DevBlog

Somasegar is the VP of the Developer Division at Microsoft. He's just posted his first blog. Somasegar's Weblog. Subscribed.

R2 is the current name for the interim release of Windows 2003. It's designed as a step between Windows 2003 and Longhorn server, which isn't due until 2007. This week at TechEd, Microsoft unveiled some of the plans for R2. [ENT News]

Do you run as administrator on your PC? If you're like the vast majority of Windows users, you do. This really is a security issue. Dana Epps discusses running on least privledged security and why most users should run that way. He specifically adresses developers here.

Well, it looks like VSS will live after all. MS has announced Visual SourceSafe 2005. According to the Microsoft Visual Sourcesafe Roadmap

Microsoft is updating the version control technology of Visual SourceSafe. A new product release with a continued focus on version control, Visual SourceSafe 2005, will update and improve this popular system. For individual developers or small teams who need a lightweight, client-only, file server application for source code control only, Microsoft will continue to enhance and support Visual SourceSafe. We will ship Visual SourceSafe 2005, which will include enhancements such as remote web access over HTTP, LAN performance booster, Unicode and XML support, and regional time zones and languages.

Microsoft has long has a souce control application called Visual Source Safe. However, it hasn't been updated in years and really isn't state of the art. It's also known to corrupt the source database in some versions. Even most teams at Microsoft weren't using SourceSafe. Last month at the MVP Summit, someone asked about updates to SourceSafe and the answer was "Stay tuned. We'll have something about that soon." Soon turned out to be yesterday at TechEd. Microsoft has announced Visual Studio Team System, which is much more than source control. VSTS is a complete life cycle management system that includes modeling, testing, code analysis, and deployment tools. If you think this all sounds high end and geared toward corporate developers, you're right. Microsoft's target competition is Rational. In fact, Sam Guckenheimer, one of the main guys behind VSTS used to work for Rational.

Ten years ago, InformationWeek (Weak) ran a story stating FoxPro was dead. I haven't paid much attention to the rag in that time and have round filed several offers to subscribed. Ted pointed to a sidebar to an article on people moving to Linux. The article, Linux Going Mainstream, itself really concentrates on people moving from Unix and supercomputers to Linux, rather than from Windows to Linux. Ted, who promotes Open Source, neglected to point out two quotes from the main article. The first, from Tony Johnson of Trimble Mobile Solutions,

"I've never believed the 'Linux is free' story," Johnson says. "The numbers aren't that much different between Windows and Linux."

The second from Nick Gray of UPS,

The idea of an IT environment where Unix, Linux, and Windows coexist doesn't bother UPS. "Mixed environments are the norm for IT departments," Gray says. Linux as a replacement for Windows is less appealing for UPS, which has 6,000 Windows-based servers and 100,000 Windows-based desktops. "Windows works for us, and it's already on Intel," Gray says.

Now, the sidebar, Defection: Microsoft Proponent Moves To Linux, talks about Whil Hentzen. Some things about this sidebar bother me. First is the reporting by Larry Greenemeier. It says that Whil has been a recipient of Microsoft's "Most Valuable Programmer" award. I learned in my junior high school journalism class to check the facts. Mr. Greenemeier got it wrong here, obviously because he didn't check his facts. It's the "Most Valuable Professional" award.

Second, there are some things attributed to Whil that just don't make sense to me. Try this one on for size,

Why the switch? "A confluence of things made me look at what else is out there," Hentzen says. The most compelling reason came from Microsoft, which has pushed its FoxPro development tools aside in favor of .Net, Hentzen says.

When have you ever seen FoxPro take a front or even equal stance to VB? Before .NET even came along, VB was being pushed ahead of VFP. Here's another,

Add to this the trouble Hentzen was having with crashes and blue screens on the Windows NT 4.0 servers running his publishing business, and a change clearly was needed.

Ummm, Whil, NT 4.0 was known to have crash problems. Did you ever consider Win2K, which was much, much better? Finally,

He estimates that in 2002, it would have cost him $10,000 to upgrade his servers and workstations to the latest versions of Windows. "Suppose I upgrade to Windows 2003 and Windows XP. What would I be able to do then that I can't do with my current boxes? Nothing," he says. "I don't need all of the collaboration features available in the latest versions of Windows."

OK, fair enough. I don't know what Whil's network looks like, but he's one guy stating his needs. That doesn't mean many others don't need the collaboration features. Microsoft.com has many case studies showing where the collaboration saved companies thousands of dollars.

As I've stated before, Open Source is great and has it's place...as do "proprietary" systems. But, the Open Source community needs to get off this stance that their solution is less expensive or more secure because the facts simply don't show it.

A new report challenges claims by Linus Torvalds that he created Linux. He disputes the report. [CNET] SCO would have you believe that Linus and others stole the code from them.

Microsoft has some of the most prolific bloggers in the world, but no official blogging software. Will that change soon? Microsoft Monitor and Scoble both blogged about BillG telling CEOs to blog. Was Bill's advice a hint of things to come? Now, when will he take his own advice?

The computer came home fromt the doctor today. The primary hard drive died. The good side of this is I now have a bigger drive. After installing the drive, I installed WinXP Pro, Office, Norton Anti-Virus, printer and scanner drivers, Yahoo! Messenger, and some other things. I can't connect to my post office for sending or receiving email. That could be due to problems on the server end. I'll try again in the morning. If I'm still having problems, I'll call tech support for that. It's good to be back!

Ugh! I've had a major system crash on my primary desktop system. It appears that the drive controller died and took the two drives with it. The PC is in the shop getting diagnosed now. (No way I want to put in a new drive until I know the controller is good.) What this means is I have no access to Outlook or my address book. I'm stuck using the web interface to get and receive emails. The bad thing is, that I don't have a good backup. I was copying things from the C: to D: drive as backup. Don't preach to me about offline backups...I know all about why you should do them. If you've sent me questions about Crystal Reports and/or VFP that I haven't answered, it may be a while before I can respond. I'll post an update next week when I know more and can start getting email again.

Microsoft has posted several new samples that show off the features introduced in VFP 8.0. Samples include AutoIncrement, Collections, EmptyClass, Event Binding, TryCatch, and more. You can download them here.

Update 12:46 pm: I subscribe to an RSS feed that lists new Microsoft downloads and this one is on the list.

Ken Levy's May letter is posted and contains more informtion on VFP 9.0. You should have the public beta by this time next month.

In the movie Tron, Bruce Boxleitner plays a computer hacker who gets sucked into the computer and becomes part of a game. Now, an article on News.com points to the opposite happening. That is, a game gets sucked into real life. Pacmanhatten is a project by NYU students that will attempt to find out what happens when Pacman becomes real life. They've mapped out a section of Manhatten into a Pacman game and students will be the game players. I'll be following this to see the results.

It's been just over three years since I started working here at 3M. I'm now on my third manager. The change was made Wednesday. Unlike the previous two, the new manager does not have a technical background. Her degree is in nursing. That does not mean she's not capable of herding the cats in the group. She's been here for several years and has done installations, support, managed the tech writers, and several other jobs. She understands how developers think...and it isn't like the people she's managed before. One good thing...everyone I've talked to that worked for her before is jealous, with several saying "She's the best manager I've ever had." One person told me that in a recent survey of other managers here, her named was listed the most often as the response to the question, "Which manager would you like to hear from?". This bodes well for our team. She not only gets the respect of her employees, but is highly regarded by other managers too.

Ask anyone who has had a job interview at Microsoft what it was like and you'll possibly hear something along the lines of "It was hell." Over the years I've had all sorts of interviews, individual, by committee, a series of people, but never the "solve this puzzle" type. That hasn't stopped me from wondering about them and trying to figure out an answer to the puzzle. This month's book, How Would You Move Mount Fuji? by William Poundstone (ISBN 0316919160, Little-Brown) discusses the history of these puzzles, how they are used by Microsoft, and presents several puzzles and their solution. Questions such as "How would you weigh a jet plane without using scales?", "Count in base negative 2", or "How many times a day do a clock's hands overlap?" are there. I'm not giving you the answers. You'll have to figure out the solution or get the book.