So, about two weeks ago now I took Friday off from work to fly down to Melbourne, for the wedding of Paul Jenkins & Natalie Elbourne out in the Victorian countryside - Nat’s home town of Drouin.

You can read the rest of story, or just go straight to my photos from the wedding. (They’re higher quality than the versions shown here too)

 
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The Gold Coast has put on some great weather - nice and cool at night, warm and sunny during the day.
I’ve taken a bunch of photos during Tech.Ed, I’ll upload them soon. In the mean time - Nick Hodge has heaps of photos on his photo stream.

I’ve attended a bunch of interesting sessions - but there’s a heap of information on offer, so it’s easy to overload.

Next year I think MSFT needs to organise a few more social-networking things around the events. For example, get attendees to put ‘teched07au’ tags on photos on Flickr, and blog posts, etc. Use SMS-broadcasts (possibly through twitter) to inform people of session changes and things like that (link it back to their commnet subcription).
I’ll probably think of a bunch of other small improvements as time goes on.

Overall, it’s been good fun the last few days, and I have learnt things which are relevant to my job, and which will help a little further on too.

I’ve also successfully avoided the vendors who want to steal my information so they can sell me stuff.

Updates - LOLCode.NET, Movieworld, Bye-Bye Developer Guy

Nick gave his LOLCode presentation, to much incredulity by some people who attended.

Yes, LOLCode is a proper Turing complete language. And LOLCode.NET compiles into MSIL as well.

 Movie world was… interesting. About 3,000 people were packed into busses and trundled up to movie world for dinner and some rides.   There was the BatWing, Superman and a few others - we didn’t have access to the full park, but there was a large area open.

  Homeward Bound

Frank’s “Catch Up with Frank” talk was interrupted so he could be serenaded to a version of Don McLean’s “American Pie” called “Developer Guy”.

Cognitive Daily has a great piece about why Museums, Galleries, and Sites of Historical Significance (in particular those in Europe) need to change some of their practices.

It’s a good read, and expresses some of the things that, well, frustrated me about Europe.

Emphasis on the ‘allow photographs’ thing. Really. Please?

So, I spent a little while today going through the huge number of sessions on at Tech.Ed at the Gold Coast this year (160 or so) and picking out a rough guide for what I’m thinking of going to.

If anyone else is going and wants to meet up for a chat - drop me a line

Tuesday, August 7, 2007
09:10AM - 10:20AM
     DJ903 - Newcastle to Brisbane.

11:30AM (est) - Check In @ Crowne Plaza

6:30PM
    Welcome Party     

Wednesday, August 8, 2007
8:15AM
    Opening Keynote     

(9:00AM to 9:30AM is the tentative timeslot for Nick’s LOLCODE ‘ChalkTalk’. The Keynote runs until 9:45AM though.)

9:45AM
    CON204 - Introduction to Microsoft Windows CardSpace; OR     
    DEV231 A Lap around Microsoft Visual Studio 2008     

11:00AM Morning Tea     

11:30AM
    CON205 Programming Microsoft Windows Communication Foundation: A Developer’s Primer; OR
    DAT302 - Database Schema Versioning: How to Use Microsoft Visual Studio Team System for Database Professionals and Team Foundation Server to Version and Deploy Your Databases

12:45PM
    Lunch          

1:45PM
    ARC303 Principles and Patterns of Security; OR
    DEV301 “IronPython” and Dynamic Languages on .NET; OR
    WEB305 IIS7 for Developers     

3:00PM Afternoon Tea

3:30PM
    DEV305 Building Microsoft Windows Communication Foundation and Windows Workflow Foundation Applications with Microsoft Visual Studio 2008; OR
    WEB314 - Web 2.0 Programming

5:00PM
    ARC305 Architecting for Web Scale; OR
    DAT306 - Things You Need to Know for a Painless Upgrade to Microsoft SQL Server 2005     

6:15PM
    Ask the Experts     

Thursday, August 9, 2007
8:15AM
    DAT307 - Database Maintenance in Microsoft SQL Server 2005; OR     
    DEV308 A Lap around Microsoft Windows Presentation Foundation     

9:45AM
    DAT308 Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Security Best Practices; OR
    DEV317 - Microsoft Visual Basic: Tips and Tricks for the Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 IDE

11:00 AM Morning Tea

11:30AM
    DEV311 NET Framework 3.0 End-to-End: Putting the Pieces Together     

12:45PM
    Lunch     

1:45PM
    DEV312 Building a Complete Web Application Using ASP.NET Microsoft Visual Studio Codename 2008 (Part 1 of 2)     

3:00PMAfternoon Tea

3:30PM
    ARC311 - Windows Client .NET: Introducing the “Acropolis” Client Application Framework; OR     
    DEV347 Unit Testing and Test Driven Development     

5:00PM
    ARC310 Learning to live with the Static-typing Fascist and the Dynamic-typing Fanboy in your Enterprise… ; OR
    SEC304 - The fortified data center in your future: build it and they will come.     

6:15PM
    Final Party     

Friday, August 10, 2007
8:15AM
    DEV319 LINQ and XML for the Microsoft Visual Basic Developer; OR
    CON312 - Rules Engine Use and Extensibility in Microsoft Windows Workflow Foundation     

9:45AM
    DAT309 Implementing Scale-Out Solutions with Microsoft SQL Server 2005; OR:     
    DEV309 Best Practices for Team-Based Software Development     

11:00AM Morning Tea

11:30AM
    DEV315 Building a Complete Web Application Using ASP.NET “Orcas” and Microsoft Visual Studio Codename 2008 (Part 2 of 2); OR
    SEC313 - How Did They Find THAT?: Implementing the New Microsoft Fundamental Computer Investigation Guide for Windows     

12:45PM
    Lunch     

1:45PM
    SEC303 Securing Your Friends and Family; OR
    WEB301 - MS DLR for OSS developers     

3:10PM
    Closing Locknote     

Saturday, August 11, 2007

11:00AM
     Check out of Hotel

4:30PM-5:45PM
     DJ903 Brisbane to Newcastle

I made it to melbourne, minus my jacket (it’s still sitting on the back of my chair at home!), and a few other minor things.

It’s err.. pretty cold here.

An uneventful flight (always good) and touched down ~10mins early.

I missed lunch, and I’m now really regretting it - going out to take a few photos before the light goes completely.

Updated: Monday, 11PM

First day at ReMIX 07 was good, presentations were great, for the most part (more on that later - and I’m sure Paul will have a good writeup & photos)

Two things of note.

#1 - Delivered Frank’s T-Shirt.

Read all about the background behind the shirt’s text here. Frank seemed pleased with the shirt, and it drew a few comments - so, score 1 for me.

#2 - Wifi at Crown Promenad
I think I have to let the Lolcat say it:

I’m off to Melbourne for about 8 days, starting Sunday.

I’m going to ReMIX, catching up with work people who I havn’t met, doing a server migration… oh, and going to Paul & Chix0rs engagement party.

I’m taking the camera, and depending upon airport security, the tripod too - so I hope to take some photos whilst I’m down there.

Here’s a rough itinerary:

Sunday 24th June:
- 12:35PM: Williamtown to Melbourne, Virgin Blue Flight DJ692, Arriving 2:05pm
- Check in @ The Albany.

Monday 25th:
- 8:30 AM - 5:30 PM: ReMIX Melbourne, Day 1
- 5:30 pm - 10:00 pm WebJam & Galactic Circus festivities

Tuesday 26th:
- 8AM-5:30PM: ReMIX Melbourne, Day 2
- Dinner w/ Paul, somewhere interesting.

Wednesday 27th:
- 8AM-5PM: Work, Exhibition St.
- 5PM-7PM: Grab dinner somewhere
- 7PM-10PM: Work, Server migration & App Upgrade.

Thursday 28th:
- 8AM-5PM: Work - Exhibition St.

Friday 29th:
- 8AM-5PM: Work - Exhibition St.

Saturday 30th:
- Paul & Chickz0r’s Engagement Party

Sunday 1st July:
- 1:30pm: Melbourne to Williamtown, Qantaslink Flight QF2796, Arriving 3:55

SMS or Call me: +61 400 486 399 or 0400 486 399.

One big win for last week, which I havn’t mentioned was that work is picking up the tab for my TechEd 2007 ticket. (Thanks, Malcolm - even though I’m sure you don’t read my blog)

So, I’ve gone ahead and booked flights and accomodation for then.

Looks like I’m going to be busy in the next few months - Google Developer Day in Sydney on May 31st (free), ReMIX in Melbourne on June 25-26th ($140), and finally TechEd on August 7-11.

Thanks to Paul’s alerts via SMS & MSN, and both Frank Arrigo and Andrew Coates - I’ve registered myself for the Developer Track for ReMIX Melbourne 2007.

I’ll be in Melbourne from Sunday 24th June to Sunday 1st July.

Rough Itinerary:
Sunday 24th June:
- 12:35PM: Williamtown to Melbourne, Virgin Blue Flight DJ692, Arriving 2:05pm
- Check in @ The Albany.

Monday:
- 8AM-6:15PM: ReMIX Melbourne, Day 1

Tuesday:
- 8AM-6:15PM: ReMIX Melbourne, Day 2
- ? ‘ReMIX After Party’ @ Galactic Circus.

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday:
- 8AM-5PM: Work - Exhibition St. Melbourne
(One of the benefits of working for a large company - we’ve got offices everywhere)

Saturday
- Paul & Chickz0r’s Engagement Party

Sunday 1st July:
- 1:30pm: Melbourne to Williamtown, Qantaslink Flight QF2796, Arriving 3:55

Well, after looking at all the working visa situation, it looks like I won’t be able to actually move to the UK to work.

I was looking at a Working Holiday Maker visa, and the Highly Skilled Migrants Programme - the problem is, the working holidaymaker visa only allows you to work for 12 months. Which, if I was going to the trouble of actually moving any of my stuff over there - probably isn’t long enough for it to pay off.  The HSMP is also out - since I’d need a degree as a minimum, before I would have enough points.

That’s really annoying, since I was looking forward to the Banana and Nutella Crepes in France.  (Add some chopped peanuts, and a drizzle of raspberry sauce… mmmm - chocolate banana split sundae crepe).

So, instead I’m going to see if I can complete my HSC (finally) and then finish all those half-completed TAFE courses. Then, I’ll look at Comp Sci or something like that at University.

While I was waiting… I took a few snaps out the terminal windows. Unfortunately, I forgot that the ISO setting was on 1600*, so the images are a bit grainy (I’ve done some editing to try and reduce that, but it’s still grainy)

 
Three Virgins.

 
The kid with the biggest toys.

* Canon, damnit, you need to put the current ISO setting in the viewfinder!