Get the Inside Scoop on SD West 2008

Christian Gross, SD West Advisory Board member and chairperson of the Web Services Track, gives attendees the low down on what can’t be missed in 2008.

Christian Gross is a consultant, trainer and mentor with vast experience in the client/server world. He is especially interested in Open Source technologies (Apache, XML, MySQL, Mono, Mozilla). His thirst for everything computing started in High School, when on a Commodore Pet he wrote two lines of BASIC code; 10 Print "Cool" 20 Goto 10. Christian is also the author of numerous books, including the forthcoming Ajax and REST Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach (Apress)

What is most exciting about SD West's course offerings this year?

CG: IT has changed from simply developing software to providing solutions, and I like the fact that there is an IT for Developers track. It illustrates that today, to meet the challenges of IT, you actually have to know a bit about installation and keeping a computer running.

Are there new and noteworthy trends in your particular area of expertise?

CG: Integrating Web Services and Microsoft Excel 2007: I have worked on and off in the financial industry for more than a decade. What is new these days is the desire to use tools like Excel, although I have found that there is a complete lack of knowledge of what to do and not do with Excel when used with Web Services. I suppose part of that reason is because Excel is a different programming paradigm and requires that you get immersed in Excel itself.

Validating Your Web Service: This talk has been something that I have been working on for the past year or so. I run MonteCarlo simulations and process millions upon millions of data rows at a time. For these sorts of problems, test driven development and unit testing does not cut it. Actually it does not even come close to cutting it. I needed a new way of figuring out if the data in my webservice was right before it was number-crunched by Excel. The technique I use is an adaptation of what Quant's use today to figure out the behavior of the stock market.

What are your "must-see" course recommendations?

CG: What I am looking forward to again are the BOFs, panels, and talking to people. Even in University, I preferred talking to people and the personal touch. This is what makes me come to SD year after year. I like the fact that at BOFs everybody can exchange perspectives and opinions.

What's the number one reason people should attend SDWest?

CG: The BOFs and the people. I have always learned better by reading the book and doing it. However, when it comes to ideas and seeing what people are doing, nothing beats actually talking face-to-face with others.

Check out all the Advisory Board interviews here.