West Michigan .NET Talk — BTSharp

David Smith gave a great talk about his BitTorrent library BTSharp today at the Watermark Country Club. Nestled in that talk were quite a few great nuggets of information; how bit torrent works, multi-threading, locking objects, it was a really interesting and educational talk! David’s talks are full of enthusiasm and charisma, if anyone has a chance to hear a talk he’s giving I highly recommend it!

After the talk David and I sat down for a bite to eat with Microsoft MVP Steve Schofield. I thoroughly enjoyed the conversation. It’s not often I get to sit down and chat with people about marketing and software development. Of course conversation topics changed, and i admit the phrase “I’m adding you to my blogroll.” crossed my lips. Not really sure what else i’m supposed to say, when i’m lucky enough to meet and hang with such interesting company.

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World Cup Discomfort

Watching the world cup made me think of many things, mainly since when do Americans get to refer to the sport of football as soccer? European football was around much longer than American Football and well the originator of the name!

here’s a bit of information i found at About.com

In England, King Edward III passed laws in 1331 to try and suppress football. In Scotland, King James 1, in 1424, proclaimed in Parliament, “That na man play at the Fute-ball” (No man shall play football/soccer).

That predates the United States, therefore must predate American football.However, here lies my question: Who does an US citizen root for during the World Cup? Ben Hammersley mentioned being a non-native in the Italy at the time that the Italian team won the World Cup. “It wasn’t my moment.” He wrote. That makes me wonder who should the US citizens root for? I’ve always been a fan of the heritage. Or this year I admit I was gunning for France to win (one of my best friends’ family is from France).

So when the US got knocked out after match play who is the kid from Metro-Detroit supposed to root for?

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Two UMPC Contests!!!

Microsoft “You and Your (Virtual) UMPC” Contest —
What you need to do: Submit a photo (no more then 1 MB in size) that depicts the potential power of a UMPC.

What you could win: The three top winners each get a $600 (USD) cash prize. Five runners-up will get a Slingboxâ„¢ device, or a cash equivalent if the winner is in a location where they are not available.

Contest Deadline: July 23, 2006
Link: http://origamiproject.com/contest/contest.aspx

Handango UMPC Application Contest —
What you need to do: “By converting your existing mobile applications or creating an entirely new title for Tablet PC and UMPC, you’ll be eligible to win one of three Ultra-Mobile PCs! Personal Productivity, Travel, Fitness, Medical, Multimedia, and Entertainment titles are all great fits for our catalog.
What you could win: A UMPC! One winner per category!

Contest Deadline: August 31, 2006

Link: Here

Good Luck!

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What’s With Blogs?

So I think it started some time earlier, but the most recent occurance happened over the holiday weekend. I was up at the family cottage and like any nosey mother, mine just had to ask what I was reading when she saw Naked Conversations by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel sitting in front of my on the coffee table. The “oh it’s about blogging” did NOT suffice! We can all guess what her next question was, “What’s blogging?”

After i’m sure my 5 minute explaination was good enough but it got me wondering. Surely my mother who is fairly up to speed on technology (she keeps asking me when i’ll get a UMPC) wasn’t in the dark about blogging? Well no, i wasn’t entirely wrong. She knew it was “like a journal” in her words.

According to Wikipedia:

A weblog, which is usually shortened to blog, is a website where regular entries are made (such as in a journal or diary) and presented in reverse chronological order. Blogs often offer commentary or news on a particular subject, such as food, politics, or local news; some function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. Most blogs are primarily textual although many focus on photographs, videos or audio. The word blog can also be used as a verb, meaning adding an entry to a blog.

Now, our conversation lasted a little more than 15 minutes on the topic of blogging, me explaining how people like Scoble could blog and that it wasn’t “trade secrets” that were written about, but i made sure to mention that sensitive content could just as easily be posted. I explained that in this day and age blogging is as much publicity as it is a diary. So what’s with blogging? Not too sure, but it’s not going away. I think it may just be one of the best tools for a person to sell themselves, post their images from a family party, or keep in touch with buddies from high school.

What purpose does your blog serve?

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