The Design-Time Developer : Personal Life

You can take the developer out of the technology company, but you can't take the technology out of the developer

jacobcy — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 17:19:00 GMT

Despite the title, I'm not a cyborg. For those of you who missed that implication, I'll give you a moment...

Seriously though, even though I've been a non-MSer for a little over 3 months now, I'm still passionate about technology. You can witness the evidence of this in the article I wrote for the Illinois Real Estate Journal. To be honest, I'm surprised that there are not more technology consultants dedicated exclusively to professional services users like lawyers and real estate professionals. Since this is my first publication in the real estate world, check out the article and give me feedback. As technical professionals, I'm eager to hear your thoughts on this article and suggestions for future articles.

Note: If you look really closely at my photo, you'll see that it is in fact a Microsoft shirt that I was wearing. Those "in the know" will even recognize when the picture was taken.

[After-blog mint] Given my new employment, I have decided to officially create a blog to replace the void in my life from giving up this lovely little number. You can find it at http://corporaterealestate.wordpress.com/.

Figured out how to keep this blog active a little bit longer...

jacobcy — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 02:55:00 GMT

That's going to remain a secret, but those of you who make your way to my blog and want to stay in touch, the "Contact Me" functionality should now work properly.

Cheers (and Happy Coding),
Jacob

Farewell to Microsoft

jacobcy — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 22:44:00 GMT

During my three-year tenure at Microsoft, I have met many wonderful people. For those of you I have worked with along the way, I wanted to share my bittersweet news. After three amazing years at Microsoft, I will be leaving to start a new chapter in my life. While I am not writing out the possibility of returning to Microsoft in the future, now is the optimal time in my life to transition to the next phase of my career path. Thank you for joining me on my wonderful three-year roller coaster ride of challenges and opportunities – I hope that our paths will cross again in the future.

I will be moving to Equis Corporation, a real estate advisory group based in Chicago. My new opportunity will be as a transaction advisory associate with Equis. My duties will include working with business clients to identify their real estate usage and needs, work closely with my clients to evaluate the various space options and negotiate the best lease or purchase arrangements to help my clients save money. It will be a great opportunity for me to develop my customer relations and sales skills, while simultaneously having a significant impact on my clients’ businesses.

My last day at Microsoft will be 10/31/2006. Feel free to contact me via this blog if you would like to stay in touch following my transition.

Happy Coding,

Jacob Cynamon

Developer Community Champion/Partner Relations Lead

Microsoft Across America

Stay tuned: upcoming webcast series pilots in September

jacobcy — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 03:00:00 GMT

Howdy loyal blog readers,

We don't have all of the details worked out yet, but I wanted to let you all know about an experimental webcast series that my friend Glen Gordon and I are putting together. Basically, we're going to be interviewing experts on various .NET and developer technologies, while leveraging Live Meeting to allow for dynamic demonstrations. You can find out more on our special blog site - geekSpeak.

We'll be posting more details to the geekSpeak blog as we line up speakers for Wednesdays in September.

Cheers,
Jacob

Omaha beats out Boston!

jacobcy — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 02:05:00 GMT

So I was in Omaha yesterday for the MSDN Event this quarter, and I was overwhelmed by the tremendous enthusiasm that poured forth from the developer community. We usually average about 45% drop-off, meaning that 55% of the registered customers actually attend. Well, we saw only 30% drop off, so that, paired with unprecedented registration of 380 meant that we had a pretty packed house with 266 developers in attendance.

That alone wouldn't be so impressive, except that on the same day, with the same content, half a country away, Beantown could only draw out 265 attendees. Congratulations, Omaha! Keep up the great excitement.

If I didn't live in Chicago, I wouldn't hold such animosity for Boston, but given that I do have massive amounts of Chicago pride, I can only assume that all of the other attendees were stuck somewhere in the labyrinth of the Big Dig.

PS How 'bout them BoSox? Beantown, just remember that there's only one true Sox in our parts.

Should everyone go to college?

jacobcy — Sat, 10 Jun 2006 17:26:00 GMT

In 9 Money Rules to Live By [sic], Liz Pulliam Weston stated, "The average graduate makes 70% more over his or her lifetime than someone who stops with a high school diploma."

Without elaborating on the details of the survey or research, this statement implies that going to college will bump up your lifetime income by 70+%. This may or may not be the case, due to several confounding factors. There may be a high correlation between college and greater lifetime income, but there are correlations between going to college and several other statistics, like race and socioeconomic status, for instance. During college, I spent 3 years giving tours and talking with prospective freshmen. One thing that struck me was that not all of the prospectives would be best served by my alma mater, or even college for that matter.

It is unfortunate that we, as Americans, are wearing blinders and declaring that college is the right answer for everyone. Some need the discipline of the military, some the immediate financial benefits of a post-high school career, and some simply don't have the intellectual capacity for a college education. It's not right to encourage people to do things that would be to their detriment, and your blanket statement about college improving someone's financial outlook does just that.

For everyone who loathes interviews, corporate bureaucracy, and yes-men (and women)

jacobcy — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 10:27:00 GMT

I saw this video at 2:25 AM on Wednesday morning and it spoke to me on so many levels, so I knew I had to share it with my small piece of the world

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HS7D3LRDYw

After-blog mint: Unfortunately, as Jim points out, it appears that this video is no longer available to my readership. Rest assured, it was funny (if that's any consolation).

Batman could whoop any other superhero's behind, except for Wesley Willis (may he rest in peace)

jacobcy — Wed, 12 Apr 2006 20:06:00 GMT

At the end of my webcast on Data Access in Visual Basic 2005, the conversation turned from DataSets and ADO.NET to Batman (and all of the lesser superheroes). I feel the need to reiterate that Batman is the ultimate superhero. Despite his deep psychological issues, which I will admit he has, he is a self-made man, spending years to hone his skills of stealth, science, detective work, martial arts/physical combat. He is effectively a modern Sherlock Holmes... who doesn't do drugs.

Yes, some would say that his super-power is massive amounts of money, which enable him to acquire the tools and services to support his crime-fighting efforts, but money alone does not do that for us. Look at Warren Buffett - you can't picture him scaling tall buildings and beating up arch-criminals.

As for the Wesley Willis comment, I am paying homage to Chicago's best homeless recording artist, also known as the "350 Pound Schizophrenic Lyrical Messiah"*, who wrote such masterpieces as I Whupped Batman's Ass.

* http://www.x-entertainment.com/messages/396.html

Batman Beyond DVD set doesn't really go "beyond" the original Batman: The Animated Series DVD sets

jacobcy — Sun, 26 Mar 2006 16:35:00 GMT

I was on the road this week and was super-pumped when I received notice from Amazon.com that they had shipped my latest order: the entire first season* of Batman Beyond, the neo-futuristic rebirth of the Batman: The Animated Series (BtAS) television show. I had already seen most of the series' episodes, but this would be a great addition to my collection, or so I thought. As soon as I got home - actually the next day, because it is hard to watch anything after a 5 1/2 hour drive back from Evansville, IN - I opened the delivery box, only to be temporarily disappointed. The DVD was not packaged as the BtAS DVDs were, in a cool slide-out case that unfolded to show lists of all of the episodes in a really novel fashion. Yes, the case did slide out, with extensive effort, and also had a list of all of the episodes included, but failed to impress me. The only thing so far that impressed me was that they saved money and space by overlaying the two discs in a MasterCard logo-esque fashion (and I had never seen this before). That, and I was impressed that they managed to distribute this set of 13 episodes, complete with the 5 episodes contained on the much earlier DVD release of Batman Beyond: The Movie, which started everything.

To sum up so far, they provided me with a mediocre packaging of only 8 net new episodes, plus a couple of "bonus" special features, which now are considered the norm on any decent DVD, and especially on any DVD set.

Now, I was hoping that things would change when I popped in the discs and watched the episodes; as you can imagine, I was let down a second time. Perhaps time makes fools of us all, but I could have sworn that the episodes were more compelling. Comparing them side-by-side with BtAS, however, they don't hold a candle. There is definitely a lot of cool action, but the villains are not as multi-dimensional as BtAS and the stories are not as engrossing. With the exception of the first two episodes (the pilot "movie") and Dead Man's Hand**, the Batman Beyond episodes are trite and about as absorbing as a soggy mop. The BtAS episodes, at least the earlier ones, on the other hand, watch like short movies, replete with touching storylines and convincing characters. In BtAS, you can actually empathize with many of the villains and the plots, though often plot-driven, have enough character development to make up for it.

In closing, this set is a decent addition to any animator's collection, but if you already own Batman Beyond: The Movie, you may want to hold off for the next season, or possibly a larger, merged collection (like they did with BtAS).

* 13 episodes, Bill ;-)
** This episode mirrors Bruce Wayne's awkward love triangle with Selena Kyle, in which Catwoman loved Batman, Selena Kyle had no fondness for Bruce Wayne, and Batman/Bruce Wayne had an impossible lust for Catwoman. Only this time, it's Terry McGinnis/Batman and Ten/Melanie Walker. The best line is at the end of the episode, as Wayne consoles McGuinness with, "Let me tell you about Selena Kyle."

"Good news, everyone!" - Professor Hubert Farnsworth

jacobcy — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 07:21:00 GMT

Those of you who know just about anything about me are likely to know that I am a huge cartoon fan. I own all 4 volumes of Batman: The Animated Series, 2 volumes of Samurai Jack, 2 Miyazaki films, 2 volumes of Sealab 2021, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman, The Batman Beyond Movie, Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, and, of course, all 4 volumes of Futurama, the "cartoon action sci-fi comedy drama that defines cartoon action sci-fi comedy dramas".

Futurama was a fantastic series - unlike most other cartoon sitcoms, Futurama was both edgy AND high-brow, almost like if they animated Frasier and repositioned it 1000 years in the future. But the best part for you Futurama fans is that they are bringing the cast back together for what could be 4 direct-to-DVD Futurama movies. I first heard about this during one of the "bumps" on Adult Swim last night and knew that I needed to do some reconnaissance work to find out whether this was true. I zeroed in on my favorite source for all things movie and television... IMDB.com. Just as Cartoon Network had let on, something is definitely afoot. For you Futurama fans, where do you think they'll take the story lines? Will it simply be a continuation where the TV show left off or do you think we'll get different plots that take place at some other time in the series?

Because there is an engineer with too much time on his hands (and too many spare LEDs)

jacobcy — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 18:23:00 GMT

And I remember when ASCII Pr0n was the big thing for an adolescent male to enjoy on his terminal - Naughty fun with LEDs

Update: For the less astute in my audience, it seems that the censor engine in this blogging tool does not like the word 'P'-'r'-'0'-'n', as indicated by the asterisks above.

Update, take two: Apparently, the word 'Pr0n' is only censored in the "Preview" pane of this blogging tool - weird.

No good walk is spoiled: Why Mario Golf is better than the real thing

jacobcy — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 02:05:00 GMT

Mark Twain once said, "Golf is a good walk spoiled." For anyone who is not a die-hard enthusiast, it's easy to understand why. If you're playing with a good-sized party, there's lots of standing around and waiting. If it's a hot day, it can quickly get unbearable. If it's a cold or rainy day, ditto. Nothing's more aggravating than repeatedly hitting the water hazard and sacrificing a few Titleists* to the Gods of the Green.

Mario Golf supplies all of the best parts of golf - challenging courses, camaraderie through multi-player gaming, multiple hazard and rules styles - with none of the negatives, i.e. actually experiencing the weather, losing your balls, or waiting for other people to play (actually, it doesn't have that one resolved, but you could always grab a "cold one" from the fridge while your buddy decides if he's going to try to drive the sh** out of the ball and risk a hazard or take a more conservative two strokes without the risk). Since my friends Mike and Mike (no relation) introduced me to Mario Golf, I've had more of a hankering than ever to go out and play 18 holes... on my couch.

There's my opinion, at least as it pertains to golf. Now, I know a lot of you out there love your Madden, NBA Jam, NHL 2k5 and 2k6, etc, but do you prefer it to the real thing?

* pronounced tie-tuhl-ists, not tit-lee-ists (although my high school gym teacher always got a kick out of the second one... it's a good thing someone was laughing at his jokes).

Who are you?

jacobcy — Wed, 09 Nov 2005 17:04:00 GMT

I haven't received a lot of comments or feedback to my blog in the past couple months, so I'm curious to know who my regular blog readers are. I find blogging is a lot like webcasting - on the surface, it seems like a one-way stream of data, but there are always means of turning the tool into a 2-way dialogue. Comment to this post and tell me something about yourself.

What do you do?
What makes you tick?
What excites you?
Where do you live?
What's one interesting thing about you that not many people know?

I'm eager to find out who is coming to my blog - that way, I can better understand what you like and why I blog.

Pulled the old switcheroo

jacobcy — Wed, 21 Sep 2005 07:50:00 GMT

Those of you who know me well know that I'm very close with my family. My brothers both live in Chicago and my sister lives in Cleveland. I like to see all of them often, but it's a bit tough with my sister and her family quite a bit farther from me than my brothers are.

Well, I saw an opportunity to visit and I'm taking it. Instead of presenting the MSDN Event in Indianapolis in October, I traded events with my colleague and friend Bill Steele. Turns out that it's a win-win situation - I get to visit my sister compliments of Microsoft (sort of) and Bill now has two events that week so close to where he lives that he can drive to both of them the morning of the event. I took a negotation course in college and our arrangement, my friends, is what is known as "integrative bargaining". For those who like analogies, instead of trying to take as big a piece of metaphorical pie (mmm, pie!) as we could, we ended up creating a larger pie to share. :-D

So now, those of you who are developing .NET apps out in Cleveland and Columbus, it will be an honor and a privilege to present the MSDN Events to you in the first week of October.

BizTalk, I hardly knew ye!

jacobcy — Thu, 25 Aug 2005 23:30:00 GMT

Me and my big mouth. Gosh, I say that an awful lot. This time it's because of what shall probably go down in the history books as "The BizTalk Incident".

Flashback - Chicago Day of .NET (several months ago) - I spoke at the event and had the opportunity to watch another speaker present a session on BizTalk 2004. My only reaction was "Wow, that's awesome!"

Flash forward (but not too far forward... we're still in the past here) - DCC Team Call (a couple months ago) - My teammate Mike Benkovich says, "We have been asked to present some webcasts on BizTalk - is anyone interested in signing up to present these?" Instead of asking the logical question (i.e. "Is the content ready?"), the first neuron that fires is "BizTalk... that was awesome!" and I blurt out "Sure, I'd love to present 5 sessions on BizTalk!"

Flash forward (the rest of the way) - Yesterday - One day before my BizTalk sessions are due to begin, finally, in what may have been the most delayed reaction *ever*, my brain finally says "Are you sure you're ready to do these sessions?" I had gathered content for all 5 events, shared 2 events, so my colleague Glen Gordon will be leading Tuesday and Wednesday's webcasts, and even brought in a team of BizTalk MVPs and experts to co-present the sessions with us, in order to provide the best customer experience we could. Curiously, after all that, I finally think that maybe I bit off more than I could chew.

Thankfully, I believe the gamble paid off. I have learned so much about BizTalk simply in preparing for these sessions - it's amazing all of the cool things that you can do with BizTalk.

I presented the first session this morning - Introduction to BizTalk Server 2004. An overview session designed to whet everyone's appetites for the next four upcoming sessions. I am also including additional resource links for each of these sessions, so you don't have to copy them down during the event... just come on back here.

Friday, August 26, 9-10AM Pacific: BizTalk Web Services and WSE

Monday, August 29, 9-10AM Pacific: BizTalk Orchestration

Tuesday, August 30, 9-10AM Pacific: Business Activity Monitoring with BizTalk

Wednesday, August 31, 9-10AM Pacific: BizTalk Server 2004 Business Rules Engine

Also, sign up to beta-test BizTalk Server 2006

PS On a totally unrelated side note, I think that my package delivery man (whose organization shall remain unnamed) may be stoned. While I was writing this, I got a buzz that someone was here. I let him in and signed for my package. While trying to make idle chit-chat, I said "How's the weather today?" since I live the better part of the work day in my underground bunker (i.e. my home office). He simply responded, with a glassy stare, "Niiice." There were at least 3 'i's in his "Nice", making it excessively elongated, in a way for which Phish and Grateful Dead fans are often known. Don't get me wrong - good bands, stoned delivery man. :-D Hope your day is as good as mine!