My Technical Highlights of 2008

So it's coming to the end of the year, and I'm taking the time to reflect, and plan out the year ahead (as much as it can be).

For me technically, it has been a great year.  My highlights have been

• Presenting at Remix08 UK
• Presenting at DDD7
• PDC 2008 (attending, hanging out with friends, interviewing so many cool people)
• Watching NxtGenUG Cambridge grow to an unbelievable level
• Advancing my knowledge of SQL Server (I'm not an out and out SQL Developer) to a level that I was happy to present at SQLBits
• Silverlight Spectrum Emulator on PDC 2008 Show Off
• Silverlight Assault Course
• Various gallery entries on silverlight.net (throughout course of year)
• Meeting so many great people

My new technology highlights have been:

• Silverlight 2
• Windows Azure
• Microsoft Small Basic (I love it)

I really have loved this year in the community, I really hope next year goes half as well.

My favourite sessions of 2008

So in the past year, I have been at various conferences (Remix08, DDD7, SQLBits 2&3, NxtGenUG Fest08), been to various user groups (not as much as I would have liked), and watched many sessions online (Mix08, Channel9).

I thought I'd take the time out to call out the sessions I have enjoyed the most (all for very different reasons) in 2008.

• The back of the napkin, Dan Roam, Mix08
• ADO.Net Entity Framework, Mike Taulty, NxtGenUG Cambridge
• Micropresentations, (especially the Sara Ford one), Remix08 UK
• Silverlight as a Gaming Platform, Joel Neubeck, Mix08
• Windows Azure, Cloud Service Development Best Practices, Sriram Krishnan, PDC08
• Remix08 UK Keynote, Bill Buxton, Remix08 UK
• Lap around Windows Azure, Steve Marx, PDC08
• The Expert Panel Thing, Scott Guthrie & Co, Remix08 UK
• F#, Oliver Sturm, NxtGenUG Fest08
• Whose session is it anyways, Loads of folk, NxtGenUG Fest08

This list is a made up for very different reaons, a great inspiring presenter, a great session in a particular area of interest, or a session that was just a lot of fun.  I've only included sessions that I have watched in whole (I don't see to many sessions in full at Cambridge)

If you weren't on this list, this is no reflection on you or your session (please note that my all time favourite speaker, Chris Anderson is not on this list).

There is still loads of sessions from Mix08, Remix08 UK, DDD7, SQLBits 3, Channel 9 that I haven't yet watched, may'be this would have changed the list, may'be not.

Silverlight: PDC Podcast (Part 2)

So when we were across at the PDC myself and John McLoughlin did a bunch of podcast interviews.  We replaced regular hosts Rich & Dave for one week only, we had such a blast and thanks to the guys for letting us guest host.  Also massive thanks to everyone we interviewed.

We've just released the second part of our PDC podcast.  In this interview we talk about Day 3 of the PDC, and we have interviews with:

• Shawn Burke (Silverlight & WPF Controls Team)
• Tim Sneath (PDC Keynote Technical Content owner)  &
• Mike Swanson (PDC Technical Content Owner)

If you missed the first part of the podcast, we interviewed:

• Daniel Moth
• Dan Fernandez & Brian Keller
• Martin Gudgin
• Chris Anderson
• Don Box

There is one more PDC podcast to go featuring (will let you know when it is up).

In the meantime go check out other NxtGenUG Podcasts, which include the fabulous series of podcasts at TechEd Europe 2008

Classic ASP.NET

On Tuesday night at NxtGenUG Cambridge, Mel Harbour was doing a nugget on ASP.NET MVC, in which he used the term "Classic ASP.NET".

As someone who quite likes "Classic ASP.NET", and is not a big fan of ASP.NET MVC, I am not convinced by this new terminology.

May I suggest "Traditional ASP.NET", or "Standard ASP.NET" as more acceptable terms :)

Silverlight: and Google Chrome

So Google Chrome has now been released and it seems to be playing nicely with Silverlight now.

Previously you had to constantly resize your browser to use Silverlight, now seems to be working fine :)

Introduction to Windows Azure session in Cambridge

Big thanks to everyone who attended my "Introduction to Windows Azure" session in Cambridge.

As one of co-founders / coordinators of the Cambridge region of NxtGenUG it's always nice to do a session in my home turf, and this is the second year that I have now done the Christmas session.

The slides and demos are now available to download on my skydrive.

Thanks again for coming!

NxtGenUG – Cambridge – Introduction to Windows Azure

I’m doing the same session that I did at DDD7 for NxtGenUG Cambridge (which I run with Allister Frost).

So if you are based in Cambridgeshire, want an introduction to Microsoft’s Cloud Platform, a small nugget on ASP.NET MVC (Mel Harbour from Red-Gate is doing this one), Pizza and Swag, then I’ll see you there.

You can register here.