PADNUG November 2007

PADNUG (Portland Area Dot Net Users Group) was held at my work's campus center last night. Oh my goodness, there were a lot of people that showed up. Well, Microsoft did show up with the opportunity to get VS8 and provided good food from Pasta Pronto; my favorite was the alfredo sauce on penne pasta.

Before the "show" even started, there was some entertainment just watching the guys setup the audio and visual equipment. They did all kinds of jerry rigging to get three projectors to display on three screens (two of which they brought with them) from a single computer. Ok, you now know my secret, I am easily amused. :-)

VS8 was the primary topic of discussion, which focused on LINQ, but there was also a presenter on SilverLight. In the old school rules of being a developer, you stick the developer in front of a computer with internet access or at least access to reference books and leave him/her alone and the developer was happy as a clam. Those days are long gone. The developers must be presenters of their ideas and technologies, or to explain what their program does and how it did it. I must say that the presenters did a good job.

Scott Hanselman was one of the presenters, who is anything but boring. Chris Sells was in the audience heckling him, which made the presentation that much more entertaining.

Make someone's day and perform a random act of kindness. It could be as simple as inviting them to event.