Craig Murphy has set up an event track on Twitter for DDD6. If you’re not into Twitter this means that you can follow what’s going on at DDD6 in real time and have lots of Twitter-related fun and amusement. Here’s how to join the conversation:-

1. On Twitter, follow the user eventtrack
2. At the start of the event, tweet @eventtrack start*DDD6
3. Start twittering like normal, everything you Twitter from now on will be grouped into the DDD6 event
4. After the event you can send a tweet @eventtrack stop*DDD6
5. Now the system will no longer pay attention to you

Simple and easy and for those of you not attending or those that are you’ll be able to follow the collective conversation via here:

http://www.webaura.info/eventtrack/?t_event=DDD6

This is the first time we’ve tried something like this, so please do try and make use of it! Find DDD on Twitter at http://twitter.com/developerday.

Technorati Tags: DDD, DDD6, Twitter, Craig Murphy

A few months ago I blogged about using Extension Methods To Extend The CultureInfo Class. To recap, this is an important technique because it allows you to extend an existing class when (1) you don’t have the original source code and (2) you do not control the code that creates objects of the class you want to extend (and therefore traditional inheritance is useless). What’s new here (to this blog) is that you can do this in the .NET Framework 2.0. This technique has been covered before (in Daniel Moth’s blog here in May 2007 and later in Adrian Bowles’ MSDN Magazine article "Basic Instincts - Extension Methods" in November 2007). I’m not going to duplicate that information here and I suggest that you refer to either of these links for the details. To summarise though the basic trick to making this work is that you add back the ExtendedAttribute class to the .NET Framework 2.0 and you’re done. (As the ExtendedAttribute class simply inherits from Attribute and has no other code there’s not much to it).

What I don’t think is so necessarily obvious though is what is meant by adding extension methods to the .NET Framework 2.0. For clarification, whereas the compiled code uses the .NET Framework 2.0 runtime the original source cannot be compiled using the .NET Framework 2.0 compiler; you have to use the .NET Framework 3.5 compiler. The .NET Framework 3.5 compiler is multi-targetting so it can compile code for the .NET Framework 2.0 but only this compiler understands how to interpret the extension method (in C# this means the "this" qualifier in the parameter declaration). So consequently you cannot use Visual Studio 2005 to compile your .NET Framework 2.0 application if you use extension methods; you will have to upgrade to Visual Studio 2008 or else build your app outside of Visual Studio 2005 using the .NET Framework 3.5 compiler.

What also might not be entirely obvious here is the consequence for ASP.NET applications. As ASP.NET website applications are compiled on the fly they use the compiler that is available on the website’s server. For ASP.NET 2.0 applications this will be the .NET Framework 2.0 compiler and the code will not compile.

Technorati Tags: Extension Methods, CultureInfo, Daniel Moth, Adrian Bowles

Zi Makki has set up a car sharing wiki for DDD6 for anyone who either has spare places in their car or wants a place in someone’s car.

Also note that SQLBits have sponsored free coaches between Reading train station and TVP.

Technorati Tags: DDD, DDD6, Car Sharing, Zi Makki

I don’t like to repackage other people’s blog posts but Craig Murphy has so clearly written everything that you need to know that I’m making an exception. SQLBits are sponsoring coaches between Reading Station and TVP on Saturday 24th November 2007 for DDD6. Read Craig’s entry here.

Technorati Tags: DDD, DDD6, SQLBits, Craig Murphy

All this week at TechEd the NxtGen boys (Richard Costall, Dave McMahon, John Price) have been hosting Speaker Idol and I have been lucky to have been one of the judges. Waves of 3 and 4 contestants on each day since Monday have competed by giving a 5 minute presentation to an impromptu TechEd audience and set of judges. I get a real buzz out of seeing good presenters exercising their skill and this experience takes me back to one of the most enjoyable jobs that I have had which was being the trainer on Borland’s Train The Trainer programme.

The winners of each wave on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday went through to the Speaker Idol Finals on Thursday afternoon. There really were some great presentations and the exercise showed that there are some really talented people out there who haven’t yet managed to break into the TechEd speaker circuit. I have to give a special mention to Bilal Haidar (Lebanon) who came second in wave 4 and for me was the best runner up of all of the waves. He delivered his presentation with such energy and enthusiasm that I think he would be great to listen to for a whole session.

The four finalists were Bill Ayres (United Kingdom), Maciej Pilecki (Poland), Karl Davies-Barrett (Malta) and Jeff Wharton (Australia). They made our (the judges’) lives very difficult as each speaker had obviously improved since their original presentation as a result, hopefully, from the feedback they had received. Four top quality presentations made the final very close and the decisions were no longer based on what mistakes anyone had made (I don’t recall any of note) but rather on tiny degrees of particular excellence. Congratulations to Jeff Wharton, MCT and user group leader in Australia who was crowned TechEd Europe 2007 Speaker Idol Winner and as a result has won a speaker place into TechEd Europe 2008. Jeff was absolutely delighted and was still delighted well into the next morning. Also congratulations to Karl Barrat-Davies who made second place and won a free ticket to TechEd Europe 2008.

Want to get into speaking ? Put it in your calendar for next year. The rules for TechEd Europe 2008 are subject to change but at present they are that you must be a TechEd Europe 2008 delegate (otherwise how would you give your presentation ?), you must not be a speaker at TechEd Europe 2008 (either TechEd Developers or TechEd IT Forum) and you must not be advertising a non-Microsoft product. You might also like to have a read of "How To Give Great Presentations" on the Resources page.

Technorati Tags: TechEd, TechEd Europe 2007, Speaker Idol, Jeff Wharton, Karl Davies-Barrett, Maciej Pilecki, Bill Ayres, Bilal Haidar, Richard Costall, Dave McMahon, John Price