Promotion

Yey! I got promoted! I am happy!

Videogames

For maybe a couple years now I've thought that my desire to make videogames was no more. Recently I started reading 'Game Over', a history of Nintendo. I'm not very far into it, but it has already had an effect on me. I've found myself getting...well....misty eyed when the author introduced the various people whose work I grew up loving. Even as I think about it now I get a little emotional. Just now I completed 'Dragon Quest VIII'. It is a well executed game basically across the board. And between 'Game Over' and this, I'm left thinking that I should at least try to make a game. I mean, it is what I grew up wanting to do. Making games was the original reason I even decided to take the first CS course in college. I should make a game. Maybe the game will be stupid. Maybe no one will play it. But I should make it. I owe it to the seven year old version of myself that first played at Atari 5200.

Conveniently, I need to retire from Microsoft. My career there has been pretty good, but in the current environment there really is no reason for me to stick around and try to battle for more promotions. I can probably quit, make a videogame, and come back at a much higher play level. Talk about having your cake and eating it too. Word.

Ankle

Dude! I sprained my ankle again. And for a change it is my left ankle. I now understand what they mean when they say a 'high' ankle strain. This current sprain is rather different than the one I do to my right ankle all the time. The pain and swelling is much higher up. Anyway, I've been basically immobile for the last 29 hours since it happened. Ugh.

.Net Framework 3.0

Well, I've been playing around with beta 2 of the .Net Framework 3.0. Yes, I know that there are later releases I could use, but I'm trying to get stuff done not just play so I had to pick something relatively stable. The three major additions in Framework 3.0 are workflow, communications, and presentation. Let me cover each individually.

Workflow - This technology appears to be a complete waste of time. I imagine that some people will use it and for a couple of them it might even save them time. Of course, I worked on the team and I can say that most of the "decision makers" are/were lacking in customer empathy. Let's move on.

Communications - Ah, Indigo. So, six years of effort seem to have produced something at most moderately more useful than WSE 3.0. Sweet! Oddly, these dudes are less incompetent than the workflow guys, which is why workflow got reorg'd to report to the same people. However, they seem to have no idea that what they have built is 2/3rds wasted effort. The primary skill of leadership seems to be creating false confidence.

Presentation - Holy crap! This stuff is great! I have been able to use it to build an app that actually looks professional. I've likely barely scratched the surface, but what I've seen already addresses many of my core complaints with Windows Forms. I can't wait to play with some of the designers and such. And the WPF/Everywhere thing only serves to increase my excitement. Word.