TechEd Blogging

Great stuff leaking out of TechEd thanks to the TechEdBloggers thing-which-is-yet-to-have-a-buzzword-attached-to-it. My favorite from among a great list of blogged talks: a ref to Paul Wilson's post on some Yukon/ADO.NET future features from TechEd

Also, don't miss Drew Robbins' info on the SOA used for www.techedbloggers.net

Two Ink-Enabled UML Tools

Well I asked for it... Over on Scoble's blog I've been directed to two UML tools that are inkable. Loren pointed me to Ideogramic, and Christopher Coulter also points to Tablet UML.

This Just In...

Anyone that's been within earshot of me recently knows that I had a really, really, really, really hard time getting FTP to pay me for speaking at a conference (VSLive) last year. And I'm not the only one - I exchange email from time to time with an author that wrote some articles for them, and has been owed thousands of dollars for ages. When will FTP start paying their bills? I don't know - I just found out that Kinkos is suing FTP for over $15,000. I also don't know why this isn't widely discussed - I certainly would have been spared a great deal of frustration if there weren't so many people/companies acting as enablers for FTP's bad behavior. My advice? If you're speaking or writing for FTP get paid in advance.

Posted 9:40 AM

From Scoble:

Keep in mind, Mickey Williams is a software developer. Tablets just aren't good yet for programmers. At least if you set the argument that tightly

First of all, I haven't called myself a programmer for about 10 years, I'm more the architect/designer/alpha-dev type, but I get your point. And I don't want to frame the argument that tightly. I'm not looking for stuff I can't do - I'm looking for stuff I can do better. I spend a lot of time designing - and I'd love to design in ink, but unless there's a UML/BON tool that is ink-aware, it's more work for me to use ink. I spend a lot of time prepping presentations and delivering content, so that's a win. I spend a lot of time writing, and I don't expect the tablet to be a clear winner in that area, but a lot depends on the keyboard. How about this question - how sucky is the tablet keyboard? Pick one:

• Not too bad most of the time
• Only slightly sucky
• Completely sucky
• That thing is a keyboard? I thought it was some sort of disguise to get me through airport security!

Scoble on Tablets

As someone that's in the market for a tablet, I've been checking out Robert Scoble's weblog constantly. He's got some scenarios where tablets are well suited. Come on, Rob - you can do better than that. Some of these scenarios look like good fits, but I think a lot of your list is bogus. In no particular order:

• Restaurants have been communicating wine lists to diners since before the ENIAC. It's called a wine list, and nobody that I know needs a picture of the wine bottle to make a selection. Mostly, what I need is a pointer to the page that Lynch-Bages is on.
• Talking heads on television have TelePrompTers. If they're remote, what does a tablet give them that a one dollar notepad doesn't?
• Salespeople in elevators? Counterpoint: Howabout I use their tablet as a weapon to fend them off?
• Factory workers? Have you ever seen a factory worker building a car? What exactly is the value proposition that a tablet brings to a guy putting bumpers on an H2?

I like the idea of being mobile during a talk while updating my slides or demos. But all the media I've ever seen at conferences is hardwired. How do I give anybody else a view of my tablet?