I'm at blog.microsoft-j.net now. Something of a personal ego-trip. Visit me there ...
Well, if anyone is still reading this, I'm quite surprised. I've not written in here for quite some time. There's been a lot going on, mostly personal that I won't go into here. Also, to be honest, I've had a hard time thinking of stuff that hasn't already been blogged about (I like to be unique).
Anyway, as I've pondered this recently, I've come to the decision that I will make a blog that focuses on the .NET Open Source (or, in the "politically correct" term Shared Source) community and cool Open Source projects built on .NET. While this may come as a surprise, there is a considerable and growing community of developers writing really cool stuff and opening it up to the broader community. And all of it is built on .NET. I certainly look at some of these projects as I am getting up to speed on new stuff (a never-ending process). Also, when talking with customers, I mention some of the relevant open source projects that are using the technology. It's often very interesting to see the looks on their faces ... a Microsoft guy talking to them about open source. Many people have the impression that we (Microsoft) view all open source as "the enemy". And that's not entirely accurate. We certainly compete with open source solutions that compete with our platform ... that's business and the core of capitalism ... but that doesn't mean we hate all open source. Especially when the project shows how to leverage our platform in cool and interesting ways.
Now, my personal opinion on open source vs. closed source is pretty clear: I do believe that a developer or company that develops something has the rights to that code. That's the core of intellectual property. As someone that has written code for most of my adult life and made a darn good living from this, that's a pretty important concept. Devaluing intellectual property rights devalues the creativity, blood, sweat and tears of developers creating new stuff. So, whoever owns the IP has the right to keep it closed ... or open it up. There are reasons to do both but, at the end of the day, it boils down to a decision that has to be made for various different reasons. And let's be honest ... many of the folks on open source projects aren't always doing it out of pure altruism. Yes, there is some of that, there is a desire to give back to the community, but open source projects also have a business model as well. This model does tend to focus on small businesses and independant developers (or small groups of developers). One by one, there isn't enough money in this for a large consulting company to really be interested. But ... there's still a huge potential for business in this area. And these projects (and their leaders) work hard to develop this ecosystem.
So, with that, I'm off for now. I'll be adding stuff up here on different open source projects that I come across, most likely built around a technology, but maybe not. I reserve the right to be moody and do what I want at any point in time. Of course, if you want to dig around and see what's out there, CodePlex is a good place to start. And hey, do somethign cool ... join a project that interests you!
So ... I spent the better part of this evening working on 2 presentations that I am delivering for the first time next week. Of course, I usually try to find existing PPT decks and then customize them from there ... why reinvent the wheel, right? Usually this doesn't take too long ... I apply my template, fix any weird formatting issues and move on. These 2 PPT's took a whole 4 hours to fix ... now, besides demonstrating that I don't have a life (after all, I'm doing PPT's on a Saturday evening), it also demonstrated that the original author of these decks is in dire need of some PowerPoint training. The sad thing is that I can see him spending the same amount of time doing the formatting ... which turned out to be the problem. (Oh, and the formatting wasn't even consistent in the same deck, much less between the two!)
<rant>
When writing a PowerPoint, especially one that you KNOW others will use (and this was distributed for reuse), stick to the *&#&$% design template. Don't add a bunch of custom text boxes with a bunch of custom bullets. Yeah, it might look nice with your template, but doesn't change formats real well. PowerPoint has this feature called Design Templates -- has had it for a long time actually. Check it out -- read the "friendly" manual. Specify the formatting, including your favorite bullets, there. Not on the slide. Oh, and hey, it's actually easier for you. You won't need to copy-paste, format paint or anything like that.
I know it may be hard, but truly, resist the urge to add custom text boxes, especially after you've gone through the trouble to delete the standard placeholders for the slide layout. The first time you have to redo the deck with a predefined template, you'll thank me. And there are layouts with all kinds of stuff, including 2 bulleted lists, objects and images. USE THEM!
And stick to the color template too. Don't use a bunch of custom colors on your slides. Don't like the colors in the template you are using? Change them!! Don't add new colors ... screws up the entire scheme! And then when the template changes, it's all an ungodly mess. Resist the urge to go to that "custom color" section.
</rant>
Now, perhaps I'm a little on the picky side here ... but I do like my PPT's to have a consistent look and feel. Even if my ideas about "design" leave a lot to be desired ... it just looks more "professional " ... I have my favorite template that I use (stolen, to be sure) for all of my presetations ... at least as much as possible.
OK ... feeling a little better now. Not much ... a Saturday evening wasted doing stupid stuff like that isn't going to go away that easily. I think I need to have a little session with the PPT author (I know who it is ... won't say ... he's another 'softie and should know better ... which makes it that much worse) and throttle him a bit.
It's funny ... today is, of course, 9/11 ... and the five year anniversary of the most horrific attack on the US since Pearl Harbor. Yet, as I look at my blog and it's history, it is also the day (only a year later) that I left Austin and signed off the KatrinaSafe project.
There has been an overabundance of news and stories about both events this past week ... the 1-year anniversary of Katrina, the 5-year anniversary of 9/11. I'm sure that you can guess which one I'm going to talk about.
Certainly, I remember, only too well, where I was and what I was doing on that fateful day in 2001. Microsoft had Jeffrey Richter in town to do training for some of the consultants in MCS (which is the group I was with at the time). Sept 11 was the first day of that training. As I left the house, the first plane had already hit ... I thought it was a freak accident -- I mean, who thinks that someone would do that on purpose?? But, as I listened to the BBC on the way to the office and heard about the second plane, I knew we were under attack. Needless to say, the training class didn't accomplish much that day. Everyone in the class had other things on their mind. I remember only too well the sinking feeling of hopelessness and helplessness as I watched the towers fall. I admit it ... I cried.
I had that same feeling of hopelessness watching the footage from New Orleans after Katrina. I was supposed to be there that week ... was supposed to fly in the day that Katrina hit. I sat in the living room glued to the TV ... watching a city that I knew pretty well and had spent a lot of time in be destroyed by the flood waters. I cried hearing some of the stories coming out of the city ... any my heart, as an American, filled with pride at the work done by my fellow Americans (especially the US Coast Guard) to deal with a terrible situation. I have to say ... those Coast Guard folks deserve our respect and admiration for what they did there (as well as what they do EVERY DAY).
There was ... and still is ... a difference to the two events. The first is something that I still cannot comprehend ... how someone can be so filled with hate to do something like that. The second is an act of nature, a reminder of our place on the earth. And while both make us feel small and helpless, at least one we can understand.
Watching the footage of Katrina, I was frustrated ... I wanted to do more for this city and the people that I knew. Fortunately, Jim Carroll and Dan Manrique came up with the idea over IM that made that happen. When I got the email from the Scott Emigh at the Austin MTC, I jumped and couldn't think of anything else. Finally, I had a chance to make a difference ... to put my skills to use to make this disaster a little less painful for those that were suffering. To be honest, when I left Houston to head to Austin, I had little or no idea what the plan was, what we were doing or how long it would take. All I knew was that we'd be supporting the relief effort.
I consider myself fortunate to have been in the right place at the right time to do this. It was, without question, the most exhausting project that I've ever worked on in my career. It was also, by far, the most rewarding. The emails that we got and the stories that we heard about the people whose lives we touched ... the comfort that we gave them in that incredibly difficult time ... was something that words cannot express and it will stay with me for many, many years.
So ... the story of KatrinaSafe didn't end when I signed off ... it continued on its own for a time afterwards and work was transferred to the Reston, VA MTC. There, they globalized the application that we built, adding new languages to it at the request of the ICRC, to broaden the support for the applicaiton. Since then, it has been used worldwide to bring families back together after several major disasters. And while the globalization effort was not trivial, the core of the platform that we built remains largely unchanged. Is it or was it perfect? Certainly not. But ... it has helped people reconnect with loved ones that were thought lost ... and that's what counts. It's also become the core for the "Safe and Well" web site (http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2006/aug06/08-29katrina.mspx).
It's ironic, but I actually wound up listed as an evacuee in KatrinaSafe ... after I left Houston as Rita was coming. Of course, it wasn't necessary, but it was a little on the ironic side.
The KatrinaSafe team, though disbanded, has maintained a close relationship over the past year. We did something together ... went through something together ... that few developers had the chance to do. Maybe this is a little extreme, but I do finally understand how bonds can be formed between people through trying times. Beyond that though, I also look at Microsoft a little differently. For those of you that know me, you know that I've always believed in this company, its people and its technology.
Inside Microsoft, we have a belief that we are building great software, changing the world. Historically, we HAVE done that. I know it sounds arrogant, but Microsoft has been a key player in the ubiquitousness of computer systems today (for good or evil is a completely different debate). And I've certainly bought into that ... but it never, ever, hit home to me like it did with KatrinaSafe ... after all, I was a part of that, a real, tangible part. And I am still amazed at the support that Microsoft provided to the project. It is the only project that I know of that had a "blank check" from the very highest levels of the company. Cost was secondary ... we just needed to "Git 'R Done!" ... and whatever we needed for that was provided without question. Yes, I'm sure the cynics out there can say all kinds of things about this ... but the fact remains ... Microsoft, as a company, held nothing back from making this happen. And our Partners ponied up as well ... none of this could have been done without their support and assistance ... which says a lot for them as well.
Commerce Starter Kit 2.0 Beta 2 has been unleashed on the world!
You can check it out at http://www.commercestarterkit.org. And, thanks to Mark from UltimaHosts, you can play with a live demo at http://www.cskdev.com.
What is it? It's on Open Source (Mozilla License) ASP.NET 2.0 based commerce kit. It has a great deal of the functionality that you need to get up and running with a commerce web site, including payment processing, real-time shipping calculations, promotions, cross-sells and so, so much more. It was originally version 1.1 ... but there is so much new stuff in here that it deserves a full new version.
I've been involved with the project for several months ... and it's been a really cool experience. If you want to help, send me a message and I'll get you hooked up with SpookyTooth, the brave, unflagging leader of the project.
Oh, and it's also on CodePlex (http://www.codeplex.com) ... file any bugs you find there. If you hadn't heard, CodePlex is Microsoft's new community development site. It's built on top of Team Foundation Server and is very, very cool. (Working with it has been so much better that GDN Workspaces). It's still in limited beta, so new projects need to be approved.
Do you have any ideas for a cool, new Open Source project? Do you have any favorite .NET Open Source tools/projects that you use? I'd love to hear about it if you do!
The VSTS Launch is coming to Houston! This is pretty exciting stuff ... I've really been blown away by Team System and am very, very excited about what it will bring to the development process.
The Team System Launch is on Tuesday, April 25 at the Cinemark Westchase. It'll give you a good dive into how Team System can make your development processes better and more effective ... as well as providing management with all those darn reports they seem to like so much (without a lot of additional work from the developer!)
Sign up at http://www.teams-deliver.com/!
I won't be there, unfortunately ... I'll be in Dallas speaking at the Security Matters Summit (https://www.ustechsregister.com/securitymatters/) on Secure Development Lifecycle.
The VSTS Launch is coming to Houston! This is pretty exciting stuff ... I've really been blown away by Team System and am very, very excited about what it will bring to the development process.
The Team System Launch is on Tuesday, April 25 at the Cinemark Westchase. It'll give you a good dive into how Team System can make your development processes better and more effective ... as well as providing management with all those darn reports they seem to like so much (without a lot of additional work from the developer!)
Sign up at http://www.teams-deliver.com/!
I won't be there, unfortunately ... I'll be in Dallas speaking at the Security Matters Summit (https://www.ustechsregister.com/securitymatters/) on Secure Development Lifecycle.
I don't know ... maybe it is. What am I talking about? The Health Monitoring features of ASP.NET 2.0. It's one of the new services APIs that have been added into the ASP.NET runtime -- like membership, profiles, roles, etc -- and it's just there waiting to be used and/or extended.
I stumbled over it while publishing a site that a couple of the other DE's and myself are using ... and then getting emails about "the site had an error". Now, of course, ALL of these guys have done development in the real world and KNOW that you need to give detailed error info if you have any expectation of gettting the developer to fix it ... but that was all I got. So ... I wanted some more info, and to be more proactive about it.
So ... I started looking into ASP.NET 2.0's Health Monitoring. Now, I've haven't seen a whole lot of buzz or hubbub around Health Monitoring ... I guess it's just not as sexy as Membership or Role Management ... but since when did anyone do a site that didn't need some sort of tracking for exceptions? Health Monitoring does that. It tracks all kinds of event right out of the box -- errors, failures, authentication, authorization, viewstate failure -- and can be extended with your own events. To consume these events, you use an event provider. Again, out of the box there is most of what you need -- EventLog, SQL, WMI, Mail, Trace -- but you can extend this as well.
So ... when this was all said and done, I added some stuff to my config file and presto! I started getting emails for every failure. Now, I don't know about y'all, but that's one of the things that seems to need to be done on every site. And I always hated writing it ... or re-writing it ... or grabbing from code that I already wrote to put it in. Now, I just copy/past the config file.
Want more info? Check out http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms178703.aspx.
How does a buffer overrun work? What can I do to protect myself from SQL Injection? How do hackers exploit vulnerabilities? Please join Microsoft and Compuware for a comprehensive look at the answers to these questions.
We will provide guidance on how to identify common secure coding issues, and show you how to mitigate the risk from these issues to ensure that your application's security begins in development, and that you're delivering the most secure application possible to your organization and customers.
This is going to be an awesome event ... not only will we show how applications get hacked, but Brian Cooper will demonstrate Compuware's excellent tool for identifying potential vulnerabilities in applications before they go out the door to be attacked by the bad guys!
Seminar Agenda
November 8 and November 17, 2005
1:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. Registration
1:30 p.m. - 1:45 p.m. Introductions and Overview
1:45 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. "Common Application Security Vulnerabilities"
J Sawyer
Microsoft Developer Evangelist
3:15 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. "Finding and Fixing Security Problems through Automation"
Brian Cooper
Compuware Subject Matter Expert
4:00 p.m. Refreshments, appetizers and PRIZE drawing for a Dell Jukebox
A recent study notes that 75 percent of all web attacks happen at the application layer. This number is alarming, seeing as though most security solutions are focused on checking and controlling security issues after applications are in production. Little is done to build security into applications from the start, which will reduce cost and improve code quality.
Topics will include overall best practices for writing secure code, identifying and ranking threats to your application and including security into the software development lifecycle. While vulnerabilities we will discuss are not platform-specific, the mitigation techniques discussed and demonstrated will be specific to the .NET Framework and Visual Studio 2005 tools.
In this seminar we will provide guidance on how to identify common secure coding issues, show you how to mitigate the risk from these issues to ensure that your application's security begins in development and that you're delivering the most secure application possible to your organization and customers. You will also learn about common security vulnerabilities within applications and the development techniques to correct them.
Session Topics
Common Application Security Vulnerabilities
- Cross-site scripting
- SQL Injection
- Session hijacking
- Parameter tampering
Finding and fixing security issues through automation
- Scan code to identify common security mistakes
- Simulate attacks on an application to uncover security holes
- Analyze run-time data during application execution
Every attendee will receive the book Writing Secure Code by Michael Howard and David C. LeBlanc and will also be entered to win a Dell Jukebox! Register today!
Dates and Locations
Tuesday, November 8
Microsoft Technology Center
9606 N Mopac
Suite 200
Austin, Texas 78759
Thursday, November 17
Microsoft Office
2000 W. Sam Houston Pkwy S.
Suite 350
Houston, Texas 77042
Register Now!
Always, always there is the quest for more speed from my computer. I admit it ... I'm impatient and I like to have a fast computer. What geek doesn't?
So ... with that in mind, I went down the path of my yearly system upgrade. It's not as radical as last years (when I got a new processor, motherboard and memory), but the performance improvements are still dramatic.
You see, I've always wanted to have a dual processor system. More processor ... more power ... more speed. And, while many average computer users really wouldn't be able to take advantage of a dual proc system, I always knew that I'd find a way. Actually, there have been many times that I've wanted dual proc ... like when I'm doing something that's CPU-intensive (like compressing or decompressing large VPC's) and it ate all the processor cycles. When that happens, you can't do much until the operation finishes. Not a lot of fun.
So ... when I bought my motherboard last year, I did so quite deliberately ... and I chose a Socket939 board so that I could upgrade to the promised AMD Athlon 64 Dual Core processors when they released ... with only a BIOS update. And that's exactly what I did. I hooked myself up with an AMD Athlon64 X2 Dual Core Processor ... the Athlon64 X2 4400+ with 2 2.2 GHz cores. If you remember, last year I got an Athlon64 3500+, which as 1 core running at 2.2 Ghz. The new one also has 2 1 MB L2 Caches, compared to 1 512 KB L2 cache on the 3500+.
So what's the result? I've been running the new processor for about 2 weeks now and I have to say that I'm just tickled by it. Not only is it just plain fast ... I can more effectively multi-task when doing CPU intensive operations (yes, I specifically tried that!) The only thing that has been an issue has been Virtual PC ... and this caused me quite a bit of consternation as I run a LOT of VPC's and this was certainly a big reason to get the dual core (not that the VPC could use them, but so I can do other things at the same time). Certain VPC's would BSOD with an issue in Processr.sys ... DRIVER_UNLOADED_WITHOUT_CANCELING_PENDING_OPERATIONS. Now, I agree, this doesn't seem like a very nice thing for a driver to do, to unload wihtout taking care of it's pending operations, but I was somewhat disappointed. I did, howver, find a solution. There are 2 things that you can do:
1. Boot in safe mode and let the processor driver update. This worked ... but I didn't try re-running the VPC on my laptop, where I fear I'd have to do the same thing.
2. Disable the driver. This is described at http://blogs.msdn.com/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2005/10/24/484461.aspx ... this works as well and is now the solution that I use on all of my VPC's.
Well, finally got to do the events in Baton Rouge. After all the weather excitement recently, it was really good to get down there for these events. Momentum, as always did a great job hosting!
By popular request, here's the materials from the event to download:
| File Download |
Size (KB) |
Description |
| Writing Secure Code.zip |
2470 |
This is the PowerPoint deck for the Writing Secure Code presentation |
| SecureCodeVS2003Demos.zip |
101 |
These are the Visual Studio .NET 2003 versions of the Writing Secure Code demos. You will need to add the "SQLInjectionDemo" as a web in IIS to run the demo. |
| SecureCodeVS2005Demos.zip |
143 |
These are the Visual Studio 2005 versions of the Writing Secure Code demos ... and the ones that I used for the presentation. The solution is for Visual Studio 2005 Release Candidate from September ... I don't know if it will work in previous builds. Note that you do not need to create the web as this is a file-based web project. Additionally, if you are running SQL Server 2005, note that the Northwind sample database is not installed on SQL Server 2005. You will need to install Northwind to get the SQL Injection demos to run. |
| VSTS Overview Deck |
7078 |
This is the Visual Studio Team System Overview deck that I presented. |
Other Links for more info:
Security Links
Team System Links
Well, Rita came through. For a time, it looked like it was going to hit home here in Houston. We were lucky and dodged the bullet. Folks in East Texas and Southwest Louisiana ... not so lucky. Yes, I evacuated. Didn't want to take any chances. However, I didn't spend 20+ hours on the road ... we were going to leave Thursday afternoon, but came back after getting caught in the traffic ... this was even on the back roads. So, we left early Friday morning and didn't hit traffic on US 290 until Chappell Hill. Rather than fight the traffic, we went down a bunch of back roads, including some gravel roads and some with no painted lines. How did we do this? Well, first, I have a DC-AC Power Inverter from my friendly neighborhood Radio Shack, so I could run my laptop all day long. Second, I also have Microsoft Streets & Trips with GPS Locator. So ... between the two, we were able to map a route through back roads to Austin and saw NO TRAFFIC. Not only that, we also were able to get gas along the way. This is definitely the way to do it.
So ... I wound up in KatrinaSafe. Ironic though it may seem, Microsoft was using this to track their own employees that evacuated. The team currently working on it has updated the software and database to support multiple evacuation events ... so relief workers and evacuees can use one tool, one web site, to handle all evacuees, regardless of the event. It's also been adopted as the official solution for the American Red Cross. It's good to know that the work that we did isn't going to end with Katrina ... but will be used in the time to come to track evacuees and continue to bring families together. Certainly, we had this in mind when we created the site and applications.
For those of you that have been following, we released a new version of KatrinaSafe on Friday. We accomplished quite a bit on the web site from an architectural perspective that involved a great deal of refactoring, but little new functionality. The Smart Client, however, had a great deal of new functionality, including the ability to allow case workers to confirm inquiries with evacuees. Let me take a second to explain this. We have 2 types of records in the system: evacuees, which are people that have been checked into the system at an evacuation center using KatrinaSafe or have been imported from an external feed. We may not have an evacuation center for them, but we know that they are alive and OK. The second type of record is an inquiry. This is where someone is looking for an evacuee that they've not found yet. KatrinaSafe will notify them when we confirm a match to an existing evacuee. This is really the magic of the system and what makes it unique ... we proactively mine the evacuees to try to match them to those that are looking for them. This is also where we'll be using fuzzy logic and probablistic matching technology from the SQL Server team and Microsoft Research (MSR). Once the match is confirmed, we send notifications ... either via email or via Speech Server ... to let the inquirer know that their loved one has been found. The other major addition is the offline mode ... case workers can now work offline and add inquiries and evacuees to the system. These requests are then queued on the local machine until they reconnect ... and then the updates are posted in a batch process.
I haven't blogged about it in the past couple of days because, honestly, I've been recuperating. I got back home to Houston around 1 AM on Friday morning. While I've done some additional work (minor UI issue fixes) since then via VPN, I've been mostly sleeping, resting and spending time with my wife ... as have many of the other team members. Looking back, we really accomplished quite a bit in a very short amount of time. Under usual circumstance, I'd have estimated at least a month of work ... maybe 2 ... to do what we did in less than a week. Of course, that's with 8 hour days, sane change management processes and a formal SDLC, formal requirements gathering, etc, etc. We didn't have the time for these things ... and our days were on the 16-20 hour side.
I'd also like to take this time to point out some of the folks that helped make this happen. This is not, to be sure, an exhaustive list of everyone involved ... I really only had visibility into the folks directly involved with active development, but there were a bunch of other people helping support us and the project. Like I said before, they didn't let me out of the dev pit much. And, to be honest, I didn't have the spare brain capacity to focus on anything but details immediately relevant to the tasks that I was working on. So ... here's some of the folks (in no particular order):
Jim Carroll: Database Lead Architect for the East Region's Center of Excellence, based in Alabama. Jim was the project lead and architect for development and will be the lead moving forward. I'd never met Jim before and I was incredibly impressed with his project management skills as well as his database expertise. He did a great job keeping us focused and also preventing the developers from adding more code churn and functionality into dev that would have hurt the schedule worse. If there is any single person that deserves the most credit for what we accomplished, it's Jim.
Dan Manrique: Information Worker TS for State & Local Government, based in Tampa, FL. Dan did a lot of work on the web site and, with Jim, was one of the original visionaries behind KatrinaSafe.com. Of course, he had the presence of mind to throw Jim under the bus and suggest he be the lead for the project. (BEEP BEEP!). Dan also wound up with the thankless task of being the Build Master for a couple of days ... not just thankless, but, considering that we had no real process in place and we doing 2 or more prod pushes every day, an impossible task to keep in line. David will be at the PDC BOF on Monday, if you are interested in meeting him.
Dave Gardner: BizApps and Integration TS for State & Local Government, based in Sacramento, CA. Dave was our first Build Master for the first prod push and then Dan got stuck with it. Dave is also the guy that built the look & feel for the web site ... a FrontPage guru, he almost has me convinced to take another look at FrontPage. He also did quite a bit of work on the web site and worked with Jim Keane to get the offline capability into the Smart Client. Dave also served as test lead and triage master. David will also be at the PDC BOF on Monday.
Phil McMillan: Senior Consultant, State & Local Governement MCS, based in Reston, VA. Phil is our Speech Server God. He got Speech Server up and running quicker than anyone could have imagined. A little high-strung, perhaps (if you remember, there was a time when I thought he was going to kill someone ... I wasn't kidding), but he got stuff done and made it work.
Jim Dugan: Technology Architect with the Reston, VA Microsoft Technology Center. If there is someone that is a bigger SQL Guru than Jim Carroll, it's Jim Dugan (no offense JC!) Jim came in later and became the import/SSIS master, working on getting data imports into the database as well as getting the preliminary matching logic in place. He'll also be integrating the final matching logic in when we get it from the product group. Jim came to Austin with just the clothes on his back (literally) and had to buy clothes in Austin. I'll spare you, gentle reader, some of the stories associated with this.
Jim Keane: Technical Director with the Austin, TX MTC. Without a doubt, the smartest developer that I've ever worked with. Jim is a legend inside of Microsoft ... one of only 2 or 3 people to receive the Chairman's Award not once, but twice. Jim's technical prowess and abilities are, quite simply, awe-inspiring ... and I don't say that about very many people at all. Jim was responsible for the online/offline capabilities (with Dave) as well as the bootstrapper that automatically updated the client, among other things. By the end of the week, Jim also kept change management under check and helped inject some process into release management. Jim may also be joining us at the PDC BOF session.
Michael Riley: Senior Technology Specialist with the Austin, TX MTC. Michael worked a lot with me on the matching functionality for the smart client piece, helped with other Smart Client stuff and was a developer-at-large for several other pieces. If I remember the transistion plan correctly, Michael will also be the dev lead moving forward. His low-key disposition hides not only one sharp developer, but a surprisingly sharp and funny wit.
Chong Lee: Senior Technology Specialist with the Austin, TX MTC. Chong was our final build master and server god. He managed our final production pushes and worked with Jim to keep everything sane and in line. He also handled server monitoring and management ... disciplines that, honestly, escape me as a mere developer.
Scott Emigh: Director of the Austin, TX MTC. It's Scott's fault that I got involved in this in the first place. He sent out an email to all South Central resources with an urgent request for development resources. Less than an hour later, much to my wife's surprise, I was on the road. Scott was also our top test user, arranged for everything we needed and overall did everything he could to support us ... including clearing the MTC's schedule for the entire week. No, he didn't write any code, but we couldn't have done it without him. He also helped with handling political issues and coordination with the government agencies.
Jack Westerlund: Information Worker Solution Specialist for SLG, based in Austin, TX: Jack helped Scott with the political issues and overall support.
Patrick Shanahan: Partner Engagement Manager for SLG, based in Las Calinas, TX. Worked with Scott and Jack to handle a lot of the political issues and coordination. Patrick was also our official photographer ... some of his photos will be posted to this blog in the coming week.
There's others that I haven't mentioned here. Some simply because I didn't catch (or don't remember) their names. Some because I wasn't aware of what they were doing ... like I said, I was focused on what I had immediately in front of me and, if it didn't relate to that, it got no permanent storage in my brain. To those of you ... I apologize. I don't mean to discount or devalue your contribution because everyone's contribution was important to the success of KatrinaSafe ... but I just couldn't keep it all in my head.
This has been, by far, the single best experience of my 12+ year career in this industry. Never has any project meant so much and I am glad that I was able to be a small part of it. It was also, by far, the single best team that I've ever worked with. Yes, we had stressful situations, frayed nerves, over-tired people ... and you know how that goes. But, through it all, we respected each other and, I think, built a strong bond between all of us. This will be one of those projects and one of those teams that I will look back on for years to come with fond memories ... such a group of dedicated, professional and just plain smart folks brought together for a project is a rare and beautiful thing.
If you are going to the PDC, there will be a Birds of a Feather session that will talk about how technology can be used to respond to a disaster like Katrina. It's called "Katrina Relief through technology" and will be on Monday, September 12 at 7:00 PM.
I and some other members of the KatrinaSafe.com team will be attending. Join us to hear how we used technology to build the KatrinaSafe.com system.
Hope to see you there!
