Delightful Experiences: There’s A Mushroom in My Website

Description:

Most consider a website complete once they implemented the design and finished development. That alone does not produce a website people fall in love with or inspire emotional attachment. We have many different ways to create software our users will be endeared to. For example, MailChimp uses their mascot not as just a glorified brand element, but something that provides amusement (like when he says “Why am I smiling? I’m not wearing pants.)and stickiness. In fact, folks enjoy using MailChimp just to see what the chimp will say next! In this presentation, we will show various experiences that take advantage of “simple delights” to create affective experiences and discuss practical & tactical ways you can create more emotive experiences from brand websites to internal enterprise web apps.

Questions Answered:

Here is where the begging begins…

Since I am not too proud to beg, please go to the SXSW Panel Picker if you think this would make a great panel and vote for it.

My team of pirates at MIX Online have been advocates of HTML5 and web standards. We have recently had the chance to work closely with the Internet Explorer 9 team who have really done some amazing work to support things like <canvas>, <video>, <audio>, SVG, WOFF and a whole lot more in the latest IE9 preview. You will see more of the brutal stuff we have been working on in the coming months.

One question I always get when I am extolling the greatness of HTML5 and IE9 is:

How do I get started? Oh, and I gotta get up to speed YESTERDAY!

In this post, I will try to help answer that question. This is not the uber-comprehensive laundry list of all things known to woman and mankind about HTML5 and IE9, but this will get you running pretty quickly.

1. Go buy Developing With Web Standards

If you are new to this web game because you have been doing kernel development, COBOL bad-a**ness, or haven’t really focused on front-end development, you need to go get John Allsopp’s book called Developing With Web Standards. It will get you from zero to hero, quickly. It covers the basics and moves you to real-world development and HTML5 within 400 pages.

2. Go buy HTML5 for Web Designers

You read John’s book but now you really want to get focused in all that HTML5 has to offer. You also would like to really wrap your head around HTML5 specifically. The good folks at A Book Apart who also run the amazing web site called A List Apart have put out their first book by Jeremy Keith called HTML5 for Web Designers. This book clocks in at a whopping 85 pages! Jeremy does a great job of keeping it fun and giving you a lot of the philosophy behind the technology.

You should get this especially if you are up to speed on web development already and need a crash course on HTML5. Also, this book is pure greatness for vacations with the spouse as it is not a laptop and is small enough that it doesn’t look like some arcane technology tome. You can definitely read it in one sitting.

3. Keep a watch on HTML5 in Twitter

In my Twitter app of choice, I have a column/search on HTML5 which keeps me abreast of all that is going on around HTML5. About a year ago there was barely a trickle, but now it is full stream ahead. You can either set this up as well in your app of choice, use Twitter search, or keep an eye on it at The Archivist:

4. Check out the HTML5 Spec

Ok, you probably want to know it is there but won’t want to spend a ton of time here since it is actually a boring read and some say it clocks in at 900 pages. Let other folks do the hard work for you and read what they have to say. But a word of warning, like Twitter and the Internet, don’t always believe what you hear. If something sounds ominous, check the spec and see if that is true. You can even get involved in the process by joining the mailing list. Ok, this spec talk is making me sleepy, let’s move on…

5. Get the Internet Explorer 9 Preview

We (Microsoft) have been making available platform previews of Internet Explorer 9. About every 6 weeks a new build is made available. You can go to the Internet Explorer 9 Test Drive site and download the latest preview which includes all the HTML5 goodness.

Now don’t be alarmed when you don’t see all the toolbars and chrome you are accustomed to. The reason why it is not there is because we want designers and developers to focus on rendering, performance, etc. of their websites and testing out new things like HTML5′s canvas and hardware acceleration. The preview is not meant to be used as a daily browser and will work side-by-side with IE9.

6. Read the Developer Guide

The developer guide is very comprehensive and walks you through all the things you can do with IE9. It is a long read but contains a wealth of information.

7. Check out the IE9 Videos on Channel 9

Channel 9 is the community site for Microsoft developers. Members of the product team and evangelists have videos there that explain various demos and technology behind IE9. This isn’t your typical marketing stuff, it is made for developers. Go to Channel 9 and do a search on the tags: IE9 and Internet Explorer 9.

8. Try the Demos and Dig Through the Code

The demos at the Test Drive site cover the 3 major enhancements of IE9: performance, HTML5 and graphics. These demos were mostly written by the product team themselves. I would grab one you are interested in and press F12 to bring up the developer tools window in IE9 and investigate the code for these. You will learn a lot from doing this.

9. Add the IE Blog to Your Feed Reader

There is a lot of good stuff that comes out of the Internet Explorer blog. It is not just a marketing mouthpiece but gives technical updates and explains the method to the madness at times. Plus, if you like to see great flaming from internet trolls, then you will love the comments! Here are some of the articles:

• DOM Traversal
• How IE9 Platform Preview Feedback Changed the JavaScript Standard
• The CSS Corner: Better Web Typography For Better Design
• Caching Improvements in Internet Explorer 9
• A GPU-Powered Shopping Experience with Amazon.com
• Measuring Web Page Performance
• Enhanced Scripting in IE9: ECMAScript 5 Support and More
• IE’s Compatibility Features for Site Developers

10. Let’s give peace a chance.

Ok, no one knows more than us that Internet Explorer has its…um…detractors. I have stated many times that I want to see IE6 eradicated from the planet.

But it seems when it comes to browsers (and technology communities overall), we all lose our minds with sniping, bickering and pettiness. Again, please review comments on the IE Blog.  Everyone I know from all the browser vendors and folks trying to make HTML5 the best thing possible are really trying their best, but when we all continue to be d-bags to each other, we lose. So let’s all try to look at that glass as half-full and try to raise the waters so all ships can rise instead of sending cannon fodder over the bows. Let’s celebrate those that are doing interesting things with HTML5 and make the web a better place. Remember:

War is over…if you want it.

- John and Yoko

I hope these steps help you get up and running very quickly with HTML5 and IE9. If you want to keep up-to-date on all the HTML5 and IE9 brutality, follow me on Twitter.

If you have some great ideas on getting folks up to speed on HTML5, put them in the comments below!

Whether it’s organizing content, providing clear descriptions or ways for people to get them, this book is armed with practical advice and examples.

I haven’t had a chance to look at it yet, but will tonight. I will do a book report about it soon, but I will assume since it is from the boutique Five Simple Steps publishing that focuses on web professionals it should be good.

If you want to keep up on when the book report comes out or enjoy my ramblings, follow me on Twitter.

Now hear me out before you begin thinking I have gone off the deep end or making a serious life change. See, I lived for a long time in the “developer” world focused on back-end coding. I believed “design” was all about the aesthetics of a website. I then decided one day to attend An Event Apart, which was a conference for people who make websites. This conference was run by a great group of folks which one was the man above, Jeffrey Zeldman. Little did I know that he was known as the King of Web Standards nor that he had written an amazing book that would change how I thought about web development:

If you take a look at MIX Online which is a site I manage for Microsoft which is a community of designers, developers and web builders you will find that we have always been a proponent of web standards-based development. Also, we were early to jump on board with HTML5. So you can imagine how stoked I was when we were offered the chance to work with Jeffrey Zeldman and his partner in crime Eric Meyer on a great project called 10K Apart.

This is a contest based on a previous concept by Zeldman where we want you to create the most brutal HTML5-based application with only 10 kilobytes of code!

Now you only have 30 days to get your app submitted and you will actually have some of the most awesomesauce judges: Jeffrey Zeldman, Eric Meyer, Nicole Sullivan, Whitney Hess, and Jeremy Keith. The grand prize is free registration to any AEA event, the incredible HTML5 for Web Designers Book and $3000 Visa Cash Card. That’s a lot of cake!

So go check out the contest page (which looks amazing!), explore submitted apps and get your submission up there!

Now these things don’t just happen, it takes some pretty good talent to pull it off. We had Ian Muir who handled the backend work. Nishant on my team PM’d the project flawlessly. Of course the amazing, amazing, amazing team at Things That Are Brown. In fact, go check out their post about their work on the project:

Also, feel free to follow @mixonline for contest updates or follow me at @tommylee for my ramblings.

So you probably have been reading on the conference site all the great stuff we have in store for you. You are busy building out your session agenda and have been checking out the community site at MIX Online. But that is just part of the story. You probably want an unfiltered look at things and what your friends would tell you about coming to the conference. That is what this guide is about.

BEWARE! If you are easily offended, then please leave now. This article isn’t for you. This isn’t a fluffy “bring plenty of water” posts about conference tips. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

Stop complaining that you can’t see all the sessions you want. Yes, the session list this year is absolutely awesome, jam-packed with good stuff. You won’t be able to see it all (believe me, I have tried and failed every year). We will be making the sessions available on the conference site around 24 hours from when they were filmed. So if you go into a room that is full and don’t want to sit in a cesspool of Axe body spray and laptop heat, then head to another session where you can get some more space and have a better chance at getting your question answered. Don’t complain on Twitter because no one really cares.

Embrace the low-fi. We were kicking around all kinds of crazy things on the MIX Core team on how we can help folks network with each other since our highly scientific surveys show that one of the main reasons you come to the event is to network. Of course, being geeks we immediately began thinking how we could “build an app for that”. Then we looked in our pockets and looked at the calendar and realized we weren’t going to be able to do that so we did something I thought was epic…

We went lo-fi.

That’s right, we will have a monstrous corkboard, index cards, markers and pins and you will be able to put up whatever you like. It is so simple and genius! No worries about what device you have, does it work in IE6 (which by the way if it is up to me we would wipe it off the face of the planet), or what technology it should use. So I want to see everyone using that board to reach out. Also, I beg of you to show me how amazingly creative and interesting you are. I want to see amazing posts. I want to see disturbing posts and hopefully some wine-meetups. In fact, if you do a wine-meetup and I make it there, I may even pick up the tab. Just sayin.

Yeah, we are in Vegas, but you don’t have to incessantly remind me. When everyone starts getting into Vegas, for some reason they will be compelled to remind me of it again and again. Don’t. For example, you do not have to tweet like every other person before you has that “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas!” or (looking at YOU, speakers) come up with some lame demo that relates to something Vegas (gambling, Elvis, etc.) unless you are showing a brutally awesome algorithm that will score me cash or free drinks. If you start off with with:

• “You know what they say…what happens in Vegas…”
• “Since we are in Vegas, I thought a good demo would be…”
• “So how much money did everyone lose last night…”
• Just landed in Vega$, You know what they say… #MIX10 (tweet)

Then you are lame.com.

I say this every year, don’t be a d-bag. You know who you are. You are the person that yells at the registration desk about how a session was too full or someone who gets mad because security won’t let someone special like you into a particular area you think you should be able to go into. Let me explain, the guards at the Mandalay Bay are not your typical hired hands. These folks tend to be ex-military, ex-cops, ex-bouncers and are told one thing: “If someone does not have x on their badge, don’t let them through here.” They are always nice to everyone but if you decide to get all belligerent, they will send you on your way. Everyone is trying their best to give you an amazing experience, so just don’t be a d-bag.

Ask the Experts. We are doing something new this year for MIX that you are going to love. We will be holding an “Ask The Experts” event which will allow you to meet up with speakers, evangelists and folks from various product teams and it is your chance to ask any question you like. I recommend that you don’t just find the celebrities like Scott Guthrie (who will have a ton of red polo nerds hanging on every word) but grab that person who is working on the technology you are interested in and you will get your questions answered and they will follow up with you if they can’t answer your question. Make sure you tell your boss about this, they love that you went and got your questions answered directly from the horse’s mouth. Oh, and append to your conversation with your boss: “I really think we got a lot of ROI on this!”

Drink vodka. So some of you will not have adult supervision (like your wife or partner) and you will want to have The Hangover experience. I highly recommend you stick with vodka so that you do not miss most of the morning sessions in your bathroom. A nice soda in the morning will get you back in the swing of things. Please drink responsibly.

Read my other Devil’s Field Guides. Been doing this for a while and those seem to still be valuable:

• The Devil’s Field Guide to MIX09
• About the MIX10 Conference Site
• 7 Things You May Not Know About MIX08
• The Devil’s Field Guide to the PDC (2009 Edition)

Embrace change. You have been dutifully working out your schedule. You know exactly what sessions you are going to. Well, just to let you know. We sometimes have sessions we announce during the keynotes because we wanted to give you a little surprise. So be flexible. I also recommend that you always have two sessions in your pocket to attend at all times in case one just doesn’t do it for you. Also, if you just get tired of your brain getting violently slammed with knowledge bombs, come out to the MIX Online lounge in The Commons and just hang out.

Finally, don’t wear a kilt. Don’t be that guy.

I hope this helps you navigate the amazing conference we have in store for you. Feel free to follow me on Twitter and I will keep you up-to-date on the craziness of MIX. I like wine and heavy metal music (if you think Nickelback is metal, don’t approach me) so if you want to hang I will be glad to buy the drinks at MIX.

Your turn, what recommendations do you have for folks attending MIX10? Leave a comment below.

Recently at CES, Microsoft spent time talking about the “Natural User Interface”.  I am intrigued by NUI because as Buxton alludes to in the video below, I think we have to start thinking about interaction from a people perspective vs. a desktop metaphor. Check out what Buxton had to say (2 min. 57 sec.):





Also, to get greater detail, check out Larry Larsen’s great interview with Buxton on Channel 9 (38 min. 42 sec.):





With the MIX Conference coming up fast, you better hurry up and register so that you can see Bill Buxton in person. I guarantee that he won’t disappoint.

Did you see Bill Buxton last year at MIX09? Are you fan? Or do you think all this Natural User Interface is bunk? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

Also, feel free to follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tommylee to follow my adventures at MIX10!

You probably know about the MIX conference and the MIX Online community, but the brand is branching out. Ok, just kidding. Just one of the fun things we consider. Wouldn’t you prefer this as the giveaway rather than a PDC09 laptop or a fabled Microsoft Courier?

In addition to my day job as owner of the MIX Online community site (more about that in a moment), I also am  a member of the MIX and PDC core teams. I work on a variety of things for our major events and have the privilege of working with good people on our event websites. There are probably many things you may not know (or want to know) about how our event websites come together. I actually enjoy talking to people about it even when the feedback is…er, how do I say it…critical. I thought I might spend a little time talking about how it all comes together (and sometimes doesn’t) and some things folks may not know.

Hey! Wait a minute, this site IA looks familiar. Yep. Take a look at the PDC site. Notice any similarities? After MIX09, we made the decision that we would begin building our own event website. Before then, we had always used vendors and basically rebuilt the site, year after year. We decided to stabilize on a code base so that we could begin with a fresh slate, put some design thinking into it, and have something we could reuse. In fact, the new site is based off the same codebase as the PDC site. Talk about true code reuse! As you can imagine, our dev time went way down and everything we fixed for PDC now works for MIX.

The website team is a virtual team. That’s right, the team building the website is virtual. There is no one on the team who’s full day job it is to manage our event websites. Development is actually done by the development team for Channel 9. Also, much of the streaming work and session videos you saw at PDC is driven from the same team as well. We do have an event team and they keep very, very busy with the site. We have someone responsible for the registration vendor we use, we have someone who’s sole responsibility is session management, we have someone responsible for the overall marketing, and more. In fact, I once tried to figure out how many people are directly involved in the site by working on it or providing content and I stopped counting at 200+.

This website sucks, I could have done it better over a weekend. I am sure you could. The beauty of building websites (which I really enjoy) is that everyone has an opinion. I have to admit at times our audience is a tough, tough crowd and can have a very critical eye. Especially with the immediacy of Twitter, we get plenty of feedback. We take all feedback seriously, especially if it is constructive. If you say “I would like to have session times and locations available via the RSS feed for sessions because I want to do x.”, we tend to jump on it and try to make the magic happen. If your feedback is “The #MIX10 site suxz, thoze guys are dopes. #EPICFAIL”, then you can imagine what I think about that.

Wait, I went to http://visitmix.com and http://live.visitmix.com and they are not the same. Although the same domain, they are different. Its a long, long story. But I will cut to the chase, http://visitmix.com is our community site which I have the honor as my day job to run with an amazing group of brutal designers and developers. We are the community site for the MIX brand. We:

• Offer insightful articles that are relevant to the scenarios you want to design and develop for the web.
• Provide freely downloadable, open source, and immediately useable prototypes with no strings attached.

You should check out what we are about. We are not your average Microsoft website (usually the Mushroom man, Lavender frog, and the baby gorilla tip folks off), but we embody the original spirit of MIX (which I will do another blog post of what the driving pillars are behind the MIX brand). You will see us a lot at MIX this year and we will have some cool labs to talk about at the event. Also, make sure you keep an eye out next week on our site and be sure to follow us on Twitter. The http://live.visitmix.com is the site of the conference.

The myth of infinite resources. One of the things I had to learn as a new Microsoftie is dealing with many who think Microsoft is the land of infinite wealth. As if there are rooms in each building on the Redmond Campus which look like a Dragon’s Lair full of golden goblets and money just laying around to be scooped up. I wish; I have been looking for these rooms for 11 years and still have yet to find it (but I have found the room of infinite network cables). Like you, each team here has to deal with the time/resources/features conundrum. We honestly wish we could add every feature suggested for our event sites and dogfood every cool technology Microsoft has and will show at the event.

Is this all of the sessions? Does this mean you are not going to talk about X? Unlike other event sites, we do rolling session announcements. I would love to say this is some ingenious plan of ours, but the reality is that it takes time when you have tons of announced and unannounced products, technologies, designs and have to fit them in the allotted amount of sessions (which can be constrained by hotel space and a variety of other things). Also, we will always have unannounced sessions right up until to conference because we will announce them at the keynotes, so always give yourself a little wiggle room for those sessions.

Hey, I went to the site and I don’t see this or that. We will be updating the site based on feedback we have received as well as kicking in some things later on as we get closer to the event like the mobile experience. For example, a lot of folks want to print out their schedule and sessions after picking them out instead of exporting them to Outlook or cutting and pasting. We are looking into adding something like that. Be sure to follow the MIX event on Twitter to get updates on changes we make to the site.

Well, we are just beginning the countdown to MIX in Vegas. I am excited and look forward to meeting all of you. If you want to keep tabs on what I am up to regarding the event, follow me on Twitter.

Also, feel free to comment and let me know your thoughts, what you would like to see, and what you look forward to this year at MIX.

So hopefully you caught my Devil’s Field Guide from last year’s PDC. You may not know, but I am on the PDC Core planning team in addition to my role for the most brutal Microsoft website, MIX Online. We are involved/responsible/to blame for everything from keynotes to sessions to website to bananas on the snack bars. I get to see a lot of things that I wish I could share here (and things I would like to forget). I am sure you have been checking out the PDC website to find out the latest on all things PDC, but I wanted to briefly talk to you about the things you won’t see in our travel brochures. Some of these are from the previous Devil’s Field Guide as they are still relevant a year later.

FYI, if you are easily offended, then go away. This isn’t for you.

Nighttime is the best time. If you plan to sleep during PDC09, then you are destined for an epic fail. Some of the best things happen at night and I am not talking about Hands-On Labs (although they are pretty awesome this year). For example, Wednesday night I will be judging the Iron Bartender where man squares off against machine to create a superior cocktail. Also, check out the Tweet Up where our very own @amyrc will be hosting and buying all the drinks you can muster. This is a chance to bring your significant other with you; I encourage it because I would like at some point next week to have human conversations rather than “I really think lambda statements combined with the power of Linq queries would be very valuable for building scalable, concurrent systems that can scale on Azure”.

If you can’t find anyone to hang with, go over to the rooftop at The Standard (but make sure you dress up beyond your “I breakpoint for WCF!” t-shirt) or go to the bar in the lobby of the Westin Bonaventure where you will see tons of Microsofties hanging out. Be sure to latch on to those Microsofties as they will more than likely pay for the drinks. They are awesome like that.

Standing in line is for suckers. I am amazed at how our species constantly finds itself mirroring farm animals like cattle, lined up in single file. Don’t stand in line for anything (except at bars, that is just a fact of life) at the PDC. For example, don’t register within the first hour of registration opening (unless you are hardcore!). Wait until the final hour where you can walk right up, get your badge and be on your way. Also, if there are giveaways from us, don’t stand in line. Again, we will have enough for everyone so its not as if we are going to run out. And if we do, you can be sure we will fix it ASAP. HERE IS THE EXCEPTION: If you want to register the morning of Day One, get out of bed as early as possible and get down there! Day One registration is masochistic if you wait the hour before the first keynote. You more than likely will miss the first few minutes if you wait.

If you need to decide between something, the answer is “go with the conversation”. Right now, there are folks who are feverishly working out their schedule so that they have every minute set up so they are either in a keynote, a session, etc. If you have an opportunity to talk to a real human, whether it be at a table in front of the Starbucks with folks from another company, or an expo partner in the big room, go with that instead. That networking will make the price of the conference worth it alone. We record all the sessions and keynotes and make them available after the event pretty quickly, you can catch up with them later.

Don’t spend all your time in your expertise. I always am surprised that there will be an attendee who has a laser-focus on a particular technology who reads every article & blog post, downloads the latest bits, has the e-mail of every developer on that team. Then goes on Twitter and says “Sat in Intro to XYZ at #PDC09, nothing new. #EPICFAIL!” Spread your wings and fly, try something new and different. If you want hardcore, either go to a session that specifically says it will talk about what you may not know or go talk to them at their booth and throw your questions at them.

Make sure you are talking to the right person. When you talk to a Microsoftie, ask what they do and get their card. It would be spectacular if all 90,000+ employees knew about every technical detail of every Microsoft technology, but it is not the reality. If someone doesn’t have an answer to your question, ask them who to speak with or if they will find someone who can help answer a question. They may not be able to do it right at the event (most employees have about 3-5 duties at the event and are busy in addition to their day jobs), but when they are back at the mothership they can track down any issues you may have had. Also, if you have their card, ping them again the week after if you have not heard from them (I have lost my list of Q’s at a previous conference and felt pretty bad about it).

Be cool, stay cool. I know, we should have done this vs. that. I know, if it was you, you would have done it a different way. Yes, we ran out of tuna sandwiches before you got up to the table. Yes, the speaker had a technical difficulty and could have just pre-compiled the binaries instead. We really do try to do our best. I know of no one that is “mailing it in”. Instead of immediately running off to Twitter with “OMG! They ran out of mustard for sandwiches. #EPIC! #FAIL! #BEYOND! #BELIEF!”, politely ask someone to help. Or send a simple e-mail to let us know (my e-mail is tho*lew*is at microsoft dotcom or you can hit me up on Twitter with @tommylee) and we will follow up. Also, if you are just frustrated beyond belief, go to the information desk or registration desk and they will try to help you.

Also, let me be clear: I am not a fan at all of anyone getting in the face of folks who work at the convention center. Those folks are just doing their job, so if you get mad, don’t take it out on them. They typically are told “don’t let anyone past this point without a badge that says x” and that IS their job. If you think you have the right to yell at them, you are wrong. In fact, say “hi” to them and smile at them once in a while. They do a good job are good people.

Keep your schedule loosey-goosey. Like I mentioned above, some folks are already planning out their attack plan for the schedule in advance. Here’s the thing, we typically hold back sessions because we want to announce things in the keynote that you have not heard about. So more than likely you will go “Oh snap! They just announce GeeWhiz v1.0 beta!” and have to figure out how to fit it into the tight schedule you already created. Also, you may go into a session that is overbooked with folks (we try our best to keep this from happening, but it does happen) or it just doesn’t turn out to be what you thought it was; have a backup session to go to or head over to the expo. I also suggest from last year:

PDC is a long haul of a conference. You of course will go to our session scheduler and double-book yourself every single session slot, you will plan to attend all pre- and post- events and do e-mail at night. Instead, take yourself a break, sleep in late one morning or just chill one of the afternoons. Think about all that you have seen and about how it will apply to your job back home. Also, take this time to rework your schedule. You probably thought you knew all that you wanted to see, but now that you have experienced it for a couple days you may change your strategy such as going to less “far in the future” sessions or go to more architectural discussions.

Again, don’t wear your kilt at the event. I wish I didn’t have to say this, but don’t be that guy. Wear it out to the after-parties. If you wear it at the event, you are just that guy.

Want to keep up with my crazy adventures at PDC09? Then follow me at http://twitter.com/tommylee. Also, please share in the comments below your recommendations for how to get the best out of a trip to PDC09. If you see me there (picture below), please stop me and say hello (if we are having drinks, I will buy)!

Scary Version of Me

As you know, Microsoft’s PDC conference for 2009 is now open for business. Make sure you register ASAP as this is one of Microsoft’s hottest conferences around (ok, I may be a little biased since I am on the PDC09 Core Team). Now, when you register, you will have 14 hotels to choose from where you will get a special PDC rate. So which do you choose? Now I haven’t been to all of them, only a few. But here are my quick observations on some that I have stayed at during past PDC events.

Figueroa Hotel

This hotel is in actual walking distance which is good if you want to get some exercise. The website makes the hotel look exotic and it does have a certain flavor, but it is not for the Marriott mindset. You won’t find cofee makers, etc. But if you are looking for something quirky and won’t balk at a window A/C unit, then I would recommend it. It is a fun stay especially if you are bringing the spouse with you. It doesn’t have a cab line but I was always able to get one since it is on the main strip in downtown LA.

The Westin Bonaventure Hotel & Suites

This is “the” hotel for most folks, especially Microsoft attendees. In fact, I mentioned in my post Devil’s Field Guide to the PDC that:

Where do all the Microsofties hang after the event? If you are a fan of edgy chef personalities, you know that you always want to find the dives the chefs go to after their shifts are done. Later in the evening, after evening events and A/V checks are done, many of our kind will head over to the lobby of the Westin Bonaventure where everyone will be hanging out at the bar chatting up the news of the day and talking with attendees. Now, if you are looking to find all the hipster-Microsofties, then you want to head to the club at the rooftop of The Standard. The view there is awesome but the drinks can get expensive.

This place will have everything from fancy restaurants to the more affordable take-out. You will pretty much not have to leave the hotel for anything except the conference. The bar in the middle of the lobby will be absolutely full of attendees and lots of Microsoft employees.

Millennium Biltmore Hotel

This is a nice hotel to stay at especially if you like the old-school feel of it from back in the day of the Rat Pack. Has plenty of amenities (restaurants and bars), but not as much of a scene as the Westin Bonaventure. The sushi restaurant is killer if you like sushi.

The other hotels I have not been to, but here is what folks have told me:

• Holiday Inn City Center – functional.
• O Hotel – hip.
• The Los Angeles Athletic Club Hotel – upscale.
• Marriott Los Angeles Downtown – if you have a Marriott reward card, then it is the place. Also, very close to the Westin Bonaventure.

Be sure to check out my Devil’s Field Guide to the PDC post and feel free to follow me on Twitter and look forward to seeing you at PDC09.

To this day, I still make a stop down the office supply aisle perusing folders, spiral notebooks and the latest accessories. You can imagine how my wife, a born accountant, upon finding “perfectly good” pens in the trash rolling her eyes as I tell her “but those didn’t write very well”. Yes, I am one of those people who are very picky about the pen I use (surprisingly, I am not one of those folks who buy $1,000 pens with specialized mechanisms inside it, I love the simple Bic). I get giddy when I approach a Staples or Office Depot.

If you are like me, then I want to show you what I have been turned on to. Field Notes.

I love the simplicity and functionality of Field Notes. They were “inspired by the vanishing subgenre of agricultural memo books, ornate pocket ledgers and the simple unassuming beauty of a well-crafted grocery list…”. You can decide between graph, ruled or plain paper. At their online store you can also order pens and pencils. 

I have been through tons of journals and what I like is the size (fits in the pocket of my jackets) and its durability. I am one of those types that when it gets worn or bent, I tend to want to replace it. Even though I have been dragging mine around for a while, I haven’t noticed any deterioration and it seems to do well with the oil on my hands by not having “smudges”. My current one has graph paper which I like and it really picks up the ink of my pen with no smudges.

It is great for notes, sketches, lists, project management and more. The stitching/stapling holds up as well. The only downside is that as I chronicle my life in these, there is not a binding to write on, but it is a minor inconvenience.

I am definitely stoked about Field Notes. Do you have Field Notes? What do you use yours for? Please leave a comment, it would be great to hear about your experience. You can also check them out on Twitter. You can also follow my random musings on Twitter too.

Well, we are on the precipice of another great MIX09 conference. It seems like MIX08 was just a few months ago. You are probably hitting the conference site for the latest information on what is going to happen at MIX09. But you are probably not getting the scoop on what you need to know. I will give you some guidance on what the site won’t necessarily tell you. If you are sensitive and delicate, then I recommend you don’t read any further.

Follow the MIX Core team and #MIX09. There are hundreds of people behind the scenes at MIX09, but there is a group that has been meeting every week and working overtime to make sure everything runs smooth. These folks are basically at ground zero for everything that happens. I am fortunate enough to be on this team again this year (somehow I have been on it every year since MIX started and they haven’t thrown me out yet!). For some reason, we love Twitter. We all watch it incessantly before, during and after the event. We tend to push out news, parties and happenings at the event, but it is not one-way. We are also responding to your feedback, concerns, and issues. If something new is breaking, more than likely one of the core team is Twittering it. The event Twitter account is: http://twitter.com/mix09 and make sure that if you are tweeting about MIX that you use hashtag #MIX09. Here are some of the team you want to follow: jritz, anyware, amyrc, adkinn, denisebegley, and if you want to be dangerous, tommylee (me). I will add more as folks want to be added.

Don’t mess with security. I know, you are big on the Internet. You’re the CEO of a big startup? That’s great…but here is a rule you want to obey: DON’T MESS WITH SECURITY AT MIX09. You need to realize that security at the Venetian in Las Vegas is not your typical security guard. These folks deal with gangsters, thieves, cheats, and low-lifes that you never have been exposed to. They have one goal and that is to keep out anyone who doesn’t have an appropriate badge. They don’t give a rat’s ass who you “think” you are. Even being on the core team and a Microsoft employee, they won’t let me go anywhere I don’t have a badge for. Guess what? When you complain on Twitter or to someone at the event about security, I will probably volunteer to come out and talk to you about it. 99% of the time, I am siding with security. So let me make it clear: Don’t be a douchebag and mess with security (but do say hi to them, they have the most AWESOME stories).

MIX is an event and a community. Once the conference is over, you probably think that is it, but no, there is a MIX community site called MIX Online at www.visitmix.com. My team runs this site. It is a great site for web developers and designers. Every 2 months, we post an issue on a topic (past topics include Microformats, Web Standards, and Data Visualization) which includes articles and a prototype you can use (free, open source). Yes, actual bits. We will also be talking about some of our prototypes and website at MIX09. Be sure to subscribe at the site or the Twitter feed. This is a way that you can have your MIX fix all throughout the year!

MIX Online

Don’t wear a kilt during the day. Don’t be that guy. At night, at the party, it’s all good. During the day? Well, you are “that guy”. (Disclaimer: I like the kilt, it is very Viking.)

Go A.D.D. with the Mini-sessions. This year we are trying something new called mini-sessions. These are much smaller in duration (20 minutes). This is content boiled down to its essence. You won’t get a lot of droning on about some incoherent API, you will get it Red-Bulled right into your head. Also, you can stay in the same room to hear 3 in a row. These sessions are the ones I am going to be hitting up.

Save money by going old-school. As you know, times are tight. You need to find values in Vegas. I recommend taking a bus downtown to some of the old-school  casinos. I have a hiding place where the shrimp cocktail is as big as your head (disclaimer: slight exaggeration) for a couple bucks. The slots and tables are cheap to buy in and it will remind you of the days of yore, instead of the fancy $25 dollar minimum tables you will find up the street. You also will more than likely sit next to old people, and old people are totally cool and have awesome stories about Vegas!

Check out last year’s Field Guide. Many of the things I said last year still apply, so go check it out.

If you want to keep up with me at the event, follow me on Twitter.

Scary Version of Me

See you at MIX09!

I also recommend you check out the people’s choice winner, Hotel 626. Being a huge fan of horror, I really dig it.

From the title of this post, you can guess how I feel about e-mail. I didn’t always feel this way. Back in the day, I used to look forward to looking at my e-mail. It was a modest 15-20 e-mails a day and just about every one of them brought some kind of goodness. It could be a newsletter, plans to go out with a friend, news about the company or a link to something good on what was called the World Wide Web.

It changed once I started receiving a volume that I could not control and it wasn’t as fun as it used to be because now IT WAS WORK! I unfortunately spend 80% of my non-meeting time (Meetings? Oh boy, I will save that for another post) answering & sending e-mail. I wish I could be like some folks where I have anywhere from 264 to 3270 e-mails in my Inbox and it not bother me. Also, I am not one of those folks who can just disregard e-mails especially if I am on the To: line.

Deep down, I really do like e-mail and blessed that I get paid to do it. So although I may fuss about it, I am happy with the burden.

Now let’s get to the point of this post. I have been on vacation for 2 weeks and have not opened “work” e-mail once. Believe me, I definitely struggled and appreciate everyone on Twitter who gave me support. Now when I get back in the office on Monday, my Inbox will be full. Typically about 1,500 e-mails will be waiting. The good news is that I am aggressive about filters in Outlook/Exchange so those e-mails that I know for a fact that I don’t need to answer or review right away will get filed in folders which will probably leave the Inbox with approximately 500-600 e-mails.

Here is how I will attack the Inbox. I will come in at 7am and begin the following:

• Open Outlook, turn off my Out of Office and take a deep breath.
• Change to conversation view.
• Get rid of the easily identifiable cruft (Social network notifications, random server messages, spam, etc.).
• Look for meeting requests (never fails that someone wants to meet at 8am the day you get back) and accept/postpone them.
• Run a Thread Compressor utility that compresses conversations.
• Ok, at this point, about a 1/3 of the e-mail is processed.
• Look for high priority e-mails that are still relevant and respond. If the priority is not high anymore, I can probably delete the thread it created.
• Look for e-mails from our community (visitmix.com!). Address the high priority items and leave the rest to address later.
• Look for e-mails from my own team (These are color-coded teal). Address the high priority items and leave the rest to address later.
• Look for e-mails from my boss (These are color-coded red). Address the high priority items and leave the rest to address later.
• Look for e-mails directly written to me (These are color-coded blue). Address the high priority items and leave the rest to address later.
• Attack the long, multi-mail, multi-opinioned threads. If I am not asked directly or I don’t need to clear up miscommunication, I will delete or archive.
• At this point, I will go through what is left (probably a 1/3 of what I started out with) and go through them synchronously.

That is the strategy that seems to work well for me. Since I have been gone for quite a while, I will delete/archive most e-mail where I was not specifically asked for feedback. For shorter durations, I would not be so strict.

I have heard of folks who open their e-mail and delete every message and assume that if it is important, someone will follow-up with them or they can always ask to be re-sent the mail. But I assume those folks are hanging out with unicorns and the yetis.

So, how do you handle post-vacation e-mail?

As you know, my team runs the community site MIX Online. Our latest issue came out and our theme is Web Standards. Now you may be shocked by that. Traditionally, Web Standards has been treated as dogma and zealotry. If you did not adhere to them strictly, you were banished as a heretic. I always had a different perspective since I read Jeffrey Zeldman’s “Designing With Web Standards”. Instead of telling everyone how they were doing it all wrong, he laid out a cohesive argument about the business value of Web Standards.

So in this issue, we have Molly Holzschlag who writes a great article on the business value of Web Standards. Another article is written by our own Nishant Kothary on how to design a website end-to-end using MIX Online as the example. I love how he not only is comprehensive, but you get to see sketches, wireframes and even designs that did not make it.

We also released a new prototype in this issue, Oxite.

Oxite is an open source, standards compliant, and highly extensible content management platform that can run anything from blogs to big web sites.

Oxite is the CMS that MIX Online runs on. It allows us to be standards-compliant (try our homepage and you should notice that it is XHTML Strict) and takes advantage of key technologies such as ASP.NET MVC. It is open source so you can use it however you like as well as contribute code to the project.

I am very excited we got this out, so go check it out!

MIX Online is a community site for web designers and developers who are building and believe in the innovative web. In the past, the site has given a varied perspective of what is happening on the web, a view into our conference called MIX, and interviews with amazing people with incredible ideas and stories on how designers and developers can take advantage of the web. MIX Online has always been a year-round companion to the event.

MIX Online moves forward by taking more of a scenario focus around emerging web trends. For example, Microformats is an interesting movement in the web community and we want to introduce you to it and give you some practical guidance around it.  MIX Online will continue to showcase our traditional blog, but we are renaming it under the heading “Opinions” that provides a more natural conversation with our small team. Also, MIX Online now provides practical articles with each scenario that are written by people in the community, not always Microsoft’s perspective. Best of all, MIX Online is providing freely downloadable, open source, and immediately useable prototypes. You are encouraged to use these prototypes for your own projects, but to also submit code to the prototype project on CodePlex to share with the community.

I can’t begin to tell you how excited I am about this. I have a brutal (a good thing) team that is doing amazing work. I am a firm believer that the web is an incredible place for innovation and my heart truly belongs to this site.

What you are seeing is just the beginning of what we plan to do. So go check it out, subscribe, and download our latest prototype called Oomph: A Microformats Toolkit.

If you are reading this, you know Microsoft’s Professional Developers Conference is on and is coming up in mere days. I am fortunate enough to be a part of the PDC Core Team; we are responsible for your experience at the event.

I am sure that you have been checking the site, the sessions, the feed and keeping your eye on the blogosphere for scoops and hints of what is to come. There is only one problem; they are not giving you everything you need so I want to provide insider advice on how you can make the most of your trip.

Warning! What you are about to read may make you question your own existential existence. You may not be the same after reading it. If you are easily offended or want to take the red pill, stop reading immediately.

Where do all the Microsofties hang after the event? If you are a fan of edgy chef personalities, you know that you always want to find the dives the chefs go to after their shifts are done. Later in the evening, after evening events and A/V checks are done, many of our kind will head over to the lobby of the Westin Bonaventure where everyone will be hanging out at the bar chatting up the news of the day and talking with attendees. Now, if you are looking to find all the hipster-Microsofties, then you want to head to the club at the rooftop of The Standard. The view there is awesome but the drinks can get expensive.

How do I get into the backchannel instead of what mainstream media wants me to hear? Ok, go sign up for Twitter today (it is not just for telling you what I am having for lunch…uh, yeah I guess it is). Now use Tweetscan or some other tool that allows you to follow the chatter around PDC. Tweetdeck is what I use and it allows me to keep an eye on any tweet that has ‘PDC’ in it. Then start watching who is posting and follow speakers, attendees, and Microsofties who are giving you more than just “Hey everybody, come check out my session.” or “I can’t wait to hear about Cloud OS.” Later in the evenings you will probably begin seeing certain people tweet “I am at the top of The Standard, a free drink to the next 5 people who find me.” or “Company X is having a get-together at the In-And-Out Burger at Y, come now!” Jump in a cab and come down. You will be amazed at the networking opportunities and just brutal fun you will have.

I have heard everything there is about what is going to be there. Wrong! Believe me, you haven’t. I know. Although we are pretty transparent (or at least translucent), we like to hold some stuff closer to the vest. We are working on stuff all the way up to the week of the event. I am on the core team and I even sometimes get surprised. I have gotten a hold of our expo hall schematics and am making it available to you. I had to redact some things on it. But here it is:

PDC Big Room Layout

Standing in line is for suckers. I am amazed at how our species constantly finds itself mirroring farm animals like cattle, lined up in single file. Don’t stand in line for anything (except at bars, that is just a fact of life) at the PDC. For example, don’t register within the first hour of registration opening. Wait until the final hour where you can walk right up, get your badge and be on your way. Also, if there are giveaways from us, don’t stand in line. Again, we will have enough for everyone so its not as if we are going to run out. And if we do, you can be sure we will fix it ASAP. HERE IS THE EXCEPTION: If you want to register the morning of Day One, get out of bed as early as possible and get down there! Day One registration is masochistic if you wait the hour before the first keynote. You more than likely will miss the first few minutes if you wait.

Always ask Microsofties what their title is. There are two reasons. One, a title will reflect how well someone can answer your question. You can imagine if you see “Business Analyst for Dynamics” and “Developer for LINQ” which one you want to help you debug your issue. Ok, Scott Guthrie is the exception. Two, and more importantly, the right title will probably get you a free drink. Keep an eye out for “marketing” and “evangelist” and when they order, just say “Can you get me a X as well?“, make a noble gesture to get your money out. More than likely they will just say “Don’t worry, I will get this one.”

Stay balanced. PDC is a long haul of a conference. You of course will go to our session scheduler and double-book yourself every single session slot, you will plan to attend all pre- and post- events and do e-mail at night. Instead, take yourself a break, sleep in late one morning or just chill one of the afternoons. Think about all that you have seen and about how it will apply to your job back home. Also, take this time to rework your schedule. You probably thought you knew all that you wanted to see, but now that you have experienced it for a couple days you may change your strategy such as going to less “far in the future” sessions or go to more architectural discussions.

Get your questions answered. Microsofties at the event have all kinds of roles. But every one of us is there to answer your questions. We may not be able to answer your debugging question, but we will work to find someone who will, maybe even after the event. If you see a Microsoft badge, they will even help you find where the closest bathroom is at for you. Make sure you plan to attend the Ask The Experts night where almost every single Microsoft person will be there ready to answer any questions you may have. Now let me give you some advice, if you just hang out with the celebrities like “The Scott’s”, “The Anders”, etc. you will find yourself hanging with all the fanbois and fangirlz. Go find that rather empty table and you will probably be talking the actual developer of the product you use on a daily basis. Also, see “Standing in Line…” above.

The handsome and stylish PDC content owner, Michael Swanson, our talented and delightful PDC marketing manager Denise Begley, and I will be hanging out at the PDC table at Ask The Experts. You might even be lucky and get to talk to Jennifer Ritzinger, the PDC owner! This is your time to vent, praise, proclaim on anything related to the event itself. I am going to be there so feel free to swing by and let me know how we can make the PDC the most incredible event of your life and if you love/hate/despise these guides (I usually do one for MIX as well) I blog.

Don’t wear your kilt at the event. Don’t be that guy. Wear it out to the after-parties. If you wear it at the event, you are just that guy.

That’s all for now, if you want to keep an eye on what I got going on, follow my Twitter.

The poster is awesome! It is one of those posters where you can stare at it and find something fun and exciting. But Nishant didn’t stop there. He also created a microsite at www.awebsitenameddesire.com which uses Silverlight’s Deep Zoom technology so that you can zoom in on the poster to see the details. One of my favorites is the front-end web developer who has a simple shrine to Jeffrey Zeldman who is one of my idols as well. Can you find it?

Also, we are making these posters available at various events. You can find out where those events are on the website as well. Be sure to sign up for the Twitter feed so that you can get news about the poster as we have plans to do some more interesting things.

My question to you is, which role(s) do you find yourself in?  What’s your favorite thing about the poster?

* Nishant is now a member of my new team. What does my team do? It is a secret that will soon be known. Details coming soon…

You can customize the look very easily.

I really found it interesting that pain really came through with just one post about my kidney stones. You will find all kinds of things to put into Wordle to analyze. Although there are very artistic visualizations out in the wild, the most interesting visualizations are those that give you insight into something that you may not be able to see at first glance (in my opinion).

Build one, post it to the Wordle gallery or on your blog and let me know where I can find it by leaving a comment!

On Day 1, I woke up at 5:30 in the morning with a dull pain in my left side. I shrugged it off as either muscle strain or gas. I took a muscle relaxer and headed off to work. I would soon realize that this was not a muscle strain. I got down about half a latte in my office as the pain continued to intensify. I tried lying down on my couch hoping that would help ease the pain but it did not do any good. Then, my mouth began to water not because of the banana bread I had also purchased that morning, but because I was 10 seconds away from vomiting. I closed the door and blinds in my office and grabbed the wastebasket and began hurling (a.k.a. vomiting). It is at this point I realized that something was definitely wrong with me and I needed help.

I headed to the Urgent Care facility that I had been to before and hoped they would be able to help with the pain and diagnose my problem. After about 20 minutes in the waiting room I went back with the nurse and explained what happened while the pain seemed to get increasingly worse. She immediately had me go pee in a cup. It was about 5 minutes after that when the doctor came in and said that she thinks it is kidney stones and that instead of burning up time with me I should go ahead and get to the emergency room which had the equipment needed to diagnose the stones. The doctor said there was blood in my urine that is a symptom of kidney stones. They asked if I wanted a ride there in an ambulance and I declined because I was still trying to be manly so I updated my wife that she should meet me at the emergency room instead and white-knuckled all the way there because this thing was really beginning to wreak its brutality on me.

I arrived and my wife showed up and she could tell I was not doing well at all. They ushered us back into a room to get my information and I began vomiting again from the pain. They then took me back to a room and put me in a hospital gown. They knew exactly what I was dealing with so an IV was put in my arm and they gave me some pain medication in the IV.

Within about 5 minutes the pain began subsiding. You cannot believe how much that helped. When you are in that much pain, you don’t want to talk, move or even blink. The pain never ebbs and flows, it is constant in your side (I also felt soreness in the groin which is typical as well). You would be willing to cut your own kidney out if you thought it would take any of the pain away.

The hospital took a cat scan and x-rays. The nurses and my wife took great care of me while we waited for the diagnosis. They administered more pain medication to keep me comfortable. My pain went from 10 on a 10-point scale down to about a 3, although I was very sleepy and dizzy. Again, this is a small price to pay for the pain to be muted. The doctor came in and gave the official diagnosis, “a 1mm kidney stone”. I was amazed that such a small thing could cause the amount of pain I was feeling. Unfortunately, this little fury of hate was tearing up my kidney on down.

Also, on the ride home I vomited all the way home from the nausea. My wife was a trooper and I definitely cashed in the “sickness and in health” chip.

I was given the following prescriptions:

• Metoclopramide 10mg for the nausea.
• Flomax .4mg for opening up the tubes to help the stone on through.
• Ibuprofin 600mg for infection and pain.
• Oxycodone-Apap 5-325mg for the pain.

I was also to begin drinking water and lots of it. I mean a lot! You realize how much water you don’t drink. Iced tea, wine and coffee don’t count. So I have been drinking like crazy. What is ironic is that a couple of weeks ago I bought a water bottle for work because I thought I wasn’t drinking enough water. Probably only filled it up a couple times. Guess that is going to change big time from now on. I also have an account-abila-buddy who got stones about a month ago and we are going to keep an eye on each other.

For the rest of Day 1 through Day 4 I basically slept with a pillow under my head, a pillow between my legs and a pillow that I would embrace. I would listen to the TV and talk to my wife and think.

The oxycodone does a great job for the pain but comes with horrible side effects such as constipation, lethargy, nausea and brain fog. I wanted to get off them quickly because of all the shows I have seen on people getting addicted to them. I don’t have drug use or addiction in my past at all, but all those shows (48 Hours, etc.) freaked me out. Also, my dreams were very vivid and I would cycle through a lot of them at night. I never took the whole dosage (2 every 4-6 hours), I only took 1 pill every 6 hours and then half a pill after Day 2 and quit taking it on Day 4.

On Day 6, I finally felt somewhat normal and my appetite came back. I still had soreness and dizzy. If I haven’t been drinking a lot of water or just took the Flomax, there is blood or mucous in my urine. It turns out I am pretty fortunate as I don’t have pain when I go to the bathroom. Many sufferers have to deal with this problem. It may freak you out the first time, but it seems to be part of the process. They also hope that you catch the stone by straining while you pee. It is crazy and all you can do is laugh at yourself. I stopped using the strainer and of course that is when I thought I saw the tiny stone come out. I thought life had come back to normal.

Unfortunately on Day 7 (the day I am writing this) I woke up around 8:30am with the pain again! Argh! Just 3 hours before I got up and went to the bathroom and didn’t have a symptom at all. I took the Flomax and the Ibuprofin and lay down and started my drinking regiment. My wife made an appointment with our family doctor. After about an hour and a bathroom visit, which included blood in the urine, my pain subsided and went away. Went to the doctor and she suggested continuing to use the Flomax and Ibuprofin, drink plenty of water and follow up with a urologist. I feel ok now but of course am worried that things could flare up again. She thinks that the damage the stone has done still needs time to heal and what I felt was inflammation since I cut the pills short. Others who have had stones have said that flare-ups have happened to them as well.

I don’t normally share like this, but when I searched the web I couldn’t easily find anyone who related their experiences with kidney stones or only found forums that had tons of ads surrounding them. Please feel free to leave a comment about your story with kidney stones or feel free to ask me questions.

Hopefully, this will help someone out there who will be going through his or her own week of hell with kidney stones. Now go drink some water.