DevBlog

I am quoted in the current issue of Redmond Developer magazine talking about Visual Studio.

First it was Ray Ozzie being named the new Chief Software Architect. Ray is the "brains" behind one of the worst products I've ever used, Bloated Goats ... errr.. Lotus Notes. Now another former IBMer and another "brain" behind still another piece of junk IBM product, WebSphere, has joined Microsoft. Donald Ferguson will work directly with Ray Ozzie. What exactly he will do is still not clear, but it has me concerned about the future of Microsoft products. [Mary Jo Foley]

Rick makes a good point of vendor selling practices, but it goes further than components. Several years ago I was looking for an inexpensive anti virus solution for my Windows 2000 Server. McAfee advertised that it worked on Windows 2000, so I paid for it, downloaded it, and attempted to install it. But, it wouldn't install. I called tech support who told me it only worked on Windows 2000 Professional, not Server. I told them their advertising was deceptive and wanted the server version for the price I paid, but got no where with that. So, I asked for my money back. It took me a couple of days to jump through several hoops they required to get the refund...which still took a couple of weeks (sidenote: why does it only take a matter of seconds to charge my card, but weeks to get the money back on it). Since then I have not purchased nor recommended any McAfee prodcut.

First I was named Time magazine's person of the year. Now I've been tagged (thanks Alex and Martin). I was wondering how long it would take for that to happen and had considered making a preemptive post. The way this works is when someone tags you, you need to post five things about yourself that no one (or very few) knows. So, here goes:

1. One of my first jobs as a teenager was working for the circus. You may think I would have been a perfect candidate as a carny, but nope. Someone had to walk behind the elephants and clean up. Actually, what I was doing was telemarketing. Yes, I admit it. I was in that dreaded industry. Calling local residents and trying to sell tickets to the circus.
2. On the flip side of things, I once sued a telemarketer in small claims court and won. OK, actually, we settled the case, but I got money out of them so I consider it a win. Utah has a law that prohibits telemarketers from using automated dialers in conjunction with recordings. One day, I grew tired of getting a particular call. I back tracked the 800 number they gave me. It went to a company in Nevada, then to another, then another, etc, until I finally traced things to a Utah company that turned out to be a husband and wife selling Herbalife. The law allows me to sue in small claims court for $500 plus court costs, so that's what I did. I anticipated that they wouldn't show up and I would have to sell the judgement to a collection agency. To my surprise they were there. We settled for $250 plus the court costs.
3. I lived in Santiago, Chile from 1978-80 as a Mormon missionary. I once spoke fluent Spanish, but alas, I've lost most of it in the nearly 30 years since then.
4. I was very young when my father died. About a year later, my mother remarried and I instantly gained a brother and two sisters. I was an only child before that. My step-brother is 4 months older than me, but was a year ahead of me in school. One step-sister was a year behind me. The other, four years behind. So, we had three of us in high school at the same time.
5. I worked at several local radio stations in high school and college. I did everything from the standard disk jockey thing to selling advertising to producing sports to engineering to news to recording commercials. In other words, pretty much everything. My first college major was broadcast journalism (I ended up in Information Systems Management). Dan Rather had just taken over for Walter Cronkite and I envisioned replacing him someday. Boy am I glad that never happened.

So, now to pass the buck, I'm tagging:

Andy Kramek
Craig Bailey
Anib (XAMLChick)
Christof Wollenhaupt
Calvin Hsia

Update: Added link to Martin

My superhero results are:
You are Spider-Man

Spider-Man 65% Superman 60% Hulk 60% Supergirl 58% Robin 55% The Flash 50% Batman 45% Catwoman 45% Wonder Woman 43% Iron Man 40% Green Lantern 35%

You are intelligent, witty, a bit geeky and have great power and responsibility.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Test



My evil villian results are:
You are Lex Luthor

Lex Luthor 59% Dr. Doom 54% The Joker 43% Magneto 42% Mr. Freeze 41% Riddler 41% Green Goblin 40% Apocalypse 39% Kingpin 37% Venom 33% Juggernaut 32% Mystique 32% Catwoman 31% Dark Phoenix 31% Two-Face 28% Poison Ivy 25%

A brilliant businessman on a quest for world domination and the self-proclaimed greatest criminal mind of our time!

Click here to take the Supervillain Personality Quiz

For the past few years, Ed Leafe has been running a support forum called OpenTech. It runs on php with MySQL on the backend. However, it's very open to spam. The number of spam messages posted recently has outnumbered the technical questions there. Today, the ratio is 3-1. I've grown tired of the spam and so I have closed the door on OpenTech. If the spam problem gets fixed, I will again hang out there.

Here's mine:

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Lord Craig the Subversive of London by the Bow Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title