Craig Bailey on Microsoft

Having your code name objected to is nothing new. This (possibly hoax) story about Fiji (the island nation) objecting to Microsoft’s use of ‘Fiji’ as a code name is nothing new. Most recently this happened when the Visual FoxPro team were releasing the Sedna Add-ons and received numerous complaints from the inhabitants of Neptune :-)

(via Mary Jo Foley)

The Live team released a new beta of Windows Live Writer a month or so ago (they are calling this one a Preview in some places, an Update in others) and I give it the thumbs up.

I’ve always been impressed with LiveWriter – in fact I think it’s one of the better tools Microsoft has put out (World Wide Telescope is another - download it here – but more on that in another post).

This version adds some nice little touches to an already great product. The most obvious is the tabs at the bottom of the screen – you can now easily switch between Preview and Edit the HTML (previously you did this via the View menu or View drop down in the toolbar).

Oh, and I like how LiveWriter thinks that LiveWriter is a spelling mistake.

(Yep, Liverwort would be a better name)

There’s a bunch of other stuff in this release, including the revamped SDK.

(via Al Nyveldt)

There's a nice little interview with Bill Gates up on Channel 9. The first 8 minutes are the best as Bill covers what a Chief Software Architect should do (summary: ensure different teams work together), and his thoughts on Ray Ozzie (note to self: perhaps I need to give Ray a second chance - I've been completely unimpressed with him to date, but if Bill thinks so highly of him then I've obviously missed something).

He goes on to the future of Windows (mildly interesting, but have your woffle filter on), and then many-core computing (an important re-confirmation that parallel computing is the future). Software composition and Search are covered as well.

My favourite line is when Bill talks about the complexity of their data-centre plans with millions of servers, and he sums it up by saying: 'It's a fun software problem to solve'. At the 23:34 mark he must have mentioned some Mesh related top secret code word, because it was bleeped out! Oh, and he plays Bridge. The interview concludes with a call to action: give your time, expertise and money to a good cause.

As always, Bill is definitely worth watching.

(And I'm impressed with Charles? who conducted the interview - nicely done.)

Here's the video on C9 (and here's the link in case you can't see the embed below - there's a Download link at the bottom of it)

Bill Gates: Transitioning into the Future

[UPDATE: Fin has posted the full list of responses – great advice there!]

What's a great developer?

An email went around recently asking a few people what they thought constituted a successful developer.

My first thought was: did you mean successful or were really asking what is a great developer - since we all know a few lousy developers that have been very successful right? But that'd be just nit picking...

I trotted off some of my usual pointers eg a great developer will:

• be extremely intelligent
• take the initiative
• have no fear of the unknown
• complete a task (ie not leave it at 90%)
• etc

But then I thought about it some more, and I realised I had absolutely no idea what constituted a great developer. We probably know the result they have to achieve (eg a cost-effective, maintainable, efficient solution, etc), but what exactly are the characteristics of the person who achieves that? To me it's usually been a matter of 'I can't tell you what a great developer looks like, but I know one when I see one'.

Luckily I didn't send the email. Because this morning, reading through my feeds I see that Jeff Atwood has finally written a post worth linking to (ok, that's a joke - he's actually one of my favourite writers, but I've always wanted to throw in an off hand playing-down of his genius - it's just my way of not feeling so inferior :-) ).

Anyway, back to Coding Horror. I think he's caught the essence of what a great developer is: It's someone who practices.

A few months back Steve Herzberg gave me a great reminder on winning in business. He recounted how business is like playing sport (Steve is a former professional cricketer, so sports metaphors tend to pop up). Just like the cricket team plays a match, you play the game of business. But the teams that win are the teams that practice - and the best teams spend much more time practicing (all those hours in the nets, etc) than they do playing the actual game. The obvious point being, if you are only turning up for the match (ie day to day in the office), but no time practicing after hours, then you won't be winning too many games.

This applies at all levels, from the Junior developer up to the CEO.

So, great developers (and successful developers) are people who practice. How do you practice? Jeff's post has a few ideas (and have a glance through the comments on his post - not everyone agrees with him).

There's been some interesting articles about data centres lately. This one from ComputerWorld questions Microsoft's plan to use container based data centres (yep, as in you stick a bunch of servers in a 40 foot container). There's further follow up from Michael Manos here.

And don't miss the forest for the trees - they are talking about housing up to 440,000 servers on a single floor in a facility. Incredible. Facebook pales by comparison.

Yep, half a billion. Not that anyone really needed convincing, but computer games are big business. This one eclipsed the record set by Halo 3 last year.

And games are only going to get better.

Interestingly - but I can't find the reference (send me the link if you know it) - I was told last week that the average age of a gamer these days is 37 (this link from 2 years ago pegs it at 33).

Thanks to Rahul for linking to the BizTalk Server Roadmap. It's nice to be able to get a summary of view of where the product has come from, currently sits (eg RFID is a big focus) and is going. Apart from a few marketing 'guffettes' (eg using terms like 'People-ready processes') the page (yes, a single page - Yay!) is easy to read and informative.

Unfortunately, there's no date on the page, so we can't see when it was last updated, and it has no mention of BizTalk 2006 R3 (see here for details of R3).

Elsewhere, we're still stuck with code names like Oslo (and pages like this with almost zero value).

It will be interesting to see how this one pans out. INETA seems to cop a lot of flack in the developer circles I mix in, and from my perspective some of it is valid criticism. Chris Williams has his own thoughts on the matter along those lines, and rather than sit on the sidelines (as I and many other armchair critics do :-) - he's keen to get in and fix things.

Today he notes he's been offered (and accepted) the role of Director of UG recruitment. Whilst a good move of course, it'll be interesting to see how he tackles this job whilst possibly being powerless to fix any of the major problems he previously identified...

Keep in mind that most of the INETA work is done by volunteers.

And for the record, the net value of INETA is definitely in the positive for me. SBTUG has has been the thankful recipient of many INETA goodies.

I continue to be impressed with how Microsoft is organising and presenting their online help. The Visual Basic site is a case in point. Beth Massi highlights some of the new features coming whereby you can create your own dynamic lists - ie tailor help to just your area of interest. Neat. But even in its current format it is useful and manageable.

Being interested in more of the VSTO and Office development side of things it was nice to see how that area is coming along.

When: 25-27 April 2008

Where: Wagga Wagga, NSW, Australia

This has easily been the best CodeCampOz I've been to (and I've been to all of them :-). Mitch and Greg have done another stellar job organising this event. All of the sessions have been high quality and relevant. Big thanks to Microsoft, Readify, IT Masters, SSW and CSU for their involvement.

The Twitter coverage has been a highlight (view the Hashtags summary here), and meeting people who I've been following for a while has been a bonus. Photos have been put up on Flickr thanks to Roger.

As Angus has reported, we've got tons of ideas and suggestions to take back and implement at Elcom.

I'm not really one for gratuitous praise or for singling out people, but I have to say that during Paul Stovell's session I had the distinct feeling we were in the presence of greatness...