Good trend continues (net loss of 8.2 pounds) but Thanksgiving Week at my folks house looming large!!!

If you have been looking for a good way to start getting up to speed on Windows Workflow, Matt Milner, Minneapolis-based .NET guru and all-around good guy, has been recording a series of screencasts on various aspects of Workflow.  Good stuff.

A quick update:  A config problem on my server prevented email from getting delivered via SlickThought.  I just noticed the error today, so if you were interested in taking advantage of the Free Pass Content, please submit your request again.  SORRY!!!

I posted earlier about the MSDN Developer Conference coming to Minneapolis on January 13th, 2009.  As part of trying to expose some of the cool new technologies, I am running a promotion to get a number of developers free passes to the event.  In particular, I am looking to get some “non-Microsoft” developers to the event so they can check out the cool things coming with things like Windows Azure, .NET 4.0, and more.

So how do you get one of these free passes?  Use the contact page on my blog and drop me a message with your name, contact info, developer technologies you currently use, and why you are interested in attending.  I’ll then determine the winners.

I wanted to offer folks that don’t usually go to Microsoft events a chance to hang out with their developer compatriots and check out some new technology. 

Now, if you are a Microsoft dev, don’t despair.  If you can get some of your non-Microsoft dev buddies to enter the contest and reference you as the person that got them to enter (make sure they include your email), you will be entered in a drawing to win a cool prize (Zune, XBOX games, books, something along those lines – I’m still working that part out).  If the person you got to enter the contest gets picked and attends the conference, you will get additional entries in the contest.

So pass the idea around and I’m looking forward to the registrations!

I know this has been going on for a while, but today was the first day I really noticed it.  Not sure why really, but I did.

I have a Gmail account.  Yes, I also have a Hotmail account.  It’s hard to get through life with only a couple of email addresses I have come to find out! ;-)  I digress.

I was reading an email today in Gmail, and over on the right side of the page is a list of Sponsored Links that mapped directly to the things we were talking about in the email.  I wasn’t interested – I am an advertisers worst nightmare since I almost never click a link or remember a TV spot.  But the idea that Google is reading my email to figure out what to advertise to me was just creepy.

The content and the adds were nothing important, but what if I was discussing personal things.  Sure, Google is taking all the necessary steps to protect my privacy, but that is now.  Phone calls used to be safe, but it is trivially for the government to get access to them now.  Google has buckled to other foreign governments (most notably China) that, to me anyway, seem to be contrary to Google’s much publicized corporate ethos.  So clearly capitulation can happen given the right set of circumstances and the right amount of money.  Google is by no means the only company that fits this bill, I am just using them as the an example.

There is a lot of hoopla over privacy in the context of privacy from the government (which is absolutely important in many areas) but I have always been surprised at how little people seem to care that there are a handful of companies that are collecting as much if not more personal information about you than the government does.  And in some cases, it is not even close.

The times we live in I guess.

A while ago, I posted about how I needed to get back into the gym and lose some weight.  I hate being above 200 pounds, and I above that by enough that it is noticeable.  Unfortunately, I am awful at working out and eating right when I am on the road.  It’s an excuse, no doubt, but it’s just the way I am and I don’t have the desire to buckle down and change that.

Well, I have been off the road (more or less – a two day and one day trip still in the mix the last 14 days), and have been getting to the gym.  There is room for improvement for sure on the diet front, but I’m pleased with the progress.  I didn’t weight myself the first day I went to the gym – I was afraid it was going to be waaaaayyyyy to depressing.  I’m weighing myself a few times a week, and will always do it each Friday. 

I’ve had two official Friday weigh check points, so far and I’m off to a good start. I must not have been as bad as I thought since my first weight check after a week of working out showed me at 212.4 pounds.  I assume I was in the neighborhood of 215 when I started.  My weigh-in today was 208.9, so after two weeks I have probably dropped more than 5 pounds.  I’ve set a goal of two pounds a week.  We’ll see since that is pretty aggressive and I will need to get much better about my eating now that I have enjoyed that initial “bump” from just getting back into the gym.

I’m have a goal of getting below 190 by the end of January, but will be happy if I am in the 195 range.  As I start to get closer to 180 I start to feel a bit “skinny”, which I am not overly fond of either. 

I will admit it, I have been coming close and closer to breaking down and getting an iPhone.  I am spending more and more time on my phone (who isn’t?) and once iPhone got the ability to synch email with Exchange, along with a killer browser experience, I really felt my days as a Win Mobile phone user were numbered.  Throw in the tethering option next year and it was a done deal.

Now, however, there have been some rumblings about Win Mobile 6.5 coming in the not to distant future (http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/ballmer-confirms-windows-mobile-6-5-482993), and add on these cool “leaked” screen shots (http://wmpoweruser.com/?p=1653) and now I think I may hold off a bit longer, if possible.

Why do I say, if possible???  Well, the one detail (among many) that is sorely missing from these announcements is what kind of web browsing experience will be provided with Win Mobile 6.5/7.0.  The current experience absolutely sucks. IE 4 is awful.  I use Opera Mobile and it is better, but still pales to what the iPhone can do.  As soon as I can get an idea of what the browser story is, I will have to make some hard choices.  Go for the “available now” goodness or wait for the possibly outstanding experience later.

I’ve posted my Unity Overview presentation in the Download section for those that were interested.

Spaghetti Code joins Matt Milner and Shannon Braun to discuss their thoughts and experiences from the Microsoft Professional Developer Conference 2008.  Matt and Shannon discuss their ideas on Windows Azure, Windows 7, .NET 4.0 and more.  An entertaining and insightful discussion covering the gamut of technologies introduced at PDC 2008.

Ok, maybe that is a bit of an over-statement, but one of the things that really struck me during PDC 2008 was that the word SOAP was hardly mentioned, and when it was, it was in passing with a “ohh, yeah, SOAP too”.  It was mostly interesting because of how dramatically different it was than just a few years ago when SOAP was being dropped every other word.  This is a bit of a “well DUH” statement for many in the industry, but it was interesting to see it finally manifest itself “officially” at PDC.

This is not to say that SOAP  is going away. Microsoft is continuing to support SOAP.  The key takeaway is that SOAP is no longer the “use it every where all the time” type of technology that is was being positioned as not too long ago.  REST seems to be winning or has won the battle as the best way to send data across the wire.  It’s simple, easy to understand, and can be consumed or emitted by even the simplest of development environments.

SOAP still has its place in certain interop scenarios and other “-ability” type of situations.  But by and large, if you are tying systems together, I think it is best to start with REST and then see if you need to move to SOAP, and not the other way around.  With hard-wired network connectivity being very, very reliable and with stateless programming models dominating, a lot of the higher value services we used to need to compensate for poor networks or environments have decreased.

On that note, make sure you check out the WCF REST Starter Kit.  The Kit will help you get started building REST applications with guidance, templates and sampmles.  Check it out.

If you didn’t know already, you can now register for MIX 09.  This is a great conference for people that focus on web dev, next gen web, design, and includes ton of web designer and developer content.  Some of the sessions include topics such as visual design, user experience and designer/developer workflow. Technologies like Silverlight™, Internet Explorer®, Expression®, and ASP.NET will be on display and, or course, you will have a fantastic opportunity to network with other attendees, industry leaders, and Microsoft executives .

The conference will be held March 18-20, 2009 and is once again at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas.  A great conference and a chance to escape the long winter blues in a fantastic destination.  I will be holding a raffle to see who will get the privilege to smuggle me to Las Vegas in the luggage!