This weekend I'll be presenting on WinJS and HTML5 development at the Fox Valley Day of .NET in Appleton, WI

Do you want to build native applications in JavaScript?  The HTML5/CSS/JavaScript stack shown at Build 2011 caused quite a ruckus within the .NET and Web Developer communities. We won’t talk about Plugins vs. HTML5 too much, but we will take a hard look at how well WinJS delivers on the promises of re-using Web Developer skills for Windows 8 and making JavaScript a first class citizen in the Windows 8 ecosystem. Come to this session to explore common smart-client application techniques such as control/UI, navigation, data-binding, service consumption, and more.  XAML developers looking for a peek at the dark side are welcome.

I hope to see you there!

If you're interested, there is also a day long HTML 5 and Azure boot camp coming up too.

While I don't blog or tweet about it much, I'm a gamer.  I like games.  A lot.  I'm a one-game gamer: I tend to play one game exhaustively until it loses its appeal or I've accomplished most of what I wanted to. Being one of my favorite leisure activities, this hobby tends to get in the way of productive work. When I get home and sit down at my workstation it's way too easy to click the Battlefield 3 icon instead of the Visual Studio icon.

Diablo 3 Comes out May 15^th

In terms of my historical game addiction a few titles come to mind: Final Fantasy 7 for the original Playstation nearly ruined a semester of college.  Diablo 2 was an utterly obscene time sink when it came out so many years ago. I've been obsessively following the development and recent release date announcement for Diablo 3, and I have to admit I'm worried. You see, I have kids now. There's a lot going on this year and I can't just drop off the map for long enough to get my initial fix. I must, therefore, maximize my productivity between now and May 15th.

I hereby swear, before these internets, that I will play no video games until the midnight launch of Diablo 3.

Like many people, I grabbed the Windows 8 Customer Preview yesterday.  I decided, since I'm at a conference right now, to try to Live in Windows 8 and VS 2011 for the rest of the week until Monday. 

Installation over the top of the Windows 8 Developer Preview from build was quick and painless.  I chose not to log in using my Live account as I don't trust it yet (more on this choice later) and get some basic apps installed such as Metro Twit and Paint.NET.  Generally speaking, I like the look and feel of Windows 8 so far and it seems to run as well as the Developer Preview.  As a keyboard guy without a touch laptop I'm finding things like this article from Tim fairly helpful.  I'll be writing seperate articles on other aspects of Dev 11 and the apps that ship with Windows 8 Consumer Preview as I get time.

The first rule about the MVP Summit is that you do not talk about the MVP Summit...

I'm back in the Seattle/Redmond/Bellevue area for the 2012 global MVP summit.  Obviously what goes on out here is under NDA so I can't blog about it.  There's a lot of reasons to come out here every year: interact with the Microsoft teams who build the tools I use, connect with other MVPs I might only know through Twitter or their blogs, and recharge.

Here in the afternoon of the first day, I'm already feeling a little more myself.  Conferences like this carry a huge benefit that it's hard to put a price tag on: a chance to step back and reflect, and get re-enganged in your career and your love of technology.  I'm hoping for some serious reduction in Burnout this week, wish me luck!

Well this is a little bit of a late notice but the details are now posted on my next talk.  On Wednesday the 25th I'll be in Grand Rapids, Michigan, talking about WinRT and the Windows 8 development ecosystem.

http://wmdotnet.org/Meetings/tabid/61/Default.aspx

Microsoft shook up the .NET development community at the Build conference last year. What''s happening with Silverlight, C#, and C++? Do I have to build applications in JavaScript and HTML5 from now on? Will I be able to use familiar frameworks for Windows 8 development? Where does WinRT fit into the ecosystem? We will navigate these questions by writing code in several different languages and discussing the unique strengths of the different target platforms available to us.

If you're nearby I hope to see you there!

This week Wednesday, November 2nd, I'll be in Madison, WI with my //Build conference recap and intro to WinRT programming talk.  If you were at the Milwaukee talk, I have some more WinJS goodies and more realistic example applications.  If you plan on attending please register at the Mad .NET web site:

http://www.maddotnet.com/

I hope to see some of you there.

Here are the slides and sample apps from the //Build Conference and WinRT intro

Slides

Code

This coming Tuesday, October 11th I will be speaking at the Milwaukee .NET User's Group on the topic of the recent Microsoft //Build conference. 

Microsoft has shown us a glimpse of the Windows 8 platform and the future of application development. What does that mean for us as .NET developers: are Silverlight and WPF dead? What is WinRT? Do I have to learn HTML 5 and C++? Please join us for a discussion of these topics and a healthy amount of Windows 8 development examples.

You can find registration details here: http://www.wi-ineta.org/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=23

There will be a little bit of "Here look at how cool Windows 8 is" but that type of presentation is only fun in large scale keynotes in my opinion.  We'll be going over some WinRT applications and hopefully answering a lot of your questions about the future directions for development on Windows platforms.  I'll be presenting from a Windows 8 laptop and will be able to show anything you'd like to see of the OS itself or the developer preview tooling.

Yes, I took the entire month of September off of blogging.

No, I’m not sorry.  Sometimes you just need a break.

Cheers,

Damon