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.
Saturday, Sep 6, 2003, 9:50 AM in .NET
PDC/post-PDC Longhorn Online Plans?
Here. Does anyone have any PDC or post-PDC plans for books, articles, conference talks, user groups, web sites, blogs, etc. on the topic of Longhorn? If so, please email me (csells@microsoft.com) so that I can compose a list for the MSDN Longhorn Developer's Center web site. Thanks!
Saturday, Sep 6, 2003, 9:23 AM
I want to go to Burning Man
Here. Oh, sure. I'd read about Burning Man in Wired like all geeks, but until John sent around an amazing email describing what he did this year and Josephine regailed me with her stories, I had no idea. It sounds life changing and I do like that! Anyone gone before? How do you prepare?
Friday, Sep 5, 2003, 2:22 PM
James Bond-like Water Car
Here. This would cut the commute times across Lake Washington...
Friday, Sep 5, 2003, 10:04 AM
Microsoft Wants You!
Here. Don's team at Microsoft, which is building the plumbing for next-gen web services, has a couple of openings. Tell 'em I sent you.
Friday, Sep 5, 2003, 9:45 AM
XML Eye for the Object Guy
Here. Tim's blogging again.
Friday, Sep 5, 2003, 12:00 AM in The Spout
"Your enquiries frustrate the hell out of me"
Friday, September 5, 2003
I would classify my style of communication as "get to conflict sooner rather than later." A radio DJ once classified engineering abilities as a series of personality flaws that are accidentally useful in today's IT industry and, arguably, he's right. For most folks that have to work with me, it's generally hard at first, but eventually you either love me or hate me (and I continuously work to tip that percentage towards the former : ).
However, it's the rare individual that can see past someone's personal communications style and still pull out the value. Alan Cooper is one such person. I was reading one of his books and was so lost that I called and blamed him and his parents. He straightened me out by letting politely me know that he book wasn't even trying to solve my problems and therefore it's not surprising that it didn't. Further, he ended his email like this:
"PS. Your enquiries frustrate the hell out of me. That's why they are good and I want you to keep making them. If I growl at you, well, that's my problem. Not yours."
I don't know if other people would appreciate Alan encouraging my behavior, but it's still cool to know that such tolerance exists in the world. : )
Wednesday, Sep 3, 2003, 4:17 PM in .NET
Handy .NET Generics Terms to Impress the Chicks
Here. From Eric Gunnerson.
Wednesday, Sep 3, 2003, 3:50 PM in Conference
Don on SOA from the Applied XML Dev.Conf., part 2
Here. Either I was way behind on part 1, or I'm way ahead on part 2, but here it is. Enjoy.
Wednesday, Sep 3, 2003, 1:04 PM
Proof of Life
Here. Having never used SOAP before, Phillip Pearson posted an example of using the new microsoft.com web service from Python, including support for the developer token and the WS-Security headers.
Wednesday, Sep 3, 2003, 10:28 AM in Conference
Don on SOA from the Applied XML Dev.Conf., part 1
Here. Part 1 of Don's day #2 keynote from the Applied XML Developer's Conference.
Tuesday, Sep 2, 2003, 9:25 PM in The Spout
Holy Cow!
Here. Apparently my book has sold out on BookPool.com already. Cool...
Tuesday, Sep 2, 2003, 9:04 PM
Meet Duncan Mackenzie: AndAlso Zealot
Here. Duncan is a fellow Content Strategist at MSDN in charge of protecting VB against semi-colon zealot's like me. : )
Tuesday, Sep 2, 2003, 8:54 PM
Typeless Schemas and Services
Here. Any article that starts like this, I like: "Chris Sells has been running a boutique developer's conference for a few years. It's currently called the 'Applied XML Developers Conference,' with the sub-title 'applied topics for XML and Web Services zealots.' The devcon is clearly a case where, contrary to the spam we all get, size doesn't matter: Chris attracts an influential set of speakers and attendees, and what is discussed at these conferences is often a leading indicator of major trends in web services."
Tuesday, Sep 2, 2003, 12:43 PM in The Spout
Windows Forms Programming in C# Sample Chapter
Here. AW has been kind enough to post the preface and a sample chapter (Chapter 9: Design-Time Integration) to the official AW Windows Forms Programming in C# book page. They've also posted Mike Blaszczak's foreword. Enjoy.
Tuesday, Sep 2, 2003, 10:20 AM in The Spout
977!
Here. According to JungleScan.com, Windows Forms Programming in C# has been as well as 977. That's as well as any of my books in the last year (except Essential .NET, which hit 226, but I didn't write any of that... : ).