I am a Gauntlet Adventurer. I strive to improve my living conditions by hoarding gold, food, and sometimes keys and potions. I love adventure, fighting, and particularly winning - especially when there’s a prize at stake. I occasionally get lost inside buildings and can’t find the exit. I need food badly. What Video Game Character Are You?

 

BTW, wander around building 10 one time and you’ll know I’m not kidding… : )

I'm sure you've heard the news and read the specs and you might even have seen the celebrity-ridden MTV special. Now, see what it’ll really be about.

Congrats to the VC++ 2005 team for a write-up like this!

“The truth is that this new development in C++ seriously undermines the justification for C# as a language. C++ programmers yet to learn C# simply don’t need to now. What’s the point? They will find the full productivity of Visual Studio 2005 right there at their fingertips supporting the language they know and love. Why should they move to something that is slower and less feature rich?”

He goes on with choice words about those of us that use C# as either “poor folk who have already invested time in it,” “Java types moving to .NET and smart enough to avoid J#” or “dev-celebs and style gurus will realize that it’s in their interest to keep pushing the C# fashion wagon.” I don’t know which camp I fall into, but I love the phrase “dev-celeb!” : )

I remember being in a conference room many years ago with about 10 members of the VC++ team on one side of the table and me on the other with them drilling me for about an hour on what would it take for me to love C++ and give up C#. I asked for the power and performance of C++ and the simplicity of C#. According to The Grumpy Programmer, they’ve not only delivered on this promise, but

“the painful, balls-on-the-table truth is that C# has lost its point.”

Luckily, no one asked me to put any of my body parts on the conference table that day, but you gotta love a guy that can turn a phrase like that. : )

I just called to cash in my Alaska Airlines miles on it’s partner airline Northwest for a trip 5 weeks in advance and they told me that they don’t have any seats available. I know is complete bullshit, because when I search for the flights on the web directly, they’re happy to sell me a seat for the specific day I want.

What they mean is, “Oh no, sir, people actually want to pay to fly that day; we couldn’t possible honor our frequent flier commitments to award you travel on that day!”

Blackout dates, “saver seats,” coach seats built for pigmes… the whole airline industry sucks and you can tell them I said so!

I’m a big believer in the “write the story first” method of software engineering. Like “client-first development” or the increasingly popular “test-driven development,” “story-driven development” is about writing what we want from our software before we write the software. This is different from “spec-driven development” or even “design-driven development” in that I mean actually writing the equivalent of one or more MSDN Magazine articles that you’d like to publish when your product is complete. I can’t tell you how many issues I’m able to work through using this technique and it’s highly recommended if you think in prose. Of course, as the product evolves, so do the articles until the perfect storm happens when the product matches the article and vice versa (modulo bugs, this typically indicates beta 1).

Today, after 5 months of marination, I awoke with the “Intro to Our Stuff” article in my head and I’ve started outlining it. This one is really “Intro to Our Stuff for Developers” piece, which corresponding “Intro to Our Stuff for IT Pros” and “Intro to Our Stuff for Business Analysts” pieces that needs to happen, too.

I was searching with the boys this morning and found this:

I just thought I’d share. : )

My sons and I (and my 11-year old boy’s “date!!!“) all enjoyed Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. I know it didn’t have much in the way of decent dialog or acting, but when compared to the other 5 in the series (especially episodes I and II), it rocked. I’ve only seen it once, but right now it’s tied for first in my mind with A New Hope (I know some snobs like The Empire Strikes Back best, but I still love the feel of the first one).

Also, I liked Unleashed a great deal. Not only did I enjoy the fighting, but I really enjoyed the relationship between Danny and his new family.

On the other hand, in spite of being a huge Frank Miller fan in general and a Sin City comic book fan specifically, I couldn’t stand that silly movie. I wanted to see a movie version, not the comic book version projected onto the screen!

In other news, I’m still waiting for a sequel to The Matrix. I don’t count this fan-boy movie or this one. Anyone got a release date to a follow on worth the time to watch?

Today Microsoft has published the release candidate of Avalon and Indigo Beta 1. The most interesting features of this release over the CTP releases of the past is that these bits work on Visual Studio 2005 beta 2, both full and express. Enjoy!