I would like to think that all of the people who read some or all of this blog (whether said reading takes place occasionally, all the time, or somewhere in between), understand the blog's nature.

In particular, when I think this, I like to think specifically about the Blog's disclaimer, which is:

Postings are provided as is with no warranties, and confer no rights. Opinions expressed here are my own delusions; my employers at best shake their heads and sigh, at worst repudiate the content with extreme prejudice, whenever it manages to appear on their radar.

Maybe I should add some emphasis there. I'll try again:

Postings are provided as is with no warranties, and confer no rights. Opinions expressed here are my own delusions; my employers at best shake their heads and sigh, at worst repudiate the content with extreme prejudice, whenever it manages to appear on their radar.

That's better!

Now over the life of Sorting it all Out, this text has subtly changed, e.g. "if it were ever to" morphing to "whenever it manages to" after it turned out that my management was running across the odd post from time to time, or perhaps more often. But the spirit of the words has remained steadfast.

Everything I post here, no matter what the source (whether from within Microsoft or without), is posted through the uniquely strange prism that is my brain, and therefore it is:

  • entirely appropriate for you to place as much faith and credence in the words here as you feel that I deserve myself, on my own merits, as you might any software developer you read the words of who has a great love of his or her work, delusionsnotions of linguistic aptitude, a knack for reading his or her own MRIs, and a love of San Pellegrino Limonata;
  • entirely inappropriate for you to assume that any of it represents the opinions of any person or people or team or group or division at Microsoft with authority to speak for Microsoft, and that further to that end lending whatever faith and credence (or lack thereof) you would to Microsoft would in fact represent serious flaws and/or limitations in your own decision-making paradigm that you may want to reconsider before you make a similar mistake in life (and walk in front of a train or stick your tongue in a light socket!).

In fact, I would go so far to say that hypothesizing that any opinion I state could even result in policy maker(s) within Microsoft changing direction completely for the sole purpose of proving me officially wrong is, while probably not true in either the capital B Blog or lowercase B blog sense, not something I would be willing to bet heavy against, myself.

In previous posts I have spoken ill of the people who might show such lapses in judgment, even going so far as to cast aspersions like utter moronic wingnut on therm. In retrospect this is kind of mean and even if true it was probably unkind of me to say so, and just as I do not make fun of those who do walk in front of trains or stick their tongues in light sockets, I should not make fun of these people.

Bottom line: I don't want people making fun of me for being unable to stand upright without falling, and therefore should not make fun of people who fail to grok something I write here (or who I'm speaking for when I write it).

Therefore I won't do that anymore.

Now as to the future, if you get a business card from me as of my next order then my blog URL won't be on it. And not that you can see my commitments (my management excluded of course!), but any mention of the blog within my commitments (incidental or not) will be removed during an explicit scrub during the midyear.

While various facets of my job and the people I work with will likely continue to inspire the Blog or the blogs therein, I neither desire nor expect any facet of my Blog or the blogs therein to inspire my management's perception of the work I do.

With all that said, I personally believe that what I do here in this blog actually does have some modicum of usefulness for both me as the author and for some of you as the readers. And after Denethor (and Tolkien!) I'll say that I will continue to blog in just the same way, f"rom this hour henceforth, until R.I.F. release me, or death take me, or the world end" (or I am directed not to!).

It is vaguely possible that, over time, some of the people within Microsoft who feel that (all things being equal) Sorting it all Out tends to have a less than stellar effect on customer perception of the work the group does will reconsider their position, though offhand I'm inclined to doubt it will make a bucket of piss's worth of difference, and therefore I won't hold my breath hoping for change.

Though if you are internal to Microsoft and run across a particular blog that helped you then feel free to tell my management about the experience, especially if you plan to be specific about it....

My own voice (enhanced by my opinions), is an unsuitable representative of Microsoft Corporation, and given the choice between being an honest rebel and a dishonest boy scout, I choose the former, with neither regret nor apology. So help me blog.

 

Many of the characters within Unicode were eager to sponsor this blog (and/or the "character" the author looks at in the mirror each morning!) but I did not want to tarnish their reputations and thanked them but then regretfully declined.