James @ MS : Fun

Stop 6 (Final Stop): Budapest, Hungary

jameslau-MS — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 18:27:53 GMT

On Thursday, we had our last VSX European Tour event at the Microsoft office in Budapest. It was wasn't just a talk for a user group this time. It was a half day event focused specifically on VSX. Sandor Nacsa from the Budapest office helped us set up...(read more)

Stop 5: Prague, Czech Republic

jameslau-MS — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 22:34:51 GMT

Our European Tour has brought us to Prague on Monday. This was the first time for me to visit Prague and I was completely blown away by the beauty of this city. I thought Paris was beautiful; Prague is even more beautiful (to me anyway)! In the afternoon,...(read more)

Stop 4: Zurich, Switzerland

jameslau-MS — Fri, 30 May 2008 12:13:13 GMT

With the help of Rolf and Susan who organized the event, Jean-Marc and I presented to a user group in Zurich yesterday evening in a 3 hour session. We were somewhat disappointed at the low attendance - we only had about 20 people. But the audience was...(read more)

Stop 3: Munich, Germany

jameslau-MS — Wed, 28 May 2008 01:16:57 GMT

We are in Deutschland now and we visited the Microsoft Technology Center at Munich yesterday. It was a very nice set of buildings, and the meeting rooms are much more impressive than building 41 back in Redmond. They have multiple projectors and multiple...(read more)

Update from Brussels

jameslau-MS — Tue, 27 May 2008 00:48:46 GMT

You may have already seen my post about out session at Brussels. Sven Cipido from Ordina has just sent me some more pictures taken during our Brussels section, so I wanted to post them here. Jean-Marc and I in Ordina's office for Vsug.be. See his...(read more)

Stop 2: Amsterdam, Netherlands

jameslau-MS — Sat, 24 May 2008 01:58:39 GMT

Bikes, lots of bikes. And trams too. Then there are also motorcycles, scooters, and cars. You better watch where you are walking while you are in Amsterdam! That was my first impression of this spectacularly amazing and energetic city! Jean-Marc and I...(read more)

Stop 1: Brussels, Belgium

jameslau-MS — Thu, 22 May 2008 02:51:54 GMT

Yesterday in Brussels, we made our first of a series of presentations in our European tour. I met up with Jean-Marc in the morning at the Microsoft office in Brussels. We ran through our preparation work one more time to make sure we have everything ready....(read more)

Launch event wrapping up

jameslau-MS — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 04:41:33 GMT

I just finished with my Chalk Talk session , and the launch event is winding down. Folks are heading over to the Launch party at 7 pm, but I will be flying home tonight. My session went well. Typically, chalk talks don't get much attendance, and I was...(read more)

HEROES happen {here}

jameslau-MS — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:35:26 GMT

I am in L.A. today and tomorrow, to attend and speak at the Visual Studio, SQL Server and Windows Server 2008 launch event. I feel very lucky to be able to participate in this historical event. This launch wave is the largest one ever for any developer...(read more)

Bill Gates visits University of Waterloo

jameslau-MS — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 08:44:17 GMT

Not that this has anything to do with VSX directly, but I came across a news bit about Bill visiting my alma mater earlier today. You can view more photos and read more about his visit here . Personally, I think he looks pretty good in the U of Waterloo...(read more)

Upcoming Book on VSX

jameslau-MS — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 00:33:01 GMT

I got pinged by Keyvan today. He and I have never met before, but he told me that he is in the process of writing a book on VSX, and would like our team to review it. My response is: OF COURSE! It's awesome to see that there are developers in the VSX...(read more)

Source Code Outliner PowerToy is now available for VS 2008!

jameslau-MS — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 11:06:00 GMT

The popular Source Code Outliner PowerToy has been updated for VS2008. Get it now from MS Download Center !...(read more)

VS 2005 IDE Tips and Tricks

jameslau-MS — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 05:41:00 GMT

As some of you may know, I used to work in the Visual Studio IDE team before I joined the Ecosystem team. While I was there, I worked on various IDE features such as Visual Studio settings, Window Management, Command/Menus, Toolbox, Task List/Error List,...(read more)

New Team Mascot...

jameslau-MS — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 10:25:00 GMT

I forgot to mention that shortly after our team shipped VS SDK 3.0, our team got a new mascot. The good folks on the marketing team was kind enough to give us our new team mascot after our team bowling event... SUSAN!

Here is a picture of Susan sitting in my office. Best of all - Susan comes with a bottle of Patrón! Susan is now proudly guarding the team on the 5th floor hallway of building 41.

Did someone say tequila?

- James