Hey folks – like all good things, this too comes to an end. Today is my last day at Microsoft. It’s been a great ride, but it’s time for me to see what’s next. I plan to spend the next few months traveling (reacquainting myself with sunlight and big-city...

I’ve been asked a few times lately about what’s developers should find cool about Vista besides the .NET Framework 3.0, and I figured I should post my response here too. I can’t say enough good stuff about the native APIs in Vista – we’ve been pretty...

That’s right, folks – we’ve finally shipped. In fact, we’ve shipped more or less everything – Vista , Office , and of course the .NET Framework 3.0 . It’s officially a trifecta. I’m so glad we’ve finally got everything out there into customers’ hands...

I spent some time a couple weeks ago (my, how time flies) at the Grace Hopper Conference in San Diego . Rear Admiral Grace Hopper was a pioneering female computer scientist, the woman who popularized the term “bug” – I’ve seen the Mark IV in Cambridge...

It's things like this that make me happy to be in this industry. (I know, I'm late to the game, but I've been half-writing posts and never getting to post them lately -- rather like my million drafted mails that have slowly become too irrelevant to...

And that brings us to…RC1. That’s right, over Labor Day Weekend we published the release candidate for both Windows Vista and the .NET Framework 3.0. (What was I doing between TechEd and Labor Day, you ask? That’s where all that beach time comes in.)...

Ah yes, the renaming of WinFX to the .NET Framework 3.0. By now it’s been so long that the new name seems completely natural. I think Soma’s blog post says it all, and we really think this will be the best choice for our customers longterm. We’re not...

Then came Beta2, which was exciting. I love releases, because we can finally get our latest bits in the hands of customers. (Of course, “latest” is only in a manner of speaking – given all the stabilization work we do on the bits, there’s a significant...

I then got to go on the road for the EMEA (that’s Europe, the Middle East, and Africa for those of you playing along) WinFX roadshow ! I had quick stop in London , then kicked off the tour in Rotterdam , and followed it up with a few talks in Nice. Yes...

After the February CTP (and even before, I guess), it was time to start getting everything together for MIX06 . Steve Maine and I worked on a “Sites as Services” talk given by Clemens Vasters explaining how WCF lets you expose your content (aka your web...

How long does a blog have to hibernate before losing its value? I had thought I had already passed the Rubicon of blog death with this blog, but this morning I changed my mind. I think it was the rain – I’ve spent every spare minute I had this past month...

The February CTP is finally available for download, along with sync’d versions of the rest of the WinFX experience: the Windows SDK , the “Orcas” CT P for Development Tools for WinFX (a role that used to be fulfilled by Visual Studio Extensions for WinFX...

I’m finally back, after a few weeks working harder (and more) than I can remember recently, though I'm in good company--there's been a lot of hard work happening on this campus. But now I’m pleased to announce a bunch of stuff: - http://windowscommunication...

One of the reasons I like working with the WCF team. Yes, that’s what every day at the office is like. Well, many days. It’s the holiday season at Microsoft now, which is a combination of very productive and utterly frustrating. It’s a great (quiet...

Well, here I am in Sydney , trying to work on the talks I’m giving over the next couple days, but it’s a constant temptation to go out and discover the city. It’s remarkably disappointing to be sent to all sorts of glamorous locations and then have no...

I know, I know, I’m supposed to post about DevConnections, but between my computer disappearing (a quick PSA here on the importance of backups: don’t ever think you’re “too busy” to back up your hard drive), my RSI flaring up, and the sheer length I’m...

Still totally snowed under from my DevConnections Vegas talks last week (which I will post more about), but wanted to get up a quick note about current publicly available WinFX builds: the latest matching WinFX/VS builds are the WinFX September CTP +...

Since I posted the code for a basic service/client, I’ve gotten a few requests for additional functionality, particularly the code that we used to demo the security/logging functionality Payam showed. Here’s what you do: -first of all, let’s simplify...

Now that the Indigo Roadshow is officially over, I’m hoping to have some time to breathe and recap. After PDC, Payam and I did a whirlwind of stops through Chicago, Philadelphia, and Columbus. Payam, who’s Canadian and very well-traveled, kept complaining...

Theoretically, I’m on vacation now, and therefore shouldn’t be touching a computer. But in reality I’m out at home in rural America , and the most interesting thing around is our new wireless network. So, why not post? This is the belated PDC post...

I just wanted to also post a note about the Women and Tech Luncheon at the PDC, which grew out of an idea some of us had at lunch a few months ago. Jennifer Ritzinger's been doing such a good job with it I haven't figured out many ways to help, despite...

After just posting about both Rich and Payam, I realized that I hadn’t actually explained who they are. The Web Services Strategy team is currently made of me, Richard Turner , and Payam Shodjai, working under Ari Bixhorn. Rich and Payam both used to...

Last week, Payam Shodjai and I did the third stop of the roadshow in Orange County , CA . It was a little quieter than our other roadshow stops so far, but we got some great questions. One question in particular that both Payam and I couldn’t answer for...

I think that brings us more or less to today, and why I was trapped in Atlanta airport overnight. The current big thing I’m working on is the Indigo User Group tour: we’re sending a couple speakers from the Web Services Strategy team on a ten-city tour...

Next on the list was TechEd Orlando, where Indigo and the Distributed Systems Group were part of the Connected Systems Infrastructure track. I was lucky enough to do a demo in Bob Muglia’s general session. In that talk, I presented a healthcare...