2012, what happened?

In the same way that I did a review of my year in 2011, I have decided to do the same thing again for 2012.

What I said I was going to do

The below is what I "said" I was going to do in 2012. I will refer back to this in this post to see whether I actually achieved any of this or not.

Looking forward into 2012, there will mainly be more of the same as above. Following the principles that I took from Mark Rendle’s talk at DDD South West I will be looking to improve myself as a developer, but I also hope to break into doing talks at some of these community events, rather than simply attending them. This will be a big step for me, but something that I am very much looking forward to.

I will be continuing to blog next year as well, however, I am looking to writing much more technical blog posts. I have learnt a lot this year from all the talks that I have attended, and I am looking to implement these technologies in a number of pet projects. I will be blogging the trials and tribulations that I have along the way, which will hopefully help other people.

Getting involved in the Development Community

2012 saw the Aberdeen Developers .Net User Group continue growing. We partnered with Scottish Developers in order to bring a number of big names to Scotland, including Sebastien Lambla, Matt Lacey, and of course who can forget Scott Hanselman. This year also saw me become a Committee Member of Scottish Developers, and these partnership events at set to continue into 2013.

I attended a number of Developer Events this year, including Windows Azure Bootcamp, Windows Phone 7 Bootcamp, DevWeek, DDD South West, and DDD North. I very much enjoyed each of these events, and with the exception of DevWeek, each of these events were completely free! If you are interested in getting involved in some of these events, I would strongly recommend it, they are well worth attending!

Following on from my attendance at GiveCamp UK, Daniel Elliot (@agileguy) continued to support TheYouCanHub. This saw us move their hosting onto a Virtual Private Server, provided by Dan, and also numerous changes to their site. This support is going to continue into 2013 as time allows.

From a personal stand point

I was able to fully break into the speaking circuit, doing talks at both DDD South West and DDD North. I was really happy with the feedback that I got from both of these talks, and this has encouraged me to continue doing more talks in 2013.

I went on a Photography Course that I was given as a birthday present. I had a really good day out, and although I learned a lot, I realised that I still have a lot to learn!

I enjoyed a really good round of golf at the newly created Trump International Scotland, Donald Trump's new Golf Course. We got a great day for playing golf, and I even managed to birdie one of the par 5's on the course!

I had to say goodbye to an old friend in the form of my beloved Ford Focus, but happily this was replaced with a new Ford Focus.

I had an amazing day out at the Phoenix Falconry Centre, so much so that I have booked myself on another day out which will be happening in either January or February of this year. Really looking forward to it! I will post some photos once I have been on it.

With the help of Paul Stack (@stack72), a Windows Phone 7 application called TeamCity Metro came into being. We released Version 1.0.0.0, quickly followed by Version 1.1.0.0. There are plans to make this into a Windows Phone 8 application as well, but that will be time dependent.

I am happy to say that my wife was able to put up with me, and we celebrated our second Wedding Anniversary.

I started using Windows 8 and Office 2013, and I really like them! I also treated myself to a Windows Surface RT and also upgraded to the Nokia Lumia 920.

At the very end of 2012, I got involved in exposing a scam on the internet in the form of the WP Discovery Twitter account. I am very happy to say that this scam account which was trying to collect people's personal information has now been shut down.

So, did I do what I said I was going to?

With the exception of the more technical focused blogging, I think that I have been able to meet the goals that I set out at the start of the year.

Looking forward to 2013

Looking forward into 2013, I am aiming to continue doing what I have been doing this year. I hope to continue doing developer talks, and I am looking forward to attending the various DDD events across the UK, and also helping to organise them in my new role with Scottish Developers. I am looking forward to bringing more technical talks to the people in Aberdeen, with the help of Aberdeen Developers.

Last year, I aimed to start a number of pet projects which would help to develop my technical abilities, however, an important project at work took up a lot of my spare time, and I am hoping to continue/start those pet projects in 2013.

And that, as they say, is that! I hope you all had a great 2012, and here's to 2013!