Hi, JR....Long time, no talk...

Trust me, meeting people IRL (in real life) can be a letdown....including me, I'm really shy and unassuming in person.

It's very funny that you bring up Xero - that's come up in two conversations recently. I agree, it's a rather cool product. Of course, I could twist your arm a bit (in fun, of course) and say that the "proving that .NET has come of age" is really a matter of evolutionary perspective - some believe it "came of age" at different times than others. :)

Re: open source ....some of my colleagues and former colleagues, even those who swore they'd never touch open source, are dipping all ten toes into the open source water. My year is already cast in concrete (I trained about 450 student/weeks in 2009 and expect at least as many this year, and have started a new book)...so maybe in 2011 I'll go "open". (Or better yet, I can wait until me daughter is old enough, and assign it to her!)

Fireworks this year (other than a small abbreviated version) did not happen - just too much stuff going on - however, July 4, 2010 will be a major event, haha

Good hearing from you...