KMorrill's WebLog

Next week, I start working on the SharePoint Server team. This is a big change for me after working for 7 years in the Developer Division. Working on setup and patching has been exciting and taught me more than I could have imagined. The downside has...

There's a fairly good article on some of the key points of Office 2007's programmability experience at http://www.adtmag.com/article.aspx?id=18978 I don't directly work on this at Microsoft, but have been following it more as a user. I am really interested...

I have been playing with an idea for several months now in my head. I want it to be easier for average people to program on their own. This is something that has been pursued in CS for a long time, and it is a bit of an impossible dream to many people...

There is a cool write up on this at http://nintendo.about.com/library/procedural/blprocedural1.htm .kkrieger looks sweet! I hope there are some great things exposed as a platform for game developers soon so they don't have to keep re-inventing how...

I read an interesting article this morning: Microsoft Working Through Windows Vista Bugs TechWeb- July 10, 2006 A Windows developer and consultant who analyzed a database of reported Windows Vista bugs says Microsoft has been quickly addressing...

I stumbled across the book Think! by Michael R. LeGault today at Barnes and Noble. The book caught my eye because it's cover was an obvious play on the book Blink by Malcolm Gladwell. I am about a fifth into the book and can't help but nod my head furiously...

I am in the midst of reading Thomas Friedman's book The World Is Flat. I should have read it months ago when it first came out. It's the rare book that I can go for long stretches reading, but this is one. I was up until 5 AM last night and into this...

I just finished reading Frank Lloyd Wright's autobiography. This was an awesome book, and I kept having moments along there way where I would cheer one of his brilliant statements. Some of my favorite quotes... "But whom are you goign to build homes...

I am in the midst of working on a plan for how file versions will be revised as the Whidbey versions of .NET Framework and Visual Studio are developed. The team I am working with is very curious whether any customers directly poke at file versions inside...

Wow, I've been really latent in posting blogs, but I guess I have to get started again one way or another. I am actually at a conference this week, so I am getting a chance to lift my nose up from the work immediately in front of me. I wrote a mail to...

I just finished watching this week's show. It looks like this year is shapping up to be a reverse of last year, where now several women get peeled off the team early on. I am pretty sure they'll be back in the boardroom next week too, because it doesn...

I just finished watching this week's show. It looks like this year is shapping up to be a reverse of last year, where now several women get peeled off the team early on. I am pretty sure they'll be back in the boardroom next week too, because it doesn...

So I just finished watching the first episode in the new Apprentice season. I remember laughing at all the self-promotion jabs Trump got in in the first season, and just enjoying them as more humor than anything bording on serious. I noticed in the new...

In the latest issue of Fortune magazine, there is a pretty mind blowing article on a guy named John “Winter” Smith who is attempting to visit each and ever Starbucks location. I find myself joking frequently with friends that there must be...

I made it into TechEd this afternoon without any hitches. The weather was just starting to look up as we pulled out of Seattle, but no doubt pales in comparison to the sun and palm trees down here. I always love seeing Mt. Rainer from up in the air, and...

I wanted to make sure and blog this before I lost the link. I frequently get asked how to detect whether the .NET Framework is installed and chain it into a setup as a prequisite. The Setup.exe Bootstrapper Sample includes sample codes that shows exactly...

I have been meaning to write a blog on Creating Product People Love for a few weeks now, and am finally getting around to it. I remember seeing a talk on this very topic several years back, and unfortunately my notes from it got trashed when I accidentally...

I just posted pictures from my recent expedition to the Columbia River Gorge up at Kevin Morrill's Photos . Really cool shots of Pony Tail and Wahkeena Falls. If you live in the Seattle/Portland area and haven't ever driven through the Columbia River...

Michael Dunn from the Windows Deployment team wrote a good post on building a solid setup. For those that didn't catch it, it can be found at: http://blogs.msdn.com/mdunn/archive/2004/04/09/110702.aspx -Kevin

One of the things I work with on my team is how customers deploy their applications when they depend on a redistributable such as the .NET Framework or J#. I am just starting to get my arms around this space, and have more questions than answers right...

I sat down for breakfast this morning after plunking down $1.50 for a copy of the Seattle Times. I usually find myself more distressed than encouraged after reading the paper. So I was pleasantly surprised when I flipped to the local news section today...

Our team just finished doing usability research on Visual Studio's setup. These studies are always fascinating to me, because even the most seemingly simple interface can completely crash and burn when presented to someone who is not biased by the effort...

Okay, this is my first ever attempt at writing a blog. I am pitifully behind the times, but I figured better late then never....