Yes, it’s true.. when this post goes live, it will have been exactly four years (adjusted for a time zone differential.. how apropos) since this humble corner of the InterWebs was available for instantiation in your browser of choice. As I’ve done each year since , I celebrate this occasion by sincerely thanking you for your visits, as well as your questions and comments. What’s especially gratifying of late is the amount of dialog transpiring over posts that are two or three years old. I had hoped

June is definitely milestone season in this neck of the woods. Not only is today the third anniversary of my start with the ITOE Technology Architects group (the artists formerly known as the SQL CoE), but this past Sunday marked my tenth(!) anniversary as a full-time employee at Microsoft.  Throw in the end of school last week, the blog’s anniversary on the 22nd, and my wedding anniversary in the middle of July, and there is much to commemorate and celebrate at this time of year. Despite recent

Earlier this evening, thanks to a helpful comment from eXcalibur, I was able to resolve the funky display issues which have plagued Firefox-based visitors since I started playing with CSS overrides in early May.  Thanks, eXcalibur, for the sage advice. I spent the first half of May working pretty hard on a couple of projects (SQL RAP 2.5, and an internal application called SIPA) before I suffered a relapse of my digestive maladies mid-month.  A couple of short hospitalizations later, I’ve

I meant to.  I really did. But I got sick last week , and my energy level has been slow enough to come back that my focus was entirely elsewhere until about six last night. I panicked.  I gave fleeting consideration to throwing something hasty together, but everything I came up with struck me as lame, abusive to my audience, or (frequently) both.  The fact that most of it also wasn’t funny was also a factor in my silence. I slept soundly, which is always nice after such a difficult

..but, once again, the dark underbelly of human nature has shown itself in my trackback pool.. Back in March of 2008, I went off on a little two - post rant about for-fee aggregators.  At the time, I said: For awhile now, I've been aware that there are several sites out there which are reposting the RSS feeds from several Microsoft blogs, including this one, along with advertising which they have sold.  I'm not going to post any URLs, because I don't want to drive any traffic in their direction. 

Sure, he’s a competitor, but some things trump business . Sad news about Steve Jobs’ health today, as what was described last week as a “relatively simple and straightforward” hormone imbalance is now “more complex than.. originally thought.” I know a little bit about being stuck in the hospital dealing with confused doctors when you’d rather be spending time with your family and your colleagues, and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. Mr. Jobs is a survivor of pancreatic cancer, the disease which took

UPDATED 20 Dec 2008 to fix links It’s that time of year again, when I disappear from the blogosphere for a couple of weeks to contemplate the blessing of home and family.  Before I do that, I’d like to use the blog’s 700th post for my annual holiday indulgence (the first of two indulgent posts I share at this time of year; the other being the annual commuting wrap - up ). I’m an absolute sucker for this time of year; things which others might find cloying or trite (or, come to think of it, which

Earlier this week, I got my session schedule for my talks at this year’s Tech·Ed EMEA 2008 Developers in Barcelona . DAT04-IS, SQL Tricks from Microsoft IT, will be offered on Tuesday, 11 November from 1:30pm until 2:45pm. DAT03-IS, Real-World Indexing Strategies from Microsoft IT, will be offered on Wednesday, 12 November from 3:45pm until 5:00pm. If enough of you sign up for these sessions, additional offerings will be scheduled.  I hope to see you in Barcelona!      -w

La Font de Canaletes is a public fountain near the head of La Rambla de Catalunya in what it currently the center of Barcelona, Spain: When I was in Barcelona last November, I reported that I "drank generously from the fountain, hopefully sealing my fate."  The fate to which I referred is the local legend which holds that visitors to the city who drink from the fountain will one day return. I got confirmation earlier this week that I'll be returning to Barcelona November 10-14 for

We are 32 days in Florida as of today, and so far it's been a marvelous experience. All three boys are thriving in school. I haven't seen so many A's since my mother's book club read The Scarlet Letter. * Good on you, boys! Connectivity in the home office is stable and strong, the result of a two day effort that first saw it take 45 minutes to get an answer to the simple question, "where is the cell tower closest to my house?" Fortunately, the customer service rep on the other end of the phone was