Search Results for: platform

My “The Future of Mobile” Talk (Video/Slides)

August 28, 2012
Mobile, Platforms
6 Comments

I just wrapped up my “The Future of Mobile” talk at www.thinkspace.com.  I had a great time giving the talk and the event was sold out. Thanks to all that attended. While I’ve written about the content and I talk about the topic with consulting clients regularly, this was the first time I had given this particular talk in public. I thought it would go over well, and I sensed it did. If you missed …Continue reading →

Seattle Angel Conference

May 16, 2012
Startups
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The Seattle Angel Conference event will be May 31st. Over the last two months, the investors and the applying companies have been in a due diligence and filtering process. We would like to ask for your help to spread the word about this project and invite you to the event. As I’ve written previously, a primary mission of the Seattle Angel Conference is to help people learn about the Angel investing process by engaging in …Continue reading →

Don’t Build APIs…

April 18, 2012
Platforms, Technology & Execution
26 Comments

My first job at Microsoft was providing developer support for the early Windows SDKs. To do my job well, I spent hours studying the Windows SDK documentation, the Windows source code, and writing sample applications. I then spent hours poring over customers’ (such as Lotus, WordPerfect, and Computer Associates) code helping them figure out what was not working. This gave me a deep appreciation for API design early in my career. I saw clear examples …Continue reading →

Update: Coping with the OSS command line on Windows

March 25, 2012
Coding
4 Comments

A few weeks ago I wrote about Coping with the OSS command line on Windows. In that post, I argued that the Mac is far better for dealing with the current crop of OSS development technologies that rely on the command line, such as Git, Node.js, Ruby/Padrino, and so forth. My argument is based around the fact that most of these technologies are developed by Mac/Linux users and both of those OSs are derived from …Continue reading →

Seattle Startup Internship Opportunities

February 1, 2012
Leadership, Startups
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When I was in college I did an internship with a big company (IBM; working on submarine sonar systems) and learned amazing things (including that I didn’t want to work for IBM <g>). I also did a short internship for a professor writing Fast Fourier Transforms in FORTRAN. In addition to running my own little software company that I had started in high school, these internships were hugely valuable to me later in my career. …Continue reading →

WP Engine: Techmeme’d proof WordPress hosting

January 17, 2012
Uncategorized
3 Comments

I’ve moved this blog from blogging platform to blogging platform over the years. Each time my primary motivation for moving was to learn a new technology. Last year I moved from Community Server, hosted on my own Windows Server box in my home to WordPress running on a Linux VM hosted on Amazon AWS. I made this change to force myself to learn PHP and to get more experience using Linux. I love learning by …Continue reading →

Fragmentation Is Not The End of Android

January 14, 2012
Mobile
140 Comments

The fragmentation of Android is very real and very problematic for end users, developers, mobile operators, device manufacturers, and Google. However fragmentation does not mean Android is going to “die” or “fail” as some seem to think. On the contrary I think we can count on Android playing a significant role in our world for a long, long time. I also am confident that Google has already lost control of Android and has zero chance …Continue reading →

Windows Phone is Superior; Why Hasn’t it Taken Off?

December 26, 2011
Mobile
535 Comments

Posted Dec 26, 2011 – Updated April 17, 2012 People ask me all the time why, if I think Windows Phone is such an excellent product, sales appear so lackluster.  My belief is Microsoft’s “end-user first” approach with WP7 has a impedance mismatch with the carriers & device manufacturers while Google’s approach reduces friction with carriers & device manufacturers at the expense of end users. The question is: will end-user dissatisfaction with Android’s inconsistencies and …Continue reading →

I Won a Samsung Galaxy S II – My Review

December 9, 2011
Mobile
83 Comments

At the Xconomy Mobile Madness event on Tuesday I won a Samsung Galaxy S II in a raffle. Irony much? The last time I used an Android device “for real” was in early 2009. At the time I was just getting going on building the Windows Phone 7 app platform and I wanted to make sure I really understood Android. I’m a firm believer that ignorance is idocracy and if I was going to build …Continue reading →

Looking for a Software Developer Intern

November 22, 2011
Kindel, Startups
3 Comments

I am working on a whacky startup idea (unrelated to any of the startups I’m advising or my yet to be announced ‘real’ startup). It’s highly speculative at this point and while I’m willing to put time into it, I’m not willing to spend much money. Someone suggested I try to get a CS student to help as an internship. So yesterday the following was posted on the University of Washington CS department intern-job board. …Continue reading →

After 21 Years: Goodbye Microsoft

August 8, 2011
Kindel, Startups
55 Comments

Today I announced that after 21 years I am leaving Microsoft to build a new company. I’m not yet ready to disclose details about the new venture but I can say I will be staying in the Seattle area to build it. It has to do with sports, advertising, mobile, social-networking, and, of course, the cloud. I’m insanely excited to get started. Subscribe here or follow me on twitter if you want to hear more …Continue reading →

90% of the Decisions You Make Don’t Matter

August 6, 2011
Clarity of Thought, Leadership, Startups
7 Comments

In my post The 5 Ps: Achieving Focus in Any Endeavor, I noted that “90% of the decisions you make don’t matter; real success comes in being able to identify the 10% that do and focus on those.” The best, most effective leaders can free their teams up to get stuff done by making lots of decisions quickly and enabling those decisions to stick. We all regularly hear criticisms of ineffective leadership voiced as “Decisions …Continue reading →

The 5Ps: Achieving Focus in Any Endeavor

June 14, 2011
Clarity of Thought, Leadership, Startups
14 Comments

Always have a plan. Always. A great, simple, framework for any plan is the 5Ps:  Purpose, Principles, Priorities, People, and Plan. This framework applies to software development projects, job searches, building a garden, or a phase in your life. I have personally found the 5Ps a useful tool for small projects (e.g. prepping for a VC demo/presentation) as well as large-scale projects that include 1,000s of people. The 5Ps : Purpose, Principles, Priorities, People, and …Continue reading →

A revolution is underway

May 19, 2007
Uncategorized
1 Comment

Soma’s post announcing Popfly got me thinking. He uses the word “evolution”. I say it’s a revolution. Over 25 years ago I was part of a movement in the computer industry and didn’t even realize it. I was just a kid doing things on my Apple ][ I didn’t realize I had no business doing. I was a hobbyist developer. A bit later, in college, I wrote some of the earliest freeware & shareware for Windows. …Continue reading →

Visual Studio Express and Windows Home Server

January 26, 2007
Smart Home, Uncategorized
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Dan Fernandez is the lead product manager for Visual Studio Express. He just blogged about developing tools and applications for Windows Home Server using Visual Studio. + As I mentioned in my Channel9 video I’m super excited that WHS is going to enable geeks, makers, hobbyists, or whatever you want to call them to build fun and exciting things for their homes. Of course, WHS will also allow “professionals” to build products that extend the …Continue reading →

Bluetooth GPS, Smartphone, Channel9, Oh My!

December 13, 2004
Coding, Smart Home
1 Comment

Channel9 has posted a wicked-cool video of Alex Kipman demoning using Visual Studio to write slick SmartPhone app that talks to both the GPS and MapPoint via a web-service. Who says Microsoft can’t innovate? What other platform provides anywhere near the richness and integration across devices?!?! I purchased my Pharos GPS reciever as part of buying Microsoft Streets & Trips 2005. I bought it at the Microsoft Company Store for a silly low price (you …Continue reading →

Ichiro’s 262 Hits

October 4, 2004
Uncategorized
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When I was in Japan in June I had a free day and decided to do some sightseeing. I decided to take a train somewhere that would have tourist attractions outside of Tokyo. The concierge at my hotel suggested Hase and Kamakura. So off I went. I love trains, and I love train stations, but I don’t speak or read a stitch of Japanese. While stainding in front of the ticket machine a the train …Continue reading →

Why do I do this to myself?

February 12, 2004
Uncategorized
1 Comment

I had my Crestron system talking to Media Center just fine. I had written an MD5 implementation required by the Girder iserver component, and although the solution was a bit of a hack, it worked. And well. But noooo. I have to make it work right. So I set about writing my own app that listens on a TCP socket and controls the ehshell.exe app (MCE Controller). “It will be a great excuse to do …Continue reading →