Scott Hanselman

Big Ups to Peter Blum

October 07, 2004 Comment on this post [2] Posted in ASP.NET | XML
Sponsored By

Scott Mitchell gives credit to Peter Blum. It’s true; there just aren’t enough one-man shops like Peter’s out there. Peter gives fantastic tech-support, has impeccable documentation, and provides a ridiculous amount of value in his controls. His validation controls or without peer, and his new security controls are amazing. Get to know Peter and his controls.

Just wanted to give praise to Peter Blum and his ASP.NET server controls over at PeterBlum.com (some free, some for sale).  I have used Peter's Date Package on a small personal project about a year ago, which was quite useful.

I've mentioned before how verbose I tend to be, but my verbosity is nothing compared to Peter's documentation.  For the Date Package there's a PDF document with nearly 200 pages of documentation (installation instructions, setup, documentation, examples, etc.).  Insane.  (Admittedly, I've read about four pages in total - it's pretty easy to figure out how to get the controls to do the simple stuff.  There is a lot of added features, though, that I've yet to have time to explore.) [Scott on Writing]

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.

facebook bluesky subscribe
About   Newsletter
Hosting By
Hosted on Linux using .NET in an Azure App Service

Word of Mouth means more these days...

October 07, 2004 Comment on this post [6] Posted in Ruby | Speaking
Sponsored By

Gordon Weakliem had an interesting comment on Malcolm Gladwell's book on Sam Ruby's blog:

...the phrase "[The Internet] dramatically speeds up the rate at which reputation spreads by word of mouth" seems to be a key.

I find this to be particularly true with the advent of blogging.  I was speaking to a users group recently and Chris Sell's name came up, and the question was posed "how did he become so famous?" Some people had read his book, some had read his blog, and others had seen him speak. But the general consensus was, via word-of-mouth, that Chris was a good enough fellow. No doubt he has been mentioned in e-mails, quoted in USENET posts, and held up as an example of a highly competent developer and clever architect.

This begs the obvious question, if there was no Internet, how long would it have taken for a Chris Sells (or Don Box, or Clemens, or Sam Ruby, or Dare Obasanjo, or anyone in an obscure technical vertical as ours) to become "well known and thought of."

I don't think it can be underestimated how quickly word-of-mouth spreads on the Internet. It would be interesting to have a race between a rumor and a virus. The rumor would be propagated only by humans, and the virus competes programmatically. I suspect it would be pretty close.

 

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.

facebook bluesky subscribe
About   Newsletter
Hosting By
Hosted on Linux using .NET in an Azure App Service

Reminder: I'm at SouthColorado.NET tommorow...anyone want to drive me?

October 04, 2004 Comment on this post [0] Posted in ASP.NET | Learning .NET | Web Services | Speaking
Sponsored By

I'm speaking at SouthColorado.NET tomorrow at ~5:30pm-ish doing the Zen of .NET thing.  It is always a fun talk and I hope I won't waste your time.

It's going to be cutting it a bit close though, so if there's anyone who is in Colorado and:

1. wants to get me at the Denver Airport and drive together to the Springs around 3pm
    OR
2. if you're in the Springs and you want to get me at the Springs Airport and RACE to the event.

It's at:

University of Phoenix
5475 Tech Center Drive
Colorado Springs, CO

Then, please email me at my work scott A-T- corillian.com.

See you there! By Taxi or by kindness, I will be there!

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.

facebook bluesky subscribe
About   Newsletter
Hosting By
Hosted on Linux using .NET in an Azure App Service

Multiple Monitors - put that extra laptop to use

October 04, 2004 Comment on this post [6] Posted in Bugs | Tools
Sponsored By

MaxiVista is out with their new 1.5 version.  This new version has a few bug fixes, but also supports up to THREE secondary displays via three other PCs.  If you've got other laptops or Tablets around, you've GOT to try MaxiVista.  Don't confuse it with ShareKMC or VNC. 

This is a SOFTWARE DISPLAY ADAPTER that shows up in your Display Properties.  Treat it like any other monitor. Here's my setup. It's pure sex.

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.

facebook bluesky subscribe
About   Newsletter
Hosting By
Hosted on Linux using .NET in an Azure App Service

Books that are better the second time around...

October 02, 2004 Comment on this post [0] Posted in DasBlog | Tools
Sponsored By

I just finished the Audible version of Larry Niven's Ringworld.  It's fantastic, and I recommend it to anyone.  I headed over to Powell's books and picked up the rest of the Ringworld series after noticing that what I thought was a trilogy now included a fourth book - Ringworld's Children.  I've read the trilogy before, many years ago and now I'm looking forward to rediscovering and just before the science-fiction channel comes out with the Ringworld Miniseries. The success of the entire endeavor is going to pivot on the casting of Louis Wu. I hope they don't screw it up.

I also picked up the compilation of Aaron McGruder's Boondocks - only the best comic strip since Bloom County.  I'm usually not a big fan of comic strip compilations, but this one is fresh and fabulous.

P.S. Thanks to Travis for his fantastic Amazon.com DHTML rollover code that I modified to work with dasBlog click through links.  Go get his code, and my mods are here.

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.

facebook bluesky subscribe
About   Newsletter
Hosting By
Hosted on Linux using .NET in an Azure App Service

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent my employer's view in any way.