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Upcoming events
24 Oct 2011
I’ll be speaking at the following events over the next few weeks:
Saturday, October 29 – Ann Arbor Day of .NET – I’ll be giving two talks: “Top 10 Tips for Moving from Winforms to WPF” and “Going Independent”. This is a single-day, multi-track conference for the low cost of $10! Register!
Saturday, November 5 – GRDevDay – I’ll be delivering a XAML-focused talk. The planners in Grand Rapids renamed the West Michigan Day of .NET to GRDevDay. It’s a single-day, multi-track conference. The cost is $10 for professionals, but it’s free for students! Register!
Saturday, November 19 – indieconf – I’ll be giving a new talk titled, “Best Practices for the Solo Developer”.
indieconf is the premier conference for independent web professionals; designers, developers, part time, full time and everyone in between. Are you working on your own as a PHP hacker, CSS guru, JavaScript deity, Rails goddess or Photoshop geek?
Buy a ticket OR learn how to win a free pass!
January 9-10, 2012 – XAML: In Depth – This is a 2-day training course I’m doing on the two days prior to Codemash. Here’s the description of the course:
In this two day hands on course attendees will learn how to build great applications leveraging XAML. The XAML technology is used on a wide variety of technologies including Windows 7, Windows 8 Metro Style applications, Silverlight and even Windows Phone 7 mobile devices. Students attending this course will gain the basic essentials to start leveraging XAML in a variety of ways to develop eye popping applications. Attendees will leave understanding how to properly design and architect their applications and acquire an understanding of the MVVM pattern. This course will set attendees on the right path to not only building applications leveraging XAML but also put them on the right path to an easy to maintain application built on solid principles.
January 11, 2012 – Codemash – I’ll be delivering a 4-hour workshop on “Going Independent”
Codemash sold out all of its tickets in 20 minutes this year, but you can probably get on the waitlist.
indieconf – want to go?
21 Oct 2011
indieconf is the premier conference for independent web professionals; designers, developers, part time, full time and everyone in between. Are you working on your own as a PHP hacker, CSS guru, JavaScript deity, Rails goddess or Photoshop geek? indieconf is for you.
Want to go? Until November 4, 2011, the cost of a ticket is $129. After that, it jumps to $149. If you’d like to have dinner with the speakers on Friday (a great time, BTW), the ticket is $199.
You can use the discount code ‘eaton30′ to receive $30 off the cost of your ticket (making your cost $99 if you register by November 4th!)
OR
You can enter to win one of two (2) free passes* I have for the event. All you have to do is tweet the following (multiple tweets will NOT be counted):
Want to win a pass to indieconf from @mjeaton? Here’s how – http://bit.ly/indieconfpass #indieconf
On Friday, October 28, 2011 at 12:00pm (eastern daylight time), I will randomly select the two winners and notify them via twitter.
* To be absolutely clear, this is a pass to the conference only. It does NOT cover travel or hotel.
***** UPDATE: The winners were selected on Friday, October 28, 2012. They were selected randomly using random.org. The winners were: @davidjeet and @mhthomas42. Thanks to everyone that participated! *****
What is indieconf?
17 Oct 2011
Michael Kimsal, organizer of indieconf, put together a short video describing the event.
IndieConf is November 19th in Raleigh NC
Haven’t registered for the event yet? Do it now! It’s a great event!
Presenting at indieconf 2011
03 Oct 2011
In 2010, I had the opportunity to participate in the first ever indieconf.
indieconf is the premier conference for independent web professionals; designers, developers, part time, full time and everyone in between. Are you working on your own as a PHP hacker, CSS guru, JavaScript deity, Rails goddess or Photoshop geek? indieconf is for you.
indieconf is a fantastic conference run by friend and fellow indie, Michael Kimsal. This year, I’ll be giving a talk on “(Best) Practices of a Solo Developer”. Most of the projects I’ve worked on over the past 10 years as an independent have been projects where I’ve been the only developer. This talk will give me a chance to share some of what I’ve learned.
The great thing about this conference is that it’s not just geeks! There will be indie accountants, attorneys, marketers and designers along with other developers. If you’re near Raleigh, it’s definitely worth checking out.
My plan is to arrive in Raleigh a day or two early so I can co-work and meet with friends.
Ann Arbor Give Camp 2011
09 Sep 2011
The 4th Ann Arbor Give Camp is coming up next week – September 16-18, 2011.
A total of 40 non-profit organizations submitted proposals to us this year. I’m pretty sure that’s a record for us.
We have selected 9 non-profit organizations to help this year. Why so few? To be honest, the number of volunteers has been declining each year and we’re currently at our lowest point yet. With a week remaining before the camp, we have just over 50 volunteers.
If you’d like to volunteer to help out next weekend, please sign up at http://annarborgivecamp.org/Volunteer
The Give Camp will once again be held at Washtenaw Community College. They are an amazing host for this event and this event wouldn’t be possible without their generosity and support. We also have a number of great sponsors this year.
St. Louis Day of .NET : Intro to Silverlight Slides
05 Aug 2011
As promised, here are my slides for the Intro to Silverlight talk I gave on 8/5/2011 at the St. Louis Day of .NET.
WPF Training in Chattanooga
18 Jul 2011
I’m very proud to announce my two day WPF Workshop on August 15th and 16th in Chattanooga, TN at the historic Chattanooga Choo Choo hotel. This course is one of 3 other Sharp Axe Training courses that will be going on at the same time. The training is the 2 days immediately before the awesome DevLink conference starts.
In this hands-on workshop, you will learn everything you need to know to write solid, maintainable line of business applications in WPF. Topics will include XAML, data binding, commands, styling, templating, MVVM and more. No previous knowledge of WPF is required.
More details about the training, as well as a link to register for the course can be found at the Sharp Axe Training website.
Microsoft MVP 2011
07 Jul 2011
For the third year in a row, July 1st brought an email from Microsoft presenting me with the MVP award in Visual C#.
Key books every developer / designer should read
19 Apr 2011
It seems like every software developer I talk to has at least one or two books they consider absolutely essential reading.
My list is pretty small and includes mostly non-technical books like Peopleware from DeMarco and Lister, Anthem by Rand and Maverick by Semler. There are others, but those are more on a personal level than professional. I’ll blog about those in a separate post.
So, my request is simple – I’m asking for books you think are essential reading for other software developers and designers. Please reply in the comments, or at the very least, blog and link back!
