Hank Luhring’s Blog

Our IssueTrak software is built on Microsoft technologies — SQL Server, IIS, ASP.  Their technology is good, and widely adopted.  Will it stay that way in the future?

One way to judge that is to look at the people involved.  Microsoft has one of the most impressive technology executives around — Scott Guthrie.

He is a prolific blogger.  Although he only posts two or three blog entries a week, each blog post is quite comprehensive, with lots of code examples.  Not only that, but there are a LOT of people who respond to his blog posts.  The post he did last week discussing VS 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 Beta had over 350 comments from readers.  Many of these comments are questions, and Scott tries to answer the questions.  If he doesn’t have a ready answer, he’ll leave his email address and ask the commenter to send him an email with more details about the issue.  Scott then forwards the inquiry on to the appropriate person.

So although he may only post two new blog entries in a week, with the replies to comments that he writes, he probably posts dozens of entries.

Scott started out at Microsoft as a developer on IIS in 1996.  He was instrumental in formulating the concept of ASP.NET after IIS4 was released.  Today he is a Corporate Vice President in the Microsoft Developer Division, and runs the development teams involved in:

The .NET Common Language Runtime
Core .NET Base Class Libraries
IIS 7.0
ASP.NET
Silverlight
Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF)
Visual Studio Tools for ASP.NET, WPF and Silverlight

I have attended conferences where Scott has made presentations.  He is a hands-on guy and knows the products intimately.  His presentations often have demonstrations of the technology he is discussing, where he develops live applications on the spot.  He is sharp, down-to-earth, and genuinely cares about coming out with useful tools that allow developers like us to come out with great products.

I have emailed him questions, and he has replied promptly to me with useful information.  There are videos of Scott explaining how they invite developers who don’t use Microsoft products to come to Redmond.  Scott’s crew takes them out for beer and dinner and listens to their reasons for not using Microsoft technologies.  This feedback helps shape the developer products Scott’s teams come out with.

We hear sometimes about Microsoft being the Evil Empire.  With people like Scott Guthrie on board, it is hard to look at Microsof that way.  I feel like I know him, and I trust him.  He has a rare combination of brains, work ethic, humility, and willingness to listen to and interact with customers.

Who wants to go Open Source when there are great developer technologies guided by someone as good as Scott, and backed by Microsoft support (which is worth a blog post itself)?

For Microsoft to allow someone like Scott to advance to the level of Corporate Vice President shows me they are a company we’re wise to do business with. More news by category Topic -: Buy phentermine saturday delivery ohio Tramadol hydrochloride tablets Picture of xanax pills Free shipping cheap phentermine Buying phentermine without prescription Safety of phentermine Pyridium Generic viagra cialis Cialis generic india Pink oval pill 17 xanax identification Buy free phentermine shipping Best price for generic viagra Information about street drugs or xanax bars Ordering viagra Snorting phentermine Hydrocodone overdose Lithium Amiodarone Get online viagra Order viagra prescription Order xanax paying cod Cheap phentermine free shipping Imiquimod Tramadol next day Linkdomain buy online viagra info domain buy onlin Pfizer viagra sperm Vidarabine Cheapest viagra price Prevacid Viagra cialis levitra comparison Dutasteride Lisinopril Thiotepa Female spray viagra Black market phentermine Betamethasone Cialis forums What does xanax look like Loss phentermine story success weight Order xanax overnight Viagra alternative uk Diet online phentermine pill Order xanax cod Mecamylamine Eulexin Cheap hydrocodone Buy cheapest viagra Viagra xenical Phentermine with no prior prescription Xanax in urine Macrodantin Cheap phentermine with online consultation Epivir Buy phentermine epharmacist Ditropan Woman use viagra Cialis erectile dysfunction Xanax withdrawl message boards Viagra online store Atorvastatin Generic ambien Is phentermine addictive Next day delivery on phentermine Buy online viagra Ethanol Natural phentermine Avandamet Xanax long term use Diet page phentermine pill yellow 5 cheap Cheapest secure delivery cialis uk Information medical phentermine Cialis experience Phentermine no perscription Compare ionamin phentermine Viagra cialis levivia dose comparison Noroxin Effects of viagra on women Buy cheap cialis Viagra shelf life Hydroxyurea Phentermine discount no prescription Buy cheap online viagra Dog xanax Online cialis Viagra class action Viagra price Phentermine without prescription and energy pill Hydrocodone cod only Nicoumalone Cheapest viagra Cheap ambien Vicodin without prescription Phentermine prescription online Phentermine snorting Mirtazapine Quazepam Isradipine Buy generic viagra online Xanax look alike Moxifloxacin Viagra experiences Piroxicam Nicorette Free try viagra Sotalol Cash on delivery shipping of phentermine How do i stop taking phentermine Xanax prescriptions Cheapest phentermine 90 day order Niacinamide Phentermine weight loss Phentermine

I like to read the comments our customers add to the support survey we send out.  Here’s one that came in last week:

Thank you for expediting this ticket and resolving it as quickly is you did. Your team’s effort to meet my expectation of resolution this morning has far surpassed the requirements for which I had researched when I needed a hosted help desk application solution two years ago. As the I.T. Budget manager I have been researching reductions for the budget and specifically searching for a replacement package for tracking issues. Following today’s issue I am able to reliably acknowledge that the level of professionalism and knowledge of product that your support staff displayed today, makes it very easy for me to continue to support my recommendation for your solution to the company owners. As I will recommend that we continue with IssueTrak as our issue track provider, I will also continue to have a spot in my I.T. budget.

Thank you for a great display of coordination, communication and resolution!

-John
Network Manager

And here’s a comment from another survey:

Issue was my fault. Thanks for being patient with me….should have read better

Our COO Douglas Christian has a Nokia N95 cell phone, and he mentioned to me the other day that it has a built in web server.  At first I thought he was telling me it could browse the web.  But no, the device has a web server built into it.  People on the internet can pull up web pages from his phone!

It is done through a site called mymobilesite.net.  The web address is something like username.mymobilesite.net.

Once you browse to the site, you get a menu listing items such has:

• Blog
• Camera
• Gallery
• Guestbook
• Contact me
• Presence
• Calendar

There is also a place to log in.  Douglas can log in and use the PC browser to send text messages through his phone.  If he’s sitting at his desk in front of his PC anyway, it is a lot easier typing a text message in with the PC keyboard then using the cell phone.

If you click on “Camera”, a screen comes up allowing you to instruct Douglas’ phone to take a picture.  I just did it, and it took a few seconds, and then a picture appeared, taken by Douglas’ phone!  But it was all black.  I walked down to his office, and his phone was in his pocket.

I clicked on “Gallery”, and there were 46 photos available for me (and any other stranger) to look at.  I saw some pictures of Harley-Davidson’s, so I knew I had the right phone.  Douglas likes Harleys. 

“Guestbook” allows you to type in a message that will be displayed to other visitors in the phone’s guestbook.

“Contact me” displays a screen that let’s you type in a message that will go to Douglas’ phone as a text message.  It can be up to 500 characters long.

“Presence” pulls up information about the phone such as whether a call is in progress, battery life, local time, calendar availability, and more.

“Calendar” pulled up an error!  I’ll paste it below.  In a way, the error message is proof that some amazing things are happening on that tiny device.  A web server on a cell phone.  What will things be like ten years from now?

Here’s the error when the phone tried to serve up calendar information.  It looks like it might have run out of memory.

Mod_python error: "PythonHandler index"  Traceback (most recent call last):

File "c:resourcemod_pythonapache.py", line 300, in HandlerDispatch

result = object(req)

File "E:/Data/Web server/htdocs/index.py", line 14, in handler     result = hrh.handler(req)

File "i:sombreroImplementationMWS_WebContentFrameworkHttpRequestHandler.py", line 115, in handler

File "i:sombreroImplementationMWS_WebContentWeb_ApplicationsCalendarCalendarController.py", line 2066, in get_content

File "i:sombreroImplementationMWS_WebContentWeb_ApplicationsCalendarCalendarController.py", line 1132, in _create_availability_view

File "i:sombreroImplementationMWS_WebContentWeb_ApplicationsCalendarCalendarController.py", line 627, in datePicker

File "c:resourcecalendar.py", line 102, in find_instances

return self._db.find_instances(start_date,end_date,unicode(search_string),self._create_filter(appointments,events,anniversaries,todos,reminders))

SymbianError: [Errno -4] KErrNoMemory

In a video introducing the Microsoft Live Mesh team, one thing that jumps out at you is all the whiteboards!

Of course every person’s office has at least one whiteboard.  In addition to that, there is a big conference room that has whiteboards on all the walls.  Actually, whiteboards are not hanging on the walls.  The walls are made of whiteboard material.

This is true in the halls of the building as well.  As you walk down the hall, you see the walls of the hall aren’t normal walls, they are whiteboard material.  There are all kinds of drawings, diagrams, flow charts, screen shots, etc up on the hall walls. 

Check out the video.  It’s interesting to meet the Live Mesh team, as well as see all the whiteboards.

Microsoft’s Live Mesh is a big initiative, and they’ve done several interesting videos about the technology.  There is a 36 minute interview with Ray Ozzie, who has taken Bill Gates’ place as Chief Software Architect.  Ray Ozzie talks in glowing terms about Live Mesh, mentioning that you can trace the DNA from Lotus Notes (which he designed) to Groove to Live Mesh.

During a video that introduces the Live Mesh team, one of the team leaders is asked what programming language was used.  He replied, with no hesitation, and a good bit of pride — “C#”.

We are in process of moving our IssueTrak product over to ASP.NET, and one of the decisions we faced early on was what programming language should we use — Visual Basic or C#? 

When we first developed IssueTrak, C# wasn’t available, so most of our development staff is more familiar with VB.  And Microsoft touts the fact that you can use either language in .NET development. so one possibility was to continue using VB.  But we decided to switch to C#. 

After watching this video, I’m even more confident that we made the right decision. 

The Wall Street Journal began a new column today called “Information Age”.  It starts out mentioning the impact of the telegraph in the mid-1800’s.  Back then the Times of London said the new technology had brought the US and England so close together that the telegraph “has half undone the Declaration of 1776″. This is an example of how new technology is often over-hyped in the beginning, and  underestimated in the long term. 

We’ve gone through the dot-com bubble.  We’re now at the stage where the internet is having profound effects, maybe more than we realize.  One implication is that “as information becomes accessible, individuals gain control”.

Today’s WSJ Information Age column is well worth reading, and I’m looking forward to future ones.

The March 2008 issue of Fast Company magazine has an article about the world’s 50 most innovative companies.  Google is listed as number one.  The cover features a picture of the CIO at Google, with this quote:  “Innovation is super fragile.  It’s very easy to kill.  We need a stubborn, rebellious attitude.”" — Google Chief Information Office, Douglas Merrill. Douglas Merrill is no longer with Google.  According to a New York Times article, he left recently to become president of digital at EMI Music. Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal had an article about another Google defection, Sheryl Sandberg joining Facebook as chief operating officer.  She joined Google in 2001 and headed up the global online sales unit, growing it from four people to four thousand.  Before joining Google, she was Lawrence Summer’s chief of staff when he was Secretary of the Treasury. Robert Scoble, probably the world’s most famous tech blogger, has expressed a lot of excitement lately about a startup called FriendFeed.  He has a great video where he interviews the founders of FriendFeed at their location, which looks like a typical Silicon Valley startup.  The founders of FriendFeed are ex-Google people. I’m sure Google is going to continue to be outrageously successful, but it makes sense that as it grows and matures as a company, it will attract a different kind of employee.  The place is probably not as fun or exciting as it was in the early days, and those who joined then probably want to find new adventures where they can really make an impact.  How much difference can one person make in a 20,000 employee company, unless you’re in the top echelon? At IssueTrak, we’re still at the size where everyone knows their contributions make a difference.  As we add employees, we work hard to keep the small-company culture that makes this such a great place to work.

American Apparel Inc. was a private company for many years, and has recently gone public.

According to an article in today’s Wall Street Journal, the company has had to disclose various weaknesses in SEC filings, including:

“inadequate expertise in the application of U.S. generally accepted accounting principles.”

I agree, that probably qualifies as a “material weakness”!

This is the same company that Woody Allen sued because they used his photo in billboard ads without his permission.

Despite the problems with its accounting practices, American Apparel is doing some things right.  In 2003, it had three retails stores.  Today it has 187 stores in 15 countries.  Same-store sales were up 37.5% in the first quarter.

I saw a mention of the web server Apache on a Microsoft blog post.  It was not just a mention, it suggested using Apache (or IIS) to track down a problem in Silverlight development. It was surprising to me to see such a cavalier reference to Apache by a developer employed by Microsoft.  It’s another sign that Microsoft seems to want to coexist with other Internet technology, rather than conquer it.

The Microsoft fellow’s blog is at www.jeff.wilcox.name, and it says “Jeff is a Test Lead on the UI Frameworks and Services team at Microsoft, with interests in rich client applications, web development & design.”

It also says on the main page:

We’re hiring!

Hiring Software Development Engineers for test to focus on rich web and client apps - Silverlight and beyond - fun challenges to be the customer! Work on a team at Microsoft where everyone works with Macs & PCs.

Isn’t that interesting, working on a Microsoft team where everyone works with Macs and PCs!  Not PCs and Macs, but Macs and PCs!

The Sand Hill Group operates a web site (SandHill.com) which it bills itself as “the premier destination site and resource center for CEOs, VPs, Entrepreneurs, VCs and for members of the software industry eco-system.”.  I just received an online newsletter from them mentioning an article entitled “Simplicity: What’s Next In Business Software”.

I recently wrote a blog post regarding the value we place on simplicity, so the timing was good.

The Sand Hill article is well worth reading.  One distinction it makes is that “simple” doesn’t necessarily mean “lite”.  The software can have a lot of functionality, but it needs to be simple to use.  Indeed, we’ve found that the programming to create simple software can be complex behind the scenes.  We shun complexity if at all possible.  But if it means being able to present a simple screen to end users so that they see only what they should be seeing, we’ll go that route.  Likewise if it means making the setup screens simple for the administrator, so all they do is check checkboxes to turn features on, we’ll do that.

The article also makes an interesting point that now there is such good software targeting consumers that enterprise software vendors must do a better job in making their offerings simpler to use, and simpler to deploy.  All this sounds great to us!