Southwest Fox - reasons to go

Although I'm certain that anyone that reads this blog and has interest in VFP already knows about the fabulous Southwest Fox conference, it is possible that they might not have seen the new brochure the organizers have posted.

They crafted this brochure to help would-be attendees convince decision makers that this conference is worth attending. (If the low cost and modest hotel prices weren't enough.)

I think they've done two great things in this brochure. First, they published the GLGDW style session abstracts which tell you exactly what you'll be getting out of the session. Instead of just reading the title "Introduction to Transact SQL" and having to guess for yourself whether you're ahead of or behind the session concepts, you can see exactly what the speaker is going to discuss.

There have been many times I've attended a session at a conference because the title sounded like something that might be of interest but turned out to be some other interpretation of those words that I hadn't imagined.

The other thing they've done is to post the speakers bios, which is fairly common, but demonstrates something that should be emphasized: Many of the speakers posted contact info right in the bios.

I think the brochure should have emphasized a couple things more strongly. One is that these speakers are all very accessible. I'm certain that nearly all, if not all, of the speakers will post their contact info during the session if they didn't do it in the bio. I've often heard - even at this conference - that the speakers seem to be "clique-y" (how the hell would you spell that word if it existed?) With some rare exceptions, this is far from the truth. I once might have even shared this opinion, but found that it was my perception that was wrong, not the speakers' attitudes. The fact that they all stand around in groups laughing with each other and talking about things both professional and personal demonstrates their inclusiveness and nothing else. Each of these people started out as some sort of attendee or "outsider" and got to know the others in person or online over time.

Any attendee should feel free to approach any of the speakers throughout the conference, whether it be around sessions, social events or the bar.

The second thing that should be enhanced is the value of networking. Some employers might see networking as an opportunity for an employee to find a better job. (And this is true.) The thing that the employer needs to recognize, though, is that this network gives a developer a peer group with which to bounce things around. There are countless shops that have a single developer or perhaps a pair. If these people aren't familiar with or don't have access to local user groups or online resources, they may be living in a vacuum. A developer really needs to be exposed to other ideas and procedures. (Also an argument for the conference.) Interacting with this peer group at the conference and after the conference can yield incalculable benefits for the employer in terms of better productivity, better code, and new resources that can save time and money down the road.

Finally, it might not happen to every developer, but I'm sure that it happens at least once per conference where an attendee feels that one session "paid" for the conference. This may sound ludicrous, but it does happen.

So, if you know someone who needs help getting approval, steer them towards the brochure and tell them to emphasize the openness and accessibility of the speakers and the long-term benefits of networking.

(Oh, the brochure is a PDF! It drives me nuts that the registration form is a Word Doc for the nth year in a row.)

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CTRL-TAB

I'm sure that pretty much everyone knows you can press ALT-TAB to move between open applications in Windows. I have often found myself trying to use ALT-TAB to move between open tabs or windows within applications such as Visual Studio and Visual FoxPro.

Some time ago, I was watching a video by Beth Massi on VB.NET's refactoring tools. In the video, I noticed that they were using CTRL-TAB to move between open tabs in Visual Studio. I didn't realize you could do that and thought it was pretty cool. When you do, you get a dialog like the one below and as you continue to press TAB the selection moves down the "Active Files" list until you let go of the CTRL key, just like ALT-TAB. This has already saved me a great deal of time and aggravation.

Not surprisingly, this also works in SQL Server Management Studio.

Just today, I decided to try CTRL-TAB in VFP. Guess what, it works! It doesn't bring up any sort of dialog but it does cycle through all the open windows. I'm sure all you veterans already knew this, but I just discovered it for the first time and I'm really happy to know it is there.

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Hamsterdam

My wife had to travel to Iowa for a short trip and brought back some minor gifts for the boys. My 5 year old has wanted a pet for some time and has been particularly interested in hamsters and guinea pigs and things like that.

So my wife found a stuffed hamster and brought it back. When she gave it to him, he was very excited. After a while, he asked "Where did you go? Hamsterdam?"

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Allowance Chair

We were fortunate enough to be swimming, outside, in Michigan, in early October. We had this wonderful spell of warm weather in the earlier part of the month.

As we were enjoying the warm weather, poolside, there were various chairs available. My wife and I were both reclining in the sun when my 5 year came up to us and said he'd like an "allowance chair" too.

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Polish Day

I have a few drafts that I never posted for one reason or another. This is the first:

On Saturday, October 20th, my wife was returning home with the kids and at the top of the exit ramp was a homeless person. My wife rolled the window down and handed the man a small amount of money. He said thank you and "Happy Sweetest Day."

My oldest son, from the back of the van, asked "What did he say?" So my wife explained the concept behind this Hallmark holiday. He thought about it for a moment and asked, "So is there a Polish Day, too?"

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FoxForward Surprise

Back in April, when Kevin Cully graciously invited me to speak at his conference, his email mentioned that he'd split any net profit with the speakers on a per session basis.

At the time, I thought that was a generous notion but certainly didn't expect that there would really be any net profit.

The conference was affordably priced and the snacks and lunches were plentiful. Oh, and it should be mentioned again that the sessions I attended were excellent.

So, it was quite a suprise to come in this morning and find a check from FoxForward! In Kevin's email from April, he said:

It probably won't be much at all, but it's better than nothing!

Well, it certainly exceeded my expectations and yes, it was definitely better than nothing!

Thanks, Kevin. I'm anxiously awaiting the announcement for FoxForward 2008!

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Are blondes becoming extinct?

This morning I was minding my own business reading an in-depth review of the Garmin Nuvi 660 after watching a CNET review of it on the Tivo last night. At the bottom of every page was an ad for one GPS device or another. Then at the bottom of page 5 was this:

I thought that was kind of strange and actually clicked on the "play video" (go ahead, you can too.) I showed my wife the video and we both thought it was pretty freaky.

What I didn't notice initially is that the video linked to the HarperCollins site. The video was an ad for a new Michael Crichton book called Next. For what it is worth, the book has received mediocre reviews on Amazon.com.

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