From our good friends north of the border:

"Hi everyone,

This is a last call for speakers for Developer Day Scotland. The call
for speakers will close at 23:59 on 31st January. Voting will then
commence a couple or so days later.

If you still want to submit a session for Developer Day Scotland
here's how:

The call for speakers is now open. If you would like to submit a
proposal you can submit it to support@.... Your
submission must include:

* Your name
* Your email address
* Your phone number
* Your blog or website (if applicable)
* A personal biography - A short paragraph.
* A session title
* A session abstract - No more than 2 paragraphs.
* Level the talk is aimed at:
  - Beginner: Audience is expected to have no previous knowledge of the
technology.
  - Intermediate: Audience is expected to have used the technology to
some extent.
  - Advanced: Audience is expected to have used the technology
extensively already.
* Dependencies. i.e. other technologies the audience is expected to
have used in order to fully understand the session.

You can submit on any topic you like if you think software developers
will be interested in it. The sessions go to a community vote so the
community decides what they ultimately want to see. You will be
informed if you session is picked approximately two months before the
event.

Please feel free to pass this along to anyone that might be interested
in submitting a session."



--- In LMSDev@yahoogroups.com, "nigellaurentius" <nigellaurentius@...>
wrote:
>
> The Developer Day Scotland Call for Speakers is now OPEN!
>
> The session submission guidelines and instructions are available here:
>
http://www.developerdayscotland.com/main/SessionProposals/tabid/77/Default.aspx
>
> Developer Day Scotland is taking place on 2nd May 2009 in Glasgow.
>

Nope, never had that problem, loads of others but not that one

--- In LMSDev@yahoogroups.com, "nigellaurentius" <nigellaurentius@...>
wrote:
>
> Over the past day or so, when I compose a new e-mail and sometimes
> when replying to e-mails, Outlook seems to lose the Subject line, so
> recipients see a blank subject.  It's missing from my Sent Items copy
too.
>
> Most odd.
>
> I'm running Outlook 2003 SP3 under XP, not seen this problem before
> and Mr Google draws a blank, any help appreciated :-)
>

Over the past day or so, when I compose a new e-mail and sometimes
when replying to e-mails, Outlook seems to lose the Subject line, so
recipients see a blank subject.  It's missing from my Sent Items copy too.

Most odd.

I'm running Outlook 2003 SP3 under XP, not seen this problem before
and Mr Google draws a blank, any help appreciated :-)

The Developer Day Scotland Call for Speakers is now OPEN!

The session submission guidelines and instructions are available here:
http://www.developerdayscotland.com/main/SessionProposals/tabid/77/Default.aspx

Developer Day Scotland is taking place on 2nd May 2009 in Glasgow.

MS are currently running a promotion for their MSDN Flash newsletter.
If you sign up using the link below you will be entered into a draw to
win an XBox 360

Good luck guys!

https://profile.microsoft.com/RegSysProfileCenter/wizard.aspx?
wizid=baf72263-5452-4592-9e24-2a91e4ce3034&lcid=2057

In terms of encouraging uptake it's a shame that WPF isn't even on the
radar for the Mono guys, it'd probably be a sticking point for me if I
were to be using a *nix platform for .NET development work.

Same also for Moonlight being a whole version behind Silverlight, it's
bad for MS themselves too imo, less cross-platform uptake, meaning
Flash stays the forerunner.

Mixed news really, it'll be interesting to watch where it goes from
here :-)

Hi Karl,

I'm not quite old enough to remember punch cards, but have been around
a while now! At the risk of sounding like an M$ salesperson, TFS and
VSTS are fantastic tools. TFS is a massive subject, but if you have
any specific questions, feel free to fire them my way. I've been
giving training courses in TFS recently, so am used to answering all
manner of questions! TFS has completely changed the way I look at
development, as it has made techniques such as Test Driven Development
completely implementable. The unit testing tools, coverage tools, code
analysis tools and build tool (particularly in TFS 2008) are all very
good, not to mention TFS source control engine.

Cheers,

Steve.


--- In LMSDev@yahoogroups.com, "Karl Bown" <karl.bown@...> wrote:
>
> Welcome aboard Steve. There's a few of us here on the list work at a
> company in Lincoln where the vast majority of the development has been
> in PHP and Perl but we are gradually moving over to .NET. We're using
> TFS and welcome any tips you may have as to how to get the most out of
> it, or what to avoid!
>
>
>
> Personally I started in computers in the days of punch cards, worked on
> IBM Midrange machines for a long time, then moved into writing websites.
> I think my first one was when Demon started, remember them? I started
> using ASP for hooking websites up to databases as it seemed a lot easier
> than typing it all in again, then got onto the VS.NET beta program and
> moved over to ASP.NET. Had a few years out of fulltime IT but am now
> back at it again.
>
>
>
> Karl
>
>
>
>   _____
>
> From: Steve Barker [mailto:steve_barker333@...]
> Sent: 08 September 2008 19:50
> To: LMSDev@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [LMSDev] Hey!
>
>
>
> Greetings all!
>
> I'm a M$ developer, and have been for over eight years. I started with
> VB/VBA, and then moved onto .NET not long after the Beta came out. I've
> been developing with .NET and SQL Server ever since. I now use VSTS 2008
> with TFS 2008, and SQL Server 2005.
>
> I was born and raised in Lincoln, but now live and work in Nottingham.
> However, I get back to Lincoln regularly as I have family there still.
> It's still a lovely place!
>
> Nice to meet you all!
>
> Steve.
>

Greetings all!

I'm a M$ developer, and have been for over eight years. I started with
VB/VBA, and then moved onto .NET not long after the Beta came out. I've
been developing with .NET and SQL Server ever since. I now use VSTS 2008
with TFS 2008, and SQL Server 2005.

I was born and raised in Lincoln, but now live and work in Nottingham.
However, I get back to Lincoln regularly as I have family there still.
It's still a lovely place!

Nice to meet you all!

Steve.

Duncan

Welcome to the group. I'm assuming you work in some kind of MS
development role, what sort of technologies have you used? Look forward
to hearing about your background etc.

Karl

--- In LMSDev@yahoogroups.com, "spearcarrierh2g2" <Duncan@...> wrote:
>
> Hi
>
> I am formerly from Caistor and am an ex-patriat Grimsby fan
(currently
> based in Dublin) interested in what this group is working for.  I
could
> also throw together a talk if that is of interest...I tend to visit
> Lincolnshire 2 or 3 times a year.
>

Hi

I am formerly from Caistor and am an ex-patriat Grimsby fan (currently
based in Dublin) interested in what this group is working for.  I could
also throw together a talk if that is of interest...I tend to visit
Lincolnshire 2 or 3 times a year.

On the face of it Silverlight may be perceived as a "NEW! IMPROVED!
Flash", of course it can be used to do pretty much anything Flash can
do, but don't fall into the trap of colouring it with the Flash brush,
it is so much more than an animation and scripting engine.

We're in very early days yet of people realising what they have at
their fingertips.  I think we're going to see a lot of development in
the web app sphere now that swathes of coders have suddenly been
granted a pretty powerful way to get their desktop apps "out there"
via the 'net.

Some might say it's the beginning of the end of fat local apps,
certainly it's a *huge* step in enabling a paradigm shift in terms of
remote computing, and whether ultimately that's going to be good or
bad for end users - we're in exciting times!

--- In LMSDev@yahoogroups.com, "Karl Bown" <karl.bown@...> wrote:
>
> I found the responses to the article interesting. There are certainly
> a lot of virulent anti-Microsoft types around, one poster comparing
> them to the Nazis, sigh.
>
> Perosnally I have been "off" Flash for quite some time. It tends to
> be used for wasteful, useless, animated screens that have been shown
> via research to actually deter users from viewing the content of the
> animation.
>
> If Silverlight is just used as NEW! IMPROVED! Flash then it will be a
> wasted opportunity. But for an alternative which can be used to add
> more than just fancy rubbish it could be a good choice. It doesn't
> require a particular editing environment (though it helps) and it
> does seem to be more accessible to search engines etc.
>
> I'm tempted to rewrite some small Flash files in Silverlight as an
> introduction, anyone got any good resources apart from the obvious
> silverlight.net website?
>
> Karl
>
> --- In LMSDev@yahoogroups.com, "nigellaurentius"
> <nigellaurentius@> wrote:
> >
> > Hi all!
> >
> > I thought I'd kick off a discussion about Silverlight, an emerging
> > technology that I have a particular interest in but as yet,
> > unfortunately, have had little to no direct contact with.
> >
> > I find myself with a particularly horrendous Flash site on my hands
> > that I've had to maintain for the past few months, and the question
> > has come up about converting it to Silverlight to a) enhance SEO, b)
> > enhance future maintenance and c) improve interactivity.  The
> > conversion tools we've tried so far won't work with Flash more
> complex
> > than a few shapes let alone poorly crafted ActionScript, and this
> is a
> > real blessing in this case, as it'll allow a proper rewrite from the
> > ground up.
> >
> > The Reg published this yesterday:
> > http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/08/18/silverlight_pros_and_cons/ -
> > what are your thoughts/experiences with Silverlight so far?  Any
> > praise to give the current toolset, or advice on pitfalls?
> >
>

I found the responses to the article interesting. There are certainly
a lot of virulent anti-Microsoft types around, one poster comparing
them to the Nazis, sigh.

Perosnally I have been "off" Flash for quite some time. It tends to
be used for wasteful, useless, animated screens that have been shown
via research to actually deter users from viewing the content of the
animation.

If Silverlight is just used as NEW! IMPROVED! Flash then it will be a
wasted opportunity. But for an alternative which can be used to add
more than just fancy rubbish it could be a good choice. It doesn't
require a particular editing environment (though it helps) and it
does seem to be more accessible to search engines etc.

I'm tempted to rewrite some small Flash files in Silverlight as an
introduction, anyone got any good resources apart from the obvious
silverlight.net website?

Karl

--- In LMSDev@yahoogroups.com, "nigellaurentius"
<nigellaurentius@...> wrote:
>
> Hi all!
>
> I thought I'd kick off a discussion about Silverlight, an emerging
> technology that I have a particular interest in but as yet,
> unfortunately, have had little to no direct contact with.
>
> I find myself with a particularly horrendous Flash site on my hands
> that I've had to maintain for the past few months, and the question
> has come up about converting it to Silverlight to a) enhance SEO, b)
> enhance future maintenance and c) improve interactivity.  The
> conversion tools we've tried so far won't work with Flash more
complex
> than a few shapes let alone poorly crafted ActionScript, and this
is a
> real blessing in this case, as it'll allow a proper rewrite from the
> ground up.
>
> The Reg published this yesterday:
> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/08/18/silverlight_pros_and_cons/ -
> what are your thoughts/experiences with Silverlight so far?  Any
> praise to give the current toolset, or advice on pitfalls?
>

Hi all!

I thought I'd kick off a discussion about Silverlight, an emerging
technology that I have a particular interest in but as yet,
unfortunately, have had little to no direct contact with.

I find myself with a particularly horrendous Flash site on my hands
that I've had to maintain for the past few months, and the question
has come up about converting it to Silverlight to a) enhance SEO, b)
enhance future maintenance and c) improve interactivity.  The
conversion tools we've tried so far won't work with Flash more complex
than a few shapes let alone poorly crafted ActionScript, and this is a
real blessing in this case, as it'll allow a proper rewrite from the
ground up.

The Reg published this yesterday:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/08/18/silverlight_pros_and_cons/ -
what are your thoughts/experiences with Silverlight so far?  Any
praise to give the current toolset, or advice on pitfalls?

Thanks Colin. As you can see we haven't had much chance to do much with
the group this week. Probably wasn't wise to pick our busiest week of
the year so far :-) Anyway I have started to add some of the links that
I use and I look forward to seeing any that anyone else finds useful.

Please add them to http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/LMSDev/links

Karl

--- In LMSDev@yahoogroups.com, "Colin Angus Mackay" <colin@...> wrote:
>
> Good luck getting this going.
>

Good luck getting this going.