microsoft
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microsoft
Mary Poppendieck writes the following in Unjust Deserts (pdf), a paper on compensation systems (emphasis mine), There is no greater de-motivator than a reward system that is perceived to be unfair. It doesn’t matter if the system is fair or not. If there is a perception of unfairness, then those who think that they have been treated unfairly will rapidly lose their motivation. Written over seven years ago, the paper is just as insightful and applicable today. For example, let’s apply it to the recent dust-up about the legitimacy...
Well, as I wrote before, today is my last day at Microsoft. Last night we had our office Holiday party in the observation deck and lounge of the Space Needle. The party was just fantastic and we were lucky to have a nice clear evening with spectacular views. What a great way to go! I had a brief exit interview where I handed over my badge with an air of finality. However, I am still an employee until midnight tonight. So it’s not so final just yet. Which is a good thing as the NuGet team is working to...
Today, October 15 2011, marks four years of being a Microsoft employee for me. As such, it’s time for a little introspection, but in many ways, Tim Heuer already introspected for me. Much of what he writes echoes my own experience, thus leaving me with less to write about. It’s the Microsoft way, or the highway. Which is conveniently located near Microsoft Way. - Photo by Todd Bishop, CC BY 2.0 Looking back in my archives, I realized I haven’t written a whole lot about what it’s like to work here. I do have a...
A colleague of mine from the Data and Modeling Group mentioned that they have a new senior developer position open working on their new datajs project. This developer would be responsible for defining how modern web and mobile applications use and interact with data on JavaScript platforms. We deal with and work on defining a number of standards including HTML5’s IndexedDB and OData, as well as provide a new set of end-to-end experiences for accessing, managing, and storing data in JS. What’s interesting to me is that datajs appears to be an open source project under the MIT...
Today marks my one year anniversary at Microsoft. Tradition dictates that I bring in a pound of M&Ms for each year that I’ve been an employee. I’m going to buck that trend (because I like bucking things) and bring in 1 kilo of Japanese candies. Since I just returned from a trip to Japan and it is also customary to bring gifts back from a trip, this ends up killing two birds with one stone. Software is not the only place to apply the DRY principle. Looking back at when I first was hired and later at...
There’s a great interview on the How Software is Built blog with Brad Wilson, a developer in Microsoft’s OfficeLabs team, but probably better known for his work on xUnit.net, CodePlex, and ObjectBuilder. What I particularly liked about this post was the insight Brad provides on the diverse views of open source outside and inside of Microsoft as well as his own personal experience contributing to many OSS projects. It’s hard for some to believe, but there are developers internal to Microsoft who like and contribute to various open source projects. Another reason that Brad gets a thumbs...
The ASP.NET and Silverlight team are hiring! Brad Abrams (who happens to be my “grand-boss” as in my boss's boss) posted a developers wanted ad on his blog:
Are you JavaScript guru who has a passion to make Ajax easier for the masses?
Are you the resident expert in ASP.NET and consistently think about how data driven applications could be easier to build?
Are you a TDD or patterns wonk that sees how ASP.NET MVC is a game-changer?
Are you excited about the potential of...
After joining Microsoft and drinking from the firehose a bit, I’m happy to report that I am still alive and well and now residing in the Seattle area along with my family. In meeting with various groups, I’ve been very excited by how much various teams here are embracing Test Driven Development (and its close cousin, TAD aka Test After Development). We’ve had great discussions in which we really looked at a design from a TDD perspective and discussed ways to make it more testable. Teams are also starting to really apply TDD in their development process as a team...
Oren Eini, aka Ayende, writes about his dissatisfaction with Microsoft reproducing the efforts of the OSS community. His post was sparked by the following thread in the ALT.NET mailing list:
Brad: If you're simply angry because we had the audacity to make our own object factory with DI, then I can't help you; the fact that P&P did ObjectBuilder does not invalidate any other object factory and/or DI container.
Ayende: No, it doesn't. But it is a waste of time and effort.
Brad: In all seriousness: why should you care if I waste my time?
Ayende’s response is:
...
From Monday night to Thursday afternoon next week I will be in Las Vegas attending both DevConnections/ASPConnections as well as the DotNetNuke OpenForce conference. After that, I will be up in Redmond for the next week. I wrote before that I would be speaking on a couple panels at OpenForce conference talking about open source and .NET. If you're interested, the panels will be: Wednesday, Nov 7 - 8:00 AM - 9:15 AM Lagoon L DOS101: Panel Discussion: Open Source on the Microsoft Technology StackScott Guthrie, Phil Haack, Rob Conery and Shaun Walker Thursday, Nov 8 - 9:30 AM -...
Like a lovesick puppy, my good friend Rob Conery is following me to Microsoft. I’m excited (not yet super excited) that Rob is going to be joining us working on Subsonic as the sugar on top of the work we’re doing with the MVC framework. Good times! We’re definitely going to have to celebrate in Vegas at the DotNetNuke conference and DevConnections (you all will be there, won’t you?) This is perhaps another item to add to the list I made of signs of progress in regards to how Microsoft is approaching Open Source. Rob, be...
For those starting out at Microsoft, an analogy that you’re likely to hear a lot is “Drinking from the firehose”. The first time I’ve ever heard this phrase was when Dare used it in a post about the flood of information due to subscribing to multiple RSS feeds. It’s entirely apropos (just love that word ever since The Matrix) as a description of starting as a new employee at Microsoft. My buddy Walter said his brother had the same feeling when starting at CalTech. That resonates with me, because unlike my college, with its emphasis...
I think Miguel de Icaza nails it regarding some of the FUD being written about Microsoft’s latest move to make the source code to the .NET Framework available under the Microsoft Reference License (Ms-RL). In fact, his post inspired me to try my hand at creating a comic. I have no comic art skills (nor comic writing skills), so please forgive me for my lack of talent (click for full size)... I know some of the people involved who made this happen and I find it hard to believe that there were nefarious intentions involved. You have to...
It was only two and a half months ago when I wrote about receiving my Microsoft MVP award. I was quite honored to receive this award. In a follow-up comment to that post, rich with unintentional foreshadowing, I mentioned the following... However, I would like to hit up that MVP conference in Redmond before doing anything to cause my MVP status to be dropped. Unfortunately, I will not be retaining my MVP status long enough for the MVP conference. I have committed an action that has forced Microsoft’s hand in this matter and they must remove my MVP status....
Ayende recently wrote about Microsoft’s “annoying” tendency to duplicate the efforts of perfectly capable Open Source Software already in existence. In the post, he references this post by Scott Bellware which lists several cases in which Microsoft duplicated the efforts of OSS software. Fear Factor Ayende is not convinced by the fear factor argument around issues of software pedigree, patents, and legal challenges. Jon Galloway wrote about this argument a while ago in his post Why Microsoft can’t ship open source code. In his post, Ayende dismisses this argument as “lawyer-paranoia”. While I agree to some extent that it is paranoia, not all paranoia is bad. I...
Working at a VSIP partner has its privileges. I’ll be up in Redmond at the Microsoft Campus for a two day VSIP Partner Meeting on August 5th and August 6th. We’ll be looking at ways to make the Koders Visual Studio plugins provide a great and well integrated experience.
I’m flying into Seattle on that Sunday to spend time with some friends and do a bit of sightseeing (oh look, that’s what rain looks like!). Hopefully my schedule won’t be too full so I can butt my head in a few offices here and there to bother folks and stir...
Microsoft just unveiled a new web property intended to clarify its position on Open Source as well as provide a one-stop location to find out what Microsoft is doing in the Open Source space. Despite all the (perhaps well deserved) criticism of how Microsoft has not supported Open Source in the past, I think the behemoth is slowly starting to get it. Or at least groups within Microsoft are starting to see that if they don't embrace Open Source, Microsoft will get left behind, much like they did for a while with the web revolution. Embracing Open Source makes good long...
I received an email today informing me that I’ve been awarded the status of Microsoft MVP in the Visual Developer - ASP/ASP.NET category. I was aiming for an MVP for non-visual developers, but my 57 Lynx readers didn’t have enough clout to make that happen. What does it mean to be a Microsoft MVP? I’m not really fully sure yet. You can read the official blurb about the program here. In general I think it means I get to use the above logo on my blog and may start blogging about the problems with the MVP program and how the standards aren’t...
Last year when all the hubbub surrounding NDoc was happening, I tried to rally people around the idea of a Contribute to Open Source day on July 26th. Why July 26? Because I happened to write that post on that day. In any case, it looks like Christmas will come early for some lucky open source projects. Jeff Atwood of CodingHorror fame is teaming up with Microsoft to donate $10,000 in support of open source .NET projects. Go and nominate the open source project you find most useful in his comments. What has spurred this recent largesse? Jeff...
Jamie Cansdale recently wrote about some legal troubles he has with Microsoft. We were in the middle of an email correspondence on an unrelated topic when he told me about the new chapter in this long saga. Jamie posted the entire email history and the three (so far) letters received from Microsoft’s legal team. Rather than jump to any conclusions, let’s dig into this a bit. The Claim First, let’s examine the claim. In the first letter from OLSWANG, the legal team representing Microsoft, the portion of the EULA for the Visual Studio Express suite of products that Jaime...
There’s been a lot written about whether or not Microsoft is doing enough to support Open Source Projects on its platform. In the past, Microsoft’s report card in this area was not one to take home to mom. Lately though, there’s been a lot of improvement, with initiatives like CodePlex as well as the many projects that Microsoft has opened up and moved over there. Many have expressed that there’s more that Microsoft can do and I for one believe that Microsoft is starting to listen. If not Microsoft, at least Sam Ramji of Port 25 is. He’s effectively the...
Scott Hanselman writes a thought provoking post that asks the question, Is Microsoft Losing the Alpha Geeks? An interesting question, but troublesome to make sense of, let alone answer. First of all, how do you define “Alpha Geeks”? Who are they? Paul Graham would lead you to believe that alpha geeks are the influencers who use Macs and lots of parenthesis to write code. By that definition, the alpha geeks were never there or left a long time ago. But I don’t think this is a fair definition of alpha geeks. Certainly there are still alpha geeks who love writing...
Fortune Magazine published an article in which they describe how Microsoft claims that free software, such as Linux, violates 235 of its patents. Some key snippets (emphasis mine): Microsoft is pulling no punches: It wants royalties. If the company gets its way, free software won’t be free anymore. ... Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith and licensing chief Horacio Gutierrez sat down with Fortune recently to map out their strategy for getting FOSS users to pay royalties. Revealing the precise figure for the first time, they state that FOSS infringes on no fewer than 235 Microsoft patents. ... In the...
I read this article recently that describes the mind frying complexity of the Windows development process. With Vista sporting around 50 million lines of code, it’s no wonder Vista suffers from delays. Quick, what does line #37,920,117 say? Microsoft has acknowledged the need to release more often (as in sometime this millenia), but that agility is difficult to achieve with the current codebase due to its immense complexity as well as Microsoft’s (stubbornly?) heroic efforts to maintain backward compatibilty. The author of the article labels this the Curse of Backward Compatibility. I don’t think anyone doubts that maintaining backwards compatibility can be...
UPDATE: I remember that Scott Hanselman proposed that Microsoft put together an organization like INETA for Open Source Software in an editorial aside a while back while discussing NDoc. Hanselman Editorial Aside: It's a shame that Microsoft can't put together an organization like INETA (who already gives small stipends to folks to speak at User Groups) and gave away grants/stipends to the 20 or so .NET Open Source Projects that TRULY make a difference in measurable ways. The whole thing could be managed out of the existing INETA organization and wouldn't cost more than a few hundred grand -...