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Worldwide Partner Conference 2008 In Pictures

Unrepentant FaceBook junkie that I am, I’ve got a photo album rolling for WPC 2008.

WPC 2008 FaceBook album

Come check it out and see if you, or someone you know, has been immortalized yet. Obviously, the patented Funcave Smart-Aleck-Captionator has been activated.

|| posted by chris under community, media, shoutout, travel || comments (0) || ||

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Survey

Thanks to everyone who was in New Orleans earlier this month, and who took the time to fill out the mobility survey. Some awesome info there.

Erick “Pimp Mastah” Simpson happened to uncover a weird little something today. Prolly having to do with the curious interaction of permissions that allows the SharePoint survey to work with totally anonymous logins.

Erick found that if he submitted the survey without filling something in the comment section, it dumped his responses with nary a squawk.

So if you filled it out the survey, but didn’t put something in each section…yours might have hit The Great Bit Bucket In The Sky.

Feel free to fill it out again, if you’d like:

http://wss.blackwarriortech.com/nola08/Lists/Mobility%20Survey/overview.aspx

Best way to know if it took your response? See if the response count increments by 1 after you submit yours.

And just so ya know…the only reason I ask for an e-mail address?

Well, there are really 2 reasons…

• To say “Hey thanks!”
• To get the mailing info for folks who requested discs.

But if you don’t want either, then feel free to put something bogus for your e-mail address. No one else will ever see it.

You can also sound off about the pirate ROM issue. Which is really an issue with the way official ROM updates are distributed now. Here’s the pirate ROM survey:

http://wss.blackwarriortech.com/nola08/Lists/Pirate%20ROM%20Survey%20and%20Pledge/overview.aspx

Let it all hang out. The responses to the pirate survey have been VERY interesting.

|| posted by chris under biz, hardware, mobility, more cowbell, shoutout, thumbs up || comments (0) || ||

Daniel Koster Just Kicked My Ass, And With Good Reason

And man…do I deserve it.

In response to the post on pirate ROMs, and how I handled declining to answer a question on how to do it at the NOLA conference, I used the analogy of being a drug user (possession), rather than a drug dealer (distributing), Daniel took me out behind the woodshed and proceeded to lay into me with an ax handle. For good reason.

Here’s Daniel’s response, in its entirety…

I absolutely agree with your position and the decision you made. It is better just to be the drug user and never cross the line into drug pusher/dealer.

On the other hand, how respectable is it to be *just* a drug user?

Let’s continue the analogy of software piracy = drug use and look at the whole picture.

You are a speaker presenting on the topic of marijuana and it’s benefits (it’s legal but only in rare instances). After discussing the topic at length, one of the participants asks, “You’ve convinced me, I’d like to get high as soon as possible, where can I get some drugs.” Immediately you find yourself between a rock and a hard place. You know that drugs (including marijuana) can really mess a person up and that there is no legal option that you can answer with. So you pull a stash of crack-cocaine out of your pocket and explain, “I am a user who likes to get high, but I’m not about to become a dealer or tell others how to commit such a crime.” Then you light your crack pipe and take a hit.

I think the better answer would have been to explain that the only legal option is to wait until its official release and keep your illegal warez to yourself.

Not that it would help your integrity more…a person of integrity does what is right even when nobody else is looking. So to install a pirate rom kills your integrity whether you advertise that fact or not.

So yes, I respect your decision and attitude to have “more” integrity by not pointing the way towards illegal software use. But I hope you can understand why you have lost some level of respect from some people.

Not only is he absolutely right, he’s DAMN right.

Worse yet, railing against how bad pirate ROMs are like I am, and then doing it myself makes me not only a damn dirty pirate, and still part of the problem…

But also makes me a damn dirty hypocrite too.

I wish Danial had been in the NOLA audience and said that. Because I would have not only made the audience applaud him for saying that, but I would have also taken this long overdue step right then and there.

Today…

I am taking a solemn vow RIGHT NOW.

I, Chris Rue, pledge to never EVER use or download pirate ROMs. Ever.

Folks, that’s how important I feel this issue is to the long-term health of the Windows Mobile platform.

And I hope you will join me in this pledge, by also filling out the following…

Pirate ROM Survey & Pledge

This is OPEN to anyone who is interested in commenting on Windows Mobile and the ROM situation.

|| posted by chris under clueless, hardware, mobility, opinion, rx, shoutout, thumbs down || comments (4) || ||

A Quick Shoutout For Pam

And with this being the big day for LT, I especially wanted to give a big shoutout of thanks to the LT Program Chair this year, the always amazing Pam Smith!

She and her team did an amazing amazing job with LT this year, and I know all of my classmated will join me in giving her a standing “O” this afternoon.

And yes, Pam got to play firefighter too!

I asked to join the LT team next year. I hope they will accept me. I have a couple of ideas that might help them streamline operations (*ahem* less paper!)

|| posted by chris under biz, community, shoutout, thumbs up || comments (0) || ||

Let’s Be A Choir

I want to say BIG HUGE thanks to everyone who has filled out the Mobility survey so far.

I am truly, honestly, and utterly amazed, humbled, and grateful at all the fantastic response from those folks who attended my talk on Mobility at the SBSmigration conference in New Orleans this weekend.

I really hope that the rest of you who were in attendance (and there are a WHOLE lot of you left) would please please take the time to finish the survey.

I know all of you are back home now, back to work…and have tons of stuff demanding your attention. I know I’m asking a lot of you. Seriously, I do.

The survey has taken most folks a max of 2 minutes. But the feedback that being generated is stuff that has some serious serious opportunity to shape Windows Mobile. No kidding!

In the interest of full disclosure, and so you all know exactly why I put the survey together, here are my reasons…

First, I did want some feedback that would let me know how well my session came across. Was my delivery OK? Did I make sense? Were the demos compelling? All that typical presenter-y stuff. Mainly to help me be a better speaker in the future. And, also…to hopefully get on a speaking slate at other conferences about this topic of Mobility in SMB.

Here’s why.

I have been trying to get Mobility as a topic on the agenda at all the SMB conferences and tech conferences you know and love for almost 3 years now. And have had NO success at cracking that.

You know why I think that is? Because, quite frankly, the approach toward Mobility I outlined in my talk is a unique enough approach to be completely foreign to 99% of folks. Including conference organizers. Including…heck, especially including MS.

And I’ve learned that it doesn’t matter what one insignificant person like me says about something, no matter how passionately or often I do it. Because I’m only one voice.

Sometimes, it takes a choir to move people.

Ever hear a choir sing, and something about the way the voices all come together just send shivers up and down your spine, and makes your soul jump around inside you?

That’s what I’m hoping this survey feedback will become.

If everyone who was in the session would complete the survey, it would be a chorus of voices louder than the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, all stuff that is super fooking awesome about how MS could improve Windows Mobile. And maybe, just maybe…

Would actually compel some change for the betterment of the platform, which ends up bettering us, MS’ Partners.

Because let me tell you…the things that have been posted already are super compelling, awesome awesome stuff that I think the Windows Mobile team would like to hear, and be able to make things happen.

In fact, I know they would like to hear it. Because MS and specifically the Windows Mobile team is right at this very moment doing some amazing amazing things to open up the channels of communication about Windows Mobile, which is totally and utterly new.

And best of all, these channels are open to ANYONE. Anyone who is willing to engage in reasonable, constructive, positive (altho not white-washed) feedback that can help make Windows Mobile the truly kickass platform we all know it can become.

Honestly, I had hoped to have time to talk about these very initiatives during my session. But my session was chopped to 35 functional minutes very early in planning, so I couldn’t get everything in.

So here’s a link to the survey again…

Mobility Survey

Thanks in advance for filling it out. I promise to be a good steward with your feedback and to get it where it can do the most good.

Now, hopefully…

No one will think that anything I said in this post comes across as elitist, exclusionary, or otherwise a-hole-ish.

Evidently, according to some people…I have a real problem coming across like that.

|| posted by chris under biz, community, epiphany, it pro, mobility, more cowbell, shoutout, thumbs up || comments (6) || ||