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I'm watching you watch me
In interest of scaring all of you off, I best tell you that I've installed Google Analytics on this site. I've just been curious about traffic, and free stuff appeals. Also, I miss looking at the stats for the big site. It's fun to look at; I can see that Karl & I are the two biggest viewers (bubbles for Victoria and Ottawa), but who do I know in Graz? Herr Rammer? Is that you? (if so, wow). Oh, and whoever found my site because they were looking for "pleasure in kent". Shame! Shame!
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The rant of which I spake
I'll ignore the "Lookatallthebugsin2005" threads for now, I'm still too close to the mothership to comment (although assorted people in the ship may know what I think of that IDE) and instead talk about architecture.
With my release, I've gotten back to thinking of application architectures, and I keep scratching my head. I see people building magnificent castles in the sky (URL ws-omitted to avoid some of the guilty), and I keep thinking of the "architecture" we're all using. Yes, you. Yes, now. Unless you're discovered some new technology that you should share with the world, you're reading this on a...
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Eyes, please uncross thyselves
Ugh. I missed out on my rant yesterday as I was feeling sorry for myself. I was banging my head against three languages I've always wanted more time to play with. (So, I guess I shouldn't have banged my head, but I should be happy)
For reasons that I won't get into right now, I'll show you the code I was working on. Feel free to (gently) correct me if I've gotten anything majorly wrong. The following three blocks all do the same thing, process an XML file that contains (among other elements) city names. The code returns the count of...
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The Alphabet Project: Z and conclusion
Z is for Zymurgy
Zymurgy is one of the great inventions of Homo sapiens, right up there with fire and the wheel. Well, I guess invention is the wrong word, discovery or refinement would be more appropriate. Zymurgy is the study of what yeast does when it chomps on some nice sugars. In particular, what it does in the presence of malted grains or grape juice. Beer, bread & wine making. You really have to hand it to the person way, way back who, after seeing a batch of sprouted grain bubble and reak for a few days decided to toss it...
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Simple Sharing Extensions for RSS and OPML
I was very ready to explode with a "NO, NO, NO" when I went over to read Ray Ozzie's latest. However, it seems I was only mislead by CNet's headline. I expected to see yet another calendar/contact format (when I believe that problem has already been solved with vCard/vCal and the XML Microformat equivalents). What I saw though was a potentially useful sync scheme for RSS. Coolish.
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The Alphabet Project: Y
Y is for Yadda Yadda
OK, I know Seinfeld made it trendy and all, but I was using it before then. Also, I don't think I've ever seen a full episode of Seinfeld. Maybe on a plane (that's where I saw my one episode of Friends).
Yadda yadda (sometimes with just one 'd' in each yadda) is a lovely term, almost onomatopeic. It can be used as filler (like fubar, or the new derivatives, foo and bar), as a polite ribbing to someone to prevent repetition, or as a replacement for et cetera [1]. Most conversation, and certainly most blogs could easily...
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The Alphabet Project: X
X is for X
OK, that seems like a bit of a copout (again), but really it isn't. (OK, it is, but I didn't want to do "X is for Xylem"). X is a "power letter". It seems to have been absorbed by marketers as having mystery, excitement and power. Think of how many times you've heard the letter X used to describe something -- Planet X, OS X, XP, MXC, even a certain box. Why was X selected for this honour? Why don't other letters carry the same levels of interpretation? Why are there no Bboxes? OS M? P rays? Indeed,...
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The Alphabet Project: W
W is for Whinging
Something I do too frequently. Whinging is complaining -- especially
annoying complaining. I whinge about a lot of things. While at MSDN,
about ... well, let's not get into that.
Currently, I whinge about my lack of focus on writing. Working on it,
perhaps it is still just too soon. Oh, well, some progress made today
at least.
Today's exercise: Stop whinging!
"If Bob doesn't stop whinging about the management around here, we'll have to get him to move to another group."
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The Alphabet Project: V
V is for Vicarious
Vicarious means "second-hand", as in "vicarious enjoyment" -- the enjoyment you feel when someone tells you of an event. It seems like our culture is moving more and more towards vicariously enjoying things. For many sport watchers, the only sport they participate in is lager curls, while others enjoy watching celebreties and live their lives vicariously that way. Many would say that people should stop this, but I tend to disagree. I'm perfectly happy to see someone I like succeed, it doesn't diminish any success I may have. I think that our industry feels too competitive at...
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The Alphabet Project: U
We enter the "zone of icky letters"
U is for Ugh
Yes, it's not a real word, but no, it's not a copout. Ugh is one of
those sounds I find myself typing a lot. In email, in IM windows, and
when playing WoW. It is an incredibly useful word, and I'd love to know
if it's universal, just English-speakers only, or just me. It is the
sound of disgust. Of frustration. It's a sound I've been making this
week as I struggle to write prose and code. Been too long, I guess, or
the focus/interest just isn't there. Bleh. Oh, well, off to the
Victoria Launch event tomorrow....
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Yet another Google Base post
It saddens me, and I know not why. Well, Dan does, as do a few others.
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The Alphabet Project: T
T is for Tautology
A tautology is a repetitive, true statement, or sometimes circular
reasoning. "You can tell a Visual Basic programmer because they program
in Visual Basic."
OK, that's a bad one, but it's late, and I can't think of a better one.
Today's assignment, come up with a better programmer related tautology.
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The Alphabet Project: S
S is for Susurrus
Susurrus is undefined, usually quiet, "white noise". It is the sound of
wind blowing through trees, or distant whispers. It is calming (to me)
noise. It's also pretty much on my mind today, as I stare blankly out
the window with my cats -- watching a gloriously blue sky above a crisp
fall Victoria day. Back when I was with Bill's Fish & Chips
Emporium, I have to admit I rarely really rested. I constantly
felt the pressure of email or tasks upon me. Even on vacation, I would
think, "Are there any emails that I need to act on? How about now?"
Leaving the...
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Brian's Top Ten
Brian Goldfarb, Product Manager to the Stars (OK, the Web Platform
& Tools Team) provides his favourite 10 articles on ASP.NET from MSDN
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The Alphabet Project: R
R is for Ruffian
You know, ruffian. Like a miscreant, a ne'er do well, a scallywag.
"Would you ruffians mind mugging someone else?"
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The Alphabet Project: Q
Is this series done yet? Yeesh, they get harder and harder.
Q is for Qualm
Usually in the form, "He has no qualms about pirating music.", but what are qualms? "A mild state of nausea", according to most references I found. So, if you recall my faux pas back at F, I should have said, "I get qualms when I don't finish a job."
I know, a pretty lame entry. I should have stuck with my first word (that I never use, but think is cool): quidnunc
Today's exercise: Pass along some quidnunc without qualms
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MSDN looking for Content Strategists
I forgot to mention when I posted about my leaving MSDN that my
position is open. If you're a writer who's keen and capable on ASP.NET,
C#, Team System and/or just about anything else Microsoft's Developer
Division has to offer, drop Matt Powell a line.
Yes, you'll have to live in Redmond, but I can think of a few million
places worse than that.
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The Alphabet Project: P
Almost forgot to write one today. I'm sure I would have been saddened.
P is for Proselytize
To proselytize (I always have to look up the spelling) is to attempt to
convert someone to your beliefs. Usually, in a "preachy" way. I used to
complain about proselytizers - people who felt the need to convert
others to their chosen {fill in the blank}. Even within the technology
field, we have many many of these folk. I call them fanboys when I want
to be polite (and sound less dramatic). Those who have made a decision
around an OS or programming language, or whatever. I've always felt,
"Whatever, I like...
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A moment of bliss
... will it last?
Homer is the ... not terribly easy to use or effective tool we use for
creating headlines and tracking articles internally at MSDN. Oh, wait,
wrong pronoun -- that "they" use for creating headlines and tracking
articles at MSDN. I get to uninstall it!
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The Alphabet Project: O
O is for Obfuscate
"To make something deliberately unclear." Computer folk, especially
programmers, know this one. Whether it's a contest, or inheriting
someone's code that felt it was their "job security", there is a lot of
obfuscated code out there.
I can almost understand the contests, as that's just sport (however, I see there is also an Obfuscated Perl Contest. Just a little redundant, isn't it?). However, why do people intentionally obfuscate their code when writing for a team? I've usually suggested that people write their code, "Like you'll need to look at it in 6 months." I still contend that the benefit of VB...
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The Alphabet Project: N
N is for Neologism
A neologism is a "new word". As you can probably tell from reading many of my blog posts, and if you've ever spoken to me, I love new words, and whacky words. Whether they're of my own design, like equantaince, just gnarly ones like blargle or crunchy, or even ones used inappropriately, I like to watch the English language evolve. Oh, and try to force that function as well.
Today's exercise: Invent a new word tomorrow.
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What is the sound of the other shoe falling?
Well, back in Victoria, back in front of a computer -- over a 24 hour absense of #2. Time to explain yesterday's posts.
Yesterday, November 8, 2005, was my last day with Microsoft, and with MSDN. I felt it was just time to move on to other challenges. So, I stand here in my kitchen, unemployed. Or, in the speak of our community, I'm a consultant.
The plan is for me to take some time off, recharge some batteries, and decide where to go from here. Before you all unsubscribe, though, I promise to try to make this blog more technical in...
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The Alphabet Project: M
M is for Maudlin
Maudlin is of course "overly sentimental". Which is how things have been for me the last couple of days. Reason in a moment.
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ASP.NET Dev Center stats: June 2003 to October 2005
Rationale in a moment, but I thought I'd share with all of you (just don't tell anyone at Microsoft, I might get fired) what the ASP.NET Dev Center page views have looked like historically:
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The new ASP.NET Dev Center
I missed sending this out yesterday, but for the launch, we also launched the new ASP.NET Dev Center. Slightly shinier, but mostly just streamlined. Also new on Monday was the new Visual Web Developer section. (not related to MSDN, but have you seen the new http://www.asp.net? W00t!
As far as content, two main articles from the product team:
They updated the Common ASP.NET 2.0 Conversion Issues and Solutions whitepaper.
New is a great paper on Step-By-Step Guide to Converting Web Projects from Visual Studio .NET 2002/2003 to Visual Studio 2005.
Oh, and the first bit of our new ASP.NET for Designers section -- this...
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The Alphabet Project: L
L is for Lulu
Sometimes spelled as it is pronounced, "looloo". Not to be mistaken for a "loo", which is a bathroom, although a looloo loo would be a large bathroom. Now that that bad joke is out of the way, the rationale for today's word. Today's launch, and the resulting effects it had on MSDN are a lulu -- /vstudio alone managed to bung up our publishing service for a while, as it was about 78MB, plus many thousands of page deletes, moves and whatnot. The end result is a slightly new look and organization for MSDN, Visual Studio and...
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The Alphabet Project: K
I bet you thought I was going to go with kludge, weren't you?
K is for Kerfuffle
While not a Kent exclusive word, I'm certainly one of the only people I've heard it from. A kerfuffle is a conflict or fuss. Not quite a hullabaloo. They happen when people get upset and "interactive".
Today's exercise: Create a kerfuffle at work/home tomorrow.
"Mini-Microsoft continues to create a kerfuffle internally, and externally with each post."
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The Alphabet Project: J
There's a reason J is worth 8 points in Scrabble...
J is for Juxtaposition
Juxtaposition is the act of putting two (often different) things next
to one another, usually for comparison (or just to take a photo). So,
let's juxtapose a few things and see if we can't perhaps be oblique:
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The Alphabet Project: I
Almost forgot today, with all the "stuff" happening inside the firewall.
I is for Identity
In this case, I'm thinking of the identity in the similar vein as "branding". Companies, and people alike develop a brand or identity, whether they like it or not. In my opinion, it's the feeling that you and your work evoke in others. You might be cranky, helpful, happy or whatnot, but your brand or identity is how people identify you.
Once an identity is in place, there are a few bad things that can be done about it. Of course, the first is to act outside...
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The Alphabet Project: H
Only one word came to mind today
H is for Harried
"A person or animal who is harassed or bothered, especially with petty annoyances." Launch times. Build-ups to conferences. Microsoft is an incredibly event-oriented company (probably the source of events as a major model in VB and the .NET Framework). The last days before said events, there is a scramble, and this time is the worst since the last one (which was worse than the previous, etc.). Most internal emails are followed by a barrage of "Out of Office" messages saying words to the effect of, "Working on launch stuff. Go away."...
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The Alphabet Project: G
Well, they can't all be deep...
G is for GUID
No deep reason. I just dig guids.
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Wheeee! I'm valid!
"If Duncan jumped off a bridge, would you do it too?""Well, maybe, but if his blog emits valid Atom, mine better as well."
It actually took me almost as long to figure out how to change the 'Atom 0.3' that used to be up in the subscriptions bar to 'Atom 1.0'. {harrumph. hardcoded}
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The Alphabet Project: F
Well, while the States is embroiled in assorted scandals and a new Supreme Court justice nominee (causing yet another scandal, no doubt), here in the quiet land to the North we're fuming about the Gomery Inquiry report. So, while this word may have been appropriate, I decided instead on:
F is for Fiduciary
A fiduciary is someone who holds a position of trust, usually a stock broker, real estate agent or trustee. Breaking trust is (to me) a horrendous event - perhaps it's my overly romanticized version of loyalty and honour, but I get nauseous when I don't finish a job when I said I...
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The Alphabet Project: E
I was originally going to use "ept", but I felt that would degrade into a George Carlin routine. Instead, I use one of my favourite pretentious words;
E is for Egregious
Egregious is just one of those fun words (IMO) to let flow off the tongue e-GREE-jus (using my own non-official pronounciation key). We all see the egregious everyday - it's something way beyond bad. Egregious decisions, egregious coworkers, they all surround all of us in this industry. What makes it even more fun is that originally it was a good thing, something that "stood out from the herd". Ain't it funny...