Sorry for the ridiculously late notice, but I'll be speaking on Monday, February 14th (uh...today) at Microsoft's ISV Community Days event on Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005.  I'll be presenting a "Lunch and Learn" session on ADO.NET 2.0, covering SQL Server 2005 CLR features, async and MARS (multiple active result set) querying, enhancements to typed DataSets, and the new data binding models in Windows Forms 2.0 and ASP.NET 2.0. The event will be held at the offices of ThinkPath at 195 Broadway, near Fulton (and the World Trade Center site -- I hate calling it "Ground Zero").  It's a $99 event and seems well worth it.  I'm told most of the content is coming from Redmond.

Again, sorry for the late notice but, have no fear, Microsoft will be repeating the event on March 17th.  Pretty cool that I will be speaking on both Saint Valentine's Day and Saint Patrick's Day.  Not bad for a Nice Jewish Boy, eh?.  Thanks to MS NY/NJ ISV DE (is that enough acronyms?) Sajee Mathew for inviting me to take part in the event.

Oh, I also just found out I'll be speaking at Tech Ed 2005, in lovely Orlando, in June.  At that talk I'll be covering Windows Forms 2.0 data binding exclusively.  Can you tell I like that topic?

I try very hard each Sunday morning to watch ABC's "This Week With George Stephanopoulos."  This is due to a combination of the time that it's on (9 am in New York), their Sunday Funnies segment that usually features outtakes from my all-time favorite television show "The Daily Show With John Stewart," and the fact that when David Brinkley hosted the show, it was actually pretty good.  Don't get me wrong...I think George Stephanopoulos is bright and astute, but he lobs mostly softballs at his guests, and, to paraphrase Lloyd Bentsen, he's no David Brinkley.  There's one other reason I still stay tuned...I actually like George Will.  George is a bit pompous of course, but he's a reasonable, honest and intelligent man, and he argues earnestly and skillfully.  I find it pretty tough to find another conservative on television I can describe as such. 

My nostalgia for the old crew and format was indulged today as Sam Donaldson and Cokie Roberts were brought back to sit on the round-table panel with the two Georges.  They discussed a number of recent news events and developments, one of which brings me genuine optimism, and one of which has rather the opposite effect.

On the positive side is what seems to be an improving situation in Israel and the occupied territories.  I honestly think the current initiative for peace is much more likely to fail than succeed, but it could just work out, and it would in any case be a mistake not acknowledge some genuine bravery and risk taking by both Abbas and, dare I say it, Sharon.  My gut feeling is that Abbas genuinely believes violent struggle to be pragmatically ineffective, not to mention immoral.  But beyond having his heart and brain in the right place, he seems pretty resourceful in his approach to influencing Hamas and Islamic Jihad to see likewise.  The danger there is that truly winning their confidence may require that he unreasonably compromise his current stance.  Time will tell.  For Sharon's part, it does seem that age and opportunity have swayed him toward a general desire to be seen as the one to deliver a secure peace to Israelis.  Time tends to moderate politicians, and Sharon's moderation was ironically pointed out by James Baker III, as he was interviewed by Stephanopoulos.  I say "ironically" because Baker himself seems to have moderated quite a bit since his Reagan-Bush days, as he provides genuine insight without much vitriolic Republican rhetoric.  Mind you, Baker is Senior Counselor with The Carlyle Group, so his conservative credentials are still well intact.

The negative development was Saturday's naming of Howard Dean as Chairman of the Democratic National Committee.  Words cannot convey my anguish and utter disappointment in the choice of Dean to be the face of the party I affiliate myself with.  With this choice in place, it's unclear to me whether the Democrats can ever transcend their role as the party of (seemingly perpetual) opposition.  What frustrates me is that the Democrats seem to have fabricated a false dichotomy between choosing leaders that are too conservative and those like Dean who lay rhetorical claim to espousing the party's core liberal values.  Certainly, Dems who fashion themselves essentially as imitation Republicans don't strike me as good choices (especially since people will prefer real Republicans every time).  But candidates making passionate arguments for progressive causes, who do so pragmatically, and who sensibly and promptly respond to FUD and slander hurled at them by their opponents are the ones who ought to be in leadership positions in the party.  The last guy the Democrats had in the White House was a pretty good example of that, and we need more like him (don't all flame me at once).  They're definitely out there. Martin O'Malley, the Mayor of Baltimore, who I heard speak at my niece's graduation at Goucher College, strikes me as one such Democrat; he was a genuinely moving speaker who exhibited maturity, charisma, and passion. The FUD on O'Malley has already started, so the Republicans must think he's a rising star too!  Hopefully, he'll respond appropritely and quickly, and provide a positive example for discouraged Democrats.

Lauren, Miles (wife, 4.5 month-old son) and I met friends Jeanette and Ben in Central Park to see "The Gates."  For those of you outside of New York, "The Gates" is a mega installation, by artists (and spouses) Christo and Jeanne-Claude, of orange quasi curtains/banners arranged throughout the entirety of Central Park.  According to the New York Times, the project "has required more than 1 million square feet of vinyl and 5,300 tons of steel, arrayed along 23 miles of footpaths throughout the park at a cost (borne exclusively by the artists) of $20 million."

For those of you in or near New York: go.  No matter what you think of the work specifically or of public art in general, you can't help but be impressed by the sheer scale of the project.  And once you see everyone in the park marveling and talking about the work, or just using the event as an excuse to go out and socialize, you'll tangibly appreciate why public art can be important and powerful.  My own photography skills won't do justice to the installation, but a couple of my photos should at least add some personal context.

Here's a snap of Lauren, Miles and Jeanette taken near the 72nd St and Central Park West entrance to the park:

and here's another photo where I tried to convey the scale of the work.  In your mind, you'll need to extrapolate these flags winding up, down and around the entire park (3 miles from north to south, and about a half mile from east to west).

The "exhibit" will only be up for two weeks.  Anyone who can go should do so, even if just for a few minutes.  I do think it will end up being an important bit of New York City history.

I've told literally no one that I have started a blog, so if you're reading this anywhere close to the day it was posted, you have my admiration.

I have long resisted the blog trend, but have recently come to the conclusion that such resistance is futile.  Within the world of tech writers and speakers, it has become the case that not having a blog is somewhat akin to not having a cell phone or an email address in the mainstream world: there are a few left who cling to such principles, but they seem to annoy or inconvenience everyone else.  So although I find this whole process a bit self-indulgent, I am now a blogger, and will do my best not to whine about something I've decided to partake in.

I have just returned from VSLive! San Francisco where I carried out my duties as a conference chair and speaker.  The show was unfortunately smaller than last year's, but still an excellent event, featuring separate sub-conferences on VB .NET, C#, ASP.NET, SQL Server, Windows Mobile/Tablet development and software architecture.  I do wish more people would attend third-party (i.e. non-Microsoft) shows like VSLive! than seem to.  On the other hand, there is something nice about the intimacy of a smaller show...I was able to socialize with a number of the speakers, touch base with friends at Kinitos and Business Objects, and at least say hi to old friends from Fawcette Technical Publications (who produce VSLive! and have done so --previously under the name VBITS -- since 1993).

I had a bona fide international happy hour on Thursday night with friend and customer Yukiko Ito of Zest in Tokyo, fellow RDs Malek Kemmou from Morocco and Goksin Bakir from Turkey, and a very nice fellow from Microsoft Finland named Juhani Vuorio.  It was fascinating for me to watch three of my friends and a new acquaintance interact so passionately in a common second language.  Also funny was how geekdom transcends cultural differences...we all debated the efficacy of SOAP even while extolling the virtues of Services Oriented Architecture.  We also had a good chat about the upcoming Visual Studio Team System, a product of which I am still quite ignorant.  I clearly have some homework to do.

We also found out from Juhani, who is an ISV Developer Evangelist, that about half the developers at his country's high tech breadwinner, Nokia, develop with Visual Studio, despite that company's anti-Microsoft bent.  Quite the factoid, that.

Today was a serious back in New York day...Lauren, Miles (wife, son) and I went up to Central Park to witness "The Gates."  For those who don't know, The Gates is a mega installation by artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude of orange quasi curtains/banners throughout the entirety of Central Park.  It just opened today and will be around for only two weeks, despite the fact that the project apparently began back in 1979! 

One more geeky thing before I close...I had a brief moment to sit with former RD and current Microsoft Visual Studio data tools mucky-muck Steve Lasker.  He showed me how Windows Forms Data Binding in Whidbey (.NET 2.0) can work harmoniously with objects, properties and generics.  Cool stuff!  And best of all, I was able to reproduce his demos from scratch on my laptop on the flight home.  What I will tell you now is that the BindingSource, BindingNavigator, and bound controls, including the new DataGridView, integrate incredibly tightly with .NET classes, allowing complete "CRUD" style operations over objects, lists of objects, and hierarchical relationships in your object model.  Imagine being able to add a new element to an object's child collection simply by typing a new row of data into a grid.  The stuff works so well its mechanics almost seem obvious.  I'll give more detail in a future post.