Vista Squad

HI Ray

You know you want to give me a subscription, might help me add a post or two to the forum.

Definitely! :)

Or maybe?"!!? :)

Please Please Please im a poor student :( avid fan of scotts blogs! If he gets one why cant i?

Facing a firing squad of 120+ unsophisticated minds day in day out, I have been trying to promote the use of Microsoft technologies around the building and trying to educate others as I go along.

Developers in the company have traditionally been seen as "magicians" and we pull bunnies out of hats at gunpoint. After 520 days of misery, I am starting to run out of tricks in the bag... perhaps, a technet subscription would have the missing pieces that allows me to pull off new tricks to keep my limbs attached to the MS Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 that was "awarded" through my bonus from the millions of their sales revenue?

I expected to see Khan's wrath,

all I saw was an edit box on cloth!

Now I don't want to be a Treky,

which has upset my partner Becky,

Me, I just want to be a Techy.

Believe me, I've really seen the light,

my future lies in coding through the night,

my choise of platform;

Silverlight!

So I think I deserve Technet Plus,

to make up for Becky running of to a Treky convention,

with my ex-best friend Gus.

A poem!

Fantastic!

Ray,  Would we have to meet Becky as a validation thing?

Although my Mum should get one because the money had she had saved for had to go towards a hip replacement for my Nan,

I deserve a technet subscription because.....

...

..

.

I need one!

Something to make the community laugh is always a plus....

Why do programmers confuse Halloween with Christmas?

Because 31 OCT = 25 DEC.

I know not what you wanted, but Worth a try!?

Well I'm not one for the written word, although if you put me in a room with a bunch of devs the humor flows! ;)

Reasons I should get a TN+

1) Apparently I was the first attendee directly from twitter! hard to believe in this day and age, but pretty cool none the less (thank/scorn @actionlamb depending on your point of view) :)

2) I'm emigrating in 2 weeks, and will be limited to watching Vista Squad gatherings by (delayed) video, and hearing all the good bits from twitter, that's no way to live! clearly I will need a tech net sub so I can lock myself in the basement creating crazy virtual networks of cleverness and trying to forget that everyone else is enjoying pizza and beer!

3) How many reasons do you want? Ok i recently lost my Gold partner MSDN access (emigrating means, leaving work!), so I really am lost without my ISOs, hows an IT Pro supposed to get by without access to all the good stuff? and it such an exiting time, 2008, hyper-v, NAP, SQL2k8, Deep Zoom, so much good stuffffff!

4) I did offer to buy the judges beer, they quietly declined, but my mum always said it was the thought that counts!

Awesome comments guys! :)

Now before I submit my golden words of delectation..... I would like a few rules of engagement established  (don't forget that a Technet subscription is a priceless gift and worthy of a gladiatorial contest fought under strict control ! ) ........

so.... when does the competition end ?  it has taken me a day to find out when it began !!  ( please refer to my comments in the post for the event...Ray finally put me straight..which takes me to another interesting feature of this blog..)

which is...what sort of clock does it have !!   my initial conclusion is that it runs on New York time ( 5hrs behind ) ... Rays comment being posted at 12:30pm before he went home at 5:30 would make sense ..........

but .....the announcement is posted at 11:00pm ( by another clock ?? )  - presumably an automated posting by a UK server !!! ...

well ... all I know is that I am writing this in the UK and it is 19.15pm right now .... so lets see how the posting time this ....

ok .......that is presumably being moderated ! cause it ain't showing as yet...thouigh my comments of last night went straight through ........ which reminds me, I sent a mail via the blog which mentioned going out for a "***" - and "f-a-g" got moderated !!  now I know smoking is a terrible habit but I can't see it being indecent !!  whatever ....

so... because I am so determined to be awarded the subscription - I must apologise for rambling on about such minor trivia and address the topic - why do I need a Technet Plus .... though the wording states "deserving" - which does suggest a need, but rather could be construed to suggest that providing I make the appropiate remarks, I will rewarded !!   therefore I really need to know who is judging the competition, in order to lick the appropiate "a-r-s-e" .........( moderate please !)

I shall await your further comments before posting my final utterings to secure the subscription that I demanded last night ... I trust that my deserving need of the subscription is demonstrated by the sheer depth of my pleeding ...... stooping low, is, and has always been, my way of getting what I want.... and the depths I find myself approaching right now, are nearing embarassment !!

but to be pedantic ....the questions surely need answering ...

and are we allowed to re-submit !!!  I'm starting to wish I never began this quest for glory, but I hope the reading is enjoyable ....

last night was great, and I await the moderator ....

well... the silence is golden !   logged in to expect a forore of abuse about what a bore I was etc.... and there is nothing... so I am a winner by default - and I rest my case and refuse to do any "deserving" grovelling till the terms of business are clearly established !!!  

for the record ... " a technet subscription would ensure that silverlight and lawyers and myself would be able to upgrade this excellent blog to a world ranking community server " - deserving that all members should be granted access to the full Microsoft library !!  though it has to be earnt !!!

hope this relieves the pressure on the moderator - I remain silent - yours truly ...

<InsertTorrentOfAbuseHere />

Ray - you had better check the server or whatever .... I just tried to paste a "Live Search" on "Torrent of Abuse" and everything went haywire....

the interesting bit. is that the top answer that came back was a link to the "Samaritans Charity" - I shall give them a call ....

what I didn't know was that if you suffer a "Torrent Of Abuse " you end up homeless !!!

but this is to be my guarantee of a win ....

the second answer was to "The Pirate Bay" - a site to download the "World's largest BitTorrent Tracker" - whatever that is ...

So the winning answer to the competition is .....

I am deserving of a Technet Subscription because without it, I will be forced to sign up with the "Pirate Bay" - and the Torrent of abuse I will get from Microsoft will result in me losing my home,wife and family ...!!

Surely that makes me on "Par" with 2 fellow members of this Squad.... and a further winge about the admin is.... you definitely stated at the meeting that there were only three to give away ....

oh my god........... I'm off again  

TALE OF A (suspected)TERRORIST

OK...So, on my journey to the last Vista Squad meet up I nearly got arrested. I agreed to meet a guy in Waterloo to look at a car in the interest of buying it. Having nowhere to park he pulled up under a very inconspicuous looking bridge, which turned out to be national rails property AND the railway bridge.

Within 5 minutes of being there two coppers pulled up - We had sparked a full on terror alert (Unidentified car + Bridge = ???). Suspicions were then raised again by the fact the the driver/seller of the car was from Afghanistan. 35 minutes later and a full background check/search on the car and me and the driver, we were allowed to leave with a stern warning.

So...Was Vista Squad worth risking 42 days in the cell?

Definately

Awesome comments guys, going to be judging tomorrow and then announcing the results on Thursday afternoon.

ok ... so the deadline appears to be midnight tonight .....

by whose clock only the judge can determine ..... and I've checked the time zone in my profile !!

and presumably a second entry is permissible - no limit on the amount of eloquent submissions.......

after all, this is a blog for the casual enjoyment of all the wondeful offrings that Vista can bring to our desktops - which of course leads me to my second reason for being deserving of the subscription ( no penalty please !) ....

" with a Technet subscription you can expand the power of Vista, and enrich the lives of those that you may chose to collaborate with " - and I desire to do such ....

great fun - whatever the outcome ....... presumably the Prize is delivered by a Microsoft escort ...... and we get notified by email from Mr Gates .... and my agreement to e-mails from Microsoft is enabled ....