Category Archives: Just Rambling

Rory’s second year at XML DevCon

Just Rambling

Last year Rory was just another [wierd] guy at the xml dev con. Then he wrote about seeing Chris Sells and Don Box in the men’s room. And he wrote and he wrote and he wrote. Now Rory is a Microsoft employee (in a dream job for him) and is back at XML DevCon only 1 year later (well not really one year since last years’ was in July) and whadya know, in case you haven’t heard yet, he’s writing hilarious stuff about the conference.

It’s interesting reading Rebecca Dias’ analysis of Tim Bray’s talk and the reading Rory’s. And so far Becky’s got the best shoes.

Fun with XML DevCon from 3,000 miles away

Just Rambling

There are so many great postings from each session. Becky Dias, Shawn Morrissey, Chris Pels, Robert Hurlbut and John Gossman oh and Scott Hanselman, too! have been keeping us well informed and others probably too I haven’t read. So I am definitely feeling in the spirit, sitting here with some Chili Lime Tortilla chips, tomatilla salsa and a Corona, reading about Tim Bray’s, Chris Anderson’s, Don Box’s and even a talk that thrilled all of the gamers from the Dept of Defense.

Of course I wish I was there. Well, no I wish the whole conference was here! 🙂

Posted from BLInk!

Name 5

Just Rambling

Quick – name the first five “famous“ women developers (authors/conference speakers) you can think of (sql server included…)

Let’s see – I go: Deborah Kurata, Kathleen Dollard (my VB roots are showing), Kate Gregory, Michele Leroux Bustamante and Kimberly Tripp.

Now quick name the next 5 that come to mind…

Google Desktop and WinFS

Just Rambling

Note: This post has been misinterpreted twice in other blogs. I hope it is pretty clear that I am saying WinFS is MUCH more than google for your desktop.

So everyone is blogging about Google Desktop and many are joking that they won’t need WinFS now anyway. Where are the Longhorn people to remind us that, although that was the easiest part of WinFS to grasp, that there is a lot more to it. I know I saw a post about this in the past…just can’t find it. But I’m surprised that I haven’t seen a new one since everyone started blogging about this yesterday.

The Vermont air has clearly helped Rocky’s brain

Just Rambling

Rocky seems to have had a major aha! moment today with SOA and is kind enough to share it with us. It definitely was enlightening to me. But coming from Rocky it is pretty deep because one thing I learned about him on Monday night at our user group meeting is that he has been focused on distributed architecture before since the he first started playing with computers and seems to have been on a quest through all of the work he has done in all of these years.

But his brain was already full steam this morning when he wrote a “rambling rant” about languages which includes a lot of history and also stream of conscious ideas.

(Just kidding about the Vermont air thing – I don’t think there’s anything wrong with this guy’s brain…)

XML Litmus test – good guidance

Just Rambling

Dare helps sort out when to use xml and let’ us, by elimination, know when NOT to – when it is overkill or just not useful. This is good guidance for many. We so often learn HOW to use all of the many technologies at our disposal and are left to figure out on our own WHEN to use them. Many people don’t ever even question the “when”. This blog post is a pre-cursor to Dare’s next XML column in MSDN Magazine. This isn’t new. He actually wrote about this in his blog a year ago, but has now expanded on that post for his column.

This feeds into the recent convesation about the use of WSE2, web services (xml services William prefers to call them) in apps where you own both ends of the pipe.