You know, the person that everyone listens to, makes outlandish statements that may offend people on occasion, and then has to issue statements like this... Everyone has days and events in life they’d love to push the rewind button on, yesterday was one of those days. Regardless of my opinions, thoughts...

I posted my experience being hit and run by a car yesterday on my personal blog. I'm posting the link here as a cautionary tale for other softies I know bike to work regularly. I saw a red car out of the corner of my eye quickly cut in-front of me and attempt to turn right onto the cross street without...

Blogs.msdn.com just doesn't seem like the place to post about cooking, the Red Sox, my kidmanals, and all the other non-Microsoft related banter that crosses my mind. So Gretchen and I started www.ledgards.com . The site probably has a different audience than this one, but I wanted to let folks here...

I'm not sure that the humor found here would translate well . Nevermind, I'd love to see what would happen to this on the translation wiki. I've been a bad blog reader of late. I actually found this because before I started a presentation yesterday someone said "Hey, it's Josh Hartnett!" I was a little...

I can't keep up with Gretchen's blogs anymore. She has the www.jobsyntax.com company and blog. She is also blogging and marketing for www.jobburner.com . Then, this week, we decided we wanted a site for personal blogs. I really don't want to bore you people with my thoughts on wine, cooking, and pictures...

I removed the "My Blog Log" list of recent readers from the side of my page. That group, now at Yahoo, has some work to do in order to deal with the SPAM. For the last couple of days my recent reader list has included ads for "free online pharmacies" and "Free ipods". I love the idea of getting to know...

I know these posts haven't been very technical or work related, but trust that we're actually doing business here. In fact, meeting with the community support team went very well. Ok, here are some interesting pictures from the last couple of days. Every day started for me in the dark when I'd...

You can't capture the enormity of Shanghai in a picture. There really isn't a location that lets you see the "skyline" because the skyline is all around you and extends so far that you can't see the edges of the skyscrapers. The picture here is really just one small part of the skyline. We drove for...

Today we went out for lunch with a few of the team members and leads here. It was actually more than a lunch as it was three team member Birthdays. I made sure to get the bottled soda, but amidst the bowls of food put in front of us ended up eating pig intestines, blood tofu, and green tea ice cream...

What would Jon Stewart say? I stumbled upon "The Daily Show" in regular rotation on CNN Global while I was trying to fall asleep last night. A great surprise for this traveler, but I found it strangely ironic when he started bashing the "24 hour news networks". And of course they where hyping that Bill...

Made it to my hotel room tonight in Shanghai. The ride from the Airport was an adventure. We started 45 minutes out, but the driver said he was going to "make time". He didn't lie. He flashed more cars with high beams than a Girls Gone Wild TV spot and I think he was also a Nascar fan. The other drivers...

And although this entry won't post until possibly Monday I'm currently two and a half hours into a 10 flight to Tokyo. From there it's simply a short hop over to Shanghai where I'll be spending the next week working with the developer support staff that will be helping customers out in our online communities...

I was asked recently if I had any advice for people that might be considering the move to Seattle and possibly Microsoft. Given that Tuesday was the 4th day in the last week I've been trapped at the top of a road turned ice-skating rink it might be a bad time to ask. Anyway, here is a random collection...

I’m glad that the Xbox team hedged their bets on next generation digital video. I’m not convinced, like Robert , that HD video is going to take off in the next 10 years outside of the TV realm. I’m not even convinced it will be much of a service differentiator. Why do I think this? Tech adoption is like...

And furthermore.. how do i turn it off? I was recently asked what application you should use to detect programs and services that run when you start windows. While it's not my area of expertise I would personally recommend Autoruns . It's fairly comprehensive, links to online searches, is free of...

I’ve been tagged by Brain Harry in the 5 things you may not know about me meme. 1. I love cooking… and not just because Gretchen leaves the kitchen looking like a tornado hit after producing grilled cheese sandwiches. Her Christmas gifts to me included subscriptions to Cooking Light & Food and...

These were taken last night in sammamish where we got a (for us) crazy 5 inches of snow. I know there are those of you that live in Seattle that think it's crazy that 1/4" of snow can shut down a city, but the road leading up to our house is a sheet of ice on a steep incline and a snowmobile just...

I work for Microsoft. So that probably discredits everything I'm about to say despite the fact that our family has 2 iPods and has bought hundreds of dollars worth of music from iTunes. Here are some of the things I would have expected from the iPhone that would have been more tempting to me as an i...

I alluded to my purchase of the Nintendo Wii but I really didn't talk about the system itself. The Wii is the ultimate party box as far as I'm concerned for those of you that still meet people in person. The innovation of the Wiimote controller gives the system a universal appeal for games in a way I...

Getting some newfangled device, like a Wii, can be a challenge if you work and live in a tech-happy environment like Seattle or Redmond. In the end, losing power for 3+ days was the break I needed to get mine. On Saturday, December 17th, Gretchen and I where able to get a good night's sleep by staying...

A few folks have pointed out that my blog was "mini'd". It wasn't bad press so I figured I'd mention it here. Really he just linked to a recent Engineering Excellence talk I gave on the topic of "Cross Group Collaboration". The small bit of Microsoft culture you have to figure out what to do with: our...

1. Rent HD movies on your Xbox and purchase TV shows . This is something I thought would be really cool, but never thought we'd see. I just hope the library of movies is better than what's on Itunes today. At least the resolution is killer and it seems like the price is right for a 14 day rental. 2....

Late last week I was asked if I would be interested in interviewing Monday and Tuesday in Vancouver. For whatever reason I decided to fly... it's a choice I won't make again. I really don't know why I choose to fly. I was bumped off of one flight and just missed making an earlier flight on the way back...

I said I'd follow up when I got my 360 returned to me from support . I actually got it back before I left for vacation a couple weeks ago. They told me it would take 10 business days round trip and I think I got it back in around 4-5 business days. They opted to just replace my unit and, sure enough...

There are a lot of small things I've neglected blogging about and I figured I could make up for it in one post that covers a bunch of ground. Self employed Ledgard: The obvious one has been watching Gretchen transition from the steady paycheck comfort of Microsoft to self employment . Our plan was...