I’ve heard for years that MS HR uses my site as part of their internal HR training, although I’ve never heard it from the HR folks themselves. Until now.

On Wednesday, Heather Hamilton, an MS recruiter, said that my “site is legendary, especially here in staffing.”

On Monday, Zoe Goldring, also an MS recruiter, said “Net/Net Chriss site is great. Plus I respect the fact that he doesnt give the answers to the questions!”

And, to top it off, they’re even bloggers, and they provide a whole host of interesting info for folks interested in interviewing at Microsoft. Certainly, I’d trust anything you read on their blogs far more than the stuff on this one, most of which was obtained far before I ever worked at MS.

Dan Crevier from the Office team pines for WinFS when they were implementing Mac Office 2004.

Read chapter 6 of Introducing Longhorn for Developers, where Brent dives into the Indigo pillar of Longhorn, including an architectural overview, programming web services, programming remote objects, securing Indigo endpoints, reliable and durable messages and transactions.

Thomas Rizzo, Director (!) on the SQL Server Product Management team, kicks off his WinFS column with an overview of why we need it and what it is. I always love the first piece in any column, as it sets the grounding information for what readers are going to need to understand reading future pieces. I especially love them from internal folks, as it really gives a flavor of what the product team (WinFS, in this case), had in mind that drove them to build their thing the way they did. Check it out.

Just flew in from California… and boy are my arms tired! <shot area=“rim” />

We did 4 California theme parks in 4 days and here’s what I thought:

1. Magic Mountain: great rides, but even before spring break, the best rides had waits of 2-3 hours, so we didn’t get to go on them (although Scream rocked). Also, the price gouging was gratuitous, including $3 for a soda, $.87 for a packet of ranch dressing and extra money for a bunch of the activities after paying to get into the park, e.g. virtual reality ride and rock climbing. Over all, thumbs down.
2. Disney’s California Adventure: Surprisingly good. The production values are high, even making the waiting as fun as possible, just like in every Disney park. The Bugs Life “it’s hard to be a bug” show was hilarious and the Soarin’ Over California ride took my breath away. Plus, all of the rides that had analogs in Magic Mountain were better at California Adventure. This was the winner of the trip. Thumbs up.
3. San Diego Sea World: The day was a little overcast and their major ride wasn’t running, but the shows were fun and it was a nice, mellow experience after two intense days. Also, the food was noticeably better than the other parks (although $50 on lunch for 4 was a bit much). More on the meal front: I called Don on the road between Sea World and the hotel in LA and he recommended In-n-Out Burger, which none of us had ever had before. My oldest son mentioned that meal more than Sea World, so both get a thumbs up.
4. Disneyland: This park needs an overhaul. Their one really good ride, Indiana Jones, was closed and all of the rest of the rides were only interesting for the nostalgia factor (plus they broke down a lot). When I brought my 4-5 year olds here 4 years ago, it was really great to see the place again through their eyes. Now that they’re older, the place holds no attraction for me. Thumbs down.

Over all the trip was a thumbs up if for no other reason than I was without my laptop for 4 days and didn’t really miss it. Then I come home to find that you dang kids have TP’d my blog! : )

Here. Kids got no respect these days… : )

The one where the Sells brothers, the wife and I tackle 4 California theme parks in 4 days and Chris leaves his laptop behind.

Here. If you're a C++ programmer and have questions or concerns about where C++ is going in Longhorn, you need to be at this chat on Monday, 3/15 from 11a - 12:30p PST.