Heroes Happen Here

So yesterday, my fair city got a visit from Microsoft during their "HEROES happen {here}" campaign. They are celebrating/marketing the recent release (and upcoming release, in SQL Server's case) of 3 new versions of their products: Visual Studio 2008, Windows Server 2008, and MS SQL Server 2008. Back in February I received an email from my MVP Lead at MS saying that the HHH tour was going around the country, and if we wanted to attend any of them to sign up and let him know so he could notify the peeps running HHH. After a quick look at the list of cities, I realized Rochester was actually included, so how could I not go? I expected to be unemployed by this point (fyi, as of now, I'm on through June 30th), but knew that I wanted to go no matter what. So I signed up, and a week later received an email confirming my registration.

Skip forward 3 months to 3 nights ago, when I realized what the date was and that I had forgotten all about it. I had no expectations of what it was going to entail, but if I could help them out in any way, it would be a good experience. I secured the day off with my supervisor, and woke up early to make it at 7am for the registration (per my confirmation).

So I get to the convention center, see a couple registration desks and also see an MS employee just inside so I asked her what I should do. I then registered/signed in, and went off to find Gail who was running it to see what was in store for me. I eventually found her (it was still early, and she looked to be getting some fine touches done), so I introduced myself and asked what I could do to help. She walks me over to a table in the "ask an expert" area with a small sign on it saying Microsoft MVP. She said she planned on having me sit there, and answering any questions people may have. I was taken a little back, as I was just an Excel MVP and have only some experience with vs2008, certainly not enough to be an expert with it. I explained that I would do whatever she thought was best, but that I didn't really feel that I would be the best person for that job. She said she had wondered about it as well, but seemed happy nonetheless to have a real mvp there. Sure, I could tell my own "hero" story of how I went from lowly office worker to the local excel guru, and eventually an MVP. But in dealing with people who either develop full time, or work in the development field of some sort, why would a VBA programmer be anything special? So I asked her what else I could do.

At first, I was brought over to relieve one of the other people running the event who was helping out with registration. After a quick explanation of how registration works, I was there for a few hours. Once that became a little less hectic I was moved to a couple other areas there, such as a Speak Your Mind video booth where attendees could record their thoughts for Microsoft to see, as well as a few tasks here and there to make things run smoothly. I had a great time, got to meet many local people in the field as well as some more people from Microsoft (based out of the Boston area). I even stepped into a session on using vs2008 with MS Office, but quickly realized the presenter wasn't showing me anything new. Most of the people in there seemed genuinely interested in what he was doing and he certainly had a good vibe with the crowd, seemed like a big hit (which did give me a little hope that my skills could be used once my current job is over).

Overall, I had a good time and I'm happy I attended. I found it interesting (at least it felt so to me) that most of the MS employees had never come across an MVP before and seemed genuinely interested in my story and the whole MVP program. They all seemed to know about it, and had a good impression of it despite not knowing much of it. It had crossed my mind (both before, as well as after, that wonderful Summit in April) that only some groups (product teams, PR, marketing) had any interest in the MVP program and that other employees either knew nothing about it or didn't think that highly of it. I would have to say that after yesterday, I was wrong. None of them seemed to ever deal with an MVP before but all showed immediate respect for me. Perhaps that contributed to my enjoyment of the day, but I think if I had just signed up to attend and didn't help out at all (which I did for about 8 hours) I would have still thoroughly enjoyed myself. If you get a chance to attend one of these, by all means do! Good learning experience (so I heard from some attendees of the sessions I did not see), good networking opportunity, and of course good swag (pens, lunch coolers, normal attendees even got free copies of the software being introduced!)

If you get the chance to see this, or any software roll-out conference, by all means do. You won't regret it!

New Computer

Well, I got a new computer a couple weeks ago and have been slowly integrating it into my normal usage. It didn't help that the parts came over the course of a week (most in the first 2 days, save some necessary sata cables that rendered the rest of it useless), and that my pretty new monitor (hp w2207) worked well with my old pc, delaying my motivation/installation. For those that are curious/bored, heres the specs on my new computer:

• CPU: Intel E8400 -- 3.0ghz core 2 duo, fast goodness
  
• Motherboard: ASUS nForce 750i -- Does everything I need and much more (everything I may need someday?)
• RAM: G.Skill 4GB -- Nothing too special here, 4gb of DDR2 800 PC2 6400. Works very well though and no issues installing it at all
• Video Card: eVGA GeForce 8800GT -- Sweeeeeeeeeet card. I'm immensely impressed at what this thing can do. PCIx 2.0x16, 512mb, 256bit, GDDR3, HDCP, SLI; this should keep my graphics near-high-end for years
• Monitor: HP w2207 -- Great monitor. Get one. Actually, why not get two? 22" widescreen LCD, 1680x1050, 1000:1, DVI or VGA input, even has USB ports and can be easily rotated to be in Portrait mode instead of the usual landscape mode (VERY useful for long spreadsheets and web pages)
• Hard Drive: WD Caviar 500gb sata 7200/16mb --Just a big hard drive.. I had read a bunch of good reviews, so I got one. Actually I bought this last Friday and should get it tomorrow hopefully, currently have an old 120gb drive in the machine right now (which will stay, my OS is on it)
• DVD/CD drive: Samsung DVD burner -- Just a fast, robust, sata dvd burner. Lots of good features on it, though I've only used it so far for reading cds/dvds and haven't burned anything yet. Soon enough, I'm sure, as I can't wait to try the dual layer. Hoping the lightscribe isn't just marketing hype
• Case/PSU: CoolerMaster RC-690-KKA1-GP -- Big case (bigger than I was expecting :/), lots of great tool-less features and lots of room for fans. Included a few fans to begin with, as well as a 550w PSU, plus external ports. And it is black. I guess the only thing I don't like is the neon blue glowing in the front, but certainly not enough to want a new one. Way too many positives outweight it.

So yeah, that is it. Installed XP x64 on it, Firefox, Visual Studio 2008, Office 2007 ultimate (woo!), and Guild Wars. Haven't tried that other than just a quick check to see how it looked, which was much better than my old pc. The release of Mario Kart Wii kinda curbed my enthusiasm for the new computer, it'll return soon enough I'm sure.

Oh, and I got a USB wi-fi adapter for it too, in case I decide not to anchor it near my router. Much better than the one I had anyways for my laptop, so it was money well spent.

Overall, the computer was a little more than I had planned to spend, but if nothing else I can thank the $600 economic stimulus refund I got, and simply write the monitor off as a personal 30th birthday present.