Fragapalooza 2009

So, Fragapalooza 2009 is over and we have a break before we need to start worrying about next year. Of course, that is assuming we have a next year.

I wish I was kidding about that. The staff put up with so much BS before the event this year that some of us are questioning our committment to doing another event.

We had to change venues at the last minute as there were not enough paid registrations to actually make a go of it. It was to the point where we almost cancelled the event. However we found a venue that would take us out in Fort Saskatchewan - the Dow Centennial Center. It would mean a longer commute for some people but it was the best that we could do.

The event was a huge success by the time it was over but the complaining we had to put up with before the event left a bad taste in our mouth.

I am not going to go into great detail about the complaints but suffice it to say we were not impressed. As a result, Fragapalooza 2010 is up in the air.

Thanks to all the participants who supported us by coming, thanks to all the great volunteers and staff, and a special thanks to the staff at the Dow Center for going out of their way for us. I hope to see you all next year.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPod touch]

Heat

Why do some people think that I am crazy for not liking the heat? When it gets above 24c I get cranky. Even in the shade it becomes too uncomfortable for me. You start to sweat, your clothes stick to you and it is all around not fun.

The sun is my worst enemy too. As a red head I can burn in like 30 minutes. How is that fun?

So, when the talk comes around to holidays, people are surprised when I day no to places like Cuba or Mexico. In fact they are actually shocked. I didn't go with the family trip to Cuba because of the heat.

Go ahead and ridicule me all you want. I will be nice and cool in my air conditioned house while you are roasting in unbearable heat.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPod touch]

Windows 7

So, I have been playing with Windows 7 for a while now. I had heard that it was supposed to fix all that was wrong with Vista. Considering that I refused to run Vista as it was so bad, I thought I would try out the public Beta in a VM for a while.

The beta seemed actually quit good so I thought I would try running it on my home machine. Without getting into too many details, the install was slick and the OS seemed really good. Even in beta it was better than Vista.

After running it for a while and upgrading to all the leaked builds as well as the public RC, I gave it up. There was some networking bug that affected some people but not others. I was one of the affected. I went back to Windows 2008 workstation.

However, we got more ram in our work machines so I thought it would be a great test to see how it runs in a work environment. I dual booted my machine with the standard XP and Windows 7. I have to say I love it. Everything now works that I have tried. Some of our applications needed some tweaks, while most just worked. A couple needed an updated version downloaded but I am happy to say that everything I need to do my job is working.

I also installed it on my laptop to see how it would run on older hardware. For the most part I am quite happy with it. Sometimes it seems to take longer to wake up than the XP did, but overall it is running about the same. I think I will keep it.

For anyone that is currently running Vista, I highly suggest you run out and buy the upgrade while it is on sale. You will not be dissapointed.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPod touch]

Twitter

So I finally decided to join Twitter to see what all the fuss is about. Meh. That's pretty much how I felt about it at first. Then I started to realize some of the marketing power it has.

I signed Fragapalooza up now so that I could keep the world updated and to see if I could put some of this free marketing to work.

I can make a post about one of the sponsors for instance, and if I tag the sponsor name (#) then my post will return as a search result when someone searches for that sponsor. This works for any term that I tag. #LAN for instance is a great tag.

In the two days since I have signed up Frag, there are 15 followers already. Each of those followers have followers of their own who can see that they are following Frag. This has the potential of reaching lots of new attendees in a short time. As long as I post regularily and tag the correct terms, this will work out well.

You can follow me at http://www.twitter.com/michaelhollands or Fragapalooza at http://www.twitter.com/Fragapalooza

See you online!

Mobile Blogging from here.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPod touch]

To BE, or not to BE...

So...we had a bomb dropped on us at work the other day...the dreaded OUTSOURCE was brought up. Once we all got over the initial shock of hearing that, our CIO went on to discuss some of the ideas around it. Now, when I say ideas, it is because nothing has been decided yet. The entire IT branch will be involved in the entire process from now until the end of it. Should be interesting...

There have been a zillion discussions already about it and I am looking at it in the most positive way possible. What other choice do I have? I guess I could be miserable for the next year...instead I decided to get out in front of this thing, and make sure that I have some sort of control over my career. (good luck with that right? LOL)

Beyond work, things are pretty much the same... I have been watching WAY too much hockey...I try and catch at least a couple periods of every game that is on. Doesn't leave a lot of room for catching up on regular TV, but I'm sure I will get over it.

For kicks, I joined Twitter the other day...if you are one of those Tweeple, follow me! http://www.twitter.com/michaelhollands

Planning for this years Fragapalooza is well under way. If you or someone you know is a gamer, please sign up! http://www.fragapalooza.com

L8R!

Rockband

So I finally got my wife interested on Rockband. Not to the point where she will pick up a guitar and rock out, but she will sing the occasional song now and has even created her own character in the game. Baby steps right?

I also made the mistake of looking outside this morning...what is up with the snow? I mean really...it is almost the end of March, and the first day of spring was yesterday. Oh well, I guess I should expect this given that I live in Edmonton after all.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPod touch]

Posting from my iPod

So here we are...not much has happened lately for me to blog about. Now, I have a new blogging app for my iPod Touch that will allow me to update from anywhere there is wifi.

Of course...I still have nothing to update.

Ok, that is not quite true. Fragapalooza had an event in Grande Prairie that was actually quite successful. We had more people attend than we thought we would, which was nice. We may even do another event next year.

The next step is to ramp up our planning for the summer event. Stay tuned!

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPod touch]