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Blame Steve Ballmer
Jun. 19th, 2004 09:30 amPete and Kerri. United by matrimony and a common cold. I got up early to spare her the sounds of my coughing and spluttering. And I couldn't sleep anyway.
Yesterday was heaven on a stick for me. Apart from an increasingly congested nose and weather that echoed my condition.
Blame Steve Ballmer for it. At a Microsoft company rally a few years back he stressed that the people who were important to the company were "Developers, developers, developers..." in a kind of frenzied, sweaty, mania. Awesome stuff.
Ever since then, Microsoft has been very good to developers. I've certainly enjoyed the ride.
Yesterday was yet another big freebie. Microsoft had a security and management roadshow, mainly to show off some new server products and to talk about the security aspects of XP Service Pack 2, which is at Release Candidate 2 stage, a few weeks away from Release To Market.
I missed an earlier event in February due to the builders taking longer to finish the kitchen than planned. So I wasn't going to miss this, even though I felt very seedy indeed. Kerri was kind enough to drive me into town, saving me half an hour in the cold. I ducked through Glebe Park on the way, looking for a book scheduled for release there. Hadn't arrived yet, so I left one of my own, a much loved copy of Christy.
Inside the nearby National Convention Centre it was Geek City. I felt right at home. Registered and was given a bag full of goodies, including a pack of about 20 CDs and DVDs - 120-day demo editions of many of the high end servers and tools and reources for same. A nifty security pack with a little combination padlock marked Microsoft. Cute. Magazines and papers and vouchers. Lots of groovy gear.
Coffee. Mmmm. Took a mug into the theatre and watched three Microsoft heavies give a presentation, the details of which I've forgotten. The next three sessions were worth it. I'd planned on skipping one of them, but after seeing the first one I stuck around. Jasper Johannson is a senior security chief with Microsoft and he is just fantastic. Knows his stuff, knows how to present it and is funny with it. Great presenter. I talked about inject SQL attacks a week or so back, but Jasper just blew that away. Instead of using injected SQL to feel his way around a database in a methodical fashion, he used it to upload and execute a hacking tool straight through the firewall. No mucking about. Thirty seconds and he owned the system.
That was interesting. so was the story about users who would give away their bank passwords for chocolate.
We had a juice break, coffee with muffins and lunch in between sessions. Mmmmm. There was a final session, we filled out the eval forms and got a sweety of a 32MB thumb drive. Nice.
Then it was upstairs for the twilight developers session, where we had a sit-down dinner, free beer and wine and a strolling presenter. Chuck Sterling threw copies of Visual Studio 2005 into the crowd, perhaps revealing how he'd got his name, then we filled in another eval, got another thumb drive and it was past eight, dark and cold outside. I pulled on my jacket and beanie and walked home, a heavy load of goodies in my bag. Gave my daugher one of the USB keys - she can use it to transfer stuff between home and uni.
We watched Jim Carrey in Liar, Liar! and then settled down to a disturbed sleep.
Must try out some of this gear.
Pete, A1 certified nerd
Yesterday was heaven on a stick for me. Apart from an increasingly congested nose and weather that echoed my condition.
Blame Steve Ballmer for it. At a Microsoft company rally a few years back he stressed that the people who were important to the company were "Developers, developers, developers..." in a kind of frenzied, sweaty, mania. Awesome stuff.
Ever since then, Microsoft has been very good to developers. I've certainly enjoyed the ride.
Yesterday was yet another big freebie. Microsoft had a security and management roadshow, mainly to show off some new server products and to talk about the security aspects of XP Service Pack 2, which is at Release Candidate 2 stage, a few weeks away from Release To Market.
I missed an earlier event in February due to the builders taking longer to finish the kitchen than planned. So I wasn't going to miss this, even though I felt very seedy indeed. Kerri was kind enough to drive me into town, saving me half an hour in the cold. I ducked through Glebe Park on the way, looking for a book scheduled for release there. Hadn't arrived yet, so I left one of my own, a much loved copy of Christy.
Inside the nearby National Convention Centre it was Geek City. I felt right at home. Registered and was given a bag full of goodies, including a pack of about 20 CDs and DVDs - 120-day demo editions of many of the high end servers and tools and reources for same. A nifty security pack with a little combination padlock marked Microsoft. Cute. Magazines and papers and vouchers. Lots of groovy gear.
Coffee. Mmmm. Took a mug into the theatre and watched three Microsoft heavies give a presentation, the details of which I've forgotten. The next three sessions were worth it. I'd planned on skipping one of them, but after seeing the first one I stuck around. Jasper Johannson is a senior security chief with Microsoft and he is just fantastic. Knows his stuff, knows how to present it and is funny with it. Great presenter. I talked about inject SQL attacks a week or so back, but Jasper just blew that away. Instead of using injected SQL to feel his way around a database in a methodical fashion, he used it to upload and execute a hacking tool straight through the firewall. No mucking about. Thirty seconds and he owned the system.
That was interesting. so was the story about users who would give away their bank passwords for chocolate.
We had a juice break, coffee with muffins and lunch in between sessions. Mmmmm. There was a final session, we filled out the eval forms and got a sweety of a 32MB thumb drive. Nice.
Then it was upstairs for the twilight developers session, where we had a sit-down dinner, free beer and wine and a strolling presenter. Chuck Sterling threw copies of Visual Studio 2005 into the crowd, perhaps revealing how he'd got his name, then we filled in another eval, got another thumb drive and it was past eight, dark and cold outside. I pulled on my jacket and beanie and walked home, a heavy load of goodies in my bag. Gave my daugher one of the USB keys - she can use it to transfer stuff between home and uni.
We watched Jim Carrey in Liar, Liar! and then settled down to a disturbed sleep.
Must try out some of this gear.
Pete, A1 certified nerd
