Bill commented on my Blog that he likes Sigs, Glocks and H&Ks and the likes..... So I don't think it's too early to start organising the second Geeks with Guns event.

We did it last year and it was a real blast. The plan is to get a good group of MVPs together just before or after the Summit and go and rent out a gunshop shooting range for a blast up.

For those MVPs from less liberal less redneck countries this will be your chance to have a turn with all the fave handguns you see in the movies in a safe environment. It is a cheap way to have a great afternoon.

If you are interested email me: chris@kognition.co.nz and let me know.

But does ACT really, I mean REALLY, need a biggoted loud mouth like John Banks?

I mean what has happened to the PROPER classical liberal roots of the party- free market economics AND free lives......

”Ray Ozzie is now Microsoft's chief technology officer, reporting directly to Bill Gates. Ozzie and his 200-member Groove Networks team are officially part of Microsoft, thanks to Microsoft's acquisition of the company, announced on Thursday.”

http://www.microsoft-watch.com/article2/0,1995,1774732,00.asp?kc=MWRSS02129TX1K0000535

Please fix your website! Finding the Visa application form is like pulling teeth....

Looks like Contact Energy are going to front up and pay for an artificial Slalom and whitewater course on the Hawea.

Details @ http://www.rivers.org.nz/

$850k doesn't seem like enough to me.... but we'll see...

If you want to import a drytop there is a duty free concession Tariff Item 6201.93.01 Ref#999063B see this document for details.

Hopefullly this will be Google useful for someone later on.

P.S. Hopefully this entry will also prevent you from having to go through the 'eye opening' experience of searching for WATERSPORTS jackets with LATEX RUBBER seals on Google..... My Word it is interesting what some people get up to!

Really quick tip today....

Darryl posted how he likes using a cradle when debugging. I've always been a fan of activesyncing over Ethernet or WiFi when debugging on the device. It's always been much quicker- the speed gap is closing now but it's still much more performant.

Guncontrol.org.nz has a good takedown of a recent NZPA guncontrol article.

Rory has a great wee story about his intramuscular ibuprofen experiences.

Over the next few days I'm going to try and blog a bit more on technical stuff. It's going to be in the format of short and simple tips and tricks for improving productivity and the pleasures of development.

Tip for today is the use of conditional compilation.

Basically VS.NET allows you to set 'Conditional Compilation Constants' in the build properties of each solution configuration. You can then use these constants to enable and disable the compilation of certain areas of code based on the configuration you are working it. Out of the box the debug configuration has a flag called DEBUG. This means that we can write code like this that allows us to distribute DEBUG builds to customers for testing without having to worry about whether they will distribute it more broadly:

#if (DEBUG)
MessageBox.Show("This is a test copy of version " + string.Format(" {0}.{1}",Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetName().Version.Major,Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetName().Version.Minor) + " only. Please do not use in a production environment. Not for distribution to field users.");
#endif

Another place where we have used conditional compilation is in libraries that have to target both the Compact Framework and the Desktop framework. Basically we can have a single set of source code files and use conditional compilation to deal with features that are present on one platform and not another- for example we use it to flag on and off compilation of code that places scrollbars on forms- a feature that is out of the box on the desktop framework but roll your own on the compact framework.

”SAN FRANCISCO — March 7, 2005 — Today at the Game Developers Conference, Microsoft Corp. announced new XNA™ software that will enable enhanced collaboration between content creators, programmers, management and quality-assurance staff members to speed the game production process. Based on the Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2005 Team System, the latest innovation of the company’s flagship development platform, XNA Studio is an integrated, team-based development environment tailored for game production.”

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/press/2005/0307-xna.htm

Looks pretty interesting- hopefully it means we'll see better support for rich content types in VSTS as well....

[UPDATE] John Lawrence says it will support big binary content at the very least. http://blogs.msdn.com/johnlawr/archive/2005/03/07/387902.aspx

Check out this North Korean Govt. Funded (you can tell they are poor bastards) flash movie- so Team America it's not funny!

Hat tip to Nick Head via BoingBoing

I laughed my ASS off over this one.

DPF has found out that our Land Transport Safety Authority (LTSA) has decided the best way to prevent drink driving is by sponsoring a racehorse and calling it Dontdrinkanddrive.

He notes some other future names: “Dontscrewwithoutrubba, Gamblingisstupid, Saveforoldage, donotbeatyourpregnantwife, drugsaredumb and sexisfunbutdonotcatchaids”

Anyone else got any?

Casey, Bill, Tim H?

J Fo' notes that WinFS is now also on the list of Longhorn tech that will be back ported to XP. ne has to wonder just what is going to be left.

I'd hate to be Michael Sievert... looks like he'll be marketing little more than a point release....

Roll on the PDC I guess.... maybe they'll open the kimono a little more and show us what's been going on in the collective brain over the past two years.

Pat Helland, one of the smartest and all around nicest guys @ MS is moving on to Amazon. Means we probably won't see him @ a Tech Ed again :-( I think that his Fiefdom keynote was one of the best I've ever seen @ Tech Ed.

Good luck Pat!

In a wee coup... it looks like the Australian Linux Conference is coming to Dunedin.

Given my previous experience with Linux guys my hope is that Rexona for Men do the right thing and sponsor the event....

In fact... if there might be women too.... maybe Heiniger will sponsor that section?