MVP Award and the April Fool

Here We Go Again

Well, it’s that time again. For some MVPs (including myself) we’re on the April 1st cycle (also known as the fools cycle). It’s where every year on April 1st we anxiously await to see if Santa Gates will put us on the naughty list for one more year.

Yeah, yeah.

  1. Bill Gates is no longer in the picture and it’s Ray Ozzie
  2. Mr. Gates was never involved in the MVP Program (except maybe as some geeky cheerleader just once)
  3. We don’t anxiously await to see if we’re getting re-awarded
  4. There is no naughty list

(maybe the last one isn’t completely untrue and if there’s a MS naughty list, I’m probably one it)

In any case, the award cycle for April MVPs is here as I’m sure you’ve seen from your fellow bloggers around the world. For some unknown reason, the powers that be in the collective decided that yes, Virginia, there is another year for this SharePoint Guy. I was re-awarded for SharePoint Server (at least I think it was for that, like all my email from @microsoft.com I haven’t really read it in detail). Another year of being the SharePoint MVP dude in Calgary, another year of Microsoft propaganda, another year of crappy t-shirts and non-functioning swag. Yahoo.

April Fools Day Post

My previous post, if you haven’t clued in yet, was of course an April Fools joke. Some years I think I’m pretty successful (ask me about that one over beers some time) and other years not so much. This year was probably one of the more involved posts but was met with a meh attitude. Whatever. It’s one day out of the year that I go off like a raving idiot and make mindless blather try to sound interesting. Feel free to unsubscribe to this feed for that one day if it really peeves you off.

I did want to highlight some elements of todays joke post in case you missed the pathetic attempts at humour cleverly disguised as computer nerd in-jokes:

  • “This is very much like the highly successful Windows ME version”. This should have probably clued you into the joke. Windows ME is anything but highly successful. Really. It was in all the papers.
  • “the Vendetta team sought out open source projects”. While MSFT does actually look at open source projects and is a strong proponent in supporting it I doubt we’ll ever see open source components like Drupal as part of the core system. (although I do firmly believe MSFT *should* buy up Paint.NET and make it the MS Paint replacement. You following me Microsoft guy?)
  • “Windows 7 really was just a test bed”. As much as I can’t figure out Microsoft Marketing any more than you can, Windows 7 really is the next version of Windows and yup, that’s what it’s called. And really, give it a looksee. It’s actually one of the most stable and functional beta’s I’ve seen in a long time.
  • “the name Vendetta was chosen with this new logo”. This is a fun logo my wife created by combining the Microsoft “M” with the V for Vendetta “V” and some graphic of a globe she stole from an unnamed website.
  • “the SharePoint File System (SPFS)”. Well, I just *had* to work SharePoint into the deal and what better way than with a file system. It’s crazy but hey, this is the guy who prefers to present at Tech Ed with no pants remember?
  • “Microsoft sought to revamp Bob for modern times”. I really still like Bob and actually do fire him up in a  VM from time to time to laugh. It was a silly joke and I wish I was a fly on the wall during the marketing pitch for this guy. And hey, bringing IKEA in just made it all feel like a twisted David Fincher movie.
  • “Clippy has returned and is just as helpful as he always was”. I think I would physically pound my keyboard back when you couldn’t turn Clippy off and he suggested ways for me to improve my documents. ARGH! Graphic courtesy of Jenn and inspired by that satanic little doll we all love to hate.
  • Azure meets AIR. Not something that will happen in a million years (pretty much willing to bet money on this) as they’re competitors and AIR is direct competition with SilverLight and ClickOnce and all that .NET goodness. Once we had the Azure/AIR going it was a natural progression to the A/A “twelve step program”.
  • “TIB BIOS is also the chosen platform for the Department of Defence and is installed on all D.O.D. hardware (through a subcontract with Cyberdyne Systems) and their new, yet unnamed system, which is to come online fully by April 19, 2011.”. Terminator fans will recognize this as Cyberdyne systems was the firm that “disovered” the Terminator hardware and created the basis for Skynet. Which went online in Terminator 3 on April 19, 2011. Don’t worry, your Microsoft toaster won’t be taking over your house in 2 years.

Anyways, it was fun and the day is passed. Move along folks. Nothing to see here.

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