Searching for my lost shaker of salt

I had a wonderful time at Richmond Code Camp this past weekend.  Its always great to meet up with friends and collegues as well as learn new things.  Each of the presentations were packed full of great information and horrible jokes.  A great way to spend a nerdy Saturday.  A few photos are posted here.  Now if I could only get Andy Leonard to stop calling me Gary...

Thanks to Frank, Andy, Susan, Darrell, and Andrew among many, many others for making this happen.  Looking forward the next one this fall (ooops, did I say that out loud?!)

I will be speaking at the 2006 Career Symposia sponsored by John Hopkins University's Center for Talented Youth this coming Sunday, April 30th.  This is a great program that identifies and helps in the development of exceptional high school students.  The event will be held on the campus of The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA.

My part is pretty simple; give these kids a perspective of careers in IT (or, professional nerd-dom as I put it) and from the inside and offer some suggestions for starting a career, and answer questions.  I did this last year as well and was simply impressed by the students and their genuine interest and ambition.  Can we bottle that?

Woo hoo!

http://www.jetbrains.com/resharper/beta20.html

And current customers get the next version free!  This continues to be the best $99 I've spent on a software tool!  WOO HOO!

I'll be presenting this weekend at the first Richmond Code Camp. Come by, say hi, and try not to heckle me too badly :)

One of the few upgrades I've made to my Dell I8600 over the past two years was adding RAM.  First to 768MB, then recently to 1.5MB... and I'll swear that the last upgrade made a great difference.  Except that now I can't hibernate every other attempt.  Let me be specific; if I am off a fresh boot, run Outlook and surf the web, I'm fine.  But anytime I fire up a SQL server or do some coding, forget... I get the dreaded "Insufficient resources to complete this API".  1.5 GB of RAM, excuse me!

Found this note on a hotfix that was released last month that supposedly resolves the problem.  We'll see!
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000555.html

Unlike my friend and fellow blogger Frank who seems to record every find, thought, and daily event, I have been rather quiet here.  To say there have been lots of changes, personally and professionally, would be the understatement of this new century.  Here are the highlights.  Personal life: [censored].  Professional life: I have accepted a new position with AmeriGroup as a Web Team Lead.  I met the most amazing group of folks earlier in March and are simply honored and humbled to join their ranks.  This position will allow a great deal of professional and personal growth, which is both exciting and intimidating.  Growth is a good thing (as long as its not entirely at the waistline), as is trying new things and expanding horizons.  I just hope they can stand my odd sense of humor!

The downside to the new position is the reality of having to leave my old team at CACI.  I met some wonderful and talented people there, as well as made some good friends.  They have a tall order on their plate and I wish them well in their endeavors.