Coding Geekette

Calling All Web Devs: Support More Browsers

2009-07-10T21:10:00.004-04:00

Seeing this message on the UGSS site when I opened Safari for Windows instigated this post: You need IE (6.0 or higher) or FireFox (1.5 or higher) to view this site.

You've read about how disgusted I get with the whole "IE Only" crutch. Now I need to extend that call even further - developing for particular browsers limits your audience and can leave a bad taste for a potential customer. Are web developers still doing this? If so, why?

Now my guess with the UGSS site is that it's older - as those are dated browser versions. So maybe it's an old app that could use some updating? Most likely.

Yes, as web developers, we should consider our target audience. But unless your site was truly focused on a niche market, is there a reason why you'd want to develop new sites for one specific browser? If we're Apple, for example, we'll want to target our Mac fans, but at the same time, we need to acknowledge that there are other people who may be interested in our products/services who may be running one of the other popular browsers and not just the one we've been developing for.

For those of you working on the Toughest Developer Puzzle Ever, there have been complaints about one of the levels not working in a certain browser. If you let me know which operating system you are running and version of your browser, that would help me figure out where the bug is. I've tested the code in Google Chrome, Safari for Windows, and Internet Explorer 7 and 8. (Firefox and Opera were accidentally left off when I recently redid my laptop, so they were missed.) I don't own a Mac, so I rely on Mac users to give constructive feedback. From what I've heard so far, the problem seems to be with Firefox (at least versions 3.0.11 and higher) on Windows XP, which I can test when I'm near an XP machine. If you are one of those people having a hard time with stage 15 and Javascript errors (and *only* JS errors), please let me know which OS/browser so that I can troubleshoot it and possibly fix it. As you will come to learn, I am not one of those web developers who will force you to use a particular browser.

Now understand something - this call goes to all web devs out there, and not just the Windows-based ones. So Linux-based web devs who design their sites for Firefox only - this applies to you guys too. And anyone else out there who's doing web dev with just a one browser mentality - it's time to expand your horizons and acknowledge other browsers out there. You don't have to like them - but at least consider that it's more than just an IE/Firefox/Safari world.

What's Happening with the Coding Geekette

2009-07-10T20:14:00.003-04:00

It's been quiet here, and I apologize for being so quiet. I've been quite busy here - getting ready for the Toughest Developer Puzzle Ever launch, working on Cleveland Tech Events, working with the non-profit behind Cleveland Day of .NET, counting down the days until Columbus GiveCamp, looking over my IronPython presentations for PyOhio, and getting ready for my presentation at devLink in August. I've also taken some time off to enjoy Independence Day with my husband and our friends.

On July 1st, I joined the freshmen class of Microsoft MVPs. I've held off on announcing this until I could get my MVP Profile listed. So now, the Cleveland area has a new Microsoft MVP in Visual C#, joining the other MVPs that I know of in the area - including Brendan Enrick (ASP.NET), Nate Kohari, Michael Letterle (Visual C#), Deepak Puri (SQL), Steve Smith (ASP.NET), and Allen White (SQL). Congrats to the leader of the 2008 Cleveland Day of .NET - John Stockton - on getting recognized as a MVP in Silverlight.

I want to thank all who've given me the opportunity to get involved, exchange knowledge, and put my love for technology to work. It's been a lot of fun getting involved with the various developer communities out there. From the quiet girl at one .NET user group to an introduction to the .NET community and a gentle push in the right direction, it's been an interesting journey. Thanks to Jeff Blankenburg for that initial push. Special thanks to my husband Kevin for being so supportive of me in my various endeavors. Even if he isn't at an event with me, he still knows what I'm up to and texts/emails/calls me to wish me luck. I wouldn't be so active in the community if I didn't have his support. I look forward to continuing my activities within the community and hope to see you at some of the events.

Speaking of upcoming events... here's what's coming up:

Columbus GiveCamp / Ann Arbor GiveCamp - July 17 - 19 : I will be at the Columbus site, but I have to get the word out about Ann Arbor as well, as they were a fun crew to work with last summer.
PyOhio - July 25-26
Lansing Day of .NET - August 1: Although I have other commitments, I want to get the word out about this, as the Lansing crew is known for having a great event. If you have the time and are willing to travel, I'd recommend you check it out.
devLink - August 13-15

Check out their sites, and sign up for an event today! Hope to see you in the community!

Preparing for Contribupendence Day

2009-06-29T22:44:00.003-04:00

Contribupendence Day is coming up this Friday, July 3rd. Are you ready for it?

Wait... you haven't heard of it? Let me explain how it works:

1. Write recommendations for friends and fellow community members.
2. ...
3. Profit!

Ok... maybe there's no profit involved.

Seriously, though, last summer, Jeff Blankenburg came up with this idea. The way he put it was:

A day when we can contribute to our colleagues and friends to improve their online standing. A day when we take advantage of those features of social networks that we always put off until tomorrow. - taken from his post from last year's Contribupendence Day

I've been thinking about this throughout the year, as I wanted to select people that I didn't select last year, and I wanted to diversify my options - not just .NET people.

So this is my challenge to you - participate! If you're not sure what to do, check Jeff's post from last year and it should give you an idea of what it's about.

So I spoke tonight on Python at the .NET group...

2009-06-23T23:17:00.006-04:00

The language junkie in me spoke on Python to the .NET group, and of course, leave it to me to remember to tie in IronPython - the .NET implementation of Python.

My slides are here:

Python 101 For The Net Developer

View more OpenOffice presentations from Sarah Dutkiewicz.

All of my sample code has been zipped up and is available here.

I'd like to thank all those who came out. I had a very inquisitive and interactive audience, which made my presentation that much easier to deliver. It was great to present tech to one of my home user groups, and I hope to speak more around town.

Columbus and Ann Arbor GiveCamps

2009-06-15T13:55:00.003-04:00

This one time, at GiveCamp....

This morning, I read that the Columbus GiveCamp site is now up and running. As I read through their site, I had to laugh at some of the things on there - as it brought back fond memories of my experience last summer at the Ann Arbor GiveCamp.

What is a GiveCamp?
A Give Camp is a weekend-long event where software developers, designers, and database administrators donate their time to create custom software for non-profit organizations. This custom software could be a new website for the nonprofit organization, a small data-collection application to keep track of members, or a application for the Red Cross that automatically emails a blood donor three months after they've donated blood to remind them that they are now eligible to donate again. The only limitation is that the project should be scoped to be able to be completed in a weekend.

Source: http://www.annarborgivecamp.org/WhatIsAGiveCamp.aspx

Last Year's Experience

Last year, Ann Arbor was a full GiveCamp, and Columbus, OH and Knoxille, TN ran satellite camps. I had talked with Mike Eaton throughout their planning stages, and as much as I could've gone to the satellite camp in Columbus, after having talked with Mike through so much, I was determined to go to the Ann Arbor camp.

I didn't know which charity or team I was placed with until I got there, and that's where I met the great team that worked on GoLightly IT's SiteFinity site. Towards the end of the first night, Mike floated around the groups to get interviews and offer cookies (which I ended up tagging along with him and calling them "HTTP cookies"). I liked how he had the job of floating around to check on the groups and assist them with any blocking issues - that was a much-needed position, one that I wouldn't mind doing. He pulled me in to help a group that was starting with the hopes of using SharePoint, only to be defeated by Verio's hosting options and having to use SiteFinity. I was able to work with them to at least get them on the right path, joining most of us on the "we're using SiteFinity and relying on John T. Hopkins' awesomeness to help us out" bandwagon.

"No showers" means "There are no showers at the facility."

The Columbus GiveCamp site has stressed that their facility has "no showers" quite a few times in the FAQ. In case they weren't obvious enough, this means that QSI does not have showers. So if you're staying overnight, don't count on showering there - it's not happening.

Sleep is for the weak.

As for the award for least amount of sleep and probably why they link to Red Bull - you'll find that some developers will stay up the whole time to work on their project. Some will stay up to help others with their projects. And some of us stay up just because we can. I managed to go 41 (or was it 42) hours without sleep at Ann Arbor GiveCamp, competing with one of the guys from another team in our room. My first night there, I hung out with my friends in the break room, helping keep Jennifer going during her 1am-5am break room shift. I'm not sure how the guys did it, but I got lucky running mostly on my second wind. Then my first wind for the next day kicked in and sleep was fairly inevitable. I could've gone for a little longer on the second night, but since I had a long drive home the next day, I knew that I needed to sleep, from a safety standpoint.

Going to GiveCamp this year

This year, I'm planning on going down to the Columbus GiveCamp - a full camp this year - and putting my background to use there however they need me. I've got one of those weird backgrounds - system administration, database administration, web server administration, tech support, developer... on both Microsoft-based platforms and non-Microsoft platforms. I tend to adapt quickly new technology, which makes it even easier for me to fit a variety of roles.

Ann Arbor's GiveCamp will be running at the same time, as Columbus planned theirs to be at the same time. I look forward to seeing what comes out of these GiveCamps - last year, they worked on a lot of great projects, including projects for WonderPuzzle and Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum.

So what are you waiting for? If you've got the time July 17-19 and want to put your technical talents to a good cause, volunteer for a GiveCamp today. And if you know of any groups with projects, have them contact the respective GiveCamp location to see how the GiveCamps can help them out.

Again, the links for the sites are:

Columbus GiveCamp

Ann Arbor GiveCamp

Hope to see you there!

Upcoming Presentations - Summer Edition

2009-06-12T19:09:00.000-04:00

It's summer, a time for hanging out with family and friends, a time to relax, right? As much as I wanted to take a break and relax, my schedule is keeping me busy, with at least 4 talks planned. So... what's going on?

Cleveland C#/VB.NET SIG
Python 101 for the .NET Developer

The first part of this meeting will cover the basics of Python - its history, how its data structures compare to those we're familiar with in the primary .NET languages, its strong and weak points, who's using it, and why you as a developer - both generally speaking and as a .NET developer - should care about Python. The second part of this talk will get into the demos - starting with some basic Python scripts and getting into IronPython scripts, if time allows. By the end of this talk, you'll have an idea of what Python is, why you should know it as a developer and specifically as a .NET developer, and how to get setup and write a basic app in both Python and IronPython.

PyOhio 2009

Pumping Iron into Python: Intro to FePy
As python grows in popularity, IronPython has started making more waves. What is IronPython and why should regular python programmers be familiar with it? This session will introduce the open source .NET implementation of python known as IronPython without using Windows. Come see FePy (IronPython community edition) in action via Mono -- a cross-platform open source implementation of the .NET framework.

Show & Tell: IronPython Edition
In this session, you will hear about IronPython and what is needed to work with this .NET implementation of the python language. This session will show the power of IronPython in a Windows environment. There will be many demos of how IronPython can be used - including some WPF, XNA, Silverlight, COM Interop, database interaction, and other neat features.

devLink

Going Cross-Platform with C#
Running Windows forms apps in a non-Windows environment? As absurd as it sounds, it can be done. This session will show how to work with Mono and MonoDevelop to get your Windows apps to be cross-platform.

Hope to see you at one of my talks this summer!

Python 101 for the .NET Developer

2009-05-30T11:15:00.002-04:00

I get to add another talk to my list of Python/IronPython talks, as I've been asked to speak at the Cleveland C#/VB.NET SIG for their June meeting. The talk will start with a focus on Python, giving my fellow SIG members a glimpse at yet another language to add to their toolboxes. We'll take a look at what it is, how it compares to C# and VB.NET, where it is strong and where it is weak. If time allows, I will use one of its weak points to transition into IronPython, which is the best of both worlds, bringing .NET to the Python language.

If you're interested in heckling me or maybe even seeing my talk and learning about the language, here are the details:

What: "Python 101 for the .NET Developer" with Sarah Dutkiewicz, Cleveland C#/VB.NET SIG

When: Tuesday, June 23, 6:30-8:30pm

Where: Beacon Place Conference Center, Beacon Place Office Building, 6055 Rockside Woods Blvd, Lower Level, Independence, OH 44131

Other things to note:
- Thanks to Sogeti for sponsoring the food and venue. Please be sure to RSVP (see the Cleveland/VB.NET SIG site for details) so that they can get an accurate headcount for ordering pizza.
- This group meets afterwards at Mavis Winkle's in Independence. There's a lot of networking and socializing, so come on out and have fun with us.

Hope to see you there!

The New Pick-up Icon - the Netbook

2009-05-25T21:59:00.003-04:00

I've had my netbook since the middle of January, running Windows 7 from day 1. No, my netbook doesn't have a DVD drive. However, a USB to IDE adapter gave me the ability to hook a drive up to the netbook to get Windows installed.

Everywhere I take it - user groups, coffee shops, hotels - I'm asked what "this little laptop" is. I call it my laptop's laptop. Check this out for a size comparison:

15" ASUS G1 laptop on the left, Dell Mini 9 on the right

It's such a great conversation piece. I've had total strangers - both male and female - stare for a bit and then come up and ask me about it. So look out cute kids and puppies, the netbook is the new pick-up icon!

So what do I tell people about it? I love traveling with it - smaller footprint than my 15" laptop, much lighter, and great for things like checking email, reading things on the Internet, chatting online, and basic office functions. Going away for work and want to stay in touch with the fam? This one has a webcam built-in, great for video chatting. I had tested it with one of my friends, who was amazed with the webcam's clarity, as if he was looking directly into my house. With wi-fi, wired, and Bluetooth capabilities, I can get my Internet fix in a number of ways. The SD card reader is nice for offloading pictures from my digital camera to a hard drive while I'm on trips.

Ah... but the hard drive. So the Dell Mini 9 that I have has a 16GB solid state drive. That's right, only 16GB. So I have to watch my space. Now I know I can upgrade my hard drive and that Dell is shipping Minis now with bigger hard drives, but from my personal basic setup, 16GB is what I have to work with, which isn't really that much space for storing pictures - especially when 7GB alone is eaten up by the operating system.

Battery life is good enough for me. With wireless on and full use, I can get a couple hours easily. However, I'm typically not promiscuous with my netbook, so the wireless is usually off and the display brightness isn't super bright. This means I get about 3-3.5 hours of battery life.

The processor and the memory are my limiting factors. I've got 1GB of memory, with a 1.6GHz Atom processor. So it's great for the stuff I mentioned above. However, as a developer, I wouldn't compile code on it. Writing scripts, HTML pages, and other notepad tasks... sure. Working on a Silverlight app... probably not.

There are little quirks, but I had to expect something had to change, considering the size. One of the other things I struggle with sometimes is the keyboard layout. For the most part, it's a QWERTY keyboard, but my tilde (~) and my apostrophe (') are in different spots, and that throws me off, for as much as I use those characters.

Despite the headache it was to get it shipped, I am fairly content with my netbook. If you're doing simple tasks on a computer while on the go, I'd recommend the Dell Mini 9.

My Experience with the Web Platform Installer - Part 1, Web Platform

2009-05-10T22:09:00.017-04:00

Over the past couple months, I had been leery about my hard drive in my laptop. It had been getting noisier, and a noisy hard drive is never a good sign. Before I went to PyCon, we got a new hard drive, just in case we had to swap it out at the last minute. Thankfully, the electronic powers that be smiled down on me for the past 3 presentations (PyCon, Central Ohio Day of .NET, and Kalamazoo X) - the hard drive stayed noisy, but it also stayed strong.

Tonight, we replaced my hard drive with a new one, and instead of imaging the old drive to the new one, I did a fresh install of the release candidate of Windows 7 Ultimate. Rather than installing everything else, I came up with an idea to try out the Web Platform Installer.

Jeff Blankenburg has mentioned this in his MIX recap talk that's touring user groups and in his Stir Trek talk. I had played with this a little bit with my previous setup, but I already had other software packages (like Visual Studio 2008) installed. This time, I wanted to see just what it could do with beefier packages (other than just the Silverlight tools).

The best way I can describe the Web Platform Installer is something along the lines of an apt-get GUI for web products that can run on Windows.

Now keep in mind that I'm a web junkie, so this tool is perfect for me. Let's add a little background to explain the method behind my madness - I'm hoping to work with MVC soon enough, and as for PHP, well, you may see me talk about that more.

I run a site called Cleveland Tech Events, and I'm currently using Joomla as my content management system (CMS). However, there are a lot of features and things that I want that Joomla can't give me. I can look at other CMS packages, but I need to keep my PHP skills up, so I'm going to write my own. Cleveland Tech Events lives with many of my other domains, where PHP is the common base. So I'll stick with what I have. Seeing that the Web Platform Installer has PHP as an option, I'm truly curious now.

After downloading it and installing it, I was ready to use the Web Platform Installer to get my web development environment setup. So this is what I'm telling it to install:

One thing you'll notice, the Web Platform Installer will download dependencies, much like apt-get. I did not have anything installed beforehand, but it added SQL Server Express and Visual Web Developer Express, without me having to select that.

However, I did run into an issue with one of my installs - that would be the Silverlight 3 Tools installer. I reran the Web Platform Installer and reselected the tools after the first set of installations finished, and Silverlight cooperated the second time around.

Now I focused on the Web Platform side for this installation, since I'm trying to get my laptop setup as a development environment. But wait, there's more! Stay tuned for Part 2, when I get into what's hiding in the Web Applications tab.

Advice for Young Geekettes

2009-05-09T17:46:00.003-04:00

There were quite a few female attendees at Stir Trek yesterday - it was quite impressive! We got to talk with the ladies of the Centerburg Trojan Robotics Club about women in tech, and here are some of the things I had to say.

Don't let the bad rumors or the guys intimidate you.

Sometimes, you will run into guys who make it their goal to intimidate you. Do not give into them. They are few and far between in the industry, but they give the field a bad rep for women in general. I've been working in various aspects of technology - tech support, IT, and software development - and most of the guys that I've worked with wish that we had more women in our workforce. As women, we can offer a different perspective on problems and how to solve them. You should have a tough backbone in case you do run into one of those guys who tries to discourage you. But something you'll find is that many guys will be welcoming and want to show you the ropes - if you run into those guys, learn to trust them and learn from them. Oh, and be warned... we're a bunch of geeks in the field, so bad puns and bad humor are abound.

Do what you enjoy doing.

If you like working with robots or writing code or whatever it is that you like doing, stick with it and look into possible career opportunities related to it. Work doesn't have to be a boring thing that you do for 40 hours a week just to put a roof over your head. Why waste life working a boring job when you can do what you like and have fun at the same time?

Get involved!

I don't think I can stress this enough. These ladies are freshmen in high school - which means plenty of time for them to get involved in the community and get their names out there. For example, seeing that they're currently geeking out with robotics, they may want to look into the Columbus Robotics Society and getting involved with them (attending meetings/events, join their mailing list, etc.). Another way to get involved is to join Twitter and look for others with similar interests that you can talk with, bounce ideas with, and network with.

The more you get involved with the community, the more people you interact with, the more recommendations you can get... which can lead to internship opportunities at both the high school and college levels and job opportunities in the future. You will also find that in networking with others, you will learn more from the people you meet and their experiences in the industry. You are never too young to get involved in the community, but if you get involved early, that gives you more time to get your name out there, which also means more time for you to meet people and take advantage of more opportunities in the industry.

Stir Trek Recap

2009-05-09T16:31:00.011-04:00

Yesterday, I took the day off of work to attend Stir Trek. I'd been hearing about it for quite awhile, as Jeff has been quite excited about it and talked about it quite often throughout its planning stages. After two months of planning, the event finally happened!

I arrived in Columbus Thursday night, just in time to catch the tail end of their geek dinner. It was good to finally meet Rachel Appel, and I also enjoyed seeing all of my friends who were there. I apparently had good timing, as some of the guys who were there wanted to play Zombie Fluxx (in the food court?!?) and I happened to have my set on me. It was good to see the gang before the event, as the day of the event would be quite busy!

Friday morning, I was up bright and early to help transport supplies to the theater. Once we had our caravan of vehicles unloaded, I joined the registration team and helped them with setup.

Carey Payette and Jody A. Morgan took over leading the registration team. These two ran a great operation on getting people their bags, their tickets, their nametags, their shirts, and everything else needed for registration. I worked with Lilyn Chang and Brian Moore on getting tickets and bags to those waiting to register.

After people registered, they were sent down the hall, where they could get something to eat for breakfast. Brian Sherwin did an excellent job of setting up the breakfast, including the artistic arrangement of the fruit.

There were two tracks for this event:

There were many topics covered between the 2 tracks. Special thanks to the speakers who came out and shared their knowledge on the topics covered, in no particular order:

Tim Heuer - What's New in Silverlight 3 and .NET RIA Services

Steve Smith - ASP.NET 4.0

Rachel Appel - Choosing Between MVC and ASP.NET Web Forms

Matt Casto - Building Silverlight Controls

Phil Japikse - Overview of jQuery

Michael Eaton - What's New in WPF 4

Jeff Blankenburg - IE8, SuperPreview, and the Web Platform Installer

Tim Hibner - SketchFlow

Brian Prince - Cloud Computing with Azure

Thanks to our sponsors for helping make it happen:

And thanks to the attendees who came out for this amazing event. I saw many people from Cleveland, and I'm glad they came out. There were over 300 attendees at the event that came from all over - Washington, Missouri, Kentucky, and Michigan, to name a few places.

Thanks to the volunteers who helped the organizers with the event. And most of all, thanks to the organizers - Jeff Blankenburg, Matt Casto, Tim Hibner, and Carey Payette - for bringing this event to Columbus (and not Detroit for once!).

I took a lot more pictures than the ones included in this post. You can see my pictures in my Stir Trek set on Flickr.

Looking forward to next year's event - something along the lines of Iron Man 2... hmm....

Cleveland Architecture SIG Inaugural Meeting Recap

2009-05-01T22:17:00.006-04:00

Last night, I attended the inaugural meeting of the Cleveland Architecture SIG. The group itself is being organized by Jody A. Morgan and Andrew Craze.

We had people of various backgrounds in attendance - some with a formal architect title, and others who have had (or currently have) some architect-like roles. We started introducing ourselves around the circle, and then Jody and Andrew got the ball rolling as to what they want to achieve with the group.

They mentioned that they wanted to do a fishbowl format, so Phil Japikse (from the Cincinnati groups) taught us how to set up the fishbowl and how the format works. From there, we suggested topics for the fishbowl and then voted on them. Some of the topics that were mentioned included:

Patterns

Frameworks

Is Agile anti-architectural?

How do you define the role of an architect? How does your company see it?

What will the architect's role be like in 15 years?

The main question of the night was defining the role of the architect. There was plenty of talk of the ivory tower. But the guys in attendance appeared to not like that part of the position, and some even questioned how to handle it when the company perceives the role of an architect as an ivory tower position but the architect wants to interact with the minions.

First and foremost, I'm a developer. However, I do have enough leeway in my projects that I can sometimes make the call of using a technology or not using a technology. knowing what I do with our environment, our systems, and our end users. Personally, I would see a software architect as a person with a wide background - one that can understand the business goals and can see the technologies out there and see which technologies are appropriate for the project. Sometimes, the architect will want to use a technology that the devs won't agree with. That's when proofs of concepts need to be used, so that architects can get others to buy into their ideas.

As you can see in the proposed topics, those topics are pretty generic. These guys want to keep the group focused on architecture in general and do not want to shut out any particular platforms. So no matter what your platform is, if you're a software architect, you should be at these meetings.

Thanks to Microsoft for hosting the inaugural meeting. Next month's meeting is moving to LeanDog, on the former Hornblowers boat. The big topic that people really wanted to talk about was Frameworks. Watch their website for the next meeting announcement with the time and date. Hope to see you there!

Saying Goodbye to GeoCities

2009-04-26T23:16:00.004-04:00

A part of my history is closing up, and I have to admit that I'm a little sad. GeoCities is closing up shop later this year.

This was where I got my start of doing web development on my own. I had learned HTML in high school to help with the school's website (at the prodding of a dear friend, now my husband). But I didn't know if HTML would really captivate me. Could I have as much fun with HTML as I did with Visual Basic (version 3 at the time) and Access? Why would I want to build my own website? I didn't think I had a reason to continue with web development after the high school site.

Then I remembered that I really enjoyed the Inward Bound project at Habitat for Humanity. I had spent one week of 3 of my high school summers volunteering with that project. Hammers, power tools, building a foundation, raising and lowering trusses, demolishing a garage... just some of the many things I was exposed to while there. I wanted to share my experience with others, and what better way than a website!

So my very first website on my own was a GeoCities site with my Inward Bound experiences. Unfortunately, the site isn't there anymore, but I remember it and its horrible bright yellow background. I remember the images I used and how bad their quality was back then (but yet how unnoticeable it was to me then). I've come a long way since then, as I no longer have an awful bright yellow background and I no longer host through GeoCities.

I guess it was only a matter of a time before this legacy ended. So long, GeoCities, and thanks for all the fish!

Sadukie's Kalamazoo X Conference Recap

2009-04-26T22:57:00.006-04:00

This weekend, I drove just over 4 hours to Kalamazoo, MI for the Kalamazoo X Conference, an event that Mike Eaton dreamt up and led. Over the past few months, I had heard a lot of the joys and pains that went into planning this event, and I had looked forward to seeing it happen.
Mike had brought in a bunch of speakers from all over - as far south as Mike Wood in Kentucky, as far east as myself. Many of us had spoken at other events before, but this conference gave us a chance to do something we normally couldn't do - we were able to listen to each other speak, as this was a one-track conference.

Morning Talks

The first talk of the morning was Brian H. Prince's "Soft Skillz" talk, in short form. He had 20 minutes for a talk that could normally go on for days (or maybe just a few hours). He actually cut it short, but he mentioned a phrase that was mentioned throughout the day - "Perception is reality."

After Brian H. Prince, we had Chris Woodruff with "Using Measured Innovation", Dave Giard with "Effective Customer Communication", and James Bender with "Organizational Dynamics". Then, it was supposed to be my turn to speak.

I've been on a roll with my presentations since PyCon - running into technical difficulties with each one that I've given. This time, when I opened my slides on the presentation laptop, I found bad fonts and things not lining up as expected. So, Mike switched the order and we had Clovis Bordeaux speak on Branding.

Mike had mentioned to me ahead of time that Clovis was a great speaker - oh how true! He didn't have his slides, but he ended up talking through branding in the full time slot. From discussing what a brand is and how reputation and brand are different... that tissues and cotton swabs are objects and Kleenex and Q-Tips just happen to be brands of those objects... Clovis covered it all well! What I liked the most is that while he was asking questions of the audience, he'd pass out buttons with his company's name on it - way to promote your brand!

Sadukie's Social Networking Talk

By switching spots with Clovis, this gave me the last time slot before lunch. So right before lunch, I got to speak to a bunch of geeks (around 80 people!) on social networking. I had been wanting to speak on social networking for quite awhile, as I'm all over the social networks and love encouraging others to get involved. So thanks to Mike for inviting me to come out and letting me give this talk. Basically, as geeks, we're anti-social or asocial ... we like coding in dark rooms, sometimes just by the glow of the monitor. Anyhow, if you want to go anywhere in your career (note: career, not just a job), you need to be good at what you do, and you need others to be able to vouch for your abilities.

As was stated later in the day in Jeff Blankenburg's self-promotion talk, it's about who knows you. So I encourage people to use Plaxo or LinkedIn - get your resume up there and network with others. From job leads to finding experts on WPF who might be able to help you out, you never know who you'll network with. I also made mention of something called Contribupendence Day, a day for writing reviews of those you work with in the community to get the word out about what they do. (For more on Contribupendence Day, check out the original blog post here.)

On a more personal note, I recommend checking out Facebook, MySpace, Tumblr, Plurk, and most of all, Twitter. These are better for learning more about a person's personality, although "I need help with..." messages and engaging conversations about tech can happen as well. I mentioned that these sites also have mobile versions of their sites, so that you can access them from your phones. The last thing I showed with regards to Twitter was TweetDeck and the various columns that you can have (All Friends, Replies, Search columns, Twitscoop). There are other columns (like Direct Messages) - so check out TweetDeck for more information on the various columns out there.

Of course, to try to follow everyone on multiple sites gets crazy. So, rather than visiting multiple sites to follow everyone, I recommend FriendFeed, which aggregates feeds from many social networking sites. Then to get the word out to everyone, I recommend using ping.fm.

After showing the social networking aspects online, I included ways for geeks to be social and network with others offline - geek dinners (and lunches), user groups, and events. Finally, I gave my audience a challenge - they had to meet someone new that day.

I've been having trouble getting my slides up on SlideShare, so I've just uploaded a PDF version of them here.

Lunch

Panera provided lunch for us - sandwiches, chips, bread, and cookies. Some people ate inside the room, while others were eating in the hallway. I joined some of my friends who decided to take me up on my challenge, and we met a few new people. It was neat to meet students of all ages and backgrounds, and it was good to see that we had more groups than just developers.

Afternoon Talks

There were talks of Josh not being able to make it, but in the end, Josh Holmes made it out to give us the shortened version of his "Lost Art of Simplicity" talk. I had missed his keynote at Central Ohio Day of .NET since I was finishing up last minute scavenger hunt work, but I always get a lot of ideas and inspiration when I hear Josh talk. And there is so much to say about simplicity - with quite a few definitions! Josh really covered simplicity well.

The other talks that really jumped out at me were Jim Holmes' "3 Tips for Improving Your Dev Process" and Mike Wood's "Community - Get Involved!". Jim really hit the points home as to what we need to improve our processes in general. The best quote that I got from this talk was "It's estimation, not exactimation." As for Mike's talk on community... it just really drove home what community means to him and it reminds me of all the feelings I have for this community.

Conclusion

Some people would think I was crazy for driving so long to give such a short talk. However, to me, it wasn't about the talk. Even if Mike had told me that I wasn't speaking, I'd still be up there, because for me, it's more about being there for the community. I enjoy presenting at these events with my friends and meeting new people. And if there's any way that I can help the community, it's by getting out to these events.

This conference was quite unique - one-track, short talks, and very little code was shown (as Mike Wood and Leon Gersing both showed their code). It was nice to see talks on skills and things that we need to consider, from a business standpoint.

My pics from this event are available on Flickr.

I look forward to next year's event, and I hope to see many of you there! (And if any of my fellow Clevelanders want to car pool out there, please let me know!)

SUX SE: Unacceptable Behavior from Sponsors

2009-04-21T20:36:00.004-04:00

This is a special edition of the Sarah on User Experience (SUX) series, as I'm not talking about an application or object. This time, I'm calling out unacceptable behaviors by sponsors at community events.

There was some behavior exhibited by one of the sponsors during the giveaway at Central Ohio Day of .NET that appalled me, and it made me realize that there are other events that have had some unacceptable behaviors from their sponsors.

During the giveaway, one of the representatives of a sponsor booed quite loudly at the mention of a competitor. The community appreciates the work that these companies do and the tools that the companies provide, but to see such a bad attitude from a sponsor was horrible. Maybe he thought he was funny or something, but bad sportsmanship like that doesn't reflect well on the company. I hope these sponsors realize that we like tools, but we don't like "tool"s.

I've had recruiting companies who've been willing to sponsor Cleveland Day of .NET if we provided them our attendee list and the attendees' contact information. I could not do that, though. First of all, I'd need the attendees' permission to give out their email addresses. Second of all, if you're going to have a table at our event, you've got access to the attendees by being there in person. I have a hard time justifying the need for my attendees' contact information. I can suggest an opt-in list for them, but I cannot give my attendees' contact information away like that.

But the part that irritated me the most last year was having a company ask for the data, telling them "no", and then they didn't understand that "no" means "NO" means "NO!!!!" and tried deviously to see the registration list. My husband was working registration when one of them approached him for the list. He had already been warned about the numerous "no"s we've said and stood his ground too. That behavior is bad behavior and will not be tolerated. So let this be a lesson to recruiting firms in general - devious practices like that are looked down upon and will not be tolerated. There are plenty of honest recruiting agencies here, as I deal with recruiters from them quite often. So please, take your devious behaviors elsewhere.

Just because you're helping the community does not give you the right to demonstrate bad behaviors at an event - that just shows the community what kind of people are employed by the company name, and bad behaviors typically earn bad publicity and give the company a bad rep.

Have you experienced any bad behaviors from sponsors with your events? I'm curious to hear other stories - so leave me a story in the Comments or drop me an email! I want to see what other behaviors have come out that deserve to be lumped in the SUX column.

Sadukie's CODODN Recap

2009-04-21T20:01:00.004-04:00

This past Saturday, I attended Central Ohio Day of .NET. I spent a lot of the time running around, but despite missing a couple sessions, I really enjoyed the event.

A Friendly Game of Tag

Jeff Blankenburg had the fun idea of a Microsoft Tag scavenger hunt at Central Ohio Day of .NET, and he recruited me to help out with this event. Saturday morning, I had the stack of tags and surveyed the conference center for good spots to put the tags. Jeff and I had talked the night before about some potential spots, and that gave me ideas to run with. While he wrote up the hints, I was getting them in place. Special thanks to the guy who placed the tags in the Open Spaces room and on the open spaces board.

We had quite a few participants, and the scavenger hunt was done by about 11am, when Alex Moore came by and told Jeff the winning phrase - in a Ballmeresque way, he had to say "Developers! Developers! Developers!". There was great timing all around - Jeff and I were talking with some of the guys in the hall, including Andy Erickson, when we saw Alex and Steve Wallace heading towards the last stage. Andy put together last year's video recap and caught Alex's message - so let's hope he uses it in this year's recap!

We plan on doing a more challenging Tag scavenger hunt at another event later this summer, so keep an eye out for the Tags!

Intro to the New Data Types in SQL 2008

My SQL 2008 data types talk has made its second appearance at a Day of .NET. Some of the things that were covered included:

Using date and time as separate fields, with the music collection example.

Offsets are not time zones.

FILESTREAMs extend SQL 2008 into the NTFS file system, related relational data to files.

My slide deck is available here.

TDD in T-SQL

This was the only other presentation that I sat through in its entirety. I had been hearing about TDD for quite awhile and had seen it in Python, Ruby, and Java. So it was about time that I saw TDD with a language that I use in my day job.

Phil Japikse presented on why to use TDD in general and then showed us what it took to do TDD with T-SQL. He used the T-SQL Test Tool, available through CodePlex. This tool works on SQL 2005 and higher.

I look forward to downloading it and testing it here at home to get a feel for TDD in T-SQL.

Thanks to...

This event was made possible by a lot of people, so I wanted to take the time to thank them here.

Sponsors

Without the sponsors, this event could not have been free to the attendees. Sponsors are the ones who provide the swag and financial support to cover costs like the venue, badges, programs, and any other incidentals. This year's sponsors were Microsoft, MAX Technical Training, DevExpress, Redgate, CBTS, Triune Group and SDS.

Speakers

The speakers bring the content to the event, sharing their interest on topics that you may be able to apply in the workplace. We had speakers from as far as Michigan and Tennessee. Thanks to all the speakers who came out and shared their passion for technology with the community.

Attendees

Without the attendees, the event wouldn't have a reason to happen. But we know there are people out there who want to learn more on .NET and who want to add to their technical toolbox. People traveled from all over for the event - it was amazing to see almost 200 people together for this event. If you attended, I hope you at least learned something new and were able to take home some nuggets of knowledge that you could put to work.

Organizers and Volunteers

And last but not least, I'd like to thank the organizers - Mike Wood, Jim Holmes, Carey Payette, Justin Kohnen, Bob Sledge, Matt Rigling and Chris Barth - and their crew of volunteers. Putting a successful event together takes just the right team, and this group had a successful team that kept the event running smoothly. Thanks for putting so much time and effort into bringing this event to the community!

I really enjoyed this year's event, and I look forward to some of the other Days of .NET that are yet to come.

Stir Trek.... ReMixing in Columbus

2009-04-17T17:40:00.004-04:00

Stir Trek is only 3 weeks away -- are you registered yet?

They've had some exciting news, and I wanted to post that here, just to remind what you may be missing if you haven't signed up yet.

Event Name
They've changed the name! They now have a subtitle... so now it's "Stir Trek: A ReMix Event" and is listed on the offical Mix website - http://visitmix.com/worldwide/.

Referral Program
They also announced their referral program. When you register, tell them that sadukie sent ya! For each registration that lists your name as a referral, you will receive 2 extra prize drawing entries! So register now and get your friends and co-workers to join you!

Here are some of the prizes they are giving away:
Xboxes
Digital DVD Video Camera
Expression Studio 2 licenses
Free certification exam vouchers
over 200 books
Barnes & Noble gift certificates
More to come...

Geek Dinner
Stir Trek is hosting a Geek Dinner at the Polaris Fashion Place food court on Thursday, May 7th at 6:30 pm. Tim Heuer and other Stir Trek speakers will be there in their full geek glory! Come chat about technology over a Chik Fil A platter. Check out nerddinner.com for more details.

Event: Stir Trek

Date: Friday, May 08, 2009 from 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM (ET)

Location: Marcus Crosswoods Theater, 200 Hutchinson Ave., Columbus, OH

For more information click here: Stir Trek

Hope to see you there!

Why the 'IE Only' Crutch Needs to Go Away

2009-04-10T19:14:00.004-04:00

Many years ago, I remember seeing "Optimized for IE", "Best viewed in
Internet Explorer", and "IE Only" on websites. Nowadays, I'm not seeing
that as much, and I'm glad.

I never realized how much "IE Only" impacted me until I was helping a
friend with a project and found that the app worked fine in other browsers
for the most part, with probably just a little tinkering in the browsers
to get them to work. When I was told that the app was supposed to be "IE
Only", that caused me to get quite disgusted, and I hadn't actually
expected that kind of reaction out of myself.

Back in the day, certain things only worked in certain browsers.
Nowadays, though, browsers are getting a bit closer to implementing the
same "standards". With them getting this much closer, "IE Only" seems
more of a crutch to me, one that web developers should really get away
from.

What "IE Only" Means to Me

When I hear or see "IE Only", I see a few things:

I'm an old school dev that knows the IE hacks and refuses to learn the
new code that works on most browsers.

I'm in a hurry (or maybe just lazy), and my website generation tools
are optimized for IE.

I don't have time to test other browsers.

I don't care about the other browsers.

I don't know where I can learn more about technologies that would work in more than just IE.

"IE Only" seems to be more of an excuse to get out of writing the code the
right away.

But why the IE hate?

As a web developer, it isn't my job to force my end user to lock into a
browser. That means that just because {insert browser name here} is my
favorite browser, I can't develop strictly for it and tell everyone else
that they have to use it. It's my responsibility to work with technology
that will get the information out to as much of my audience as possible.

It isn't that I hate IE - I use Internet Explorer as my primary browser on
at least one of my machines. It's that I'm tired of seeing developers
taking the easy way out. Although it might take a little time to learn
the code that works cross-browser, that time spent means that you'll be
able to disseminate your information to a broader audience.

In my friend's case, the "IE Only" claim translated into not fully
understanding how browsers handle the technology. Unfortunately, I had
run into similar issues, but I had done the research to a point to know
how to massage the other browsers to get them to work.

But I want to use technology that will only work in {insert browser name here}.

Then that's your choice to use that technology. However, keep in mind
that a lot of technology nowadays is being developed to run on multiple
browsers and platforms. For example, Silverlight and Flash both have
plugins that work in an assortment of browsers and operating systems. By
choosing an obscure format that limits itself to one particular browser,
you're limiting your end users and narrowing your audience.

My Challenge to Other Web Developers

I'm going to issue a challenge to my fellow web developers. If you're
working on new apps that are "IE Only", ask yourself "Why?" Why is the
app designated as such? What browsers are its users most likely going to
use? If IE is not the sole answer, then maybe take a look at updating the
code to be a bit more inclusive of other browsers.

Get rid of the "IE Only" crutch and become a stronger web developer!

Upcoming Events I'm Looking Forward To (Part 2)

2009-04-05T13:29:00.002-04:00

'Tis the season of local and regional events for both the Cleveland tech community and the Microsoft Heartland region. I've already posted what I'm looking forward to in the next couple months, but wait... there's more! Some events have already announced their summer dates - so save the dates on your calendars and check these out!

CodeStock (June 26-27, 2009)

Michael Neel and his team down in Knoxville, TN are putting together CodeStock once again. This year, they're opening the event even more for the community - they're having their attendees vote on what talks they want to hear. They've received around 185 submissions and need the help in deciding who to bring in. They've also added more rooms for Open Spaces sessions.

For $25, you get conference content, the chance to networking with a great group of developers (and DBAs and sysadmins and whoever else shows up), lunch, and a T-shirt. Although that doesn't cover hotel or transportation, that's still a lot cheaper than a lot of conferences that have this material. If you register before May 15th, you too can vote on the sessions. But register today, because after June 1, that CodeStock clown will get ugly and up the price to $45. (And I heard rumors that if you sign up after June 27th that they're charging $250... but that might be another conference's deal.)

Unfortunately, I won't be able to make it down there, but I hope to catch up with the TN crew at devLink later this summer.

For more information about CodeStock, check out their site at http://www.codestock.org/

PyOhio (July 25-26, 2009)

After experiencing the gathering of the Python community at PyCon 09, I've agreed to help out with planning this year's PyOhio. Expect to hear about it more as we get closer to the date, as I'm in charge of publicity this year.

This year, they've changed their venue from Columbus Metropolitan Library to Ohio State University. There will be planned talks, lightning talks, poster sessions, and Open Spaces all related to the Python community - including all implementations of Python.

Stay tuned to the PyOhio website at http://www.pyohio.org/ or follow us on Twitter as @pyohio.

devLink (August 13-15, 2009)

This is one of the least expensive conferences with of its size in this area. For $75, you get 3 days of content - covering a wide span of topics related to or concerning developers. You get keynotes, planned talks, and Open Spaces. You get a chance to network with some of the region's most talented developers.

A friend had recommended that I attend devLink, and last year was my first year. I met an amazing amount of people - some from nearby and some from Arkansas, Alabama, and even further away. I enjoyed the planned talks, but my favorite parts hands down were the Open Spaces on Microsoft and Open Source (with Sara Ford's funny drawings on the notes) and on Creating Community (with so many active people in their local communities and regional communities).

I will be debuting my "Going Cross-Platform with C#" talk this year at devLink. I'm a C# developer by day, and I tinker with the .NET cross-platform awesomeness known as Mono after work. I tend to talk about Mono more in my IronPython talks, but this time around I'll be using my day language to show how to take advantage of Mono for cross-platform support. I also plan on showing MonoDevelop, which allows you to develop in C# from a non-Windows platform.

devLink is being held in Nashville, TN this year. For more details, check out their site at: http://www.devlink.net/

Conclusion

There are a lot of events going on, and it's hard to pick and choose among all of them. If you get a chance to learn more and network with a community, I'd highly recommend it. I will be attending a few of them, and I hope to see you out there!

Upcoming Events I'm Looking Forward To (Part 1)

2009-04-05T09:06:00.009-04:00

As some of you may have noticed, I've updated my blog badges for some of the upcoming events. However, there are also other events going on that I will not be attending due to other commitments, but I want to get the word out about them as well. So what's happening over the next few months? (Note: There are a lot of events going on, so I am splitting this into two posts.)

Central Ohio Day of .NET (April 18, 2009)

The Day of .NET season opens this year with Central Ohio Day of .NET, down in Wilmington, OH. For those of you not familiar with a Day of .NET, it's typically a day-long event covering various topics that would interest .NET developers and those getting started with .NET.

This year's topics include Lean with Kanban, CSS, XAML, SQL 2008, Powershell, object-oriented programming, patterns, Javascript, WPF, dependency injection, testing, Ruby and Rails for the .NET developer, Office development, and Sharepoint.

I will be giving my "Intro to the New Data Types in SQL 2008" talk.

For more information on Central Ohio Day of .NET, check out their site at: http://www.cinnug.org/cododn.

Kalamazoo X Conference (April 25, 2009)

As developers, we tend to go to conferences to learn about new technologies and languages - like Silverlight, MVC, WPF, and F#. But there's more to being a developer besides writing programs, and most developers tend to forget this.

My friends up in Kalamazoo have put together a conference called the Kalamazoo X Conference that address these other things tha we forget as a developer. There is a track for Soft Skills - including branding, measured innoveation, social networking, and the famous Soft Skills talk. Another track focuses on architecture/design/process - including unit testing, Kanban and Lean, patterns, and how to improve your development process. One of the things I get asked about by some of my colleagues is how to improve their UI and UX, and yes, these guys included a track for UX/design - which includes the process of designing, the art of simplicity, and tips for improving UX. Finally, there's the career development track - including change, organizational dynamics, effective customer communication, and leadership 101.

So take a break from the languages and techniques, and come out and see these other skills that we need to have and hone as developers.

I will be giving the talk on social networking and how to use the various sites effectively.

For more information on the Kalamazoo X Conference, check out their site at: http://www.kalamazoox.org/.

Stir Trek (May 8, 2009)

A few of my friends had the opportunity to attend MIX09, and now they're bringing the MIX content to our region. Some things that are getting covered include Silverlight 3, ASP.NET 4.0, Internet Explorer 8, Azure, SketchFlow, and WPF 4. Topics are being covered by both nationally-known and regionally-known speakers (including Tim Heuer, Matt Casto, Michael Eaton, Brian Prince, and Steve Smith).

For $25, you get MIX09 content, lunch, a raffle, and a private screening of the new Star Trek movie that opens on May 8. Need to convince your employer to give you the day off? It's a shorter period than MIX, cheaper than MIX, and you'll come back with a look at some of the new technologies that you can use to get ahead of the competition.

So what are you waiting for? Go sign up at: http://www.stirtrek.com/

Ignite Cleveland (May 16, 2009)

The challenge - 20 slides, automatically advancing at 15 seconds each, giving you a total of 5 minutes to get your point across. Are you up to the challenge?

I took the challenge at the inaugural event this past February, and I delivered my "Marketing Your Event Online" pitch. Other talks given included "How to Winterize Your Business", "5 Steps to a Personal Brand", and "Things We Should Do For Our Clients (Even Though We Aren't Getting Paid for Them)".

Once again, Andrew Kavanaugh and Jon Stahl are putting this event together, and it'll be held at LeanDog. After seeing the success of the inaugural event, I have high hopes for this next event. If I didn't have prior commitments, I would definitely be at Ignite Cleveland 2. So what are you waiting for? Got a talk idea? Or maybe not brave enough to talk but want to purchase a ticket and attend? Check out their site for more information at: http://ignitecle.com/.

These are just some of the events that I'm looking forward to in the next couple months. Stay tuned for the next post, where I cover a few more events that are happening this summer!

PyCon 2009: Meeting my Goals

2009-03-31T22:23:00.010-04:00

As I finally settle back into side projects after work, I realize that I need to recap my PyCon experience. Since I blogged about my goals, let's see how they went.

Goal #1: Present at PyCon. (accomplished)

My presentation was at 10am on Sunday morning, and it was an experience that I won't forget. It started out with video difficulties, and then we ran into audio issues as well. We heard the start of Mark Ramm's Paver talk in our room. Of course, I had to run with it - I couldn't let that throw me off. I did have a great audience, and that helped as well.

It was the largest group I've presented for, and it's been the largest room that I've presented in on my own - the only other experience that compares is my CodeFest panel at OOPSLA '99. Despite the nervousness, I moved right along.
I was able to show some basic examples of what you can do with IronPython, including a cross-platform form that uses the Environment.OSVersion property to show which operating system was running. This cross-platform was the only demo I ran in Windows. Everything else ran in openSUSE thanks to Mono.

After I finished presenting, I had to check the pycon Twitter feed to see what was said. Yes, I was using vim for my editor. This time around, I used an openSUSE VM in VirtualBox. I've given this presentation before in Ubuntu, but I wanted to use the IronPython 2 bits, which aren't in a package yet for Ubuntu. (This would involve compiling from source, and there's a problem with that - so no package yet.)

I still need to get my demos online, but my slides are available on my Slideshare.

Goal #2: Meet some of the IronPython people. (accomplished)

When I arrived at PyCon on Friday, I managed to make it in time for the Python VMs panel. When Harry walked in, Dino yelled to him, and that's when I made the note that these guys were here in person. After the panel, I talked with Harry a little, and then I ran into Michael Foord.

It was great to hear Jim Hugunin's talk on IronPython, immediately following the Python VMs panel.

On Saturday, I went and hung out at the IronPython open space with these guys and a few others. It was nice to hear the other guys asking about IronPython and talking about using it.

Finally, on Sunday, I saw these guys in my audience for my presentation, and I stayed for Dino's talk as well.

It has been great to meet these guys in person, and I hope to run into them again sometime.

Goal #3: Meet with the PyOhio team. (accomplished)

On Saturday night, I went to the PyOhio open space, and I was quite impressed with the turnout. We had Eric, the token Columbus python rep. The Cleveland group was there in rare form (or maybe just in their normal insanity), and Cincinnati was also well-represented. We also had at least a guy from Maryland, a guy from Texas, and a guy from Utah.

In the hour that we met, we were able to cover quite a few issues and get a few volunteers. I have volunteered to help them with publicity, and I will also be carrying the IronPython torch there as well. (If you're on Twitter, make sure to follow @pyohio.)

Goal #4: Check out the Stackless python presentation by CCP. (failed)

This was my only goal that I didn't make. I managed to make it to the room just as the presentation was starting, but the snow outside kept bugging me and so I gave up the fight. We had a 6.5 hour ride home, and I didn't want to take any chances with it.

Final Thoughts

This was my first python event, and it was great to see such an awesome community. People from all over the world came together to talk about, hack in, and show off Python and its various implementations. I look forward to PyCon 2010 in Atlanta!

Things I'm Looking to do at PyCon

2009-03-23T18:38:00.004-04:00

As I'm finishing up my slides and looking at my "Search:pyohio" column on TweetDeck, I'm reminded of the many things I hope to accomplish while at PyCon.

Goal #1: Present at PyCon.

On Sunday, I will be giving my talk on IronPython. My timeline is slightly skewed from what I had anticipated, but that's because I've got more slides and a better VM to work with. I had a couple questions come up that I've included this time around. So if you're at PyCon and want to hear what I have to say on IronPython, I'm speaking in Ballroom D at 10:00am (Chicago time, that's 11:00am EDT).

Goal #2: Meet some of the IronPython people.

While we're all spread throughout the world, there are other IronPython people out there that will be at PyCon. I've followed them on Twitter for awhile, and I'm hoping I get to finally meet them while at the event. If you see me there, feel free to yell "Hey, sadukie!" and I'll most likely respond.

Goal #3: Meet with the PyOhio team.

PyCon is the national event, but PyOhio is the statewide python mini-conference. It's held usually at the end of July down in Columbus. I want to meet them and help where I can, and it'll be good to carry the IronPython torch for them as well. It does seem a little odd, though, that we have to leave our state to meet, but hey, whatever works!

Goal #4: Check out the Stackless python presentation by CCP.

Of all the presentations out there, I really want to see this one, as I've been an EVE Online player for awhile now. I'm typically mining or building things, and I've also had the joys of rooting for my alliance (Manifest Destiny) in the alliance tournaments. But having experienced the update as user is one thing - I'm very curious to see what this will be like from a developer's standpoint.

I'm leaving later this week, and I look forward to arriving in time for the talks on Friday. Hope to see some of you there!

Upcoming Speaking Engagements

2009-03-18T06:57:00.001-04:00

Yesterday, I realized that my upcoming speaking schedule is going to be fun - 3 talks on 3 different topics in 3 different states in less than 1 month. So... where am I when and what am I talking about?

Talk 1: PyCon, Chicago, Illinois. Sunday, March 29, 2009. "Pumping Iron into Python: Intro to FePy"

I have to thank Catherine Devlin for suggesting that I submit something to PyCon. I will be giving a mostly abridged version of my talk from CodeMash. However, unlike my demos at Codemash, I plan on showing IronPython in both a Windows environment and in Mono. I can tell you it's a combination of my CodeMash slide deck and my original IronPython talk that I gave last May. I should have my slide deck on the PyCon website later this week for those who are interested.

Note: Although I say this in the abstract: "This session will introduce the open source .NET implementation of Python known as IronPython without using Windows.", I've been asked by some Windows Python programmers to show Windows examples as well. So I will have both on hand. However, I plan on showing most of the demos with the ipy console on my Ubuntu VM.

Talk 2: Central Ohio Day of .NET, Wilmington, Ohio. Saturday, April 18, 2009. "Intro to the New Data Types in SQL 2008"

What originally started out as a presentation for my local SQL SIG - the Ohio North SQL SIG - has evolved into a Day of .NET talk. It debuted in September 2008. At the suggestion of Chris "Woody" Woodruff, I added FILESTREAM to my presentation in time for Ann Arbor Day of .NET last October. At Central Ohio Day of .NET, I will be presenting this talk - complete with revamped examples of hierarchyid and FILESTREAM.

Talk 3: Kalamazoo X Conference, Kalamazoo, Michigan. Saturday, April 25, 2009. "Social Networking for ~~Developers~~ Geeks"

When I first heard about this conference late last year, I was intrigued. My buddy Mike blogged about the X Conference, and I'd recommend checking it out. I won't be showing any code, but I will be showing social networking profiles and some tips and tricks behind it. In an economy where companies are more prone to layoffs than to hiring new people, it helps to have a social network to find possible job leads and to possibly establish relationships and maybe form companies of your own. It also helps to network with others to bounce ideas and questions off of each other and even just to hang out. But we geeks aren't known to be social. So leave it to me to show a bunch of geeks how to get out there and how to get the best experience out of each tool.

I'm looking forward to giving these talks - they should be a lot of fun! I hope to see some of you there!

WiT Experience: Undesirable Situations in IT

2009-03-14T12:47:00.016-04:00

Alan Stevens recently wrote about sexual harassment in IT. Sadly enough, those things happen and not just in HR videos. I could easily see why more women avoid IT. These are just a few of my experiences in undesirable situations that weren't necessarily harassment but would steer women clear of IT.

Insecurity and Hostility Early On

Right out of high school, I had an awesome internship - awesome in technical experience. I learned a lot about databases - including SQL Server and Oracle. That was my first professional experience with VB, after having played with it and releasing a freeware app. So it was nice to confirm that I was meant to work with tech.

But it also taught me that some guys can't handle working with potentially successful women. The contractor I was working with, the DBA, and a programmer on another team were my angels in disguise. The guys in the cubes around me were great at exuding insecurity and intimidation - then again, this youngster could have been better than them at half their salary. But they weren't welcoming, and I didn't feel content there. There was one female programmer there near my cube, and the guys didn't seem to take well to her either. They wouldn't include her in their conversations, and they just didn't treat her as an equal. It was tough to work in an environment where there were a lot of guys who couldn't handle women in the industry, even when we thought we weren't a threat.

I relished my time in the lab with the contractor, chatting with the programmer from across the office, and meeting the Oracle DBA. Those guys taught me a lot that would come in handy later on. But I learned that even when I'm learning, if I don't feel comfortable in the environment, it's best to just get out.

The Internet is for Porn... Everywhere

In college, I had a job doing desktop and lab support. Doing IT work in public labs, I knew I had to keep an open mind and brace myself for situations that I wouldn't agree with it. I expected porn-ridden spyware in the labs, so I had some sort of idea as to what I was getting into.

However, my first experience wasn't in the labs. One of the clients had called, and I was still new to the job - only a few weeks in. So the full-time desktop non-lab guy had me follow him on the call. When we opened the door, we walked into porn. The client was mortified and in the process of trying to close the window managed to get more pornographic popups. Being the IT professional, I kept a straight face and waited for him to close his windows, but inside, I felt sorry for the guy and had to hold back laughter from how comical it was to see more popups come up as he was closing them. The full-time desktop non-lab guy didn't know what to expect, and apparently he was quite worried about me being exposed to this situation. We remedied the situation and headed back to our office. Once I realized I was out of ear shot of the client, I was able to laugh and let my co-worker know that I was fine.

That client learned not to look at porn at work, or so we thought. About a couple years later, in my last month with the guys (since I was graduating), we got a call. At that point, I was running lab and non-lab calls on my own, and I went to the lab to see what was up. Imagine the looks on our faces when the person who called in this case (the client from the last incident) saw that I was the one responding... and what popped up on the lab machine? Again he was mortified, and I just fixed the problem and walked back to my office. But when I told the guys, it was total disbelief - how could this happen again?

I personally was fine in both situations because I had prepared for the worst. I had read stories of the things people in IT have experienced, so I knew what I could run into. But at the same time, I knew that I could handle it - otherwise, I wouldn't have taken the job. Some women, however, would not have been able to handle that.

What Part of "No" Don't You Get?

This is the last of the undesirable situations that I've experienced that could steer women out of IT. I was on a well-balanced team of techs, training the rest of my team to be able to handle tougher calls rather than passing them all on to me. I had an awesome boss, who was able to teach me the company's ways and who let me interact with the other departments without any issues. From there, I had the other managers looking out for me and showing the cool things going on in their departments and little tips and tricks for me to pick up so that I wouldn't have to route calls to them as much. I loved learning a lot there, and I really enjoyed the people I worked with. Well... all but one.

Shortly after my first boss left, they hired this guy to replace her. I knew right off the bat that he'd end up having to rely on me to show him the basics of company politics. Being the one that he relied on for knowledge and know-how, I was not a target of his antics. He started hitting on the other ladies on my team, and they made it clear that they weren't interested. But he just didn't get it, no matter how much they told him "no". The tension he caused was unbearable - and not just for the ladies. Towards the end, even the guys knew that something was up, and they came to me to find out what was going on. I was the one who encouraged the ladies to continue to tell him no, document the incidents, and stay strong. The guys on the team knew that they had to document incidents that they'd witness. Somehow, I knew that documentation would be key. While being there for my teammates, I still couldn't let on to "the boss" what was going on behind the scenes. I could ask him to take a hint and tell him that maybe they're just not interested. And it wasn't that this guy just didn't read social cues - he knew how to read them, but he just didn't want to give up. Unfortunately, one of the ladies wanted so badly to leave, but she trusted me enough not to go and to fight it through.

Thankfully, the documentation and my strength carried the team through the situation. However, the situation wore on me emotionally and was tough to come down from. This situation showed me that I can lead from the trenches and be the strong one for my team. Thanks to the other managers and their teams for being supportive - that also helped carry me through. And to think, I wasn't even a direct target! But this is yet another undesirable situation that would drive women from our field.

Final Thoughts

These are just some of the incidents that I've been involved in that could easily steer women out of IT. However, keep in mind that I've been working in IT in one form or another since right out of high school, over 10 years. These undesirable incidents are few and far between - I've had a lot more positive experiences with guys taking me under their wing, showing me the ropes, and encouraging me in the field and in the community. Although these undesirable situations may have distracted me or gotten me down, I haven't let them push me out of a field that I love working in. My advice to women in tech after going through these - there's always a chance of running into a jerk or a hairy situation, but honestly, these are few and far between and should not deter you from working in this industry. Stay strong, and make sure to have allies to help you through if you do find yourself in a tough situation.

Browser Wars? Turf Wars? Why?

2009-03-04T20:45:00.000-05:00

While talking with one of my cubemates last week, he mentioned this article about Google aligning with the EU in the Microsoft antitrust case. The more I see the complaint that Microsoft is bundling Internet Explorer in Windows, the more I have to wonder why that's really an issue.

What's next? A lawsuit against Microsoft for including Paint in their operating system? Oh no... Adobe's Photoshop is going to be put out of business by the latest incarnation of Paint! What about including Wordpad? I'd hate to see Word Perfect or Lotus Ami Pro get obsoleted by such a simple text editor. Let's go after Microsoft for including their own software in their operating system.

Seriously, this seems ridiculous. Apple apparently includes their Safari web browser in their Mac OS, otherwise why would they list it under Mac OS X's features? Ubuntu comes with Mozilla by default. Then there's the K Desktop Environment (commonly known as KDE) with Konqueror. Do I need to continue?

Why is it such an issue when a software giant like Microsoft includes their browser in their own operating system, but it isn't a big deal with a giant like Apple includes their browser in their operating system? Am I seriously missing something here (strictly looking at the browser complaint - not the antitrust case in general)?