garyshort.org

No Taxation Without Representation!

Gary Short — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 10:48:59 GMT

So my eldest daughter has just left school and she’s gotten herself a job whilst waiting to go to University. She got her first pay packet and paid her first tax; welcome to the adult world! Only, she’s not an adult, in fact she’s only recently turned 17 which means she’s too young to vote. So a government that she didn’t vote for, nor can she vote to remove, still feels it has the right to tax her. Hmm, that just doesn’t feel right to me. In fact I seem to remember a certain Reverend saying the same thing in Boston a while back and that didn’t end well for the government of the day. If you are too young to vote, you are too young to pay tax I say!

Technorati tags: UK Government, Taxation

Daniel Moth Tribute Podcast

Gary Short — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 17:39:24 GMT

If you know Daniel Moth, you may want to listen to this podcast.

Technorati tags: Daniel Moth, Podcast

Dustin and the Steak

Gary Short — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 16:59:36 GMT

Dustin faces up the "The Steak" at a Developer Express dinner. My money's on "The Steak" LOL

Technorati tags: Developer Express, Dustin Campbell

Scott Hanselman and Coderush

Gary Short — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 21:39:53 GMT

Check out this video showing what happened when Scott Hanselman stopped by the DevEx booth whilst Mark Miller was demonstrating Coderush. Watch it all the way the end and you'll find out Scott's grandparents came from the same small town in Scotland where I was brought up. Small world eh?

Technorati tags: Scott Hanselman, Coderush, Carnoustie

Gone Fishin'

Gary Short — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 21:13:51 GMT

Well that's not true, but I'm not around at the moment, I'm currently hanging out at TechEd 2008 in Orlando - if you happen to be there, stop by the Developer Express booth and say hi. The usual drivel will be resumed on my return :-)

Technorati tags: TechEd 2008

Chatting with Andrew Westgarth VBUG Chairman

Gary Short — Thu, 22 May 2008 14:43:29 GMT

After my talk at the Newcastle branch of VBUG, I caught up with Andy and had a few words about his role within the organisation.

Technorati tags: Andrew Westgarth, VBUG Newcastle, Community

Off to VBUG Newcastle Today

Gary Short — Wed, 21 May 2008 09:30:12 GMT

I'm speaking at VBUG Newcastle this evening on the subject of the Web Client Software Factory, if you are coming along and you read this blog, then don't forget to say hi!

Technorati tags: VBUG Newcastle, Web Client Software Factory, Community

Interview with Julian Bucknall - Developer Express CTO

Gary Short — Fri, 16 May 2008 07:24:20 GMT

A sit down interview with Developer Express CTO Julian Bucknall, where he talks about the latest Developer Express news.

Technorati tags: Julian Bucknall, Developer Express

Developer Day Scotland - and the Votes are in!

Gary Short — Mon, 12 May 2008 18:28:08 GMT

Yes that's right, Colin Mackay has pulled out all the stops and has gotten the audience feedback from the event (which only finished two days ago) out to us speakers. My talk on the Web Client Software Factory seemed to go down well. My scores (out of 5) were as follows:-

Presentation as Expected?	Overall	Slides	Demos	Information
4.2	4.3	4.1	4.2	4.3

The free form comments were:-

What did you like about the presentation?

"Live" Demo

Kept Momentum through glitches.
Good overview of positive and negative.
Engaging the audience.
Good speaker
Relaxed and informative
Great presenter. Very informative
Good speaker. Good content.
I learned something
Excellent speaker despite technical problems.

The technical problems they were referring too was the fact that Powerpoint decided to advance my slides automatically for me at an ever increasing pace, I had to stop it and restart the presentation to get it to behave; weird, never seen Powerpoint do that before.

What didn't you like about the presentation?
Would have been nice to have a “here’s one I prepared earlier” due to generation speed.
Fizzy water.
Difficult topic for one hour
Speaker very good talker

Although I'm not sure that last one belongs in the "didn't like" category. :-)

Any other comments?
Excellent talk!
The version I saw in Dundee was better.
Sorry I was late in.

So all and all I'm very pleased with how it went, and I'll take the negative comments on board and I'm sure the next time I give this talk (VBUG, Newcastle May 21) it'll be even better.

Technorati tags: DDD Scotland, Community, VBUG

Developer Day Scotland Redux

Gary Short — Sun, 11 May 2008 17:42:11 GMT

Well I got back from Developer Day Scotland this morning and what can I say? I had a great time. There were lots of great speakers and everyone who attended seemed to have a good time and, most importantly, learned lots too.

I'd also like to say what a great Job Colin Mackay did of organising the event, though it did take a lot out of him, here he is looking a bit tired during the geek dinner

And it was a pretty embarrassed Colin, who a few moments later, was presented with a set of cuff links for his sterling efforts. Well done Colin!

Technorati tags: DDD Scotland, community, Colin Mackay