Just the other day we had a customer with the exact same quote: “Show us how you did that, so we can do it in-house”… and the following video, although an obvious exaggeration, depicts what I am beginning to see more and more; is this a sign of the economy, or…? Well, you decide – I just thought this was too funny to not share.   We’re not a “Taco Stand” – Way too funny!     Technorati Tags: Business,Vendor-Client Relationship,Humor

While the first half of 2009 is almost behind us, there is a lot more community work left to get done. As I try to arrange my life-work-community schedule I see that I have quite a busy couple of months coming up yet. I am still waiting for responses from other community leaders and events such as the SDN/Open Force Europe, so I won’t list those here just yet. Meanwhile, here is what I’ve got lined up. 6/26/2009 Sharepoint User Group DC Session: Sharepoint VS DotNetNuke (3:00pm – 4:00pm) Prepare for the battle of the titans! Which platform is ri... [More]

Earlier this year the Microsoft Visual Basic team conducted several interviews with VB MVP’s. I just received an email from Lisa Feigenbaum that my interview was posted on the Visual Basic Team’s website. Check out the interview here and learn just a tad more about what I do, and why I LOVE VB. [UPDATE 6/27/2009] Other Resources: I’m a VB Blog Website (www.imavb.com) Visual Basic Team’s website Lisa Feigenbaum’s Blog My Interview

On June 26th, I will take the stage once again at the Regional SharePoint User Group. I will be joining Hal Hayes in a battle that from the looks of it may rival “David and Goliath”. The event topic is labeled as follows: Prepare for the battle of the titans! Which platform is right for you? Each one has its uses depending on the audience. If you are interested in watching this battle in real-time the register for this event and join us on June 26th between 3:00PM and 4:00PM. Here is some more information: For two exciting days, you'll be eating, drin... [More]

The June Capital DotNetNuke User Group event promises to be yet another great meeting chuck-full o’great insight and information. DotNetNuke module development still remains one of the most requested event topics. On June 17th, Chris Busse will demonstrate how to mash-up external Web 2.0 web services with your modules to provide right user experiences. With the proliferation of "Web 2.0" sites and applications, such as Google Maps, Twitter, and Basecamp, has come the ability to programmatically interact with many sites using APIs (Application Programming Inter... [More]

MSDN road shows are FREE events organized and managed by the Microsoft Developers Network to educate, train, and share knowledge with everyone and anyone interested. I particularly like this event as it is a one day event packed with lots of valuable information. I’ll be attending the event in Reston, VA on June 2nd. Here is what’s in store: AGENDA Session 1: Developing on Microsoft Windows 7 Building applications that are easy to use, visually appealing, and offer high performance is a challenge that developers face every day. Innovative applications can greatly i... [More]

I was recently working on implementing Twitter integration features to the DotNetNuke Blog Module (I’ll write up the details about these features in another blog entry) when I quickly ran into the requirement of having to shorten the blog entries’ URLs. As you may or may not know, Twitter requires that messages be less than 140 characters in length and when you include a link and a title, among other things, character real estate  quickly becomes precious. As it turns out, there are several services out there that provide just this service, for example TinyURL.c... [More]

Today Joe Brinkman announced the official OpenForce ‘09 Call for Speakers. Apart from being excited about the event and what it has in store, I particularly liked the way the topics were split into 4 simple and concise categories: Development Design Administration Open Source If you are an avid DotNetNuke user, then I am sure that you are asking yourself: how do I join in the fun? Well, Joe put it best by answering that question with the following quote: “Are you a DotNetNuke expert?  Do you like to share your DotNetNuke knowledge with the... [More]

PimpThisBlog.com is a place where you promote, publicize and socialize your content. Don’t be fooled, this is not yet another social bookmarking website, although it may look and feel that way to you. It's a simple to use and effective way to get your content noticed and FAST. All you have to do is let PimpThisBlog.com know that you have content that you wish to publicize and it’ll "pimp it" for you. PimpThisBlog.com will share your content, by syndicating it to various RSS readers, it will tweet your posts on Twitter (make sure you follow @PimpThisBlog to s... [More]

Yesterday I wrote about how the Microsoft P&P folks released a QuickStart and Tutorial in Visual Basic, and today I happy to say that the Silverlight team has followed suit by adding Visual Basic code samples to their toolkit in the March 2009 Release. Here is a quick blurb from their announcement: The Silverlight Toolkit March 2009 release is enhanced with Visual Basic source code for both Silverlight 2 and Silverlight 3. The Toolkit is a collection of controls, components and utilities made available outside the normal Silverlight release cycle. It includes f... [More]

Traditionally Visual Basic has been missing from the Microsoft Patterns & Practices’ (P&P) QuickStarts and tutorials. The P&P team has received lots of feedback on that and I am pleased to say that they listened. The P&P team, has now released VB versions of the QuickStarts, Hands-On Labs, and How-to Topics! The first VB P&P release is Visual Basic QuickStarts and How-to Topics for the Composite Application Guidance for WPF and Silverlight - February 2009 - English This download is provided to help the Visual Basic developer use the Composite App... [More]

It’s about time I wrote a little bit about my experience at my very first MVP Summit, so here I am. First of, so much went on, and so much was learned, that I could not possibly cram everything into one single blog post… well I could, but then it would be too tedious for me to write and for you to read. So what I plan on doing is to write a series of blog posts, each about a specific event that I felt was worthy of a post. The first in the series is about the VB-Insiders Party. The VB-Insiders party (oh, and everyone was welcome to attend, by the way, not just VB’ers... [More]

At last month’s Capital DotNetNuke User Group (CDUG) meeting we had the pleasure of having Tom Kraak give us a great presentation on Search Engine Optimization with DotNetNuke. Tom took the train down from his home town in Connecticut just to make the event – thank you Tom! Tom also accepted my invitation to spend the night at my home, but little did I know it would turn into an interview, and a long night! Tom and I share quite a few things in common, the most common one being our passion for DotNetNuke and Technology. The outcome of our conversation is a transc... [More]

I am very pleased to announce yet another exciting Capital DotNetNuke User Group (CDUG) event. Next week, on Wednesday February 18th, 2009, Seablick Consulting’s very own Tom Kraak will be driving down from Connecticut to give us an Intro to Search Engine Optimization with DotNetNuke. Here is a quick abstract and bio: Database-driven websites and content management systems such as DNN are traditionally labeled as "hard to optimize" or "outright bad" for search engines by many “SEO experts.” Don’t believe the hype! Explore how the basics of... [More]

Earlier this month my company launched PimpThisBlog.com. PimpThisBlog.com runs on ASP.net MVC, a SQL Server database and combines a number of online third party services, such as Gravatar, Re-Captcha, ShareThis, and more, to provide a rich Web 2.0 user experience. While I will soon publish another blog post to outline the details of the application’s technology stack, I first want to use the spotlight of this first post on the topic to outline how PimpThisBlog.com works, how it can HELP YOU promote your business and content, and how you too can harness its wit and po... [More]

If you live in the Washington DC area you cannot help but be consumed with the constant news about the presidential inauguration and related events. Never have been so many streets been closed, and never has the anticipation of the attendance of million people been so high. With that being said, and although I am not looking forward to the chaos that the inauguration promises to bring, I am very excited to have Joe Brinkman, DotNetNuke Corp. Co-Founder and Technical Fellow, come to our User Group to give a presentation on DotNetNuke and JQuery. Here is the abstract: ... [More]

I am pleased to announce the publication by Wrox Press of Wrox Blox Done in 60 Minutes:  Building a Custom DotNetNuke Membership Provider by yours truly. In this publication, I put down into more detail the topic which I presented at last year’s OpenForce08 / DevConnections conference. In this eBook (Wrox Blox) I demonstrate how to build and configure the DotNetNuke (DNN) Membership provider without modifying any core DotNetNuke (DNN) code.  By reading this publication you will soon see what a powerful tool this can be for gaining control over the DNN mem... [More]

When Windows Beta (Build 7000) was released to the public, I rushed to download  and install it on a Virtual PC. I was very impressed with what I saw, and it proved to be much more stable and usable than I had anticipated. Today I decided to take the proverbial plunge and install Windows 7 on my main laptop. So far all the apps that I use on a daily basis seems to be running fine except for a little snag I ran into when I needed to join a last minute meeting with GoToMeeting (GTM). As I clicked on the meeting invitation (in IE8) I expected the usual GTM page prom... [More]

I was invited to attend an all-hands meeting this morning at company called SMBLive. I had the pleasure of working at SMBLive until last year as their CTO. CEO, Matt Howard, gave a great presentation on his 2009 vision and goals for his company's products and services. To put it in context, SMBLive has developed online social commerce solutions - 1StoreFront and 1WorkSpace - that demystify the web for SMBs and help them grow faster and work smarter. By licensing, branding and providing these social commerce solutions to their SMB customers, broadband carriers are... [More]

I can’t think of a better way for me to start 2009 than by thanking everyone for their support and encouragement over the past year. I received word on January 1st that I have been selected as a 2009 Microsoft MVP, which is a great honor for me.  It seems like a long time since I first began work in this field, and while I grew to love my work and enjoy the community I entered because of it, I never dreamed I would get an honor like this! As you all know, sometimes times are tough and each year brings accomplishments and setbacks.  The last year has been no... [More]

It's finally here, version 03.50.00, chock full of new and exciting features and bug fixes. I wanted to take a moment to personally thank every member of the DotNetNuke team. Without their hard work and dedication, all this free software would not be possible. Well, what are you are waiting for? Go Download it here: http://www.dotnetnuke.com/tabid/125/default.aspx The Blog team has also made available some blog posts about the new features in version 03.05.00. I have compiled the list for your convenience, and here it is: Features and Enhancements: Upcoming Blog F... [More]

Sometimes, inspiration hits when you’re away from your desk. However, you don’t have to miss out on blogging about it! With the new DNN Blog Module (version 03.05.00) and it’s support for the metaweblog API, there are a variety of tools and technologies that make it easier to blog. One in particular is the ability to blog via email with a service like Blogmailr (www.blogmailr.com). Setting this service up is free and quick. Simply create an account at www.blogmailr.com. Once completed, log in and visit the “My blogmailr” section. Once there, click on “Add New Blog”... [More]

OpenForce '08 has finally come to an end :-( and I am now back home in Northern Virginia (Washington DC area). While at OpenForce, between the presentations, manning the DotNetNuke Community booth from time to time, and meeting a lot of great people, my work backlog begun to pile up. On my flight back home, I decided to make a list of things that I absolutely must accomplish today. The first thing on my long list of "to-do's" is to post the power point presentation and source code for my talk: Done in 60 Minutes: Building a Custom DotNetNuke Membership ... [More]

While attending OpenForce '08 in Las Vegas this past week I received a very unexpected email from INETA, one that left me shocked and honored and humbled all the same time. A weird feeling to say the least. In a nut-shell here is what they had to say: We would like to extend our thanks for your participation in the INETA Community Champion program and your commitment to the developer community.  You faced some challenging competition yet your accomplishments speak for themselves.  The Community Champion team is thrilled to inform you that you are one of... [More]