Once again Fawcette have tapped a number of Toronto folks and given us not-so-secret discount codes for VSLive registrations. That's right, register for VSLive Toronto, enter KATE as your priority code (where it says "Please enter the first five digits of your conference priority code") and presto! you get 10% off.

VSLive is April 13th to 16th, and there are early bird prices until March 16th. This year it's divided into ASP and Smart Client, and it's packed with Whidbey (aka 2005 or 2.0) material. The agenda is at http://www.ftponline.com/conferences/vslive/2005/to/agenda.aspx with session details at http://www.ftponline.com/conferences/vslive/2005/to/asp-sessions.aspx and http://www.ftponline.com/conferences/vslive/2005/to/smart-sessions.aspx. You'll see plenty of familiar names speaking, and there's sure to be more good stuff announced as we get closer to the date. So make your plans, and I'll see you there.

Kate

Lots of Tech Ed rejection letters this year -- I got five myself -- but in the end I am giving ALL the C++ talks -- really I am! Well, that is to say, both of them. But at the moment I only see two Visual Basic and two C# talks, so I don't feel bad. The talks, and current abstracts, are:

Visual C++ and .NET: Great Performance, Full Access and Easy Migration of Existing Code

Abstract: The enhancements to Visual C++ 2005 enable it to stand toe-to-toe with any tool in terms of support for the .NET Framework. In fact, in many ways it can do things no other tool can. Learn how the CLR brings new features such as garbage collection, generics, reflection, and verifiability to C++ ... and how C++ brings deterministic cleanup, templates, and meta programming to the CLR! Learn how to easily migrate existing native code - including MFC applications - to run under the CLR. Strategies for choosing which parts of the application remain native and which are managed will be discussed. Finally, this session will provide guidance on how to build high-performance managed "wrappers" enabling reuse of native libraries.

Visual C++ 2005: A Look at the New Features for Building Fast Native and Managed Code

Abstract: Whether you build end-to-end applications or components for enhancing larger applications, the new Visual C++ 2005 is the power tool for Windows programming.  In this presentation we’ll spend extensive time in the Visual C++ 2005 development environment – highlighting new productivity features – as we dive into its support for building high-performance, first-class native and managed applications.  You’ll learn about native code compiler optimizations, security enhancements, 64-bit development, and support for multiprocessor/grid computing systems.  In addition, this presentation will demonstrate how Visual C++ 2005 now provides CLR/.NET Framework support that allows it to stand toe-to-toe with any other tool in terms of elegance and productivity…with the additional benefit of high-performance access to native code and the ability to easily move native code to the managed environment.  

As well, the Women In Technology lunch will be happening again and I'm looking forward to another panel appearance. This is shaping up to be another great Tech Ed... as long as some more familiar faces start to show up on the speakers list.

Kate

Monday the 21st is the February meeting for the East of Toronto user group. Please visit http://gtaeast.torontoug.net/ug_events/936.aspx to register.

This event will consist of an overview of methods for interoperating between Java-based systems and NET including XML document exchange, shared database, messaging, web services, and Java to .NET bridges. We’ll spend the bulk of the time on a detailed analysis of the approaches and methods for web services-based interop between apps and systems running on .NET and other technologies.

I'll be doing this same talk myself March 3rd, so I'll be taking detailed notes while Adam is presenting

Kate

Spring may not be in the air yet, but some sort of economic recovery certainly is. I've got complete strangers calling me asking us to help with their problems, established clients ramping up ongoing projects, and just generally too much work for us all to handle. So I need an experienced dev who can jump on board and start coding, designing, documenting, and generally helping with all that we do. While I have in the past hired new grads and relatively inexperienced people, right down to high school interns, this is not one of those times. I want a senior person. Ideally someone who started using .NET before it was public or shortly after, and who has experience in other ways of doing things as well as the .NET way.

Think that's you? Or someone you know? Head on over to http://www.gregcons.com/seniordev.htm for a little more detail and some application instructions. Please don't try to apply by leaving comments on the blog or by emailing me directly. I am looking for someone smart and capable, and someone who knows the value of a little process in a chaotic world.

Kate

For several months now, I've been plagued by unexpected language changes while I'm typing. I'll type one character, maybe a quote or a question mark, and I'll get a really strange character instead, say a capital E with an accent on it. I came to realize that it was the language settings, and I keep the language bar on my toolbar so I can flip back to English whenever this strange thing happens. But I didn't know why it was happening, and I found stopping what I was doing to mouse over to the bar and click back to the language I wanted very frustrating.

Well, now I know what was going on! ALT-SHIFT rotates through the languages. I'm a huge ALT-TAB user, and I ALT-SHIFT-TAB when I need to cycle backwards through that list. I also use a fair amount of other ALT-things, like ALT-A to bring up the favourites menu in IE, then arrow keys to choose an item. I really prefer the keyboard to the mouse. Well I guess every once in a while an ALT-SHIFT gets through to the language bar and flips my language. So now when I go to type a URL and see ццц I can quickly make it right.

Лфеу (er, Kate)

OK, I did the blogmap thing:

This is my Peterborough office, not that I'm there very often...

Kate

110.00, 107.50, 105.00, 102.50, 101.00, 100.00

What do these numbers have in common? They are losing bids for the consultant auction . Time is running out, the auction closes tomorrow morning, 9am Eastern, and now is the time to boost your bid and catapult yourself up the list! Lowest winning bid at the moment is $120... let's drive it up!

Kate

Apparently some people are hesitant about bidding on the auction in case they win. I know the feeling, do I have enough tough questions to justify an hour of Richter or Prosise time, do I have my act together on Web Services and Interop enough to grill Michele on them properly...

Relax. You don't have to think of it that way. Whoever you win, fire us an email with something that's been bugging you. Like “can you really explain this whole destructors in C++ when it's managed code and the object I'm using wasn't even written in C++?” Or like some of the old emails I cleared out this last week: “how can I uninstall a service?” “how do I restrict forms authentication in ASP.NET to only some folders? How can I force a logout when they browse from a secured to an open page?” and “why am I getting this linker error?”. Maybe that uses up 10 or 20 minutes. Fine, next time you have a toughy like that, send it along. By the time you use up your whole hour, you'll probably have become a friend/colleague/former client who can send questions like that once in a while for the rest of your life.

Or, how about this? Take a look at the talks your selected consultant has prepped for upcoming conferences (get us to send you the abstracts we've submitted) and have us deliver a private session of a useful talk to your whole company over LiveMeeting. There's a free LiveMeeting trial going on, and the talks have to be prepped anyway, so your hour would just be the delivery of the talk, to as many of your colleagues as you can get online at once. So it might end up 90 minutes, we don't mind.

You can't lose! Hell, even if you use your hour to take one of us for a drink the next time we're in the same city, what really counts is you gave $100 or $150 or $200 to help people who have NO clothes, NO books, NO walls around them.... this is a FUNDRAISER so come on, let's raise some funds!

Kate