TechEd Africa 2006 - help! [modified]
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:laugh: no, it can be done in any manner the sponsor feels secure with - including making the payment to microsoft directly. this is all completely above board and i am willing to provide personally identifiable information in order for sponsors to be able to contact me directly if they so wish. i'm not asking this to try and score a quick buck, i'm asking this because i REALLY want to go and currently have no means or hope of getting there. i'm not a criminal - just geek that's broke. do i sound desperate already? so soon? -- modified at 4:28 Thursday 6th July, 2006
Might i suggest maybe a part time job? :^)
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Might i suggest maybe a part time job? :^)
you might, but i've beaten you to it. employment in south africa ain't exactly fantastic either. i'm already offering my skills as a developer to a number of companies and individuals in my area with a view to designing and implementing custom solutions, web sites, etc. but no-one is biting at present. i've even gone as far as asking the local radio station if they're looking for people to do voice overs for advertisments. i am good at what i do, tho i can't prove it to you at this time (which by saying i know further weakens my case). i don't expect you to believe me coz there are all sorts of maniacs out there and people are just generally paranoid at requests from strangers online (especially when it involves cash). i re-iterate that i have no intention of making any money from this - anyone willing to sponsor is more than welcome to pay MS directly, thereby assured that i haven't made any kind of profit from them. it's not about money to me, it's about learning. ambition vs. cash flow problem. ain't life peachy?
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you might, but i've beaten you to it. employment in south africa ain't exactly fantastic either. i'm already offering my skills as a developer to a number of companies and individuals in my area with a view to designing and implementing custom solutions, web sites, etc. but no-one is biting at present. i've even gone as far as asking the local radio station if they're looking for people to do voice overs for advertisments. i am good at what i do, tho i can't prove it to you at this time (which by saying i know further weakens my case). i don't expect you to believe me coz there are all sorts of maniacs out there and people are just generally paranoid at requests from strangers online (especially when it involves cash). i re-iterate that i have no intention of making any money from this - anyone willing to sponsor is more than welcome to pay MS directly, thereby assured that i haven't made any kind of profit from them. it's not about money to me, it's about learning. ambition vs. cash flow problem. ain't life peachy?
david s_ wrote:
it's not about money to me, it's about learning.
No it's not, it's about you looking for a handout. There are lots of ways to learn without having to spend a cent. I hear they have this new-fangled thing called the Internet nowadays. By posting this, you lose a lot of credibility. Lots of people, most people actually, don't have enough money to do everything they want. I know I don't. But they don't go out looking for someone else to pay for them to do those things. They do the best they can with what they've got. You say you're good at what you do? Fine, prove it. Go out and do something. And by that, I don't mean go out and ask people to give you a job. Go out and actually do something. Start an open-source project. Write lots of articles and publish them here. Thinking that someone is going to pay for you to go to TechEd for no other reason than you can't afford to pay for it yourself shows a distinct lack of initiative (and brains).
0 bottles of beer on the wall, 0 bottles of beer, you take 1 down, pass it around, 4294967295 bottles of beer on the wall. Awasu 2.2.2 [^]: A free RSS/Atom feed reader with support for Code Project.
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david s_ wrote:
it's not about money to me, it's about learning.
No it's not, it's about you looking for a handout. There are lots of ways to learn without having to spend a cent. I hear they have this new-fangled thing called the Internet nowadays. By posting this, you lose a lot of credibility. Lots of people, most people actually, don't have enough money to do everything they want. I know I don't. But they don't go out looking for someone else to pay for them to do those things. They do the best they can with what they've got. You say you're good at what you do? Fine, prove it. Go out and do something. And by that, I don't mean go out and ask people to give you a job. Go out and actually do something. Start an open-source project. Write lots of articles and publish them here. Thinking that someone is going to pay for you to go to TechEd for no other reason than you can't afford to pay for it yourself shows a distinct lack of initiative (and brains).
0 bottles of beer on the wall, 0 bottles of beer, you take 1 down, pass it around, 4294967295 bottles of beer on the wall. Awasu 2.2.2 [^]: A free RSS/Atom feed reader with support for Code Project.
Taka Muraoka wrote:
a distinct lack of initiative (and brains).
a personal attack by any other name is just as hurtful. thank you for re-inforcing my belief that there are some really nasty people out there.
Taka Muraoka wrote:
Go out and do something.
i have been. read further up in the post. i can't prove my skills with any concrete apps because when i started as a developer i was tied to a contract for the company i work for that basically stipulates that the code that i write while in their employ becomes their property, distribution of which constitutes theft. they also paid for my studies which binds me to them for a period until i have repayed them. before you criticise again - yes, i AM looking for another job. as i wrote earlier, i have valid reasons which i am willing to share with those who are willing to listen tho i'd rather not post that publicly, those who wish to query are welcome to mail me - i will respond. furthermore taka, i find your response to be exceptionally insulting and i am offended by your words. you don't know who i am, where i've been, what i've done or why i've posted this. do you think it's easy to do this? that i have no pride? you are sorely mistaken yet i will refrain from attacking your character even tho you have attacked mine. this was query, a simple question. if no-one feels that they would like to help then so be it. it is unnecessary to insult me and shows your character up far more than it does mine. my mom always said, "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all," i wonder what she meant...
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Taka Muraoka wrote:
a distinct lack of initiative (and brains).
a personal attack by any other name is just as hurtful. thank you for re-inforcing my belief that there are some really nasty people out there.
Taka Muraoka wrote:
Go out and do something.
i have been. read further up in the post. i can't prove my skills with any concrete apps because when i started as a developer i was tied to a contract for the company i work for that basically stipulates that the code that i write while in their employ becomes their property, distribution of which constitutes theft. they also paid for my studies which binds me to them for a period until i have repayed them. before you criticise again - yes, i AM looking for another job. as i wrote earlier, i have valid reasons which i am willing to share with those who are willing to listen tho i'd rather not post that publicly, those who wish to query are welcome to mail me - i will respond. furthermore taka, i find your response to be exceptionally insulting and i am offended by your words. you don't know who i am, where i've been, what i've done or why i've posted this. do you think it's easy to do this? that i have no pride? you are sorely mistaken yet i will refrain from attacking your character even tho you have attacked mine. this was query, a simple question. if no-one feels that they would like to help then so be it. it is unnecessary to insult me and shows your character up far more than it does mine. my mom always said, "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all," i wonder what she meant...
david s_ wrote:
thank you for re-inforcing my belief that there are some really nasty people out there.
Indeed there are. However, accusing someone of a lack of initiative (and brains) is not really being nasty when that person is in fact not showing initiative and has done something dumb. Let me explain... When I saw your first post, I just rolled my eyes. When I saw you trying to justify it by saying that it wasn't about the money, it was about the learning, that really ticked me off. If it was really about the learning, what do you think the best course of action would be? 1) Get on the net, find as many free resources as you could, study them, practice them, learn as much as you could about them? or 2) Go to an internet forum that you've only recently joined and are unknown at, and ask for money to go to a conference? You'd be amazed at how many people come through these forums, including people who hire programmers. Do you think these people will be impressed by your choice of (2) and think "now there's a guy I want to hire"? Now to the question of initiative. Showing initiative doesn't mean hitting the pavement looking for a job, it means you yourself making things happen. It doesn't mean waiting for someone else to give you a job (or free money :rolleyes:). That's relying on someone else to do something for you. This is what I was getting at with the suggestions I made. Do something concrete that you can show people and say "look, I did that." It gives you some credibility and improves your chances of people actually paying any attention. The contract you mention doesn't make a blind bit of difference. It's standard and we're all under the same conditions. But it doesn't stop you from starting an open-source project or publishing articles here, now does it?
david s_ wrote:
i have valid reasons which i am willing to share with those who are willing to listen tho i'd rather not post that publicly, those who wish to query are welcome to mail me
So you're saying we have to go out of our way to contact you in order to find out why we should give you free money? Does that sound reasonable to you? Doesn't to me :|
david s_ wrote:
i find your response to be exceptionally insulting and i am offended by your words.
I'm sorry that you feel that way and for what it's worth, it's a harsher response th
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david s_ wrote:
thank you for re-inforcing my belief that there are some really nasty people out there.
Indeed there are. However, accusing someone of a lack of initiative (and brains) is not really being nasty when that person is in fact not showing initiative and has done something dumb. Let me explain... When I saw your first post, I just rolled my eyes. When I saw you trying to justify it by saying that it wasn't about the money, it was about the learning, that really ticked me off. If it was really about the learning, what do you think the best course of action would be? 1) Get on the net, find as many free resources as you could, study them, practice them, learn as much as you could about them? or 2) Go to an internet forum that you've only recently joined and are unknown at, and ask for money to go to a conference? You'd be amazed at how many people come through these forums, including people who hire programmers. Do you think these people will be impressed by your choice of (2) and think "now there's a guy I want to hire"? Now to the question of initiative. Showing initiative doesn't mean hitting the pavement looking for a job, it means you yourself making things happen. It doesn't mean waiting for someone else to give you a job (or free money :rolleyes:). That's relying on someone else to do something for you. This is what I was getting at with the suggestions I made. Do something concrete that you can show people and say "look, I did that." It gives you some credibility and improves your chances of people actually paying any attention. The contract you mention doesn't make a blind bit of difference. It's standard and we're all under the same conditions. But it doesn't stop you from starting an open-source project or publishing articles here, now does it?
david s_ wrote:
i have valid reasons which i am willing to share with those who are willing to listen tho i'd rather not post that publicly, those who wish to query are welcome to mail me
So you're saying we have to go out of our way to contact you in order to find out why we should give you free money? Does that sound reasonable to you? Doesn't to me :|
david s_ wrote:
i find your response to be exceptionally insulting and i am offended by your words.
I'm sorry that you feel that way and for what it's worth, it's a harsher response th
Taka Muraoka wrote:
I'm sorry that you feel that way and for what it's worth, it's a harsher response than I would normally have made, but I really took exception to your arguments.
thank you.
Taka Muraoka wrote:
my post was made in the spirit of providing advice,
and thank you again. :doh: hmmm... perhaps not my finest moment. ...yeah, i heard you.
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Taka Muraoka wrote:
I'm sorry that you feel that way and for what it's worth, it's a harsher response than I would normally have made, but I really took exception to your arguments.
thank you.
Taka Muraoka wrote:
my post was made in the spirit of providing advice,
and thank you again. :doh: hmmm... perhaps not my finest moment. ...yeah, i heard you.
david s_ wrote:
perhaps not my finest moment.
Mate, everyone here has done plenty of dumb things and I cringe when I think of some of mine X| :doh: Just remember, when you do it online, you're performing in front of an audience of millions :laugh:
0 bottles of beer on the wall, 0 bottles of beer, you take 1 down, pass it around, 4294967295 bottles of beer on the wall. Awasu 2.2.2 [^]: A free RSS/Atom feed reader with support for Code Project.
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ok, i know this is a LONG shot but i was wondering if there are any kind hearted individuals/companies out there that would be willing to cover the costs of sending a developer to the TechED 2006 conference in africa. there are several valid reasons why i can't afford to cover the costs myself & i'm willing to provide an explanation to anyone who is interested. to those who are interested in helping out please mail me and thank you. it's not easy asking for this and i would sincerely appreciate any help that anyone can provide in helping me get there. please bear in mind that i already live in south africa and there would be no need to cover flight or travel expenses, only the fee to attend. once again, thank you. erm... did i put this in the right place? -- modified at 3:45 Thursday 6th July, 2006
Very few people would be able to pay for their own TechEd tickets. Most attendees get to go because their company sponsors the TechEd pass, as well as airfare and accommodation. I've "never" attended a TechEd, VSLive, or PDC event in my life, and I've been trying since year 2000 - so as you can see, it's not something very easily achievable. I am married now - so while I might be able to save up for a TechEd or PDC trip, I am pretty sure I'd rather go somewhere on holiday with my wife now. So, I am not really a geek - maybe a half-geek (that too marginally). Of course, I still want to go - it's not a high priority right now. So, my best advice to you is to get a job (even if it takes 1-2 years), and then negotiate a contract so that the company will send you to TechEd or some such conference at least once an year. Regards, Nish
Nish’s thoughts on MFC, C++/CLI and .NET (my blog)
Currently working on C++/CLI in Action for Manning Publications. Also visit the Ultimate Toolbox blog (New) -
ok, i know this is a LONG shot but i was wondering if there are any kind hearted individuals/companies out there that would be willing to cover the costs of sending a developer to the TechED 2006 conference in africa. there are several valid reasons why i can't afford to cover the costs myself & i'm willing to provide an explanation to anyone who is interested. to those who are interested in helping out please mail me and thank you. it's not easy asking for this and i would sincerely appreciate any help that anyone can provide in helping me get there. please bear in mind that i already live in south africa and there would be no need to cover flight or travel expenses, only the fee to attend. once again, thank you. erm... did i put this in the right place? -- modified at 3:45 Thursday 6th July, 2006
The fact I'm even replying to you has me wondering just how much time and money I have. You'd think a lot to reply to this but here goes. TechEd will be more marketing and less knowledge. The knowledge gained won't be applicable knowledge it will be spurning knowledge which is to say you will learn about thing that might interest you and why they might be useful but the real knowledge will come from you downloading the betas, sdks, etc and hooking into the developer blogs of those products. So as Taka and others pointed out... knowledge is free and always has been. True knowledge does not come from schools or events. Einstein most certainly did not go to the school of theoretical physicists. Newton didn't either. If you are after knowledge and willing to burn $2000 of other peoples money to get it then join the military. If you seriously want to get into TechEd on someone else's buck this is not the place to expend the effort. I'm sure that Microsoft has some "scholarships" for people with "good reasons" (and you can take that up with them) that will defer your costs. You need to get in touch with them. But here's the rub in all of it. Business takes money (lots of it), experience takes time (lots of it) knowledge is a balance of time and money (in many ways it truly is). Most of us are sitting here looking at this after we worked our butts off in school and got real creative at times to finish projects. Most of us are sitting here looking at this after we worked 3 jobs to pay our bills (Yes, I heard about your job market woes I had them to. So I created my own job in my own business with my own money of which I had none.) Anyway... here comes the rub. The things you get in life that are free will not teach you anything. The things you get in life that almost ruined you financially, physically or emotionally will teach you what you need to know to be truly successful. Most of us know that sending you to TechEd for free would be the biggest waste of our money we could possibly endeavor upon. You will learn nothing from the experience. True knowledge will come from you endeavoring to earn that money (legally) on your own using legitimate means and I'd be willing to bet once you had that money you might decide to do something smarter with it. Anyway, please don't be angered by my response. It will only make your situation (on this board) worse. I can tell you gut wrenching stories of life kicking my butt and how I overcame it and then I'd ask you to send me to TechEd but I won't. If TechEd was something I wanted
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david s_ wrote:
thank you for re-inforcing my belief that there are some really nasty people out there.
Indeed there are. However, accusing someone of a lack of initiative (and brains) is not really being nasty when that person is in fact not showing initiative and has done something dumb. Let me explain... When I saw your first post, I just rolled my eyes. When I saw you trying to justify it by saying that it wasn't about the money, it was about the learning, that really ticked me off. If it was really about the learning, what do you think the best course of action would be? 1) Get on the net, find as many free resources as you could, study them, practice them, learn as much as you could about them? or 2) Go to an internet forum that you've only recently joined and are unknown at, and ask for money to go to a conference? You'd be amazed at how many people come through these forums, including people who hire programmers. Do you think these people will be impressed by your choice of (2) and think "now there's a guy I want to hire"? Now to the question of initiative. Showing initiative doesn't mean hitting the pavement looking for a job, it means you yourself making things happen. It doesn't mean waiting for someone else to give you a job (or free money :rolleyes:). That's relying on someone else to do something for you. This is what I was getting at with the suggestions I made. Do something concrete that you can show people and say "look, I did that." It gives you some credibility and improves your chances of people actually paying any attention. The contract you mention doesn't make a blind bit of difference. It's standard and we're all under the same conditions. But it doesn't stop you from starting an open-source project or publishing articles here, now does it?
david s_ wrote:
i have valid reasons which i am willing to share with those who are willing to listen tho i'd rather not post that publicly, those who wish to query are welcome to mail me
So you're saying we have to go out of our way to contact you in order to find out why we should give you free money? Does that sound reasonable to you? Doesn't to me :|
david s_ wrote:
i find your response to be exceptionally insulting and i am offended by your words.
I'm sorry that you feel that way and for what it's worth, it's a harsher response th
Taka Muraoka wrote:
is in fact not showing initiative
My understanding of 'initiative' includes doing something original and different. Well during several years of browsing The Lounge I don't recall reading any requests like this. There's an obvious reason why that is, but I still think it was an original idea. Bill Gates gives millions to education each year. So MS would be a good place to start, but this might have seemed like the next best place. Anyway just my 2 cents.
"Nothing ever changes by staying the same." - David Brent (BBC's The Office)
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