I recently had the misfortune of spending a few days with my son at the Children's Hospital in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  My one month old son contracted a virus and had a temperature of 101.  It was very scary and I don't recommend it to anyone.  However once his temperature went down and we all breathed a sigh of relief, I saw something pretty cool at the Children's Hospital.  They have a robot named Tug that drives autonomously around the hospital delivering and picking up medical supplies.

He's a five foot tall robot and is made up to look like a train.  He toots and whistles as he's coming down the hall.  He has a large storage compartment that can be accessed from the back.  He comes with several sensors to detect obstacles.  Of course he has wireless networking capabiiltes which he can use to call the elevator to pick him up and take him to a different floor.  He's very courteous and moves over to the right so he doesn't take up the whole hallway.  He tells people around him what he's doing like turning around or waiting for the elevator so that they can move over.  I thought that was excellent.  I didn't really want to be at the Children's Hospital but it was neat seeing the robot.

I've been busy organizing a Team Foundation Server study group and studying for a Microsoft certification.  I decided to organize a study group for TFS 2008 in Madison.  We're using it more and more at work.  I was getting tired of just using it for source control and not digging into all the features that are built in.  Learning more about TFS will help me be a better consultant and better software engineer.  So the group is meeting after the regular Madison .NET User Group meetings at Herzing College.  I'll be putting a section on my site as we learn more.

I pulled down the virtual hard drive from Microsoft (for free, non-commercial use) that has a complete install of Team Foundation Server and Visual Studio Team Suite.  It's over 15 Gb after install and it is fully loaded with everything you need to dig into TFS.  Microsoft extended the expiration date of the VHD until Dec. 31st, 2009.  So you've got the whole year to use it.  Of course, there are hacks to extend the expiration date.  I recommend downloading it if you've been wanting to learn more about TFS.  The main thing that is nice about the VHD is that you don't have to waste your time trying to install TFS onto a machine.  They've done it for you with the VHD.

Team Foundation Server and Visual Studio 2008 Team Suite Virtual Hard Drive Image

I'm also studying for Microsoft certification exams.  I've been putting it off for a long time.  Made myself a New Year's resolution to study and take the exams.  I've been running the Madison .NET User Group for over two years and still don't have any certs.  Feel like a slacker.  Granted, I totally agree that a certification doesn't mean that I know jack about the technology.  People can be good test takers and bad at applied.  However I've found that studying for the certs forces me to look at classes in the framework that I've never had a need to look at before.  So for me personally it is a good exercise to study for the exams.  Besides I don't want to back out on my resolutions...