OpenPlug, we hardly knew you...

It's a tool I was looking at for a while that allowed you to develop in Flex and then cross compile for a number of mobile platforms, including iOS and Android.  The company that makes it just announced that they are suspending work on it and reassigning all their employees involved in project to other products.  The ability of Flex itself to compile for Air on those platforms (beginning with 4.5.1) probably didn't help the long term prospects for the product.  The timing though, coming almost exactly a month after Adobe's announcement that they were turning Flex over to open source. leads me to believe that it was that announcement that finally sealed the coffin on it.

Orange County Sybase User Group Meeting

Dave Fish started it off by discussing the new features of 12.5 and demoing a few of them.

Sue Dunell then talked about what was going with PowerBuilder, including a lot of the interest/involvement from SAP.

Upcoming PowerBuilder.TV Episodes

Add Single Sign-On to PowerBuilder Applications
Presented by Christophe Dufourmantelle
December 8th at 11am EST (New York) / 17h CET (Paris)

Building Modern PowerBuilder Applications
Presented by Don Clayton
December 14th at 11am EST (New York) / 17h CET (Paris)

Webcast: GeoEnviron – A Practical Look at Simplifying a PowerBuilder User Interface

The webcast will be held Thursday, December 8th at 1PM ET ( 10 AM PT ).

PFC Project

Calvin Allen is leading up an effort to reinvigorate the PFC project, beginning with a new main web site as well as a Facebook page.

New Benefit for ISUG members - PowerBuilder 12.5

ISUG is now offering a new benefit for its members - PowerBuilder 12.5. PowerBuilder 12.5 is available free of charge as a personal-use copy to ISUG members with Green or Gold benefits. It can be accessed by logging in to the ISUG member website at my.isug.com.

PowerBuilder Seminar, December 1, Paris France

Learn how to deploy your applications on the web, develop with PowerBuilder and deploy on mobile (IOS, Android, Smartphones and tablets), plus get a preview of PowerBuilder 15.

http://www.sybase.fr/detail?id=1095423&EMC=notificationmysybase&attr=1095563

Orange County Sybase User Group Meeting - December 8th

The topic of the meeting is "The Future of PowerBuilder" which will include a PowerBuilder roadmap update, technical presentations from versions 12.5 and beyond, and a round-table focus group session on PowerBuilder strategy.

North American PowerBuilder Virtual User Group Meeting - December 15th, 2011

Jim O'Neil will be reprising a presentation delivered at TechWave 2011 "PowerBuilder and RESTful Data"

http://my.isug.com/p/cm/ld?fid=486

After PowerBuilder 12.5 Classic – Sneak Preview

http://pbdj.sys-con.com/node/2075216

QweryBuilder 7.1.0 is now available for download

QweryBuilder 7.1.0 is available here: http://download.werysoft.com

PBNISMTP

The PBNISMTP project on CodePlex has been updated to add a PowerBuilder 12.5 Classic target.

San Diego Flex User Group November Meeting

New in 4.6 for mobile device support

SplitViewNavigator
SpinnerList
DateSpinner
Callout/CalloutButton
ToggleButton
NativeTextInput (StageText) - primary for Android and Playbook

Dynamic Splash screen
Scroller improvements - item snapping, list paging

Upcoming PowerBuilder.TV Episodes

PowerBuilder and the Cloud - Jim O'Neil
Thursday November 3rd 2011 at 11am EST (New York) / 16h CET (Paris)

TechSelect 2011 - 16th November 2011

This popular event, now in it's 20th year, returns to the CBI Conference center in Tottenham Court Road, London. It is the architypal technical conference for new and experienced Sybase professionals alike and will again include a partner exhibition and the following tracks.

• Data Management - SQL Anywhere, ASE and REP Server


• Analytics - IQ


• Mobility - SUP


• Application Development Tools - PowerBuilder

Click here to see the FULL AGENDA.

Upcoming ISUG PowerBuilder Virtual User Group meetings

October 18th - 1PM EDT:  Getting Down with .NET — In-Depth Review of .NET Language Enhancements

October 28th - 11AM EDT: Classic Rock: New Features for Classic Win32 Apps in PowerBuilder 12.5

November 10th - 1PM EDT: Just Dock It! Dockable Windows for PowerBuilder Applications

December 15th - TBD: TBD

Upcoming PowerBuilder.TV Episodes

Taking PowerBuilder to the Cloud (with Microsoft Azure) - Accenture Case Study - Anthony Orsini
October 4th at 12:00pm EST (New York) / 18:00 CET (Paris)

Powerbuilder.NET, Expression Blend, Mobility and the Cloud - Dimitri Joosten and Peter Loozen
October 13th at 12:00pm EST (New York) / 18:00 CET (Paris)

PowerBuilder 12.5 IDE Enhancements: Tips and Tricks - Dave Fish
October 20th at 12:00pm EST (New York) / 18:00 CET (Paris)

Let Users Customize Screens & Reports by Themselves - Christophe Dufourmantelle
October 25th at 11am EST (New York) / 17h CET (Paris)

 

TechWave 2011 - Some final notes

All in all, I was quite pleased with TechWave this year. Still, there's always room for improvement, so here's my suggestions:

Friday Morning Sessions at #PBTechWave

The first session was supposed to be The Future of the DataWindow on the Web by Reed Cao. He apparently didn't get travel authorization though, so John Strano presented the session instead. The first thing he did was demo the HTML5 DataWindow.

Friday Morning PowerBuilder Enhancement Session at #PBTechWave

Had a direction that involved deploying to Silverlight. That's changed, and we're moving to HTML5. We don't know when, if and how that Microsoft will implement an HTML5 editor, so moving forward on their own.

Thursday Evening OneRepublic Concert at #PBTechWave

OneRepublic did a concert for us in the Pallazo Ballroom within the Venetian. Drinks were available for free. Perhaps half of the 6000+ people who attended the conference attended the concert. A good number of the half that did attend were quite enthusiastic though.

Thursday Evening PowerBuilder 20th Birthday Party at #PBTechWave

Thursday evening we had a 20th birthday party celebration for PowerBuilder, including a birthday cake.

Thursday Lunch at #PBTechWave

Finally made the provided lunch for both SAP TechEd and Sybase TechWave attendees.

Thursday Morning Sessions at #PBTechWave

First session was Terry Dykstra's on Infomaker. He also suffered from the Yakov effect (Yakov was leaturing in the next room and you could here him at about the same level as Terry was speaking).

Wednesday ISUG Cocktail Party at #PBTechWave

embarcadero sponsored the ISUG VIP cocktail event at the Postrio Restaurant from 6 to 8 PM. A pass was required, but ISUG officials were busy passing those out just before the event to just about anybody they recognized.

Wednesday Afternoon Sessions at #PBTechWave

Started with Jeff Gibson's session on enhancements in PowerBuilder Classic in 12.5. A packed house. Also he covered new features planned for PB 15

Wednesday Lunch at #PBTechWave

Rather than the regular TechWave lunch (which for the rest of the week is being held seperate from the TechEd lunch), the PowerBuilder MVPs (including myself) met at Postrio Bar and Grill with some Sybase folks.

Wednesday Morning Sessions at #PBTechWave

Started with Jim O'Neil's session on PowerBuilder in the Cloud. He started out with an explanation of what the cloud is and why you would want to use it. Demonstrated creating a database in the cloud and then moving data into it. Then he did a real simple demo of pulling data from the database using an HTTP call and then doing an importstring of the resulting XML data. He then demoed creating a .net web service in PowerBuilder and then deploying that to the cloud and calling it from PowerBuilder. One difficulty was getting the assembly to the cloud because PowerBuilder doesn't have the tooling to do it automatically. You have to create MSI files, upload them to the cloud, and then run them manually (not in silent mode).

Tuesday - DemoJam at #PBTechWave

A PowerBuilder app (ChartBase) is one of the 7 finalists for DemoJam. The competition looks rather fierce, including InnoBoard.

Ronnie Po (the ChartBase app) did well (and was quite humorous). Took second, and it was a close call between 1st and 2nd. InnoBoard ended up taking first.

Tuesday - Sessions at #PBTechWave

My first session was my own on creating and consuming web services. Well attended and I thought it went real well. Stayed on schedule (finished about 5 minutes early) though I forgot to do my last demo. Realized that they didn't provide any downtime between sessions, so the next guys (Peter Conn and his dockable window session) were setting up immediately after I told the audience the session was over but I would stick around for questions.

Tuesday - Lunch at #PBTechWave

Lunch? What lunch? Couldn't find it in the little time I spent looking for it. I was speaking right after lunch so I didn't really want to eat a whole lot anyway. Hit the exhibit hall instead. Rather impressive, seeing folks like MicroSoft, Oracle, Dell, Citrix, HP, Intel, Amazon, Cisco, EMC, IBM, Red Hat, SUSE, Teradata, etc. here.

Tuesday - Development Tools Plenary at #PBTechWave

Sue Dunnell gave an overview of progress in the latest version.

Tuesday - General Session at #PBTechWave

First thing this morning is the SAP General Session. You really feel how swamped Sybase is here. (There are 6500+ attendees of which only about 600 are TechWave attendees.) Sybase TechWave is isolated to a few smaller meeting rooms on the lowest level of the conference center. The next 3 or 4 levels are larger conference rooms for the SAP sessions.

Monday at #PBTechWave

The main thing going on today was pre-conference training sessions. For me and most of the other TeamSybase members, it involved an all-day meeting where we discussed the status of many of the products as well as how we might be able to better share technical information with Sybase customers.

Travel to #PBTechWave and registration (or attempt to)

Left Los Angeles about 24 hours behind schedule due to some conflicting obligations.

Setting the Printer Status using PowerBuilder

OK, now that we know how to get the printer status, let's see how to set it as well.

Upcoming PowerBuilder.TV Episodes

The Road Ahead: An Update on What's Next for PowerBuilder - John Strano
September 20th at 12:00pm EST (New York) / 18:00 CET (Paris

Advanced Security for PowerBuilder and .NET - Christophe Dufourmantelle
September 26th at 11:00am EST (New York) / 17:00 CET (Paris)

Help me win backstage passes to #MeetOneRepublic at @SAPTechEd Las Vegas http://spr.ly/TechEdLV (pls retweet)

Actually, as a speaker my registration costs are covered by SAP, so I'm not sure I qualify. If you'd like to though, here's info on how you might qualify:

Win Backstage Passes to Meet One Republic at SAP TechEd Las Vegas

Read Printer Status from PowerBuilder

Based on another question I got via email, and couldn't find a good example for, so I created one.

PowerBuilder UTC to Local Time Zone Conversion

Received a question about how to convert UTC time to a local time zone.  Finding no PowerBuilder specific references for it, created a sample:

TechWave 2011 Special Event - One Republic Concert

Or so it appears from the Agenda Builder.

TechWave Agenda Builder now available

The TechWave Agenda Builder tool is now available! You can now preview and schedule your sessions, download, email and/or print your customized agenda. This is a great way to help you gain travel/training approval from your management, by showing them exactly what you’ll be learning at the conference. Already registered? You’ll now be able to guarantee a seat in the sessions of your choice and save your agenda for easy viewing/modifying anytime you like.

Build My Agenda Now

DemoJam

Got a cool app built using PowerBuilder? Think about submitting an entry for DemoJam! http://sapteched.com/demojam/

Let's show the larger SAP community what great things we can do with PowerBuilder!

Notice of Contract Termination Due to Potential New California Law

With regard to the recent email I just received from Amazon Associates (see below).

Earth to Governor Moonbeam, come in please!  Crushing local small businesses in order to prop up the coffers of the government eventually leads to reduced tax incomes.  What you're doing will help short term and hurt you worse long term.  Note that one of the options that Amazon suggests is relocating business to avoid taxes.  I'm sure that would help your tax revenues as well.  All we need is yet another reason for businesses to leave California.

Upcoming PowerBuilder.TV episodes

How to make your application multilingual with Enable 3.5 - Gian Luca De Bonis
July 13th  at 10:00am EST (New York) / 16:00 CET (Paris)

Analyze PowerBuilder and Stored Procedures Code - Christophe Dufourmantelle
July 19th at 11:00am EST (New York) / 17:00 CET (Paris)

It's Not All About .NET - Dave Fish
July 26th at 12:00pm EST (New York) / 18:00 CET (Paris)

Techwave 2011 registration now open

Pictures / Video from Haiti

Pictures:  http://public.fotki.com/brucearmstrong/haiti/

Video:   http://www.vimeo.com/album/1625200

PowerBuilder Developer Newsletter

Newsletter from Worldwide Product Support Engineering that contains product announcements, certifications, exclusive product-related tips, and a summary of technical documents. Q2 2011.

http://www.sybase.com/detail?id=1093485

Q3 2011 PowerBuilder Strategy and Roadmap Webcast

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Time: 1:00 - 2:00 pm ET (10:00 - 11:00 am PT)

The Q3 2011 PowerBuilder Strategy and Roadmap Webcast will outline Sybase's strategy for PowerBuilder, provide a snapshot of where PowerBuilder stands today, and discuss the roadmap for future releases of the product. Attendees will also get a sneak preview of technology being developed for future versions of PowerBuilder and have a chance to ask questions and provide feedback.

Bit behind in my updates

Just reached cruising altitude in our flight from New York to LAX. We should be in by about 2AM. Looking forward to ait conditioning, soft beds, no mosquito netting, warm showers and meals that don't include rice and beans as the main course. Quite an adventure though.

Return to the compound

Wasn't all that much of an issue. Rode in the back myself and watched where we were going by peering over the top of the tap-tap. Lots of people out on the streets. At one point a bicycle rider grabbed the back of the second tap-tap (the one in front of me) in order to get a free ride.

Power is back on in the compound. Charging up everything as quickly as I can.

Restaurant and Vista trip

Just finished at the restaurant. The view was nearby, not at the restaurant. It was incredible.

Had chicken in white sause. It wasn't that good - too dry. Had a diet coke over ice. The first one I've had since I've been here.

We are about to head back to compound. Little risky as its alreay getting dark and it an hour away.

Last full day on site...

Breakfast was pineapple, beans and corn and bread.

Power has been out all day at the compound. A lot of folks have cameras where the battery is gone. I'm doing fine there, but my laptop is dead, my ipad and phone are down to 50%. if we dont get power back tonight, i may lose them as well.

We're finally getting the rains that has been threatening us all week. Funny, we just finished all the work. We're just going to a restraunt up in the hills for our final dinner together in a bit.

It will take at least an hour to get to the restruant (in a tap-tap, oh joy. we all have towels for our butts!). It also takes them an hour from the time we order to deliver the food (they're on Haitian time). We do need to eat by 4 or 5 though in order to make sure we get back to the compound before dark. It's not safe outside the compound after night fall.

Last day on the construction site

And it wasn't the one we normally go to. We went to the Citi Solie site today to clean up rubble. It will be taken back to the Repatriat site to do filling in of low spots on what will eventually be a soccer field.

After we did that, we took a tour of the facility. There is a clinic they are building which we be used by HOM, Samaritans Purse, and some Haitian doctors. They have a grass soccer field at this site as well, about the only grass I've seen since I've been here. I also took a look at the water treatment equipment they have in place there.

We returned to the compound for lunch, but I didn't have any this time. We're heading to a restruant later for an early dinner, so I wanted to save my appetite for that.

Second trip to the tent city

After lunch we went back to the tent city. The water truck was actually there already when we arrived. Nonetheless, the kids were happy to see us.

Turns out that the storage facility at the tent city hold two entire truckloads, so we had a second water truck brought in. It arrived and started offloading the water by the time we were leaving.

There was a bit of contention when it came time to distribute the water. Apparently the city 'mayor' decided to charge a small amout for each pail of water. The idea was apparently to make it a substainable source of water, the money collected for the pails of water would in turn be used to purchase the next truckload. From what I've heard, the idea of charging a small amount also helps prevent a poverty mindset and ensures that the people recieving the material value it. There was a 'town hall meeting' at the tent city where a number of the people got quite upset at being told there was a slight charge for the water.

Then back to the compound for dinner: rice and beans, potatoes and carrots.

Fourth day on the construction site

Well, at least for some. Chad, Richard and I stayed behind and finished painting the church extension. When we were done with that, we started doing touch up throughout the complex.

When Pastor Kelly, Danny and Johnny finished up with the evangelism training we headed out to the construction site. Got there about 11. By about 11:20 I was exhausted and went to the tent they hold church services at to rest. Ended up falling asleep. Might be because I didn't get a whole lot of sleep last night. Too warm. I may have to resort to the rooftop option as well.

Came back to the compound for rice and beans, potatoes and carrots. Now gettting ready to head back to the tent city.

We've pretty much finished at the construction site for this trip. We (or I should say they) finished the backfilling and were working on leveling the area they'll pour the slab into. Tomorrow we'll head over to Citi Solei to do some clean up on that project site. Apparently the construction crews don't really clean up behind themselves, and we need the rubble for the Repatriat construction site. So we'll go over there and load up on the debris on a truck to take back.

The weather report keeps indicating that we'e supposed to have thunderstorms. Today is the first time I've seen anything come anywhere close to us. It's been hot, humid and sunny the whole time we've been here.

Bonjou!

One of the most common phrases I use here. Means 'Good Morning'. Another one is 'Hey you!' which we shout at the kids or they do at us. And 'meci' (thank you). I'm surviving here on those three terms.

Power went out at 3 this morning, may have come back on by 5. Most people have moved to tents on the roof now. It's a sweat house in the rooms we are supposed to be in.

Breakfast was eggs and sausage and chips again.

Third day on the construction site (cont.)

We finished the backfilling today. Took right until noon, and then we returned to the compound for the regular meal of rice and beans (and crab).

Then we went on a walk through of the neighborhood surrounding the compound. When we got back, I was exhausted and slept until dinner. After dinner I slept again until time for our debrief.

Our debrief is where we get together as a group on the top floor of the building we're housed in (close to where the meals our served) and go over what happened that day as well as what we have planned for tomorrow. It's also where we share what is going on with ourselves and at home and pray for one another.

After our debrief the gift shop within the compound was opened up and we all took a look. I found some items more along the lines of what I wanted to pick up to take home, but not in the right sizes.

Tommorow Chad (a professional painter on the team) and I are staying behind in the compound and finishing up the painting of the church extension. Pastor Kelly will be staying here as well as he continues the evangelism training. If Chad and I are done by the time he is, we'll travel with him to the construction site.

Tomorrow afternoon we're making another trip to the tent city. Right now they have a water storage tank at the facility, but its been broken for months. So the residents have to take buckets and walk to a well 10 minutes away to get water, and then walk the full buckets back. In order to demonstrate the love of Christ in a practical way, we've obtained the parts to fix their water storage tank and have arranged for a water truck to come by and refill the tank after we're repaired it.

The water trucks are kind of interesting. They wander through the neighborhoods playing tunes, just like ice cream trucks at home.

Third day on the construction site

It seems like there's a lot of sleeplessness and health issues among the families of those who are here, so there's a lot of prayers directed towards those at home. One of the staff members is returning home today to attend a funeral. One of the team members has decided not to return home early, even though his uncle (who is more like a father to him) is in the hospital in the final stages of prostrate cancer. (It's not one of the people from Faith, but we really don't have such distinctions here. We're just one big team.) After that person gave us an update on what was going on at home and we prayer for him, just about everybody grabbed a phone and either called or texted home. (The internet access isn't good enough to try to Skype, even voice only).

We're wrestling with minor sleep issues of our own. The room on the second floor where we are housed is like a boiler room at night. It's most likely the humidity that's an issue, we sweat like pigs (not that pigs sweat) and don't cool off. They found a couple of two man tents and putt them on the roof, and a number of people slept up there last night. Apparently it was quite comfortable. Myself, I probably slept until about 1 or 2 and then dozed on and off until about 5.

Breakfast this morning is spaghetti, and banannas. I had a couple protein bars and a bananna. Not much of a fan of spaghetti for breakfast.

Second day on the construction site (cont.)

We didn't finish up backfilling all of the forms, so we'll finish that up tomorrow.

Returned to the compound for a lunch of rice, beans, vegitables and crab (same thing we had Saturday). Passed on the crab this time.

After lunch we went on a tour of the school at the compound. They take in 60 kids each year, all of which are sponsored. They start at 3 year olds and they continue through 6th grade. By the time they graduate 6th, they know two languages (French and Creole). They get referred to other schools for more advanced education, and by they time they graduate that they will have picked up Spanish and English as well.

The construction site we're working on is for a similar school. They've already recruited the 60 kids that will start in September. That's why they are particularly anxious to get the construction work done, so they have someplace for the kids to meet in when school starts.

After the tour we split into two groups. The one I worked on did some painting on a new extension of the church building within the compound. The other team went out into the neighborhood and interacted with the people there.

We got back together afterwards for dinner, which was beans and corn (yep, not rice), vegitables, crab and beef. I passed on the crab again.

Second day on the construction site

Realized that I didnt mention breakfast. It was scrambled eggs and sausage, bread and mango.

Sometime since we were last here they bulldozed the mountain of rubble we han to pass through to move the foundation stones. Made today easier, but we really could have used that Saturday.

We finished moving the foundation stones, now were removing forms around the concrete they poured Saturday and then will backfill around it. We may actually start laying some of the foundation stones in place for the fence extension later.

Start of school day

Watched the typical start of a school day. They kids got to play for a while in the school courtyard, which is mostly pebbles. No grass here, you slip and fall in this and you'll be hurting!

When the assembly was called to attention, they blocked off the entrance to the school. You aren't there on time, you don't participate in the ceremony. They sign, have a prayer, pledge allegance to their flag, etc. They they very orderly file into their classes for more singing.

The order was quite impressive. Even the very young preschoolers were dropped off at the start of the courtyard and found their way to their classes on their own.

Talking to one of the HOM staff, and they noted that this school is considered one of the best available. This week is finals for them. If they don't pass, they won't be back next year. There are no second chances. Too many other kids waiting for an opportunity to get in. Fortunately, the other schools in the area will quickly pick up any of the kids that fail here.

Off to the construction site.

Monday morning

Making an early start of it this morning. My fault, I'm the one that suggested that we start at 7. That's when the kids arrive for school too, so we're going to watch them come in and then head to the construction site. I wanted to see if we could get some work in before it started getting too hot. As it is, we could have started even earlier. I did stay up to about 11 PM local time and then slept in until about 5AM (the time I normally get up) so I guess I've adjusted. That left a couple of hours to kill though before it's time to go.

Power didn't go out until after 5AM this morning. Found out last night that the compound is largly solar powered. So the power goes out whenever the batteries run out of whatever charge they picked up during the day.

tap-taps

Realized I made a reference to tap-taps and many people don't know what I'm talking about. A tap-tap is one of those smaller trucks (e.g. the original Toyota truck size) with a camper shell on it, and a wood plank on the sides for seats. You pack it full of people, and then drive rather erratically down very poor roads. I have video of it, there's really no describing it that does it justice.

Update on a couple of items

Talking to the guy in charge of the construction project, and he indicated that Hatians, at least those in the tent cities, normally go about 2 days between meals.

Pastor Kelly also indicated that while the children in the tent city seemed fairly well dressed, what they were wearing may be the only clothes they have. They just keep wearing the same clothes every day.

Trip to the beach

Well, first the HOM staff and the folks on this trip had an English service, including the accapello singing of a couple of songs, including Amazing Grace.

As we started out towards the beach, the tap-tap I was riding in got one flat tire and another leaking air. They replaced the flat one, and then rushed off to a 'tire shop' along the way that patched both bad tires. The equipment was very crude. They busted the seal of the tire using a broken axel, and then opened it the rest of the way using a leaf spring. The tires have tubes, so they remove the tube and patched the leak by pressing a can with fire in it against the hole. Then they put the tube back in, and after putting the tire back on the rim filled the tire. Apparently they don't have air pump nozzles that can hold the valve open, so they remove the valve, fill the tire, and then quickly stick the valve back in. No balancing of tires or front end alignments here!

After that it was a bit over an hour to the beach in tap-tap. Not a trip I'd like to make on a regular basis, although a lot of it was on roads that were pretty good by Hatian standards. My behind was quite sore after the return trip!

$15 each to get into the beach, I paid another $7 to go snorkling. Lunch (a very large cheeseburger with fires) was about $10. We had soft drinks with ice, only the second time we've had iced beverages since I've been here.

Baptized 5 people in the ocean, including a couple of people from the HOM staff.

Then back to the compound for a dinner of rice and beans (no surprise there), beets, carrots, and....goat.

Sunday morning

Power went out again last night. Service started promptly at 6AM (we weren't attending the Haitian service, but there's no way you can sleep through it). I recognize some of the songs, but there seems to be some disconnect between what the band is playing and what the congregation is singing that I couldn't quite resolve in my mind. Power is back on now. The congregation is singing acappelo now and I recognize 'I surrender all'. We're going to have our own service with some of the staff in English at 9.

Dinner

Dinner last night was rice and beans and beef stew. It was great. Today was rice and beans, fried plantain, french fries, chicken and vegatables.

Problem at the construction site

Heard from the guy in charge of the construction site at dinner. Shortly after we left, 'gangsters' blocked the road into the construction site and started demanding money from the concrete trucks that were coming in.

Visit to the tent city

We took some footballs, some soccer balls, and a jump rope into the tent city. The kids rushed up to the tap-taps the mintue we entered. A lot of them just like to hang out and play with them. I think most of use were expecting the poverty to be a bit more overwhelming. There were a few kids with no pants and a few other with no shoes, but the vast majority of people seemed to be adequtely dressed and sufficiently fed. Saw some of the adults playing dominoes for candy. The only issue was getting the kids out and off of the tap-taps when it was time to leave.

Returning to the compound for dinner now.

First day on the construction site

Just back from the construction site. We had two teams, one doing backfill of rubble into low spots in the construction site so water won't collect. The other team (the one I was on) moved a pile of rocks from the center of the site over to a wall where it will eventually be used as foundation for an extension of the wall. Some of the smaller Haitian boys were helping with the wheelbarrow I was using to move the rocks. I would move it when it was full of rocks, and they would take it back when it was empty.

Some of the kids kept saying something to me that I couldn't understand. A while later I found out they were commenting about my being bald. Apparently that's rather rare here, and often associated with the rich. So I took off my hat and a few of the kids were rubbing the top of my head.

We're back at the compound now getting lunch, and then we're off to a tent city.

Day 2

Dinner last night was rice, beans, onions and a little beef. Pretty much what I expect for the rest of the week.

Power went out about 4AM, back on now 6AM. Theyve given us peanut butter, banannas, bread and coffee for breakfast. Heading out to the job site at 8AM.

Just visited presidential palace and cathedral

Couple of the most obvious signs of the damage from the quake. Prior to that we stopped off an something like an indoor swap meet. Now we're headed back to the compund.

Visiting the construction site

Luggage made it fine

Just chilling out at the compound now waiting for lunch.

And we've arrived in Haiti.

Now to see if our luggage has.

That was close!

They decided to let us on. I don't know if our luggage made the connection though. In any event, Haiti here we come.

Hello, Miami!

Just arrived Miami. Chances of making our 6:45 connection to Port au Prince are slim.

The gangs all here now...

The rest of the Haiti team just showed up. Apparently they had some trouble getting checked in and getting assigned seats. In fact, a number of people still don't have seat assignments. Got a little worried, thought I might be going to Haiti by myself....

Well, off to an interesting start....

Flight to Miami has been delayed for 1 hour and 15 minutes. What little layover we had in Miami before the flight to Port Au Prince has been reduced to about 30 minutes. Should be interesting making that connection.

It looks like if we do miss our 6:45 flight out of Miami there is another flight at 10:00.

Upcoming PowerBuilder.TV episodes

How to let end users customize their applications - Christophe Dufourmantelle
June 16th at 11:00am EST (New York) / 17:00 CET (Paris)

Using PowerBuilder Custom Visual User Objects in Visual Studio = John Strano
June 21st at 12:00pm EST (New York) / 18:00 CET (Paris)

Moving Your PowerBuilder Application to the Web

A new whitepaper from Sybase (SAP) that looks at the various options for moving PowerBuilder applications to the web.

Re-investing in PowerBuilder: A Top Down Perspective

Ali Mehmet, the Technical Director of MARASCIS Ltd, hosts two one-hour webcasts where he shares his perspective on why PowerBuilder continues to be the best development platform investment for his company and clients.

Wednesday, May 25, 1:00 p.m. ET / 10:00 a.m. PT

Wednesday, May 26, 1:00 p.m. ET / 10:00 a.m. PT

Upcoming PowerBuilder.TV episodes

Transfer Knowledge of PowerBuilder Code - Christophe Dufourmantelle
Tuesday May 10th at 10:00am EST (New York) / 16:00 CET (Paris)

The New Features in Enable 3.5 - Gian Luca De Bonis
Thursday May 19th at 10:00am EST (New York) / 16:00 CET (Paris)

Webcast: PowerBuilder 12.5 – Get Ready, ‘Cause Here It Comes!

Tuesday, April 26, 2011
1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. ET
(10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. PT)

Join PowerBuilder Evangelist and resident Rockstar Dave Fish, for this hour long webcast that will cover the exciting features you can expect to find in this new release.

Register

TechWave 2011 Call for Papers is open

Apparently they're going back to the old model, where they hold a call for papers from the user community and approve select ones.  The last couple of years they were having Sybase employee do almost all of the sessions.  If you submit a proposal and it's accepted, you receive a free pass to TechWave valued at $1200.  For more information, see the TechWave web site.

PowerBuilder Newsletter

http://www.sybase.com/detail?id=1092693

Some PowerBuilder "feature articles"

Dave's Corner

John's Roadbox

PowerBuilder Product Manager Update

Upcoming PowerBuilder.TV episodes

Carving Up Classic Client/Server Applications For .NET Deployment: Using the New .NET Project Partitioning Feature
April 5 at 12:00pm EST (New York) / 18:00 CET (Paris) with Yakov Werde - Register

Take your commercial applications to the next level
April 14 at 11:00am EST (New York) / 17:00 CET (Paris) with Christophe Dufourmantelle - Register

PowerBuilder 12.5 Overview
April 21 at 12:00pm EST (New York) / 18:00 CET (Paris) with Dave Fish - Register

 

Carving Up Classic Client/Server Applications for .NET Deployment Using the New .NET Project Partitioning Feature

Sponsored by:  mLogica

The March 12.1 PowerBuilder EBF contains a new tool and technology that enables you to overcome deployment issues that might impede .NET migration.  You might even be able to organize your code in a way that enables you to restore RAD development to its rightful position in PowerBuilder.NETdeployment.

Very interesting article on the state of the publishing industry...

Specifically in how it applies to technical books.  It's stunning how low the total unit sales are for a typical technical book now days.

http://radar.oreilly.com/2011/02/2010-book-market-5.html

Upcoming PowerBuilder.TV episodes

Modernize your PowerBuilder applications - Christophe Dufourmantelle
Tuesday March 15th - 11:00 CET (Paris)
Tuesday March 15th - 12:00pm EST (New York)

Dockable Windows - John Strano
Tuesday March 29th - 12:00pm EST (New York) / 18:00 CET (Paris)

Take your commercial applications to the next level - Christophe Dufourmantelle
Thursday April 14th - 11:00am EST (New York) / 17:00 CET (Paris)

Webcast: Fun with the PowerBuilder .NET Debugger

Wednesday, March 2, 2011
1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. ET
(10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. PT)

eLearnIT interview of John Strano on Youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojTdjsT79Yg

PowerBuilder.NET SCC with TFS

Great post from Reed Shilts on using Microsoft TFS source control system with PowerBuilder.Net

 

Orange County PowerBuilder.Net Training Event

Hosted by ISUG at the mLogica office
February 24th
http://my.isug.com/p/cm/ld/fid=201

 

Upcoming PowerBuilder.TV episodes

How to separate security logic from business logic - Christophe Dufourmantelle
Thursday 2/10 at 12:00pm EST (New York) / 18:00 CET (Paris)

Using WCF to call Web Services in a PowerBuilder .NET Application - Dave Fish
Thursday 2/24 at 12:00pm EST (New York) / 18:00 CET (Paris)

Modernize your PowerBuilder applications - Christophe Dufourmantelle
Tuesday 3/15 at 11:00 CET (Paris)
Tuesday 3/15 at 12:00pm EST (New York)

Webcast: Customizing XAML Skins for PowerBuilder .NET WPF Applications

Wednesday, February 16, 2011
1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. ET
(10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. PT)

TechWave 2011 announced...

Techwave 2011, Las Vegas, USA , September 12 - 16
Sybase announced that TechWave 2011 will be co-located with SAP TechEd, September 12-16, at the Venetian hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.  Stay tuned for more details, which will be posted on www.sybase.com/techwave as they become available.  For sponsorship and exhibit opportunities, contact Katherine Soong at ksoong@sybase.com.

Some other SVN client options...

I've mentioned Unified SCC in the past, and made a reference there to PushOK SVNSCC in addition.  There are a couple of others worth mentioning. One is Agent SVN, another general purpose MSSCCI to SVN bridge.  There is also pbscc proxy, which is actually specific to PowerBuilder and is also open source.

Customization Studio

Novalys has released a new product (or perhaps a rebranded newer version of REX) called Customization Studio, which allows end users to customize PowerBuilder based applications.

Upcoming PowerBuilder.TV episodes

How to make your application multilingual with Enable 3.5
Thursday January 20that 10:00am EST (New York) / 16:00 CET (Paris)
Presenter: Gian Luca de Bonis

Tutorial: Migrating from PowerBuilder Classic to .NET
Tuesday January 25that 12:00pm EST (New York) / 18:00 CET (Paris)
Presenter: John Strano

Major upgrade to PBDelta

A major upgrade of PBDelta has been released. As part of the major redevelopment PBDelta has been renamed to ProDiff for PowerBuilder. ProDiff incorporates all the best features of PBDelta and expands with a new set of up to date features: