John Kellar's Blog

devLink 2009 – THE GREATEST DEVLINK EVER!!!!

john.kellar@edgeofdev.com (John Kellar) — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 16:11:00 +0000

Yes, I said it! Actually, I am just repeating what I keep hearing from people who took the time to attend. Personally, it was the best event for me and the devLink team has expressed the same. With the economic climate today we were not expecting such great attendance, but we saw approximately 675 attendees from across the United States and Canada, as well as the United Kingdom and Denmark. It never ceases to amaze me how many folks are willing to invest in themselves to improve their skills out of their own pocket.

This year we added an extra day, extending devLink from a Friday-Saturday event to a Thursday - Saturday event. We always try new things each year and this year we made the first day a series of In-depth (3 hour) sessions intended to get people up to speed on a given topic. Overall it was pretty successful, but I think we can improve on this a little next year. Chicken Nick’s catered our lunch and had some amazing chicken strips which everyone was raving about. We invited comedian Rik Roberts to perform during lunch on Thursday to give everyone a smile and get them ready for the afternoon sessions which he did wonderfully.

Microsoft's Josh Holmes wrapped up the event for Thursday with his thought provoking keynote "The Lost Art of Simplicity". Then it was off to the VIP dinner where we welcome our speakers and thank them for committing their time to the event, along with some lucky attendees who get to come.

The second day of devLink was back to the regular session schedule and we had plenty to keep people busy. We had a little hiccup for lunch when our other lunch vendor deliver only half of our order and people had to wait for the second delivery. It would have been a disaster at any other event, but our attendees were so gracious and understanding it was surreal. I put Keith Elder on the spot and told him it was his job to keep the people waiting on the food happy. For those who don't know Keith he is a very charismatic guy and he had people playing musical chairs, red rover and singing songs. Of course, giving him some prizes to give away probably didn't hurt either. I think we may need to book him as one of our entertainment options in the future. When the food finally arrived the manager gave a personal apology to all the attendees and we got everyone fed.

Once sessions wrapped up on Friday several attendees made their way to the Nashville Sounds baseball game for the devLink attendee party. We had the entire party deck full of folks enjoying burgers, hot dogs and BBQ along with the game. It was a great time and Nashville won the game. Early in the evening we crowded everyone on the lower deck for a group picture (shown below).

Saturday rounded out the conference with another full day of sessions. We wrapped up the conference this year with DotNetRocks hosting a speaker panel for the event. It was a great discussion on whether software development had become too complex. At one point the line at the microphones were five people deep. Richard and Carl helped us give away the conference prizes with the 64-bit question contest which everyone enjoyed thoroughly.

So that is a quick rundown of how devLink 2009 went. It would not be possible without a number of great volunteers like John Baker, Jason Clark, Bryan Meyer, Rachel Twyford, Amy Boegh, Colin Neller, Randy Walker, Keith Elder, Alan Stevens, Evan Hoff, Robbie Mansfield, Rebel Bailey and many more. Even more devLink would not happen without the support of Leanna Baker who works her butt off all year long and puts up with me.

While this may have been the best devLink ever, it was also one of the toughest to put on. With the economic climate today we saw a drop in sponsors ability to support the event. We don’t want to turn devLink into a $1500 conference, actually we never will, but it takes sponsors to make the event available for $100 per person. So I have to mention these companies because their contributions as sponsors were crucial to putting on our event this year.

Vaco Technology was a tremendous factor in us putting the event on this year

Microsoft is a long time supporter and continued to be a major help to us this year

DataDirect is another long time supporter of the event and keeps coming back time and time again

Infragistics joined us as a major sponsor for the first time this year sending Jason Beres down for not only a vendor session, but we were able to fit him in for a regular session as well. We hope to see them again next year.

As the big conferences see their numbers drop lower and lower, events like devLink are growing. So next year is tenatively scheduled for August 5, 6 and 7, 2010 and we are already planning for it. If you have something/someone that you would love to see at devLink, please feel free to contact me anytime.

devLink 2009 Conference Schedule is live

john.kellar@edgeofdev.com (John Kellar) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 02:45:00 +0000

With around six weeks remaining until the big event, the conference schedule for devLink 2009 is now available. It is hard to believe that we are so close to our fourth conference in Nashville. You can find the conference schedule on the devLink website (http://www.devlink.net). If you are planning to attend the conference I look forward to meeting you. Don’t forget to let your friends know about the event too, we want as many people as possible to benefit from what devLink has to offer.

CodeStock 2009 is history, but not done yet

john.kellar@edgeofdev.com (John Kellar) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 02:38:00 +0000

I spent this past weekend at the CodeStock 2009 conference in Knoxville, TN. This is the second year for CodeStock and Michael Neel put together another excellent event. I spent the majority of Friday in the Open Spaces discussing everything from blogs to refactoring code for legacy applications. Saturday it was my turn as I presented “Getting Started with WPF”. While WPF is not new anymore, I still find people who are just now looking at it for the first time. Attendance at the session was surprisingly larger than I expected for a Saturday morning, but I am not complaining. I am not a slide heavy speaker, so I will just make the sample project available.

So above I took a snapshot of the front and back of the guide (shown above) and got a real kick out of the 2010 concept. If you don’t understand, watch the movie 2010 and you will. It is great to see that there is motivation to do CodeStock again. I must admit, it can be addictive once you have had a couple of successful events. I also had the honor of participating in a panel about community events which was fun.

So I guess I need to get back to work on devLink since it is only about six weeks away. Wow! Time flies.

So you want to be a consultant? – Billable Hours

john.kellar@edgeofdev.com (John Kellar) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 04:13:00 +0000

Recently, I have been getting a number of questions about what it takes to be a consultant. This is obviously a huge topic to try and cover in a single post. The conversation usually turns to a question about how much the person should charge for bill rate. This is not easy to answer either, since several factors come into play. To get started at determining your bill rate you really need to think about how many hours you will be able to bill someone for your services. So how many billable hours are REALLY in a year? Let’s look at the numbers.

52 weeks in a year
x 5 work days each week
260 possible work days each year

Now that we have a starting point, let’s think about time off. Yes, you have to take time off whether you like it or not sometimes. There are essentially 10 major holidays to consider in the United States. While not all companies close on every holiday, you have to plan for them all since you never know what a company will recognize.

New Year’s Day
Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday
President’s Day
Memorial Day
Independence Day
Labor Day
Columbus Day
Veterans Day
Thanksgiving Day
Christmas Day

Next, consider how much vacation time you plan to take each year. This will be different for everyone, but I use 15 days vacation in my planning. That covers sick days and actual vacation time, remember you don’t get paid when you are on vacation as a consultant. Let’s apply our time off to the number of days available and see where we fall.

260 possible work days each year
- 10 holidays
- 15 days vacation
235 possible work days remaining each year

So you might think you can stop here and you could, but I don’t recommend it. Ask any recruiter how many billable hours are in a year and you will probably hear a number around 2000 hours. That number sure sounds great, but this is not a perfect world. You may or may not be on a contract for the duration of the year, consultants experience change and you must be ready. So below I have two scenarios, the first is a scenario where you will have no more than 5 days of not being on a contract and the second is a scenario where you will have 25 days of no work. This may or may not be representative of what you will experience, but better to prepare for the worst.

Good Scenario	Bad Scenario
235 possible work days - 5 no contract days 230 work days * 8 hours per day 1840 billable hours potential	235 possible work days - 25 no contract days 205 work days * 8 hours per day 1680 billable hours potential

So there you have it, plan for both scenarios and you should have a good idea of where to get started with bill rate.

All about Podcasting

john.kellar@edgeofdev.com (John Kellar) — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 04:09:00 +0000

Earlier this year I had the opportunity to sit down with Carl Franklin of DotNetRocks (DNR) fame. This was really impromptu, but I knew exactly what to talk about. Carl and Richard Campbell have been tremendously successful in the podcasting realm so it was time to get Carl’s thoughts on how to get started podcasting. So sit back, relax and pay attention as Carl shares his experience on podcasting.

Where has John been?

john.kellar@edgeofdev.com (John Kellar) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 05:10:00 +0000

I recently made the decision to return to the world of consulting so time has been spread thin. I have actually become an entrepreneur by merging my Anvil Systems (Sole Proprietorship) with Useful Devices, Inc. (www.usefuldevices.com). Useful Devices is an electronic product development company that has offered electronic design, manufacturing and management for commercial and industrial companies. So what does that have to do with software development and consulting? Great question, if you have an MP3 player you probably have software on your computer to interact with that device. This is no different for custom built devices, hence the need for quality software applications to support devices. I expect this will offer new and exciting development challenges. Not all custom software development will be for devices of course. I will additionally consult on development needs of customers as well.

What does all this mean?

Well, I will be getting back to my blog to deliver more frequent and hopefully useful content. I am really excited about Visual Studio 2010 and may even tackle some other topics as well. So essentially, I just wanted to make sure you knew that I am still alive and plan to bring my blog back to life.

Getting around to Practices of an Agile Developer

john.kellar@edgeofdev.com (John Kellar) — Sat, 02 May 2009 01:56:00 +0000

I have had the book Practices of an Agile Developer sitting on my bookshelf for quite some time. This past week I went to the Toronto Code Camp and decided to take the book for the plane trip. I know the book is not brand new ©2006, but I found it to be a good read and contain some worthwhile content so I figured I would mention it.

As with most practices books there are usually several “I already knew that” moments, but it is always good to get a different perspective. Sometimes you get to see a new way of thinking or reinforce your own understanding of a principle. The book is written in a conversational tone, which makes for an easy read.

The book is broken into a series of short sections or lessons within each chapter, so you don’t have to read it cover to cover. It covers a wide array of topics and mentions some excellent resources and tools. At less than 200 pages it should not sit on your bookshelf as long as it did mine. Anyone who is looking for some exposure to Agile practices or just good overall practices would benefit from the book.

Planning a Technical Event – To Pay or Not to Pay

john.kellar@edgeofdev.com (John Kellar) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 15:07:00 +0000

The question of whether to charge people to attend an event is something I get all the time. It is tough question because I have run both free and pay events and they both have their risks and rewards. Every situation is different, so you should consider your situation carefully and make an informed decision. I have a couple points which I share when asked the question.

This is about the community, we don’t want to make people pay to attend.

You are absolutely right, it is about the community. A sponsor(s) may be willing to cover all the costs. A company may offer their facilities. Attendees can brown bag their lunches. If you can bring together an event at no cost to you then you can definitely deliver it for free to attendees. There are a number of free events that operate successfully this way. The best thing about a free event is if people are not happy, they can get a full refund. Expectations may be high, but the “free” says it all, it only cost them time.

If we can put on an event for free, why would we consider charging at all?

Good question, so events that are free suffer from two core issues. They don’t necessarily dictate success or failure, but they can affect the reach and operation of your event.

Perceived Value
Look at the sample advertisements below.When you call about the free puppies what do you think your expectations will be versus calling about the $250 puppies? You will probably expect the puppies that cost $250 to be pure bred and registered with the local/national kennel club. Your expectation of the free puppies will be far less and you might even harbor some reservations about whether you would want one.

Apply the same logic to your event and you can see that there is a chance of limiting your audience. This is not a global truth, but it should be considered. When you add a price tag to the event, people will evaluate it differently. I am not saying charge $1500 a person, that type of event is about making money not the community (for the most part). Think of a nominal charge that you think people would be willing to pay. I try price events based on the cost of a good technical book. Most good books range from $30 - $70 so if you can give someone the value of a book at your event, that should be your price point or a little less. By charging a nominal fee, you could increase the number of people you reach. If your event isn’t costing you anything, use the money to print up t-shirts, buy everyone lunch or give the money back when they show up.

No Investment means No Commitment
The biggest impact to free events is the dreaded drop off rate. My experience is that most free events see between 35% and 70% of registered attendees not show up to the event. Consider the following scenario.

You organize an event and get sponsors to pay for t-shirts and lunch. You have 600 people register to attend. You order enough food and shirts for everyone plus some extra, just in case. The day of the event arrives, but you only have 400 people show up.

In reality, a free event with 400 out of 600 people is great. So you now have over 200 meals that will not be eaten and 200 shirts that will not be worn. You could have used the money that was wasted and bought prizes or something else for those who did attend. What do you do? Donate the food to a shelter is one idea.

The easiest way to motivate people to attend an event is to make them demonstrate their interest in attending. By requiring someone to pay a nominal fee, you will give them a reason to show up. Think about it, if you skip an appointment to the doctor, they most likely charge you for not showing up. Do you skip regularly? If they didn’t charge you, there would be not reason for you to care if you skip or not. The same applies to an event.

The drop off rate I have experienced since adding a cost to attend has been at the highest 4%. No joke, we see 96% of those who register for the event actually attend the event. They have a vested interest in attending so they are more committed to show up.

Risks and Rewards
Remember, I am not saying that free events are bad, just demonstrating some things to think about. If you don’t see them as a concern, please keep your event free. When you add money to the equation there are definite differences. You have to be concerned with how to collect payment, managing the money and more. There are definitely rewards to adding a price tag, people are more committed to attend and will perceive your event as more valuable. There are risks associated with it as well, since people have put money in their expectations rise and will react differently if they don’t leave satisfied. You will need to focus on the details so your event delivers or exceeds attendee expectations.

I am always interested in hearing others opinions on this topic.

CodeStock 2009, a must attend event

john.kellar@edgeofdev.com (John Kellar) — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 15:00:00 +0000

Once again Michael Neel and the crew in Knoxville, TN are pushing the envelope for community conferences with CodeStock 2009. The CodeStock crew will be presenting the 2nd annual CodeStock conference on June 26-27, 2009. Not only is the event put on by developers who are passionate about technology, but you have a chance to decide on what the sessions will be. If you register for CodeStock before May 15, you can cast a vote for your top 5 most desired sessions. The voting will help decide what sessions are selected. I was at CodeStock last year and it was a very well attended and well run event, especially for it’s first year. I know that this year will be just a good and look forward to heading back.

The amount of activities that will be going on is quite impressive. Jeffrey Richter and John Robbins will be delivering virtual sessions which I assure you will be excellent. I have been trying to get just one of those guys to devLink since 2006, so great job to the CodeStock folks for landing them. There will be a contest called Unbeatable Geek, which should be very interesting to see. Nick Bradbury, creator of HomeSite, TopStyle and FeedDemon will be participating in a panel on creating business from software. Even I have been invited to participate in a panel discussion about running community conferences and user groups, which should be a fun time. The good ole boys from Deep Fried Bytes, Keith Elder and Chris “Woody” Woodruff will be on hand to record a live podcast episode as well.

This is one of the best run and enjoyable events that I have every attended so I hope you will consider spending a weekend in Knoxville at CodeStock this June. Oh, I forgot to mention that the price for tickets is only $25 before June 1st and $45 after that date, so it is recession friendly. With an offering of around 50 sessions and the rest, it is a bargain.

Alternative to Cisco VPN Client for Windows 7 64-bit

john.kellar@edgeofdev.com (John Kellar) — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 11:00:00 +0000

A few months back I posted a blog entry about a VPN client for Vista 64-bit. My problem was that Cisco did not offer a VPN client and I needed one. I came across the NCP Secure Entry Client which I have been using since that time with great success. Actually that is one of the most visited blog posts. I must say that the company does an amazing job at supporting the tool, although I had minimal issues with it in the beginning anyway. I have to point out one instance where Someone posted a question on my blog regarding the tool, and it was not something that I could answer. So I contacted support and mentioned the question and they took time to answer the question on my blog. Now that is support!

Recently I decided to give the Windows 7 Beta a try and I have been pleased to say the least. As I was walking through my list of applications to install, I came across the NCP Client. Not thinking clearly, it was like 3 a.m., I attempted to install the Vista 64-bit version. Windows 7 made me try a few times, but it finally was installed, but I was unable to import my connection settings (.pcf file). I decided I would hold off on any panic until I visited the website to see if maybe there was a more recent version or a forum post answered my dilemma. To my surprise the NCP Secure Entry Client has a Windows 7 beta version as well. Now how many companies out there are offering a beta product for a beta operating system? That was a rhetorical question.

I held off on posting anything this time around until I had plenty of time to see if I encountered issues. Having gone through pain trying to get the Vista version installed I was concerned about the installation process. Well, it worked the first try without any hand holding which was nice. Then I figured I might encounter the problem importing my .pcf file again. Nope! It worked without a hitch. So I have been using the new version for around 3 weeks now and it has performed perfectly. So if you are looking for a VPN Client for Windows 7 64-bit, the NCP Secure Entry Client is again a very good option.

devLink 2009 – Registration Open

john.kellar@edgeofdev.com (John Kellar) — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 15:54:00 +0000

Yesterday, we opened registration for devLink 2009 which is scheduled to take place August 13 – 15, 2009. You can see the sessions that are available on the website (www.devlink.net). This year features more content and we even added an extra day. Content is the key and it is targeted to software developers, architects, project managers, database administrators and more. The best part of devLink is that while it is organized and structured like a major conference it costs much much less. At $100 a ticket (or $75 if you register before April 15) it costs less than two good technical books. Most companies are used to paying over $1000 for similar events. Don't be fooled, just because devLink doesn't cost a small fortune doesn't mean it is cheap. If you want to learn more check out the website at http://www.devlink.net. The devLink 2009 event will take place in Nashville, TN on August 13-15, 2009. Space is limited and the event had sold out every year since 2006.

devLink Technical Conference - Speaker Selection has begun

john.kellar@edgeofdev.com (John Kellar) — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 04:31:00 +0000

Earlier this year, we opened the devLink 2009 call for speakers and the response was tremendous. The deadline for submissions was this weekend and the final (revised) count is 71 speakers and 360 potential sessions. When I think about over 70 people willing to travel to Nashville and share their knowledge with other professionals all I can say is WOW! Unfortunately, our space is limited and we will have some tough decisions to make. With registration scheduled to open April 1, 2009 the selection process will be complete soon. Keep watching the devLink website next week as we work to announce the sessions for this year's event.

Come to the Atlanta Code Camp

john.kellar@edgeofdev.com (John Kellar) — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 15:14:00 +0000

The 5th annual Atlanta Code Camp will take place this Saturday, March 14 at the Georgia Gwinnett College. The event is free to attend and they still have space. If you are in the area and are interested in attending you are asked to register http://www.clicktoattend.com/invitation.aspx?code=136331. Don't miss out!

Edge Of Dev - CodeMash

john.kellar@edgeofdev.com (John Kellar) — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 22:59:00 +0000

Well, it took some time, but here is a quick episode of Edge Of Dev about the CodeMash conference that I attended early in January. I had a great time at the event which took place in Sandusky, Ohio at the Kalahari resort. Yes, that was Kalahari, not calamari. I think the organizers did a great job and it was a very memorable event. If you haven't been to a conference lately and you are free next January, I recommend you check it out. You can also find this and other episodes at http://www.edgeofdev.com.

Update Virtual PC before installing Windows 7

john.kellar@edgeofdev.com (John Kellar) — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 15:22:00 +0000

I installed Windows 7 as a Virtual PC last night and all went well, except that my mouse responded slowly. So with the operating system in place I attempted to install the Virtual Machine additions. I actually had to run the setup myself because the menu option did not start the process as it had in the past. After the install, I did the obligatory reboot and was shocked to see the blue screen of death. Yep, I said it, and you can see it below.

I immediately had a clue of the cause because I remember hearing that there was a Service Pack released for Virtual PC 2007. It would make sense that Windows 7 would probably need something that was part of that Service Pack. Anyway, I was easily able to repair the system and Windows 7 was working again.

After downloading and installing the Service Pack, which is available here, I attempted to install the Virtual Additions and it worked directly from the menu, which was good sign. After the reboot of Windows 7, I was greeted with the login screen. So lesson learned, you want to confirm you have the latest version of Virtual PC before doing any installs of Windows 7.

devLink 2009 Call for Speakers announced

john.kellar@edgeofdev.com (John Kellar) — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 05:44:00 +0000

Tonight I spent several hours working on the devLink website, ugh. If you have any thoughts, please pass them on. I just posted the devLink 2009 Call for Speakers for those who are interested in presenting at the event.

Currently the plan is to have seven (7) tracks and those are fluid based on the session abstracts we receive. We have to find qualified speakers for each track and fill that track. The core tracks will consist of the following:

Client App Dev
Web App Dev
Architecture and Practices
Database
Project Management
Application Lifecycle Management
Open (just that, open game so any type of session will be considered)
Open (In-Depth), these are 3 hours sessions so you can get more detailed than you have before.

If you have an idea you would like to share, please make it known to me. I personally would love to see some systems based sessions, but we will have to see what comes.

The date for submitting your session abstracts is March 13, 2009 and that is a firm date. Every speaker will have to present a minimum of two (2) sessions so I recommend you put in at least 4 ideas, but the more you send in the better off you will be. One more thing that I didn't put in the submission form. I would recommend you put your preferred sessions at the top of the list. It won't get you any special points, but you could get selected quicker with your best ideas being first.

If you have any questions about whether a session would be of interest, please let me know.

Heading to CodeMash

john.kellar@edgeofdev.com (John Kellar) — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 19:19:00 +0000

I am off to attend CodeMash in Sandusky, OH. CodeMash is very similar to devLink in that they put on an event with top notch speakers for a lower price than the big conferences. I cannot comment too much on the event since this will be my first time attending. I do know some of the people that put the event on and I am sure it will be a great time. It is always a good idea to collaborate with other event coordinators to share ideas for what works and what doesn't. As a matter of fact, one of the key players Jim Holmes attended devLink 2008.

If you don't already have a ticket to CodeMash it is a little late. They are sold out for a capacity of 500 which is great. You can still signup for updates so you can stay informed for next year at their website though.

Edge Of Dev - Episode 1: Microsoft Surface with Tim Huckaby

john.kellar@edgeofdev.com (John Kellar) — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 19:56:00 +0000

Back in October, I had an opportunity to talk Microsoft Surface with Interknowlogy CEO Tim Huckaby. Tim and I were both at the DevReach conference in Sofia, Bulgaria and he had just completed a video which showcased some of the applications his team had been building. We took a few moments to sit down and I recorded the conversation for my new video series Edge Of Dev.

I hope you will be pleasantly surprised when you see some of the applications that Interknowlogy has put together. Personally, as cool as the video is, you really have to get hands-on with the Surface to appreciate what it has to offer. In November, while in Los Angeles for PDC, I had a chance to see these applications first hand with a couple of the developers from Interknowlogy. A very sharp group of guys who enjoy their work, I might add. It is a very different experience when you are working with the Surface. I will say that several of us made a conscious effort to confuse the Surface and make it hang up, but the system handled it well. I know, a bunch of developers trying to break someone else's code is hard to believe, but trust me it happened.

The Surface certainly has great potential to change how we think of building applications from the multi-touch perspective. You are probably thinking that you will never have to worry about building multi-touch into your applications though, right? Well, you might be surprised. Microsoft was talking up multi-touch at PDC when discussing Windows 7. The keynotes included several demonstrations of this functionality on the HP TouchSmart system which was recently featured on DotNetRocks.

Think about this for a second. If Microsoft starts to build their own applications to support multi-touch, it won't be long before your users start complaining that your applications don't have that capability. So many applications follow Microsoft's lead when it comes to incorporating features into their applications. Just think about how many applications now have a ribbon bar instead of the old menu | toolbar interface. I don't think the Surface will be replacing your desktop, but Surface brings things to the table, pardon the pun, that will undoubtedly impact it.

Oh, it was 3 a.m. after a long day when I recorded that intro. Upon first viewing Todd Anglin said "you are -way- more serious/furious looking in your video intros than you ever seem in person. It's hilarious!". Lesson learned if you don't want to look like a scary person, do your video in the daytime after a good nights rest.

Announcing the Edge Of Dev

john.kellar@edgeofdev.com (John Kellar) — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 16:35:00 +0000

For quite a while now, I have listened to podcasts like DotNetRocks, Thirsty Developer and DeepFriedBytes to stay in tune with what's going on in the industry. Outside of blogs, conferences and user groups this is one of the best ways to stay informed. One thing I always felt was missing from these podcasts was the human element. You see, I personally prefer face to face communication over telephone, e-mail, instant message or even Twitter. I suspect there are still a dwindling few people left that have that same perspective. Even more, I am a visual learner, so an audio podcast can sometimes limit what I get from it. Screencasts like dnrTV are great, since they provide the content and the visual component, but I still crave that key human element.

In that spirit, I would like to introduce a new endeavor called "Edge Of Dev". The Edge Of Dev will essentially be me sharing video content that I capture from around the development community. This may be interviews, presentations, open spaces or other content of interest. My hope is that the Edge Of Dev will provide an additional resource for relevant technical information so folks can stay informed.

Now before I get inundated with comments, I would like to start off by stating that I know I don't have a face for video. My response to that is if Carrot Top can do it, so can I. Additionally, I am an amateur at this so I am not claiming to be Channel 9 or DotNetRocks, these are great resources with polish and I will probably reference them often. I am simply taking a different approach to contribute to the community. So I understand other's may be presenting information in a similar fashion. GREAT! We are all in different places at different times with different people. I believe we can all find something to contribute. Finally, this would not even be possible without the support of Telerik who has provided all the equipment, software and support.

I will look forward to your feedback from the first episode which I will be posting next week.

devLink 2009 is coming

john.kellar@edgeofdev.com (John Kellar) — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 04:43:00 +0000

I have been waiting to announce some news about devLink 2009 for quite a while. After considerable effort and a few skipped heartbeats, I can finally declare that the devLink Technical Conference will take place August 13 - 15, 2009.

Did you say three days?

Yes, devLink 2009 will be a three day event. We wanted to add an extra day last year, but scheduling kept us from doing so. Since this is our first time attempt at a three day event, we are going to limit activities to pre-conference sessions and early check-in. Friday and Saturday will continue to be the full range of activities that you have seen in the past.

Where on earth will devLink 2009 take place?

I am happy to say that Lipscomb University has graciously offered to host our event again. We had several requests last year asking us to move back to Nashville proper and we heard you loud and clear. Lipscomb offers superb facilities and a prime location for people who live in Nashville and those coming from across the country.

How many seats are going to be available, devLink keeps selling out?

Well devLink 2008 was supposed to be limited to 400 people, we actually had closer to 450. Lipscomb has completed some ongoing renovations which are going to allow devLink 2009 to have room for approximately 800 folks. That should give you plenty of opportunity to get into the event. I don't recommend you procrastinate thought, because the early birds get the best price and we could sell out again this year. Remember we sold out weeks before the event last year. By the way, the fact that we sell out the event is not a bad thing.

What is it going to cost me?

I mentioned last year that we were going to have to raise the price for tickets, but that it would remain affordable. As I have said in the past, if we have to charge over $100 to do devLink, we just won't do devLink. So devLink 2009 will cost $75 for the early birds (and I mean early) and $100 for those who take their time. We are still cheaper than PDC, Tech Ed, VSLive, DevConnections and most events that come to mind. If you want to pay more I am sure we can find a way to adjust your ticket cost, just let me know.

Who will be speaking?

We will begin asking for speaker submissions in January. If you have someone you would like us to try to get as a speaker, post a comment. If you are interested in speaking, start getting your bio and abstracts together now.

Where can I stay up to date on devLink 2009?

To stay up to date on the latest information you can do any of the following.

Follow devLink on Twitter
Join the devLink group on LinkedIn
Join the devLink group on Facebook
Sign up on the devLink website

What should I do next?

First, I hope you will mark your calendar for the August dates. Don't forget to get connected so you don't miss important announcements. Finally, I ask that you tell all your colleagues, user group members and anyone that may be interested about the event. We want to reach as many people as possible.

Sharing images and files in a forum

john.kellar@edgeofdev.com (John Kellar) — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 14:40:00 +0000

If you have ever posted in a forum, you have probably noticed that most sites don't allow you to upload images or files. This can be a problem since you may need to provide something additional to explain your question or answer. There are several sites that host images like ImageShack, FreeImageHosting or TinyPic. Each of these services incorporate advertising with your graphic, which I like to avoid when possible. Actually, TinyPic goes one step further and includes an ""Images You'll Also Enjoy" section, which seems a little risky to me. So I thought I would share an alternative to these options.

ImageHost.org provides the ability to upload a file 100MB or less for free. Don't let the name fool you, they allow any file type to be uploaded. So if you need to add a sample Visual Studio project, just zip it up and upload it to the site. Files are not deleted unless they have not been accessed for a period of time. I have outlined the current timelines below.

Files under 1 MB will be deleted after 180 days of inactivity
Files between 1 MB and 20 MB will be deleted after 90 days of inactivity
Files above 20 MB will be deleted after 30 days of inactivity

You can upload a single file, or up to eight (8) files at a time. When uploading an image you will see the following page after the file is on the server. This page provides all the code necessary to use your graphic in forums, blogs, etc...

If you upload a non-image file (i.e. zip) the screen below will appear.

ImageHost does allow you to hotlink, but there are limitations. You can hotlink to a JPG, GIF, PNG file as long as it is less than 1 MB. You cannot hotlink a BMP so convert those to JPG or PNG. They also allow you to hotlink to Flash files (SWF or FLV). For SWF it must be less than 1 MB while a FLV file can be up to 10 MB.

So hopefully the next time you need to provide more information in a forum post, give this site a try.

Improve your RSS feeds with Yahoo Pipes

john.kellar@edgeofdev.com (John Kellar) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 07:47:00 +0000

Last week, I was having lunch with some community members and a discussion about blogging and RSS readers got started. During the discussion someone mentioned that a family member had a blog, but only posted content they were interested in every once in a while. The complaint was that when adding the blog to their RSS reader they had to review the content each time to see if it was relevant. Not long ago, I was introduced to a tool called Yahoo Pipes. Pipes is an free on-line tool that allows you the ability to aggregate, manipulate and mashup content from around the web.

Example, here you will see I am in Yahoo Pipes and fetching two feeds, Scott Guthrie's blog and Scott Hanselman's Hanselminutes feed. Notice the bottom of the screen shows a snapshot of the results that I can expect from the two feeds.

Now I can add the Filter operator to the design surface and restrict the feeds to only those entries with Silverlight in the title. The blue line indicates that the feed source is sending (piping) the data from the feeds to the filter operator. This is done via a click and drag of the mouse so is very intuitive. At the bottom of the screen you will see that our snapshot of results are now limited to Silverlight entries only.

I connect the Filter operator to the Pipe Output and I can now save my pipe. Once saved, the Run Pipe option will be displayed at the top of the screen as shown below.

After the pipe has run, you will have several options available to you, but most importantly you can create an entirely new RSS feed from the pipe which contains both the original feeds filtered to Silverlight entries only.

So whether you are looking to organize your RSS feeds by topic or trying to minimize reading a family members blog, Yahoo Pipes is a great tool. Remember, I have only shown one small piece of functionality, but you can create much more complex pipes with just a little effort.

Windows Live joining the social networking crowd

john.kellar@edgeofdev.com (John Kellar) — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 15:44:00 +0000

This morning I received an invitation from a couple of people I know to join another social network. I am already a member of LinkedIn (my favorite), Facebook, Plaxo and who knows what other sites. So here was another social network that I would have to join and manage, oh joy. Well I was very surprised to see it was Windows Live that was providing this service. Microsoft has over 460 million Live ids currently which is probably larger than most of the social networking sites combined, although I have no figures to back that up. I must say that it seems a little late to be adding this functionality to Windows Live, but it makes perfect sense. I suspect that people who would never care about a social networking site, will create a network now that it is part of something they already use.

Of course, as is the case with most social networking sites, I nurture one and let the rest get old. So my LinkedIn profile is kept up to date and I just accept connections on the rest. Microsoft is already planning to add support to integrate your Windows Live network with other social networking sites. All I have heard of so far is the ability to update your status message on these sites, which is of minimal interest to me. What I want is to be on my social networking site and connect with people on other social networking sites without having to manage everything separately. I can dream. Well, at the very least check out what they are doing on Windows Live, it sounds like things are going to be rolling out little by little over the coming weeks.

My new iPhone 3G

john.kellar@edgeofdev.com (John Kellar) — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 17:51:00 +0000

So after several months of mental anguish I have finally put my BlackBerry to rest. I took the leap and purchased the latest iPhone 3G last week. I know this phone is old news for several people, but for me it is new and since this is my blog I am writing about it. Many people have been surprised I was not an immediate fan of the iPhone, but I usually avoid hype when I can. So why the iPhone and not another BlackBerry, why not a Windows Mobile device. I am a developer after all, and I can write .NET applications for Windows Mobile.

Why not BlackBerry?

Honestly it was hard to decided against sticking with BlackBerry, I feel they still have a great product. It boiled down to a few things for me.

To get my enterprise e-mail pushed to me my company has to be running BlackBerry Enterprise Server. I cannot dictate to my employer to run software just for little ole me. This is one of my primary factors for getting a new phone.
BlackBerry has abandoned the thumb wheel that I love and I don't like the stick navigation concept. I played with the BlackBerry Bold and the stick didn't impress me, I am hard on phones and knew I would break it. Don't believe me? I am clumsy and break stuff all the time, heck I dropped my iPhone in the store after I bought it.
The BlackBerry Storm was promising, but on the Verizon network only and I don't want to change networks, I like AT&T. I didn't even look at the Storm, but would have if it had been for AT&T.

Why not Windows Mobile

This was my initial focus because I have had a Pocket PC in the past and was very happy. Windows Mobile is all over the place so stability and usability were not major concerns either. Beyond my desire for a productivity based phone, I wanted something I could use for entertainment when traveling as well. I looked at phone after phone and few have a large screen, plus most are the stick navigation concept. Until the HTC Fuze, which offered several impressive features, even touch screen. All the reviews raved about the phone and I decided that was the phone to get. I went into the store with every intention to purchase the Fuze, but walked out with the iPhone instead. You see, I was able to use the phone in the store and was just not impressed. I am sure it is a great phone, but I found it kind of clunky from a usability and performance perspective.

What I like about the iPhone

My biggest fear for the iPhone was the keyboard, or lack thereof. I talked with several people who have them and they all said it is not hard to get used to typing on the iPhone. I have found this to be very true, I have had it less than 10 days and I am pretty good with the keyboard. I really wanted a QWERTY keyboard, but it works great. I actually bought a $.99 application called TouchType to get a horizontal keyboard which is even better.
I can still get to my Live Mesh folders by visiting http://m.mesh.com on my iPhone.
My data plan was only $.01 more a month from my BlackBerry data plan
The App Store has a ton of applications
There are a large number of accessories for the iPhone

I could go on, but I won't.

What I dislike about the iPhone

I miss the ability to have my tasks sync with Outlook, I think this is a major oversight or poor decision on Apple's part. I cannot complain too much, because Google doesn't have a task management solution either. I am just going to use my calendar.
I don't understand why I cannot sync my calendar with Google out of the box. I have seen a few convoluted ways to accomplish it, but I want Google Sync that was available on my BlackBerry. I know I can visit my Google Calendar in the browser, but I want reminders on my phone.

Legacy migration to .NET still happening

john.kellar@edgeofdev.com (John Kellar) — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 21:05:00 +0000

Over the past couple of months I have had the opportunity to meet with many people at the DevReach, PDC and DevConnections conferences. It has been a whirlwind of activity, but in a good way. Through my discussions I was not surprised to hear that several organizations still have production applications that are not leveraging .NET or are still .NET 1.1. Most recently, I spoke with a couple of developers who have a six (6) year old rich client application written in Visual Basic 6.

Legacy applications like this are a tough call for most businesses because many are integral to their daily operations. The conversation was refreshing because it has been a while since I have thought about all the difficulties associated with legacy applications. My introduction to .NET was migrating a 12 year old solution while the existing application had to be maintained with a small group of Visual Basic developers. Here are a few things to consider that might help anyone in a similar situation.

Which language to choose, Visual Basic .NET or C#?

Honestly, I don't get into the arguments on which language is better. I personally prefer the C# syntax, but have no problem with Visual Basic. If you have a team that only knows Visual Basic, it does not make sense to make your project more complex by having them learn a new language in the process. If you are going to use Visual Basic, I do have two recommendations.

Set OptionStrict = On, why is this still not a default in Visual Studio 2008?
Remove the Imported namespace "Microsoft.VisualBasic"

Do we maintain the current application in parallel?

You might not have a choice, but more than likely you will have to keep working on the current application if there are business needs. You really should setup some timelines and freezes to minimize the impact on the new solution.

Design phase - Legacy application maintenance will probably remain business as usual.
Early development phase - At the very least have a limited freeze, only vital changes will be made to legacy application. Document everything so it gets into the new version.
Mid-development phase - Beg on your knees, for a complete freeze. Hey that rhymed. Anything new will be in the initial release of the new application. You have to have time to get everything in sync so don't wait too late for this.

Rewrite in .NET means Re-design?

It is recommended that any move to .NET from something like Visual Basic is a rewrite, but that does not necessarily mean redesign. Start with the foundation of your application. This will probably be your database architecture, depending on the application. There is no reason to redesign your database if it does not need to be overhauled. With the solution I mentioned above we were moving a Microsoft Access and Oracle back end to SQL Server, so we had to redesign everything. Minimize the design changes to what is absolutely necessary.

Don't trust the old code?

This can be an unexpected challenge if the application has been around a long time. That means years of modifications and lazy developers leaving useless code, don't tell me it doesn't happen I have been there. You have to mirror existing functionality, but the logic may be flawed. Testing of the new application in conjunction with the legacy application is paramount to the success or failure of the venture. Mirror what the application does and don't trust the old logic to be correct. Test, test, test.

No change for the sake of change

One more quick thing to mention, don't get pulled into the feature creep trap. Know what you are going to do before you make a decision to change something. In the application I mentioned above, we kept saying that "No change for the sake of change". It will be tempting, but only change those things that really need to be fixed or made easier. That means user interface, business logic, etc... There will be instances where change is needed, but think about the impact on the user and the code when doing anything.

Before I get hate mail, there is obviously more to it than this, but I am addressing specific points from conversations. There are many important points to consider so if you have something to add, please do so.