Adam Nathan's Blog : Misc

Petzold strikes again!

Adam Nathan — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 20:11:00 GMT

(Or, rather, struck again last summer.) I just found Jeff's post about receiving a book from Petzold complete with witty comments. I was also a lucky recipient of an autographed book, so I thought I'd share what Petzold had to say to me:

Funny stuff! (He's referring to this discussion, in case you missed it.) I haven't had a chance to read the book, but it looks really good. To say "thank you," I've been meaning to send him a signed copy of Silverlight 1.0 Unleashed, but I haven't been able to come up with something witty enough to say. "No third dimension, alas, but plenty of color?"

Thoughts from the author of cards.dll

Adam Nathan — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 07:43:00 GMT

I got an email the other day that I thought I'd share (with permission from the author and with names removed). This is in reference to my post last year:

Hey - Don't make fun of cards.dll! I wrote it!

Back in the mid 80s (I think - it's been a while) a bunch of guys in the Excel group along with a few other miscellaneous MS employees decided to write a poker server and then we would each write a poker player. We had an interface so the dealer could deal hands to any set of player programs and then the AI in the individual players would bet and we'd see who wrote the best player. Of course we needed a DLL to draw the cards and so one evening I wrote the 50 lines of code or so and called it cards.dll. We were programmers, not artists, so initially we did screen grabs of a DOS solitaire game's cards and used those bitmaps. Later, XXX asked if he could use cards.dll for solitaire. I gave it to him, a bunch of MS artists replaced our highjacked images with the awe inspiring ones you seem very fond of and the rest is history.

They served their purpose, but you're right, they're looking a bit antiquated these days.

This one's for John...

Adam Nathan — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 17:39:00 GMT

John said I need to update my blog. Since he's currently my manager, I guess I should listen to him. Things are a *bit* busy with my day job, my night job, and my late night job, so I think I'll consider this update complete. Mission accomplished!

.NET and COM: Available once again in non-electronic form

Adam Nathan — Mon, 15 May 2006 17:30:00 GMT

As I mentioned in my earlier post, my .NET and COM book is now being printed on-demand and can be purchased only at the following location (and perhaps only for a limited time?):

http://www.samspublishing.com/title/067232170X

Enjoy!

My encounter with another Adam Nathan

Adam Nathan — Tue, 02 May 2006 17:20:00 GMT

I felt a bit like Dave Gorman when I recently got an e-mail out of the blue from another Adam Nathan. He said, "there's lots of us out there (Adam Nathans) that is, but you are the one who shows up when I google my name, and I'm the other one who shows up when you google your name." Indeed, this was Adam Nathan the actor, whom I reference on my About page.

What came as a surprise was that he is the person who owns adamnathan.com, he now lives in the Seattle area, and he is now a .NET developer! Imagine that!

We exchanged some e-mail, chatted on the phone, and will probably meet up in the near future. Realizing that I probably won't be able to convince him to give up the domain name, I went ahead and registered adamnathan.net. :)

This just in: .NET and COM is coming back in print!

Adam Nathan — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 20:58:00 GMT

A few months ago I mentioned that my .NET and COM book went out of print. Well, after getting regular streams of e-mail from people who still wanted to get a copy (which I forwarded on to the publisher), I can now happily say that they are planning to print more!

I believe it's going to be some kind of on-demand printing that will only be available for purchase at samspublishing.com (so no Amazon / B&N). I'll post more info when I get it (which I'm told should be in about a week).

WPF Book Update (and SD West 2006)

Adam Nathan — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 17:15:00 GMT

Long time no blog, but I’ve got a good excuse. Since my last post, I’ve become a father! This event, of course, made me seriously doubt (even more than usual) the wisdom of writing another book. Here's a quote from my wife:

“You wrote a book during our first year of marriage. You’re writing a book during your first year of fatherhood. Are there any more firsts you can ruin?”

For some reason, explaining that I can’t control the timing of ground-breaking Microsoft technologies didn’t help my case!

I almost called it quits, but I’m once again writing (every night from 9 to midnight, while my son is sleeping) and actually making good progress. I started in November, and now I’m about half-way done (with the first draft, anyway)! I’m really excited about the book, but it’s still too early to give specifics. So stay tuned.

In other news, right now I’m flying down to Santa Clara to speak about C++ & WinFX at SD West 2006. Maybe I’ll see you there!

Windows Vista: More little things in the December CTP

Adam Nathan — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 18:48:00 GMT

In August I mentioned some of the little improvements in Windows Vista Beta 1 that made using my computer more enjoyable. Now that I've installed the December CTP (released yesterday), here are some screenshots of a few new things that instantly jump out at me:

Finally! A decent calendar and clock when you click the time in the Taskbar.

A separate dialog enables you to change the date and time. The shields indicate actions that require elevated privileges. These are now used pretty consistently throughout the UI.

Start menu searching has more enhancements, although you still can't search the control panel from here... (grumble, grumble...)

The new standard Save dialog caught me off guard, but clicking "Browse Folders" gives a familiar experience.

The Control Panel now has a Recent Tasks section in the lower left corner. That's handy!

Speaking of the Control Panel, it has several new areas, including:
(Click on the thumbnails for larger images.)

A cool Network Map:

AutoPlay settings:

A handy Performance Center:

Also, be sure to check out the December CTP for the Microsoft Visual Studio Blah Blah Blah WinFX Development Tools. It's an add-on for Visual Studio 2005 that includes a first peek at "Cider," the WPF designer for Visual Studio!

The passing of one book and the birth of another

Adam Nathan — Mon, 12 Dec 2005 18:15:00 GMT

It's official... I got a letter informing me that .NET and COM, almost four years after its release, is out of print. Of course, it still lives on in PDF form. Like Luke, I've sometimes been baffled by the apparent lack of supply. I've been told many times about someone that wanted to get a copy of it but wasn't able to. But I figure if supply/demand was really out of whack then I would have heard about an Xbox 360-style bidding frenzy on eBay!

After finishing .NET and COM, I said I would never write another book. At the same time, I knew that as the years passed I would start forgetting about how bad the process really was and only remember the good things. I really appreciate the kind words from many folks via e-mail, in person, on this blog, and on sites like Amazon. The amount of positive feedback I've received has been overwhelming, making it even easier to forget about the enormous amount of work and sacrifices it took to create the book! (Although I did save a particularly nasty voicemail where I got chewed out for being waaaaaaay past a number of deadlines.)

Besides the fading of bad memories, something else happened this year. My job led me to a fantastic new technology that I feel really passionate about. Therefore, I have given into temptation and decided to write a book about my new favorite technology: WPF!

Stay tuned for more info...

That mysterious "proprietary" blackout in the PDC keynote webcast...

Adam Nathan — Tue, 13 Sep 2005 22:48:00 GMT

...was a parody video with Napoleon Dynamite and Bill Gates. It's too bad it couldn't be broadcast, because it was very funny! But Joshua Trupin has a blurry photo of it on his blog. Maybe there are more out there...

Other highlights from Bill's part of the keyone:

http://microsoftgadgets.com/: Find out more about developing gadgets for Windows Sidebar and Windows Sideshow
Games & parental controls
IE's phishing filter
Some Office "12" pizazz

In Jim's part, we saw:

Video of Crytek's upcoming game, contrasted with Reversi from Windows 1.0
Demo of SuperFetch & leveraging a USB memory stick to get more virtual memory (cool)!
An introduction of "WPF/E": a subset of WPF in which you use XAML but the language is javascript. (The "E" stands for "Everywhere")
Demo of a rich Netflix app based on WPF (& the .NET Compact Framework for the small form factor)
A little about InfoCards and People Near Me
A lap around the platform with Don, Anders, Chris, and Scott, featuring a look at LINQ
Microsoft Codename Max
A rich Northface application using WPF
The Digital Locker

The keynote featured a new form of entertainment: watching the closed caption person struggle to figure out what everyone was saying!

Tags: PDC, PDC05

Light up with WPF: The Video

Adam Nathan — Tue, 13 Sep 2005 22:33:00 GMT

Now playing on Channel 9:

http://channel9.msdn.com/showpost.aspx?postid=114690

This covers one item on that top 10 list. And the focus is on an existing applications... taking advantage of your existing code rather than rewriting everything from scratch. Enjoy!

Tags: PDC, PDC05

The best screenshots from the PDC...

Adam Nathan — Tue, 13 Sep 2005 08:52:00 GMT

...come from Mike Hall: this and this.

Tags: PDC, PDC05

Where I'll be @ PDC

Adam Nathan — Sun, 11 Sep 2005 20:30:00 GMT

I don't know my entire schedule yet, but the following are some definite places & times where you can find me:

Tuesday:
2:30-3:00PM:   Fundamentals Track Lounge
3:00-4:00PM:   Tools & Languages Track Lounge ("Meet the SDK Team")
4:00-5:30PM:   Fundamentals Track Lounge
6:00-9:00PM:   Product Pavilion: "Microsoft Windows Software Development Kit (SDK)"

Wednesday:
8:00-8:30PM:   Tech Check for FUN318 (That's just a reminder for myself.)

Thursday:
3:00-4:00PM:   Tools & Languages Track Lounge ("Meet the SDK Team")
5:15-6:30PM:   Speaking in Petree Hall (Hall C/D) (Using Win32/WinFX Integration to Light-Up on Windows Vista)
6:30-9:00PM:   Ask the Experts (Fundamentals - System Internals table)

Friday:
8:30-11:30AM:   Fundamentals Track Lounge
7:00PM:   Back in Seattle, watching Jerry Seinfeld perform at the Paramount!

I'll post any updates here. Don't be afraid to track me down! I'm here to talk to attendees, after all!

Tags: PDC, PDC05

The artwork of PDCs through the years

Adam Nathan — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 03:39:00 GMT

As you might now, this PDC will be the 11th one. I've put together the logos from PDCs past (courtesy of Steve Cellini and Robert Hess):

Has anyone out there (other than Robert Hess) been to all 10? Do these images bring back any memories?

As with Jim Miller's transformation, I've put together a little "XAML slide show" of PDC logos. So plop the following into XAMLPAD (if you've got the Beta 1 WinFX SDK), play the preview of "Through the Years" on MSN Music, and enjoy:

Tags: PDC, PDC05

There goes my dream of being a rock star...

Adam Nathan — Fri, 09 Sep 2005 21:40:00 GMT

For anyone that was wondering about the fate of my audition, I got the following response today:

Hello and thank you so much for your interest in Going Beyond Spotlight 2005!!! The response to our contest was OVERWHELMING with dozens and dozens of talented Microsoft employees. It has been so difficult to choose just SIX finalists to perform at Company Meeting 2005.

Unfortunately, despite your EXCELLENT audition, we regret to inform you that you have not been chosen to perform at Company Meeting this year. We truly enjoyed your audition, and we hope that you will keep going beyond with your singing. Thank you for sharing your gift with us.

I've got a sneaking suspicion that everyone's audition was "EXCELLENT." But somehow a form letter seems more personal when multiple exclamation points and ALL CAPS are used. Anyway, I guess the world just isn't ready for my unique "gift." :)