Shandy's Blog

Where Andrew Sutton, aka Shandy rants and rambles on as the fancy takes him

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My name is Andrew Sutton, aka Shandy.

I am currently living and working in the UK as a software developer. This blog contains mainly IT related issues.

I was a Microsoft VB MVP for a couple of years (Apr 2004-Mar 2006) and was a vbCityLeader between April 2003 and June 2007.

If you are looking for my Sri Lanka or Morocco experiences check out Shandy's Sri Lanka Blog or Shandy's Morocco Blog. My personal (Non IT) blog is now at Shandy's Place

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Wednesday, March 02, 2005 #

Each month I try to post a personal review of what happened at vbCity during the previous month and this month is no exception :)

Helper Of The Month (HOTM)

Congratulations to Larry Blake Larry Blake for winning the February 2005 HOTM in another close contest, that ended up even closer than last month. At the beginning of the month at least 6 posters had a good chance of winning the award. And even on the last day of the month 3 posters could still conceivably have won. Larry hung on with just 9 posts separating the first 3, and Larry didn't even post in the last day! Nice one Larry :)

.NET Fella

Congratulations to Andy Bonner aka Skullcrusher for winning the February 2005 .NET Fella Award. Andy also has a number of excellent posts in the vbCity Humor Forum that are worth checking out :)

Newsletters

Two devCity Newsletters were sent out in February, on February 15th and February 25th. We are always on the lookout for contributers to the newsletter so if you are interested please contact XTab aka Ged Mead

vbCity sends out a community newsletter email once a month, usually around the last week. All registered vbCity members can choose to receive it by going to their profile, selecting preferences and then ticking the Yes, send me monthly Community Update mailing checkbox. You might notice some items from this post appear in the newsletter!

Leader News

One piece of vbCity leader news that has not have gone unnoticed by many of the regulars at vbCity is that IDontKnow (Brent Culpepper) is no longer a leader at vbCity. I won't go into the ins and outs of why this is other than to say there were some strong differences of opinion between the various leaders and the result is that Brent is now an ordinary vbCity member. Hopefully everyone involved will put this episode behind them and move on :)

Last month's HOTM winner, Priore, has an interesting web site, Nino Priore .com which is worth checking out.

Each month our resident genealogist, Wonkotsane digs up some fascinating and little known facts about our new leaders and this month it was the turn of Nino Priore, Duke of Panama!

It has been great to see Deke (Don Hanfland) posting on a regular basis again. Don is our resident Data Report expert and his help in solving these problems is always very much appreciated. Many of you may not know that Don is a closet Delphi fan!

Carrying on from last month's post about CanOz's photography talents Neil has now setup his own web site, Neil's Photography Site, which is well worth checking out for some great pictures in and around Perth.

Other News

The most popular post in the vbcity Lounge Forum was Petals Around The Rose which seemed to be a big hit. I never got around to checking out the test it was all about but I know a lot of the other leaders did.

The vbCity Introduce Yourself forum continued to be popular and has provided an excellent insight into some of the vbCity member's other interests. I found Rock - Arnaldo's entry particularly interesting as a fellow ex-pat and hope Julian his cat is OK :)

At the end of January we had a total around 379,000 posts and 137,200 registered users at vbCity.

posted @ 2:00 PM

Well I made the decision today that to celebrate my perpetual youth ;-) I am going to attempt to climb Adam's Peak next Friday, March 11th. My intention is to make a real adventure of it and get the bus from Colombo to somewhere nearby on the Friday, get a few hours sleep in a hotel or guesthouse and then attempt the climb during the night to get to the top for sunrise. Then toddle back down, get a shower and then either return to Colombo or visit somewhere else in the neighbourhood and stop over Saturday night before returning to Colombo on Sunday.

At this stage of planning I am open to any suggestions on where to get a bus from, where to get the bus to, where to stop on Friday evening & Saturday night, what time to start the climb on Friday evening and what to take up with me on the climb.

Call it a pilgrimage if you will but it is for personal rather than religious reasons. I am going to try and do it simply because I can.

posted @ 12:35 PM

Well I have just agreed to stay on for at least another 6 months in Sri Lanka. My vague and rather informal contract had really ran out last December but due to issues and delays in implementation of our Raw Materials System (currently due to go live in mid April) I found myself still here. Our parent company Crystal, have now decided to implement their SAP financial package over in Sri Lanka and I have been asked to take part in this implementation.

My wife, Helen, had a few issues staying on but I have agreed for her take a typing and Cambridge CELTA Course to keep her busy and she also intends to do some voluntary work in an orphanage.

Originally I was out here for 3 months with the possibility of 12 months. I am already up to 15 months and this latest extension will take me up to 21 months. I wish I'd spent some time learning the local language now! I was getting a little battle weary being over here. The constant haggling over prices, the constant hassling from touts, the long hours working, the travelling and the distance from friends and family can get you down. However, I'm feeling pretty positive now and looking forward to another challenge.

posted @ 12:10 PM

The air conditioning at work is not working today, and it's 33 degrees and 95% humidity inside and out apparently! Sometimes I wonder what I am doing here in Sri Lanka. Oh for a nice English winter's day with temperatures peeking above freezing! The a/c will be out of action for several weeks apparently. Even the native Sri Lankans are balking at the thought of that. Glad I'm finishing early at 16:00 today to get to the .NET user group meeting in Colombo!
posted @ 10:28 AM

It's tonight, at 18:00 at Gateway, 9 Rodney Street in Borella. Not sure of the agenda but its always something interesting. Sadly, I haven't managed to get to the last three meetings, mainly due to work commitments but tonight I intend to be there! If you are interested in .NET and can make it please come along. Entrance is free.

The user group also has the Colombo .NET Forum where you can post .NET questions and answers.

posted @ 6:33 AM