Tablet UML News

I'll be there, too!

Martin L. Shoemaker — 2007-04-10T14:04+00:00

Will you?

My speaking and other travel schedule (Revised April 10, 2007)

Martin L. Shoemaker — 2007-04-10T14:04+00:00

UPDATE: To make it easier to find this entry, I've added a link to it in the right sidebar, right under the links for my books and my classes.

West Michigan .NET User Group in Grand Rapids MI. April 17. Topic: Dee Jay: A Voice-Controlled Juke Box for Windows Vista.

Ann Arbor Day of .NET in Ann Arbor MI. May 5. Topic: Talking with Vista.

West Michigan Day of .NET in Grand Rapids MI. May 5. Topics: Do, Undo, Redo, Do Over: A Generics Command Pattern Implementation; Talking with Vista.

Huntsville New Technology User Group in Huntsville AL. September 11. Topic: Dee Jay: A Voice-Controlled Juke Box for Windows Vista.

I'll be there!

Martin L. Shoemaker — 2007-04-06T12:04+00:00

Will you?

Generically speaking II

Martin L. Shoemaker — 2007-02-25T22:02+00:00

The slides and code samples for my generic talks are now up at the GANG site.

You can also find them here:

Everything You Never Wanted to Know About .NET Generics (But Were Afraid Someone Would Ask)

Do, Undo, Redo, Do Over: A Generics Command Pattern Implementation

Generically speaking

Martin L. Shoemaker — 2007-02-21T13:02+00:00

I'll be speaking on a .NET generic implementation of Undo, Redo, Scripting, and Logging at GANG tonight.

Help me help someone

Martin L. Shoemaker — 2006-12-02T23:12+00:00

As some of you may know, I have been named an MVP for Visual Development (C#) by Microsoft. The MVP program is an effort by Microsoft to recognize people in the community who help other people to learn and use Microsoft's technologies. They give us advance information and other perks because they know we're enthusiastic supporters of their products. They hope that their supporting us will help us to build the community of satisfied Microsoft users.

As part of that growth effort, early this year they sent us each three coupons for MSDN Premium Subscriptions, with the instruction that we were to use them to help the community. They gave us no rules or guidelines beyond that. MSDN Premium is a developer suite consisting of pretty much every development tool Microsoft has, plus developer licenses for Office, SQL Server, and every operating system Microsoft publishes. There's lots of other stuff as well. It's everything a developer needs to develop for the MS platforms.

I'm trying to take seriously the commission to use these coupons for the good of the community. I gave my first coupon to a friend of a friend who was out of work, and who wanted to upgrade his skill set. I figured that was a good cause. I gave my second coupon to the West Michigan .NET User Group where I was speaking, so that they could offer it as a door prize to help promote the group. Good .NET groups are a great way to spread .NET programming knowledge.

But I'm still trying to find a home for the final MSDN Premium Subscription before year end; and I really want to make this one count. I would like it to go to a good cause; but I'm not sure what that cause should be, so I'm asking for your help. Maybe you know a way I can use this to help a good cause. Maybe you know a good charity that could use it, or maybe a really deserving person who could use it to get into a development job. When I give this one away, I want to feel like Microsoft and I made a difference in some way.

So if you have a suggestion for a way to put this coupon to good use, please let me know. Either leave a comment, or send an email to MSDN*at*TabletUML*dot*com (address obscured to cut down on spam — you can figure it out). I'll take all suggestions from now until next Friday. Then I'll review them, decide which looks like the best (as judged by me and some trusted friends), and announce the results in the following week.

A lot of people would like this for the free stuff. I understand that. If you're going to suggest I give it to you, I won't ask you not to; but please consider if you're doing so for the free stuff, or because you really have a need for it. I'll listen to your justification; but the coupon will go where I think it will do the most good.

I really hope you can help me here. Thanks!

The 21st Century Cocktail Napkin presentation is now available on-line!

Martin L. Shoemaker — 2006-10-16T03:10+00:00

The 21st Century Cocktail Napkin is a talk I presented to the Ann Arbor .NET Developers group on June 14. It's an example of a smart cocktail napkin application built using the Tablet PC API. In a a smart cocktail napkin application, you draw shapes as part of some design you'll share with other readers; but as you draw, the Tablet PC also recognizes and understands what you draw, and creates information behind the drawing. (For an example of a smart cocktail napkin application, you can start here.)

Now, thanks to Camtasia Studio, I have a recording of this presentation. And thanks to YouTube, I can now present it to you on-line:

And you can also download a ZIP file of the slides and the sample code.

Look for more recorded presentations soon. And if you're looking for an easy-to-use UML tool for Tablet PCs, check out Tablet UML.

Conversation this a.m.

Martin L. Shoemaker — 2006-10-11T03:10+00:00

Martin: Who's speaking at AA.NET tomorrow?

Josh: Let me check my notes...

Lots of mousing...

Josh: Oh... He-heh... I am. I'm glad you asked.

Ever wondered how well Josh Holmes can think on his feet? Come see at the Ann Arbor .NET Developers group Wednesday, October 11, at the Ann Arbor IT-Zone. His topic will be: ASP.NET stuff that you don't see at a typical presentation.