Sara J Chipps

Mix 2010

So, I was lucky enough to go to Mix this week and it was awesome. Vegas was beautiful, the casinos were great, and I got to hear some really cool talks. I was surprised, I expected things to be very designer focused but it wasn't. You have to think, though, how many Windows designers do you know? I don't know any. I think design degrees come with a Mac Book and some granola.  

Douglas Crawford of JSON fame made a special appearance. It was cool to see him speak and even cooler to be sitting in on the same sessions as he was. He had some interesting stuff to say about aging out browsers and Java Script the good/bad. 

There were some cool dynamic language talks, a great "ask the experts" dinner, and many other Java Script sessions I really enjoyed. They have all the videos online and I recommend the following:

Six Things Every JQuery Developer Should Know - Elijah Manor\

How JQuery Makes Hard Things Simple - John Resig

The Tale of Java Script, I mean ECMAScript - Douglas Crawford

The Mono Project - Miguel DeIcaza

Reactive Extentions for Java Script - Eric Meijer

ASP.NET Security - Hanselman and Haack

Check those out and there are dozens more I didn't see that I hope to check out. I leave you with this picture of me and some Microsoft/Mono folk at the awesome attendee party at LAX in the Luxor. 

Happy Developing!

Introducing the MVC Melee!!!

Hi, how are you? Been well? Awesome. I wanted to tell you about something I think is pretty cool, and that's the MVC Melee. The ever so clever/kick ass JP Toto and I thought it would be cool to put together a competition for y'all to do neat stuff with ASP.NET MVC. 

The basics are that contestants get together in teams of 1-4 folk (I suppose one person isn't really a team, is it?) and get 48 hours to build the coolest web app they can think of in ASP.NET MVC. The applications submitted are then voted on by the community and then winners are crowned in a few different categories. 

I'm hella excited about this and a bit jealous I can't participate. JP and I will be starting soon with building the supporting framework that will make the contest possible. 

Check out the site, tell your friends, and be excited. We will be hosting teams at New Work City and other co-working spaces around the country are welcome to join in. We plan on plowing through the weekend, so bring a sleeping back (if you plan on sleeping). 

Review of my MVP trip coming soon. See you at Mix!