Here at OSCON they have opened OSCAMP a open space that people can post a topic for a time and anyone who is interested can show up. They have even let people who are not attending the conference to come in and participate. Me and some other people from Microsoft thought we should contribute to this and we posted this as our topic:

Yep it reads (originally) "Why We Suck: Come chat w/Microsoft 7 Tell Us" Tim/Woody@MSFT

We were assailed as soon as we posted this, this is when the topic was "modified" to read "Why Unwitting Agents Suck: Come Chat w/Microsoft" by a guy who we later found out was Jair who refused to identify himself being the ultimate wimp, in my opinion if you make comments anonymously then your comments are not worth making. Yes there is a place and time for anonymity but when someone is threatening to get you fired (yes that is what he did) then you need to take a stand.

Over all at the time today it was a good conversion and I got to see some points of view that I had not considered. I thank all the people who came and wanted to have a good two-sided dialogue.

tags: OSCON, OSCON2006, OSCON+2006, OSCAMP, OSCAMP2006, OSCAMP+2006, Jair

There is going to be a online guided hands-on webcast titled "Creating Managed Applications for Windows Mobile 5.0 Powered Devices"

For more information see the MSDN event site for the event MSDN Webcast: Guided Hands-On: Creating Managed Applications for Windows Mobile 5.0 Powered Devices (Level 200).

This is the first time I have seen this type of training offering offered and am quite interested to see how it is received so please let me know if you attend it.

Yesterday Tim, Jason did a killer road trip from Portland to Seattle so we could attend a meeting of Developer Evangelists from around the world. I always enjoy these types of meetings, there is very few opportunities for me to interact with others that do this job and to say the least it tends to be a "interesting" time.

After the meeting we went to the Microsoft main campus so we could do some downloading (the remote office have crappy connections to the redmond domain). While we were there we found this...

TalkingRain Lemon - Lime Windows Vista water

OK I am going to be a bit inappropriate here...

Jason Mauer took this picture of me pointing to a massive pile of beans as I was saying what to I care I am in Portland and my wife is back home so... beans beans :)

Yesterday I attended the Portland Code Camp all I can say is wow! It was great. I got to do a presentation on the Compact Framework.

There were a whopping 5 people in the room but we had a good walk through my pubsDemo project and we looked at the OrientationAwareControl from the p&p Mobile Client Software Factory. I had an extensive slide deck that I said I would post here but instead I will just list the three URLs that were in it. Before I list them I did want to thank any of you who attended.

• pubsDemo site
• MSDN Mobile Client Software Factory Site
• GotDotNet patterns and practices Mobile Client Software Factory

Pictures:

Water Fountain	Geek Band
The Headliner Band Mars Retrieval Unit	Fun Sprinkler Issues

If you are not familiar with the "Live from Redmond" webcasts I would check them out. They are a series of webcasts by the product team members so the information is coming from the best source it can be had from.

Check out Simon Muzio's blog entry with the full schedule Upcoming team webcasts - Live From Redmond series.

I have gotten a few questions about how I did the panoramic image from the Stand Down post. I found a great little utility called Autostitch it is "first fully automatic 2D image stitcher" you point it at a number of images and it dose the rest. You don't need to do anything with aligning the images, it could not be any easer.

I get asked a lot by my family and friends about how they should secure their computers so this is another entry on this topic with some updates from the last time I covered this.

First get router! I don’t care if you only have one computer in the house you still need this! I like the Linksys products, they’re cheap and easy to setup, get the BEFSR41 at a minimum.

Next make sure you have XP Service Pack 2 running! I know some will say it’s a pain but it is needed... no questions just get it!

Now stop running as a local administrator! This is huge pain but it is the best thing you can to protect yourself. If you don’t know what I am talking about check out nonadmin.editme.com

OK now we are set to talk about software you want to run to keep your system clean.

Go to the Microsoft Security software: Downloads and trials site:

• Install the 12-month free trial of Computer Associates Antivirus product.
• Install Windows Defender (I know it’s beta but it’s good)

Now make chose run a tool bar for Internet Explorer (MSN or Google) or better yet install the Internet Explorer 7 beta this will help stop popups and other annoying problems.

BAM!!! Your all done, now just make sure you login as admin once a week to let updates happen and be a smart user. Don’t trust the attachments that anyone sends you (no not even aunt Mable). Stop installing every application that you think will let you get free stuff (no Limewire or others).

What does the future hold? Vista! Yes I know it’s going to be an OS upgrade but by default you will run in a protected mode, even if you are logged in as an administrator.

Good luck!

Resources:

Microsoft Security at Home web site

Are you interested in the future of .NET? The site http://www.netfx3.com/ is a great resource for all things new in the 3.0 world.

Remember 3.0 is not a base framework update it just adds the WinFX components check out http://msdn.microsoft.com/winfx/ for more information.

I did my semi-regular cooking job at the San Diego Stand Down... Ok so it was my second time in five years but I am resolving to do it every year that I can from now on. What is Stand Down? Read all about it here http://www.vvsd.net/standdown.htm.

I am not much of a bleeding hart but I know it is all too easy for anyone to fall in to a bad place and I think some times for people who are in the military it can be especially easy. So I did my little part by helping to feed 1300+ lunches and 800+ dinners on Friday, working for over 12 hours and suffering a horrible sunburn (especially bad as my wife yelled at me as I was leaving the house to put on sunscreen). I did this with the local American Legion (yes I am a member) and a bunch of people who have been doing this for almost as long as this event has been going on. I find it quite strange how many people on one of the hottest weekends of the year still came out to help with this event (did I menchen I am not much of a bleeding hart?). As you can see from the photos below there was everything setup that someone would need to start down a better path.

All in all this was quite executing but I felt good about helping out in my little way and in a strange way I look forward to next year.

An overview of the whole thing (from there web site)	This was a panoramic I took of the main part of the grounds
The (not so well shaded) galley.	The food line before attacked
The back side of the tents
The glamour Job...	Cutting the meatloaf
Hair cut anyone?	Court will be in session... Quite Please.
Some fun for the kids too	Some wet fun too

I am sure you all have been waiting like myself for the final version and now it's here!

Mobile Client Software Factory

Go get it!

I drive a 1996 or 97 Toyota Camry, it's beat up (am not easy on cars) it sinks as the kids have spilled milk in it but just look what it did...

Yep the old thing just passed 150000 miles (I was diving when the odometer hi 150000 so I did the safe thing and waited to take this picture) I just love this car it is still running great and has been quite low maintance over all. I want a new car but I just can't do it while this one is working so well.

Just wanted to brag... :)

This is an intresting one we (Microsoft) is funding an open source project on SourceForge for an Office 2007 add-in to allow interoperability with .PDF, .XLS, and .ODF formats.

See the project site at http://sourceforge.net/projects/ODF-converter

OK so that is cool, I know I will use it but I have to ask… why? Microsoft (ok that is still we) also just announced a new open source site called CodePlex. What give why not use CodePlex? OK I know I am just a DE but come on mother ship!