Although it’s Saturday and I’m currently doing a bit of work, I’m happy to say that I have had a bit more time lately for non-work projects. In addition to a few small projects around the house, I’ve had a chance to do a bit of work on my motorcycle (Ducati Monster). A few weeks ago, I chopped the tail...

Travel notes below, but first, I have a question for you . Parkinson's law states that "work will always expand to fill available time" - that the lengthened schedule encourages procrastination or inefficiency. Is the inverse ever true? I.e. if you have less time for a project, will your efficiency...

If you read my blog through syndication, you won't know what I'm talking about. However, if you read it from here , you have probably noticed the long list of blogs cluttering up the right side of the screen. I use newsgator to read blogs, and also to generate my blogroll. Unfortunately, although the...

I had doubts about live writer working with community server, but it looks like it works. I'm also going to see how well live writer edits existing posts, so I apologize in advance for making edits to this post. It seems to do most of what I need. It's non-intuitive how to do a table or a code block...

Last week I was home taking care of a few random work issues after dinner. I was wrapping up, and, as I usually do before I go to bed, logged into my hotmail account to clean up the daily deluge of email (I use my hotmail account primarily for non-work related mailing lists, so I get 20 or so messages...

Not that there's anyone eagerly anticipating my next entry, but anytime I don't blog for a while, you can safely assume that my day job is taking all of my time. The good news is that I have a lot to get off of my chest, so I'll be getting some writing practice in over the next few days. Things to...

Since I started this blog a few years ago, I’ve gone through a few phases where I took some time to try to find a blog editor that fit my needs. My needs are pretty simple – all I really want is an editor where it’s easy to do any text formatting I want. I don’t usually do crazy formatting, but somehow...

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I like being a "d-list" blogger . I know I don't post often, but I enjoy writing and many of the posts I've written have actually helped me think through testing issues close to me. My current team contains some of the best software testing thinkers at Microsoft. Of...

I'm on my way home from PSQT . McCarran airport in Vegas has free wireless, so I was able to find an unpopulated corner to charge my laptop and get some work done. The conference was good - presentations were on the level of STAR , but this is a much smaller conference (~100 total attendees). I had...

Only a few will know what the title of this post is. It has nothing to do with this post, but it was the line playing on my Zen player when I began typing this. I just finished a week teaching in Ireland. I didn't have time to do much in Dublin other than just work, but I had a great time. I do miss...

Readers who know me already know that I have no plans in my career to manage people. Although I've been a successful manager in the past, I get more satisfaction as an "individual contributor". However, since I work with managers so much, I crashed a 4 day manager training event last week. Overall, I...

Once again, the beast called work has taken me away from blogging. The good news is that I thought of a bunch of stuff to talk about - which is a good thing when you don't really work on a product and have to find other stuff to blog about. It was a few days short of a year ago that I started on the...

I "learned" to type about 25 years ago in high school. The truth is that I went to typing class, but I didn't pay attention much, and I was in a stage where...certain..."chemicals" altered my outlook on school, and in particular that little round ball bouncing up and down while I typed...but that's a...

Ever have one of those periods of time where you work your butt off all day long and at the end of the day realize you barely made a dent in the backlog of work that has to be done "asap"? That was the last two days for me. My wife was generous enough to offer to take care of both kids on Sunday to...

I wanted to reflect a bit on why my posting has dropped off so much since I changed positions at Microsoft. I'm not convinced that my postings will become more regular while I'm in this position, but on the other hand, I don't see why they shouldn't. I think the main differences between my current...

I have no more excuses on why I haven't posted - nor do I have any promises of returning to consistent schedule that this post once had.  This post is merely a tickle to the two or three people who still have a subscription to my RSS feed.   I have a lot to say, and hope to find time to say it...

I'm sure this topic has been discussed before, but not by me. During my transition, I was asked a few times about the internal transfer process at Microsoft. Gretchen and many others have posted about the interview process for new (prospective) employees, but apparently there isn't much about the internal...

One of the things I like the least about Microsoft is how large the company has become - it also happens to be one of the great things about the company. Before you tell me to shut up and stop being so confusing, I'll try to explain myself. One advantage of having so many different technologies at one...

I think that we (“we”==my team, Microsoft, and the Industry) waste way too much time “doing” email, and I am amazed how much we tolerate this waste. I interact with a lot of people of various levels of influence, and in my experience, the “typical employee” has email running constantly and stops what...

I think everyone has seen blog postings that have a little “what am I listening to?” p.s. statement.  Although I’m sure someone somewhere would be interested in my love of gangster folk, I thought it would be more interesting to tell you what I’m drinking.  No – I don’t drink at work, nor do I drink...

I’ve noticed a few things about blogs lately. One is that just about every time I say I’m going to post an article or series of articles, my life goes into overdrive, and I don’t post for a week or two. Chances are that if you’re reading this, I don’t need to explain any more. The other thing I’ve noticed...

Not Automatic, but Automobile. I'm babysitting this morning (and now afternoon). I had some errands to run (i.e go get coffee from a drive through stand), so I loaded up my son in his car seat and took off. As usual, he fell asleep within minutes. I have to meet my wife downtown with the kid in an hour...