Archive for the 'WebDD' Category

WebDD: Microsoft’s Reality Distortion Field is Fully Functional

Tuesday, February 6th, 2007



A designer?

Originally uploaded by writerus drivelus.

Last Saturday I went to the WebDD conference at Microsoft Campus, Reading. Following my standard conference procedure, I checked in, obtained coffee, and fired up my MacBook.

At this point one of the official photographers (only authorised individuals may take photos at MS) rushed over to me and asked, “Is it all right if I take a photograph of you?”

“Yeah, fine,” I replied. As he raised his camera, I asked, “Is it the Mac?” “Yes,” he said.

I’d only been at Microsoft five minutes, but the Reality Distortion Field had already cast me into a Bateman cartoon: “The Man Who Used a Macintosh on Microsoft Campus.”

(And no, I’m not a designer.)

Posted in General, Web Development, Photography, WebDD, Conferences, Microsoft, Macintosh, Me | 4 Comments »

WebDD: February 3 2007

Monday, January 22nd, 2007

WebDD is a web design and development conference to be held at the Microsoft Campus in Reading, UK this coming 3 February (a Saturday). There is, naturally, a certain emphasis on Microsoft technologies, but not exclusively. Actually, although there are several presentations involving MS technologies, I was wrong to think that Microsoft were somehow involved in organising WebDD: they are providing sponsorship and hosting the event, but it is indeed a community-organised conference. Thanks must go to Phil Winstanley and Dave Sussman for organising this. With sessions covering Accessibility, CSS, Microformats and much more it promises to be an interesting event. Best of all, it’s “free as in beer”! Registration is opening Real Soon Now now full; my badge arrived in the post a few days ago.

Already up and running is the Backnetwork. This is the same system that Madgex developed for d.Construct 2006 (Glenn Jones of Madgex is giving a presentation on Microformats), and proved itself to be an excellent system for keeping track of contacts and following the general Flickr and blogging buzz around the event.

See you there, if my car has been healed by then. (I dread to think what the train would cost.) the car having been healed through the miracle of a few hundred pounds. (Broken trailing arm, whatever one of those is.)

Posted in General, Scripting, Web Development, Web Standards, WebDD, Conferences | No Comments »