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!

Microsoft mate, Chuck Sterling is also going to Code Camp Oz.  He is driving down from the Gold Coast.  As I write this, he will be in Newcastle, and after Code Camp, he is driving down to Hobart.  All up, he’s going to be on the road for a couple of weeks.

Now Chuck has his mobile phone with him.  Every now and then, if it is turned on, Chuck’s phone will check in with the nearest mobile phone tower.  Theoretically, one could enquire on Telstra’s mobile phone network and find out which tower was servicing Chuck’s phone right now.  Theoretically, if one knew the exact latitude and longitude of each mobile phone tower, one could plot Chuck’s position on a Virtual Earth map of Australia.  Theoretically…

Well theorize no more!  It’s been done.  Click this link to see where Chuck is right now.  Way cool.  (In many parts of Australia, you may have to zoom out 4 levels to see aerial photos.)

More information about the guys at Power Business Systems who have built this, over at Chuck’s Blog.  (Hmmm… thinks… I wonder how much Chuck’s boss, Frank would pay for this info?)

———————
Update: Mon 2 Apr 07
Chuck skived off early from Code Camp yesterday so he could get to Melbourne in time for the overnight ferry to Tasmania.  Here he is this morning just south of Devonport, approaching Launceston, on his way to his next .NET user group meeting in Hobart.

And speaking of skiving off, where’s Chuck’s boss, Frank, this fine Monday morning?

Joseph Cooney, speaking on
“Building A Real World WPF Application”.

For the last 7 months Joseph has been building a non-trivial application in WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) in his “spare time”. During this time he has also developed a number of proof-of-concepts in WPF. In this talk he will share his experiences developing with this new platform.

Topics to be covered include:

• Choosing an application type & deployment strategy, and how the choices you make at this early stage determine what features of WPF you should and should not use.
• Structuring your WPF project in Visual Studio - what kind of artefacts you will probably want to create, and where you should put them.
• Choosing between doing things in XAML and doing things in C#/VB.NET
• Doing things on Background Threads
• Troubleshooting WPF Performance issues - some starting points

See more of Joseph’s WPF work at http://learnwpf.com/.  See also Windows Presentation Foundation.

Date: Tuesday 20 Feb 07
Time: 17:30 for 18:00 - 19:30
Location: Microsoft Brisbane office, Level 9, Waterfront Place, 1 Eagle St, Brisbane
ALL WELCOME

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

RSVP
An immediate rsvp by email to mike@fitzsimon.com.au will help with planning.

————
Brisbane/Qld software developers may also be interested in these upcoming events:

• Qld SQL Server User Group, Thu 22 Feb 07, Rob Risetto - SQL Server Performance Analysis
• Code Camp Oz - Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, Sat 31 Mar & Sun 1 Apr 07 - I’ll be there.

Off to Code Camp Oz in the morning.  Woo-Hoo!

Sat 22 Apr: morning flight Brisbane to Canberra (QF953)  Lunch with our good friends, the L’Estranges.  Late drive to Wagga Wagga.

Sun 23, Mon 24 Apr: Code Camp Oz - an event organised by the .NET developer community, bringing together software developers from across Australia.  Two solid days featuring a range of speakers, many of whom are international experts in their fields. Location: Charles Sturt University campus at Wagga Wagga.  Drive back to Canberra on Monday evening.

Tue 25 Apr: Anzac Day dawn service at the Australian War Memorial.  Afternoon flight Canberra to Brisbane (QF2568).

Our neighbours over the ditch will do anything to beat us again.

Not only is Code Camp NZ starting one day before Code Camp Oz, it even sorts first alphabetically by just one letter!

But they deserve to do well.  They have the most fabulous logo.  Check it out at http://www.dot.net.nz/Default.aspx?tabid=87.  (Kiwi brand boot polish -> Boot Camp -> Code Camp!  Brilliant!)

ka-ching ka-ching?  That’s the sound of the cheap Qantas flights to Canberra filling up.  Better get in now.

Code Camp Oz is a .NET developer community driven event.  It allows Australian software developers to come together in one location to meet each other and hear from a range of speakers, many of whom are international experts in their fields.  Code Camp Oz offers a packed program over two solid days, 23-24 April. It is being held in Wagga Wagga at the Charles Sturt University campus.

I’ve registered!  See you there.