I spent most of last week decompressing from the recent geekfest in LA, and making a feeble attempt to catch back up on the assignments that have been allowed to lag as the result of either my presenting at, or attending, various tech conferences over the past few weeks. My brain has been so overloaded with the technical information for the past month, I think the 1's and 0's were literally pouring out of my ears and littering the floor around my workstation all last week. By Friday it was definitely time for a break.

 

Late September is the prime time to view the Rocky Mountain aspen trees in their full glory, so Loretta and I headed up to Estes Park for the weekend to enjoy the autumn scenery. We stayed at the historic Stanley Hotel - I can't believe I have lived here over 25 years and had never stayed there yet. The place was built in the early 1900's as a therapeutic retreat by F.O. Stanley (inventor of the Stanley Steamer), and is known as one of America's most haunted hotels - mainly because it was the inspiration for Stephen King's book, "The Shining," which he started writing in October, 1974, while staying there as a hotel guest in Room 217. Contrary to popular misconception, the 1980 Stanley Kubrick film starring Jack Nicholson was not shot at The Stanley (it was actually filmed in England, and they used a place called the Timberline Lodge in Mt. Hood, Oregon for the external shots); however, the 1997 ABC mini-series was filmed on location at The Stanley. It is a beautiful old Victorian hotel though, and the ghost stories reported by staff and guests abound.

 

 

Friday evening after we arrived, Loretta and I enjoyed a wonderful dinner in the hotel restaurant, then we had some after-dinner cocktails by the firepit on the patio before we retired to our room to wait for the ghosts (we didn't get room 217 unfortunately). The plumbing did make some weird noises, but nothing I'd really have to classify as "other-worldly," so we soon gave up on visiting with any ecto-plasmic beings and did the next best thing. We put a "director's cut" version of the Kubrick film into the dvd player and plopped ourselves onto the bed and had ourselves a great time spooking each other as it played. Well, I guess you could call what we were actually doing "spooking" if you really use your imagination. *wink*

 

Saturday morning arrived as a bright and glorious fall day in the Rockies. And I had a big surprise in store for my Miss Loretta. She had never been horseback riding before, so I thought I'd treat her to a 2 hour trail ride into Rocky Mountain National Park. Now, Loretta gets nervous just standing on a step-stool, so she was more than just a bit edgy even thinking about getting up into a saddle for the first time. She was so worried about falling off that she thought she might want to opt for wearing a helmet on the ride. I'd explained to the wrangler that Loretta had never ridden before so he had a little fun with her when he brought out the horse she was going to ride. "This here is 'Widow Maker' - but don't worry, he hasn't bucked anyone off in at least two weeks." The look on Loretta's face when they first met was just priceless, but that was very nearly the end of our trail riding adventure right there.

 

Then she was formally introduced to "Widow Maker," who, in reality, is a 25 yr. old, flea-bitten gray gelding answering to the name of Jackson. They like to tease that his nickname is actually "Action Jackson" but they weren't fooling anybody. He was about the most docile and gentle creature anyone could hope for; and was a perfect choice to carry our first time rider. I don't think Jackson ever actually lifted any of his feet above the ground on the entire ride - he just sort of shuffled along the whole trail. You could tell that he was aware of the fact the Loretta was new to the whole horseback concept, so anytime the trail got even a little steep he'd stop dead in his tracks and wait for Loretta to gather enough courage to urge him along. She loved it. Soon she was talking to Jackson, patting his neck, and just totally enjoying the experience. About halfway through the ride she'd already decided she wanted to do a longer trip the next time (now that she is an experienced horse-woman).

 

My mount was named Lydecko, although I have no idea if I spelled his name right, or what it is really supposed to mean. He was a nice looking dark chestnut gelding. He was a good boy but I could tell that he still had some spirit to him. I had to keep reigning him in to prevent him from running over "Action" Jackson and Loretta on almost the entire ride. Jackson probably needs one of those "If you can read this, you're too close" stickers on his rump. And any time we came to any steep steps in the trail where Jackson and Loretta would stop, he'd want to try to go right around them, even if it meant trying to rub me off on the trees to get it done. What I really think is that poor old Lydecko is probably just a bit bored with his job. Michaela (our guide), even said that Lydecko has been known to fall asleep on the trail, and occassionally will wander off until he bumps into a tree while sleepwalking.

 

 

We had a great time on the ride though, and it was over way too soon. Afterwards we grabbed a late breakfast and then decided to go up into Rocky Mountain National Park to view the fall colors and see if we could spot any wildlife. We got a free bonus when we arrived at the entry station and found out it was customer appreciation day or something, and there was no entry fee required. It's pretty rare that the citizens of Colorado get any kind of price breaks for living here, so getting to save 20 bucks at the ranger station was a real treat in that regard.

 

We meandered our way through the park and took quite a few breaks just to stretch our slightly saddle sore lower extremities and soak in the awesome views. It was absolutely beautiful. The trees were in their full splendor, the chipmunks and marmots were begging for handouts, and the birds were everywhere. But the elk were suspiciously absent. It's rutting season for the elk, and they are normally as thick as flies in RMNP, so I found it quite odd that the only two we saw during the day were grazing by a pond at least a half mile away ("Eagle Eye" Mike spotted them while we were enjoying cocoa in the snack bar at the Alpine Visitor Centor). We continued our descent down Trail Ridge Road into Grand Lake Village and found ourselves right smack in the middle of their Fall Folk Music Festival in town square. So we pulled up a piece of the grass to park ourselves on and enjoyed some nice music and a couple of refreshing adult beverages in the summer sun. Between artists we wandered around downtown a bit, snooped in the tourist traps trading posts, and just sat and watched the world go by while we ate some ice cream.

 

Around 6:00 they started rolling up the sidewalks in Grand Lake, so we decided it was time to head back through the park to Estes before it got too dark (Trail Ridge Road is exhilerating enough in full daylight, thank you very much). Our timing was perfect. The elk that were so suspiciously missing during the day had decided to make an appearance in a big way now that dusk was approaching. The Kawuneechee Valley was literally swarming with Wapiti. The first herd we saw was right beside the road about 2 minutes into the park. There was one large bull tending his harem of about a dozen cows, three or four calves, and a couple of spike males. We stopped and watched them for about 5 or 10 minutes and heard some other males bugling off in the distance. We could see a couple of larger herds off to the north so we set out in that direction to check them out. There we found more elk than you could shake a stick at. There were at least 5 males bugling and competing for the affection of who knows how many cows in various groups.

 

It was awesome. The males are usually the ones that are competing for the right to mate, but this group was so agitated that I actually saw my first ever elk bitch fight. These two cows were really going after it too; biting, rearing up, hooves flashing, the whole nine yards. There must be some really impressive bull associated with that group to get the females so fired up. All the males in the meadow even stopped their vocal challenges to each other to pause and take a look. Loretta had never heard the elk bugle before, and it is an impossible noise to describe to someone that has never had the privilege. Even though we'd already had a fantastic time, it really made our day that we got to share these sights and sounds together at twilight in the park.

 

 

But the day was not quite done. We still had to head over the pass and go back into Estes Park. After only seeing two elk during the day, we couldn't swing a dead cat without banging into a herd now. They serenaded us all the way back to town. By this time we were both starving so we headed downtown to see if we could scare up some Mexican food. It wasn't looking very promising - the place was infested with other fall revelers (it seems Estes Park was also having their own end of summer festival so everyplace downtown was packed - who knew?). We eventually blundered into this little place on the outskirts of town and decided to check it out even though there was only one car in the parking lot (not generally a good sign). In we go, only to have the waitress apologize and tell us that they were closed. Bummer.

 

So I asked the gal if there were any other Mexican food places to try that were A: nearby, and B: not downtown. She says she knows a couple, but she also thought they all closed at nine too. Nine? But it's only a quarter to eight. She goes over and looks at the clock, turns, smiles sheepishly, and says, "Well, I guess we're still open then." We were starving so we decided to stay despite my fear that our wait staff might be under the influence of controlled substances. The food was pretty good, the authentic Mexican fare and not the Californicated variety that is all lettuce, cheese, and sour cream. They need to change their oil in the fryer though as the batter on my chili relleno had a bit of a fish taste to it.

 

By the time we got back to the hotel we were both pooped so we just kicked back in front of the tube for awhile before bedtime. As far as days go though, this was one that was definitely worthy of my personal highlight reel.

 

In talking with several of my other geek counterparts here at PDC '05 there seems to be an overwhelming opinion that this year's conference is definitely missing the "wow" factor that is generally typical of such events. The focus on this year's event is primarily on Office 12, and the WinFX developer tool add-ins that will be a natural by-product of Windows Vista getting shipped late next year (Indigo, Avalon, etc). Don't get me wrong, the content is very interesting and valuable, but there has Just been an utter and complete lack of "gee whiz" moments so far. This morning's keynote was a good example too. I could empathize with the presenters though, I mean it had to be really tough to have been tasked with making Sharepoint Services, Info Path, and Access 12 try to seem sexy. 

 

After the morning keynote I had a front row center seat for the Don and his code monkeys. They did an hour and a half or so on the present and future road map for applications and communications. Don's presentations always rock and this one was no exception. The guy just has mad presentation skills, I can only wish that mine were anywhere close to as good. For instance, in today's presentation he made all of his main points in the form of Haiku's (and they were actually pretty good). It must really suck to be so smart, and talented to boot. Since Mark, Tim Walton, and I closed down the hotel bar after last night's sponsor expo; it was a very good thing for me that he had his A-Game today, or I'd probably have nodded off big time. I really liked the way he defined the word "future: (n) An XML compatible world that supports the collaboration between developers and civilians."

 

The new WWF stuff they are cooking up seems pretty cool though (WWF == Windows Workflow Foundation, not World Wrestling Federation). Got another preview of it after lunch at a session that also included another free book. Getting the book is cool as it freed up my session schedule so that I can concentrate on the web services stuff we can do now, instead of going to the future products preso's on a subject that we'll definitely need eventually. By having this book I can now research all of the WWF stuff at my leisure. It was good to discover that it's not just another lame attempt by Microsoft to foist BizTalk Server on everybody though.

 

The last session I attended today was presented by Anders Heijlsberg (sp??). He went over some of the new stuff they are putting into C# for version 3.0 (codename "Orcas"). He did a really good presentation on all the new features and how they have leveraged them to make the new Languange Independent Query (a.k.a. "LINQ") stuff possible. Anders is another guy who was blessed with a brain much bigger than mine. Anders says things like, "We put the quarks in place so you guys can build the atoms and molecules."

 

*sigh* Being around these dudes is really tough on my self esteem sometimes.

 

Tonight is the Attendee Party at Universal Studios. Microsoft has rented the place out for the evening so us geeks will have the run of the whole place. Should be a hoot, and, unfortunately for my liver, the beer will be free again...

Just when I thought things could not possibly get stranger than yesterday...

 

Things started out pretty well, the power was back on, the sun was shining, and we got to the geek convention with plenty of time to grab a bite to eat before the opening keynote. Then the phone rang...

 

It was my baby and I could sense she was crying. When I asked what was wrong she responded with a question that made my heart drop.

 

"Who is your veterinarian? Elvis just got hit by a car."

 

Once I got her calmed down I was able to ascertain that he didn't seem to be too badly hurt, and that what actually happened was that he was the one that ran into the car and not t'other way around. Poor Loretta was more upset than he seems to be. I'm glad that big knucklehead didn't hurt himself, but it was still not a pleasant way to start the day though.

 

The keynote was pretty good. Bill Gates actually said that soon ALL new computers will be shipping with Windows Vista. Wonder what the Linux folks and slashdotters will have to say about that little quote once they get their hands on it. Good for a chuckle though. Jim Allchin seemed a little off his game during his part of the keynote, but the code demos by the Microsoft A-Team (Don Box, Anders Heijlsberg, Chris Anderson, and Scott Guthrie) certainly made up for it. 

 

At least there'll be plenty of beer at the sponsor expo. The first night of the expo is the traditional schwag grab, and a very good chance to upgrade any geeks wardrobe. It starts in 15 minutes so guess I ought to get ready.

 

Here's hoping Loretta and Elvis are both fine. I'm thankful he wasn't seriously hurt, and I'm really glad it was him and not one of my kids (sorry buddy).

The LA Department of Power and Water is saying that yesterday's blackout was the result of one of their employees accidentally cutting the wrong power line. Apparently, it went something like this...

 

 

 

Bill: "Dooood! You weren't supposed to cut those lines."

 

Ted: "You sure? The boss told us to cut some of these lines, dude."

 

Bill: "But not ALL of them, dude!"

 

Ted: "Oh. Bogus. Think we should put some of them back, dude?"

 

Bill: "Fer shure, dude."

 

Ted: "Kay, I'll just hook some up to the main power station here, that way if it shorts out, the fail safe system that protects the whole grid from power spikes will automatically shut everything down all over the valley."

 

[Bill & Ted do the air guitar thing]

 

Ted: "There, that should do it, dude."

 

 

Ted: "Oops."

 

Bill: "Hey dude, why'd it just get so dark and quiet all over LA?

 

Bill & Ted: "Bogus..."

 

 

 

Hey, at least my buddy Mark will be glad to know it wasn't done on purpose (since he still didn't have any power in his hotel room at 11:00 last night).

Lunchtime at day 0 of the PDC with my homey, try/catch Mark. We are halfway through a session entitled "Framework Design Guidelines: The Art of Building a Reusable Class Library," as presented by Brad Abrams and Krysztof Cwalina. Some really good content so far, but I think the coolest part is that they were giving out free copies of their new book as we entered the session (so I guess there'd be no foul if I just took a little nap and read about this stuff late). Hopefully I won't snore or drool on my shirt too much.

 

LA is pretty cool so far - I mean weather-wise here. The high temps are supposed to be in the mid-seventies all week. Just about perfect I'd have to say. We had to laugh at all the natives we saw that were all bundled up in their heavy coats when we got in last night though. It was cool, but it was only down in the 60's for crying out loud. Buncha wimps. I was thinking about going out to Chavez Ravine to catch the Dodgers while I am in town, but guess who they are playing? Yup, the stinking Rockies. Sigh - 1,200 miles to see our crappy home team play at Dodger Stadium? I don't think so...

 

OK, now things are starting to get interesting. I was all prepared to start a new rant about MSN's crap-ality of service and my inability to get logged into my space, but apparently we are currently enjoying a fairly wide-scale power outage here in LA. Can't help but wonder if that nutbag Cali ex-pat from Orange County that say Al Queda has La La land and Australia in its sights now that I saw on the news last night is behind this. I'm hoping he is - and that this outage is due to him having thrown himself across a hot third rail or electrified fence somewhere. I, for one, fully support terrorist suicide attempts as long as no one else gets hurt, so do your duty ya wannabe raghead - go ahead and snuff yourself for Allah and see if I care.

 

The bad news is that no power = no free internet connection either. Bummer - will have to wait to post this until later.

I think just about says it all...

[sigh] - I think I'm gonna have to trade my truck for a mo-ped.

"Bombers Row" at the Supermax Penetentiary in Florence, Colorado is getting a new "guest." Eric Rudolph will be serving out his life sentence in the "Alcatraz of the Rockies." I'm sure he'll fit right in, and should have plenty of time to make friends with some of the other famous local residents, like Ted (Unabomber) Kaczynski, Terry (I thought Tim McVeigh was just kidding) Nichols, and Richard (anybody seen my shoes?) Reid. Of course the inmates there are only allowed out of their cells for one hour per day (in leg-irons and handcuffs), but I hear the views are to die for...

 

Welcome to Colorado, Eric. I really hope you hate your stay in the most secure prison in the world.

It's not what you think - get yer minds outta the gutter for cryin' out loud.

 

What I am talking about here is a web site called "Dropload". It's a pretty cool little idea too. In a nutshell, this site will allow you to upload any file (up to 100 MB in size), and then you can get the file "delivered" to someone else by simply providing their e-mail address. The service will send an e-mail to the designated recipient and they will then have 7 days to download the file. It's a very cool way to transfer files to folks who use email services that prohibit large attachments and don't have ftp storage locations.

 

Uploading files does require you to register, but no registration is needed for downloading. Registration is free though; all you have to provide is your name and a valid email address (you'll have to verify it before you can login). They even give you the options to be notified when your recipient downloads the file, and can also have all files you send or receive scanned for viruses. 

 

Very slick - check it out sometime.

Geek post to facilitate my short term memory. For those of you uninterested in Windows Vista and WinFX, class is dismissed.

 

While I was sequestered in my hotel up in Redmond earlier this week, I took the opportunity to hack around with some of the new beta goodies provided by the folks at Microsoft. I am particularly interested in the new development tools that target user interface applications built for Windows Vista (Avalon/WinFX), but I had been having a devil of a time getting these things to all play nice together until today. Then I found this post over on Sam Gentile's blog that seems to have done the trick. I am reposting the guts of his entry here for my own benefit, as well as for anyone else who may have been running into similar problems. 

 

In a nutshell you must install the tools in the following order for them to behave nicely together: 

 

Now that I have uninstalled and reinstalled everything in the prescribed order noted above, the Avalon samples and projects do seem to be working correctly.

 

Thanks Sam! 

Sorry I haven't been around Spaces much over the past couple of weeks, but I have to admit that my alternative forms of entertainment haven't really been compelling me to make much time for it. With summer winding down and "beta season" taking full flight I just haven't had the cycles to devote to surfing much lately.

 

The boys start school next week so I took the opportunity to go camping and spend some good quality time with them before the summer slipped away on us. We had a great time camping in Grand County and spent a couple of our days just kicking up some dust in Rocky Mountain National Park. The park experience really made for some mixed emotions though; it was just kind of strange to me that all of us tourists were having such a great time while the rangers were frantically searching for one of their own who had gone missing on a routine patrol a couple of days before we arrived. Unfortunately the search ended sadly when they found the body of the missing ranger after an 8 day search. Jeff Christensen was 31 years old.

 

Once we returned from the hills we had a day to get ourselves cleaned up and attend my company's picnic at Robert Clement park in Littleton. The picnic was a hoot, but the park also has a creepiness factor of its own. It shares a border with Columbine High School and is the site of a memorial for those that were slaughtered on April 20, 1999. Just being there made me pause and relect about how much I love my kids, and how unimaginable it must have been for the parents that sent their kids to school that day thinking they'd return safe and sound. I find it really sad how things have changed in that regard over the past few years, but I guess it has also caused me to become a more attentive parent in retrospect. I only hope that more parents have also heard that particular wake up call.

 

Yeesh - this is getting kinda morbid. Sorry.

 

Sunday I had to drop the kids back off at their mom's and head to the airport. After 10 days of vacationary bliss I found myself thrust right into the waiting arms of one of the best geek fests I have ever been privileged to attend. An exclusive group of 10 industry data experts (that invited me to become a member in what was obviously a momentary lapse of judgement back in June), assembled on the Microsoft Campus in Redmond for 3 days earlier this week. There we met with a number of Microsoft program managers and developer leads to discuss the direction that Microsoft should take with regard to extending the data access technologies in the next versions of their developer tools. Visual Studio 2005 will release in November (assuming there are no further slips in their development cycles) and the version after that (codenamed "Orcas") should follow closely on the release of Longhorn Windows Vista late next year. This meeting was focused on what they should get started on for possible inclusion in "Orcas" and beyond. It was very cool to be able to get that involved with the internal software architecture and design processes at a firm like Microsoft. It was oddly enlightening to find that they suffer many of the same types of conflicts and communication problems that we encounter at a much much smaller firm. Witnessing first hand how they deal with them will definitely help me as we have similar problems here.

 

No trip to Microsoft would be complete without a visit to the Company Store. Usually guests are given a voucher that will allow them to purchase up to $120 of hardware and software products at employee prices. These are always chances to get geek gear at a great deal, but this trip was even better. Instead of a voucher we received gift certificates in appreciation of taking the time to attend the software design review. FREEBIES!!! So for my $120 I picked up a wireless USB mouse for my laptop, 2 - 1 year Xbox Live subscription cards and the new(ish) Forenza game for the kids, and a copy of Microsoft Money 2006 Premium - stuff that would retail for close to $300 all told. To top it all off I even had a pleasant hotel stay experience this time through - that Homestead pit I stayed at last time will never have to hear my complaints again, from now on the Sheraton Bellevue will be first in line to get my business. 

 

That pretty much catches us up to Wednesday night. On my return from the airport I stopped just long enough to pick up Elvis from the kennel. The poor dog has really been getting shorted on his daddy time over the last couple of weeks so we took a nice long romp in the park and I think he is starting to forgive me. I had some catching up to do with my hunny bunny too since I have only seen her twice in the past 2 weeks. So I invited her and her son to come over to the house for dinner yesterday to begin making amends in that camp as well. Neither of us have parental visitation kid duty this weekend, so I think our relationship frontier should be back to something approaching normal by Monday.

 

Of course my workload has somehow managed to grow exponentially in the time I was away from the office. I am currently actively involved in the following Microsoft pre-release programs:

 

Over and above all that I also have my "regular" work assignments to deal with:

 

Outside of that I guess I'll just have boatloads of spare time to spend blogging before I head off to the PDC in September. Not complaining, but I think I might need to invest in a new beanie soon - I think the prop on my old one is starting to wear out...

 

My vacation ended Sunday with me hopping a plane to Seattle. I am attending a Software Design Review session at Microsoft to discuss plans for the next version of their ADO.Net data access API's (the version after the .Net 2.0 stuff that they will be releasing later this year). It's very cool to have been asked to participate and I am one of only 10 Microsoft "outsiders" that were invited to attend. 

 

There are some very interesting plans in the works but since it's all top secret stuff I can't really share any of it here (sorry but it's all under NDA protection). The highlight so far though, was having dinner with some real heavy hitters from the Microsoft distributed architecture team. The star at our table was none other than Don Box himself.

 

Talk about your geek envy - my propeller beanie is definitely working overtime tonight... 

Hi Hammerheads, I'm pleased to report that the Prilliman Family Expeditionary Unit have returned from our back country adventures fully rested and relaxed thank you very much.

 

 

The camping trip was a real blast. We set up camp outside of Grand Lake, Colorado at a place called Elk Creek. We weren't exactly roughing it (hey I'm not 25 years old anymore, mmmkay?). We rented a small cabin and were extremely grateful for its nice sturdy roof and dry floor during the daily monsoons that visited us during the trip. The showers were usually brief, but intense, so it was definitely a bonus to be able to escape them in something a bit more substantial than a tent. The rain was generally pretty well timed though, and we didn't get caught outside in any real soakers while we were fishing, hiking, cooking, etc (for a change). The campground was really nice and featured excellent showers and restroom facilities, hot water in the camp sink, electricity in the cabin, and even offered a wi-fi connection in the main lodge. I am a major geek, but I do have to confess that I did not even think about getting on the 'net while we were away. We did take advantage of the electricity so we could watch some dvd's during the rain though.

 

We went fishing a couple of times but got totally skunked. This time of year the fish have all headed to the deep water and are pretty much inaccessible without a boat. It didn't matter, we still had fun just hanging out by the lake and made the best of it by target shooting with the pellet guns and exploring the shoreline.

 

The hiking trips were great though. We did about a 5 mile trip around Monarch Lake that was really interesting. We found an old steam engine that had been abandoned out there for who knows how long. Pretty weird, we had a long talk about it on the trail, pondering who left it there and why. We finally decided that space aliens probably dumped it there.

 

 

We spent a day kicking around Rocky Mountain National Park too. We took a nice alpine hike to some really cool little glacier lakes that were well above the timber line. The hike was about a mile or so down to the lakes, and about 20 miles back up to where we left the truck. At least it seemed that way at above 13,000 feet in elevation. Lots of huffin' and puffin' on the way back up the mountain I must say.

 

 

After the hike we ran down into Estes Park and had us some big honkin' bar-b-cue sandwiches to replenish our depleted energy supplies. Coming back we decided to take the old Fall River Road through the park to get back to camp. This is an old, one lane, dirt road over the pass that is pretty creepy in good weather (narrow, sharp switch backs, steep drops, rocky overhangs, the whole nine yards), but, of course, we decided to take it just in time for the heaviest rain we saw on the whole trip. The "road" instantly turned into a slippery, muddy stream. Good thing my big yellow truck is equipped with 4 wheel drive. Before it really started to pour rain we passed an older rear drive van on the way up that I was really glad I didn't have to try to drive through that mess. It was cool, and the kids were delightfully nervous about it the whole time (especially when I'd goose it in the switch backs and get the truck to slide a bit on the mud). Reminded me of the time my dad decided to drag us kids through a similar mountain road ordeal in his big land yacht of an Oldsmobile. Too fun. 

 

On the trip we even ran into a few people we knew from Denver. Rob found one of his school chums at the campground, and I think I saw my ex mother in law relaxing in the woods.

 

 

We really had a rockin' good time, but I gotta say it is good to be home again (and the internet just seems a lot less geeky to me from the comforting caress of my recliner).  

 

Time for a mental health break - me and the kids are headed for the mountains first thing in the morning. Campin' & fishin' & hikin' & star gazin' & whatever else the days might bring. See y'all in a few days, we are outta here...

Well, since it's like 101° again today, I guess I should say it's starting to seem like fall. Why? Because the Denver Broncos started training camp today. W00t - only 2 weeks 'til football season starts! So yes, I believe that fall may indeed be in the air.

 

 

 

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I am such a geek. If Windows Vista wasn't enough geek overload for me, then playing with the new IE 7 beta for Windows XP that hit the MSDN subscriber downloads this morning should drive my happy little propeller right through the roof...

Since I am likely to be playing with Longhorn Windows Vista all day, I thought I had better give y'all something to do. I found this clip while browsing "Escape From Yesterworld" during my Longhorn Windows Vista download marathon yesterday. This video offers a deep and insightful look at how the marketing department works at Microsoft, and really provides a good example of I.T. marketing practices in general.

 

Fair Warning: This file is a bit on the ginormous side (6.2 MB), so those of you who are bandwidth impaired may wish to just download it from the link in the Short Attention Span Theatre list over here somewhere.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->>

(Just right click on the link and select "Save Target As")

 

 

(move your mouse over the box to start the video)

Microsoft's Marketing Machine

 

 

Guess this explains a lot about how things like Windows Vista and Microsoft Bob got their retail names, huh?

Microsoft has posted some screenshots from the upcoming Beta 1 release of Windows Vista over on their Virtual Pressroom this morning.

 

As I anticipated, the first pass looks a lot like a hopped-up version of XP Pro. Still can't wait to get my grubby little paws on it next week though. I guess it's time to dust off that old laptop I've been using to serve up mp3's in the boudoir and get it ready for some repaving fun...

 

**Spins propeller on beanie**

 

[UPDATE] - The download is already available to MSDN subscribers. It really is a great day to be a geek. Sorry, but I think I just wet myself.

 

**Goes to change under-roos while File Transfer Manager eats corporate bandwidth**

 

 

*snort* Apparently the name change didn't quite make it in time for the Beta 1 build. Cool - still "Longhorn" for one more rev. Guess I'll go "Escape Yesterworld" some while it finishes downloading...

I was skimming the Inside Microsoft pages over on the BNC this morning when I saw this headline:

 

 

Which begged me to ask, "Microsoft cuts off pirates' - what, exactly?" So I had to read the story.

 

While I'd hoped they were referring to the pirates' private parts (and how's that for some illiteration [sic]), I wasn't too disappointed to read that it was actually about Microsoft making an official announcement that Windows Genuine Advantage validation will now be required to get software updates from the Windows Update, Microsoft Update, or Office Update sites. 

 

Whoa. You mean people will actually have to BUY the software in order to be allowed to upgrade it now? What a concept.

 

I'm cool with that. I actually ran face first into it the other day but didn't comment on it because I already thought it had been publicly announced (see my recent post on what can happen if your neighbors find out you know something about PC's). As a software professional, I have no sympathy for those that get pinched stealing our products. I'll bet the M$ bashing crybabies over on /. have a field day with this one though. I can just hear it now...

 

"WTF?!?! I can't seem to patch my stolen version of Winblows anymore. Don't those fuX0rz over at M$ realize that's a huge security risk? M$ should be required to fix security holes regardless of whether I paid for my software or not. Buncha monopolistic, profit-taking, capitalist bastards. [Blah blah blabbity blah]..." 

 

 

My baby called me yesterday afternoon and asked me if I wouldn't mind coming over to her place on my way home.

 

"No problem," says I, "what's up?"

 

"Well... It's interesting... The cops are coming over here to do a drug raid."

 

"Holy smokes! Really?"

 

So I pick up my stuff and high-tail it over to her place to see just what the heck was going on. I go inside her office and sure enough, there sits a big burley plain clothes type that had come to process an outstanding warrant on one of Loretta's residents. However, as he was reconnoitering the suspect's unit, he observed through the patio door that there were several folks in there having themselves a little party involving glass pipes and little bitty baggies on the coffee table (what a bunch or fucktards - ever hear of blinds???). So he'd called for backup and was waiting for his reinforcements to arrive when I got there. How cool! Just like "Cops" on the TV.

 

I thought it was pretty exciting myself, but my sweetie didn't share my enthusiasm for the real life drama. She has been really frustrated, and more than a little frightened at the type of folks that make up her rent roll over there. The property owners totally misrepresented the place as a crime/drug free community when they interviewed her, and now she really isn't happy about having to live onsite - free rent or not. The place is so bad right now that she is afraid to let her son go outside and play by himself, and there is no way she will ever deal with any resident issues by herself. It's just ridiculous. If the owners don't start showing a little more support for her plans to clean out the undesirables, then I think she is going to have no choice but to tell them they can take their free apartment and shove it where the sun don't shine. The dude better get his act together soon about improving the security around there or she's just going to bail. I told her she needs to tell him to come spend a few days living on the property; then let him say how comfortable he feels about the place after leaving his big new Mercedes unattended in the parking lot for a night or two.

 

Anyway, the cops did their thing, kicked in the door, rousted the occupants, etc. Pretty anti-climatic really. Afterwards, Loretta and I decided that she might rest a bit easier by spending the night at my house instead. I have a feeling this might become the norm for her until they get the place cleaned up (or she decides it's not worth the stress). In the meantime I told her that she could borrow Elvis anytime she feels like it. He's not much of a guard dog yet, but he is pretty big already, and has a ferocious bark for a 7 month old pup.

 

I am thinking about getting her a stun-gun as a house warming gift though...

 

It is about 45° cooler here today than it was last Wednesday (109°). The monsoon's are here, the monsoons are here!

 

The rain is welcome, but I guess the timing for having the roofs redone at our offices could have been a bit better. The whole place was soaked this morning due to last night's heavy rain. Now I have a Boeing 747 engine in the hallway outside my door trying to dry out the carpet.

 

Oh well, it's a small price to pay for the 65° temperatures we get to enjoy today. What a relief...