If you want to know whether Microsoft “get’s it” or not, take a look at one of Robert Scoble’s entries from yesterday. He is excited that Microsoft is developing a “we” culture rather than a “they” culture. That was one of the biggest take-aways I had from last week’s trip into “the belly of the beast.” And now Scoble is highlighting this change in spades. I would note that Scoble is not the only voice at Microsoft, but he is one of the newest and most respected. There are folks at Microsoft that are still comfortable in the us/them patterns that have flourished for over a decade. But if you want to see some changes in the tone of the dialog, I would urge each of you to follow Scoble’s blog – if you can keep up with the volume that he processes each day!
-CyclingRoo-

Today is the closing day of the first annual Microsoft Technology Summit. And it has been a great week. While I have always kept my eyes open, it is nice to have them opened wider. When I arrived at the campus earlier this week, I kept thinking about the quote to “keep your friends close and your enemies closer.” While I would not characterize Microsoft as an enemy, there are people I know that would make such bold assertions. As for me, I am here today writing about a nineteenth century quote applied to a twenty-first century situation.

Mark Twain once wrote that history doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme. And I am hearing the rhyme to IBM’s history of thirty (or was it forty?) years ago. As a company, IBM aggressively attacked the plug-compatible manufacturers (e.g., Amdahl). IBM raised barriers to competition wherever it thought it could. Their tactics were draconian and possibly illegal. And it took legal intervention for this to change. In the end, IBM found itself being labeled as an anti-competitive monopolist. And IBM was forced to “open” its mainframe playground to numerous competitiors.

The process of “opening up” was complex, lengthy and expensive. But today, IBM is more generally seen as a gracious participant in the “community” process. They are no longer seen as the angry, 800-lb gorilla that it once was. Microsoft is at the same point. They are an adjudged “poor sport” in the community of technologists.

And this assessment is both fair and unfair. There are hard-headed and ham-handed people at Microsoft just like there are the same kinds of people in the “community” (e.g., ESR v. RMS). But the community must act consistently in order to maintain historical credibility. Iif the community can modify its position towards IBM, then it must be open to modifying its position on Microsoft. Of course, it took IBM decades to repair its reputation in the industry. And for some aging technologists, IBM will always be a criminal suspect. I am sure the same will be true for Microsoft.

So for Microsoft to repair (or initially establish) its reputation, it must take steps that will not be appreciated as genuine. It must invest and expect venom as the reward. But if Microsoft can weather the initial response, then both Microsoft and the community can move forward to a more “engaged response.” I can’t wait for this rhyme to be completely recognizable.

Who knows? Maybe I can abuse this analogy further and relate it to a modern musical mashup!

-CyclingRoo-

Today is the closing day of the first annual Microsoft Technology Summit. And it has been a great week. While I have always kept my eyes open, it is nice to have them opened wider. When I arrived at the campus earlier this week, I kept thinking about the quote to “keep your friends close and your enemies closer.” While I would not characterize Microsoft as an enemy, there are people I know that would make such bold assertions. As for me, I am here today writing about a nineteenth century quote applied to a twenty-first century situation.
Mark Twain once wrote that history doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme. And I am hearing the rhyme to IBM’s history of thirty (or was it forty?) years ago. As a company, IBM aggressively attacked the plug-compatible manufacturers (e.g., Amdahl). IBM raised barriers to competition wherever it thought it could. Their tactics were draconian and possibly illegal. And it took legal intervention for this to change. In the end, IBM found itself being labeled as an anti-competitive monopolist. And IBM was forced to “open” its mainframe playground to numerous competitiors.
The process of “opening up” was complex, lengthy and expensive. But today, IBM is more generally seen as a gracious participant in the “community” process. They are no longer seen as the angry, 800-lb gorilla that it once was. Microsoft is at the same point. They are an adjudged “poor sport” in the community of technologists.
And this assessment is both fair and unfair. There are hard-headed and ham-handed people at Microsoft just like there are the same kinds of people in the “community” (e.g., ESR v. RMS). But the community must act consistently in order to maintain historical credibility. Iif the community can modify its position towards IBM, then it must be open to modifying its position on Microsoft. Of course, it took IBM decades to repair its reputation in the industry. And for some aging technologists, IBM will always be a criminal suspect. I am sure the same will be true for Microsoft.
So for Microsoft to repair (or initially establish) its reputation, it must take steps that will not be appreciated as genuine. It must invest and expect venom as the reward. But if Microsoft can weather the initial response, then both Microsoft and the community can move forward to a more “engaged response.” I can’t wait for this rhyme to be completely recognizable.
Who knows? Maybe I can abuse this analogy further and relate it to a modern musical mashup!
-CyclingRoo-

Wow! I am in a session right now where Microsoft enterprise architects are discussing their support of a creative pattern repository at http://patternshare.org. I am so amazed that Microsoft is open and expressive about this effort. First, Microsoft is supporting patterns that are not always based upon Microsoft products and licensing. Second, Microsoft executives are allowing the patterns developed/articulated by this team to be released under the Creative Commons copyright framework. Third, Microsoft is releasing code fragments (not products or systems, mind you) under a very relaxed EULA. These three facts lend immense credibility to the participatory tone that Microsoft has taken throughout this conference. Way to go!
-CyclingRoo-

For the past few months, I have been using Doppler as my podcasting agent. It’s good. And it features the MS .Net Framework 1.1. So it’s got great support and a good feature set – for Windows only.
So I’ve been waiting for the latest iPodder from SourceForge. Well, that release is now available. So why iPodder v2.0? Here are some of the latest features:

• Total redefined, fully-featured GUI (user interface)
• New streamlined subscription process with an ability to check and uncheck items for download
• New cleanup section allowing quick cleanup
• History of downloads and click to play abilities
• Proxy support
• Threaded scans/downloads and resumable downloads
• Import and Export functionalities (OPML) to enable easy transport of data between other applications
• Many new smaller features including small add-ons like spotlight search, catch-up functionality, coralizing, and shortcuts enabled.

And, it’s freely available under the terms of the GPL. If you don’t have a podcasting client (to retrieve MP3 attachments from the RSS feeds), then try iPodder.
Our short break is now officially over!
-CyclingRoo-

St. Patrick’s Day

Martin Taylor, Morning Keynote

• There was an honest discussion about blog commentary. In particular, most comments were cautiously optimistic. Martin noted that he thinks people are serving judgment so that they won’t lose their wine ration! 😉
• “I wish people could see our internal discussion” “We talk about cross-plat all the time.” The decision to deliver “cross-plat” .Net is based upon simple economics – esp. the increased R&D required for such a port.
• Microsoft is not “anti-open source.” We believe that Windows is better than Linux.
• The discussion spiraled off to a heated thrust/parry on open source politics and value props. Fortunately, members of the audience re-directed the discussion.
• The discussion re-surfaced to discuss .Net on other platforms – including Mono on Linux and then fell back into the pit!
• The kick-off/keynote session always sets the tone for the entire day. So Microsoft missed an opportunity to highlight expansive and cooperative opportunities. Unfortunately, Martin missed the opportunity and got caught into a confrontational trap.
• One of the participants asked, “Wouldn’t it rock if Microsoft took its developers and made JDK rock on Windows.” But there was marked hesitancy and hedging by Microsoft on this point. I respect the ambivalence of their response. They must embrace enterprise developers who are not using .Net. But they must also embrace their shareholders who have invested financial resources and expect a return on that investment. So the cautious response is understandable. Nevertheless, there is a second reason to consider this option: as developers are able to use Windows (because of a supported JVM), they will be exposed to the richness of the .Net framework.
• This was a rousing session. I sure hope that it does not inspire a confrontational tone throughout the day.

Jason Zander, Net CLR Architecture

• Jason spent a few minutes discussing history.
• Jason embarked on a “geek-out” frenzy by spewing forth numerous important TLA’s. But this had a great effect on the audience. It allowed everyone to focus on what alpha geeks love: techno wizardry. At the same time, the business architects were lulled into a semi-comatose state! For now, the zeitgeist from the previous session has been washed away – or droned away.
• Jason did spend some time talking about the advantages of JIT compilation in CLI. While I appreciate the advantages (esp. for exploiting dynamic code interpretation and code generation), the full advantage of platform portability is diminished. The only real portability is between W2K, WXP, WLH and various SP iterations of each (plus W64). While this is important for enterprises with multiple instances of Windows, this is probably not as expansive as the conference attendees are accustomed to with Java portability. But it does highlight the fact that the infrastructure could be ported to “alien” platforms and still support complete (or nearly complete) application portability.
• There was a good discussion about the importance of the framework for new languages on Windows. Of particular note was the potential for Iron Python and Ruby. Maybe there will be hope for a Groovy deployment!
• One of the attendees noted the challenges with current Java development and memory management. In particular, developers must pre-state their heap needs. But no good tools are available to determine this. So this attendee was keenly interested in knowing how Microsoft lessens this challenge for .Net developers. Jason responded admirably. But my un-tuned ear heard the “wah, wah, wah” from Charlie Brown’s teacher. Now I’m a geek, but this was tremendously esoteric. But the presenter tailored his responses to the audience. Again, this was the perfect analgesic for the rancor from the previous session.

Scott Guthrie, ASP.NET 2.0

• New features and functionality were discussed. Of particular note were the security improvements – and the fact that Microsoft spoke of secure applications in addition to knobs/cranks for the developers.
• Scott discussed the provider framework and how they will defer to externally selected providers as part of the platform. For example, there are MySQL providers that are open source and readily available on the Net.
• There was a very practical discussion of SQL Express. The Roo sees this as one way that Microsoft is getting it right while Oracle can’t see the forest for the trees. Both database platforms are being challenged from below by PostgreSQL and MySQL. And Microsoft is countering that challenge by providing an alternative – and not the MS Access alternative. But Oracle still refuses to directly address the “challenge from below.”
• I had a very interesting side conversation regarding ASP.NET utility with Ted Hu. He asked a reasonable question about whether I saw utility in the ASP.NET package/framework. And I candidly told him that I had no immediate drive towards this platform. But the more I thought about it, the more an analogy came to mind. The first iteration of ASP.NET was very similar to Thor Heyerdahl’s Kon Tiki raft. It had the components and everything could be lashed together to make it “seaworthy.” But the platform has substantially matured since its introduction. It is no longer a bunch of logs lashed together with seasoned rope. But would I build “The Love Boat” for paying clients? Hard to say…
• Scott then began to present a site development example.
• The audience definitely broke into two camps: site developers were intently focused on the demo while the business architects seemed less engaged.
• There was a good discussion of Beta 2 deployment and the “Go Live” licenses already in use. The expectation is that several thousand sites will be v2 at launch of the product.
• Scott was extraordinarily impressive. As he discussed client experience models, he effortlessly uttered the name of Firefox, Mozilla and Opera. While this is quite expected from his position as the Product Manager for ASP.NET, it was, nonetheless, quite disarming.

VS.NET 2005

• There was a brief discussion of VS.NET’s new features.
• The team then had an excellent demo.
• Of particular interests was a demonstration of SVG browsing/display through VS.NET. This is purely demonstration-ware, but it’s inclusion is encouraging because VS.NET will work with the Internet’s default vector graphics engine. Of course, this is not a statement about product or corporate support but a demonstration of the extensibility of VS.NET. Very cool.

Smart Client Futures

• Smart client designer is integrated (and consistent) with VS.NET designer.
• Whidbey will bring “click once” advantages to smart device deployments.
• Windows Forms 2.0 was overviewed as a basis for discussion.
• A demonstration of development and deployment was offered for the group’s consideration. The most curious demo was a UI that looked damned near identical to Outlook. There was little exploration of the buttons, widgets and decorations. So for all I know, this was a bitmap only. But if it is a moderately functional UI, this would be amazing! Man, UI development and deployment is moving at an every increasing pace!

Guidance through Patterns and Practices

• The presenters emphasized “scenario-based” guidance.
• There was an excellent discussion about how the MCS field staff should be engaged in the use of these patterns and deliverables.
• Success is measured via proof-point analysis. Success is not measured by unit sales of Microsoft products.
• They are shipping patterns and codes under an expansive EULA while the patterns themselves are licensed under the Creative Commons. This work is available at http://patternshare.org.
• Enterprise Library was demonstrated and discussed. What is keenly interesting is that these tools would work well with almost any framework (Zachman, TOGAF, FEAF, etc).

Bill Hilf, Open Source and Microsoft

• Perceptions vs. Reality
• P: Microsoft is against open source; R: Microsoft is not against the model. But Microsoft does compete with products developed under the open source model.
• P: Open source equals open standards; R; No
• P: Linux is Unix; R: No
• P: All open source software is free; R: No
• P: Developers like to ride early-morning shuttle buses; R: No
• Microsoft tracks kernel development trends to understand development speed and the community development model
• Bill Hill discussed his own credentials on Apache (mod_proxy)
• Three lessons: a) community involvement is good, b) the more transparent you are, the more trust you engender, and c)
• Microsoft has offered “shared source” program as an alternative to open source. Twelve “shared source” options (out of seventeen) allow code modification. Of even more importance is the fact that many of the “17” license instruments are existing, OSI-approved licenses. For example, WIX (app installer) is licensed under the CPL. MySQL now uses the WIX installer.
• Learning: You just don’t get a community by giving away the code. You need to have project owners/maintainers and you must nurture the development team.
• Reality: There are no Croatian hackers employed by Bill that are working on new generations of Linux virii! 😉 (The crowd roared)
• Monad/MSH: A Microsoft command line interface that looks/acts like a typical *nix shell.

-CyclingRoo-

We finally have connectivity at the campus. So here is the day one “stream of conciousness” log. The event and the sessions deserves condensation and reflection. But in the meantime, here is the “Day 1” notes from the Roo.

March 16, 2005

Accommodations

• Fabulous!
• +40″ TV
• Receiver + sound system
• Sink/basin
• Stocked mini-bar
• _Digital_ walk-in shower
• Jacuzzi
• Coffee press
• “Loose-tea” teapot
• In-room safe
• Walk-out patio
• Turn-down service (eye pad, lotion, tea)
• A real person doing the wake-up call

Kick-off mixer

• Wine-tasting
• Light appetizers
• Cigars
• Scotch

Martin Taylor (General Manager of Platform Strategy, Linux & Open Source R&D)

• “12 years ago, Microsoft was more participatory.” There is an obvious conclusion: after that, we became less participatory. And the discussion implied an important corollary: Microsoft is now _more_ participatory.
• “Every time I hire someone from the open source community, they have some apprehension. Then they say that they are impressed with the community, the enthusiasm, and the dedication to quality products.”
• This is a non-NDA activity
• Linux and open source issues vary worldwide.
• Microsoft is in its third iteration of Linux response: 1) Denial, 2) Executive Overpowering, 3) Engaged response, dialog with the community
• Attendee Larry Baker (Sprint) said, “I want to take away something ‘tactile’ and real.”
• “We’re not looking to check a box. We don’t want to appear at Congress and say we had a conference with twenty Java developers…” laughter followed.
• “This is not a conversion meeting.”

Who’s Here / Introductions

• Server-side.com
• JCP participants
• Ben Galbraith, CTO of radiology company
• South Florida Java User Group, President
• Federal Reserve Bank (St. Louis)
• Teachers of Borland, Visibroker, etc.
• AG Edwards, SOA architect
• Enterprise architects from a variety of corporations and public institutions
• A lot of dual-job folks (architects + CTO’s)
• President of Phoenix Java Users Group
• Petroleum industry participants
• David Braden, Megabyte Minute radio show
• Macromedia ColdFusion conference lead
• Rick Ross, JavaLobby.org, Java blogging, hosting for Java learning
• Andy Hafer, Tampa Bay Technology Group (the “Switzerland” of technology)
• Java blogging
• “No Fluff, Just Stuff” Conference manager
• Man, what a collection of Alpha Geeks!
• Good humored Microsoft evangelists!
• I need the list of attendees; I am sure I missed some of the luminaries that were present.

Michael Howard, Improving Security

• Michael claims geek cred, and he demonstrates it.
• Michael considers himself brutally frank – and he seems to live up to this claim.
• He has spent thirteen years @ Microsoft
• It is quite interesting that “security” is the first topic of the conference. After all, the largest complaint against Microsoft has been its fundamental insecurity.
• Trustworthy Computing is about not “injecting the defects”
• “Nineteen Deadly Sins of Security” McGraw-Hill (19 is a prime number)
• “It’s amazing being at Microsoft and seeing the sea change happening.”
• “We help product groups secure their products.”
• They focus on threats to systems
• “You’ll never get the code 100% correct.” “That’s an honorable thing to do.” “But screw the ego trips, you’ll never get the code 100% correct.”
• SDL (Security Development Lifecycle) – Most software today is pretty lousy. Any hack can get a compiler and make it available to anybody. Developers have no discipline. Just publishing software doesn’t make it secure. The only way to make software more secure is to change the process.
• SDL is fully supported by Bill and Steve. This team is the only team with open-ended staffing.
• People who used a software methodology had the 1500 page volumes on their shelves. They weren’t used – but they were on the shelf.
• “We suck a lot less than we did three years ago.”
• Zone-age.org tracks compromises, not attacks. Based upon their statistics, IIS6 is more “secure” than Apache 1.3 and 2.0.
• Excellent analogy regarding active defenses. Gates and locks are good. But there are no guards policing the premises. So there is nothing to stop someone who successfully breaches the perimeter.
• Microsoft has over 1200 threat models. Some of these have been released, some have not.
• Participants noted that community participation / review of the threat models would ensure sufficiency of the threat models.
• Source code Annotation Language (SAL) in Whidbey provides excellent additional information.
• SDL is under constant review.

Don Box, Indigo Architect

• Blog-oriented introduction, typing + no audio/speaking
• Microsoft sucks at… community involvement, security-by-default, and transaction management. Does MS believe in managed code? Poor delivery on products/roadmaps. Microsoft has given us a dependency hairball
• Contract first. CORBA got it right. Separation of structural types and behavioral types. Indigo takes CLR and separates structure and behavior. Structural and behavioral contracts are explicit.
• RelaxNG is better.
• Indigo = .Net remoting + ASMX + MSMQ
• Trends at Microsoft: Lots of RPC/messaging “shit” that needs to be consolidated; i.e., Biztalk will use Indigo
• “DCOM on Unix was met with the body rejecting the organ.”
• We invested millions to make Whidbey rock!
• “If it’s in PowerPoint, be very skeptical.”
• “Look at what’s in the DLL’s.”
• A spirited discussion of OR mapping was held.
• Prediction of lightweight languages and framework dominance (Ruby, Groovy, etc)
• Microsoft Panel on Languages
• CLR Development
• Addition of delegates to CLR in Whidbey
• New kind of delegate, virtual invocation at delegate execution
• Anonymous methods
• Lightweight code-generation + garbage collection on generated code
• Metadata tokens for native filesystem runtime handles
• Herb Sutter (C++ developer)
• VC++ supports .Net code and native code
• Managed platforms are not the only constructs; native code will continue
• Anders Hopberg (C#)
• Generics, parameterized in C# 2.0
• Iterators (ala Python and Ruby generators)
• Partial types (structured into files), split in different source files; useful for code generation at execution-time
• Null-able value types
• Lots of minor features
• C# 3.0 (planned) – further eradicating wall between general-purpose programming languages and native database language constructs
• Jim Hugenin (AspectJ and Jython –> Iron Python)
• Realized that .Net does work for dynamic languages
• Where is AOP going in Microsoft? Good discussion but incomplete answers. The discussion shifted focus to dynamic languages instead.
• Type “inferences” in strongly typed languages would adopt features of dynamic languages. Typing could be inferred from first use, etc.
• Substantial Python discussion (Python in the CLR via Iron Python) – Inference about Python being released under “terms that make sense” to the Python community.
• A wonderful discussion regarding “certified” CLR ports to other platforms ensued. Discussion ranged the gamut from technical merits to political and/or legal realities. The attendees were in general agreement about the technical superiority of .Net to Java. Microsoft listened and interacted quite intently. This seemed to be a means for the panelists to obtain “ammo” for internal (Microsoft) discussions.

Sanjay Parthasarathy, Developer Community Outreach

• Where do we suck? (*Note* 3^rd MS exec to use this term)
• During lunch, Sanjay’s team presented and discussed Channel9.msdn.com.
• A good, but brief, Scobleizer entry ensued
• Microsoft has over a thousand evangelists
• Microsoft is increasing its investments in schools & communities
• The conversation drifted towards a broad discussion of open source constructs and IP protection. While the discussion was interesting, it was not very pointed. Further, it blunted much of the collegiality inspired by the first two presenters of the day.
• Per one of the MS evangelists, MS operates as a VC firm with divergent views and methodologies.
• The tone of the session improved markedly when Sanjay adopted a less defensive posture.

SQL 2005 and the Developer

• I spent the majority of this session in an out-of-conference discussion with Robert Scoble. I am amazed that Robert has been able to survive at Redmond. Indeed, he has received unprecedented access to Microsoft employees and executive. Credit goes to his management team for embracing non-traditional people and technologies. Like Groove (and Ray Ozzie), Microsoft is embracing lots of subtle but important changes. 10 points to the Scobleizer for handing me a “stealth” business card. I am sure that it is a rogue and “untyped” business card.
• When I returned, I got to hear a good discussion of native XML datatypes. XML documents/streams are stored in binary form (thus improving indexing capabilities). These XML docs can be typed or untyped. Very cool.
• Support of Xquery (November draft) will be an integral part of the product release.

Ian McDonald, Product Development Process

• “PowerPoint is one of the evilest things ever.”
• He apologized for the “lack of color” in his deck.
• Multi-year, massive team development is easy. “The hardest thing is to understand the Microsoft licensing model.”
• There was a very frank discussion about the processes that are needed and those that are onerous.
• The basic process: one owner, one approver, multiple reviewers, group of participants.
• How agile are you? “Frankly, we suck.” (*Note* 4^th executive to use the term; with so much sucking, is there any blowing?)
• Microsoft has not adopted the “maintainer as king” model prevalent in many open source projects. Development process features automated management and responsibility pushed to the individual developers.
• Ian discussed field crash data. Bad memory causes a huge number of the reported errors. A kernel reviewer looks at all of the kernel dump data from the field data. In fact, Microsoft has over twenty-five people who review this data.
• “Americans don’t care about privacy very much.” “In Europe, they care a whole lot more about privacy.” Ian noted that “callback” features are absolutely forbidden at Microsoft.
• “Integrated Innovation” = “This shit works together.”
• Ian is a great presenter. But the attendees are getting fatigued. Consequently, there is limited interaction between attendees and presenter.
• Ian made an important point about open source distributions. Specifically, the distribution vendors are assuming the responsibility for integration testing. Microsoft OS/platforms ensure an “integrated test” experience since all of the components are developed internally – and have the ability to freely exchange information between projects.

Chris Anderson, Windows Architecture

• “We are moving to a component-based model.”
• “The way we chose to manage the Windows 2000 code base is killing us.”
• There was a candid discussion of the desire to eliminate the registry, and the difficulties that will preclude its elimination from Longhorn. The registry is both cache and state. Subsequently, it elimination will require far more design and testing efforts.
• Chris had a great discussion of surface management/handling in Longhorn.
• The new window manager is a fully composite desktop (ala Apple) with 3D/D3 support.
• 3D: “It’s easy to be gratuitous, it’s hard to be usable.”
• There was a very genuine discussion about standards compliance and differentiation. It is very reminiscent of the “embrace and extend” motto that was amplified by ESR to “embrace, extend and extinguish.” But I would caution that the tone displayed during these sessions belies any sinister “hidden agendas.” The sense of this session was the “love” of tech stuff by the platform geeks.
• There was an interesting follow-up re: XAML as a proprietary scheme from Microsoft. “Even if we were that evil, we’re not that good.”
• WinFX deliverables will be sync-shipped to XP when Longhorn is available.
• Will there be any SVG support? Microsoft does not have support for vector decoders. Consequently, it is not planned as of now. Secondarily, SVG could be passed through a converter to create XAML constructs. There was an interesting discussion about vector-based support as a native part of the presentation layer. Microsoft countered that they have designed an extensible platform that could be extended to support vector-based presentation.
• IE team + Avalon team integration = great typographic support, markup, etc. (but there are downsides that were not completely discussed)
• Focus IE updates on phishing, spyware, rootkits, etc.
• There was a significant shift in participation during this session. Indeed, this became the biggest “geek-out” of the day.
• The session drifted into a discussion of Jscript. While it was a rousing discussion, it was not directly relevant to the Avalon discussion that started the session. I attribute much of this to the “geek cred” established by the presenters. As they established credibility, all sorts of unrelated questions began to be lobbed at them. To their credit, they engaged each question as important and worth a good discussion. In my view, this was a good closer for the day…

And now, it’s off to the evening’s activities. We will be going to Teatro Zinzanni.

-CyclingRoo-

Willows Lodge – Woodinville, WA

This enty’s title is way too dramatic. But these are the words that many of my colleagues said as I headed off for Seattle and the Microsoft Technology Summit. And for many years, these words might have accurately expressed my sentiments regarding Microsoft. As an executive, I recognized Microsoft as a necessary part of our computing legacy. At Sprint, this meant Microsoft desktop technology, Microsoft server technology and even some Microsoft database technology.

But as a technician, I have always taken our relationship with Microsft more circumspectly. I loved it when Microsoft and IBM collaborated on OS/2. And I was both an early adopter and a late relinquisher of OS/2. So Microsoft’s erstwhile rejection of their own child seemed frustratingly odd. But I digress… The dissolution of the IBM/Microsoft relationship left a lot of bitter feelings at the table – amongs the partners and amongst their customers.

So like many other spurned lovers, I sought out the solace of another. And for the past ten years, I have cherished the warm embrace of the “community” that is “open source” (e.g. Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP, etc). At the same time, I continued to recommend Microsoft for client technologies (i.e., the desktop, the collaboration tools and even the web page development/publishing tools).

So when I received my invitation to the first Microsoft Technology Summit, I was thrilled… and cautious. But more about the summit in another entry. For now, I am on the run between events. I am off to the Microsoft campus after some much needed rest.

But before I drop off the universe (as there is no connectivity where we are meeting), I do need to talk a tad about the accomodations. We are at the Willows Lodge in Woodinville. And this place is fabuloous! The rooms are tastefully elegant with both modern and rustic touches. They are gadget-friendly. And they put one at ease.

And now I must run… More to follow. But the brief word is… augezeichnet!

Willows Lodge – Woodinville, WA
This enty’s title is way too dramatic. But these are the words that many of my colleagues said as I headed off for Seattle and the Microsoft Technology Summit. And for many years, these words might have accurately expressed my sentiments regarding Microsoft. As an executive, I recognized Microsoft as a necessary part of our computing legacy. At Sprint, this meant Microsoft desktop technology, Microsoft server technology and even some Microsoft database technology.
But as a technician, I have always taken our relationship with Microsft more circumspectly. I loved it when Microsoft and IBM collaborated on OS/2. And I was both an early adopter and a late relinquisher of OS/2. So Microsoft’s erstwhile rejection of their own child seemed frustratingly odd. But I digress… The dissolution of the IBM/Microsoft relationship left a lot of bitter feelings at the table – amongs the partners and amongst their customers.
So like many other spurned lovers, I sought out the solace of another. And for the past ten years, I have cherished the warm embrace of the “community” that is “open source” (e.g. Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP, etc). At the same time, I continued to recommend Microsoft for client technologies (i.e., the desktop, the collaboration tools and even the web page development/publishing tools).
So when I received my invitation to the first Microsoft Technology Summit, I was thrilled… and cautious. But more about the summit in another entry. For now, I am on the run between events. I am off to the Microsoft campus after some much needed rest.
But before I drop off the universe (as there is no connectivity where we are meeting), I do need to talk a tad about the accomodations. We are at the Willows Lodge in Woodinville. And this place is fabuloous! The rooms are tastefully elegant with both modern and rustic touches. They are gadget-friendly. And they put one at ease.
And now I must run… More to follow. But the brief word is… augezeichnet!