Category Archives: Speaking

Development, LockDown Podcast, security, Speaking

New Security Podcast Coming Soon

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Michele Bustamante and I have started recording the first episodes of our new security focused podcast LockDown. While the website is up, it has place holder content describing Carl Franklin of .Net Rocks fame as our first guest (that was the original plan). However as usual Carl was flying around the globe when we started and we all agreed to save him for later.

If you are interested watch the podcast url or my blog (here) for the first show when it releases.

Events, security, Speaking

PDC BOF Session on Security

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I am packing tonight to head to the PDC in Los Angeles and wanted to tell anyone else who will be attending that I am hosting a Birds of a Feather session at lunchtime on Thursday on security hype.

The thesis is that we are seeing a steady stream of over hyped security “issues” that tend to remind me more and more of the ads for the evening news that say things like “Your water could be killing your children, details at 11″. We plan to discuss how this trend is hurting actual preparedness for the real threats.

Hope to see some of you there.

Personal, Speaking

Change of venue

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Most of you know me from Criticalsites or NTP Software since those are the two companies with which I have been associated for over a decade now.


This post is to tell you all that while I am still doing work with both of these companies they are now my clients rather than my employers.


CriticalSites and NTP Software have always been closely connected and with the huge success that NTP Software has been experiencing over the last couple of years, CriticalSites has shifted gears to be more of a services arm for NTP Software and has stopped taking on new clients that are not NTP Software clients.


I wanted to get back into development, training and security consulting work full time and so while I keep both NTP Software and CriticalSites as customers, I have left on the best of terms to pursue my interests through DTS.


DTS offers many of the same services that CriticalSites used to offer to New England companies. Some of you know that I actually started DTS before I co-founded CriticalSites and while not always my primary focus, it has been in business since 1994.


For many it won’t make any difference other than the company name on my name tag at conferences, but I figured it was worth a post to keep people updated.

Management, Software Dev, Speaking

NH Code Camp Presentations

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I promised to upload my presentations from last month’s New Hampshire Code Camp so here they are…

I delivered the keynote address for the event covering how to survive as a developer in this depressed economy.

NH Code Camp Feb 2009 Keynote.ppt (592.5 KB)

I also got to debut a new session on How to prevent project failure and a follow on called Project Specification for Survival and Profit. The reviews on that second session have caused me to combine them a bit and create what I think is a single, better session that I am going to be presenting at the Boston Code Camp tomorrow.

How to prevent project failure v1.ppt (559.5 KB)

Project Specification for Survival and Profit v1.ppt (464 KB)

Sorry for the delay in posting, lots of travel lately, but that is not unusual for me…

Development, Speaking

EDC Session Topics

As I said a couple of days ago, I am speaking again in Cairo in a few weeks at the EDC. I have arrived on the topics that I am presenting. While these are still subject to change it looks like:

  • A session on AJAX
  • A session on Commercial Software Dev (vs. Business development)
  • A session on Indexing Optimization in SQL Server

I am really looking forward to seeing all my friends and again want to thank Waleed Abdelwahab for pushing me to revive this blog.

See you all soon!

Development, Events, Speaking

Egypt Developers Conference (EDC)

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I have finally confirmed the final dates for the Egypt Developers Conference which is held every year in Cairo. This year it is in Mid April and again I will be speaking. I really look forward to this event and for a short time I was afraid that the dates would move to a week where I couldn’t attend, but I now know that this is not the case.
This week I have to solidify which sessions I will present and am thinking about doing a session on commercial software development (as opposed to business software development) on the new Software Architects track.
Last year I made the mistake of re-presenting session from previous years at the request of some very well intentioned people who were running the show, but I will not make that same mistake again.

See you in Cairo!

Events, Speaking

Mega User Group Panel tonight

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Tonight at TechEd in Boston there is the Panel discussion.  This is an event by pretty much all the user groups in the area and I will be one of the panelists. 

The room (251 at the Convention Center, not the Hynes) is open at 6:00 PM with the meeting starting at 6:50 PM.  The room should be packed based on current registrations so get in early if you want to go.

Details are here.

Development, Events, security, Speaking

Membership Provider DB Install Scripts

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At Code Camp 5 in Waltham this past Sunday I was delivering my session entitled “All you need to know about Membership”, when I learned that I didn’t know everything I need to know about membership.

Someone asked if the scripts were available that aspnet_regsql.exe uses to create the membership table.  My answer was that I hadn’t seen them so I assumed they were baked into the exe.  WRONG!  Our good buddy and fellow Code Camp presenter, Dan Krhla, pointed out that in the same directory that you find the aspnet_regsql.exe (namely C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727) you also find the scripts that the tool users including InstallMembership.sql.  There are a bunch of them and you have to install them in order (installcommon.sql first, etc.).  They offer some good insights and I have already spent a bit of time on them myself.

Thanks again Dan and I am happy that the question came up so I could learn something too.  This is why I really love the Code Camp.