Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah
Marshall: August 15, 2004 - August 21,
2004 Archives

talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_08_15.php#003296
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GeorgeWBush.com :: Official Blog ::
August 01, 2004 - August 07, 2004
Archive

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This Modern World by Tom Tomorrow:
August 08, 2004 - August 14, 2004
Archives

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More August ads

Don't ship it yet!

WindowsXP SP2 RTM - August ?th

August 03, 2004

August 04, 2004

Eric Sink: “It‘s okay to be in awe of these great hackers. But as a practical matter, small ISVs would be much better off hiring professionals.” Agreed!

Which reminds me, I can't wait for Johanna Rothman's new book on hiring geeks to come out. I'm reading the manuscript now and it's a great book on a topic that doesn't get a lot of coverage.

August 25, 2004

Dare Obasanjo at Microsoft read How Microsoft Lost the API War and took it to heart: “The Microsoft culture is about creating the newest, latest greatest thing that 'changes the world' not improving what is already out there and working for customers. When I read various Microsoft blogs and MSDN headlines about how even though we've made paradigm shifts in developer technologies in the recent years we aren't satisfied and want to introduce radically new and different technologies all over again. This bothers me. I hate the fact that 'you have to rewrite a lot of your code' is a common answer to questions a customer might ask about how to leverage new or upcoming functionality in a developer technology.”

It's great that some people Microsoft took my article to heart (not just the MSDN editors, who have been running victory< /a> laps). Now I have a confession. The reason it took me so long to write this article is that I was afraid Microsoft would actually listen to me, even in some small degree, even if it's just the System.Xml.XmlDocument class. As a developer, I would much prefer if the Raymond Chen camp won -- it sure makes my life easier -- but as a competitor to Microsoft, I have to assume that the stupider Microsoft is, the better.

qotd august 31

Internet job ads up 7.2% for August

August 19, 2004

Contents of the Joel on Software book:

• Introduction (all new!)
• Choosing a Language
• Back to Basics
• The Joel Test: 12 Steps to Better Code
• The Absolute Minimum Every Software Developer Absolutely, Positively Must Know About Unicode and Character Sets (No Excuses!)
• Painless Functional Specifications
• Painless Software Schedules
• Daily Builds Are Your Friend
• Hard-assed Bug Fixin'
• Five Worlds
• Paper Prototyping
• Don't Let Architecture Astronauts Scare You
• Fire And Motion
• Craftsmanship
• Three Wrong Ideas From Computer Science
• Biculturalism
• Every Crash, Everywhere
• Interviewing
• Incentive Pay Considered Harmful
• Top Five (Wrong) Reasons You Don't Have Testers
• Human Task Switches Considered Harmful
• Things You Should Never Do, Part I
• The Iceberg Secret, Revealed
• The Law of Leaky Abstractions
• Lord Palmerston on Programming
• Measurement
• Foreword to "In Search of Stupidity"
• What is the Work of Dogs in this Country?
• Getting Things Done When You're Only a Grunt
• Two Stories
• Big Macs vs. The Naked Chef
• Nothing is as Simple as it Seems
• In Defense of Not-Invented-Here Syndrome
• Strategy Letter I: Ben and Jerry's vs. Amazon
• Strategy Letter II: Chicken and Egg Problems
• Strategy Letter III: Let Me Go Back!
• Strategy Letter IV: Bloatware and the 80/20 Myth
• Strategy Letter V: The Economics of Open Source
• Murphy's Law Gone Wild
• How Microsoft Lost the API War
• Microsoft Goes Bonkers
• Our .NET Strategy
• Please Sir May I Have a Linker?
• The Best of Ask Joel

August 27, 2004

In June I wrote “The old Microsoft, the Microsoft of Raymond Chen, might have implemented things like Avalon, the new graphics system, as a series of DLLs that can run on any version of Windows and which could be bundled with applications that need them. There's no technical reason not to do this. But Microsoft needs to give you a reason to buy Longhorn...”

Microsoft: “Microsoft also announced that the Windows WinFX developer technologies, including the new presentation subsystem code-named ‘Avalon’ and the new communication subsystem code-named Indigo, will be made available for Microsoft® Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 in 2006.”

(MSDNMag 0, RaymondChen 1!)

I've been hard at work on some new code for the discussion groups. Hopefully I'll get an experimental build up somewhere in a week or two and we can start playing with it. It won't look very different from the outside, so don't get too excited. I think probably the biggest visible change will be that when you post something, you'll be able to provide a URL that your name links to. It's a small feature that I'm hoping will have a big effect on the anthropology of the discussion group. Like everything else, it's an experiment. Have a great weekend!

Internet job ads for August up 7.2pc

The August Builder.com top 10

August 06, 2004

I'm just about to leave for the annual Spolsky family vacation... this year we've got a villa in Umbria, Italy. I'll be passing through Rome on Monday, August 16th. We've got a few people who have already confirmed to meet for a dinner there, so if you'll be in town, let's meet up!

Where: The lobby of the Aleph Hotel
Address: Via di San Basilio, 15
When: 20.00 16/08/01

I'll make sure the concierge knows where I am. At 8 PM when we see how many people show up, we'll find a good restaurant that's open (not easy in August in Rome, I'm told) and talk about software (and food (and the heat)).

XP SP2 Will Go Gold in August

Windows XP SP2 due sometime in August

IBM to ship 4GB microdrive

It's a ship! no, it's a submarine...no
it's:

the ship is waiting

Jumping ship at the EPA

The Ship Shape

Up on The New Yorker site, you can find Our Perfect Summer, a new story by David Sedaris.

We actually heard Sedaris read this story back in April when he made a stop at the San Francisco Opera House during his last book tour. Then, the story was called "The Ship Shape," (I think this is a better name) and immediately after hearing it, it rose to the very top of my Sedaris personal favorites lists. I, of course, have been anxiously awaited the print version since then.

It was especially great to hear him read this story live since it's so terribly bittersweet and he does an incredible job delivering it. It's moving without being over-the-top sentimentality (this is still Sedaris, after all) and the amount of humor in the piece is just right. No one plays the fool; instead it's a story about hope and disappointment amidst the sort experiences we all have as a kids.

It's a great piece and definitely worth the read.

We also met Sedaris at the signing he was doing before the event. He was sitting at a table, alone, sort of behind a pillar. Us being us, we made some horrible small talk and I embarrassed myself fully. As we were leaving, I put my hand out to offer a handshake and then quickly pulled it back, not knowing if he even likes to be touched. (Based on his books, who'd think he'd like strangers touching him?) After I asked if it was alright to shake, he laughed and probably thought I was a nutcase.

This is why you should never meet the people you admire.

Link via Kottke.

Windows XP SP2 Coming in August

Homeworld 2 to ship in August