Jeff McWherter

While at the Western Michigan Day of .NET Steven Harman made a statement, about taking a week long vacation in the summer one year, where he made a contribution to an open source project every day. Whether it was a few unit tests, documentation or a patch, the only requirement he placed on his contribution was it be done before 10:00AM, so he could hit the beach (of course).  

Thinking about this, I thought it was a great idea, but not all developers have the energy level of Mr. Harman.  What I have tried to do for the past few years is grab at least one new project off of CodePlex or SourceFourge each week. Learn the project, and if you decide you are passionate enough about the project, then add a contribution.  It’s not that hard to get started, and I suggest taking a look at the SubText project on SourceForge.

SubText is a blogging engine that is well written and that takes advantage of Unit Tests and Continuous Integration. This is a great project to start learning on.  Your first step is getting the code.  You will need a Subversion client, I suggest Tortoise http://tortoisesvn.tigris.org/

Follow the directions on the SourceForge project site, and you will be on your way.

ASP.Net Performance and Optimization

I will be speaking at the West Michigan Day of .NET (#WMDODN), next Saturday. Where: Davenport University W.A. Lettinga Campus Grand Rapids, MI When:  Saturday May 10th. My session is at 11:00AM

ASP.Net Performance and Optimization

I will be speaking at the Iowa Code Camp, next Saturday. Where: Conference Center at the Old Capitol Mall 181 S Clinton St Iowa City, IA 52240 When:  Saturday May 3rd. My session is at 3:45PM

ASP.Net Performance and Optimization

I will be speaking at the Indy Code Camp, next Saturday. Where: 7435 N Keystone Ave Indianapolis, IN 46240 When:  Saturday April 26th. My session is at 8:00AM

ASP.Net Performance and Optimization

I will be speaking at the Central Ohio Day of .NET , this Saturday. Where: Roberts Centre‎ 123 Gano Rd Wilmington, OH 45177  When:  SaturdayApril 9th. My session is at 2:50PM

ASP.Net Performance and Optimization

I will be speaking at the West Michigan .Net Users Group, this Tuesday. Where: Watermark Country Club 5500 Cascade Rd. Grand Rapids, MI 49548   When:  Tuesday April 15st. 6:00 PM

ASP.Net Performance and Optimization

I will be speaking at the Pittsburgh Code Camp in Pittsburg PA, this Saturday. Where: Department of Computer Science Sennott Square University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, PA 15260   When:  Saturday April 10st. My session is at 10:30PM

While my boss was at lunch today, figured we would fill his office with styrofoam peanuts, wow did it make a mess.

This article ran on March 13th in the Grand Blanc View. Our March attendance was 22 people, our largest turn out for the Flint branch. Special thanks go out to Aaron L for taking the initiative for this.