You've reached the internet home of Chris Sells, who has a long history as a contributing member of the Windows developer community. He enjoys long walks on the beach and various computer technologies.
Monday, Sep 29, 2003, 9:04 AM
Interview with Tim Bray, co-inventor of XML
Here. Tim talks on the topic of the business value of XML and web services, the difficulting in programming XML, and the strides that tools like .NET are making in making XML less difficult to program.
Sunday, Sep 28, 2003, 7:54 AM in The Spout
Men Extinct Soon -- Only 125K Years Left
Here. As well as women would do without us, it's clear to me that the two sexes have evolved as a pair, although whether that'll be enough to make saving us worth the trouble, I don't know. For example, my wife may well decide to replace me with a footstool to reach things on the high shelves and call it good. : ) [boingboing.net]
Sunday, Sep 28, 2003, 7:50 AM
Pointy-Hair Boss Tells All
Here. When I read a Dilbert like this, it amuses me in ways I don't understand.
Sunday, Sep 28, 2003, 7:48 AM
The Google File System
Here. The GFS is interesting not only for how fast it lets Google be, but also for it's dependence on standard, commodity hardware and it's expectation that failure is the nominal case. [boingboing.net]
Friday, Sep 26, 2003, 9:53 AM
GetRight Rocks
Here. I thought the days when I'd have to use a download manager were gone when the cable internet guy showed up, but that's not the case. This morning I was dying to see the new Matrix: Revolutions theatrical trailer, but the thematrix.com site was slashdotted, so no amount of viewing in streaming mode or downloading would work because my connection to the server kept being reset. So, from my modem days, I remembered GetRight and was pleased to see that they were still there, but now on version 5. With a quick install, I went back to thematrix.com, clicked on the link to download and GetRight instantly took over. Of course, the connection was reset again, but GetRight was all over it, resuming it w/in 60 seconds ('til I set the resume pause to 5 seconds : ). And, as if that weren't enough, GetRight let me download the file in 4 separate segments, further speeding things up. I used to recommend GetRight all the time to my friends and now I'm doing it again. While this kind of stuff should be built into IE or the OS, if it's not, I'm glad that there is somebody out there filling the niche. BTW, the new Matrix trailer rocks...
Thursday, Sep 25, 2003, 10:23 AM
[sing]Longhooooooooorn!!![/sing]
Here. Thanks for keeping us focused on providing *real* value, Ben. : )
Wednesday, Sep 24, 2003, 5:47 PM
Blog: Laura John, an MSDN PM on a mission
Here. Laura John is a PM at MSDN working to add some much-needed process to MSDN. I don't know if you know this, but MSDN is growing and changing. I'm a member of a species at MSDN: a Content Strategist. Others include people you're likely to know and read: Kent Sharkey, Duncan Mackenzie, Tim Ewald, etc. Together, we form a rag-tag team busy throwing off ideas and feature requirements and half-implemented code to be added to our Developer Centers. Anything but a menu structure on MSDN's library content is pretty new to MSDN and what the CSes are doing is disruptive, frankly. Laura is one of those calm, gentle folks adding process to the chaos. She and I are both fairly new to MSDN and we hit it off immediately. She's into "just enough process," which is what I came to know and love in my own s/w orgs. Anyway, that all serves as an intro to her new blog, which I've subscribed to and encourage you to do the same. I think she really gets what makes processes and orgs work (and not just 'cuz she agrees with me : ). Enjoy.
Wednesday, Sep 24, 2003, 7:12 AM
Creative WEAPON
Here. A 3.8GHz PC with *all* the bells and whistles. Only $7800. : )
Tuesday, Sep 23, 2003, 5:13 PM
Geek Eye for the Luddite Guys
Here. I'm sure I'll get tired of this general theme directly, but right now it tickles me. : )
Tuesday, Sep 23, 2003, 9:45 AM
Hurricane Isabelle up close and personal
Here. Wow.
Friday, Sep 19, 2003, 4:54 PM in .NET
Visual Studio .NET 2003 Upgrade Offer 'til 9/30
Here. There's only 11 days left on this: "Microsoft is pleased to offer Visual Studio .NET 2002 Professional, Enterprise Developer, and Enterprise Architect customers a corresponding upgrade to a Visual Studio .NET 2003 product for only $29 US. This offer is open until September 30, 2003."
Friday, Sep 19, 2003, 4:52 PM
Alan Cooper on the *Real* New Economy
Here. Alan Cooper visited my house a coupla months ago and in addition to taking the excited Sells brothers and a shaky Tim and me for a ride in his 6-seater prop plane (where he made me fly most of the time, explaining why Tim and I were shaky), he and Tim and I had a mind-blowing conversation the likes of which I've had maybe a dozen times in my life. Tim and I talked about it for weeks afterwards and we're still different because of it, I think. Anyway, a bit of what we talked about that weekend is in Alan's latest piece. Recommended.
Friday, Sep 19, 2003, 3:53 PM
Rebuilding MSDN with Angle Brackets, Pt. 2
Here. Tim Ewald recorded at the Applied XML Developer's Conference on rebuilding MSDN's internal content management infrastructure using XML from the ground up (part 2 of 2).
Friday, Sep 19, 2003, 3:52 PM
Rebuilding MSDN with Angle Brackets, Pt. 1
Here. Tim Ewald recorded at the Applied XML Developer's Conference on rebuilding MSDN's internal content management infrastructure using XML from the ground up (part 1 of 2).
Friday, Sep 19, 2003, 9:15 AM in .NET
All Consuming Windows Forms Programming in C#
Here. This site is cool. It rolls up helpful info on my book, along with blogger mentions. Nice.