Here. The one where I take a look at all of the things that the typical marketing guys has to balance and thank goodness I just get to think about developers. : )

Even in my short time at Microsoft so far, I’ve have already learned a *ton* from marketing. Of course, I’m working with lots of marketing folks as we get closer to the PDC. Because of my role, I have to worry about what’s good for the developer. Marketing guys, on the other hand, have to balance that with what’s good for the administrator, what’s good for the user, what’s good for the company, what’s good for the shareholders and what’s good for a bunch of other folks I don’t even know about. And, they have to do it for all of the streams of information coming out of the company, which now includes lots of informal streams like newsgroups, message boards, user group talks and blogs. Anyone that can balance all of these folks and still get developers what they need has my unabashed respect.

My 8-year old was proud to remind me that today was the two-year anniversary of 9/11. I was surprised that he knew and grateful to his school for taking the time to discuss it. He then went on to tell me how cool he thought the explosions were, which left me less pleased with his school. When I told him about my own experiences that day and how many people died, it immediately took all of the “coolness” right out of the day for him.

George Bullock, a colleague at MS who’s birthday happens to fall on 9/11, has also had the “coolness” taken out of the day for him and sent around a mail that starts this way:

“Let us pause on 9/11 to remember and honor the thousands killed, maimed, put out of work, and traumatized two years ago; also to honor the heroic, living and dead, who rose to the occasion on that terrible day. May God rest their souls and keep and protect their loved ones. May God also keep and protect our men and women serving here and abroad. Yes, there is much difference of opinion about what’s happening in the world today; nevertheless, I think we all support the men and women of our armed forces and wish them a safe return home. They sacrifice a lot to serve their country.”

Personally, I try very hard not to let the terrorists get to me. Unfortunately, they have. Even time I get the anal probe treatment at the airport or a personal freedom is taken away by the Patriot Act or my sister-in-law is afraid to fly (and flat out refuses to fly on that day), they win. More subtly, ever time a US politician uses “terrorism” to push their own agenda, they also win. Please don’t let them win. Have courage. Try to understand what it was that drove them to terrorism to attract our attention. Compare their lives to ours. But don’t let them win. Don’t let them take the right to the pursuit of happiness out of our lives.

Friday, September 5, 2003

I would classify my style of communication as “get to conflict sooner rather than later.” A radio DJ once classified engineering abilities as a series of personality flaws that are accidentally useful in today’s IT industry and, arguably, he’s right. For most folks that have to work with me, it’s generally hard at first, but eventually you either love me or hate me (and I continuously work to tip that percentage towards the former : ).

However, it’s the rare individual that can see past someone’s personal communications style and still pull out the value. Alan Cooper is one such person. I was reading one of his books and was so lost that I called and blamed him and his parents. He straightened me out by letting politely me know that he book wasn’t even trying to solve my problems and therefore it’s not surprising that it didn’t. Further, he ended his email like this:

“PS. Your enquiries frustrate the hell out of me. That’s why they are good and I want you to keep making them. If I growl at you, well, that’s my problem. Not yours.”

I don’t know if other people would appreciate Alan encouraging my behavior, but it’s still cool to know that such tolerance exists in the world. : )

Here. Apparently my book has sold out on BookPool.com already. Cool...

Here. AW has been kind enough to post the preface and a sample chapter (Chapter 9: Design-Time Integration) to the official AW Windows Forms Programming in C# book page. They've also posted Mike Blaszczak's foreword. Enjoy.

Here. According to JungleScan.com, Windows Forms Programming in C# has been as well as 977. That's as well as any of my books in the last year (except Essential .NET, which hit 226, but I didn't write any of that... : ).

Here. I don't know why ASPExperts.com would designate a WinForms book as "Book of the Week," but I'm honored none-the-less. : )