Miscellaneous

Scott Hanselman and Fight Diabetes walk

Serge Baranovsky — Mon, 21 May 2007 18:25:00 GMT

Scott Hanselman is one of the most humble .NET community leaders I have met. And althought I'm not as expressive as Mark Miller I have huge deal of respect for Scott as a person and professional.

Please join me in helping Team Hanselman to reach their goal on a great cause - Fight Diabetes !

http://www.hanselman.com/blog/TeamHanselmanAndDiabetesWalk2007.aspx

Bill Gates steps down

Serge Baranovsky — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 01:30:00 GMT

Today's braking news - BillG announced he is stepping down from his full-time role (no, that is not two weeks notice, over two years that is :) Gates will remain the chair and will dedicate all of his time to charitable work of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Robert Scoble posted just a couple of lines but we all know Bill's decision is driven by Scoble's announce last week about leaving Microsoft for Silicon Valley based video blogging and podcasting startup PodTech.net

Joel Spolsky is surprised Microsoft stock didn't go down yet. Me too. But I think the two year transiotion period has something to do with that.

I think this is great that BillG with all his wealth wants to focus full-time on helping others. I have always respected BillG (personally) for his vision, brain power, geekyness, integrity - and this move ... Bill, you da man!

I was asked if I would fill in - very serious move and while I was thinking Ray Ozzie stepped in :) Well, I'm happy at what I do anyway ;-)

Couple of videos to start the week with a good laugh

Serge Baranovsky — Mon, 23 Jan 2006 18:35:00 GMT

While I'm off-topicing today...

I'm sure those of you in the North America and watch TV ads (ugh) will enjoy this one:

Worst Job Ever
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1514168659738935009

And just for fun

Blonde antelope
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3728266100951844857

Naked Conversations party

Serge Baranovsky — Mon, 23 Jan 2006 18:25:00 GMT

This is a little off-topic for vbCity Blog but, hey, it's about blogging :)

Thanks to Robert Scoble for inviting me to the Naked Conversations party last Saturday! That was definitely great party! Lots of interesting people, most names are familiar from the blogosphere, some I met before, many I met first time.

And the new blogging book - Naked Conversations - is looking very promising at the first glance. Something for me to read while I'm on vacation next week.

Here is a picture of me sipping wine in the back while waiting to get me book signed by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel and chat with them. More pictures on Robert's Flickr, Alex Barnett posted great ones too.

Ans, yes, Robert signed my book “to the VB guy”, so, here you have it, this post is about VB ;-)

Seattle Code Camp Oct 22-23 2005

Serge Baranovsky — Mon, 26 Sep 2005 01:50:00 GMT

Woohoo! Some exciting new to share! Better that the one I posted earlier today :)

Yes, Code Camp is finally coming to Seattle! In just 4 weeks - Oct 22 & 23 as announced by Chris Kinsman

What I like about Code Camp idea is

its spirit - for developers and by developers
it is free - hard to beat this one ;)
timing - Saturday and Sunday - works perfect for me. I know that I will not have to change my plans re the Code Camp because of a travel or meeting at work.

When I went to PDC two weeks ago I had to drive down to San Diego for a business meeting (work duties) so I missed the whole day of PDC on Wednesday. I did though manage to compensate that and meet with Chris Manning one of the vbCity Leaders - so it was worth it :)

I already registered for the event and hope to see some of you there.

More information and registration at http://pacwest.ms/codecamp/sea/1/

35

Serge Baranovsky — Sun, 25 Sep 2005 23:20:00 GMT

Yes, I turned 35 yesterday...

Spent relaxing and quiet day resting and thinking about where I want to go from here. One thing I know for sure - there is no way back to 25, not even to 34... Not that I want to, of course :)

Finally told myself: “Just get over it! And move on!”

So, here I am, just like when I was ... younger ... living one day at a time...

Living in 2005

Serge Baranovsky — Mon, 15 Aug 2005 05:18:00 GMT

This post by Paul Mooney is just hilarious:

You know you're living in 2005 when:

1. You accidentally enter your password on the microwave.
2. You haven't played solitaire with real cards in years.
3. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of 3.
4. You e-mail the person who works at the desk next to you.
5. Your reason for not staying in touch with friends and family is that they don't have e-mail addresses.
6. You go home after a long day at work and you still answer the phone in a businesslike manner.
7. You make phone calls from home and you accidentally dial "9" to get an outside line.
8. You've sat at the same desk for four years and worked for three different companies.
10. You learn about your redundancy on the 11 o'clock news.
11. Your boss doesn't have the ability to do your job.
12. You pull up in your own driveway and use your cell phone to see if anyone is home.
13. Every commercial on television has a website at the bottom of the screen.
14. Leaving the house without your cell phone, which you didn't have the first 20 or 30 (or 60) years of your life, is now a cause for panic and you turn around to go and get it.
15. You get up in the morning and go online before getting your coffee.
16. You start tilting your head sideways to smile. :)
17. You're reading this and nodding and laughing.
18. Even worse, you know exactly to whom you are going to forward this message.
19. You are too busy to notice there was no #9 on this list.
20. You actually scrolled back up to check that there wasn't a #9 on this list.

Logo & Web site design - going with the professional!

Serge Baranovsky — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 05:51:00 GMT

Do I make mistakes? Yes I do!

For a couple of years now the most embarrassing thing for our product web site SubMain.com was its design. When we were launching our first product two years ago I only had couple of nights to put together a web site. Mistake #1 - while we have put time for the Betas, bug fixing, etc, we should've not discounted the importance of the web site design and planned more time for that.

I said to myself back then "Don't worry it doesn't look good, we will redesign to make it look better in a month or two when we have some 'breathing' space on our schedule". Mistake #2 - this never happens! There is always something that pops to the top of extensive to-do list, something that requires immediate attention.

And Mistake #3 - I should've not designed the web site myself, I should've hired professional designer! Yes, I've been a developer for over 15 years, designed and developed many Windows applications - from (rather) small developer tools to large enterprise systems. I also developed web apps - vbCity.com and DevCity.NET - but these are different from a product web site, both vbCity and DevCity.NET are developer community sites and their unprofessional and a little geeky design works out sort of OK.

I absolutely agree with Ian Landsman:

... you need a professional designer. You need to get your logo's, website templates, and interface designed by a professional who understands color combinations, fonts, etc. If you don't look professional you aren't professional.

Well, they say, smart people learn from others mistakes. I must be dumb then as I can learn only from my own mistakes.

But I digress...

Do I learn from my mistakes? Yes, I do!

With two new developer products coming out - CodeIt.Once and CodeIt.Right - it is just about time to finally redesign SubMain web site.

And, no, this time I'm doing that myself nor I'm going to go with one of those nameless and faceless "i-m-cheap-i-have-4-standard-designs-i-use-for-everyone-you-pick-which-one-of-them-you-want" ventures. Well, you get what you paid for...

I'm going with a designer who has Name and recognition in the (design) industry as well as great portfolio!

The Name

As the question pop up I already the Name in mind - Dmitry Kirsanov! Or as .netArt Magazine calls him -The web designer who came from the cold - referring to the fact that Dmitry comes from Russia.

Dmitry runs Dmitry Kirsanov Studio and writes monthly Design Lab column for webreference.com.

I first learned about Dmitry years ago from his "Web Design" book (in Russian) I ordered from Russian publisher and had it shipped over to the States. I loved the book! Doesn't mean I learned to design - there are lots of people who read programming books but only some of them become good developers ;-)

That was long time ago... Since then Dmitry co-authored HTML Unleashed book and recently published his own book XSLT 2.0 Web Development (both in English). He also moved to Canada which significantly simplified the payment aspect (those who went through a hassle making payments to Russia will understand) and communication (I haven't written a single email in Russian in over 6 years).

As for the rates - you'll be surprised Kirsanov Studio rates are comparable to those "i-will-design-your-web-site-so-it-will-look--just-like-million-other-sites-on-the-net"

The Logo

So, cut to the chase, I emailed Dmitry about a week ago and next day I called him to describe what I want. I was amazed Dmitry picked up on the Sub Main() name idea right away - yes, he is also a developer. We agreed to start with the logo.

Few days later I received drafts of 7(!) custom logos for SubMain - from simple to very sophisticated. I picked one of the simpler ones - that's what I liked, anyway :) And we went for another couple of rounds of "polishing" the logo.

And today ... [Drum Roll] ... let me introduce the new logo!

Meanwhile, we are moving to the most exciting part - the web site design!

To be continued...

New Windows Mobile phone devices

Serge Baranovsky — Sun, 07 Aug 2005 03:54:00 GMT

Two phones that will run Windows Mobile 5.0 have been the biggest buzz/rumors in the last couple of weeks - Windows Mobile-powered Treo 670 (that's right, first non-Palm based Treo!) and HTC Wizard.

HTC Wizard looks really slick - it is about the same size as i-mate JAM but has got WiFi, GSM/GPRS/EDGE, a slide out keyboard and will run Windows Mobile 5.0. Now, that is something I would trade my i-mate JAM for! If the price is right though... I only wish T-Mobile USA would offer something better than slow GPRS... say, EDGE...

BTW, found Rory's The two stupidest SmartPhone apps *ever* post - I agree those are very stupid apps I would never buy!

Business for Geeks session notes

Serge Baranovsky — Sun, 07 Aug 2005 02:48:00 GMT

Sean Mountcastle posted notes from Business for Geeks session - great reading for those who are starting up a microISV venture.

Business for Geeks notes