read all about it here....

[A DevLife post]

We're closing in on it!!   Read more

[A DevLife post]

Tasha turned 13 years old last week. This is a pretty significant milestone for a Newfoundland. Because of their large size, they don't have a long life expectancy. Tasha is getting acupuncture and lots of love and short strolls. Her weight is as low as we dare get her, but this puts so much LESS stress on her legs and her organs. So this has been another attribute that has helped. She does have a hard time getting up but manages. She's pretty darned happy and as far as I can tell, her secret to long life is "as long as there is food on the planet....".

Not to discount Daisy, who will be 12 in January. Daisy is in amazing shape and can still run around. Her only obvious sign of age is her beautiful grey eyelashes and her worn down teeth.

Here's a pic of the girls I took a few months ago. Daisy (aka Daisy Dog) is on the left and Tasha (aka Boo Boo Bear) is on the right.

The VTdotNET Holiday potluck party was at my house in the boonies last night. Someday I will learn how to use my camera but flash photos never come out right. Nevertheless, here are a few. Note the [not yet decorated] tree with all of the GEEKY gifts underneath. We got a pile of books from WROX and I also put lots of other books I've had around for a while and a pile of t-shirts. I noticed there was competition for two items under the tree. One was WROX's gazillion page ASP.NET 2.0 Pro book and the other a particular hilarious but slightly naughty bright orange t-shirt from telerik.

Here's Laura & Neal Blood of Blue Note Computing and Bob LoCicero of Inside Edge Software. In addition to attending almost every VTdotNET meeting since its inception, Laura co-runs the VTSQL user group along with Roman Rehak. Dave Burke brought his accordian and regaled us with the unique sounds of accordian style christmas songs. The bottom pic is Neal Blood again with Carl Lorentson of Rennaisance Info Systems (Carl also serves on the VTSDA board with me) and Rob Hale (well, his back) and Dave Friedman, both from GE Healthcare, talking with Chris DeGuise, co-founder of Pragmatic Technologies. Tasha and Daisy laid on the floor near the table and waited for any food that might get accidentally dropped on the floor. My smart doggies!

When the tech we have been working towards is now common at the local mom & pop store, what's next?

[A DevLife post]

cool!

Come across Anders Hejlsberg's birthday in wikipedia and wonder how you could possibly be nearly the same age when he has accomplished so much? Not that he looks old or anything.

We got nearly 3 hours with Anders Hejlsberg at the ASPInsiders Summit last week. He went over language innovations in C#3 and how they feed into Linq. I can't do a full brain dump in a single post, but here is some of what he talked about (with some added VB examples too for fairness, since the new goo in  C#3 and VB9 are usually discussed mutually exclusive of one another, though they do have a lot of innovations in common).

[A DevLife post]

I've been using, writing about and talking about ASP.NET 2.0's OnClientClick mostly in relation to some of the Ink on the Web work I have been doing. OnClientClick (who's functionality you could achieve in the past with control attributes) allows you to associate client side script AND server side code to the click event of a button.

One thing I hadn't run into and therefore wasn't aware of was the OnClientClick conflicts with another one of ASP.NET 2.0's new features, Cross Page Postbacks. Teemu Keiski explains why the two won't work together in this blog post.

I'm at Microsoft in Redmond for the ASPInsiders Summit, three days of training by various members of the ASP.NET Team as well as experts in other relavant fields. Most of what we're looking at is what's coming down the pipes in the near future and in the longer term. Yesterday was the first day and it was an amazing amount of content. I've written about some of the things I learned that I hadn't known before over here....

I'm writing a WinForms app that is only for me to use, so I decided to see what it's like to use the drag 'n drop databinding wizards for the first time ever. Read more...

[A DevLife post]

I was trying to clean up old unused folders on my website but there were empty folders that I just could not delete. The error message was that the folder was not empty. But it sure looked empty. I finally was told by my webhost that there were hidden files in there. Mostly the evil frontpage _vti_cnf folders. After a little googling, I found the secret to seeing and deleting these little devils.

In WS-FPT (I'm using the 2007 version, but this is not new at all), what you need to do is use the masking feature and in doing so, tell the app that you want to see hidden files by masking on "-la".

The way to do this is make sure you have the File Mask showing on the Command Bar. Then type -la in the little File Mask box. Now when you dig into folders, you can see and then delete hidden files and folders.

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]