Tuesday, August 30, 2005 - Posts

Shelter from the Storm

We have witnessed an unfathomable catastrophe with over a million Americans now Homeless.

New Orleans is underwater, Mississippi has been torn asunder. Rescue efforts continue, the flood waters will receded and the clean-up will follow. People need shelter, insurance and federal assistance will help many, but a major effort to tap the generosity of the American people will be necessary.

In most of the devastated areas there is no electrical power, no telephones and the Cell towers are down. Fresh clean water and food are the basic necessities that the Charities and Federal authorities will deliver, but all of us need to help our people rebuild. It is my hope that the Technology Companies will take the lead, we’re well connected by networks and blogs, let’s put them to good use.

Habitat for Humanity is a good option: Help Hurricane Victims Rebuild Their Lives

The American Red Cross knows how to help people in need.    KatrinaSafe.com

Building a Better Community  The Baton Rouge Area Foundation has established two funds designated to benefit those impacted by Hurricane Katrina.

CodeGallery


CodeGallery is a site where you and other developers, IT professionals, and Microsoft employees can share, find, download, evaluate and discuss evolving .NET applications, uncompiled code, ideas, and technical documents.
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CodeGallery is here

Each CodeGallery project is a “micro-community” on GotDotNet that is focused on collaborative feedback and code, documentation and idea sharing.

Thanks to the efforts of the new GotDotNet Team, they have improved the bandwith and response time of the site and are now expanding it as a resourse for developers utilizing Microsoft technologies.

Betsy Aoki, James Newkirk, Sandy Khaund, Doug Seven
Meet them live and in person in the community area at the PDC

Show off at PDC

"Why demo your cool application to a few friends, when you can Show Off to thousands of your peers at the PDC?"

 

At this year’s PDC, we’ll be hosting our first-ever Show Off event. What the heck is Show Off, you ask? Well, Show Off is an evening event held at the PDC where you can show off your application, tip, tool, technique, animation, or anything cool that can help or inspire other developers. We’re asking you to submit a short video demonstrating what you want to show off. You can read this blog post for more information.

Even if you don’t have anything to submit, we’d love all PDC attendees to come to the Show Off event to cheer on their fellow developers in recognition of their great work. This event is by developers for developers, or to use the correct marketing lingo: Developer Powered!

We want to keep it simple, so here are the guidelines:

  • You and/or your team put together a single WMV file that shows off something cool about your application, tool, technique (or whatever).
  • This is a Microsoft developer conference, so make sure that it uses at least some of our technology.
  • Videos are limited to 5 minutes and should not include credits. We’ll add credits to the beginning of each video.
  • If you want to use a screen capture application like Camtasia Studio, HyperCam, or Windows Media Encoder, go for it! We’ll be showing these on a big screen, so please be sure to record at high quality.
  • Be creative. Show something cool that would excite your peers.
  • No crude language, nudity, or commercials.
  • To submit your video, host the WMV file in a private, but internet-reachable location (FTP/HTTP/etc.). Then, when you fill out the submission e-mail, let us know where it is, and we'll collect it for consideration. Do not post its location publicly.
  • We reserve the right to pick which videos we show at the PDC for completely arbitrary and geeky reasons.
  • After the Show Off event at the PDC, you give us permission to post your video on Channel 9 for the whole world to see.
  • All submissions must be made no later than Thursday, September 8th, at 5:00pm Pacific time.

If you’d like to submit a video for consideration, click the link at the bottom of this post and send us an e-mail that includes all of the following information (you might want to copy & paste this list to make it easier):

  • Names of people who should receive credit
  • Name of your organization (if any)
  • Contact information (e-mail, URL, etc.)
  • Title of the video