Randy Holloway at Microsoft

Tons of people have been blogging Longhorn this year, yet I've seen very little about Yukon . I'm hoping to change some of that in the coming days and weeks. But for now, searching Google News for updated information about Yukon leads to this... more...

I recently read the Bill Gates keynote from WinHEC and I have a few thoughts: 1. Personally, I think Bill is a phenomenal speaker and presenter. I know many would disagree. His style is pretty subdued, yet every time I've seen him speak I always really...

I installed a new Yukon build yesterday. Everything I need for my work with Yukon is implemented in the build right now, but there are still a few rough edges to smooth out. The install was a little tricky and I broke a few of my existing applications...

I'm running three versions of the .NET Framework concurrently. All I can say is "ouch". Its not that I expect to have no issues, and its not that the issues aren't documented (like ASP.NET configuration changes for IIS servers), or easily researched....

Mary Jo provides an overview of some the upcoming features in Whidbey, and emphasizes the link between that product and the Yukon release. If anything concerns me about the upcoming Yukon release, this dependency is it. Its going to be tough to coordinate...

CRN has an interesting article on changes to the UI programming model in Longhorn. The article describes the displacement of GDI with a new framework that supports XAML, or XML Application Markup Language (sounds redundant). Apparently this will enable...

I'm not a huge gamer, but I play from time to time. So, like many others, I recently picked up the "Enter the Matrix" game for my X-Box. I give it an A- (grading on a curve). One review I read compared some of the gameplay features to "Max Payne", and...

I recently wrote an article on the use of Mono's CLI implementation in enterprise software integration products for .NET Magazine .  I got some great comments from Miguel de Icaza and OpenLink Software's CEO, Kingsley Idehen (he needs a blog!).  These...

Thurrott has some  interesting things to say (second item) about Microsoft's plans for IE.  What say you, Mr. Scoble ?

In anticipation of the upcoming Yukon beta, Mary Jo and I talked recently about what the release will mean for developers.

.NET Magazine recently published an article on Yukon. There's not much new material here, its basically a recap of the recent conference talks that have been given on the upcoming Yukon release at conferences like VSLive! and DevConnections. If you haven...

Mary Jo posts the following: My ZD colleague Ross Rubin reflects on Microsoft's seeming lack of progress with its Smartphone. http://www.microsoft-watch.com/article2/0,0,1109121,00.asp?kc=MWRSS02129TX1K0000535 Can we get some feedback from someone...

Peoplesoft CEO Craig Conway says "Running enterprise software on a PC is a known bad thing... .Net is a home formula to make your own asbestos. PeopleSoft is absolutely convinced enterprise software should not be resident on PCs."

Scoble speculates on the death of the web browser and the rise of rich clients. I agree wholeheartedly. The internet is a great medium, and the browser has been great as a "least common denominator" for delivering information and application functions...

Kent Sharkey is blogging about DevConnections, and has a blurb on Yukon. He writes: Many people hear the Yukon message ("You can create stored procedures in any managed language") and think you have to. T-SQL will still be there, and will still be...

Say it isn't so. Slashdot has a story describing some mixed reviews for the movie. The gist of it is all action, no plot. Even a "favorable" review I read on Ain't It Cool News made a similar reference. I'm hoping that the context provided by the first...

As I pointed out in yesterday's post , I'm very curious about Bill's role contribution to the software development process at Microsoft. While reading some blogs last night, I ran across Rob Howard's recap of an ASP.NET design review meeting with Bill...

There is a huge push in the industry right now to build "value added" services into database platforms. CNet has an article on this topic, focusing on IBM's upcoming offerings. The article points out the similarities between upcoming DB2 versions and...

Joel writes about a number of interesting things... in the same post. He manages to tie together an anecdote from his days working on Excel, a plug for a usability software book, his philosophy on software prototypes, and a reference to Microsoft Bob...

Paul Thurrott's "The Road to Windows 'Longhorn' Part Two" provides some interesting information the graphics capabilities of Longhorn, and outlines some more information on the new UI capabilities and the underlying code, called the Desktop Composite...

The next time one of your coworkers does a really good job on something, make sure to reward them, I'm sure they will appreciate it.

The article is here . It raises an interesting point about the potential complexities in the case if it is removed to federal court and copyright infringement and patent claims are brought in. It may not be in SCO's interest to do this though, considering...

The Register has an article on WinFS. It seems that there is some confusion about whether or not the WinFS technologies displace NTFS or are built on top of NTFS. I'm interested to learn how this thing actually works in the end. I'm not sure anyone (ComputerWorld...

I'm not sure if Microsoft has a strategy for weblogs or not. Mary Jo Foley writes about Microsoft's increased activity around weblogs, but from my perspective its been driven from the bottom up- many of the Microsoft employees have been participating...

Eric has written a great piece on the difference between developers and programmers, and makes the case that a small ISV should not hire programmers per his definition. I think the distinction that Eric makes between programmers and developers (or engineers...