I was supposed to fly to Seattle today (that's a cross country trip for me) by way of Chicago O'Hare. O'Hare was closed yesterday with something like 400 flights cancelled because of the weather, so I was a little nervous about what might happen with a 7:30am flight out of Burlington, where we were also having nasty weather and a forecast of snow in the morning). So I changed my flights to Monday (United was letting travellers do this without penalties) and freed up my seats on today's flights for some happy person stuck in Chicago.

I looked today on the United site and saw that both of my flights went without a hitch and on time. But, it was still a great thing that I happened to do this since our power went out at 6pm last night and didn't come back on till 8am (very high winds and big nasty storm - trees down everywhere!). So I would never have been able to get my act together to get out the door at 6am this morning for a week long trip anyway.

Happily it was a nice day today so I got to spend it with my hubby doing errands (including finally replacing my 12 year old UGLY ski jacket!) and going for a nice walk out to some hidden falls in the forest behind our house. He had never seen them before and I had only seen them for the first time a week ago. I forgot to bring my camera though. (Next time, I promise, so I can share.) Becaue of all the rain in the past days, the streams and rivers around here are wild so the falls and the streams around it were amazing!

Sad news to see Deer Leap Books, a wonderful independent bookstore in Bristol, VT (nearby town) closing. I've definitely tried to do my book buying there when I can, because I want to see these shops succeed. Bristol is a community that loves and supports their local businesses. Another wonderful business, Angel Heart, is closing too. Very special store. The owner has lived in Nepal (or somewhere like that) for many years and buys fabulous stuff there and ships them back to the U.S. for the store which her sister (a true New Yorker that amazingly survived in small town Vermont!) ran. They also have the best collection of ageless toys that we had as kids and is fun to buy for our nieces and nephews. And some awesome classic "joke gifts" too.

Web Developer/Programmer position:
Location: Middlebury, Vermont

We are a successful and established Vermont e-commerce web site development and Web marketing firm that offers a fun and stimulating environment with great co-workers, flexible schedules and lots of contact with interesting clients. 

We are looking for a responsible, team-oriented individual who is interested in programming for Web development in a Microsoft environment. Candidate should be as comfortable in front of the client as in front of the computer and be technologically inquisitive. You will need an understanding of Object-Oriented development, .NET 1.1/2.0, ASP.NET, VB.NET, Visual Studio 2003/2005, and MS SQL. Web design skills and Flash would be a plus.

Salary is commensurate with experience. Love of dark chocolate and interest in bicycling and/or fencing a plus.
 
Candidate must be a US citizen or possess valid green card.

Please respond with resume: jobs@tli2.com.  No phone calls please.

Timberline Interactive, Inc.
PO Box 992, Middlebury, VT 05753
We are an Equal Opportunity Employer offering health
Benefits and competitive salaries

Oracle DBA/SAP Basis Administrator

Burton Snowboards is looking for a talented senior level administrator to join our fast-paced IT team to help manage our enterprise database and SAP Basis environments. This position requires a broad set of skills and will be responsible for designing, installing, configuring, documenting, and supporting Oracle databases in an SAP environment as well as providing SAP Basis administration support in a MySAP/ERP/Netweaver landscape.

Responsibilities include installing and configuring software, applying patches, disaster recovery processes, backup and recovery procedures, capacity planning, and regular maintenance tasks. Maintaining database availability, including: monitoring, alerting, and proactively maintaining databases to avoid loss of database access and availability. Database performance tuning--including analysis, performance optimization, and memory management. Experience with Oracle-specific backup, refresh, and restore procedures is essential. SAP Basis administration duties include archiving, performance tuning, security and user administration.

A Bachelor’s degree in an appropriate field and a minimum of 3 years of senior level experience managing Oracle databases in an enterprise ERP environment is required. Demonstrated experience with planning, designing, configuring, installing, and troubleshooting Oracle 9i/10g is needed. Preferred candidates will be well-versed in Oracle SQL and PL/SQL and have previous, demonstrable experience supporting SAP. Familiarity with Linux file systems, tape backup procedures, and SAN environments is a plus. This position requires strong oral, written and organization skills, excellent time and project management skills, and a strong ability to prioritize tasks.

To apply: Please complete our online application at www.burton.com

Clearing up few points of common confusion about the next version of ADO.NET... read more

[A DevLife post]

Title:  IT Marketing Analyst

Location: Bennington, Vermont

Perks:  Relocation assistance available, plus excellent benefits

Salary:  $65,000 - $75,000++

Type position:  permanent (not contract)

This is truly a unique, positive company with a hi-tech environment and significant focus on marketing and customer support.  Great corporate culture!   The IT Marketing Analyst will be a key player in all MARKETING efforts for this well-established and highly successful Vermont company.  Will be part of IT staff, but work closely with internal Marketing groups to develop & enhance critical reporting systems which analyze customer behavior and buying patterns; will provide business analysis to increase the success of corporate marketing programs. Will also assist IT groups in recommending database and user interface to support; assist tech-support team in supporting software infrastructure to optimize performance and usability of end-user tools; test new versions of software developed for the marketing groups.   Company will assist with relocation costs for qualified candidates in state (Vermont) or out of state.   They will not allow telecommuting – you must live within commuting distance from the position. 

 Requirements 

●         Ideal candidate will have strong IT experience combined with strong marketing knowledge or be an experienced marketing analyst with very good computer skills. 

●         Technical skills should include some of the following: BI / Business intelligence and reporting tools and techniques (e.g. Business Objects, MS Reporting Services, Crystal Reports); and Relational and/or Dimensional database design in data warehouse database; Oracle and/or SQL Server database tools and techniques.

●         Skills in scripting languages preferred:  VBScript, PL/SQL, Visual Basic or .Net. or SAS.

●         Experience with IT Analysis in marketing concepts such analytics, CRM, data analysis, Business Intelligence, eCommerce, data mining, SAS or statistical tools are desirable.

●         Bright creative person with solid technical skills who takes initiative and contributes creatively to project and team goals.

●         BS Computer Science, Marketing or Business is preferred / not required.

TO APPLY:  forward your resume in Word.doc format to joycehunt@hamiltontech.com.   

Or, call with questions:  888-497-8462 x101  (our placement firm is located in the Albany, New York area. 

Title:  WEB DEVELOPER

Location: Bennington, Vermont

(just north of Bennington)

Perks:  Relocation assistance available!  Plus excellent benefits

Salary:  $65,000 - $75,000++

Type position:  permanent (not contract)

Challenging opportunity for WEB Developer interested creating complex, sophisticated features for e-commerce environment.   

This is truly a unique, positive company with a hi-tech environment and significant focus on marketing and customer support.  Great corporate culture!   Will build user interface applications and back-end databases using various programming and scripting languages; program complex and custom Web pages; assist in project planning and technical Web site design and architecture; create prototypes and functional specifications for software projects;  determine new Web technologies to utilize, such as browsers, languages, and plug-ins based on company's needs;  conceptualize long-term needs of Web development.   Company will assist with relocation costs for qualified candidates in state (Vermont) or out of state.   They will not allow telecommuting – you must live within commuting distance from the position. 

Requirements:

·   Strong skill in development of corp web sites / e-commerce sites

·   Prefer exp with Microsoft based tools: .Net,  VB.Net,  Visual Studio, ASP, Visual Basic, SQL-Server, Commerce Server

·  Will consider Java/PHP web development experience

·  Should have min 3-6 years exp including developing corporate web applications

·  Industry experience in wholesale, retail, marketing, POS or service oriented businesses is a plus.

·  Solid work record with good references will be required.

·  BS Computer Science or similar technical degree

·  Growth opportunity with world-class ecommerce systems.

TO APPLY:  forward your resume in Word.doc format to joycehunt@hamiltontech.com.   

Or, call with questions:  888-497-8462 x101  (our placement firm is located in the Albany, New York area; the position is in Vermont)

Lots of people are up in arms about Microsoft's attempt to hold onto their new UI paradigm for a while with a crazy licensing scheme. I'm wondering when I'm going to have time to read, digest and implement their 120 pages of guidelines! Read more ....

[A DevLife post]

Rich and I saw Borat last night and I couldn't agree more with Charles Petzold's assessment:

If Mr. Cohen's intent is to explore people's reactions in intolerable situations, then it makes no sense for this movie to have scenes of Borat by himself, or with his "producer." And yet, Mr. Cohen has obviously become so enamored of his fictional creation that the movie really becomes about Borat rather than his American victims.

I found the movie nearly intolerable myself. Excluding a few scenes that seemed pretty real (the homeboys teaching him how to dress a little more homey and the very human Lunelle and everyone's incredible patience) Cohen's version of "Candid Camera" was over the top, but not really in what I saw as an intellectual or enlightening way. His outrageous public behavior was just outright mean and not funny. So much commentary of the movie is about how he tricked people on camera, but the ruse goes much further. He tricked us into the movie theater to shock us too. I'm pretty liberal and extremely tolerant, but there was way more in that movie than I felt like witnessing and nearly walked out.  I truly feel duped that I got lured into the theater with all of this promise of some fascinating expose of human behavior. And to top it off, I have now paid my $8 and brought my husband (who was hoping to see James Bond instead), and therefore contributed to the success of the movie. The joke has been on all of us, not just the "characters" in the movie.

No, this is not a Koolaid induced post. It is really true. I have been saying it to friends and realized I should blog about it. So I did over here.

[A DevLife post]

I have posted the powerpoints and demos from my four talks at DevConnections last week.

They are all on http://www.thedatafarm.com/talks.aspx.

Each session is listed alphabetically. At the end of the session description you will find a link for the PowerPoint deck and for the zip file with the demos.

The four sessions I just posted are:

• Advanced ADO.NET 2.0 (3 hour post-conf workshop)
• Asynchronous Programming for ASP.NET Developers
• Managing and Deploying ASP.NET 2.0 Applications and Web Services
• Persisting Ink on the Web
  

I LOVED this book. It is one of those that I found myself reading until 2 or 3am in the morning (and then sleeping late because of it). I won't be going, but just thought I would share in case other locals read my blog but not the Free Press where I learned about this.

Vista madness (that which comes when Vista is released to MSDN subscribers....(yesterday)) is not quite like Playstation madness, but I'm sure lots of people will be so eager to get their new bits that they might forget this very important piece of information.... read more

[A DevLife post]

The front page of the Burlington Free Press showed a guy pitching a tent for his second night camping out in front of Best Buy in Williston (where all the big box stores are just outside of Burlington). Sheesh. Not the swarms we've seen on the national media though. Just 20 or 30.

GEM Resourcing emailed to let me know they have a bunch of .NET jobs all over the country. If you go to their job search, filter the category to "Information Technology" and then type ".NET" in the Search Words, that shows 13 jobs from Pennsylvania to California.

Oh, I like this. No longer do I have to wait for Word or Excel to open up. It's a lot faster. I can just take a quick look at an attachment in Preview mode. Images too. Not PDFs though.

As noted in my previous post, I have flagged and forgotten over 500 emails since 2001. With Outlook's new UI, flagged items are up front and center and now really useful, but not with 500 dead emails floating around in there. So I started going through them and got it down to 200 so far. Then  I got even more inspired. For the first time ever, Iused the archive. I always thought archive meant that it would be stowed away somewhere but difficult to access. Now I see that it just mean creating an addtional PST file and putting emails in there (duplicating my folder structure also). My main PST is now somewhat smaller and much more responsive. What the heck took me so long to do that?

After installing Office 2007, I decided to downlad the newest OneNote to see if it will finally do the trick in getting me into the habit.... read more...

[A DevLive post]

Office 2007 arrived on the MSDN Subscriber downloads this afternoon. It's 70% downloaded on my machine so far.

In a previous blog post, I moaned about TechEd 2007 being moved to Orlando rather than the originally scheduled New Orleans. Many of us were so happy that it was going to be in New Orleans for the sake of supporting the economy there. The reason had something to do with the airport saying they couldn't handle the traffic for such a big conference.

I just received this comment from Matt Brewer and it really makes me wonder....