I got my vibrams about a month ago, and have slowly been trying to break my feet in.

I can now drive in them and wear them almost 3/4 of a day. I haven’t tried running yet, although i did try a small baby hike (slight elevation, 1.5 miles roundtrip at most). Result wasn’t good. Really bad blister on my right foot. But my other foot was okay. It was a serious workout for my ankles and calves, which was exactly what I wanted.

Do I like them?

Absolutely! I was looking for way to increase the strength in my calves and ankles, and this definitely seems to be working.

What to expect if you buy a pair

The first thing of course is TAKE IT SLOW. You will have sore muscles in crazy places, like on the very top of your feet, or in your toes. I would start off just wearing them around then house or office, then after a week, try to walk around the block. It will take that long for your feet to adjust. Driving will be a new experience, so make sure you don’t go farther than a quick few minute drive.

You’ll also have to retrain yourself how to walk down stairs. Be aware of this.

And just in case of an emergency (like a car in a parking lot is about to run you over), you will want to practice running a few yards. The first time i had to run in them out of necessity was going to the grocery store. I had to get out of the way of a car, and trying to run in them was pathetic. I thought about how little babies try to run when they first start walking, and it was a display very close to that. Now I can safely and comfortably run across a street if needed, since i’ve practice a little more since then (and hopefully have built up more muscles).

Suggestions

Do not buy pink! Many people think I’m barefooted (being stopped at a restaurant for not having shoes) or think I have a horrible sunburn. It makes for very awkward initial conversations. I really wanted black, but pink was my only option at the time.

Make sure you start with socks! I think regardless i was going to get a blister on my right foot, but socks would have helped.

I need help with

Figuring out sizing. Yeah, I know, welcome to the club. I am either a W37 or W38. The W38, even with socks, is a little loose in the heel, and a comfortable amount of room in the toes. The REI Flagship store in Seattle said you want your heel secure. I tried on the W37 and thought they might be a little tight, but I wasn’t sure what i was/am doing yet. I’m wondering if getting a smaller pair would help with blisters, but i wanted to hear what others thought.

Dealing with blisters. I have one right on the ball of my right foot. Most people on the forums are complaining about blisters on the right and left sides or toes, but there’s not much info on center of foot. Again, I’m back to just the basics, wearing them around all day in socks, and absolutely no running in them until I can walk without any issues.

 

Wow! What a week! I remember the first time I saw a TechEd backpack was back in 2003, where the words “New Orleans” caught my eye. And after 7 years of waiting, my career-long dream came true of attending a Microsoft conference back home.

Earlier this month, TechEd returned to New Orleans for the first time since Hurricane Katrina, bringing 10,500 attendees to the area. And now considering the oil disaster in the gulf (I must admit I agree with The Daily Show that something is trying to kill N.O.), there was no better time for an economic boost for the city. TechEd even caught the attention of the major local newspaper (The Times-Picayune), describing cloud computing and the technical in-depth training TechEd provided. But Visual Studio 201? Opps! =D

The best part of TechEd for me was being a local among the locals. I’ve said for years that “Community is walking among the people”, but having this sense of Community^2 was incredible. I felt like I’ve known local attendees all my life, and for non-locals, I found myself with every conversation playing tour guide, making sure they had the most enjoyable TechEd experience possible. Fortunately, a local told me about http://www.nomenu.com/ which was a lifesaver in giving people French Quarter restaurant recommendations.

Highlights

• In my opinion, the unsung hero of TechEd was Tiffany Ingargiola, an IT Pro at New Horizons in New Orleans. She was the go-to local person for so many of us trying to organize events, but needed a contact on the ground. And she’s awesome to follow on twitter.
• Instead of purchasing a center-stage booth, DevExpress decided to purchase the smallest booth possible and donate the rest to build a house
• GeekGive.org ran its first successful event by participating in a Habitat for Humanity build the Friday before TechEd, where I got to work side-by-side with my local area MVP Peter Kellner.
• I successfully nominated my undergrad professor from Miss State, Associated Dean of Engineering Dr. Donna Reese, to speak at the Women in Tech luncheon about how to retain women in CS programs. Over 400 women attended the event.
• The attendee party hosted *the* Zydeco band of New Orleans Rockin’ Dopsie, Jr, and the Zydeco Twisters. I don’t think the attendees realized how much of a treat it was to have the band that plays during the Lundi Gras cerebration every year, where a United States Coast Guard ship delivers The King of Rex to the Riverwalk stage for the Mayor of New Orleans to hand over control of the city to for Mardi Gras Day. Afterwards, I got a chance to shake his hand and let him know what an honor it was to meet him.

Lowlights

• N.O. was under a heat wave advisory for that week. Heat index was between 110-115(!) most days.
• On Tuesday, there was a city-wide Internet outage for nearly 30 minutes. I never heard what caused outage.
• The convention center food wasn’t quite Cajun. “Cajun meatloaf” just isn’t right. But, I said it was to encourage folks to support local merchants by eating at local shops across the street. =D
• The effects of the Oil Spill were readily apparent. Just a few blocks away from TechEd was the annual Oyster Festival, where locals held a jazz funeral. Additionally, on that Thursday, a 134-year old Oyster bar closed .

GeekGive.org Habitat build

Last year at TechEd, MVP Steve Andrews, MVP Mark Rosenberg, INETA members and I chatted about what we could do to help New Orleans. We came up with a concept similar to GiveCamp, but instead of donating code, we’ll donate volunteer hours. Driven by Steve Andrews, he created GeekGive.org for conference attendees to volunteer their time at a local charity before the conference starts.

Takeaways

• At the first GeekGive event, we had 18 Microsoft MVPs and several Microsoft employees donate 126 labor hours, saving Habitat for Humanity up to $4,000
• This first GeekGive event received press coverage, including a worldwide press release by Microsoft:

Nestor Portillo, director of community and online service at Microsoft, was one of the volunteers. "When Steve asked us to be involved, it was an automatic yes," Portillo says. "For us, it's a privilege to be able to contribute."

• The MVP Program also filmed the build. You can view the video on the Microsoft MVP Award blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/b/mvpawardprogram/archive/2010/06/08/video-geekgive-habitat-for-humanity-project-new-orleans-teched-2010.aspx
• My local San Jose area MVP Peter Kellner also attended the build. Together we built a concrete pylon corner of the house that will protect the house from future hurricanes and flooding. From Peter’s blog,

I’ve always wanted to help on one of those type projects but never really figured out how to.  This seemed like the perfect opportunity, and also, since some of my friends from around the country would be there also, I thought it would be a great time to catch up.  What a great time and a great feeling to help.

 

• Special thanks to DEs Dani Diaz, Jennifer Marsman, and Zain Naboulsi for finding a sponsor from within Microsoft to help with the event. And the water bottles from Paulette Suddarth from the MVP Award Program were a huge hit, if not a lifesaver.
• GeekGive.org is confirmed for more projects, so stay tuned!

Bytes by MSDN interview

I did an interview with Zain Naboulsi for the Bytes by MSDN discussing what’s new in Visual Studio 2010. I’ll let everyone know when it goes live.

Women in Technology Luncheon

I nominated my undergraduate advisor Dr. Donna Reese, Associated Dean of Engineering from Mississippi State, to speak on a panel on how to retain Women in Computer Science.

Takeaways

• It was great to watch my advisor speak about her passions. It also made me realize how much she’s inspired me to be outspoken about my own passions as well.
• One interesting statistic she shared is that less than 40% of women who enrolled in a CS program do not finish their degrees
• There were 400+ women at the event.

GNO.NUG evening event

Local .NET UG leader George Mauer threw together an ad-hoc meeting on Tuesday night during TechEd.

Takeaways

• 2 MVPs and I presented short sessions to about 10 attendees.
• My biggest takeaway was Alan Stevens’ session Does Your Code Tell a Story comparing writing code to writing books. He quoted one author who said, “Write a terrible first draft.”  I thought this was great advice on how to get started. Also relates directly to the agile methodology as well.

Booth duty each day at the MSDN Booth

My “actual” job at TechEd was to work the MSDN booth, which ironically is my former team, so I took the liberty of doing CodePlex demos as well. Hey, old habits die hard.

Takeaways

• We had nice business cards for quick references for all the MSDN links we were demo’ing. We also gave away Mardi Gras beads, which definitely attracted a lot of people to the booth who wanted to bring some home for their kids, etc. I also made some “Mardi Gras dogs” by twisting the beads together as if they were an animal balloon. Made for nice decorations at the booth.
• I wore my Vibriam Five Fingers shoes one day (I was trying something creative to attract folks to the booth, and it worked). Although I hate the pink color – will blog about that tomorrow.
• Anyone wearing anything from the local area I invited over to the booth to introduce myself as a native, and chat about whatever was on their minds, how teched was, etc. That’s how I found nomenu.com. again, what a lifesaver that site was for me!

What we demo’ed:

Our primary focus was on the following tools and sites:

• Desktop Player http://www.microsoft.com/click/desktopplayer/
• Broadcaster  http://www.microsoftbroadcaster.com
• MSDN Widget   www.msdnwidget.com
• MSDN Developer Centers for Cloud,  Windows and Web Development

We also made sure people were aware of 

• Bytes by MSDN  http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/bytes.aspx
• MSDN Subscriptions  http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/default.aspx
• MSDN Flash http://msdn.microsoft.com/flash

Habitat for Humanity Build with DevExpress

Instead of purchasing a center-stage booth, DevExpress decided to purchase the smallest booth possible and donate the rest to a Habitat for Humanity build. It was the same house as the first Habitat build, so we got to watch the process first hand.

As the primary sponsors for the house, DevExpress and Habitat did a wall-raising ceremony to kick off the day.

By end of the day, the concrete slab we first started with during GeekGive now had exterior walls up and all interior walls built.

You can see more photos on the DevExpress Community Blog post about the build.

Attendee Party

Attendees were treated to *the* Zydeco band Rockin’ Dopsie, Jr, and the Zydeco Twisters. New Orleans locals and I flocked immediately to the front of the stage to enjoy the absolute best Zydeco performing band.

And maybe we got a little too close. Thanks to my LSU shirt, Beth Massi and I were invited to dance on stage.

 

Thanks for reading and Geaux TechEd!!!

Last week I blogged about my challenge to do 101 Visual Studio Tips in just 55 minutes, and if I succeed, everyone in the audience gets a signed copy of my Visual Studio Tips book.

Let’s just say I couldn’t have planned for better drama at the end.

Thanks to Channel 9 for hosting the video at

http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/NicFill/Sara-Fords-101-Visual-Studio-Tips-in-55-Minutes-Challenge/

 

I’ve been known to talk fast when I’m excited in my Visual Studio presentations, and maybe even a little too fast. But what if I didn’t try to slow down? What if I actually tried to talk as fast as possible?

In a race against time, I will attempt to demo 101 Visual Studio Tips in 55 minutes for the  “What’s New in Visual Studio” session at the Visual Studio Launch Event in Mountain View, CA. And if I succeed, everyone in the audience will receive a free signed copy of my book Visual Studio Tips by MSPress.

Launch Event Details

Tuesday, June 15
1 PM – 5 PM
Microsoft Silicon Valley Campus

Registration for the event is first-come, first-serve at https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032446405&Culture=en-US

Wish me luck!

Recursively Collapse Nodes in the Solution Explorer!

The Visual Studio IDE team has heard a lot of feedback asking for a way to recursively collapse nodes in the solution explorer. For example, right out of the box, when you collapse a node in Solution Explorer, it only collapse just that node. But, what if you want to collapse all sub-nodes at the same time? Then you’ll want to install the Collapse Selection in Solution Explorer extension.

To Install

The extension can be found on the Visual Studio Gallery at http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/cb0ec47d-05a4-40a7-ba39-9a2da6492f1c

To Use

Once installed, you’ll see a new button in the Solution Explorer toolbar. This button will recursively collapse the selected node or nodes (note: you can multi-select different nodes to recursively collapse at the same time.)

Now when we collapse and expand the TestApp project, we’ll see the sub-nodes also collapsed.

And the keyboard shortcut is Ctrl+Alt+Num(-)

More Info

You can read more about this extension on the VS IDE team’s blog. http://blogs.msdn.com/visualstudio/archive/2010/05/13/announcing-collapse-selection-in-solution-explorer-extension.aspx

Increase the Readability of your Find in Files results!

One of the first tips I always demo in my talks is how to edit the registry to make the Find Results Window more readable. Many thanks to Robert MacLean who has put together this extension that provides you with a dialog box for modifying the Find in Files results.

To Install

The extension can be found on the VS Gallery at http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/7a412596-d9e4-462e-9eed-e00a92024130

It is also hosted on CodePlex at http://findresultstweak.codeplex.com/

To Use

Go to Tools – Find Results Tweak to open the dialog box which display an interactive preview. By default, the tool provides you with some recommended settings

which will remove the file path (the most important tweak you can make, IMO) and provide the (line, column) information where the result was found, as shown below

To Customize

If you want the full list of customizations, you can check out my old blog post at http://blogs.msdn.com/saraford/archive/2008/11/24/did-you-know-you-can-customize-how-search-results-are-displayed-in-the-find-results-window-363.aspx

To get back to the default VS behavior, you can check Use default Visual Studio formatting. Or, if you are comfortable modifying the registry, you can manually remove that specific registry key as indicated in the link above.