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  Tuesday, July 01, 2003


Cardboard Cutouts-Again!

 

This time was it was not me! At TechEd Dallas I am now infamous for the cardboard cutouts prank. Well the German Regional Directors and Juval Lowy (see him on MSDN TV here) all decided to have some fun. All I can say is look at it!

 

Also Ralf posted to his blog the in-action shots of the deed. From Juval (Ralf’s site is in German):

 


From: Juval Lowy
Sent: Tuesday, July 01, 2003 11:54 AM
To: 'Stephen Forte'
Subject: FW: cut out :-)

 

 

Check out the link:

http://weblogs.asp.net/ralfw/

 

and look for “Es Und es gibt erstaunliche…. allerdings noch unklar” 

 

Here is my translation:

 

“And here you can see amazing scenes between the German RDs. But the picture is misleading. It’s not about fraternizing after a drinking night, but a shirt exchange, in order to stand out more sharply against the background. The scene took place when we positioned Regional Directors for photographs before a black background and Clemens Vasters did not contrast with his black t-shirt against the black wall. To make a long story short, he exchanged his shirt with Christian Weyer. The resulting figures [the cutouts JL] were produced as part of the "RD" program counterweight to the proclaimed "software Legends" by Microsoft like Don box etc..

Whether Microsoft will deploy these figures at schools and universities for collectors, is however still unclear.”

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Ralf Westphal

Sent: Tuesday, July 01, 2003 7:09 AM
To: juval lowy
Subject: cut out :-)

 

hi, juval!

 

you can´t defy celebrity status in germany any longer: after my post to my

weblog (http://weblogs.asp.net/ralfw/ ) developers will demand more of you

:-)

 

cheers

 

ralf

 


12:00:45 PM    

Tech*Ed Europe has officially begun!

 

What a great success so far. Over 7,000 delegates! Wow, I am awestruck. I was in a video in the Keynote (more next) and manned the Ask the Experts booth for quite some time. Also I met with several Analysts from Meta, Giga, Forrester, Ovum and The Wolfgang Martin Team. I represented SQL Server and the analysts were all focused on Business Intelligence (BI) and how Reporting Services for SQL Server 2000 fits in that whole business strategy at Microsoft. Analysts all tried to pump me for Yukon information. I told them to come to my talks later this week. J

 

Getting ready for my two sessions! They are very fun sessions and I plan to be very laid back, so if you are hear swing by for a great time. The sessions are:

 

Thursday, July 3rd 3:00-4:15 DAT231: Migrating Your Mission Critical Access Applications to SQL Server

 

Friday, July 4th 11:45-1:00 DAT307: Developing Applications with SQL Server Desktop Edition (MSDE)

 

 

At the Keynote EMEA VP Jean-Philippe Courtois  announce the winner of the Imagine Cup, first prize ($25,000 USD) went to a Vietnamese national representing the University of Nebraska at Omaha, Tu Nguyen. All the contestants worked hard and it was hard to pick a winner, but in the end Tu edged out the rest. A description of his program is here:

 

A language barrier in the heartland of America? University of Nebraska student Tu Nguyen knows that if you have a Nebraskan native asking a Vietnamese chef for Mie'n Xao Thit Ga, you may just have a problem. That's why he developed Point of Delivery System (iPODS), a multi-language wireless application, for this year's Imagine Cup. iPODS allows a waiter using a PDA to take orders in one language and transmit them immediately to a server for translation into the chef's native language. The result is faster service, less confusion, and a better dining experience, whether you're in Omaha, Saigon, or Barcelona.”


10:34:09 AM    

I Have Discovered La Rambla!

 

Holy cow this street rocks. Why don't they advertise it more? Such a good atmosphere. Beautiful people, fun loving atmosphere, beer, wine, sangria, tapas, what else does one need in life? I have a feeling that I will be spending a lot of time here. Thank goodness I am not going home until Sunday! I have been here 2 nights and have bonded with La Rambla. But at a price. My bonding has come to the determent of my mobile phone which I dropped at 2am on Sunday night/Monday morning while partying with Clemens Vasters and the whole team of newtelligence. It is dead. So RIP my awesome Panasonic GU87 GSM Photo Flip Phone.

 

So Kevin Collins and I went shopping (and had to go into a Spanish home depot to ask directions to a shopping mall) and a cute almost English speaking lady sold me a Nokia 7250 tri-band phone with a camera, GPRS and FM Radio. It was a challenge with the language barrier to get an unlocked phone that was tri-band and will work in the US when I get home. It is far superior and not even available in the United States for some strange reason. It was unlocked, so I plugged in my SIM chip and was off to the races in 2 seconds (GSM ROCKS). Kevin called and SMSed me to test no problem. THe first incomming call on my new phone came from my buddy Remi Caron from the Netherlands, who had just arrived in Spain and had 5 liters of beer in him already and invited Kevin and I to join he and his other compatriot at La Rambla. So Monday night/Tuesday morning I partied again after the Imagine Cup with Kevin, Remi and Mark (another Dutch friend) mostly talking about how much Fox Pro sucks and taking embarrassing camera photos and emailing them back home immediately. (Sorry Remi.) We got lots of girls to show us their tattoos and such. Photos here (site in Dutch)!


4:33:45 AM    


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