Regular readers will know that my cat, Jarvis, has been on a special diet for the last few months in an effort to reduce his weight. This requires him to go for fortnightly weigh-ins at the vets.

Unfortunately, Jarvis always associates a visit to the vets with negative experiences and so he tends to get very agitated, often to the point of being sick. The vets also didn't seem to grasp the problem I was having in dealing with Jarvis' constant hunger. It's difficult for a pet owner not to feel terribly guilty when confronted with a hungry animal who doesn't understand that what you're doing is for his benefit.

So, perhaps against my better judgement, I've decided not to take him to any more weigh-ins. Of course, I haven't told the vets this, I don't want to be accused of neglect!

Jarvis has gained 0.02kg since his last weigh-in. It's only a small gain, but a sign that perhaps the new food we're giving him to control his hunger isn't having the desired effect.

I did ask the vet about what we could to reduce his cravings and there are alternative foods available that contain appetite-suppressant ingredients, but I'm very concerned about the effect that all this change is having on Jarvis. I just want him to be happy.

This week, I spent two days down at Microsoft's HQ in Reading for the UK User Groups Community event. UK User Groups is an umbrella organisation representing all the Microsoft User Groups in the UK. I found out about the event through a mailing from the SharePoint User Group, of which I'm a member. 

I was in two minds whether or not to go, but when I found out that there was a whole series of sessions dedicated to SharePoint and that the event was completely free, it was a no-brainer. 

The event was aimed at what Microsoft calls the "IT Pro" audience; these are the people who look after the servers, databases and infrastructure - the traditional "techie" to you and me.

There were about 250 attendees on the first day. Similar events run by the developer community usually attract well over 400 people. As the day progressed, numbers dwindled to the point where by the end of the first day, there were only about 100 people left.

The attendance figures were even worse on the second day. At the start of the day there were about 50 - 60 people and only about 20 of us stayed to the end. This was a real shame for the guys who had worked so hard to put the whole thing together.

Nevertheless, I got a lot from the event. I learned about how to build and deploy SharePoint solutions, picked up some useful tips about using SharePoint Designer to customize SharePoint sites and I've also become very interested in Windows PowerShell (a new scripting utility from Microsoft), after seeing it used by one of the presenters to migrate SharePoint content.

I was also delighted when Microsoft's Gareth Hall, who was responsible for organising the Heroes Happen Here launch event, played a video of the highlights and I could swear I saw myself in it! Sadly, Gareth couldn't let me have a copy, but he said he was working on persuading his bosses to let him release it publicly. Watch this space!

I'll certainly be keeping an eye out for future events from these guys. I just hope that they can publicise the event a bit better next time round, to get the numbers up.