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, Oct 28, 2006, 10:24 AM in Fun
Project Life Cycle
This one's been around a while and just feels so true...
Sat, 10/28/2006 10:24am
Wednesday, Oct 18, 2006, 11:08 AM in Fun
Imitation, Flattery, Nudity
From JJ5's web site.
Wed, 10/18/2006 11:08am (what a thing to see so early in the morning...)
Wednesday, Oct 11, 2006, 12:00 AM in Fun
The Positronic Man
From left to right, Ted Neward, Rocky Lhotka, Chris Sells's cardboard cutout and his electronic image projected to building 33 in Redmond, WA from Lake Oswego, Oregon, Patrick Cauldwell and Scott Hanselman.
From Keith Pleas, Microsoft Patterns & Practices "Open Source in the
Enterprise" panel organizer
10/11/2006
Friday, Oct 6, 2006, 3:07 PM in Fun
I don't know what this has to do with Vista...
but I like it.
Monday, Oct 2, 2006, 11:41 AM in Fun
Teaching Kids To Do Cool Computer Stuff?
My youngest son's teacher found out I work at MS, so now he expects me to come into his class to teach them cool stuff. I'm happy to do that, but now I'm worried about putting together a cool 1-4 hours of stuff to do, e.g.
- Cool PowerPoint stuff (wowing their classmates)
- Cool Excel stuff (doing their math homework)
- Cool Web stuff (building their own web site)
- Cool Programming stuff (writing their own PC/XBox 360 games)
- Cool Hardware stuff (programming a robot)
Obviously, I'm not the first person to want to teach kids how to do cool stuff w/ their computers. Can someone point me at some activities for a classroom for of kids to do in these (or other) categories? Thanks!
P.S. My son is a 6th grader, making his class 11 and 12 year olds.
Sunday, Oct 1, 2006, 3:01 PM in Fun
Null Pointers Don't Have To Be <i>Dull </i>Pointers
Posted without permission after reading
it in
today's paper
Sun 10/01/2006 3:01pm
Wednesday, Aug 30, 2006, 3:09 PM in Fun
USB MP3 Player + SD Card = Gadget-o-licious
- USB SD/MMC MP3 Player + Card Reader + S/H: $18
- Kingston 1GB miniSD Card + S/H: $19 (at the time)
- Being able to listen to Teenage Dirtbag on the same device that I can use as a 1GB USB HD and SD, mini-SD, MMC, RS-MMC and T-FLASH reader/writer: $37 (duh -- $18 + $19 -- you thought I was going to say "priceless" didn't you?)
The sound quality ain't that great, but don't criticize the dog for being off key...
Wednesday, Aug 30, 2006, 2:49 PM in Fun
Develop Games For Your Xbox 360
The Microsoft XNA Game Studio Express (Beta) is available for download:
"XNA Game Studio Express enables individuals and small teams to more easily create video games using new, optimized cross-platform gaming libraries for Windows and Xbox 360. This beta release targets the development of games for Windows. The final version of XNA Game Studio Express will be available this holiday season and will enable development of games which target Windows and upon purchase of a XNA Creators Club subscription, the Xbox 360 as well."
Has any other console vendor every let an individual develop games?
Monday, Aug 28, 2006, 8:35 AM in Fun
Wikipedia has an open enrollment day...
Right there next to Don Box, Jeffrey Richter, Robert Scoble, Charles Petzold, Keith Brown is the Chris Sells Wikipedia page. There aren't any pictures (not this one or this one or even this one), the blog, articles and tools aren't listed and nobody's mentioned the interview questions, but it's there. I'd like to thank the academy...
Sunday, Aug 27, 2006, 2:15 PM in Fun
Fun Presentation
In massive writing avoidance mode, I found my way to Seth Godin (who I don't know from Adam) doing a great presentation on stuff that's broken at Gel 2006 (I conference I've never heard of) as a way to promote his site. I found the presentation itself at Presentation Zen, when I read about in Guy Kawasi's essay on The 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint, which I found on the sidebar of the Startup Success 2006, which I got to from the Churchill Club web site. I can't for the life of me remember how I got to the Churchill Club web site, but it killed a lot of time (did I mention I was in writing avoidance mode?).
Wednesday, Aug 23, 2006, 10:31 PM in Fun
I listen to one podcast: HanselMinutes
Scott created his podcast with the idea of not wasting his listeners' time and he's done it. HanselMinutes is the only podcast I listen to. In fact, I prepared for a long car drive by filling my phone w/ episodes I hadn't hear yet and listened all the way (except when I called Scott to complain about one of them : ).
Not only does Scott have a fabulous list of topics for the Windows developer, but the way he explains them is wonderful, too. I don't know where the guy finds the time to do all the stuff he talks about; I'm jealous!
In fact, I'm so enamored of his show, I've been trying to horn my way onto an episode (and not just 'cuz he had very nice things to say about me recently [19:53 - 21:12]). I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but either way, if you only listen to one podcaster this year, it should be Scott.
Tuesday, Aug 15, 2006, 12:29 AM in Fun
Vista Song Parody from Ted + Carl!
I'm a big Ted Pattison fan in general (you have *got* to hear the story where the cowboy shows up at the door in buttless leather chaps), but he's at his best when he's singing (or holding Don's hand). Of course, Carl Franklin's no slouch at singing either (I don't know how he his at holding hands or whether his chaps have a butt or not), so you'll want to hear them singing "Why Did Shipping Vista Turn Out to be so Hard" sttto "Me and Julio Down by the School Yard," by Paul Simon. Enjoy.
Friday, Jul 14, 2006, 10:59 AM in Fun
I'm on MySpace now
I'm on MySpace. Now what?
Wednesday, Jul 5, 2006, 4:50 PM in Fun
Superman Returns: Boring
Superman Returns has some cool scenes and Kevin Spacey does a great Lex Luthor, but overall there were far too many soulful looks between Superman and Lois Lane for my taste. It's a matinee at best.
Saturday, Jun 24, 2006, 12:17 AM in Fun
Oh La La -- Qtek 8500!
I got my Qtek 8500 today. The bad news was that I got the French version of the manual, but that wasn't so bad, since I wasn't going to read the manual anyway. However, the worse news was that all of the phone menus where in French, too. The nice folks at expansys.com were quick to send me the set of menus to turn English back on, but the instructions they sent where themselves in English, which required me to do a little babelfish work to translate into French menu text, but I managed.
Things I like about my new phone:
- It's a flip phone that looks almost exactly like the famous RAZR, but runs Windows Mobile 5, allowing me to sync my email, contacts and appointments, play my music, load my own apps, etc. Physically, it feels very nice -- thin, but solid. Even the flat keypad feels nice.
- I really like the higher res screen (when compared to my Audiovox 5600) and the larger keyboard (handy when you've got sausage fingers like mine).
- I like the external screen with the clock (a nice round analog one, too), the battery, the email count and three buttons for controlling the audio.
- The reception is better than my Audiovox.
- The volume on both my existing bluetooth headset and the included headphones is louder than my Audiovox (which is good for an aging Def Leppard fan...).
- I love not having to lock the keys on my phone -- just flip it!
Things I don't like about my new phone:
- The single, proprietary USB port (they call it an "extUSB," whatever the hell that is). It's for power, data and audio, which is handy, but I've got a bunch of mini-USD cables that no longer work, as well no way to connect my fully music-capable phone to the mini-jack in my car. I can get a conversion from extUSB to mini-USB on expansys.com, but so far, I've found no way of connecting the phone to my car.
- The camera's high-res (1.3M), but doesn't seem to focus very well.
- I haven't yet found the button or option that allows me to set flight mode. Given the amount of air travel I do, that's kind of a problem. Hopefully the pictures in my French manual will provide a clue...
- My $19 1GB mini-SD card doesn't fit -- I need *micro*-SD (who knew?!?). Luckily, micro-SD cards are pretty cheap, but it'd be nice to use my existing mini-SD cards, especially since the included storage was just enough to hold a single MP3 file...
- I don't like the Start menu laid out in a 3x3 grid -- I prefer to have things in a list with numbers by 'em, like in WM 2003SE. As it turns out, the numbers still work, but they're not shown.
It's true that I've listed more things I don't like than that I do, but most of the stuff I don't like is nuisance and the stuff I do like is very, very cool. I don't know about battery life yet or what I'm going to think over time, but right now, I really like this phone. Recommended.