MikeFitz with overflow bit set…

Who said Facebook is just for the youngsters?  I don’t know when the Australian War Memorial created its Facebook page but a couple of days ago I saw this advertisement on my Facebook news feed.

Clicking on the ad took me to an Event page for the ANZAC Day Dawn Service at the War Memorial’s parade ground.  The Event page has an “Export” button so you can add the Dawn Service to your Outlook calendar.

Yes, I’ll be attending, and then it’s off to Code Camp Oz in Wagga Wagga.

April also means ANZAC Day and CodeCampOz.

ANZAC Day

Mrs Fitz, #1 Son and I will be at the dawn service at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.  Afterwards, we have an assignment to do in the memorial.  A teacher friend is doing a module on ANZAC Day with her class and has asked us to gather some information from the museum.

Code Camp Oz

Afterwards, we’ll be off to Wagga Wagga for CodeCampOz.

• Fri 25, Sat 26 and Sun 27 Apr 08
• Wal Fife Theatre, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga
• A .NET developer community driven event. Two and a half intense days of sessions on current development topics featuring the latest (Visual Studio 2008) and up-coming (SQL Server 2008) development tools.
• It is free to attend.
  See www.codecampoz.com for more details.
• Peter and I will be there!

www.clickncolour.com

Now and then comes an opportunity to work on a project that not only makes the client happy, but is also actually fun to work on.

ClickNColour.com is the online art gallery of local artist Debbie Neale.

While working as a teacher aide, Debbie noticed that most colouring-in artwork was directed at younger children.  She has now created a portfolio of designs which are challenging enough for older students and adults, even rehabilitation patients.

On the website you can purchase downloadable copies of Debbie’s artwork as well as order Debbie’s printed colouring-in books.

A special Christmas treat for .NET developers this month.  We’ve been invited by Transmax to their facility at Gaythorne to have a peek under the covers of STREAMS, their world-class integrated intelligent transport system built with .NET and running on Windows 2003 Servers.

STREAMS manages all aspects of traffic operations on surface streets and motorways including Signal Management, Incident Management, Motorway Management, Vehicle Priority, Traveller Information and Parking Guidance.

Join us for a Christmas Beer and watch live M1 (and other locations around Australia) traffic management on the *really* *really* BIG screen!

Please park in the Baptist College car park (entry via Prospect Rd) and follow the concrete path around to the Transmax office.  If you are able to offer other members a lift from the city, please let me know and I’ll coordinate.

If you are unable to see the map, it is also on the QMSDNUG website at www.qmsdnug.org.

RSVP
All welcome.  Bring your colleagues.  Because Transmax is sponsoring the catering, it’s important to rsvp early.  If you haven’t already done so, an immediate rsvp by email to mike@fitzsimon.com.au will help with planning.

See you there,

Mike Fitzsimon
0418 275 275

A packed agenda for .Net developers this month with two speakers.

First up, Leon Bambrick (aka secretGeek) and then International award winning PDA and TabletPC developer, Robert Crago.

Coming out of the garage: Build your own MicroISV

Leon, developer of TimeSnapper, will walk us through what’s involved in turning latent ideas into a source of passive income and establishing your personal software empire, without resorting to cyber crime.

Also don’t miss Leon’s blog, secretGeek; entertaining as well as educational.

A Pen is NOT a Mouse

Robert’s passion is the TabletPC (”The coolest thing Microsoft has done.“)  He is currently contracting to Education Queensland assisting in the introduction of SmartPhones to senior staff.

Robert will demonstrate:

• why today’s applications on pen-powered devices leave a lot to be desired
• how to harness the full power of the pen and dramatically improve ease of use
• several innovative pen-centric controls for both TabletPC and Windows Mobile devices
• Windows Mobile 6.0 WispLite ink and handwriting recognition, and
• saving precious screen real estate.

These details are also available on our QMSDNUG website at www.qmsdnug.org.

Please RSVP Early
All invited; attendance is free.  Catering this month sponsored by Candle ICT.  Because of this, please rsvp by email to mike@fitzsimon.com.au before 8:00 Tuesday.  Thanks.

OK, so after ignoring many “Friend Requests” over the past few months, I’ve finally caved in and joined Crackbook Facebook.  It appears some people use that other name for it because it’s possible to waste a lot of time in there.

What tipped me over the edge was the fact that the upcoming Australian Blogging Conference has a Facebook page.  This, I had to see.

As it turns out, I’m glad I had a look.  What caught my eye was the “Developer” link at the bottom of each page.  Here I discovered excellent documentation on the Facebook Platform, the API used to develop Facebook Applications.  As one who is always interested in new ways of delivering data to the masses, I paid attention.

Now imagine that I had access to some data that a large number of people were interested to see (eg, the World Championship Marbles League, the Southern Oscillation Index, the countdown to Mrs Fitz’s next birthday).  I’d be keen to publish this as widely as possible.

First, I would publish a web service to supply this data.  Then I would distribute

• a Vista Gadget
• a SharePoint web part, and now
• a Facebook Application.

Here’s a link to my Facebook Profile.

This month’s QMSDNUG meeting looks at Workflow Foundation.

One impression of the .NET 3 uptake is that Windows Workflow puzzles a lot of people.  They are not quite sure about how it can apply to them.  Microsoft has focused on the “sexy” features of workflow such as “driving ASP.NET web site navigation” or the “Designer Rehosting capablities”.  Developers are asking “How does it apply to me?”

First-up, Michal Postula from Citect will explain how Workflow can help developers in their day to day application development.  He will show how this powerful architectural tool can reduce code coupling and increase development agility.  Specifically he will show how WF can apply to small and day-to-day projects.

Then, Joseph Plant will go into more detail focusing on the Pitfalls of Windows Workflow.  Joe will use demonstrations and code samples to hilight the things to watch out for in the current release of WF.

About the Presenters

• Joseph Plant. Senior Developer with Citect on Ampla, the Manufacturing Execution System. Joe has been with Citect for more than 10 years starting as a electrical engineer in their services department and then moving into software more than 5 years ago.
• Michal Postula. Technical Architect on Ampla. Diverse background ranging from startups to engineering applications to government departments. Key interest includes straddling the divide between business decision makers and geek satisfaction.

These details are also available on our QMSDNUG website at www.qmsdnug.org.

RSVP
All invited; attendance is free; pizzas, drinks supplied.  An immediate rsvp by email to mike@fitzsimon.com.au will help with planning.

I am /looking for an excuse/wondering if I can afford the time off/keen/ to attend the upcoming 1-day Australian Blogging Conference.

The schedule features an interesting range of blogging topics, including:

• The Politics of Blogging
• Business and Corporate Blogging
• Legal Issues
• Blogs, Creativity and Creative Commons
• and more.

Location: Creative Industries Precinct at QUT’s Kelvin Grove Campus.
Date: Friday, 28 September 2007
Time: 9:00 - 17:00

The conference is hosted by
- ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries & Innovation and
- QUT Faculty of Law
and is sponsored by
- our good friends at Microsoft and
- GetUp! (getup.org.au).

This month’s QMSDNUG meeting looks at an interesting range of technologies; first Vista Gadgets and then PowerShell.

First-up, the official prize presentation and mini-showcase of the winning entry in the Microsoft Innovation Centre Queensland Vista Sidebar Gadget Competition.

Then, our main speaker this month is Mitch Denny, speaking on “PowerShell for Developers.”

About Mitch:
Mitch has lived in both System Administrator and Developer worlds, embracing both to the max.  He was an early adopter of PowerShell and, as you can see from his blog, has now built up some considerable experience.  Need to automate system administration functions?  Mitch can show you how a developer would do it.

These details are also available on our QMSDNUG website at www.qmsdnug.org.

RSVP
All invited; attendance is free; pizzas, drinks supplied.  An immediate rsvp by email to mike@fitzsimon.com.au will help with planning.

———————
Afterthought: Yeah, I know.  I thought it would be a long time before this blog post gets a hit from a search engine looking for “Vista Gadgets and PowerShell”.  One is a desktop technology and the other is a server technology.  But follow the PowerShell link above and see that it has been done already.

Off to Tech.Ed 2007 this week.  For the first time ever, it sold out - weeks ago.  This is now the only way to get in…

Zip me up, Scotty!

This will be my last LOLCat!  Frank Arrigo started this Tech.Ed LOLCat! meme and now he “can has leave the country”.  This week will be the last chance to catch up with him  Good Luck, Frank!

Tech.Ed is being held at the Gold Coast Convention Centre from Tue 7 to Fri 10 August with deep-dive workshops starting today.