We’ve all seen the Microsoft guys stumble over this time and time again in demos. Why are we still forced to add this? I mean, if it’s a server control (the control starts with “<asp:”) it should be assumed — or added automatically by the Visual Studio IDE. What is this, the fourth version of Visual Studio for .NET?
Why is runat=”server” not the default condition?
Jim and I went to Minnebar this morning at Coffman Union on the campus of the University of Minnesota — 398 geeks and us. We hit three sessions and then went to the “State of the State” panel discussion with Jamie Thingelstad (former Dow Jones), Robert Stephens (Geek Squad), Dan Grigsby (Unpossible), Matthew Downquast (Crashplan), Douglas Olson (Microsoft), and Michael Gorman (Split Rock Partners).
They’re all really smart guys who are uniquely qualified to speak on the state of software in Minnesota, even if they did contradict themselves on one key point. They were all in agreement that Minnesota is a great place to build a development team — that it has a great community of developers and that our Midwestern work-ethic and loyalty are things that contribute to that, that we tend to be more thoughtful and risk-adverse. Only moments later, talk shifted to the need for developers as entrepreneurs to take the chances to start the next start-ups. Apparently our weakness needs to be our strength. All that considered, I could have listened to these guys for two or three hours.
It’s been many years since I first sat in a room listening to Robert Stephens talk about geek squad — back when they had the place in the Warehouse district. If you ever get a chance to hear him speak, take it. Actually, if you ever get a chance to hang out with any of these guys and listen to them, drop what you’re doing and make it happen.
One more point that hit home with me is that the University of Minnesota is a great school, but that it’s our duty collectively to do what we can to improve the state of the Computer Science and Business programs through mentoring, offering internships and with our wallets.
It’s amazing how prevalent the Rails stuff has gotten. Every session we attended had a Rails tie-in it seemed. Open-source is the buzzword with the development community to be sure. Everyone is looking to maximize the dollars spent on tools with the excellent free offerings.
All in all, I wish I had been able to stay for the entire event, but holding the whole Mother’s Day weekend thing (and my mom’s birthday) threw a monkey wrench into the works.
Good stuff. Thanks to Ben and all who helped organize this thing.
