Tech Seige - Speaking

TechEd BOF Session

Patrick Hynds — Sun, 06 May 2012 03:16:45 GMT

The details of my session at TechEd in Orlando are posted here

Hope to see you there!

New Security Podcast Coming Soon

Patrick Hynds — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 17:37:11 GMT

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.

PDC BOF Session on Security

Patrick Hynds — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 03:51:22 GMT

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.

Change of venue

Patrick Hynds — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 04:30:13 GMT

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.

NH Code Camp Presentations

Patrick Hynds — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 19:28:54 GMT

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...

EDC Session Topics

Patrick Hynds — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 20:55:48 GMT

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!

Egypt Developers Conference (EDC)

Patrick Hynds — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 13:40:53 GMT

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!

Mega User Group Panel tonight

Patrick Hynds — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 13:23:17 GMT

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.

Membership Provider DB Install Scripts

Patrick Hynds — Tue, 09 May 2006 00:06:51 GMT

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.

Mini Code Camp Security Edition Slides

Patrick Hynds — Mon, 27 Mar 2006 19:58:01 GMT

As promised, but fashionably late as always, here are the slides from this Saturday's Mini Code Camp Security Edition.

I want to thank everyone that attended and the feedback has been great (no death treats so far)!

Membership.ppt (752 KB)
Security Best Practices.ppt (579 KB)

Check Duane's blog at www.cyberspacesamurai.com for his slides.

See you at the next Code Camp!

Thanks
Patrick

Code Camp Security Edition (mini)

Patrick Hynds — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 15:59:07 GMT

Duane and I are doing a mini (one day) Code Camp in Waltham in late March focused on security.

We already have a pretty good list signed up so if you really want to come, register today.

We are running it on Saturday, March 25th starting first thing in the morning. See you there.

Creating Presentations

Patrick Hynds — Thu, 26 Jan 2006 02:43:56 GMT

I recently did something I do quite often, namely created a series of PowerPoints for a presentation. I try to use graphics where appropriate or more accurately, pictures consisting of drawn boxes with arrows and other lines.

I find that in some ways my presentations are better for lack of slick, overdone graphics, but I still cling to the bulleted points formula. If someone other than me has to present the slides I don't see much of a way out of this, but an article on the zen of presentations pointed out by my friend and tech idol Scott Hanselman really drives home the right way to think about this task.

If you ever have to create presentation or training slides and have any of the story teller in your blood then use the advice provided to focus on the story and not the points. I will be working on this in the future (a little at a time perhaps).

Boston Launch of VS 2005 and SQL 2005

Patrick Hynds — Sat, 17 Dec 2005 16:11:58 GMT

Microsoft held the Boston Launch event at the new Convention Center on Thursday and by all accounts it was very successful. Duane Laflotte and I delivered the Web Development session to a pretty packed room. Overall the event surpassed the 3,000 mark and everyone I talked to seemed very pleased with the information provided in both the data and development tracks.

I wish I had posted before the event, but travel and things being so busy at CriticalSites have put me behind lately. I plan to be more proactive going forward.

TechEd Hong Kong Wrap-up

Patrick Hynds — Thu, 13 Oct 2005 15:37:59 GMT

I have been out of it for about a week due to travel to present 7 sessions at TechEd Hong Kong, but now I am back. It was a great event and as usual was characterized by very high energy keynotes!

The highlight for Bruce Backa and I in our presentations was our last session on Server Control Development for ASP.Net 2.0. The demo of a control that leverages AJAX style updating to the content really churned the audience and opened some eyes. I have been asked to provide the source code to that particular demo (for session WEB428) so here it is: WEB428Done.zip (51.22 KB)

I have to thank everyone who got us to go over there (for our fourth time!) and to Andres Sanabria from Microsoft for the slides and the framework for this particular demo.

My Demo on MSDN

Patrick Hynds — Fri, 30 Sep 2005 16:18:21 GMT

Microsoft's Channel 9 web site is putting up demos like mine on Looking at Server Controls with ASP.Net 2.0 (with an AJAX demo) and I must say it is a cool idea. They are like video blog posts. Duane Laflotte also posted like 3 of them on subjects Exploring the Crypto API in .Net. I hope they keep it up and many more people contribute. If they do we will need a really good way to seach.

My spot was a quick walk through of a control that is part of a session I am delivering at TechEd Hong Kong next week. I gave the presentation at Code Camp 4 and Thom Robbins accosted me to record it.

Code Camp 4 is Upon Us

Patrick Hynds — Fri, 23 Sep 2005 03:18:28 GMT

New England is where the whole Code Camp phenomenon began and than God that I am not doing 12 sessions in 2 days the way I did for the first one!

But I am doing 3 sessions this weekend at the 4th Code Camp themed "Developers Gone Wild".

Thom Robbins has the details posted as well as a link to register here.

It should be great! While I will only be there on Saturday due to a conflict on Sunday, I am very glad to be going.

See you there;)

See you at PDC

Patrick Hynds — Fri, 09 Sep 2005 20:26:53 GMT

I am off to Microsoft's Professional Developer's Conference (PDC) this weekend. I expect that I will see many of the people who read this at the event in Los Angeles. While there I will be involved in quite a few activities including speaking at the So Cal .Net User Group's PDC Underground event. If you are there and looking for me, I will be hanging out (and handling the scheduling) for the PDC TV Booth much of the time. This is a booth that lets attendees have up to 3 minutes to say whatever they want on a topic of their choice and have it broadcast throughout the conference center. Wish me luck!

Code Camp 4

Patrick Hynds — Wed, 24 Aug 2005 19:30:47 GMT

In New England we are holding our fourth Code Camp in late September (24th and 25th) in the Waltham, MA offices of Microsoft. This is where it all began and the fourth will likely be bigger than those before it.

I wanted to not only remind people of the date, but also tell about a special meeting that will help us deliver better and better community content by fostering the develop of our technical speakers. The local (and newly formed) MCT User Goup is focusing their meetings on helping sharpen technical presentation skills and their September 1st meeting (6:00 PM I think in the Waltham MS Office) is dedicated to what can only be called a Code Camp speaker casting call. We are hoping to educated and recruit the next generation of Code Camp presenters and establish a best practice of actually caring about the quality of local technical presentations.

Hope to see you there if you are interested in being a technical presenter, are already a technical presenter or just like / are good at heckling technical presenters!

TechEd 2005 GrokTalks

Tue, 31 May 2005 16:27:28 GMT

For those of you going to TechEd this year, I hope we see you at the RD GrokTalks. I would define them here, but Scott Hanselman has already put it so well than I imagine I am best off linking to his post here.

Let me know what you think of the idea.

Demos from TechEd Hong Kong Sessions

Fri, 03 Sep 2004 15:00:04 GMT

As promised I am posting all the demos from TechEd Hong Kong last week.

DEV370: Developing Applications Under Windows XP Service Pack 2

DEV370 XPSP2.zip (369.75 KB)

Special thanks to Jon Box and Dan Fox of Quilogy for developing and presenting this session for TechEd US. This is the only one of the sessions I presented in Hong Kong that I actually got a chance to attend.

DEV413: Server Control Tips & Tricks

DEV413 Blackbelt_Controls_Demos.zip (719.44 KB)

Session originally done by Rob Howard of Telligent Systems at TechEd US

DEV414: Black-belt ASP.NET - Tips And Tricks For Your ASP.NET Applications

DEV414 Blackbelt_AspNet_Demos.zip (228.42 KB)

Session originally done by Rob Howard of Telligent Systems at TechEd US

DEV462: Windows Forms - Tips And Tricks To Improve Your Performance

DEV462 PerfTalk Demos.zip (216.04 KB)

Session originally done by Mike Henderlight of Microsoft at TechEd US

DEV463: Windows Forms: Controls Tips And Tricks

DEV463.WinFormsTips.zip (700.28 KB)

Session originally done by Ken Getz of MCW Technologies TechEd US

Thanks to everyone who attended the sessions. Thanks again to the original TechEd presenters of these sessions for their help since it is always a challenge to do well presenting content developed by others that matches their particular style and strength.

I would encourage anyone who has the opportunity to see any of these people present to take the opportunity as you will learn alot and come away enlightened and entertained.

Back from TechEd Hong Kong...

Tue, 31 Aug 2004 21:20:25 GMT

And it was a great event! For those that attended, I will be posting the demo code before the end of the week so stay tuned!

TechEd style Cabana comes to New England...

Tue, 03 Aug 2004 14:13:48 GMT

Thom Robbins has worked with Chris Pels (and myself as lazy consultant) to create an event that I expect to become as popular as the Code Camps! They are called Cabanas (all the best ideas are stolen anyways) and the first will be held in the Microsoft office in Waltham (outside Boston).

To register go to here.

Hope to see you there!

My New York City .Net User Group Presentation...

Fri, 18 Jun 2004 03:47:57 GMT

went well, except for the 7 hour drive to get there that should have been 3.5!

OK, back to the intent which is technology entry... I spoke on Sharepoint Programming and the crowd was varied (never heard of SharePoint to SharePoint guru), but engaged.

Single Sign On was the big thing since it has such potential to be misused. What if someone wires up Single Sign On for a backend system using an over endowed account and then provides a web part that is unconstrained in its actions? Same answer for all these kinds of questions, you die!

I am actually heading back toward New England now (aircard is such a great tool) so that we can make it back for an earlyish meeting back at the office tomorrow.

Back to Security postings tomorrow if I stay on plan.