PDC05 Buzzcast #6 - Stuart Celarier on BOFs at PDC

The PDC needs to be more like MacWorld expos. 

Stuart C? That uptight "OMFG STOP USING CALVIN & HOBBES STRIPS" guy?

NeoTOM wrote:

Stuart C? That uptight "OMFG STOP USING CALVIN & HOBBES STRIPS" guy?

The one and only.

Stuart C is a disgrace to Microsoft for making Scoble delete that thread... Heck, there are threads about terrorism and threads with no meaning and he decides to delete a thread which has a joke on it? Heh.



OMFG with a bit of BBQ on the side.
Loadsgood. 

Loadsgood wrote:

NeoTOM wrote: Stuart C? That uptight "OMFG STOP USING CALVIN & HOBBES STRIPS" guy?

The one and only.

Stuart C is a disgrace to Microsoft for making Scoble delete that thread...

He's not with Microsoft. _{For now...}

 Woah! That's like XTREMEL!

olene wrote:

The PDC needs to be more like MacWorld expos.

Cool comment, Olene, but I've never made it to a MacWorld Expo — and I'm sure the video clips I've seen don't do it justice. So help me understand what ways the PDC could be more like MacWorld and why. Thanks.

Loadsgood wrote:

NeoTOM wrote: Stuart C? That uptight "OMFG STOP USING CALVIN & HOBBES STRIPS" guy?

Stuart C is a disgrace to Microsoft for making Scoble delete that thread... Heck, there are threads about terrorism and threads with no meaning and he decides to delete a thread which has a joke on it? Heh.

Yes, that's me. Nice of you kind folks to remember. Nope, I don't work for Microsoft. Nope, I can't make Robert Scoble do anything. I thought the issue was violation of a vigorously protected copyright and Channel 9's Code of Conduct, at least that's what Robert said. I'm sorry you took it so hard.

For a slightly different perspective, here are a few of the things I've worked on lately.

• INETA User Group Liaison, PacWest region
• INETA Community Activities Division, member
• Portland Code Camp v1.0, director
• Portland Area .NET Users Group, active member
• Birds of a Feather track chair, PDC 2005
• Birds of a Feather track chair, Tech·Ed 2005
• Editor, Longhorn Developer FAQ, Windows Forms FAQ, Compact Framework FAQ, Smart Client FAQ on MSDN

I am passionate about software technology, its adoption by customers, its role in society, and the community of software developers that it creates. Obviously, since you read Channel 9, so are you. So come discuss what interests you about software at the Birds of a Feather sessions at PDC05. Propose a session, vote for your favorites, and attend the BoFs! I'll see you at the PDC.

Stuart Celarier wrote:

Yes, that's me. Nice of you kind folks to remember. Nope, I don't work for Microsoft. Nope, I can't make Robert Scoble do anything. I thought the issue was violation of a vigorously protected copyright and Channel 9's Code of Conduct, at least that's what Robert said. I'm sorry you took it so hard.

This section of the Code of Conduct?

our code of conduct wrote:

Do not upload files or post messages that contain photos, music, software or other material protected by intellectual property laws, rights of privacy or publicity, or any other applicable law unless you own or control the rights thereto or have received all necessary consents. Microsoft is not responsible for any use of material posted by users.

Well, if you follow that to the letter, why allow pictures at all here, Stuart?  Eliminate most everybody's avatars, too (like Charles' 2001 screen shot for his avatar).  And mine.  But you can keep yours.  That is a photo you own the rights to I am sure.  If you are going to defend this to the death, at least defend it consistently.  Or, are only "altered" images what you frown on?  Why didn't you go after the C9 park threads, too?

billh wrote:

...why allow pictures at all here, Stuart?

Well, that's totally not my call — I just raised the issue. You've raised several more. There is a complex interplay of a couple of issue at work here. Some aspects are black-and-white, and others varying shades of gray.

It's clear that there are people who feel strongly about the topic. So why not write a proposal for a Birds of a Feather session at PDC05 to discuss the topic?

See you at the PDC!

Stuart Celarier wrote:

Yes, that's me. Nice of you kind folks to remember. 

Don't let them get to you Stuart. YOU had the moral high ground and the law is on YOUR side whatever the views of the bunch of Warez users and students who have decided to react to your stand with nothing but personal attacks.

Anyway on to the subject at hand....

I can't get into the Birds of a Feather web or session web site (see separate long whinge thread in the PDC bar) despite being registered for PDC, but I'd like to see something on Accessibility. In the UK we have DDA (Disability Discrimination Act) which is our equivalent of the US's Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1998.

Microsoft have been notoriously bad at supporting Accessibility with many of their products, although they tend to pay lip service to the minimum requirement levels and there have been some hotfix rollouts to fix SOME of the problems with VS.NET 2003.

But even with those rollouts anybody trying to use ASP.NET server controls out of the box is strictly speaking breaking the law on DDA compliance and it's a ton of work to wrap these controls and "fix" the many problems with them. Whidby goes a long way to solving most of the problems, but there are signs that it still doesn't meet the level of requirements most of us would like.

I think it would be good to have a discussion on the future of Accessibility support in Microsoft's products - whether we're talking far greater use of CSS, fixes to ASP.NET server controls that don't meet the highest level of standard some of us would like, acessibility improvements in IE7 or whatever. Today meeting the legal requirements of DDA compliance and aiming for the highest level of compliance adds significant cost to development projects and it would be good to find out how companies are dealing with these challenges.

Cheers,
Ian