This week I'm attending the //build/ conference where Microsoft is revealing many of the details about Windows 8. If you want to see what is going on, follow my Twitter feed at http://twitter.com/steverowe , I'm posting some pictures, linking to summaries, etc.

As the year closes I look back and see that my blogging really dropped off this past year. I intend to try to blog more over this upcoming year. My position at work has changed from a lead to a manager and that gives me a whole new perspective on things and a lot of new ideas to blog about. I hope...

As I surf the net I often run across articles of interest. If I feel they warrant a comment, I'll post them on this blog, but most don't rise to that level. I've decided to try using twitter as an outlet for such items. If you want to see the articles I think are most interesting, feel free to follow...

The day's almost over. Snow is still on the ground here although the temperature is going up and its days are numbered. I spent most of today with family just hanging out. I found it to be enjoyable and relaxing. Didn't get much accomplished, but that's as it should be on a day like this. I hope that...

Here's wishing everyone a happy Thanksgiving day. It's a great time to reflect on the past year and all that has transpired.

Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) is an annual gaming convension in Seattle put on by the guys at Penny Arcade . It covers all aspects of gaming from consoles to PC games to roleplaying and tabletop games. It is big. Very big. 40,000 tickets pre-sold kind of big. This was my second year attending. Last year I...

A friend of mine just posted an interesting anecdote about the difference in the world we grew up in and the one our kids are growing up in. In his case, his son didn't know what a stereo was. He'd never seen one. Music in his world comes from an iPod/Zune or from a computer. That got me thinking. Technology...

I apologize for the very light blogging of late. I've been busy working on the project for my latest class at the University of Illinois. CS classes really take a lot of time at the end of the semester. At the beginning you just have reading, homework, and lectures. At the end they pile a project on...

It was ten years ago today that I joined Microsoft as a full time employee. When I started we were just finishing Windows 98. Microsoft was around 25,000 employees. My first job was testing DVD playback in the operating system. Since then I've reported to 5 managers, resided in 5 buildings, occupied...

It was four years and approximately 300 posts ago that I began this blog with a simple hello world . Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to followed me during that time. It has been an honor to write for you and to receive feedback on my ideas. Now back to our regularly scheduled programming...

Here's my white Christmas:

Merry Christmas everyone. I hope you are all able to spend some good time with family and friends. I'm off to see what Santa brought me. [2 hours later] We finished opening presents and it started to snow! Not a little snow, but a lot of snow. Large flakes fill the air. A white Christmas in Washington...

It is once again Halloween which, here in the U.S. means a time when all the kids dress up in costumes and go door-to-door "trick or treating" (which means begging for Candy). I like this holiday. It's fun to see everyone dressed up at the door. Unfortunately around here at least, the tradition seems...

I'm about to head out from my trip to the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign ( UIUC ). I've enjoyed my trip. I was able to interview 23 bright students. The quality was very high. The school should be proud. I also had a chance to see the places and some of the people I've heretofore only seen...

I've really been enjoying listening to Pandora lately. It is a net radio service that builds a "station" for you based on your tastes. You begin by entering a song or an artist you like. It then plays music it thinks is similar. You are allowed to give the selections a thumbs up or thumbs down. Based...

If you follow this blog, you'll know that I'm currently working on my Masters in Computer Science through the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. I really like the program I'm in. Most classes are real. There are real people meeting on campus 3 times a week in a classroom and those of us online...

This past weekend Seattle hosted what is reportedly the biggest video games expo in the United States. That honor used to belong to E3 but they changed their format this year. Now that title belongs to Penny Arcade Expo (PAX). Unlike E3, PAX is aimed at consumers, not journalists. It reportedly had about...

It's a tradition at Microsoft that when someone leaves for a while, their office is vandalized in one way or another. Sometimes it is something big like moving the office into the hall or covering it in post-it notes. Other times, it's something more subtle. For me, it was subtle. I returned from a short...

I just turned in the project for my summer class. If you want to take a look, you can find it here . That means I'm now on summer vacation. I liked the class but it's nice to have it over with. Now I can get to some of that reading I didn't have time for. First up is On the Edge which is the story of...

As I've stated before , I have a young son who I have been trying on and off to teach to program. I still owe you a post talking about what I've found does and does not work. In the mean time, I ran across this article which give several good resources. It mentions many of the standbys including Lego...

Sunrocket was my phone company...until today. This evening I looked at TechMeme to see what was new in the world only to run into this post at GigaOm. Check the web site. Everything looks fine. Check the phone. No dial tone. Bummer. Look around a little more and find this article in the New York Times...

My family and I went on an Alaskan cruise last week. It was my first cruise. I liked it. There is a lot you can do on a ship during a cruise. There is a casino, Broadway-style shows, art auctions, night clubs, various games (like trivia), and much more. I didn't do most of it, yet I wasn't bored. Just...

I'm headed off on a cruise to Alaska for about a week. Don't expect to see much blogging going on during that time. I have been having a lot of inspirations for post topics lately (can you tell?) so expect some good stuff when I return.

Today I attended the Alliance Music Partnership's AMP Summit. This was the 2nd annual gathering of audio people from Microsoft and the PC industry. We met at the Experience Music Project (EMP) here in Seattle. There were people from all parts of the industry in attendance. There were those who make audio...

I decided to take a class this summer. It looks to be an interesting one. It is object oriented design. I've read the Gang of Four book before, taken the NetObjectives classes on the subject, and used it quite a bit in my programming. The subject matter won't be new. It should be a good review. There...