And that's all you get, I signed ANOTHER NDA. (should I just FedEx my first born already and get it over with?)
This morning I am taking part in a Microsoft focus group in Denver- I think it will be about some Internet security software for my kids.
Sounds interesting. We will be compensated with software, a big long list to choose from. Since I have my MSDN partner subscription I will probable just pick something to give away at my user group or to one of the kids' schools. We'll see.
I received instructions with my email confirmation and someone must have told them I hate my old lady glasses, cause there was a specific instruction that said, bring your reading glasses if you need them. :(
Check back later for an update.
When I see the word gadget, especially on a Microsoft site like msn.com I think Vista desktop gadget. Don't you?
So when I saw the headline today that said "Netflix coming to gadgets" I was thinking- how cool is that? Right there on my desktop, seeing, maybe managing my Netflix.
No so fast.
The gadgets being referenced are televisions and what not for viewing streaming-like content provided by Netflix. Yawn. Hook up your laptop to a nice flat panel as an extended desktop. Right?
So Netflix....you listening? Get me a gadget for my Vista desktop? k?
For anyone that reads and may be curious how close the fires are....
The Fort Carson fire...from our house and from our office we can see smoke, not flames...we can smell it, feel the burn in your nose when you breathe, a bit more coughing than normal. I would guess we are a safe 15 miles from danger. Safe? Pretty much the entire city of Colorado Springs would have to burn before we would be in harm's way.
Prayers to the families that lost their heroes keeping us safe. They must be sad and proud at the same time.
So what's the big deal? Do you think these screeners are actually looking forward to seeing ALL of us? Would YOU really want to see some of these people nekid? Flying is not required in our world, you don't like the rules, don't fly. Right?
I guess my biggest beef will be kids- how are we going to make sure TSA allows some pedophiles to slip thru the cracks and sign up for this new duty?
Anyone? Bueller?
So, I will first go on record that I think it was wrong of the UOC to select China, too many hot buttons there. Yes, many reasons yes, but bigger and more reasons no.
Protest the torch- don't hurt anyone, but fuss and holler all you want.
Leave the games alone. These athletes will be living out their lifelong dreams here and what makes any of us so special and arrogant that we should squash that? And do you really want to get arrested in China? Ya, didn't think so.
End of rant. Back to your regularly scheduled blog.
Thanks to all who attended but also to all that helped plan this event. Who knew we could ever get 150 people (150!!!) to attend an IT event in COS like that?!?!? From my experience in attending and planning such things, it may very well have been the largest one yet!
We had a few ups/downs to be honest, but at the end of the day nothing but smiles and compliments. I woke up Friday morning to a speaker that was too sick to come give his two talks, so there was some scrambling to fill his spots (thank you Dom!). I should have built a little bit more fluff time in the schedule, the last sessions seemed to be too short because they had to start late.
What went well.....people. HOLY COW. How cool of our community to show up in force like that. The speakers were great. We had 2 MS Regional Directors to present (thanks Scott Golightly and Steve Milroy), we had dueling laptops in a LINQ presentation (awesome job Ben Hoelting and Eric Johnson, hope you get to take this talk on the road), Dave Milner had a practically full room for his intro talk, josh Jones had to speed thru his Data Encryption talk, but I still got nothing but compliments on it and Dom Aguilar came from MS Denver office to save the day when our Windows server speaker got sick and he covered TWO talks for us.
We had loads and loads of swag, several thousand dollars worth. It was great. We had super heroes in capes to deliver the giveaways from our drawings (the theme given to us was Community Heroes).
Compassion International was a very welcoming host (so much so that I figured I'd go for broke and ask to hold our fall Code Camp there, got a "yes" watch for details to emerge).
I think we managed to get all attendees to sign our Heroes poster, it will be hand delivered to Steve Ballmer at the MVP summit, along with his very own red cape. (if this makes no sense to you, let me know, I'll tell you the story, it almost makes sense)
Thanks again to all that helped and all that came out.
Superheroes waiting for the stage to start some giveaways at the keynote
SuperJosh, SuperBen and SuperEric
The battle of good vs evil over Wonder Woman, I have it on good authority that look of fear on her face was pretty genuine.
So it's FRIDAY! Our little big launch. Typical Colorado Springs event like this- meaning supported by but not done by Microsoft- we'd get 50-75 people. Registration now sits at over 160!
Not to worry- we have awesome giveaways (on my way to Best Buy now for a cool gizmo) and we have LOTS of them, my poor office is over run with stuff.
Link below for info and registration. April 4th, 2pm-6pm.
Did I mention, IT'S FREE?!?!?!
OK. And me too.
A press release was sent on behalf of the school district at 230 am or so....it stated that there were issues with our CSAP (Colorado standardized tests). And that because of this, all high school students in our district would have to re-take the exams.
The best part...whoever did it, did it well enough to make the news agencies believe it, and not bother to confirm an official-looking press release, so they began reporting on it!
Not sure about where you all live, but those tests are a hot conversation topic around here. Whoever did this knew exactly what button to push.
The district of course could not say "ha ha, joke's on us." They had to criticize the news media for not validating it.
Score one for smart-ass smart kids. (have not spoken to my kids yet, don't think it was them)