Pardon me, but I've only been to PA a couple of times. I'm curious: why is Harrisburg preferable to Allentown? Or is it a career move?


>Where are all the .Net proclaimers to tell me how worthwhile and lucrative the switch was for them. How the thousands of hours relearning and retooling their shops has paid off handsomely, I want to hear your stories.
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>They always seem to be here to tell us the VFP is dead or that if your not doing .Net your not a real programmer, I want someone to make the real argument, the main reason we all program, is how it benefits you financially?
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>First, who has said that VFP is 'dead'? Yes, every major trend for VFP has been downward for years. Take a look at conference attendance - there's been a steady decline for VFP conferences, and increase for .NET conferences.
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>And who said that if you're not doing .NET, you're not a real programmer? Aside from the jokes about C# vs VB.NET, I haven't seen anyone say this.
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>Second, here are some aspects of my life these days. I'm not going to "make an argument", I'm just going to state facts:
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>- The "hours retooling" means that I've had a steady stream of opportunities. Many times I've had to choose between, as opposed to having to search.
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>- As an author, the major publishers of developer books (Apress, O'Reilly, Addison Wesley, Sams) are far far more likely to have interest in a .NET or SQL Server book proposal than they do a VFP book. Segue to my next point...
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>- I'm now on my 2nd .NET/SQL project that came about as a result of writing a .NET book - a shop in San Diego that builds appliations for public health contacted me about doing some work - I'm starting on a project next week with them.
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>- I picked up a major financial institution as a client, that resulted from a single .NET article I wrote a few years ago
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>- An MS Gold Parter sought me out to write custom BI courseware (SSIS/SSAS/SSRS) and do some training for them
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>- Since 2003, there hasn't been a stretch of time when I haven't been involved in at least one VFP to .NET conversion project
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>- Greater % of social network (the average attendance of a major city .NET User Group is at least 5 times greater than the same VFP uer group) and usually a greater % of job postings/job announcements.
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>- I know several .NET developers who have had 10-20K increases over the last two years.
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>If I spent an hour thinking, I could probably double this list. But bottom line, opportunites are far greater for me as an experienced .NET/SQL developer, than if I hadn't gotten involved in .NET. And as I've experienced, probably one of the biggest factors here is that opportunities breed other opportunities.
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>And by the way, with .NET, you never stop learning - you have the 3.0 and 3.5 Framework, Orcas, Katmai (which REALLY looks awesome), SilverLight, etc. I don't view any of my "learning curve" time as wasted.
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>As I've typed this, I traded IMs with two other .NET MVPs in the mid-Atlantic area - they have similar stories.
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>I don't like to disclose specific details, but I've grossed six figures every year that I've been doing .NET work, while living in Allentown. I'm moving back to Harrisburg soon, and I don't expect that to change. If I wanted to be even more aggressive I could have made more, but I cut back a little in the last year because I decided I wanted to have more of a life.
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>Kevin