May, 2008

All Posts
  • Port25

    Technical Analysis: VIM, PowerShell and Signed Code

    • 0 Comments

    by jcannon on May 29, 2008 01:59pm


    Abstract: In the UNIX and Linux world, vi and EMACS  have long held positions as the best-developed editors for handling large amounts of code or other text.  More recently, an improved vi clone has emerged named VIM (Short for Vi, IMproved).  VIM features syntax highlighting, a vi-like command-line interface, and many powerful features for editing large text projects.  It has quickly become one of the favorite text editors outside the Windows world. This analysis looks at using VIM with Windows PowerShell, with considerations for code signing.

    Download VIM, Powershell & Signed Code.

    Note: This paper represents testing and documentation in a lab environment. User Account Control (UAC) is an essential security component to Windows and Microsoft does not recommend turning off UAC in production environments.

  • Port25

    Now Hiring: Open Source Community Manager

    • 0 Comments

    by jcannon on May 28, 2008 10:54am


    As many frequent readers of Port 25 are aware, Microsoft is committed to the long-term growth of open source. This includes technical collaborations, business partnerships, industry participation – and community outreach.

    As we continue to grow our investments around open source, we’re looking to add a new Community Manager to our team. This position will be part of the Platform Community team and will be responsible for growing Microsoft and open source communities together. More specifically, this individual will be a core contributor to our long-term open source strategy & how we increase the potential of all developers, everywhere.

    There’s no better place to start than the very community we work with. As a result, I’m posting this job to Port 25 – the full job description follows below. This is a community & marketing position, located in either Redmond, WA or the San Francisco Bay Area.

    To inquire about this opportunity, please apply online and shoot me an e-mail.

    Position: Senior Marketing Manager – Open Source Community
    Join the team leading one of the companies most exciting & dynamic initiatives, driving Microsoft’s overall community strategy around Open Source Software. As a Senior Product Marketer on the Platform Strategy team, you will have the opportunity to bring our platforms to life by fostering community and thought leadership designed to promote better connections between Microsoft and Microsoft technologies with open source communities. This strategic position will work across Microsoft’s worldwide business groups and segment teams as well as industry influentials to help drive interoperability between Microsoft and open source software.

    Your core responsibilities will include assisting in defining and driving core marketing initiatives – most specifically online & offline community-building. You will have the opportunity to help drive the strategy for customer-driven marketing designed to further the dialogue on the value of the Microsoft platform to open source audiences. You will work regularly with technical R&D teams and business strategy owners to define customer requirements and drive customer-ready evidence to arm customers and partners with the benefits of Microsoft platforms and open source stacks. Your work will be a cornerstone for a global thought leadership website and will be regularly featured in industry press around the world. You will also be responsible for ensuring that WW field sales & marketing teams have the right message and content to effectively communicate value to customers.

    In addition, you will act as a visible external evangelist for Microsoft with respects to our Open Source strategy, helping to drive a balanced dialogue to the IT Pro and Developer audiences in both one-to-one and one-to-many events. You will regularly work with industry analysts to help shape and inform our market strategies and execution as well as supporting regular press engagements with senior management and executives. Finally, you will serve as a key point of accountability and representation to worldwide executive leadership with respects to our community outreach efforts. This involves regular opportunities to engage executive management with regards to strategic direction, priority setting and progress updates.

    Qualifications
    The candidate should have strategic marketing capabilities coupled with a strong gene for execution. Excellent analytical skills, as well as the ability to work with and influence industry influentials and analysts are important. Building collaborative relationships across the organization, motivating and leading that organization to achieve collective impact will be essential. The candidate must also be a highly motivated self-starter, with a strong competitive spirit. Familiarity with the Linux & OSS market / products is a plus, but not required for those candidates with strong aptitude. A BS/A is required, MBA preferred with experience in a related field working on projects that require strategic thinking, broad market impact, and business / technical marketing message development & delivery.

  • Port25

    Featured Project: Family.Show on Codeplex

    • 0 Comments

    by jcannon on May 27, 2008 02:09pm


    Over the course of the past year, we've highlighted various community and open source projects on Codeplex. This morning, I wanted to do the same with a very cool open source project that I came across over the weekend called Family.Show. Family.Show is a genealogy project that visualizes family mapping and relationships. The project was released in July 2007 and it's currently at version 2. While the project is backed by Vertigo Software, it is Open Source and licensed under the Microsoft Public License.

    Here's a small screen grab from the project home page:

    Over the weekend, I used some free time & a family BBQ to start building my own family tree. Frankly, while I'm impressed with the application and it's ease-of-use, I was more amazed at the interest and enjoyment everyone in my family experienced using it. Everybody from my 83 year old grandmother to my 19 year old sister were excited to explore and add to the family tree. It gives new meaning to the collaborative potential of open source :>

    See above, the Cannon family tree (yikes) - but infinitely fascinating to self-described family historians. It's worth noting that Family.Show also supports the import/export of GEDCOM standard files, so your work can interchange with other genealogy software packages as well.

    I encourage anyone interested to download & tinker with it. Additionally, here are some additional resources:

    1. Visit the Codeplex project home page
    2. Family.Show at MIX07
    3. Watch a Channel9 Video with the core development team


    -Jamie

Page 1 of 1 (3 items)