Shedding Some Light

The second day of the conference started with a review of “Get More Productive with VFP” session at 5:00am in the morning. I have been waking up around 4:30am to 5:00am each day no matter how tired I am. For a while this morning I tried to understand the rules of Rugby which seems to be on most TV stations here in Sydney. I learned that there are four different versions of the sport played, which solved much of my confusion. I also tried to understand Cricket, but have no clue how this game is played. It is nice that the American morning shows are played between 5:00am and 7:00am so I can catch up on the news from home. Some American shows are played in the evening, but they seem to be a season behind in some cases.

It has been raining the last couple of days. This is unusual from what I have been told and the Aussies have been very apologetic (like they control the weather {g}). Our sightseeing was not interrupted with bad weather and since we sit in the conference all day the rain has not affected any activity. Perfect timing. Therese has not been very sympathetic since Sterling Heights was hit by an ice storm and I am in very warm temperatures.

Busy conference day with six conference sessions, and two bonus sessions crammed in:

• Doug Hennig – “Installing Applications Using InnoSetup”
• Colin Nicholls – “Extending VFP 9.0 Xbase Reporting Components”
• Rick Schummer – “Get more productive with VFP”
• Bing Bao – “Security and the VFP Developer” (bonus session during lunch)
• Lisa Slater Nicholls – “Reporting in Sedna/SP2 – A Tour”
• Mark Crichton – “Getting a Visual FoxPro application to Market”
• Colin Nicholls – “Data Visualization in Reports with VFP 9.0 SP2″
• Andrew Coates – “Creating Office OpenXML Documents in VFP” (bonus session)

All the sessions were good. I missed most of Doug’s session because I saw it in Pheonix and wanted to catch up on some work I needed to do. The reporting sessions are causing lots of brain cramps with the large volume of information and exciting new functionality. Each of the sessions are building on the previous sessions. Extendibility is getting the doors blown off again.

Bing Bao (from Sydney) came in and tried to scare us all with some insecurities with applications and VFP data. It was a great way to spend lunch. Mark Crichton is also a local speaker and talked about some history of his app, business decisions he faces, the processes and tools he uses to get his vertical market application to market. Interesting ideas to consider if you are into this type of application.

Andrew wrapped up the day with an excellent session on the new MS Office file formats and showed us how we can create the files from VFP without any automation. It is all XML files and ZIP technology. This is the second time I have seen this topic only this time it had VFP used to create the files. I think this has lots of potential, but I also believe this is going to be very complex once you get past the fundamental and trivial examples. That said, I think it is great because you can build in scalability without worrying about Office being in the way, or licensing concerns, and the file formats are an open standard. This means other office vendors will be compatible in the future and the world just got a little smaller.

Excellent Thai food for dinner – finally (Doug and I have been looking since we arrived). We walked in the rain to a small little place down closer to the harbor. Conversation at dinner was more shop talk. The day was long and most of us have full skulls.

The first day of OzFox is on a Sunday and starts at 1:45pm. Doug and I went through the keynote which was similar to the one we did last year at Southwest Fox, but with new/updated material, but was a little lower energy level because Craig Boyd was busy digging out his car from a snow bank back in the USA.

The keynote was focused on the bright future of VFP and it went well. I talked about the new SP2 and Sedna CTP released last week just in time for the conference (I could not load them because of my no-new-software-before-conference-rule). I provided a high level overview of the changes in SP2, but no details because Colin and Lisa are doing five sessions on the topic. The future as we see it:

• VFP 9 Service Pack 2
• Sedna
• VFPX
• Other CodePlex projects

VFP 9 Service Pack 2 contains:

• Bug fixes (the list is lengthy)
• Vista compatibility
• Reporting enhancements

Sedna currently contains:

• Data Explorer enhancements
• NET4COM (.NET COM interface)
• DBi Technologies’ components
• My Namespace
• Upsizing Wizard enhancements
• Vista Toolkit
• Other components

I covered the Data Explorer, Net4Com, and discussed the generous DBi Technology controls (not in the CTP). Doug handled the My Namespace, Upsizing Wizard, and the Vista Toolkit (big thanks to Craig Boyd for setting us up with a great demo). We wrapped up the keynote talking about VFPX and other CodePlex projects, and made a call to action for the attendees (and the rest of the Fox Community):

• Download and start working with CTP
• Join VFPX and other projects
• Start your own blog
• Join (or start) a user group
• Tell the world about VFP

The rest of the day the attendees listened to Doug’s session “Extending VFP with VFP” and Colin’s session “VFP 9.0 Reporting Fundamentals.”

The conference has one track so all attendees attend the same session. I first experienced this style of conference at GLGDW 2006 and it works well when you have good sessions all the time or follow a specific theme. In the case of OzFox – it is jammed with great sessions. Even listening to sessions I have already seen (like Doug’s Extending VFP with VFP) has its benefits.

The last session of the day was called “Networking.” Craig Bailey (conference host) asked people in the room to introduce themselves and describe how they use FoxPro and a little about their business. This was an interesting session because it showed how diverse the projects are in Australia and New Zealand.

Afterwards we had dinner in the hotel restaurant (no Thai food yet {g}). Microsoft brought in XBox 360s like they did at the last OzFox conference. Spectacular graphics on large HD TVs. I am not into video games, but it was fun to watch a bunch of geeks race cars and play shoot’em up games. In particular the chain saw slaughters were humorous.

There was no possible way I was not taking a couple of days off to see the beautiful sites of Sydney Australia while I am halfway around the world from our humble home in Michigan.

The flights from Detroit to LA and from LA to Sydney were pretty uneventful. Minor turbulence over the Pacific did wake me up a few times. I got about 4 hours of sleep on the leg to Sydney interrupted each time someone used the bathroom and locked the door. The good news is this was 4 hours more sleep than I expected. I watched a couple of movies and a couple of episodes of Quantum Leap (Season 1) I bought for the trip. It is one of my all-time favorite TV shows.

Sydney is gorgeous. Craig Bailey was a fantastic host on day one of our tour. He kindly picked us up at the airport. The city reminds me of Seattle because it is near a large harbor, close to the Pacific Ocean, has ferries, a bustling downtown, numerous tall buildings, mass transportation, people of all nationalities, and lots of coffee shops and restaurants.

As Doug mentioned in his post we got a sweet tour from Craig on Thursday after our arrival. We talked about the life down-under, VFP, conferences, VFP, running software businesses, the future of VFP, and our busy lives. A major highlight was the view from the Sydney Tower. We could see for miles as the weather was clear. I have always enjoyed going up the towers like the Seattle Space Needle, the Empire State Building in NYC, and CN Tower in Toronto. I am not sure I have seen a more spectacular view of a city. The end of the day was topped off by a fantastic dinner, and watching the Queen Elizabeth II leaving port just outside the restaurant.

Tuesday we let Craig get back to work on the conference and headed out on our own. The Taronga Zoo was fabulous. I have not been to many zoos, but the number of animals and the native Australian animals like wallaby (see Doug’s picture how close one came up to me), kangaroos, and koalas made my day. My pictures are still in my camera and I forgot the cable needed to bring them to my laptop. I’ll try to post them later including the one of the wallaby I caught up close when I return home.

Doug and I headed from the Zoo to the Olympic Park. In between we almost lost our lives when our ferry boat almost was taken out by a couple of sailboats that were tacking against a very strong wind. I have some great shots of these boats too (not the ones that almost rammed us). I am a big fan of the Olympics and really enjoyed the Sydney games in particular. We walked all over the complex and even went into the Aquatics Center where the swimming and diving events were held. The pools were filled with lots of people learning to swim. It is nice to know the venues are still in use today. We must have walked 10 miles on Friday and spent a lot of time in the sun. I was hoping this would help with the jet lag, but in my case it did not as I barely slept that night.

Saturday we were off to the Blue Mountains and the Jenolan Caves. Doug does a great job describing the trip. He mentioned the “somewhat white-knuckle road”, but did not mention the tunnel we went through where there is barely a foot in each side of the bus and the walls of the tunnel, and it winds around a bend. Nice driving by our driver Steve. The Lucas Cave. It reminded me of the time my family went to the Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. Lots of cool formations, lots of cool history, and a fantastic sound in the “Cathedral”. The cave is host to concerts and weddings in this dome that goes up to 168 feet from the floor. Coincidentally, back in Michigan my wife was at a Josh Groben concert with her sister taking my place. The music played in the cave was similar to Josh’s so the moment was a bit chilling for me. Fortunately, I grabbed a nap on the way back to Sydney.

Sunday I got up early after a decent 6 hour sleep. I wanted to rehearse my part of the keynote and my first couple of sessions. I have been waking up between 4:00am and 5:00am every day, regardless if I want to or not. Doug and I got together to fine tune the keynote and got ready for the conference to start.

I have had a little struggle with email and Internet connectivity here at the Vibe Hotel. The people have been great and helpful. The good news is the conference has wireless available and it appears to be working well.

I have met some developers I know from blogs and even a couple of customers of my developer tools. The Fox developers here are as friendly as the Aussies we met on our tour of Sydney. This should be a great conference. The trip certainly has started out with some unforgettable memories.

I received an email this evening from Christa at Advisor letting me know I will be speaking at the Advisor Summit from May 6 – 10, 2007 in Anaheim, California at the Anaheim Marriott Hotel. Looks like my schedule will be a busy one with four different sessions:

• Professional Developer’s Toolkit
• Visual FoxPro Debugging Essentials
• VFPX Tools and Components – Live
• SQL Server Toolkit for the VFP Developer

I am not sure who else is speaking, but I am sure the line up will include some great sessions.

As Craig Bailey notes in his blog, this is a good news and bad new announcement.

Unfortunately Craig Boyd has to withdrawl from OzFox 2007 because of a family emergency. I really wish there were better circumstances, but after talking to Craig Boyd last week I was happy to hear while things are a little stressful, things are okay. Still, Therese and I will be keeping the Boyd’s in our prayers.

So when Craig Bailey asked me if I could help out and be a speaker at OzFox I did not hesitate and said yes! It is the least I can do and I am honored by the request. I know I am no Craig Boyd, but I will do my best to provide the OzFox attendees with some cool VFP sessions, and hopefully some inspiration in similar fashion to Craig.

One thing is for sure, I am really excited. I was hoping to go to OzFox 2007 as an attendee late last year. I heard OzFox is a great conference, but I decided to hire my son and had to buy him a laptop instead. It was a tough decision at the time, but the best decision I could make for my business. So now I get the best of both worlds.

I have always wanted to make a trip to Australia. What could be better than heading to Sydney in February (Summer) to hang out with VFP developers?

Doug and I will be doing the opening keynote, and I am presenting three regular sessions. Craig is finalizing the details over the next couple of days. If things go well I am hoping to blog live from the conference too.

Now is the time to get registered and save AUD$100 with the early bird registration through January 31st. I look forward to meeting everyone in a few weeks.

I see on the Advisor Events Web site they have scheduled the next Advisor Visual FoxPro DevCon for May 6-10, 2007 in Anaheim, California (near DisneyLand). No specific details for the VFP track yet as a link points to last year’s page in Phoenix, but it is good news. Looks like there will be four other Summits on the same dates and same city (and I assume the same location):

• Microsoft .NET, Visual Studio, ASP.NET and SQL Server
• Microsoft Sharepoint
• Microsoft Access
• Lotus (Domino, Notes, IBM Portal Server, Sametime, IBM Workplace, Quickplace, IBM DB2)

I am sure there will be more details to post later.

I was visiting the OzFox 2007 Web site the last couple of days because I am trying to figure out if I can some how attend the conference. I think it would be cool to blog live from down under. Right now it is a matter of arranging my schedule and determine if the business model works.

Craig Bailey has done a real nice job with this site. The only thing it is missing is the hotel cost, which I understand will be added soon. Looks like Craig is doing some things I think are important for future conferences to include or adopt:

1. Promote new speaker talent. OzFox is looking for local talent from Australia and New Zealand. Whil Hentzen was well known for doing something similar years ago with GLGDW. He took risks and grew the speaker pool and thus broadened the materials presented at FoxPro conferences. I have always been grateful to Whil for taking a chance on a punk from Sterling Heights Michigan back in 2000. Last year Bob Kocher dragged Craig Boyd from his basement in Minnesota to participate in the Southwest Fox Keynote and now he is a rock star, and this year Kevin Cully based the entire FoxForward conference on volunteers and introduced the community to some rising stars with Kevin Ragsdale and Bo Durban getting some serious buzz on their sessions (to mention only two). This is tough to balance because speakers and their topics are the number one draw to a conference.
2. Building community – Craig has been banging the Fox Community drum down under for quite a while with his participation in the OzFox Rocks Podcast with Scott Scovell, plus organizing OzFox Lite and previous OzFox conferences. I recall the days when Microsoft held special meetings for user group leaders at DevCon, and Whil had a special dinner where he organized a user group leader dinner at GLGDW. Whil and Bob Kocher offered discounts to user group members.
3. Networking – based on strong feedback from the last OzFox, attendees want more time to network with each other. OzFox will have a session dedicated to networking. I have said for years the in between session material/discussion is as valuable as the conference sessions. While I am not sure a session has to be dedicated to the topic, I think conference organizers need to innovate ideas on how to enhance the networking experience. Interesting decision and hopefully one to start other ideas flowing.

Conference organizers have earned my deepest respect with the effort they put in to bring us these important events. It is impossible to satisfy everyone, yet they do everything they can to make the experience as pleasant as possible for all the personalities involved.

OzFox sounds like a great conference. If you live anywhere within an earshot of Sydney you need to register right away. There are nine days left to take advantage of the least expensive registration cost.

My first crack at airfare on Northwest was taking me from Detroit to Sydney east over the Atlantic instead of directly west. Three days and four or five stops and US$10,000. I laughed until I had tears in my eyes. I would have literally seen the world from 38,000 feet.

All I have to do is see if I can jam a week out of my schedule, possibly work out some resource issues with one March deployment, and see if I can convince the other shareholder to spring for the expenses. Fingers crossed this all works out, but I am realistic when I review all the work I have to do in the first quarter of 2007. If not, I will be reading some one else’s blog to hear about all the cool stuff I missed.

The “conference exhaustion”, compounded by the still lingering jet lag is definitely taking its toll on the brain. The good news is today is the last day of the conference, the bad news is today is the last day of the conference. I believe this is a typical conflict for conference attendees, and is definitely the case for me.

First session was The Power of CursorAdapters by Venelina Jordanova. I honestly have not played with CursorAdapters very much because the Visual FoxExpress framework I use for most of my applications does not really include them in the design. I like the concept in theory, but wanted to learn more about them. Venelina took us through the fundamentals, explained how they are an object to access day from a variety of sources, detailed property and methods, and demonstrated the CursorAdapter Builder. She then showed us some of the conflict resolution and how to address potential pitfalls with this object. Unfortunately I had to leave a bit early to prepare for my session and missed the section on Error Handling, but I see her notes are very good.

I presented the Using and Extending the VFP Data Explorer session next. I thought the session was going well until I realized I miscalculated the amount of time remaining by 10 minutes. I spent more time on the drag and drop section of the presentation than I normally do because I thought I had too much time remaining and was trying to balance things out. By time I realized the mistake it was too late to rebalance and unfortunately had to rush the last couple sections of the session. Definitely not my best work and hopefully those in attendance take a look at the white paper to get the “rest of the story”.

The next three sessions I attended were foreign language sessions.

The last session before lunch was Christof Wollenhaupf’s session called JavaScript for the VFP-Entwickler. I knew Christof would be speaking fast German and I was right. Fortunately he went through a lot of code examples (normal for his sessions) and I know how to read JavaScript. I actually learned a lot from his excellent examples. I think it is cool how you can add methods to an object in code. He also showed a real cool developer tool bar add-in for Internet Explorer. I have one for FoxFire, but this tool from Microsoft has a neat ruler tool. First you click on the beginning point, then move the mouse and watch the ruler show up. This ruler is not just horizontal. It goes vertical and diagonal as well. It shows the pixel count so you can line things up and measure where you might want to place other text or objects on a Web page. Great session that surpassed my expectations.

Marcus Alt from Microsoft showed us “Data Dude” in his session called Database, Deploy, Test mit Visual Studio Team System. There were only four of us in this session, and I was the only English speaking person in the room, yet Marcus was kind enough to translate when he addressed something complex. “Data Dude” is the code name for Visual Studio Team Edition for Database Professionals. It is a product used with Visual Studio .NET to interact with SQL Server. When I talk about interaction I am talking about working with database design, creatingand maintaining tables, views, stored procs, and the usual Enterprise Manager like tasks. But “Data Dude” is much more. It is a package that helps you create test data, create test scenarios and run the tests, and take schema changes from your design database to a test and/or production database. This indeed looks like a cool product, but also sounds expensive and so far it is one demo. It does what developers currently are using two or three tools to accomplish. Still, it is not even a v1.0 product yet (although it is expected later this month). This product has already gone through seven CTPs. I was able to follow Marcus’ session quite easily based on the demos and technical buzzwords he was using as he was talking. He even handled the answers to my questions in English. Class guy, and super session.

The last regular presentation of the conference I attended is Beth Massi’s Introduction to LINQ. I mentioned the rest of my sessions were foreign language sessions: well .NET is a foreign language to me {g}. I last saw LINQ in its infancy more than a year ago during the MVP Summit in September 2005. It seems much improved, even though Beth was demonstrating from the May 2006 CTP (which is the most current). Beth showed us numerous examples of how LINQ works with objects, SQL Server, and XML. This is not all at once, this is running LINQ queries (via a syntax that is SQL-Select like) and getting back an object with the data. Interesting prospect and interesting approach, and definitely a little foreign to those of us use to working with cursors. It is way different than working with ADO and seems to require less code. I believe this has a way to go, but it definitely is coming from Microsoft. The Fox Team is highly involved in this effort. One language, one approach to querying different types of data. I asked some serious question about this technology. The first is: are there any bleeding edge .NET developers wrapping the LINQ technology into business objects? Beth is not aware of any at this time as the technology is too new and is still developing. The other question was: does she see VFP developers using .NET interop to using LINQ based objects? I personally don’t see developers using this for the SQL Server data access as we already have techniques, but I can see us working with XML a little easier in the future and possibly integrating with other .NET solutions. Beth was very good.

Rainer closed out the conference with a 75 minute closing session filled with humor, prize giveaways, and a peek into the future. He has already scheduled this conference for next year and is very hopeful for surprises from Microsoft with respect to VFP and future versions of VFP.

The speaker dinner was fun. The food was exotic. The discussions left me in tears and pulled muscles in my abdomen from all the laughter. I ate with Alan Griver, Beth Massi, Doug Hennig, Craig Berntson, and Jeff Zinnert. We had a great time. We finished up about 12:30ish and then headed to the hotel watering hole where I had my annual beer (see Jeff, no way for you to blackmail me).

This was a great conference in just about ever aspect. Rainer is very experienced at doing this. He brings in great speakers, has picked great topics, has a perfect facility and food, and terrific support from his friends and employees. Everything went like clockwork. I really hope he invites me back again next year.

I now have to get ready for my return on Monday back to reality. Actually, thanks to the wireless here at the conference center and Skype I was able to address client calls and keep my business running while I was 4500 miles from home (as the plane flies). Those Fox developers in Europe should seriously consider this conference, and those in other countries including the USA should consider a trip to Germany next year for one of the best conferences on the planet.

Thanks for reading.