Xperimentality

I have been asked to do a presentation for the Birmingham .NET User Group tonight.  I am going to do a modified presentation that I did for the Alabama Code Camp focusing a little more on degredation.  Even though the browsers are providing better support, we still cannot control the user who might set their browser to not run scripts.

Since the last entry I made, a lot has changed.  I have taken on a different responsibility concerning the project I have been on for quite some time.  The project has lingered much longer than it should have.  The people in charge of the project were not very good at managing the effort/the budget/the people/etc.  Now the environment has changed, many of the developers have left, the leadership has completely changed, and now I am picking up the pieces left by my predecessors.  All in all, it is a good thing.  Finally, we will be able to plan properly for the work that is to be done.  The new leadership is also putting in place a plan to transition the knowledge of the system from the contractors to the full time employees that are left.  This is a good thing.  We (the contractors) won't be here forever, and someone will have to take the reigns when we move on.

Well I did not have my blog up and going in time to report on the first Birmingham .NET User Group meeting in November.  Long story short, it went really well.  Turnout was great.  Our next meeting was scheduled for December 13, the same day as the "Best of" launch event in Birmingham.  After speaking with some of the folks from Microsoft in Atlanta, we are going to turn our meeting on the 13th into a Pub Club after the launch event.  I suspect after listening to presentations all day, most folks will enjoy just a laid back meet and greet!
I am really looking forward to watching the Birmingham .NET User Group continue to grow.

Well, I just got back from the VS 2005 Launch in Atlanta, GA.  As usual, there were some good presentations and some so-so ones.

I think that no matter how long you have been using a technology, there is always something you can learn.  I have always been old school when it comes to using provided controls.  In order to always squeeze all the performance out of an application, I am one for writing most of the code myself instead of relying on controls.

However ASP.NET 2.0 may make this old dog learn a few new tricks!  There is some really nice functionality provided without having to write any code.  I truly think that in many cases (I won't say most yet) using the ASP.NET 2.0 controls may meet a developer's needs...We shall see!

Well I am happy to say that I have moved my blog to my own server and am now using dasBlog. I have started with one of the included themes but I anticipate you will see some changes over the next...well who knows...as I begin to play around with the theme. I hope everyone who celebrates Thanksgiving had a happy one!

I just ran across something I guess I have just been missing in playing with the 2.0 framework: The coalescing operator! I love this. Not sure how I have been missing this one. I am a big fan of using something like:

Textbox.Text = (str == null) ? "N/A" : str;

as opposed to using a conditional block. But I just found that I can use:

Textbox.Text = str ?? "N/A";

It is the simple things that make me the happiest! Well, on to finding more things that I have not discovered yet...

I have been using DotNetNuke for a while and am pleased with it. For the most part, I see a lot of smaller businesses and individuals use it. However it seems that over the last year or so, I have seen an increased presence in larger businesses. Recently I gave a presentation at the Alabama Code Camp on custom module development for DNN3.x. I was asked to give it again on Tuesday for a client in Birmingham, Alabama. This client is a large company based in New York. They have started using DotNetNuke for some intranet needs. I think it could prove to be a great cost savings for larger organizations that have the need for what DotNetNuke can provide. A lot of time and effort goes into trying to build frameworks similar to what DotNetNuke provides. Don't reinvent the wheel!

Well, I have needed to get a blog started for a while and I have finally taken that first step. Now I just have to keep it up. I am sure that won't be hard since the software and technology world is never short of good content!