It started off innocently enough. I corrected Tom when he tried to put down words like “pils,” “Rome” and “trool,” even giving him a letter or two to help him make his words (he’s only 9, after all, and this was his first game of Scrabble). Then, I ran out of ideas and we needed long words to get into the empty spaces, so I put down with “faxer” (someone who faxes). After that, it was all down hill into “roddy” (someone with a lot of rods), “naped” (the flip of hair across your forehead), “soapic” (very soapy) and, my personal favorite, “oifbath” (good for sores on your skin), all the time fighting to keep a straight face.

However, when I busted Tom for putting down “zin” (“double” in “Tom language”), he started pointing the finger at “trux” (Latin for multiple vehicles), looked it up in our unabridged Webster’s (I’ve got to get rid of that thing…), called his mother to double-check and the whole thing came falling down around my ears. My visions of Tom in his 30s calling me from a party complaining that “glev” wasn’t actually a kind of rock have been dashed.

Still, while I am proud of my son for catching onto to my “creativity,” luckily there are all kinds of other, more subtle lies that I’ve told him that are set to trigger in my retirement years, sure to motivate him to call, even if only to curse my name. : )

I just got an email from Netflix letting me know that they’re lowering my monthly fee from $22 to $18. The only thing vaguely “marketing” about is that they used $21.99 and $17.99. There was no upsell. There was no limitation of service at that new lower price. There nothing additional I had to do to get the savings. When’s the last time you got that kind of service from a vendor? I love Netflix.

125 attendees and speakers from 6 countries (US, Canada, England, Malaysia, Netherlands and Peru), 21 states and 60 companies, ranging from vendors to expert practitioners and even a few poor souls trying to learn XML. 24 hours of talks and events spread over two days. 44 bloggers and 247 blog entries about the event itself (not including warm-up to the event or my own blog entries), nearly all of which were over-whelmingly positive, including one eWeek piece and one entry from Tim Bray of Sun Microsystems that called me “a charming, welcoming, amusing guy.” (I didn’t pay him a cent, I swear! : )

 

In general, day 1 was dark and brooding, shouldering the brunt of the vendors who knew the technology inside and out and were feeling the pain of the downsides that they felt were holding them back. Day 2 was filled with hopeful stories of practitioners able to take what the vendors have given them, mix it with for their own secret sauce and really make it shine.

 

My very most favorite talk was Whitney Kemmey from the DOD with his unexpectedly captivating look at mixing XML with 10-year old technology and his endless submarine pictures, although Jeff Barr from Amazon continues to mesmerize me every time he takes the podium. Also, I really dug Doug Purdy’s enthusiasm and forthrightness. Oh, and when Neetu Rajpal shut down Don for derailing her talk, I fell in love.

 

Inexplicably, the DevCon seems to just get better and better. I blame it on the community willing to listen to a variety of sources to hear what’s really going on, some of it good and some of it that needs some work, whether it’s from professional speakers or nervous amateurs, for-profit vendors or seasoned practitioners. Thanks for letting me participate.

Here. Holy cow! I knew people liked the DevCon, but I’ve never seen a blogging response like this. I’ve found 44 separate bloggers and 247 posts related to the event itself (not counting the warm-up to the event). That’s almost 6 posts/blogger or 2 posts/attendee! Good lord, but these were a prolific bunch…

Here. I got so tons of positive feedback during the DevCon about the talks, the venue, the format, etc, for which I thanked each person sincerely. However, the huge number of DevCon-related posts on the web, including a reporter’s piece on DevSource, was overwhelming.

At 4:13:02pm, the Applied XML Developer’s Conference has sold out (again). Eric Hayes, the VP of Development from You Software, Inc. was the last lucky attendee. Welcome, Eric!

Wahoo!

Here.

I think I heard the term “delighted” from Steve Ballmer about what we want customer reaction to be to our software and I am very delighted to be using Media Center Edition 2005. I was a user of 2004 for a number of months and liked it, but there are so many little new things in 2005 that I keep finding every day. For example:

• When I wanted to add songs from a network share, I could do that from within MCE05. In MCE04, I had to build the play list in WMP before those files were accessible.
• I hate flipping channels, but I wanted to veg in front of the TV, so I went to My TV and saw a new Movies section, that let me see what movies were playing right now and what movies were coming up next. I picked the one I wanted and I was watching it, just that easily.
• Digging around the online features, I found a ton of Internet radio stations that integrate right alongside my FM presets, including some Electro stations (I always knew that I liked the theme song to Mortal Kombat and now I know what to call it : ).
• The general quality of the TV and DVD output is *much* improved and, with the extra amenities, I could see this being the first choice TV experience.
• Once I had the codecs installed, all of the wacky videos I’ve collected over the years (hey! this is a family blog! get your mind out of the gutter!) like The Phantom Edit and the original Dawn of the Dead (available for free download legitimately) just worked, even though they were on a network share, too.
• My sister-in-law wanted me to tape a bunch of episodes of Inhale to burn to DVD and I’m well on my way to doing that (don’t tell her, though — it’s an XMas present). I couldn’t imagine what I’d have to do to get the episodes onto DVD from my ReplayTV box (old model — no network connection) but with MCE05, they’re just files that the latest DVD burning software supports.
• A new, free aquarium screen saver just when the last of the free carnival fish died. How could they have known?!?

I’ve already got my MCE Extender on order so that I can see about sharing this experience into other TVs in my house. Windows Media Center Edition 2005 is Highly Recommended.

As is always the case, tons of things are coming together at the last moment for the 5th DevCon:

• Received Tim Ewald’s flight arrangements so that I can pick him up on the way to the conference
• Don “XML” is going to make sure that Tim Bray gets to the Portland Nerd Dinner and to the conference in time for his keynote address
• T-shirts on their way
• Proceedings printed and in my garage
• Maps printed so that I can find my way (haven’t been there in years and years)
• Brothers Sells excited about the extra days off from school so that they can hang at the Skamania Lodge (although I’m pretty sure they’re expecting to be able to play their Gameboys the entire time : )
• Microphones, podium, projector and project screens arranged for speakers
• Wireless Internet access and power arranged for attendees (and speakers)
• All but a handful of seats filled in our expanded space (8 seats left)
• Rory giving away a free conference registration on his site

Wahoo!