Kent

I can has breaths?

Kent Sharkey — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 17:37:03 GMT

Well, that's done. The last few weeks have definitely been "interesting".

I've been involved in the launch of two new sites for MSDN: Oslo and Azure (and the WCF REST Starter Kit, but that's just a few pages). It's meant a lot of meetings (remotely), converting numerous documents using various internal tools (each with their own quirks), re-encoding videos, and loads of email. Hopefully the sites will be helpful and informative. Let me know if not.

Chris has the welcome message, but I figured I'd take some time to point out a few of the highlights (at least in my view) of the site.

Getting started with Oslo:

First things first, I imagine you'll want the bits. Usual warnings apply (don't put this on a machine you don't feel like flattening -- I don't *think* it will affect anything, but I've gotten old and cranky about Betas lately).
Second things second, read David Chappell's overview article. It provides a nice grounding in the concepts
For those who learn visually, start chewing on the videos that the team have been generating.
Last things last (for now). If we're missing something on the site, let me know. If you're an author and want to write some kicking Oslo content, let me know. If you've got a blog that covers Oslo and want me to watch it, well... you know.

Coming soon:

More videos
at least one of the hands-on labs to help you learn
more articles

So true

Kent Sharkey — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 19:05:20 GMT

So true... sadly, so true:

Book review: The Year of Living Biblically

Kent Sharkey — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 05:38:00 GMT

I decided to take a break from reading science books[1] and picked up The Year of Living Biblically after seeing the author's TED talk. I have to admit that faith has always been something that intrigues me[2], and AJ Jacobs' quest and writing style helped me understand it a bit more. The book is essentially a diary of his year attempting to follow all of the rules, laws, commandments and suggestions from the Old and New Testaments (mostly the Old, as that's where the bulk of the rules are). You follow his trek down the rabbit hole, visiting Israel, an Amish B&B, the Creation Museum, a Hasidic dance party, and many more events. He struggles to control his 'baser' natures, and shows how his family reacts to his transformation over the year.

The author has an open, conversational and inviting writing style. My wife's niece picked up the book while she was visiting, and prevented me from reading it for days while she was here (as she was reading it almost full time). The book is irreverent and reverent at the same time: he points out a few of the stranger rules, but actually points out many of the benefits of even the stranger ones.

While I enjoyed the book, there were a few unanswered questions at the end:

Did he blow off Mr. Berkowitz after the end of the experiment?
Were there any non-Temple requiring rules that he didn't get to?
Did he stop being a vegetarian after the experiment?
What's next? Spend a year mapping the Internet? 12 months reading every child-rearing book on the market? 52 weeks at the gym?
Did he manage to get on the "Do Not Fly" list?

[1] I neglected to mention that I read Climbing Mount Improbable lately. If you only read one book by Dawkins, pick this one.[1a] It's especially appropriate for developers as each chapter (except that last one or two) touches on software. Dawkins[1b] writes programs in each chapter to provide examples of different types of evolution. He begins with his classic "Blind Watchmaker" program from the book of the same name (that encouraged me to write a version for the Hercules Graphics card many, many years ago), the development of a spider web simulator, and others. As always, he is quite persuasive, illuminating, and his analogies work wonders to help understand potentially complex scenarios (yes, I'm a fan).

[1a] It's better than "that other book by Dawkins" you may have heard so much about (generally by people who haven't read it). If you have a lot of time, take a chew through "The Ancestor's Tale" as well, but it can be a bit of a slog due to density, and my needing to digest the concepts.

[1b] Or some proxy he doesn't identify – sort of like some Program and Product Managers at the Fish Shoppe

[2] I have considered a couple of times to spend some time visiting each of the churches, temples and whatnots in the valley, but I'm lazy.

Channel you

Kent Sharkey — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 22:45:38 GMT

Do you admire the interface/functionality of Channel10/Channel8/channel whatnot? Did you know that the source of those sites was available? I didn't (but should have, I think), but I noticed it today on Codeplex.

Well, that didn't hurt a bit

Kent Sharkey — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 03:17:29 GMT

Nothing dramatically different at your end (the new admin stuff looks gorgeous though), but I've just upgraded this blog to Subtext 2.0.

Congrats to Phil, Tim, Simone and everyone else who worked so hard to get this out, and thank you from this lazy one