After a monumental amount of work, the .NET Framework 3.0 has been completed! It ships out of the box in Vista, but for down level clients (Windows XP and Windows Server 2003) and developer tools, see the links below:

• Microsoft .NET 3.0 Framework Release Notes
• Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 Redistributable Package (for XP and 2003)
• Microsoft Windows SDK for Windows Vista and .NET Framework 3.0 Runtime Components in ISO Install and Web Install formats (with it’s own set of Release Notes)
• Visual Studio 2005 extensions for .NET Framework 3.0, both for WF and for WCF/WPF (WCF/WPF extensions are the November 2006 CTP — there are more to come)
• WCF/WPF/WF Cross-Technology Integration Samples (I admit I’m biased here to point out the parts of .NET 3.0 that I worked on : )

Wahoo!

Back in writer avoidance mode, I did some research into PAYG phones for the boys based on some recommendations from friends, colleagues and Wikipedia. This is what I found:

Assuming I trust my kids to call whoever they want (so long as they pay), it seems clear that Net10 is the way to go. It’s effectively $10 for the entry-level phone (because it comes w/ $30 of free airtime) and $6/hour for more time after the first 300 minutes are gone. Plus, the Net10 phones show the amount of time left on the account, so the boys can monitor it themselves easily. Neither AT&T Wireless or Cingular has good reception in my area, so who knows what the reception would be, but for $40, it wouldn’t be expensive to find out and they sell them at my local Safeway…

OCTOBER: This is one of the peculiarly dangerous months to speculate in stocks in. The other are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, December, August, and February.

-Mark Twain

This one’s been around a while and just feels so true…
Sat, 10/28/2006 10:24am

From JJ5′s web site.
Wed, 10/18/2006 11:08am (what a thing to see so early in the morning…)

From: Isaiah Okorie

Sent: Friday, October 13, 2006 08:06 AM

To: csells@sellsbrothers.com; csells@microsoft.com

Subject: XSellent!!!

Hi Chris,

I am  a .Net developer working in Ghana, West Africa. I have been reading your articles for a while now and listened to you whenever the opportunity came along. I think you have been very inspirational to my own work.

[csells] I’m happy to hear that. Thanks.

If you don’t mind, I would like to know how you are able to organise you work. How are you able to prepare for your conferences and still be a prolific author?

[csells] I think I’d sum it up as: Commitment + Fear. First, I commit to something, then I let the fear of bad consequences, i.e. giving a bad talk, missing my deadline, writing something inaccurate, etc, motivate me to do a good job. Unfortunately, this means I spend more time working then I’d like, but generally the results turn out pretty good.

What discussion groups, conferences, blogs (if any) are a must for you?

[csells] Since becoming an MS employee, I lurk on a few internal aliases based on the technologies I’m interested in. Externally, I hang out on slashdot.org, joelonsoftware.com and computerzen.com and that’s probably about it. It used to be lots, lots, lots more, but I just don’t have the kind of time I used to. As far as conferences go, I generally only do the PDC and my own DevCons.

How are you able to keep up with the changes? What books do you read?

[csells] I keep up with changes by a) a broad familiarity with as much technology as possible and then b) committing to using it because it feels like it’ll be the right thing and c) using fear to motivate me (recognize a pattern? : ). I read books on demand given the topic I’m into, and then it’s 3-5 books in a week for immersion. Frankly, after writing a few books, I’m a bit of a snob, so I don’t read a lot of technical books for fun the way I used to.

Now you work at Microsoft, how do you manage your ‘usual tasks’?

[csells] Honestly, it’s hard to keep up with the personal mail; I don’t do as good a job as I’d like. The web site stuff, e.g. blog, tools, spout, Genghis, etc, is catch as catch can. As soon as this last book is done (WPF Programming: The RTM Edition), I plan on trying to get some balance back into my life.

Many thanks for your inspiring hard work.

[csells] My pleasure.

From left to right, Ted Neward, Rocky Lhotka, Chris Sells’s cardboard cutout and his electronic image projected to building 33 in Redmond, WA from Lake Oswego, Oregon, Patrick Cauldwell and Scott Hanselman.

From Keith Pleas, Microsoft Patterns & Practices “Open Source in the Enterprise” panel organizer
10/11/2006