Another great talk at EMUG

The last few days have been technological nightmares for me. I won't go into huge detail, but suffice to say, my bit-torrent client on Linux died (which I had set for all day... got a NullPointerException 40k into a 500mb download), and Battlefield 2's patch (the new one, 1.3) screwed up, like the 1.2.* patches. So there goes my download AND my favorite game. Fan-tas-tic.


On to other news.

So I had the privilage of attending another .NET programmer's meeting, this time done by Rod Paddock, the editor of Code magazine. Justice hyped this guy up hardcore in this post of his, so I won't go into background details about Rod (Justice knows so much about this guy... he even has a picture on his site with Rod's shirt off! I swear, J's stalking the guy or something). The summary: Rod's presentation on Visual Studio's Templates outdid JP's presentation on TDD by leaps and bounds.

It's quite possible people will feel differently about that, and it is a rather strong opinion for me to be stating, but I must say that JP's presentation left me feeling like I knew nothing about code. This feeling is probably valid in some ways, but as well, I found that JP's presentation was quite advanced, and that it required some background knowledge in many aspects of TDD (NUnit, for example) before the talk would make sense. Rod's talk, on the other hand, was taken from a different perspective. Every detail of the presentation was taken step by step, and the terminology and concepts were down to earth (as far as programming goes). Rod took his time, and the presentation didn't feel rushed or way over my head. This is, without a doubt, the best technical talk/speaker I've attended/listened to.

Doubly-pumped!

So I talked to Justice and he proposed one hell of a good idea! ...that said, due to it being his idea, I shouldn't disclose much info on it. However, I've been looking for a project to build at home in my free time, and this sounds nothing short of amazing! That, and having the potential to develop with a master programmer is pretty sweet as well! Heh, maybe my SVN server that I built might be used after all. :)

So my second good news comes in the wake of really crappy news. Let's start with my weekend.

On Thursday, I got a call from someone at the place that I'm renting, saying that there was a suite on the 3rd floor that I could take a look at. Naturally, it wasn't taken, so I was ready to jump on it when I went in on Friday to look at it. So Friday comes and I leave work, 3 hours early, to go and see this place and scoop it up. However, that morning, the lady who I was dealing with sold it. ...man, that was tough to take. Unfortunately, losing that room truly ruined my weekend, as I felt 'crap, I'm never going to get away from home.' ...then, on Monday this week, I got a call saying that there was a place on the 9th floor! Fantastic! So now I'm moving out! Sooooo good!!

Now... about that Linux guide. ...I'm moving, so we'll see when I can work on it. I'm trying to write in this blog once a week, at least, so hopefully, that update will be coming soon. :)

Actually, before I sign off for this entry, I think I'll say this: Ubuntu is coming out with a new install procedure, according to Digg.com. I looked at it, and it appears to run like a Live CD, which means you get a Windows like GUI (so you can play with Linux), but it also will install WHILE you get to do things! No more of this 'lose all functionality while installs are occuring'! Now, you can surf the web, write e-mails, do word processing, play games, etc. while the same machine is installing the core OS! Man, is there ANYTHING linux cannot do?

Here's ONE screenshot. I couldn't find the EXACT article, but it shows it working! :) http://shots.osdir.com/slideshows/slideshow.php?release=615&slide=12