Scott Hanselman

IMHO, it’s because converting (both projects and your mind) to VB6 to .NET is hard.

• VB6 existed for one reason and one reason only – to hide the complexities of COM.
• VB6 was the Matrix, while VB.NET is as powerful as C#. Some folks say, well, while I'm here, I'll just move over to a language with "C" in it, and maybe I'll get more money?
• VB.NET aims to hide nothing – and the exposure is scary to many.
• VB.NET looks like VB7 - but it's not.
• VB6 solved the problem of multithreaded Windows Forms by not allowing it. 
• VB.NET’s WinForms and the BeginInvoke, AsyncResult, and InvokeRequired of it all is complex for anyone, especially a VB6 Mort.
• VB6 is used by places like "Podunk County School District" and "Whatever, Kansas Dept. of Forestry."  These are places where Microsoft Access is fine, therefore VB6 is "fine."
• Until Microsoft explains why VB6 isn’t "just fine" – folks will linger.
• The Migration Path is not clear and VERY complex – if you did anything funky with OCXs, or if a component vendor didn’t provide you with a migration path, you’re screwed. 
• The Migration Wizard is an amazing chunk of work, but the 20% edge cases are hard.
• Making no decision at all is an implicit decision.  Many VB6 developers are paralyzed. That is a decision not to move forward.
• Safety first, and safety in numbers.

What do you think? Do you have buddies that are still on VB6? What are they doing it about it? Is VB6SP5 "just fine"? Is VB6 a technology that Microsoft should continue to support?

About Scott

Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.

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Absolutely freaking brilliant.  I want to meet this guy.  Crap.  I should have thought of this.

GlucoBoy brings blood sugar monitoring to GameBoy

Guidance Interactive have created GlucoBoy, an attachment for the Nintendo GameBoy that monitors blood sugar levels.  Creator Paul Wessel noticed that his son, who was diagnosed with diabetes at age 3, carried his GameBoy everywhere.  Wessel figured, hey - why not just turn the thing into a blood sugar monitor?  He is also developing games that work with the GlucoBoy beyond the standard testing. [Engadget]

About Scott

Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.

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I got myself into some kind of voodoo/Bermuda Triangle situation where my TCP/IP stack was boogered and when I said "IPCONFIG" I was greeted with a single line, and NO listings of any of my Adapters. However, Greg Hughes gave me this magic command line:

netsh int ip reset logfile.txt

Lord help me I don't know exactly what this did, but it fixed it. I wonder if I'll pay for it later. :)

About Scott

Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.

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There was a story on EWeek about the XmlDevCon. It's a very good article, actually. There was a certain amount of XML bashing, as XML does have its problems, as eloquently pointed out to by the likes of Tim Bray and Sam Ruby.

It was nice for Corillian, Patrick and I to be pointed out as success stories:

Not every aspect of XML is judged to be a potential disaster—far from it. Two presentations have demonstrated how XML is enabling solutions in the real world: one from the U.S. Department of Defense on using XML for Navy missile systems, and a presentation from Scott Hanselman and Patrick Cauldwell of Corillian about effectively using XML in financial systems.

All in all, I think it was the best SellsCon yet.  Great location - dispite my original misgivings - and great facilities.  It was very well planned, and it showed.

Congrats to Chris Sells and crowd for a great con, and thanks for inviting us.

About Scott

Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.

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If I had a nickel for everytime someone called me a Luddite, I'd have 5 cents.

Main Entry: Ludd·ite
Function: noun
Etymology: perhaps from Ned Ludd, 18th century Leicestershire workman who destroyed machinery
: one of a group of early 19th century English workmen destroying laborsaving machinery as a protest; broadly : one who is opposed to especially technological change
- Luddite adjective

Dave Winer thinks me opposed to technological change as I'm currently underwhelmed by Podcasting. Here's a Dave's comment from Carl's blog (my annotations in bold.)

Dave Winer: Carl, every time some new form of communication there are always people to say it's unnecessary or no one wants it. I've even been one of those people from time to time. ;->

Your friend's mistake is that this isn't a replacement for PowerPoint, it's a replacement for drive-time radio, or radio listened to while exercising, or radio not listened to on long airplane flights or drives. (Where reception is non-existent or only idiotic right wing idealogues are available. They can be entertaining, but after a while you yearn for some adult conversation.)

Anyway, PowerPoint, which btw, I had a hand in inventing (Smooth segue. Apparently Dave invented the bulleted list and the slideshow. Here he remind us of one of his many places in history...), is a disaster for communication (...then as a technological bad-boy bashes it), it should be wiped off the face of the earth, a crutch for freaked-out speakers, and the people who have to listen to someone wade through a PP presentation know all too well that as soon as the first slide is up, people start falling asleep, checking their email or reading blogs. Now they'll have a new choice, put on the headphones and listen to one of the verbal incontinents [sic] your Luddite friend is so dismissive of.

When did PowerPoint come into all this? An example of another often low-fidelity content format perhaps.  Thank you Rory, for saying it simply "Podcasting is a means of syndicating binary content - that's all!"

That said:

• I've been an Audible Subscriber since its inception and use it for NPR as well as AudioBooks.
• I did a nationally syndicated Wireless Trip across the country in the Spring of 2000 that distributed via MP3s and produced by a local AM radio station. A few links. I've still got the MP3s, perhaps I should post them.
• I've be a PodCast subscriber since .NET Rocks started using PodCasting.

And I'm saying simply:

• It's ironic as we were all up in arms two weeks ago about RSS's use of bandwidth, now we're using RSS as a pointer to a 40 meg MP3.
• Other than Engadget and .NET Rocks, I'm underwhelmed by the content.
• It's fun to say "verbal incontinence" but now that Dave's chimed in, I'll start using the more descriptive "diarrhea of the mouth."

Thanks Dave for making my point about content quality for me by raising the quality of the discourse.  Too bad you didn't Podcast it.

About Scott

Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.

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