Community Blogs

Microsoft did a fantastic job making PDC09 accessible to everyone, even to geeks as far away as Vermont. Their real-time HD video coverage of the keynotes and conference presentations was awesome. And what Microsoft didn't provide at http://microsoftpdc.com, Twitter did. The combination of microsoftpdc.com and the #PDC09 stream allowed me to feel like I was at the conference without having to fly across the country to get there. Fascinating, really, the ability to follow the flow of a PDC conference in real time, being in on the pre-conference anticipation of the attendees, initial disappointments as the conference got off to a slow start, the bitching about snacks, reading about the parties, seeing reactions to the free laptops on day two...

This is common knowledge for most of you reading this, but I wanted a reference point for myself on the topic of shortened URLs and tweets. "Mentions" are a twitter feature where your twitter name (mine is @daveburkevt) is included in the tweet so that it comes to your attention. Unlike Direct Messages which can be sent only by people you follow, anyone can send you a Mention. Now onto shortened URLs.   Shortened URLs are web addresses manipulated in sure a way so they use less characters, perfect for Twitter's 140 character tweet limitation. Typical URL shortening services are bit.ly, tr.im and tinyurl.com. Here's the deal.  You don't know what is on the other side of a shortened URL. 99.99% of the time they're...

This past weekend the Burkes drove from Burlington, Vermont to pick up our daughter from summer camp on the east side of New Hampshire near the Maine border in Ossipee.  To get there we drove down beautiful I-89 Vermont, then on beautiful I-93 New Hampshire through Franconia Notch and the beautiful Kancamagus Highway.  Did I mention it was beautiful?  I took a number of snapshots from behind the wheel, which I rarely ever do.  Wanted to share a bit of the beauty of Vermont and New Hampshire with you.  Here's the photo album.    Read More...

We just returned from five days across the border, the Canadian border, vacationing at the Auberge de Lac Morency resort outside of Montreal, Quebec.  It struck me when we returned home that one of the great things about living in Burlington is being able to drive to getaways in another country, which speaks another language, and still have gas left in the tank. A few photos are below.  My vacation photo album is located here. Read More...

As of this afternoon, my wife and I now sport new 32GB 3GS iPhones. Our purchase and activation couldn’t have been handled more smoothly than it was by the nearby South Burlington AT&T guys at the Dorsett Street store. (And the place was a zoo!) Now it’s time to contemplate how a Zune Man like me will live with an iPhone. Here are the broad strokes I know to be true. First, I won’t be loading iTunes on any of my machines. There’s no way I’m loading both Zune and iTunes on the same machine. I love my Zune Pass and what Microsoft is doing with MP3 availability, so I’ll continue to use the Zune software 24/7, that is when I’m not using my Pandora One desktop client. I’ll be loading iTunes on my primary Vista machine because everything passes...

I wanted to share a daily news service with you I receive each day, free of charge, from Tim Anater.  How he is able to produce this every day, I have no idea.  The guy is incredibly smart, for sure, but if you check out his @bfbcping twitter stream your first reaction might be fear and trepidation.  Yet like me, you may over time find his tweets to be one of the highlights of your day. If you want to receive your own copy of Tim's Daily, send an email to tims.daily@gmail.com .  Look for a new title each day in your inbox.  Recent title samplings are Daily Thriller, Daily Wrist Breaker, and Daily Walk it Off. Below is Tim's "Daily Sustained Gs" for July 6, 2009. ______________________ A critic is someone...

It’s always a good holiday weekend when it results in new additions to my photo gallery. Taking advantage of my Photo Gallery recent photos display, I walked through several pages and grabbed the weekend’s 60-some photos. They include today’s visit to the Von Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe. I’ve been there several times and have stayed there, but it was the first time I walked the grounds and some of their trails. I took a few pictures of the Vermont Lake Monsters game this evening, with several of Champ the mascot. Nothing like minor league baseball. Many photos from yesterday’s trek to downtown Burlington for the Farmer’s Market, Church Street and the waterfront. Burlington really is a beautiful place. Read More...

A few snapshots from Niquette Bay State Park located in Colchester, Vermont, about 30 minutes from our front door.  I didn't know this place existed until yesterday, so it was a wonderful Memorial Day discovery.  We wanted to take a family holiday hike somewhere close to home, but somewhere different.  Niquette Bay State it was!  Yet another reason why Burlington is a such great place to live. It's like my optometrist likes to say, "Burlington is so close to Vermont!" A few more hiking photos are on my Niquette State Park - Memorial Day 2009 Photo Album. Read More...

Early Wednesday afternoon I was at my desk remotely configuring a client’s IIS server to support some weird CAD file extension when I started getting the chills. Within minutes I was shaking pretty bad so I headed down the hall and straight to bed. The flu had come calling big time. I was exhibiting all of the symptoms of the Swine Flu, so on day two I called the doc for counsel. He told me how the rules of Swine Flu response changed each day and on the day I called, if I had recently visited one of 9 states which he then named I would have been asked to come in to robe-up and get swabbed. Rhode Island, where we just returned from April vacation, wasn’t on his list. Also, my symptoms, while they matched those of the Swine Flu line-by-line, weren...

My podcast listening routine has been fixed for quite a while now, but there's not much of it anymore.  Since Murphy's gone I don't take many walks, and since I work at home that leaves trips to the grocery store and errands for podcasts.  Still, I continue to catch each week's roundtable segment of "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" (usually skipping the headliner), a couple of Marketplace broadcasts each week and Real Time with Bill Maher when I can fit it in.  I don't listen to IT Conversations regularly, but I do manage my queue very closely, which I save to listen to on vacations, like our April 2009 Vacation to Newport, Rhode Island last week. I'll start with a podcast I didn't think...