Archive for Guernsey category
Visual Studio, Windows Server and SQL Server 2008 launch in Guernsey
The various Heroes Happen Here community events in the UK/USA to celebrate the launch of Visual Studio 2008 etc. made me envious that we don’t get such events and goodies here on the little island of Guernsey so I thought I’d so something about it!
We at the Guernsey Software Developer Forum are hosting a community event in conjunction with Microsoft to celebrate the launch of Visual Studio 2008, Windows Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008.
The event starts at 6:30pm on March 27th (next Thursday) at La Rocquettes hotel in St. Peter Port, Guernsey.
We will be giving away a bunch of goodies including the Heroes Happen Here launch packs with promotional copies of Visual Studio 2008 Standard, Windows 2008 Enterprise Server and SQL Server 2008 Developer as well as demonstrating some of the new features of Visual Studio 2008 and .NET 3.5.
I’m hoping this event will be bigger than normal GSDF events given the cool stuff we are giving away and the interest from non-developers in Windows 2008 and SQL Server 2008 so tell your friends (if you’re in Guernsey of course)
[)amien
Hibernate presentation in Guernsey
My good friend Steve Streeting is giving a talk about the Hibernate object-relational mapper at the Guernsey Software Developer Forum tomorrow night. Hibernate is a very successful ORM for Java which has been ported to .NET under the moniker NHibernate.
The event, as always, is open to everyone and commences at 6pm at the Guernsey Training Agency above the old Post Office in Smith Street, St. Peter Port. They normally run for around 1 hour followed by an optional 30 minutes in the pub for those who can’t get enough (code, not alcohol).
In related news I have been liasing with Microsoft who have agreed to provide support to host a VS 2008 InstallFest event to celebrate the launch of Visual Studio 2008. The idea is you bring along your laptop (if you have one) and install one of the copies of Visual Studio 2008 Professional we will be giving away (full, not-for-resale copies) as well as enjoying some food, demos of the new features of .NET 3.5 and a bit of Xbox 360 guitar hero.
We’re just looking for a venue for this event (and potentially future GSDF meetings) as the Post Office has now been sold and will not be available from the end of February :(
[)amien
Language Integrated Query: An introduction presentation online
This evening’s presentation on Language Integrated Query (LINQ) is now available from my presentations page.
The event went well with 12 developers (it’s a small island) and took a less time to produce because I didn’t write a script for but slides to lead us through areas I wanted to cover.
This means the on-line presentation is of less useful than previous ones however I am pondering the transcript/audio-track option (in my best radio voice of course).
We are now considering topics for February and with something a bit special for March.
Stay tuned!
[)amien
Language Integrated Query: An introduction talk tomorrow
I’m just finishing up the slides, notes and writing code samples for my LINQ presentation at the Guernsey Software Developer Forum tomorrow evening.
Hopefully the broader scope of this presentation will mean a few new faces – the previous talks on Subversion and web application security might have been a little specific for a such a small audience (Guernsey is around 70,000 people on an island 9 miles long).
As always I will put the presentation up here afterwards but will also revise the older ones with the new style and put up both PowerPoint and Keynote versions under an open licence as well as a couple of cheat sheets.
Is there any interest in adding audio narration and transcripts?
This presentation is now available on-line.
[)amien
MacBook Pro 17″ 2.6GHz ordered
Since moving house I have been using my MacBook Pro 15″ 2.0GHz at home, for contracting and even for the odd diagnostics and organisation in the office.
The last 20 months have been a bumpy ride with the logic board being replaced twice once for whining and the second time when the inner memory slot went dead. The battery has been recalled and the power supply cable started melting and the paint started flaking off the enclosure but thankfully Apple sorted out all these problems rather swiftly with advanced replacement parts and speedy repairs through local service centers iQ Guernsey and Guernsey Computers.
Every company has problems with products, especially first revisions, but how they deal with them is important and one of my logic board failures was a couple of months out of warranty but their customer services department authorised the replacement anyway. Such service counts for a lot in my book and so now I have outgrown my notebook another MacBook Pro will be it’s replacement…
My paltry 100GB disk space got eaten up with an extensive music library and plenty of 10 megapixel RAW digital camera images. Subtract a 15GB Boot Camp and I was soon looking at external storage. Parallels and Visual Studio 2008 meant I needed to up from 2GB to 4GB of RAM and I found myself constantly missing my 24″ Dell monitor. I also need to be able to test 64-bit applications now that I am developing Cocoa apps.
The Apple Store UK just added the 2.6GHz processor and 200GB 7200RPM drive options this week and although Guernsey is barred from The Apple Store UK local reseller iQ matches their ex-VAT prices on Pro gear so on Saturday I ordered my new dream machine complete with the high-resolution 1920×1200 anti-glare LCD (no glossy mirror for me thanks).
They also have friendly shop staff unlike Guernsey Computers (although Vernon in their service department is helpful if you can get to him). One thing I really can’t stand though is Apple’s pricing policy on RAM.
To upgrade from 2GB to 4GB they want £450 extra! Crucial UK will do a 4GB kit of the same spec for just £98. I’m not alone in this observation.
It’s just insanely ludicrous.
[)amien