSmartTag
12. You can insert a snippet by pressing Tab Tab
http://blogs.msdn.com/saraford/archive/2008/06/10/did-you-know-you-can-insert-a-snippet-via-tab-tab-234.aspx
Type in snippet shortcut, then press Tab Tab
Customizing
13. You can create temp or throw away projects
http://blogs.msdn.com/saraford/archive/2008/02/25/did-you-know-you-can-create-temp-or-throw-away-projects-158.aspx
Tools - Options - Projects and Solutions - General, uncheck Save new projects when created
14. Change text editor font size via keyboard (Accessibility macros)
http://blogs.msdn.com/saraford/archive/2008/06/20/did-you-know-you-can-bind-macros-to-keyboard-shortcuts-or-how-to-quickly-increase-decrease-your-text-editor-font-size-242.aspx
Command: Macros.Samples.Accessibility.DecreaseTextEditorFontSize
Command: Macros.Samples.Accessibility.IncreaseTextEditorFontSize
15. How to open a file without any UI
http://blogs.msdn.com/saraford/archive/2007/11/26/did-you-know-how-to-have-fun-with-the-find-combo-box.aspx
Ctrl+/ (or whatever Tools.GoToCommandLine is bound to)
alias fo file.openfile
fo <filename>
16. Guidelines in the editor registry key hack
http://blogs.msdn.com/saraford/archive/2008/04/01/did-you-know-you-can-display-guidelines-in-the-editor-and-tip-of-the-day-ends-today-184.aspx
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\9.0\Text Editor String RBG(128,0,0) 5, 20
17. You can create a macro for your import/export settings – see http://blog.jeffhandley.com/archive/2009/03/31/vs-profiles.aspx
http://blogs.msdn.com/saraford/archive/2008/12/05/did-you-know-you-can-create-toolbar-buttons-to-quickly-toggle-your-favorite-vs-settings-371.aspx
18. How to not show the start page (or have the last loaded solution open)
http://blogs.msdn.com/saraford/archive/2008/01/03/did-you-know-how-to-customize-what-visual-studio-opens-to-or-how-to-make-the-start-page-not-show-up-when-vs-opens.aspx
Tools - Options - Environment - Startup, At Startup
19. File tab channel registry hack
http://blogs.msdn.com/saraford/archive/2008/10/09/did-you-know-you-can-keep-recently-used-files-from-falling-off-the-file-tab-channel-331.aspx
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\9.0 key, you can create a DWORD UseMRUDocOrdering = 1
20. How to show Misc Files Project to keep your files around
http://blogs.msdn.com/saraford/archive/2008/01/01/did-you-know-how-to-show-the-miscellaneous-files-project-in-the-solution-explorer.aspx
tools - options - environment – documents, show miscellaneous files in Solution Explorer
21. Edit project file from within IDE (unload project)
http://blogs.msdn.com/saraford/archive/2008/10/10/did-you-know-how-to-edit-a-csproj-or-vbproj-project-file-within-the-ide-332.aspx
Unload project, edit project, reload project
Debugging
22. You can use tracepoints to log stuff in your code
http://blogs.msdn.com/saraford/archive/2008/06/13/did-you-know-you-can-use-tracepoints-to-log-printf-or-console-writeline-info-without-editing-your-code-237.aspx
Right-click in indicator margin, select breakpoints, select Insert Tracepoint
23. How to get the find source dialog back
http://blogs.msdn.com/saraford/archive/2008/09/17/did-you-know-how-to-get-the-find-source-dialog-back-instead-of-the-there-is-no-source-code-available-message-315.aspx
Solution Properties, under Common Properties - Debug Source Files, Delete Do no look for these source files edit box contents
24. You can disable the exception assistant
http://blogs.msdn.com/saraford/archive/2008/08/05/did-you-know-you-can-disable-the-exception-assistant-274.aspx
Tools – Options – Debugging – General, uncheck Enable the Exception Assistant
25. You can use the XML Visualizer
http://blogs.msdn.com/saraford/archive/2008/09/25/did-you-know-you-can-use-the-xml-visualizer-to-view-xml-321.aspx
Drop down the little down arrow on the data tip or in the watch window.
The Channel 9 team recently met with me to discuss “The State of the CodePlex” as I like to call it. It was a quick chat about where CodePlex has been and where the site is heading.
I think this was my 4th appearance on Channel 9 (Women in Tech interview with Scoble, Hurricane Katrina recap with Jennifer and Charles, Power Toys for Visual Studio interview, and now CodePlex.)
Another year, another DevLink.
Highlights
- Tweets about me moving the ship from Jim Holmes and Leon. I am here to do epic battle with Microsoft, so their tweets me the world to me.
- Telling my Uncle Jimmy stories one night at the bar. I so have to go into standup comedy.
- Setting Leon up for that spike about “well get a better compiler” in the Deep Fried Bytes podcast
- Meeting the nature boy rick flair
- I discovered PockeTwit for the Windows Mobile phone
- And of course Open Spaces more on that below.
Open spaces
I really liked Jeff’s puzzle one, because I got to have a childhood moment about the NES game Shadowgate. I might actually have to buy (another) Super NES now.
I really liked getting to use a projector during the open space i proposed on agile development. I was happy to see others stand up and start using the whiteboard to describe their agile processes, despite . It was nice that I was able to share what I wanted to share, but learn stuff from others (the Honda agile approach with swim lanes and what goes in and out. We don’t do this quite this visually in the CodePlex team, but there is a notion that this is happening in our releases).
Lowlights
- The conference wasn’t long enough for me =D I only get to see these folks twice a year, maybe 3 times if I’m really fortunate. I only got 3-4 hours a sleep (and this was after a red-eye) because I wanted to max hour the time I got to hang with everyone.
- I wished I had submitted a talk called “How To Program Manage an Agile Team” I’ll definitely submit for CodeMash
Going through my folder of my blog “contact me” emails, I came across this question. I like tricking Visual Studio into doing things, so I thought I’d share.
Is there a way to display only line number of coded lines, i.e. don’t number blank lines? Numbered blank lines makes showing code in powerpoint decks hard to follow.
Here’s the screenshot of what could go into your powerpoint deck.
To do this,
- Enable Word Wrap (Tools Options - Text Editor - All Languages - General)
- At the end of the first real line (like #28 above), start inserting white space until it goes off the screen. Note the Word Wrap glyph.
- Turn off the Word Wrap glyph (same place as in step 1) and Turn off “View White Space” (Edit - Advance – View White Space)
Here’s what the hack really looks like
Sorry, this isn’t the start of a new VS tip series. Just wanted to share some q&a that have come in through my blog.
According to the incredibly awesome Catherine Eibner, I’m going to TechEd Australia!! And I found this out on the same day that I donated the last of my advance on my book royalties, bringing the Save Waveland Scholarship Fund to $29,008.34 cents. Thank you everyone for voting to get me down to Australia.
I will be giving two talks on Visual Studio IDE Tips (300lv) and A Tour of CodePlex (200lv).
“Koalas”
And for now on, I must say “Koalas” and not “Koala bears” (unless I’m talking about my stuffed animal Koala bear because that’s like 29 years of hard-wiring in my head that isn’t going to change overnight).
Picture from http://cuteoverload.com/2006/09/05/the_good_peeps_/
According to Wikipedia, Koalas are marsupials. And,
Although the koala is not a bear, when first adopted by English speakers, the name koala bear became popular, as this roughly evoked the species' similarity in appearance to the Teddy bear, to people unfamiliar with it. Although taxonomically incorrect, the name koala bear is still in use today outside Australia[5] — its use is discouraged because of the inaccuracy in the name.
I’m hoping I’ll have time to play tourist and go to a Koala park and see them for real. OMG that would so rule.
And lastly, a quick heart-felt shout out thank you note to everyone who voted. I so love that CodePlex banner.
Yep, it’s a bold statement to make, but I like to live life in capital letters. Last week at the O’Reilly Open Source Convention was truly epic. The Community Leadership Summit + OSCON 2009 epitomized everything I’ve ever wanted to do in community as a Microsoft employee.
I didn’t realize how special last week was until we Microsofties went out to dinner on the last night. As we discussed how much interest there was in the guitar hero competition, someone commented how we (Microsoft) were invited to participate to play. It was Ubuntu’s idea to put together the competition. We provided the guitars and the venue. When I first heard my coworker’s comment, I nearly rolled my eyes thinking I was listening to classic PR/marketing talk (yes, I’m obviously a proud female developer), but then the significance of the statement hit me.
Community is about focusing on what we have in common, while putting aside what makes us different. The Community Leadership Summit and the Guitar Hero competition gave everyone common ground to come together and talk. I’ve done community for Visual Studio and for CodePlex my entire 8 years at Microsoft, but I’ve always wanted to engage with the open source community to say “Hey ya’ll. This is what I do at Microsoft. Come teach me your expertise, and I’ll share what life is like promoting OSS within Microsoft.” For a total of 7 days, I was given this opportunity, which was truly one of the greatest weeks of my career at Microsoft.
Highlights
- When I grow up, I want to be like Jono Bacon, the Community manager for Ubuntu. I want to be cool enough to organize an event like the Community Leadership Summit. I cannot wait for his Art of Community book to come out. @JonoBacon I know you hate me for beating you in the guitar hero finale =) but please sign my copy of your book when it comes out.
- "Don't cut people off before they have a chance to grow.” This comment from the CLS had the biggest impact to me personally.
- Empower people by asking them “what do you like doing? what do you do best?” This comment from the CLS had the biggest impact to me as a program manager / community manager.
- Larry Rosen remembered me! I attended a talk by Larry Rosen a few years ago on the Microsoft campus. I was surprised that he had remembered me from such a brief introduction years ago. But then again, there are not many 5’1 women on crutches hobbling around declaring how they are going to tame the Microsoft Legal department. (don’t ask me how that’s going.)
- I learned a lot outside the Microsoft platform bubble. Working in Redmond day in and day out, I’m not really exposed to much going on in the outside world. I had a great time visiting the various booths to learn what’s out there. Oh yeah, and there really is an OSS version of Guitar Hero called Frets of Fire. Who’d a known?
- The guitar hero competition. I will *never* forget when, right as Jono and I were about to play in the finale, someone screams “JONO! THE FUTURE OF OPEN SOURCE DEPENDS ON YOU” OMG, that was a top 5 moment of my career right there.
Best Opposing t-shirt photo op
New friends from CLS
Little Kid rockers
Putting together guitar hero bracket
First comes denial in who won the guitar hero competition
Then acceptance =)
See ya’ll at OSCON 2010!
Petition is here: http://twtpoll.com/iuz95p and closes Aug 5.
When I was 3 years old, I invented the “Koala bear game.” You hide the Koala bear behind your back, then run up to the adults asking them “guess what i’ve got behind my back?” I played night after night after night, until I discovered this thing called “memory.” The next time when the adults answered “your Koala bear”, I said “nope, i got a flashlight.” It was absolutely the funniest thing I had ever encountered in my life.
It’s my childhood dream to visit the homeland of the Koala’s, even more so now that Hurricane Katrina destroyed my childhood bear. =( If you sign the petition to send me to TechEd Australia, I will in return give you the best presentation on the Visual Studio IDE you’ve ever seen. But, don’t take my word for it. In the words of one attendee from TechEd North America 2008, “I laughed, I cried, It was better than cats!”
Yes, in that clip, i’m actually reading Tip 1.1 from the Visual Studio Tips book to the Firefox fox and the Mono monkey to make you a little jealous. (Microsoft should get into the stuff animal business.)
Here’s the petition again: http://twtpoll.com/iuz95p Please sign it, and make my childhood dream come true! I don’t know how many votes i need, but i need to prove my worth. So please vote for me. (I so feel like i’m on American idol.)
My heartfelt thanks to Catherine Eibner, a Dynamics Developer Evangelist, for making this petition happen! Couldn’t have done it without you!
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Jono Bacon, the community manager for the global Ubuntu community, organized the first Community Leadership Summit for community managers to come together and share ideas. I loved the fact it was run as an unconference or open space. I get so much more high quality information from open spaces than I do from traditional style conferences. The saying that the room knows more than the speaker is very true. Just attended an unconference for proof.
It’s been a long time since I’ve attended a conference where all we talked about was community. It was a totally re-energizing experience (as if i needed more energy). Pictures at bottom of blog post.
I hope folks from #cls will swing by the Microsoft booth at OSCON on Weds and Thurs to say hi as i wear my CodePlex banner as a cape. I’m jealous of the Brazilian flag guy. (you had to be there for it.)
Quotes
- “Understanding community is about understanding the human condition.”
- "Everybody deserves to have a great community."
- "Don't cut people off before they have a chance to grow.”
- "It takes a village to build a program."
- "It's amazing what people will do to get a badge on a forum site. If it worked in kindergarten, it will work forever."
- "Marketing should not be allowed to use the word 'community.’ They should especially be banned from using the phrase 'join our community."
- "In today's online world we speak glob-ish as our default language"
- "People like people who help them."
Other Takeaways
- We need to design a reputation system that goes beyond just what the person does online. We need a way to track offline events, like running user groups, public speaking events, etc.
- Similar to design personas, we need personas for members who participates in our online communities so we know how best to engage and empower them.
- You have to assign tasks to community members to make them feel inclusive. Otherwise saying "look at the list" will cause them to leave.
- People don’t want to take surveys when they are upset with your product. It's like pouting. You got to make the feedback channel personal.
- Empower people by asking them “what do you like doing? what do you do best?” The example used here was in a user group meeting, an attendee who wasn’t technical turned out to be a professional meeting organizer. They were significantly more productive in that meeting because of her help.
Misc
Pictures
The Microsoft (Microspotting.com) “I am the empire” t-shirt and the Free Software Foundation’s GPLv2 t-shirt.
Picture of the CodePlex agile talk suggestion
Thanks again Jono and everyone who helped put together this summit. It was awesome!
a few more macros to the collection…
Superscript: ^^I am superscript^^
Subscript: ,,I am subscript,,
Strikethrough ~~I am strikethrough~~
And a freebee for reading this far!
Horizontal rule (4 dashes on single line)
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CodePlex Tips
You can now link directly to the latest version in source control for downloading or browsing.
For example, to browse whatever the latest version checked into source control for my Stick Figure Karate Fighter, you’ll use this URL:
http://stickfigurekarate.codeplex.com/SourceControl/BrowseLatest
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CodePlex Tips
During our last deployment, we added the ability to insert code snippets into the discussion boards.
This will display a window for you to post in your code and to preview with syntax highlighting.
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CodePlex Tips
In a recent deployment, project owners can now use advertisements from The Lounge using a single click.
Project owner can see advertisements appear on the Home tab, the Downloads tab, the Discussions tab, and the Issue Tracker.
The CodePlex documentation has more information about displaying ads from The Lounge.
And just yesterday i was thinking, “is the best use of my blog posting tips about CodePlex?” And then I saw Devon’s blog post today. Guess that answers my question. Let’s just say I took June off and now I’m back.
Currently, we don’t have any UI that exposes these RSS feeds. We’ve thought about creating a page that says “design your own RSS feed here.” But until then, here’s the RSS feed to subscribe to a specific tag:
http://www.codeplex.com/rss.ashx?behavior=bytag&tagName=<tagname>
And another fun one is the most downloaded project RSS feed
http://www.codeplex.com/rss.ashx?behavior=topdownloaded
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