2012 FoxPro Lifetime Achievement Award

Wow .. during the keynote of the 2012 Southwest Fox conference (www.swfox.net), I was presented with the 2012 FoxPro Lifetime Achievement Award. This was a surprise to me! Nobody told me this was going to happen! I was so caught off guard that I didn't even say "Thanks" or give an acceptance speech! Heck .. I'm only 25, so how in the world could I be considered a candidate for a "Lifetime" award (humor me .. it's my fantasy.) Seriously, though, where do I even begin to express how humbled I am to have received this? The list of previous recipients includes many well-respected people in the FoxPro Community (Click here for a full list).

I began working with Fox products in 1989. It took 10 years before I actually attended my first conference and realized there was a great FoxPro Community. I quickly discovered it was so gracious, so helpful, so supportive and so welcoming. It didn't take long before I stepped out my comfort zone and began writing articles, writing books, and speaking at conferences. It's been a wonderful journey. It has forced me to learn things that I wouldn't have otherwise known. It has forced me to dig deep, be tenacious, and not accept "that can't be done" as an answer. It has forced me to keep my skill set sharp and continue to discover new and creative solutions.

What I hadn't predicted was what a wonderful group of friends I would gain along the way. The FoxPro Community is such a friendly group of people. They share their knowledge openly and freely. They truly want to help others. I've been lovingly dubbed the "Reporting Queen" by the FoxPro Community and I wear that crown with great honor. I'm so glad that I've been given the opportunity to give back to the community that has given so much to me.

To everyone in the FoxPro Community, please accept my heartfelt "Thanks" for your friendship, your knowledge, your support, and this wonderful award!

Special Southwest Fox Rehearsal in Lansing, MI

Southwest Fox is the best FoxPro conference in North America and this year, 8 of the 16 speakers live in the Great Lakes region. We’re proud of this fact .. but .. it’s created a problem because they’re all vying for limited user group slots to practice their sessions. To overcome this issue, the three FoxPro user groups in Michigan have banded together to create a special one-day event as a platform for these speakers to practice their conference sessions. Please join us for this wonderful event!

Info at a glance:

Southwest Fox Rehearsal

Saturday, August 29, 2009

8:30 – 5:30

Springhill Suites Marriott, Lansing, MI

Cost: $20.00 donation to cover beverages, snacks and lunch

Speakers/Sessions:

Mike Feltman – HTML and Visual FoxPro

Toni Feltman – Data Driven Applications

Walt Krzystek – SQL Server Tips & Tricks

Jody Meyer – Speak to Me: Applying MS Office Automation to Real Business Needs

Paul Mrozowski – Refactoring Legacy Code

Cathy Pountney – Making the Most of VFP 9 SP2 Reports (Part I)

The FoxPro Community Gives:

The organizers and speakers are all donating their time to this event. In addition, MMFUDG, GRAFUG, and White Light Computing are donating money to cover the cost of the room and equipment. All we’re asking from you is a $20 donation to cover the cost of snacks, beverages, and lunch. All profits above our expenses will be donated to the Ceil Silver Ambassador Fund.

The Ceil Silver Ambassador Fund is intended to raise money from the VFP community to bring a developer to the Southwest Fox conference as an ambassador for the developers in his or her country. This gives the recipient the opportunity to meet and share experiences with developers attending Southwest Fox and gives other attendees the opportunity to learn about VFP development in the recipient's country. The Fund is named in memory of Ceil Silver, a long-time member of the Visual FoxPro community, who passed away in January, 2009. Read more about the fund here: http://www.swfox.net/ambassador.aspx.

You can help too by making an additional donation to the Ceil Silver Ambassador Fund. To sweeten the pot the organizers of the Southwest Fox Conference have made a generous offer. Any person who is not already registered for Southwest Fox 2009 and makes a donation over the $20 will receive a dollar-for-dollar discount off their registration for Southwest Fox (over the $20, up to $125). It’s like getting the Super-Saver Early Bird discount AFTER the deadline. In fact, the organizers will even throw in a free pre-conference session for those who donate $50 or more above the $20 food cost.

Registration:

Only 40 seats are available so please register soon to ensure your spot. To register, please send an email confirmation along with your lunch choice (see below) to Rick Schummer (DAFUG) and send payment of $20 (or more) by check or paypal.

PayPal:

rick@rickschummer.com (No credit cards please / Use the “Personal” option)

Check:

DAFUG

c/o Rick Schummer

42759 Flis Dr.

Sterling Heights, MI 48314

Hotel:

For anyone interested in staying at the hotel, a room rate of $89 has been negotiated. Just mention that you’re attending this special one-day seminar.

Springhill Suites Marriot

111 South Marketplace Boulevard

Lansing MI 48917

Schedule:

Here’s the planned schedule (order of the speakers will be determined at game time).

8:30 – 9:45 1st presentation

10:00 – 11:15 2^nd presentation

11:30 – 12:45 3^rd presentation

Lunch (30 mins)

1:15 – 2:30 4^th presentation

2:45 – 4:00 5^th presentation

4:15 – 5:30 6^th presentation

We hope to see all of you there!!

Rick Bean (MMFUDG), Rick Schummer (DAFUG), Jody Meyer (GRAFUG), Cathy Pountney (GRAFUG)

LUNCH CHOICES:

You have the choice of a sandwich or wrap.

If you want a sandwich - Choose one from each category:

Breads: White / Wheat / Marble Rye / Roll / Croissant

Meats: Ham / Roast Beef / Turkey / Salami / Pastrami / Chicken / Liverwurst

Cheeses: American / Cheddar / Swiss / Provolone

If you want a wrap – Choose one of the following:

Caesar Salad Veggie Wrap

Italian Veggie Wrap

Available Condiments – Choose as many as you want:

Mustard / Dijon / Mayo / Miracle Whip / Lettuce / Tomato / Onion / Pickle / Banana Peppers

Side choices – Choose one of the following:

Chips (default) / Fruit Cup / Cottage Cheese / Applesauce / Coleslaw

Deli spear – Available upon request.

Beverages

Coffee, tea & bottled water will be available throughout the day.

A selection of pop will be available as well (feel free to offer suggestions).

Southwest Fox 2009

I hope you'll consider joining everyone at Southwest Fox 2009. The Visual FoxPro conference for Visual FoxPro developers will be held October 15-18, 2009 at the Arizona Golf Resort and Conference Center. Register by July 1st for the Super Saver registration that offers $125 off the conference fee and includes one free pre-conference session.

Southwest Fox includes a terrific selection of sessions from great presenters. Each of the 28 regular conference topics will be offered twice and the conference materials will include a white paper for each, so you can learn about the topics you can't fit into your schedule. There will be four sessions to choose from in each of the regular conference slots, so you'll always be able to find a topic that appeals. Plus the four pre-conference sessions give you a chance to come up to speed in areas you know you need.

You can find the complete list of speakers (http://www.swfox.net/speakers.aspx) and topics (http://www.swfox.net/sessions.aspx) on the Southwest Fox website.

Going to a conference is one of the best investments you can make in your career. The opportunity to learn about Visual FoxPro and related technologies from industry experts is worth the cost of admission. But a conference also gives you the chance to interact with your colleagues, renewing old relationships, turning virtual friendships into live ones and forming new ones. The time you spend talking with people between sessions, at meals, and in the hotel bar or lobby after hours turns out to be as valuable as the sessions themselves.

If you've never been to a VFP conference or to Southwest Fox, make 2009 the year you give it a try. If it's been a while since you made it to a conference, I urge you to come back. And if you were at Southwest Fox last year, you know why you shouldn't miss this year's edition.

On top of all the benefits Southwest Fox offers you personally, there's also a benefit for your local user group. For each member of a user group who attends, their group will receive $25. That will help run the group, contributing toward bringing speakers in from elsewhere, and providing occasional meeting refreshments. Please let your local user group know if you plan on attending so they can let the organizers know you are a part of the group.

Cathy to speak at Southwest Fox 2009

I'm excited to announce that I will be speaking at Southwest Fox 2009 and will be making two presentations:

Making the Most of VFP 9 SP2 Reports (Part I)

In addition to lots of bug fixes, VFP 9 SP2 offered up some major enhancements to the Visual FoxPro Report Writer. This session (the first of a 2-part series) explores the new Dynamics, Advanced, and Rotation features. It also takes you behind the scenes and explains how these features are implemented. If you want to write professional reports with lots of pizzazz, this session is a must-see.

You will learn:

• How to correctly install SP2 and obtain the hotfixes
• How to use the new Dynamics feature (e.g. negative numbers in red)
• How to use the new Advanced features (e.g. HTML-related properties)
• How to use the new Rotation feature
• How the new features are implemented behind the scenes

Making the Most of VFP 9 SP2 Reports (Part II)

Part I of this 2-part series shows you how to use the new reporting features introduced in VFP 9 SP2. This session steps it up several notches by showing you how to add your own features. Not only will you learn how to implement those features on your reports, but you'll also learn how to make the features available in the Report Builder's UI. In addition, you'll see a "best practices" methodology that makes it easy for developers to share their enhancements with one another. You don't want to miss this session. Come be a part of history in the making!

You will learn:

• How to dynamically shrink a font
• How to create text and graphic watermarks
• How to modify the Report UI to include your custom features
• How to data-drive all your custom features
• How to share new features with other developers

There's a wonderful lineup of speakers and sessions this year so I hope you all can make it to Mesa, Arizona from October 15 through the 18th. You can read all the details on the website: www.swfox.net.

Thanks to the Southwest Fox Attendees

I want to give a huge thanks to all the people who attended Southwest Fox 2008, and especially those who attended my sessions. The conference organizers have tallied up the evaluations and forwarded all the scores and comments to the speakers. We really do read them and we really do appreciate them. The comments help us know what we're doing right and what we need to improve.

I'm extremely giddy to share the news that you made me the #1 speaker of SWFox this year. My "Customizing Your Vertical Market Application" session ranked #1 amongst 34 session topics. My "Introduction to the VFP 9.0 Report Writer" precon ranked #2 for the morning session and #4 for the afternoon session. I can't believe it .. I had the #1, #2, and #4 sessions of the entire conference. Wow .. did I mention how giddy I am? :-)

The written comments were great. I thank all of you for taking the time to write them. I can't list them all, but here's a sampling of some.

From the Report Writer Precon:

"Cathy did a great job of keeping me engaged and interested."

"Her presentation was easy to follow/understand and had entergy/liveliness so it was interesting."

"Couldn't have been better."

"I finally learned how to use Report Listeners."

"Practical, real world tips and tricks."

"Great white paper content."

From the Customizing a Vertical Market App Session:

"Outstanding idea and implementation that I can apply to my applications."

"The speaker portrayed the concept in a very straightforward and organized way."

"I loved this session. Great ideas! Great presentation. Love the pictures!"

"The session was both fun and informative. I liked how Cathy demonstrated the approach to extending a vertical market app by making fun of the organizers. Even more fun when at least one of them was in the room at the time."

"Made a complex topic, and discussed it in a simplified manner, that allowed a beginner, such as myself, to absorb the key concepts."

"Lively, useful, good examples, entertaining."

"The go-kart thing was very funny."

"Best value session."

"This stuff races." (with a picture of a go-kart next to it)

"Wanted to see if Cathy would change her session after hearing last night that she lost to Doug and Rick. Amazed she did. Does she get extra credit for doing so? In my book, yes!"

"Best session of the entire conference. Absolutely loved the report factory - this will pay for the entire conference."

Again, I want to thank all of you for attending my sessions and taking the time to fill out the evaluations. We've all been to one or more sessions over the years that are full of content, but boring and hard to follow. Sometimes you leave thinking the speaker is really knowledgeable, but you're scratching your head because you didn't understand it and aren't sure how to go back to the office and apply what you just saw. My goal when giving sessions is to share my knowledge in a manner that's fun and easy to absorb. I'm also hopeful that my passion for software development shines through and rubs off on others. Based on the feedback, it looks like I'm right on track (pun intended).

Now that I'm done thanking the attendees .. I have to turn my attention to the conference organizers. Word has it from Tamar that Rick and Doug tried as hard as they could to come up with an angle to skew the rankings so I didn't come out on top. They relished their go-kart win over me and have been having a lot of fun rubbing it in. They knew ... I mean they REALLY knew .. that I would turn around and rub this in their faces. And they're right ... nah nah nah nah!! ;-)

Seriously though .. the ribbing is all in fun. I have a lot of respect for all the speakers at Southwest Fox, even Rick and Doug.

Catching Up

It's been a while since I've done some blogging so here's bunch of things all wrapped up in one post.

Southwest Fox
The Southwest Fox 2008 conference did not disappoint. I learned lots of new stuff, met lots of new people, and got to hang out with old friends. The sessions were great! The giveaways to the attendees were out of this world! The social networking was unmatched. If you've never attended a conference, I can't stress enough how much value you get out of going. Online forums are nice, but they don't match the face-to-face personal connections you make at a conference.

GoKart Racing
If you haven't been following this story, in 2006 several of us went racing at F1 Race Factory during the conference. The rules say whoever has the fastest lap, wins. I had the fastest lap, Rick Schummer was behind me by .03 seconds, and Doug Hennig was right behind him. Rick, however, likes to tout that he had the fastest average lap, therefore, he declared himself the winner (at least in his own mind).

Of course, I was very gracious with my win in 2006 ... NOT! I rubbed it in their faces every chance I got. It was fun and the smack that went back and forth was pretty intense. In 2007, we all went back for a rematch. Unfortunately, they were too busy and we weren't able to race. That was fine by me. One more year to continue declaring myself the winner over Rick and Doug.

For 2008 we made reservations ahead of time assuring that we would have a chance to win. Unfortunately for me, it was not good. Both Rick and Doug beat me ... twice! Doug was the winner in our race, Rick was second, and I was a distant 5th. When we take into account some of the other races, Rick Strahl was the overall winner. He kicked our butts! Ironically, Rick Schummer once again had the fastest average lap, so he once again, is touting victory.

I guess I'll have to put up with a year of getting my nose rubbed in my loss!!

Blame It On Rick
Ever needed to shift the blame to someone else? Well, now you can. Just visit www.blameitonrick.com, make a post, and relieve yourself of all blame. Rick Schummer is graciously accepting the blame for anything you want to send his way. Check out this fun website if you have a chance.

VFPx
At Southwest Fox, the VFPx project on CodePlex was heavily talked about. It is considered the future of FoxPro. It's a place where us, the FoxPro Community, can share utilities and FoxPro source code with others. In fact, all the FoxPro xbased source code has been posted on VFPx and is available for the community to maintain and move into the future. The "Call To Action" throughout the conference was to encourage people get involved. Consider downloading some projects and doing some testing. Offer your help as a developer on some projects. Consider submitting new projects. Anything to help the FoxPro Community!

FoxTabs
The VFPx project on CodePlex has a new utility called FoxTabs. I've been using it for a week now and it's pretty useful. It lets you quickly jump between windows within your FoxPro development environment. It's still in beta, but it's worth checking out.

Foxit Reader
I recently learned about a new free PDF reader called Foxit Reader. It appears to be faster than the standard Adobe reader. I've been using it for about a week so far and I like it. There's a free version with the basics or you can upgrade to a "pay" version to get more features. Check it out and see if you like it.

eWallet
If you're like me, you have a gazillion logins and passwords to remember for various websites. Several months ago I started using a product called eWallet by Ilium Software to help me keep my head on straight. It lets me organize logins and passwords and so much more. I can track my credit cards, my insurance cards, membership information, etc. The software lets me quickly launch a website and it automatically enters my login and password for me. It's a real time saver!

Blogs
I've added a few people to my Blogroll so check it out when you get a chance.