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Wednesday, July 23, 2008 2:58 PM

An Evening with Mary-Jo Foley

Last night, I headed out to Malt and Vine to listen to Mary-Jo Foley speak about her new book Microsoft 2.0.

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She was interviewed by Todd Bishop, the Microsoft watcher at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Todd has Audio: Mary Jo Foley on 'Microsoft 2.0'

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I was very fortunate to get the copy of my book signed by the author.

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It was a nice turnout, and I bumped into a bunch of familiar faces (Hi Lili and Kip!)

Mary Jo was asked which blogs she reads and she called out Steve Clayton and Long Zheng – cool, I know both of them. My brush with fame!

Speaking of fame, Dan Fernandez does a good job of listing the Microsoft folks mentioned in the book, which I will repeat for my own nefarious purposes.

  1. Abolade Gbadegesin
  2. Adam Barr
  3. Alexander Gounares
  4. Amitabh Srivastava
  5. Bill Buxton
  6. Bill Gates
  7. Bill Hilf
  8. Bill Veghte
  9. Bob Muglia
  10. Brad Goldberg
  11. Brad Silverberg
  12. Brian Arbogast
  13. Brian McAndrews
  14. Chris Jones
  15. Cori Hartje
  16. Craig Mundie
  17. Dan Fernandez
  18. Dan Kasun
  19. Dare Obasanjo
  20. Dave Cutler
  21. David Treadwell
  22. David Vaskevitch
  23. Don Ferguson
  24. Don Mattrick
  25. Eric Rudder
  26. Grant George
  27. Horacio Gutierrez
  28. Iain McDonald
  29. J Allard
  30. J.D. Meier
  31. James Hamilton
  32. Jason Zions
  33. Jim Allchin
  34. Jon DeVaan
  35. Jon Rosenberg
  36. Julie Larson-Green
  37. Kathleen Hogan
  38. Kevin Johnson
  39. Kevin Turner
  40. Kurt DelBene
  41. Lewis Levin
  42. Lili Cheng
  43. Mark Lucovsky
  44. Marshall Phelps
  45. Martin Taylor
  46. Mike Sievert
  47. Mike Walker
  48. Mini-Microsoft
  49. Pat Helland
  50. Randy Granovetter
  51. Ray Ozzie
  52. Robbie Bach
  53. Robert Herbold
  54. Robert Scoble
  55. Sam Ramji
  56. Satya Nadella
  57. Scott Di Valerio
  58. Scott Guthrie
  59. Soma Somasegar
  60. Stephen Chapman
  61. Stephen Elop
  62. Steve Ballmer
  63. Steve Berkowitz
  64. Steve Guggenheimer
  65. Steve Liffick
  66. Steven Sinofsky
  67. Tami Reller
  68. Ted Kummert
  69. Tom Gibbons
  70. Yusuf Medhi

I was going to add how many of these people I know, but that’s a bit too self indulgent.

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Tuesday, July 22, 2008 10:46 AM

Happy Pi Approximation Day

It’s that time of the year again - Pi Approximation Day (π).

I’m wearing my special PI t-shirt to celebrate

I love the spiffy design

pi-mp

For my American friends wondering what I am on about, it’s to do with the way the date is written – 22/7 – LOL!

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Monday, July 21, 2008 3:39 PM

Today Is The day We Take Our Daughters & Sons To Work

Today is “Take Our Daughters & Sons To Work Day 2008”

I brought Emma along to spend the day with me

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She took in her laptop to keep herself busy

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We’ve gone to meetings together, played Rock Band and participated in a raffle (and lost)

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She even drew mushrooms on my whiteboard

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As the day ends, I asked her if she can describe what I do.

She says I type a lot, talk a lot and drink lots of water.

Yup – that about sums it up!

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Monday, July 14, 2008 4:30 PM

11 Months = 48 Weeks = 335 Days = Time Here !

I looked up and realized that today is 11 months that we arrived in the US of A.

11 months!

It’s also Bastille Day – so here’s a special song to celebrate

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Monday, July 14, 2008 1:31 PM

The week ahead : ATL in the summer

I have a trip to Atlanta this week and the weather forecast looks ominous

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Let’s hope it improves during the week

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Friday, July 11, 2008 8:34 AM

Take Our Daughters & Sons To Work Day 2008

I’ve registered my kids for the annual “Microsoft Take Our Daughters & Sons To Work Day 2008”, to be held on Monday, July 21 2008.

Yes, I’m getting flashbacks of the Arrested Development episode about Take Your Daughter To Work Day

The goal of the day – let them see what it is I actually do and hopefully I can convince them to write a story about the experience.

I am going to have them shadow me during the day, attending meetings and other stuff like that. (Hmmm  maybe I can get them to tidy my office ……)

I’m even getting them their own Microsoft ID card. How fun!

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Tuesday, July 08, 2008 3:37 PM

NYT: Whichever Screen, People Are Watching

Excerpt from New York Times Article:

Whichever Screen, People Are Watching
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/08/business/media/08adco.html

SOMEHOW, despite more distractions than ever, we’re finding even more time to plant ourselves in front of screens.

The first in a series of new “three-screen” reports by the Nielsen Company shows an emerging shift toward a more video-centric use of the Internet, but not at the expense of television viewing. The report, an initial effort by Nielsen to “follow the video” as consumer viewing habits shift, is scheduled to be released Tuesday.

The average American spent 127 hours of time with TV in May, up from 121 hours in May 2007; and 26 hours on the Internet, up from 24 hours last year. More than 282 million people watch television in a given month and nearly 162 million use the Internet.

MY COMMENT:

No argument from me!
Right now, my TV addiction is Diners, Drive-ins and Dives on The Food Network http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/show_dv

To download the Times Reader, click here.

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Tuesday, July 08, 2008 8:30 AM

Team SOAK!

Team SOAK takes first place in the Software Design category at the Imagine Cup!

Congrats to the boys -  Dave, Dimaz, Ed and Long

Project Overview:
SOAK is an integrated software and hardware platform with the aspiration of helping farmers achieve sustainable use of their land. This is achieved through the integrated use of environmental sensing, rich visual front ends to display the information to the farmer, and a subsystem which controls farm equipment such as sprinkler systems.

Technology/software used:

  • .NET Framework 3.5
  • .NET Compact Framework 3.5
  • LINQ (Language Integrated Query)
  • XML WebService using WCF (Windows Communication Foundation)
  • Silverlight 2 Beta 1
  • Windows Live Map (Virtual Earth) v6
  • Microsoft® Visual Studio® Team System 2008 Team Suite
  • British Telecom SDK for .NET v5.2.2
  • Mobile Device
  • Microsoft SQL Server 2005

More news

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Monday, July 07, 2008 10:38 AM

NYT: Tracking the Olympics Audience Across the NBC Media Universe

Excerpt from New York Times Article:

Tracking the Olympics Audience Across the NBC Media Universe
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/07/sports/olympics/07tami.html

The exhaustive coverage of the Summer Olympics from Beijing next month — 3,600 hours on television and online — presents NBC Universal with a problem: how to give advertisers a portrait of viewership on seven networks, the Internet (both computers and cellphones) and video-on-demand downloads.

MY COMMENT:
http://www.nbcolympics.com/ full of Silverlight goodness!

To download the Times Reader, click here.

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Friday, July 04, 2008 9:36 AM

Food, Fireworks, Festivities – It must be the 4th of July!

We’re getting ready to celebrate the 4th of July, aka Independence Day

In the United States, Independence Day, commonly known as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, declaring independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain. Independence Day is commonly associated with fireworks, parades, barbecues, carnivals, picnics, baseball games, and various other public and private events celebrating the history, government, and traditions of the United States, but is often also viewed as simply a summer festival, apart from its patriotic overtones.

Brice got into the spirit of things and built a special lego contraption, which he called an “americamobile”

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Thursday, July 03, 2008 1:28 PM

Imagine Cup : Team SOAK : Students saving the world for a rainy day

One of the things I really loved about my job in Australia was being involved with the Imagine Cup.

I had been a judge for a number of years and got to meet some great folks : Imagine Cup 2005, Imagine Cup 2005 : Update from Yokohama,  ANZ Imagine Cup 2005 winner , Judging the Australian Final of the Imagine Cup, Oz team off to Delhi for Imagine Cup, We have an Australian winner of the Imagine Cup,   Berno's off to India for the Imagine Cup,   Momentum Builds for Imagine Cup 2007, Imagine Cup 2007 : Winners Announced, Lives to be Changed!

Thanks to a blog post from Berno, I was reminded about the latest Imagine Cup entry from Australia – Team SOAK.

The guys got a write up in the local press as they prepare to head to Paris for the finals : Students saving the world for a rainy day

Good Luck Team SOAK!

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Thursday, July 03, 2008 8:46 AM

what do I do?

I got the following email from my daughter Emma (who is 11) this morning:

From: Emma Arrigo 
Sent: Thursday, July 03, 2008 8:37 AM
To: Frank Arrigo
Subject: flash or html?

I went to a site and it asked flash or html.

what do I do?

Reasonable question.

Why does Emma have to decide??

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Tuesday, July 01, 2008 8:44 AM

Goodbye FY08 and Hello FY09

It’s that time of year - The old financial year ends and a new financial year begins.

It’s the time we look back and reflect on what happened and then look forward to the upcoming new year activities.

I would say FY08 was a *BIG* year for me as I picked up the family and moved from Sydney to Seattle to start a new job.

My job has gone from being in a “public” facing role to an “internal” facing role.

One of the more visible changes has been the frequent of my blogging

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Even my tweeting appears to be on the decline

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Quelle horror!

Now, I haven’t been the only one who made the trip from Down Under.

Since I made the move, 4 members of my old team have also accepted new jobs : Charles Sterling, Scott Barnes, David Lemphers and most recently, Michael Kleef

The big question - Who’s next?

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Friday, June 27, 2008 1:02 PM

BillG’s Last Day – Really!

Lots has been written about Bill Gates leaving Microsoft today and the Microsoft.COM home page says it all

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A video did the rounds from CES earlier this year, but today is *THE* day.

I’ve met Bill a few times during my career at Microsoft and we hosted him in Australia way back in 2004 - Billg heading Downunder in June, People attending Bill Gates Breakfast in Sydney,  Questions to ask BillG , More questions for BillG, Behind the Scenes of the BillG Breakfast, Press comments on BillG's visit, Local Bloggers give their thoughts on BillG Breakfast, More local bloggers add their thoughts to the BillG breakfast.

Not much else left to say, but arrivederci

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Friday, June 20, 2008 8:17 PM

1st day of Summer and all is good with my little world

I have been feeling like something had been missing.

I arrived in Seattle in August and went through Autumn, (or as they say here Fall), Winter and then Spring.

Aha! I’ve missed Summer!

Totally is the first day of summer (as well as the longest day of the year aka the Summer Solstice) and things are finally warming up, compare to back in Sydney.

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for those metric challenged folks, here it is ‘old school’

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Yeah Baby!

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