There are a worrying number of posts on this blog related to girl geek dinners... all the more concerning given I'm not female.  Still, for the three readers of my blog who are female, this might be useful information.

Anyway, the next Girl Geek Dinner in Auckland is being organized for just before Tech Ed.  The venue has not yet been finalized, but the other details have been.

Topic:  The first speaker is Amanda Jackson, a senior developer with Fronde Systems Group. She will be presenting "Managing Complexity in a Software plus Services World".   This talk will discuss how to understand complexity, how to better organize the complex systems we are so familiar with, and how to untie existing complexity knots so you can benefit from trends like Software plus Services.

We have room for another speaker, so if anyone is keen to speak at this event please email amanda.jackson@fronde.com with a talk length, talk synopsis and brief bio.

Approximate Event timetable
6.00pm - doors open, sign-in, drinks, meet & mingle
6.30pm - starters are served, speaker 1 commences
7.00pm - main course, speaker 1 continuing
7.30pm - Q & A, Desert
7.40pm - Quick Geeky Quiz (with prizes)
8.00pm - Speaker 2 or Something else fun (TBC)
9.00pm onwards - drinks, mingling

Dinner costs $30 (pretty reasonable if you ask me) and you can register at the NZ Girl Geek Dinner website.

As previously noted we will be having a Girl Geek Dinner at Tech Ed New Zealand this year.

Below is the Agenda for the evening:

7:30pm – registration and room opens – Entree’s on table with drinks
8:00-8.10pm -  Introduction by MCs
8.10pm-8.30pm - Bronwen Zande
8:30-9:00 – Dinner served
9:00-9:20 - Joh Clarke
9:20-9.45 – Q&A Hosted by MCs
9:45-10:00 – Drinks and networking

Speakers, titles, abstracts and other details are here.

Over the last week or two people have been asking when they will be able to see the full Tech Ed NZ schedule - particularly now that Australias is opened.

Next Monday (August 4) we will be opening it up.

Stay tuned...

With New Zealand Tech Ed 2008 selling out so quickly, we know there are many disappointed customers who missed out on securing tickets.  An option for some may be to attend Tech Ed 2008 in Australia.  Held in Sydney on 2-5 September, Tech Ed Australia features the same tracks and many of the same speakers as the New Zealand event. 

To help counter the additional travel costs, we have been able to secure a 20% discount on Tech Ed Australia registrations: reduced to $1,600 AUD, including GST (from $1,999).  This offer is available only to New Zealand based customers. 

To register and take advantage of this offer, please follow the steps below:

1. Click on link to Tech Ed 2008 home page: http://www.microsoft.com.au/teched/

2. Click on the Register now button

3. Select Tech Ed 2008 only registration

4. Select Code Customer

5. Enter the NZ delegates code: NZT899 and continue with the registration process

For ages, I've been using OneNote to record random notes that I might want to record.  This works pretty well for the most part, but OneNote is a fairly feature rich application and while it can store everything (which is cool) most of the time all I need to store is a small bunch of text.  So recently I decided to try another app that I found about a year ago, but didn't try in angst.

Notescraps is a tiny little WPF application that works off the sticky note concept.  This application is mind-bogglingly simple, but very effective at what it does.

It runs in the system tray on start up, which means that starting it is very quick.  Being simple, it doesn't support formatting or similar such things, however, it does have nice search (complete with nice WPF bouncing) and it stores its data in a simple txt file that can be opened and edited with any text editor.

In the file you'll see text delimitation like below:

Which in the application appears like this:

What is really cool about this application is that it works really well with live mesh.  If you add a note on one computer, it automatically appears on another computer that you've synced with.  It seems to respond to the file system event that indicates that the NoteScraps data file has been updated and automatically updates the UI.

Its also really cheap.  The free version allows you to have 10 notes, however, the full version only costs US$20.

Don't just take my word for it, Frank liked it too :-)

Today the Windows Home Server team announced that they have RTM'd Power Pack 1 for Windows Home Server.

This release has some cool new features in it including:

• 64bit Support for the Connector software
• Backup your storage to an external drive
• Fixes a data corruption bug (this one)
• Improvements to remote access

You can download Power Pack 1 here.  If you have Home Server, I recommend installing it.

In previous years there have only been a couple (at best) sessions on Windows Mobile at Tech Ed, however, mobility is now in the consideration of many IT managers and with a slew of products and integration opportunities with Windows Mobile, this year I'm pleased to be able to announce that we've four sessions on Windows Mobile at Tech Ed this year.

If you are interested in Windows Mobile, deploying and managing Windows Mobile or integrating Windows mobile to your communication stack, you'll want to check out these sessions at Tech Ed:

If you want to look for these in Comnet (when it goes live), remember that the Session ID is comprised of the short code for the track (UNC= Unified Communications and Mobility), the first number is the level (100 = very high level - not technical, 200 = Introduction, 300 = Experts, 400 level = advanced).  The final two numbers are somewhat less specific and may pertain to the number of the session in the track or may just be taken from the US Tech Ed session code (in which case it is somewhat arbitrary).

There are other sessions that will be applicable (particularly in the UNC and DEV tracks) too, so look out for them.

Last year, for the first time we had an event at Tech Ed for women at the technology edge in New Zealand.

This year we've decided to take it to the next level by holding a Girl Geek Dinner at Tech Ed on Monday September 1 at 8pm.  The evening will be hosted by Amanda Jackson (Girl Geek Dinners, Auckland) and Brenda Wallace (Girl Geek Dinners, Wellington) and will feature two speakers:

Session 1

Speaker: Bronwen Zande (Girl Geek Dinners, Brisbane Australia)
Session Title: Virtually There
Abstract: Technology has made it easier and more effective to limit the effects of geography on your working environment.  This session will discuss tips and tricks of running a technology consulting company in a virtual environment, including setting up and maintaining a virtual office and managing geographically disparate teams.  A focus will be given to the problems, solutions and benefits of a real-life example.

Session 2

Speaker: Joh Clarke (Wellington)
Session Title: See Jane Frag: Women and Gaming
Abstract: Women have been creating and playing games since mainframes still dominated the computing landscape. Now that gaming is expanding online, on multiple hardware platforms and in multiple genres, women are making more of an impact - gender stereotypes notwithstanding. This talk shows that the increased presence of women in gaming is evolutionary, not revolutionary, and will only continue.

Once again, if you are a female attending Tech Ed, attendance is free and you can add the GGD evening to your schedule in Comnet (which will be available soon).  If you are not attending Tech Ed, but would like to go to the GGD at Tech Ed anyway, you can purchase tickets for $99+GST. Please call 09 309 2440 or email teched@avenues.co.nz.

Men - I know you want to go (rightly or wrongly), so this year the official policy is the same as the Girl Geek Dinner policy - which means that if you want to go - you must be invited by a female attendee.