Xperimentality

Well the presentation for the Huntsville User Group seemed to go well last night.  I would like to thank them for their hospitality!  They are a friendly group and have a wonderful facility at which they meet.

I have said before that I enjoy the graphical side of web design as much as I like the code.  I had thrown together a nice header for last year's Code Camp in Alabama, so I was asked to put one together this year.  Joe Healy has gotten it put on the web site.  Everyone seems to think it turned out ok, so I guess I am satisfied. Take a look. Thanks Joe!

Seems like I am usually tweaking my presentations right up to the day I give them.  I am never completely satisfied with them.  I have been tweaking my presentation on AJAX that I am giving to the Huntsville .NET User Group this Tuesday. Some of the Mix06 topics I am reading over is making me want to cover a slightly different angle.  On the other hand, my presentation covers some under-the-cover aspects of AJAX that I think are important to know...even if in practice you may never have to worry about them.  Atlas and AJAX.Net cover up a lot of the details that I think are still important to know.  I am one of those that believe one should program for Windows using the Windows SDK at least once, just to get a better understanding of what is going on behind the high level code we typically write.

I am in Memphis, TN this weekend.  We came up here for a trade show that she was doing a booth for.  She is involved in a new endeavor and had booth space at the Southern Women's show. While she did her thing, I continued to try to decide on what I wanted to attend while at Mix06.  I hope it is going to live up to my expectations.  I typically am cautious about conventions because I rarely get out of them what I hope to.  I am hoping this one will be what I expect.  So far, from what I am hearing, it appears to be. I'll let you know.

I have been mentioning the visibility and discussions around AJAX and how it seems to be one of the more popular points of discussion. Interesting observation today. I said that I was planning on attending Mix06. Well I was looking at some of the pre-discussion going on out on MSDN's channel 9.  Looking at the number of views per topic, AJAX has 7,449 views.  The closest number of views to that is Windows Presentation Foundation with 3161.  Interesting...

I am working on some presentations for the next Code Camp in Alabama.  The next one will be in April and will be held in Huntsville.  I am looking forward to it.  So far I have submitted a presentation on CSS2 and ASP.Net.  I would also like to do a chalk talk on some of the Web 2.0 technologies.  I am hoping to get some ideas from some of the discussions at Mix06.

It is official.  I am going to Mix06.  I am looking forward to it. I spend a lot of my time learning and playing with a lot of the topics being covered. I will most likely post to my blog while there to keep you updated if you are interested!

Well, I finally got a new skin created.  It is ok for now.  I don't know that I am really happy with it yet.  It just doesn't seem to do it for me.  Of course this is my engineer coming out.  The perfectionist in me is never satisfied!

I am giving a presentation to the Huntsville .NET User Group on March 14.  They asked me to give a presentation on AJAX.  Seems the interest in AJAX continues to grow.  I think there is a lot of potential for AJAX now that it is more widely available to browsers.  There seems to be a lot of discussion of benefits and weaknesses.  It will be interesting to see where it goes.

I guess I have that freakish quality you don't find often in engineers.  I love the creativity of web design and graphics work! My boss, who happens to be a great friend of mine, ribs me all the time about my love of all things visual.  So it goes!  I have been utilizing CSS in my designs for quite a while and one of my favorite sites for showing off what can be done with CSS is CSSZenGarden. A book was written about CSSZenGarden, which discusses some of the designs on the site and the interesting implementations of CSS within those designs.  I finally decided I would get it and see what others were talking about.  I think it is a great book for someone who is somewhat familiar with CSS but wants to grow their knowledge.  It is not a beginners book.  And it is not a book for advanced developers either. Reading the book is like having a discussion with a friend who is knowledgeable about CSS.  I think it is a worthwhile purchase for anyone interested in seeing other perspectives on CSS implementation.