Time: Wednesday, 18 February 2009 4:00 p.m – 5:30 p.m.

Welcome Time: 3:45 p.m.

Scenic Circle Southern Cross Hotel
Speight Room
Cnr Princes and High Streets
Dunedin

Click on the Google Maps / Street View for more details on directions.

Click here for more details / register.

Article of Interest – The Cost of Safety

Safety first is the name of the game for many investors right now. And with wild day-to-day swings in the markets and hugely divergent performances by securities within the same asset class, who can blame them?

Tolerance for risk is at extremely low ebb, a development reflected in the fact that yields on risk-free assets are at historic lows?in the case of US Treasury bills at levels not seen since World War II.

Yet this risk-averse behaviour masks one of the paradoxes of investment.

In good economic times, when comfort levels are high, the expected return from risk assets is less favourable. In those times, the cost of our willingness to take a risk is a lower expected return.

Click here to read more.

Dear University of Otago *Computer Science* & *Information Science* Students,

You are invited to a FREE lunch + Presentation: *What Microsoft offer you and your career!*

Sponsor: www.ssw.com.au <http://www.ssw.com.au>

Presenter: *Adam Cogan* Chief Architect, B.Bus, MCP, MVP

Adam is one of only three Microsoft Regional Directors in Australia. In this role, he regularly presents in conferences such as TechEd (USA, Australia, New Zealand and Malaysia) and .NET user group around the world. He has been the Microsoft MVP (Visual Studio Team System) since 2005. In addition, He has received Bronze medal of Microsoft Regional Director Program Global Impact Award in 2007.

When:             *Friday 10th October 2008*.
Time:               *12 pm*
Where:              *Commerce 2.07*
Lunch:             Some pizza & drinks provided

*Presentation Topics*
1.    What Microsoft Technology can offer you in your future career
2.    Java VS .NET
3.    Sharpen your sword with C# and .NET 3.5
4.    Why is Windows Server 2008 important
5.    Powerful tools – Visual Studio 2008
6.    Powerful teams – Team Foundation Server
7.    Powerful collaboration – SharePoint
8.    Light up the Web – SilverLight
9.    Whats next – getting a job

Have you got an iPhone / iPod Touch?  Did you know that you can use the device that you have to chat with your friends on MSN?  Its so cool!  You can keep in touch with your friends while you watch your favorite TV show / enjoy the sun outside.  You don’t have to sit in front of your computer anymore!  If this sounds something you want to do, just follow the step by step guide below and you will get connected in no time.

Step 0: Make sure your iPhone / iPod Touch is connected to the Internet.

Step 1: Click on the Safari app:

<click here to read more>

Visual Studio 2010 and the .NET Framework 4.0 mark the next generation of developer tools from Microsoft. Designed to address the latest needs of developers, Visual Studio and the .NET Framework deliver key innovations in the following pillars:

• Democratizing Application Lifecycle Management
  Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) crosses many roles within an organization and traditionally not every one of the roles has been an equal player in the process. Visual Studio Team System 2010 continues to build the platform for functional equality and shared commitment across an organization’s ALM process.
• Enabling emerging trends
  Every year the industry develops new technologies and new trends. With Visual Studio 2010, Microsoft delivers tooling and framework support for the latest innovations in application architecture, development and deployment.
• <Click here to read more>

This is what you will see when Twitter is down!  But……I really like picture

Twitter is down (at the time of this writting) when I really needed it!!!  On a side note……maybe I should twitte more often!

The sessions are designed to showcase .NET related tools and techniques that will be useful to you as a developer, focusing on real-world topics that will be of immediate use.

Date: Saturday 1st November, Christchurch.  9am – 6pm
Location: Trimble Navigation, 11 Birmingham Drive (map)
Cost: Free! (Lunch provided)

To register and for more info, please go to: http://dot.net.nz/Default.aspx?tabid=119

1) Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services – Architecture Overview
SQL Server 2008, the report server has been re-architected to remove the dependency on Internet Information Services and provide better control over memory usage. Get an overview of the Reporting Services 2008 architecture and the impact on installation, upgrade, and reporting services management tools.

2) SharePoint – follow the Yellow Brick Road to Public Web Sites
Come join us for the second session’s topic as we learn how the largest public SharePoint site in Australia got up and running.
Adam Cogan of SSW will share his experience and lessons learnt on this project. Adam will also show you how to “sexify” the look and feel of your site (or “de-SharePointing with style”)

Adam Cogan is the Chief Architect at SSW, a Microsoft Certified Gold Partner specializing in custom .NET, SharePoint and Business Intelligence solutions. At SSW, Adam has been developing custom solutions for businesses across a range of industries such as Government, banking, insurance and manufacturing since 1990 for clients such as Microsoft, Quicken, and the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation.

Time: gather at 5:30pm, starting at 6:00pm (finishing 8:15pm) – 15min break
Venue: Centre for Innovation, University of Otago (Downstairs seminar room). 87 St David Street, Dunedin

Pizza and drinks are being provided with the kind courtesy of Microsoft.

For more info and event registration, please checkout: http://dot.net.nz/Default.aspx?tabid=1&mid=388&ctl=Detail&xmid=65&xmfid=2

Imagine a world where technology helps solve the toughest problems facing us today.

If you are a student who wants to get some great experience; learn some new technologies and win some cool prizes, make sure you check out imagine cup’s website: http://www.microsoft.com/nz/imaginecup09/

Here are some shortcuts:

• Welcome to the Imagine Cup
• What is the Imagine Cup?
• Competition Overview
• FAQ
• Register for the competition

Register before 15th September and go into a prize draw to win one of 10 hardware software prize packs.

Below is a link to some of my 2007 imagine cup experience
http://davidtse916.wordpress.com/category/nz-imagine-cup-2007/

In September and October, Nigel Parker will present MSDN UNPLUGGED sessions created specifically for web focused developers to “get ready” for what is coming next. Nigel will discuss readiness and enhancements with Internet Explorer 8. Nigel will introduce Silverlight 2 and WPF 3.5 for developers focused on service enabled rich client development and then lead into a discussion on cloud based services including WCF, REST and JSON.

Location: Dunedin Centre 1 Harrop Street
Room: Glenroy Auditorium

Date: Tuesday 23rd September 2008
Registration starts at 1:45 PM
Presentation Begins: 02:00 PM
Concludes: 03:30 PM

Click here for more information and free registration.

Map: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=1+Harrop+Street&sll=-45.87376,170.503848&sspn=0.001434,0.003551&ie=UTF8&ll=-45.872905,170.502909&spn=0.003048,0.011179&t=h&z=17

Maintaining productivity can be a struggle, yet there are a number of ways to remove the obstacles that may be keeping your developers from working at full capacity

Programmers are expensive employees to hire and employ. They make better-than-average salaries compared to other office workers with similar experience and education levels. Needless to say, with the cost of developer time being what it is, it makes sense to take steps to improve the efficiency and productivity of your development staff. Here are 10 tips to help you do just that.

1. Minimise distractions
Most managers are aware that programming is a job that requires long periods of intense concentration. What they don’t realise is they are not doing a very good job at letting their team focus on their work.

<click here to read more>

Will have to wait till next month to see how accurate its……

Step 0: First of all, here is what the IE7 looks like when it freezes……it just “Stop and Stare”

Step 1: Press Shift + Ctrl + Esc on your keyboard to bring up the Windows Task Manager; select the iexplore.exe and click on the End Process button at the bottom to KILL the IE7:

Step 2: Now right click on the IE7 icon on your desktop (or in the Start Menu) and click on the Start Without Add-ons option:

Step 3: IE7 should start up immediately……probably faster than ever because there are no add-ons loaded this time.

Step 4: Select Tools on the right hand side, and click on the Internet Options:

Step 5: Now click on the Programs tab in the Internet Options:

Step 6: Click on the Manage add-ons button:

Step 7: In the Show area, make sure you’ve selected the “Add-ons that have been used by Internet Explorer” option, and look for the add-ons that are Enabled!

Q. My IE7 got some many add-ons……how do I know which one is causing the problem?
A. When you got absolutely no clue, you can always use “Try and Error”   But you can kind of guess before doing that!  For me, I always pick on the ones that doesn’t have a publisher……but this time it turns out that Yahoo was the one that cause the problem……

Step 8: To disable an add-on, just select it from the list and click on the check button in front of Disable:

Step 9: Make sure the “bad guys” are disabled before you click on the OK button:

Step 10: IE is reminding you to give it a restart (restart IE = close and open up IE again):

Step 11: Click on the OK button to close the Internet Options:

Step 12: Click on the red cross to close IE7:

Step 13: Now when you start your IE7 again, (provided that you’ve disabled the right add-ons) your IE7 should be fine and healthy again!

Sądzą, że skoro nie znali się wcześniej,
nic między nimi nigdy się nie działo,
A co na to ulice, schody, korytarze,
na których mogli się od dawna mijać?

Chciałabym ich zapytać,
czy nie pamietają -
może w drzwiach obrotowych
kiedyś twarzą w twarz?
jakieś “przepraszam” w ścisku?
głos “pomyłka” w słuchawce?
- ale znam ich odpowiedź.
Nie, nie pamietają.

Bardzo by ich zdziwiło,
że od dłuższego już czasu
bawił się nimi przypadek.

Jeszcze nie całkiem gotów
zamienić się dla nich w los,
zbliżał ich i oddalał,
zabiegał im drogę
i tłumiąc chichot
odskakiwał w bok.

Były znaki, sygnały,
cóż z tego, że nieczytelne.
Może trzy lata temu
albo w zeszły wtorek
pewien listek przefrunął
z ramienia na ramię?
Było coś zgubionego i podniesionego.
Kto wie, czy już nie piłka
w zaroślach dzieciństwa?

Były klamki i dzwonki,
na których zawczasu
dotyk kładł się na dotyk.
Walizki obok siebie w przechowalni.
Był może pewnej nocy jednakowy sen,
natychmiast po zbudzeniu zamazany.

Każdy przecież początek
to tylko ciąg dalszy,
a księga zdarzeń
zawsze otwarta w połowie.

Step 0: Check whether you have proxy auto detection enabled on your Firefox. Open up Firefox, go to Tools -> Options:

And you will see:

Step 1: Click on Advanced -> Network -> Setttings…

And you will see:

Step 2: By default, the No Proxy option should be selected. Since we want Firefox to automatically detect the proxy settings, we select the second option: “Auto-detect proxy settings for this network“, then click on the OK button at the bottom of the window:

Click on the OK button again to close the Options window:

Step 3: Now in the address bar, type in “about:config” and you will see:

Step 4: In the Filter section, type in “dns“, and you will see:

The “network.dns.disableIPv6” is set to false by default!  This preference affects Firefox’s ability to detect proxy settings in Vista…so we need to change it from false (default value) to true in order for Firefox to detect the proxy settings.  To change the value, just double click on the “network.dns.disableIPv6“, and the value will be changed to “true“.  If you look closely, you can see that the Status will also be changed to user set as well, this is because we have changed the default value to something else.  With this in mind, you can feel safe to play around with the preferences in Firefox, and if think you’ve done something wrong, you can always reset the value to the default one. (just right click on the preference and click on Reset):

Step 5: Make sure the value for “network.dns.disableIPv6” is set to true and you are connected to the student network (you can test the network using Internet Explorer), now try to use Firefox to surf the web…the proxy settings should be detected automatically without even need to restart Firefox!  Isn’t that great ☺