Other

Lets Party!!!

Dave Redding — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 16:44:31 GMT

Ok, so, untill i make a *Real* blog post, chew on this.

This saturday there will be a nice big-ol-bonfire at my place. I've got plenty of room for people to crash and we'll be kickin' it to Rockband. I'll be providing the Kegs, you guys just come on out :) All i ask for is for you to chip in a few bucks for the keg, or bring some of your own alchol to share. I live in Willis Mi, the party will start around 7p.

Here is the Facebook event:: http://www.new.facebook.com/event.php?eid=27735872197

Please RSVP Via Facebook for my own sanity. And hell, if your there, maybe we can discuss the philosophy of the =>.

Dave

Speaking engagements

Dave Redding — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 03:36:37 GMT

So, you might have noticed the badges on the left. Let me give you a run down. I'll be presenting the C# Variety Show at the following places, at the following dates...feel like i'm on tour

Lansing .Net Usergroup               April 17th
Central Ohio Day Of .Net                April 19th
West Michigan Day of .Net           May 10th
Eastern Tenn. .Net User Group    June 24th

So, i'm going to be busy. I'm still waiting to hear back from the Cleveland Day of .net and a few user groups in Texas. Keep an eye out, The C# Variety show may be comming to a city near you!

Watashi no "IL Code" seksu desu

Dave Redding — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 14:52:29 GMT

So, I may not be entirely up on my un-couth Japanese sayings, but one thing is for sure, IL code, to the average developer (Read: Me) might as well be written in the same Romaji thats in the title. That is, it's hard to make heads or tails of, and since you most likely never, or only rarely look at it, you get very little opportunity to actually study it. I've been the same way for the past few years, acknowledging that IL exists, and just like that ugly friend, I don't actually acknowledge there being a relationship between "It" and I in public.

That all changed for me last Friday when my buddy Joshua Haynes dropped me a note abut my "Unloved Operators" Tech in 5 minutes post . He was interested enough in how the ?? operator stacks up against the if(x==null) else structure that, he compiled an example and then sent me the IL code, looking for my opinion.

So I was stuck. I could not admit defeat because of my ignorance of IL. So I leapt into action, quickly throwing out all the TLA's I could in an attempt to undermine my friends intelligence. He quickly blocked, pivoted and swatted away my attack. Before he could completely recover I attempted the Clinton-Dodge-the-issue move I had learned from CNN, but Joshuah quickly saw through funny analogy's and interesting tangents and held his ground firmly, so....I gave in and made a trip to the ~~oracle~~ Google. Come to find out, it can be difficult to research an answer, as compared to just pulling out of god knows where. But I think that I figured out how do answer Josh's imposing "What do you think?" question. below is the code and the IL that he sent me.

Person myself = null;
Person myFriend = new Person("Johhny", "Cash");
Person newFriend = myself ?? myFriend;
Console.WriteLine("The new Friend likes: {0}", newFriend.FullName());

if (myself != null)
   newFriend = myself;
else
   newFriend = myFriend;
Console.WriteLine("The new Friend likes: {0}", newFriend.FullName());

IL_0012: stloc.1
IL_0013: ldloc.0
IL_0014: dup
IL_0015: brtrue.s   IL_0019
IL_0017: pop
IL_0018: ldloc.1
IL_0019: stloc.2
IL_001a: ldstr      "The new Friend likes: {0}"
IL_001f: ldloc.2
IL_0020: callvirt   instance string Test.Person::FullName()
IL_0025: call       void [mscorlib]System.Console::WriteLine(string,
                                                                object)
IL_002a: nop
IL_002b: ldloc.0
IL_002c: ldnull
IL_002d: ceq
IL_002f: stloc.3
IL_0030: ldloc.3
IL_0031: brtrue.s   IL_0037
IL_0033: ldloc.0
IL_0034: stloc.2
IL_0035: br.s       IL_0039
IL_0037: ldloc.1
IL_0038: stloc.2
IL_0039: ldstr      "The new Friend likes: {0}"
IL_003e: ldloc.2
IL_003f: callvirt   instance string Test.Person::FullName()
IL_0044: call       void [mscorlib]System.Console::WriteLine(string,
                                                                object)
The top is the ?? test and below is if statements. What do you think?

So, starting from the top, I began to investigate what each call was.

The first thing i needed to figure out was, what was the "IL_xxx" marker? simple, line numbers, easy enough. Next up, what does this mean:

brtrue.s IL_0037

a little googling and i found that "br" means "Branch" so "brtrue" must mean "True branch from a decision" (the .s seems to indicate Short form, or something of that nature). So combine that with a line number and we have a basic go-to statement of

IF True GoTo: IL_0037

Ok, so that tackles the low hanging fruit. The next thing on the list was these

stloc.x
ldloc.x

To google for these, i had to rack my brain for a bit. I discovered that there is an OpCodes object that lives in the system.refelction.emit namespace. And surprisingly enough, it has codes that match what I'm seeing the the IL. So I quickly discovered the following entries.

Stloc_0 Pops the current value from the top of the evaluation stack and stores it in a the local variable list at index 0.

Ldloc_0 Loads the local variable at index 0 onto the evaluation stack.

Alright, so basically, both of these commands manipulate the Stack (more on "The stack vs The Heap" in another post). For now, lets just call the Stack = Fast memory but limited The Heap =Slow Memory, but massive. Think of the stack as a tower of single bricks. Each brick represents a single amount of data. When you "Pop" an item of the stack you grab the top most item and remove it (in our case, we also "Pop" from an indexed item), when you Push (again, in our situation "Load into"CEQ Compares) your putting something.

There were a few other things to check out before I could move on. For instance, what does ldnull and ceq do?

Ldnull Pushes a null reference (type O) onto the evaluation stack.

Ceq Compares two values. If they are equal, the integer value 1 (int32) is pushed onto the evaluation stack; otherwise 0 (int32) is pushed onto the evaluation stack.

Ok, simple enough. LdNull puts a Null Reference Type onto my stack, and Ceq checks for equality. This will become important later on.

Ok, so I'm armed with some basic implements of the trade, time to start interpreting. The second section seems a bit more straight forward, so lets start there.

IL_002a: nop
                    means no-operation, do nothing, waste time, etc...
IL_002b: ldloc.0
                    Load into a local var whatever is in location 0 on the stack (object "MySelf")
IL_002c: ldnull
                    Load a reference to a value on the heap, into my stack...
IL_002d: ceq
                    Compare the last two values to each other and stuff them into the stack (if x == null)
IL_002f: stloc.3
                     Pop item at index 3 of the stack and into the local variable
IL_0030: ldloc.3
                    Load the value stored in index 3 of the stack to the local variable stack (the result of ceq)
IL_0031: brtrue.s   IL_0037
                    if that value is 1, skip to line 37
IL_0033: ldloc.0
                    Load the value stored at index 0 of variables into the stack (remember, the person "MySelf")
IL_0034: stloc.2
                    Pop the item at index 0 of the stack into the local variables (what we just loaded);
IL_0035: br.s       IL_0039
                    Branches us directly to line 39. do not pass go, do not collect $200
IL_0037: ldloc.1
                    in our else statement, Load item at index 1 into the stack (remember, make x = y if null , essentially)
IL_0038: stloc.2
                    pop off item 2 from the stack into the local variable (the actual variable getting assigned)
IL_0039: ldstr      "The new Friend likes: {0}"
                     load this string into the stack
IL_003e: ldloc.2
                     load variable 2 into the stack (the "NewFriend" object)
IL_003f: callvirt   instance string Test.Person::FullName()
                     call the following method and load it's value
IL_0044: call       void [mscorlib]System.Console::WriteLine(string,
                                                                object)
                      call this method, which has full access to the stack, so were passing it, in this order, the string "The New Friend Likes:{0}" and then stack item[1] which = the return of Test.Person.FullName property.

Well, that was quite a bit. So the simple rundown is....it does exactly what our code tells it to. Interesting to note though, is were newing up an object of type "Null" and doing an object comparison between it and "Myself". This isn't bad, but it's a tad slow. You also have to load up every property and variable to see if they do actually equate. Find in most situations, but like in the previous post, if you make a comparison of Type B to Null from Type A, when Type B Has references Type A doesn't, your going to error out...because your loading values in Type B, that Type A is ignorant of....GetItGotItGood.

Ok, so we've seen what the commands do, lets take the short route examining how the ?? works in IL.

IL_0012: stloc.1
IL_0013: ldloc.0
IL_0014: dup
                    Duplicate the item on top of the stack and pushes the duplicate into the stack
IL_0015: brtrue.s   IL_0019
                    If the values are the same (if the value of the object is empty like the first register) jump to 19
IL_0017: pop
                    Else pop the first item off the stack and get rid of it
IL_0018: ldloc.1
IL_0019: stloc.2
IL_001a: ldstr      "The new Friend likes: {0}"
IL_001f: ldloc.2
IL_0020: callvirt   instance string Test.Person::FullName()
IL_0025: call       void [mscorlib]System.Console::WriteLine(string,
                                                                object)

First off, we have obviously fewer instructions. Secondly, and most important, notice that were not doing any object comparisons or loading any objects from the heap. so the breakdown after examining the two IL statements is this

If(x == Null) is like saying (If object x is the same as object Null)
and
x??y is like saying (If object x is as empty as Brittney Spears head)

So in short, ?? is faster, and easier to evaluate because were only comparing it to an empty value in the stack, not a reference type. Obviously the speed gain is minuscule, but it's still there.

Ok, so IL probably will only help you gain geek cred and debug issues that you'd rather not be debugging. But understanding IL code is worth serious geek cred, and helps you prove (or dis-prove) your theories on how your .net code works. And hey, chicks dig the serious geek ;)

Microsoft announces Open Protocol Specfication

Dave Redding — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 18:15:06 GMT

The link explains it all

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc203350.aspx

As a developer, you now have full access to the information about Open Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and Open Protocols. All Windows client operating system API documentation is now available on this MSDN website.

Wow!!!

What I've learned from bloggin'

Dave Redding — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 14:33:44 GMT

I know, 2 whole blog posts in 1 week, i'm going nuts! Actually i'm trying to ramp up my blogging frequency, so keep an eye out for a few more tech in 5 min and other sheeeet.

If you would have asked me a little more than a year ago if i'd have a (psudo) active blogging habit, I would have laughed it off as something I "Should" do and dropped it. So I still find it a little hard to believe that i've been at this for as long as I have.

Now, while most bloggers seem to make a post in this vein targeted at non-bloggers. I'm not going to. if you don't want to blog, don't. Honestally, I'm not trying to convince anyone of anything and i'm narciscistic enough that I can truly say, I could give a shit less. It's your decision to make and I fully support anyone taking on the daunting task of blogging, I also support everyone else who doesn't.

When considering starting a blog, I had the same excuses as everyone else:

I failed English in H.S., there is no way I could carry on with some kind of constant writing that was open to public scrutiny.
I don't have time.
Does the saying "It's better to be thought a fool than open your mouth and remove all doubt" mean anything to you?

And the most pervasive argument people make to get out of blogging

4. What do I have to say that has'nt already been said before? most likely in a better way than I could ever pen!

Bearing all that in mind, I finally succumbed to my buddy Josh Holmes pressure to start a blog. It's been an interesting trip, and I'd like to take a moment to share with you all what i've learned along the way.

1.) Whatever you write on your blog is inxoriabally tied to you and your name on the internet AND the real world.

Boy, was this a hard lesson learned. Like many other people, I've grown accustomed to the annomity provided by the internet. Like schisophrinic wearing a straight jacket looking for a bathroom, I've bumbled across the web acting and speaking in ways that just are not appropriate in polite company. Which is fine, if your assuming annoyminity. But with a blog, especially a trade blog, you are not anyonomous, not even if you use a pen name. Someone will know who you are and let others know and then BAM, your Real Life name is tied to your writings. Point in case: the lambda expressions tech in 5 min offended a buddy of mine. This buddy exists in Real Life. We drink beers together, talk shit and hangout. So to find out that he was pissed at my real life persona because of something that my internet one did...that was quite a shock.

2.) People are interested in what I have to say, even if they've read about the topic 20 times already.

The one thing I've found through blogging is that, people like options. Like, what kind of car to drive, where to buy their hamburger, or where they go to drink. That urge to have "Options" tend's people to look around. Just because Jay says Vista Sucks for this reason and that, someone else may say it sucks for other reasons. Every blog post (except the ripped off from the authors site) is a unique perspective on the world around the author. So, yeah, someone out there is going to talk about WPF, but is it you?

3.) I've never learned so much about technology so fast.

There has never been a truer statement. When writing my blog, especially the tech in 5 min, i'm forced to double check my assumptions and do a little research before I post to my blog. You don't want to post mis-information, and you don't want to appear a hack, so you have to study. Also, you have to stay on top of technology if thats your blogs focus, you don't want to become stale.

4.) Having a blog gives you geek cred.

Having a blog is a highly interactive deal. It may not seem like it, but the next time your at a launch or usergroup and you mention your blog, bam, someone's going to check it out, and possibally comment. And, since your in print (sorta) you gain crediability. Not only for the content of your blog, but for having the huavos to put your name out there and voice your opinion.

So, i'm not going to say, "Get out there and blog" or something crazy like that, but what I will say is that if your making excuses to not blog, then your only letting yourself down. Blogging is strangly addicitve, a great way to network with people, a fantastic way to show people what you have to offer, an excellent opprtunity to enhance your communication skills and overall, gives you a voice on the internet.

Board Games and the Software Developer

Dave Redding — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 17:22:42 GMT

For a developer, the worst thing that can happen is to have the mind dulled. This dulling can occur from a number of places. Like too much heroin or watching reality TV. So how would a developer keep his mind sharp and be entertained at the same time? Flashy lights and bright colors only go so far.

The way I’ve discovered is some good ol' challenging board games. Makes sense, most developers are gamers at heart. And I’m not talking about just your standard fair of Stratego and Monopoly, but European games as well like Settlers of Catan and Power Grid. While these games may not have the most complex rule set (besides, after a hard day of thought, do you really want to spend the evening or weekend having to analyze rules to entertain yourself?) but they have a high fun factor and do lend themselves to analytical thought with strategy.

I've compiled a list here of the board games I play at home, and what my thoughts are on them. typically I play with the Wife, and when time permits, the whole family.

1.) Robo Rally

Robo Rally IS the programmers game. It takes about 35min - 2 hours to play depending. The principal of the game is to race your robot through the flags in ascending order. the first one to touch the last flag, Wins! what makes this game great is the amount of cunning and analysis involved. Each turn your dealt a number of cards. Each card has some kind of movement associated with it. For instance Move Forward 2 or Turn Right. You take these cards and "Program" your robot, that is, place them, face down on 5 separate Registers (see...programmers game). Once everyone has programmed their bot, you all flip the card in the first register and your robot executes that movement. It may mean:

Falling off the edge of the board
Pushing or being pushed
Or, just doing what you planned.

But, unlike in real world development, there is no debugging. My 7 y/o Step son loves this game. He'll take cards and turn them in his hands to figure out which way to go and how he wants to move.

The real gotcha is that your playing on a factory floor with all kinds of other crazy stuff. Like conveyer belts that move you and gears that will spin you. All in all, it's a good time and I’ll keep those analytical skills sharp

2.) Settlers of Catan

Settlers of Catan (SoC) is a classic European game that was made around '95. Since then it's had an explosion in its follwing. It has spawned many other games based on the same premise. The games will last anywhere between 45 min and 2 hours, with the typical being an hour and half.

At first I was leery to pick this one up. I thought that the rules were going to be to complex so that it couldn’t really be enjoyed by someone (me) who was just wanting to get in and play. I was wrong, very very wrong.

SoC is almost non-confrontational (I say almost because you can be passive aggressive) The goal is to get to 10 victory points. You get those points by playing cards that give them to you, building small villages or upgrading the same to cities and gaining a couple of unique achievements during gameplay. The focus of the game is a small hex board that can be re-arranged to change the game each time.

During the course of the game, you build roads and cities, collect resources and buy things like knights or libraries to increase your points. The game is simple to learn, the rules are VERY straight forward. The strategy comes in the form of where to build to maximize your resource input. Trading with other players is also heavily encouraged. I would say this game is great at rewarding the successful marketer. It'll definitely keep those relationship skills sharp.

3.) Power Grid

The wife and I just played this game last night. It was some kind of fun. I would compare it to monopoly, but that would be a gross undestatement. It took us about 5 min to set the game up, and about 2.5 hours to play all the way through for the first time.

This is another European game made in Germany. The premise is simple, buy power plants, buy access to cities, buy resources for the power plants, power the cities. In our game, the first person to power 21 cities wins. The game is engineered so that no one player can completely run away with the game. Basically, whoever's in the lead is at a disadvantage when it comes to buying up resources and power plants. this keeps the games very tight and makes for some interesting outcomes.

The rules are very simple and straight forward, but again, the strategy comes from off the board. Will you pay more than anyone else for a power plant? It follows auction house rules so you could end up paying much more than it's value. Or will you try to snag up all the resources to cut the other players off? All in all, it's a great financial and resource management game, with a built in player driven economy and balancing system.

4.) Killer Bunnies, Quest for the magic Carrot

With a name like that, who can resist the temptation to play.

The excerpt from the back of the box explains it best

Killer Bunnies is a fast paced, action filled card game, in which you must try to keep as many Bunnies alive as possible, while eliminating your opponents' Bunnies. The problem: Your opponents are armed with weapons and will stop at nothing to keep you from winning the game, which can get dreadfully vengeful, horribly nasty, hilariously messy, and just plain fun! Can you keep from being attacked by the whimsical Whisk or the torching Flame Thrower? Defend your Bunnies with the Magic Spatula, or use a Feed The Bunny card to starve out an opponent! It's off-the-wall strategic fun, where the goal is to survive and claim the Magic Carrot to win the game!

Yes, your goal is to achieve the magic carrot. The wife really likes this one, and we typically play it as a pickup game. It takes about 30 min to work through an entire match. This is in the same vein as Munchkins.

5.) Nexus Ops

Nexus Ops is a fantastic tactical game, without all the overhead and rules of games like Axis and Allies or some of the more in-depth war games. The scenario is that you have brought a squad of units (including aliens) to a distant planet to find resources and stake claim to them in the name of your corporation. But your not alone (wouldn’t be much of a challenge that way).

This is another game where you win by accumulation of victory points. You can duke it out or achieve objectives to get your points, and most likely you'll have to do both. The most stunning thing about this game is the pieces, they are fantastically sculpted and look great under a black light.

The rules for the game are fairly simple and straight forward. Once you've played a game or two, you'll have em' down. this game plays in about 45 min or so for a 2 player game. figure about an hour and half for a 3 or 4 player game. Tactical strategy keeps you sharp on your decision making skills. Now Get out there and kill something marines!!!!

6.) Heroscape

Honestly, Heroscape rates on my "Ok" list. If the boys really want to play it, we will. But the setup time is a test in patients and endurance. Once your up and running it can be fun, especially with several people playing.

My favorite is to create a FPS variant and start doing things like capture the flag and double domination. This game doesn’t get as much play as it did around Christmas, but it's still a hoot when the mood strikes us.

7.) Triple Triumph

Crainium typically makes educational games, and this one is no exception. Visualization, Analysis and Strategy all come together when your trying to out build your opponent. With a limited number of spots on the board, you have to try and match your pyramids colors with those around it. You can also build Up, and get extra rewards for doing so.

This is a fast game, about 15 min or so, and is really fun. My wife and I play this a lot, as do our boys. A great multiplayer puzzle game.

8.) Monopoly, Risk, Uno, Trouble and the rest of the standard fair

With the games listed above, the standard fair doesn’t get much play. We'll occasionally break out Risk or Monopoly on a rainy or dreary day. But with games like Catan and Robo Rally, we really don't have much use for those "Other" kind of games.

Uno, trouble and sorry however...those can be pretty fun and fast paced in the electronic versions. We'll typically break those out with the kids when were a little short on time, but want to get some quality family time in. Definitely worth checking out just for their togetherness factor.

Well, that’s not exactly a comprehensive list. There are a number of other games that we play. And at this moment i'm waiting for Ticket to Ride to come in. Looks like it'll be a good one for the wife, myself and the kids to play. At any rate, these games provide the kind of thought processes that will keep us up on our toes as developers. But the best part is the time you get to spend with friends and family while playing. Nothing is able to simulate that.

Good Times

Dave Redding — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 17:04:02 GMT

Well, that time of the year has come and gone again. By that I mean Code mash.

I didn’t get a chance to make it to codemash this year, but waking up to find 76 twitterings on my phone (Over half were most likely Dwitters -Drunken Twittering-) is a clear indication that it was both a fun and exciting time for all who attended.

In other news, apparently my blog posts (the most recent one about the '=>' specifically) was the issue of some conversations at code mash. And in the process I managed to offend a few of my friends. Hence you will notice it's no longer published. I took it down as soon as I found out that it had offended a friend; that’s not something I’d ever intentionally do.

I’m still grappling with the "Do I take out the bits that offended my friend and republish it, damn the common idea of a non offensive/vulgar blog post, don't conform, be my own man" or, do I suck it up, go more vanilla. The post itself has had almost 900 unique web views, and an extra 230 subscriber views, my most popular post yet, I can't imagine all those people were deeply offended by what I had to say. So I guess what it comes down to is, should I conform and not risk offending a contingent of people to entertain another, or should I just say "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!!” Honestly, it's a rhetorical question, since I’m going to do whatever in the hell I want anyway, but it does feel good to write it down.

A friend once said that to enjoy blogging you have to do it for yourself and no one else, but since I’m even asking these questions, am I really blogging for myself?

That being said, I have a PG rated Tech in 5 min about extension methods Then I think we’re going to get into exception handling.

Till next time.

Feedburner update

Dave Redding — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 13:01:14 GMT

Hey, I Updated my RSS feed to go through Feed burner. Please update your Agg viewers with the new link (http://feeds.feedburner.com/DavidRedding).

New terminology for the Blog-o-sphere

Dave Redding — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 07:54:34 GMT

You ever dealt with some ass, where you just felt like applying a title? Well, I sure as hell do. So I have a point of reference, here are some terms you'll see me using occasionally.

Software Arsonist: Someone who pushes software out the door so fast that it's bug ridden and prone to fire (see Dry Software). Once the software is under intense fire fighting, the Software Arsonist will delegate others to put the fires out, while they send out massive amounts of email showing how much value they are adding, and looking for a pat on the back, for being able to put out the fires without actually "Doing" anything.

Ass Hat: Someone who knows so little about how~~you write software that they~~
Never mind that one

Software Consultant: Similar to a Software Arsonist, but instead of a pat on the back this guy wants money. So he'll be the guy smoking a cigarette, next to the Dry Software while holding a coin operated fire extinguisher.

Dry Software: Just like California, this code could ignite at any moment and cause a 4 alarm fire within any company. It's typically caused by setting incredibly unrealistic deadlines (Read: just plain dumb), and charging forward with a complete disregard for those pesky "Tiers" or any concept of loose coupling. Dry Software can typically be found under the banner reading "The app is only for a handful of people."

Holy Pants: Jeans you accidentally put on in the morning and are so tight they show everyone in the world what religion you are.

So there are a few I feel I made up (Yes damnit, Software Consultant is Mine!!), what are yours?

Here's a quote to go with from Stewie on Family Guy "Your cruelty merely stems from some deep seated inner pain, so the obvious remedy is a healthy dose of OUTER PAIN!"

Technorati Tags: Software , Blogging

Workin' the corner at DoDN

Dave Redding — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 17:32:32 GMT

So I survived my first presentation experience!! WooT!!. The Fall DoDN this year was amazing. There was alot of amazing talent present. If you have the opprtunity to catch Josh Holmes giving his "Distilling the DLR" Talk, I would highly recomend it. Lots o' good sheet.

My talk started out as expected. I could'nt figure out how to work my comptuer so there was, all around my laptop, Jason Follas, John Hopkins, myself and a hand full of other onlookers. We finally figured out that ... Oh, Dave needs to "Clone" his desktop, not extend it ;). That was my only run in with the projetor, so i guess i made out a little more fortunate than others in the past (*Ahem*keithelder*Ahem*) After that I managed to straggle through my demos and most of the sldes. I was so nervous, i was showing the demos a little to quick. I was orriginally copying and pasting code from one instance of C# Express to another when I asked the crowd "Who just wants to see the code without the copy paste crap?" And i got a resounding "ME" from several individuals in the room. I should add that i had the better part of 40+ people in the room. There were folks standing in the back!

At the end of the talk, i got some positive feed back. Jeff Blankenburg was kind enough to tell me that for my first time presenting, it was good. So all things said and done. I'm totally stoaked to have gotten a speakers badge, and I look forward to refining the talk and giving it again.

Now... the afterparty....different story. Apparently Jay Wren and I were considered the drunks of the evening. I believe thats only because Keith Elder wasn't there. And if he would have been there, he could defend himself right now. All i can say about the rest of the night is, that untill contested, the four of us (Jay Wren, Scott Zischerk, David Peas and I) out vulgered Mark Miller and were orphaned to the kiddie table.

Thats gonna be my entry for DoDN at the time, untill Lawyers tell me that it's ok to post anything else ;) In other news, i've got a few groups interested in hearing my talk within the next few months, so keep an eye out for XNA 101 near you!