Many of you may have seen the recent game of blog tag going on called "5 Things...". I got tagged by David Walker from Tulsa and so here are some things about me that you probaby don't already know.
- I was born in Xenia, OH. Weather fans may remember this as the site of the worst tornado disaster in history. More than 30 people died, over 1100 people were injured, and over 1000 homes were destroyed by an F5 tornado on April 3 of 1974. My family however had moved from our home there to the suburbs of Tampa, FL only 2 months before. The high school my brother attended, the stores my father had owned, and even our house were all flattened. Talk about dodging a bullet!
- Along with my various Microsoft certifications, I have a few other that are considerably more interesting. For example, I have a US Sailing Keelboat certification for up to 44' yachts and have sailed 30'-40' yachts on the Chesapeake Bay, Tampa Bay, San Diego Bay, and Lake Michigan. Now that I live in Texas, I don't get much of a chance to sail but I still love it and dream of sailing the Caribbean when I retire (or sooner). I also have a PADI Open Water diver certification. I haven't done a lot of diving though, but I do have a picture of me getting an underwater
kiss face-mashing from a dolphin in Cozumel. - I am a graduate of numerous programs from Landmark Education, including the Landmark Forum. For those of you who haven't heard of Landmark Education, they offer an amazing educational series that opens your eyes to new possibilities for your life. My current career as a .NET nerd is a direct result of what I learned about myself in these programs.
- I met my current wife Susan in a chat room on Match.com. She mistook me for somebody else she was talking to and started up a conversation. I read her profile where she listed one of her favorite activities was sailing. I immediately went back to the chat screen and typed "You like sailing? Will you marry me?" The rest as they say, is history.
- While I travel extensively for conferences and work, I don't like to fly. What this means is that I have traveled on every major route that Amtrak has, from Boston to Seattle and everywhere in between. In June of last year, I put 3500 miles on my car in less than seven days. I live in Dallas and can be in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Orlando, Chicago, and even as far as Seattle and New York in a weekend. I will admit, I have been known to exceed the highway speed limit.
So that's it for me. I'll tag some others when I have more time to investigate who has and has not already gotten bit.
While I was editor for TheServerSide.NET, one of the more fun things I got to do was to write up humorous (hopefully) articles and cartoons. I've been missing that lately so I've decided to cut loose here in blogland. So here now are my predictions for 2007. Read and be amazed.
This is a Feature?
The new data visualization features in Excel 2007 will enable household budgets all over the country to highlight in vivid gradients and cute little icons that the amount of money we're paying for online services like NetFlix, iTunes, etc. is quickly surpassing the amount of our mortgage payment.
AJAX 2.0
Following in the footsteps of Google Suggest (a website for people who know they want to search for something but are so stupid they need suggestions about what), Google Corporation releases GoogleDrive.com, a web site that will download a small executable and run it inside any browser to show you how much disk space you have available. This new site, while as completely useless as GoogleSuggest will usher in a new rush to develop executables that can be embedded into the browser thereby further enhancing the Web 2.0 user experience. Not wanting to be left behind, Microsoft will re-release ActiveX under a new name and software development everywhere will take another giant step backwards.
iAngst
Looking to tap into the mental pysche of today's youth, Microsoft releases a Zune that wirelessly seeks out other Zunes and removes any songs that don't involve whining about parents, unprotected sex with "da biotches", and those not using the word "delicious" at least once. Sadly, this Zune won't work with Vista either.
Sure it's easier, but I miss Clippy
Power Office users, unhappy with the new Ribbon interface, create a complex petition document asking Microsoft to remove the Ribbon. Ironically, the document includes 3-dimensional smart art, XML data visualizations, and SharePoint sychronization and takes only 20 minues to create.
Now turn your head and cough
Digital Rights Management goes to new extremes as Media Center 12 is released requiring biometric DNA verification before it will play a single track from your 20 year old "Men at Work" CD. Fortunately internet porn downloaders see the DNA requirement as a "non-issue".
Data, Data Everywhere...And Not A Stop To Think
As Language Integrated Query, and it's DLINQ and XLINQ cousins become a reality, the line between code and data blurs into invisibility allowing Microsoft to acheive Ultimate Demoware Nirvana. Now developers can more easily inject both data and query logic directly to the user interface of any .NET Application. VB.NET is renamed Access.NET.
Just Add A Really Hot Cup of Tea
As Intel and AMD release quad core processors, creating multithreaded applications finally goes mainstream. Later in the year, an enterprise developer for a Fortune 1000 company, working on a quad core system with 4 Gigs of RAM and a physics coprocessor inadvertantly develops a cold fusion reactor while trying to write a VB.NET application using the BackgroundWorker component.
Express This!
Microsoft's attempts to move into the more creative side of software development with it's Expression line of applications backfires badly when loyal developers who were previously responsible for building attractive large scale web and Windows based applications refuse to purchase any Expression SKU, instead demanding that the products be included in their @$#%((@$$# MSDN subscription like all of the other Microsoft development tools. Microsoft does however sell a half a dozen copies to some former Mac owners whose spouse forced them to buy a PC this time so they could use Office 2007.
I'm a PC ***!
Apple continues it's "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" line of commercials causing Microsoft to eventually retaliate with its own version. In Microsoft's version, the smarmy Mac guy receives a vicious beat down by a stronger, better looking, more secure PC running Windows Vista! Mac sales plummet back to the basement where they belong.
So? What do you see in our collective future?
I am honored to say that I have received the Microsoft MVP (Visual Developer - Visual Basic) award for 2007. I want to thank Ed Hickey, my MVP lead, for once again considering my efforts in the community worthy of recognition.
This time last year I mentioned that I had lots of community projects planned. Some have come to fruition, such as speaking at Tech-Ed and other conferences last year. A few haven't, or at least not yet. Such is the life of the working consultant I guess. But just like last year, I do have some things planned and look forward to another great year.