Here is the next batch of interviews I did with some of the speakers, sponsors and attendees of CodeMash 2.0.0.8

CodeMash 2008 Interview with Bill Wagner
CodeMash 2008 Interview with Brian Goetz
CodeMash 2008 Interview with Jeff McWherter & Jay Wren

The last interview with Microsoft Architect Evangelist Josh Holmes is the final interview and should be up later tonight.  The first day of sessions and keynotes will be up tomorrow and/or this week.  I have enjoyed getting these podcasts up and have had some good reviews.  Thanks to all the people I interviewed who made me look so good.

CodeMash Podcast RSS Feed 

The following interviews have been uploaded for the CodeMash podcast.  I enjoyed doing the interviews during the event January 10-11, 2008.  These are my first podcasts so I was really nervous and it made me aware of how I speak.  I do hope everyone enjoys them.  We have many more interviews along with keynotes and sessions that we recorded during the event.  I see many possibilities going forward for a new Cloudsocket podcast and screencasts.  More on those soon.

CodeMash Podcast RSS

CodeMash 2008 Interview with Sara Ford

CodeMash 2008 Interview with Dustin Campbell

CodeMash 2008 Interview with Michael Rozlog

Also Michael Kimsal has a number of podcasts from CodeMash on his WebDevRadio podcast.

CodeMash is over and if I wrote about all the things I did and people I met it would be like a book.  It was one of those 2 days that you look back on and think it went by in 2 minutes.  The days are now a blur but they were a fun and festive blur that gave me a new perspective on my career and started new passions that will last a long time.  I will run down the many things I want to get out of my head and into yours!

• I saw many friends that I have not seen since before the Holidays or longer: Keith Elder, Jeff McWherter, John Hopkins, Chris Kotsis, Jim Holmes, Josh Holmes, Jeff Blankenburg, Brian Sherwin, Dustin Campbell, Jason Follas, Brian Prince, Bill Wagner, Jay Wren and many others. (If I missed your name please accept my apologies)
• I met so many cool people this CodeMash that I know I will miss many that deserve to be mentioned: Sara Ford, Michael Letterle, Alex from SRT, Michael Rozlog from CodeGear, and really many, many more.
• I have been called one of the Organizers of CodeMash but really I was just someone who came in and did the recordings and podcast interviews.  Jim Holmes, Brian Prince, Jason Follas, John Hopkins, Jason Gilmore, Dianne Marsh, Jeff Blankenburg and Jeff McWherter deserve all the credit.  They did the great jobs and my work just fed off the excitement they created.
• Sara Ford is one of the smartest people I have met and is also very down to earth.  Sara is the PM for CodePlex and also was on the Visual Studio team.  She was very cool about spending time for the podcast and even wanted to chat for another one.  She came all the way from Redmond just to see what we Midwest developers do and think about our craft.  If you get a chance to meet her you will find out first hand why Microsoft is what it is.
• Shared a few drinks with really cool friends.  Drinks like the Washington Apple, Three Wise Men and Cape Cod will always get people to open up and share their passions and insights.  At the very least they will share a few laughs with you.
• Scott Hanselman is a very cool person who really enjoys being inside the fun at a conference like CodeMash.  We did have some technical issues so if Scott reads this — I am sorry and will make it up to you.

To all the attendees at CodeMash 2.0.0.8, please know that we all made the event what it is… the best damn developer conference period.  Thanks for making the 2 days a memory that I will never forget.

2007 is coming to an end and when I take a look back on the past year it is with a deep breath and open eyes.  Did I do everything I was hoping to?  No but I don’t think any of us do what we think we will or hope to do.  Did I do enough to be satisfied?  I think so.  Here is a list of things I am proud of from 2007 (from a technical and career view).

• Started speaking again at .NET user groups and developer events like Day of .NET Ann Arbor.
• Lead and worked with a great team to have the first Day of .NET West Michigan event back in May.
• Started the Cloudsocket blog.
• Started the Cloudsocket Database Patterns Wiki
• Was more involved in the West Michigan .NET User Group
• Learned quite a bit of new development technologies like MVC, Silverlight, Acropolis and Astoria

One thing that I had hoped to do was to get my Microsoft Certified Professional Developer (MCPD) certification.  I was very busy with more work than I could handle this year and getting certification just did not happen.  I do agree with Joel Ross on his view of technical certifications.  They are Ok to have but real world experience always wins over tests.

What are my 2008 resolutions?  I always go into a year with my head in the cloud thinking I can change the world and myself along with it.  I never try to set the bar low but always high and do not get disappointed when I do not reach it.  I have a few times in the past.

Chris Woodruff’s 2008 Resolutions

1. Have 200 attendees and the best group of Speakers for the May 2008 Day of .NET West Michigan
2. Build the Cloudsocket Database Patterns Wiki into a vibrant community of database developers sharing great ideas and knowledge around relational databases.
3. Speak 20 times in 2008 at .NET user groups and developer conferences/events
4. Write a book covering Agile Database Development with Visual Studio Team System Database Professional
5. Have 1000 readers of this blog
6. Build a Ultimate Developer Rig like Dustin’s machine.
7. Have over 50 members attend the West Michigan .NET User Group each month.
8. Become a great Membership Mentor for Michigan and Ohio INETA User Groups
9. Become a Microsoft MVP
10. Be happy

I think this is a good list and if I work hard I can accomplish all ten resolutions.  I look forward to reading all my friend’s resolution lists.  That is a challenge to all my readers (all 3 of them!).

To all the .NET developers out there that spend time and energy spreading their knowledge with the .NET community.  SPEAK.NET is a group to discuss how we can better spread and teach best practices to the whole developer community.  Come join the group if you speak at developer events, user groups, blog or write about development.

I will be at the next CodeMash conference on January 10 and 11, 2008.  I will not be speaking but will be working on the Podcast team getting as many sessions recorded and produced so we can get them uploaded to the CodeMash Podcasts.  We will also be recording interviews with many speakers of CodeMash and also attendees to get their views and insight into the ever evolving developer landscape.

The conference will be at the Kalahari Resort and from the comments I heard about CodeMash 2007, the resort is top notch and family friendly.  The rooms are only $88 for a short time and that includes 4 passes to the waterpark.  Great place for the family to hang out while you hang out with the best developers in the world.

Dustin Campbell did a great job last night speaking on the topic of Functional C# to the West Michigan .NET User Group.  I think it took most of us about 15 minutes to get the ideas he was trying to get across to sink in.  While I see the beauty of the Delegates and Lambda expressions, I will not be pouring these into my projects so I do not get fired!! (Dustin’s inside joke last night).

Thanks Dustin for a great talk and also sharing a beer with us during the talk.  Yes we meet at a facility that has a cash bar for the members.  What other user group has this benefit for its members?

I am excited to be hosting the pre-event podcasts for the CodeMash event on January 10-11.  The first podcast I hosted is an interview with Jim Holmes, President and Cofounder of CodeMash.  Jim describes his role with CodeMash and how he was involved in founding this event.  I also talk with Jim about the plans for the 2008 event, why developers of all types should attend CodeMash and what people should bring to this exciting event at the Kalahari Resort and Nia Center.

The RSS feed for all CodeMash podcasts is here.

A very easy way to create reports with alternating background colors for each row in your table report.  Select the TableRow in the report’s Table control.  In the expression for the TableRow’s BackgroundColor property place the following:

=iif(RowNumber(Nothing) Mod 2, “Gainsboro”, “White”)

The last 2 parameters are the colors that will alternate for the data rows of the table in the report.

The need to produce reports with a common starting design and format is key to any project involving clients and their reports.  I have been working on reports for over 10 years now.  This has not been the largest portion of my jobs through the years but it has been a very import one.  The key to any report project is not to recreate the mundane aspects of the reports for each but to use templates.  The use of templates is not a common task or knowledge for Microsoft’s SQL Server Reporting Services.  Knowing how to save reports templates so that you and your team can create these shortcuts at the creation of a new report in Visual Studio 2005 will help save time and have all reports use the same layout and design.

Create of a set of reports with the following suggestions:

• Page size — 8.5 by 11 (letter) and 8.5 by 14 (legal)
• Orientation — portrait and landscape for all paper sizes
• Header — Text Box for report name, Text Box for report subtitle, client or brand logo
• Footer — page number/total pages, date and time report printed

Take all the rdl files for the reports created from the suggestions and copy the files to the following directory:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\IDE\PrivateAssemblies\ProjectItems\ReportProject

When creating a new report in your Visual Studio 2005 report project through Add|New Item

The new report dialog will present the list of items from the directory where the new templates were placed.

Select the report that fits the requirement needed and proceed to develop your reports without needing to create the basics.