I just learned about the gethuman project, which is a consumer movement to improve the quality of phone support in the US. This is a free website, run by volunteers and powered by over one million consumers who demand high quality phone support from the companies that they use. The most popular part of the gethuman website is the gethuman database of secret phone numbers and codes to get to a human when calling a company for customer service.

Also, here is a good blog entry that discusses the problem and the gethuman database project.

Last Friday, Scott Chestnut passed through Boise, so Becky (Rosholt) Madron put together an impromptu reunion for the old man. We met at a new pub/eatery in Eagle called Artesian's.

(Can you recognize any of the Twin Falls class of '86)

Here are my slides from yesterday's presentation at Tech-Ed 2006 SEA. Thank you to the many delegates who joined me for the session.

Visual Studio Team System Public MSDN Chat

Come and join members from the Visual Studio Team System product group to discuss features available in Visual Studio Architect, Developer and Tester editions and Team Foundation Server. There will be experts on hand to answer your questions, so we hope to see you there!

Join the chat on Wednesday September 6th, 2006 10:00am - 11:00am Pacific time.

To add this to your calendar, click here.

To see your local time of when this chat is, click here.

Some students told me about this book, and I think I'll pick it up. Steven Borg just bought a copy as well.

The book is titled "Expert .NET Delivery Using NAnt and CruiseControl.NET (Expert's Voice in .Net)", a hardcover by Marc Holmes (APress) and has received good reviews.

I heard a cool idea from an attendee of Devscovery last week. He said that his wife is a consultant who switches tasks throughout the day. Like most consultants, we have a hard time remembering what we did (or didn't do) throughout the day.

Their answer is to just run a screen-capture program like Camtasia or something like it, and configure it to shoot a snapshot every 5 minutes or so. This way you can play back at the end of the day and have a semi-recollection of what you've done!

Thanks to Eugene and his crew over at Attrice, the makers of the Team Build Sidekick and other Team Foundation Sidekick widgets. They have just published a nice article describing how they have used the Team Foundation Server Version Control object model and VS automation to implement their product's functionality.

Check it out.

Thanks to Steven Borg for letting me know about FlickrStorm, which allows you to search by keyword and find photos other people have uploaded. Sweet!

If you are in the Seattle/Redmond area, join me tonight while we look at CTP 5 of the Visual Studio Team Edition for Database Professionals.

I'll be starting at 7:15 pm tonight in building 40 at Microsoft. Click here for more details.

I was recently at a client site in Phoenix, teaching a VSTS/SCM course. They have integrated an Ambient Orb Device into their automated build process. If the build passes, it glows green. If it breaks, it glows red.

The orb is inside the developer manager's office, so the devs can peek inside. My understanding is that they have about 15 minutes after seeing red to fix the build and re-run it, before the manager gets an email message.

Idaho's leading entrepreneurial group is joining forces with Idaho's leading funding groups to host a night of networking on September 26 to connect entrepreneurs with capital sources. Connect with the region's most promising new companies and the West's top investors.

WHEN:  Tuesday, September 26 (6-8pm)
WHERE: Lobby Area - Boise Centre on the Grove
WHO:   All entrepreneurs, angel investors & venture capitalists
COST:  Free

RSVP to www.kickstand.org by September 5

Peter DeBetta and I are going to have fun putting together a presentation on "worst practices", and by doing so we will be illustrating the "best practices".

Look for us to be onstage together at SQL Connections this Fall at the Mandalay Bay.

So, what are some of your "worst practices" that you'd like to share?

That's right. My friend, and fellow MVP and INETA guy, Carl Prothman has signed-on to Microsoft as a full time employee (sucker). Carl is the man when it comes to many things, especially the collecting of connection strings. I pitch his site wherever I travel.

He is going to be working in the Community group as a Software Developer Engineer (SDE). Rumor has it that he'll be working for Doug Seven (another community soul who went to the blue-side a few years ago).

It seems that Microsoft has been hiring a record number of folks over the last several weeks (as many as 150/week Carl said).

I think this is a perfect fit for Carl, as he is "Mr. Community" up in the Seattle area.

Be sure to pick this book up next month. It should be good, and was was written by some friends of mine (Wally and Scott).

Thanks to my colleague Kalen Delaney for letting us know that the BOL and Samples have been updated. Download your updates today!

The InfraGard (Boise Chapter) is pleased to invite you to a public session in which we will have an in-depth cyber security discussion with national leading experts from the Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Critical Infrastructure Protection Center. The event will be held on:

Date:  August 1st, 2006 (Tuesday)
Time:  1:30 – 3:00 pm
Location:  Idaho State Capitol, Gold Room (4th Floor)

The discussion will focus on cyber security issues for supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) and control systems, current security threat indicators, common vulnerabilities and recommended mitigations. The presenters will help us to focus on activities that can benefit multiple industries in protecting our infrastructure and businesses that support our national and state economy. Even if you do not maintain traditional SCADA systems within your organization, this discussion is definitely still relevant to you as many of the threats, vulnerabilities and countermeasures are applicable to all types of organizations that depend on information technology. 

If you are planning to attend, please RSVP to Ken Dunham.

Yes, sometimes dreams do come true. Although it's not the final match, it is a match with Germany playing Portugal.

I'll be at the Gottlieb Daimler Stadium this evening watching the 3rd place game, and not thinking about Team System!

Huge thanks to my friend Jeff Temple for purchasing the tickets. He and his wife Beate will be there too.