I had a unique opportunity to spend 6 weeks in Asia – specifically in India, Cambodia and Thailand from early November to late December. And while this was a personal trip, I observed technology trends that were quite different from the US. Here are a few that I noticed: - WiFi is not ubiquitous. Unlike...

Over the next few weeks, I’m traveling around the world spending time with friends and family. I plan to stay unplugged from work the entire time. But unplugged from work doesn’t mean unplugged from technology. :-) Here’s how I’m balancing the art of staying unplugged from work and still remaining connected...

First of all, happy new year to everyone! I've been on vacation for the last couple weeks and have another week of vacation left. :-) I just came back from India where our families hosted a wedding reception for friends and family in India. It was amazing... I'll post pictures and news on my personal...

These days, most of our information and announcements come in the form of our SharePoint Team Blog @ http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint . I think a team blog is a great way to communicate information about a specific technology and provides many different perspectives. As a result of having a team blog...

I've been a little quiet in the blogosphere over the last few months, and there's good reason for that. Last Friday, September 7 th , I proposed to my girlfriend and she said yes. J It's definitely the beginning of a new chapter in my life… and needless to say, it trumps any other moment in my professional...

Stefan Gossner, a friend and colleague of mine, "tagged" me as did Spence Harbar , friend and MVP. Basically, I have to say 5 things that people may not necessarily know about me. Since this isn't work related and I'm on vacation, I thought I'd go ahead and come up with 5. Here goes: 1. I've lived...

I spent new year's eve and christmas with family and friends this year on the east coast. I had the opportunity to meet some great new people and really relax. The weather here was also very moderate - 50 degrees during the day. I also enjoyed my new christmas gifts - a Zune and a new digital camera...

One of my really good friends, Rishad Wadia, runs a small company that uses Microsoft technology. The company has about 15 people and they use Small Business Server for email and scheduling . I recently introduced him to the world of SharePoint technology and he's excited about its potential at his company...

If you haven't been to http://www.live.com , created your own personal dashboard and used the search - you must check it out. It's great!

I wrote an article for an online magazine, GenerationIndia, 15-18 months or so ago. You can find it in the past issues section of the website today. Several folks have asked me to post it elsewhere since the website requires you to register. Well, here it is . Even though it's 1.5 years old, the content...

I spent last evening with a couple friends of mine: Rishad Wadia and Uma Lakhani. We had dinner at an Indian restaurant in downtown Seattle. We were in our own little world when we realized there were people in the restaurant who didn't quite understand what we were saying. It seemed almost Seinfeld...

I read the business week article and, while I found it interesting as a whole, I found the whole Mini-Microsoft bit most entertaining. I have nothing against stating opinions... in fact, I think it's healthy and should be promoted. Everyone has a right to their own opinion. There are only two things...

There's a lot of great buzz in the community as well as Microsoft around the next version of Windows SharePoint Services and Office "12" servers. The amount of investment that's going into these technologies, if it wasn't obvious at PDC, is tremendous. I thought I'd take a moment to share with you my...

I had an interesting conversation with a poker beginner recently. So I thought I'd blog about it. It's rather interesting to watch new poker players... they tend to lay down "good cards" early or, more often, they tend to hold on to bad cards until the end. Almost every new beginner I meet tends to...

In my opinion, the best blog out there for new information on CMS and SharePoint Products and Technologies is Mark Harrison's blog @ http://markharrison.co.uk/blog/default.aspx . Mark blogs on a near-daily basis and posts high-quality information. If you haven't subscribed to Mark's blog, you're definitely...

This blog entry has been rewritten to focus on the content of the article. I came across Mike Drip's article recently that is published on informat.com. I don't feel the content of the article provides constructive feedback or solutions to SharePoint development. It seems like the article vents frustration...

I went to a U2 concert last night. It was fantastic. Mind blowing. After all these years, U2 still attracts people of all different ages and backgrounds. It's even more admirable how Bono uses his popularity and songs to try and change the world; to talk about the issues we frequently like to avoid....

I spent this weekend with family and friends. This weekend marked the 1-year death anniversary of a close friend of mine. He was only 26 years old when he passed away in an unfortunate accident. At times like this, I always take some time away from work, albeit 1-2 days, and think about the people close...

The Tsunami destruction here has been devastating. Over 140,000 people are reported dead in several countries with the toll still rising; over 95 quakes have been recorded in the last one week since the magnitude 9.0 earthquake. I encourage everyone to make a donation to help the victims of this terrible...

I'm in India right now on vacation visiting extended family and friends. I've been here since the 20th and will be on vacation for the next few weeks. I have, almost, completely detached myself from work (haven't checked work email for the last 1+ week) and I've just really begun enjoying my vacation...

I'm not a republican. I'm not a democrat. I'm an American. I became a naturalized citizen a few years ago. I'm a proud American who believes in this nation, its people and the opportunity that it offers. However, I'm still surprised at some of the "unexplainable" aspects of the American election process...

It was the 9th inning. The Red Sox were up. I still remember that night. My friends were at my house and before the game was over, everyone was beginning to go home. The Red Sox had won the World Series... or had they? The Mets came back to win Game 6 and then Game 7 in the '86 World Series. Arguably...

Ok. So I'm not a big baseball fan. But when it comes to the Red Sox against the Yankees, it's Red Sox all the way. Ortiz is the man. If the Sox can come back and win it from 3-0, that will be the sweetest victory ever. Go Sox!

I'm not sure how many people know, but MIT uses CMS to manage its courses online. A few years ago, MIT announced a very forward thinking initiative - to make all its courseware available, free of charge, to the greater community. Today, the OpenCourseWare website is available to anyone. I'm proud to...

I recently went to the Dominican Republic (DR) to visit a SharePoint customer. Here's a picture with me (in the middle), the Microsoft Dominican Republic Team and Rem from Captaris Teamplate (in the white shirt). I really enjoyed my time in DR. The people are very friendly and the place itself reminds...