eraser and crowbar is thoughts on software architecture and other things

PhizzPop Challenge Training

I spent the last 2 days in Chicago, IL at the Clarity Consulting office sitting in on a special training class for the PhizzPop Design Challenge.  I felt a little out of place at first.  The room was over 1/2 designers (MacBooks galore) and the rest of the room was filled out with developers who were teamed with the designers.  And then you had the Architect Evangelist in the room.  When they did introductions they asked if you were a Designer, A Developer or a Designer / Developer.  I answered "Evangelist, which pretty mush means I spend most of the day in Outlook".  Everything turned out okay, as I got to spend some real hands on time with the Expression Suite and my brand spanking new install of Visual Studio 2008.

What is the PhizzPop Design Challenge?

36 teams enter. 1 team leaves. In several cities around the United States over the next few weeks they are going to have regional competitions were teams of 3 compete to solve a design challenge in less than 72 hours.  Team make up is up to the company's discretion (3 designers, 1 designer and 2 developers, etc).  Each of the regional winners will participate in a similar contest at the South By Southwest Interactive in Austin, TX next March.  They will be put through a similar cage match there and the winning firm will get bragging rights and probably some cool prizes as well.

So what's next

The teams have the weekend off to absorb all that the instructors, Jared Potter and Dale Jones from Identity Mine have thrown at them.  I hope they all have a relaxing weekend and get lots of rest.  On Monday morning everyone meets back in downtown Chicago to hear what the design problem is (It is a closely guarded secret, Chris Bernard has not even told me what it is).  Then they have until Wednesday afternoon to design and create their solution.  Failure and a good night's sleep are not an option.  On Wednesday everyone meets over at Underground in Chicago to see the judging and have an awesome party.  Have you registered yet?  The event is all most full!

More information

My Flickr Photos (will be added to as the event proceeds)
Chris Bernard's Blog
PhizzPop Twitter Feed and Chicago Specific PhizzPop Twitter Feed

You will hear a lot from Microsoft over the next few months about our vision for software and services (we even have a catchy acronym for it - s+s).   One of my jobs as an Architect Evangelist is to help convey this vision to the community and to Microsoft customer and partners.  Over the next few weeks s+s will be a topic at our ArcReady program that will be touring across the central region of the United States (the tour kicked off on Tuesday in Columbus, Ohio with my co-hort Josh Holmes giving the first talk).  I will be writing a few blog posts about it in the next couple weeks as warm ups and follow-ups to the sessions, as well as trying to cover the topic for people that could not attend one of the sessions.

Ray Ozzie Keynote

s+s is just a Microsoft thing right?

When Ray Ozzie, Microsoft's Chief Software Architect, brought the software and services vision to the forefront at his MIX keynote earlier this year there were a lot of people skeptical of the vision.  There were a lot of people who claimed that this was not a vision at all, but rather it was Microsoft trying to protect our traditional revenue model (which is selling software that is installed and run on desktops and servers).  The root of this criticism is that software that is run under the Software as a Service (SaaS) model is seen as a threat to Microsoft's locally installed software.  When people bring up this argument, I like to point out examples of software companies other than Microsoft that are following the tenants of s+s (and some of the companies that are might surprise you) and also I like to point to companies that are building platform components for s+s, one of my favorite examples is Adobe's AIR platform.

What is AIR?

AIR is an acronym for Adobe Integrated Runtime (the code name for AIR was Apollo).  It is a cross platform, runtime environment for building lightweight desktop applications.  You develop your application on top of the AIR runtime (which is ~9 MB download) and it can be deployed on any platform that has a version of Adobe AIR installed (currently Windows Vista or XP and Mac OSX - a Linux version is in the works, no word on love for UNIX platforms).

AIR Bus

How is this an s+s platform?

Adobe has recognized that there is a real need for locally installed software and they are making a serious commitment by creating a platform for it.  How serious is their commitment?  They even chartered a bus and painted it up with the Adobe AIR logo and drove it all over North America to spread the word on their new platform.  The North American tour culminated at Adobe Max in Chicago in early October.  It was really trippy hanging out on the Adobe Bus with their evangelist.  Even though we are competitors, all Evangelists share a common bond with a love of technology and too many days away from home.  But enough about the bus, and back to the platform.

You can pretty much say that Adobe owns the web from a Rich Application Development perspective (so I am talking about the space that Flash / Flex and Silverlight play in - not the standards based web environment for HTML, the DOM and JavaScript).  So why would they take valuable development resources that could be used to extend their web platform and build a whole new platform that will take several years to develop?  Ryan Stewart, the Adobe Evangelist, said it best in his blog post No The Desktop Isn’t Dead, But Why?:

Creating real desktop applications has more benefits than offline. It's about branding, it's about things like file type registration, operating-system drag and drop and being able to leverage the local resources for computing power. There are a variety of benefits that we all need to focus on and which can benefit from all of the innovation on the web.

Using locally installed software to access all that the web has to offer (in the form of well ordered, easy to consume services) is what the vision of s+s is all about.

eBay San Dimas Client

An example s+s application built on AIR

One of the first applications released on the AIR platform (a Beta application on a Beta platform) is a desktop version of eBay code named "San Dimas".  Let that sink in for a second.  eBay is a company that literally grew up on the web, they did not exist before the Internet.  Third party companies have built applications on the eBay platform, but this is the ultimate SaaS company saying "there is a sufficient market and need to build a rich client application".  San Dimas is a complex application, it does most eBay workflows.  But I bet it was relatively easy to build, not because of the AIR run time per se, but because the services existed for it to tap into.  I think companies that have made a name for themselves on the web going back and delivering richer experiences is a trend that you will see repeat itself a lot over the next few years.

All boats rise

Microsoft and Adobe are going head to head in a number of fronts (I will write about another one in a few days - not Silverlight!).  You will hear the Evangelist from both Microsoft and Adobe use a phrase like "All Boats Rise with the high tide", meaning that one one company innovates, their competitors will soon follow and everyone wins.  I think Adobe having a solid desktop platform play will be good for Microsoft's desktop platform in the long run.  It is also good to have a competitor who shares our vision for software and services.

Beer and Code

My friend and colleague, Dave Bost, and launched a new podcast series a few weeks ago called The Thirsty Developer.  Dave and I are constantly taking with interesting developers and architects who have so much to share.  Our thought is that we will record these interviews and share them with the world.  Some of you may have heard about the show from Dave's Blog, Raster's blog, Denny's Blog or the link that I put quietly put in my blogroll a few weeks back, but this week is when Dave and I have really started to tell people about the show.  We are new to podcasting, so we have been working out some of the kinks in the show's production (which is a lot of work, if you have never tried it).  There are still a few rough spots that need to be sanded down, but we thing that the technical details are worked out (or will be shortly).

How to subscribe

Podcast Feed (MP3) - http://feeds.feedburner.com/ThirstyDeveloperPodcast

Zune Click Once - zune://subscribe/?Thirsty Developer=http://feeds.feedburner.com/ThirstyDeveloperPodcast

Plain old RSS - http://feeds.feedburner.com/ThirstyDeveloper

iTunes - http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=269316506

Would you like to help out with the Show?

Dave and I have already received some help with the show.  First and foremost our manager, Brian Moore, has been very tolerant and supportive of this experiment (not just the the podcast, but with lots of our hair-brained schemes).  We do most of the work on our own time (lots of late nights figuring out how to edit MP3 and WAV files), but occasionally it does spill into the day.  Pete Prodoehl (aka Raster) provided us the theme music that we use in the beginning and end of the episodes and Erik Klimczak of Clarity Consulting did the Thirsty Developer logo.  To let you know how far it has come I originally sent him the photo on the right as what I had in mind.  That photo was taken at the Facebook Developer Garage and I think it was one of the inspirations for the name of the show (as I recall).

But there is lots more to do with the show.  First and foremost, if you have something to say, we would love to interview you.  Even though we are Microsoft Evangelist, you don't have to talk about Microsoft technologies.  We would love to talk about other technologies as well - anything that Developers (and Architects) might be interested in hearing.  Also it does not have to be specifically on a technology topic, we have already recorded 2 shows on putting on a community event (those are coming soon).  We would also like to talk with project managers about SCRUM and other agile practices.  Bring it on!

Dave and I are also looking for someone to help us with the Thirsty Developer Web Site (if you saw it, you know it needs a little help).  The site is a dasBlog site, which works very well with CSS based modifications.  It would be ideal for someone to send us a fully updated template, but beggars can't be choosers.  We will take anything, including just an updated Masthead (we have PNG and EPS based versions of the logo if that helps).

Note: This blog post was updated after posting to include the iTunes link.

At MOSSCamp a couple of weeks ago we had a great session called "Airing of Grievances" where the campers had an opportunity to talk about what they did not like about SharePoint.  You can see the list and read about MOSSCamp in my Field Report.  Rob Bogue of Thor Projects and Microsoft MVP on SharePoint wrote a really nice response to the list and gives some helpful hints on dealing with some of the grievances listed.  Rob is a super guy and you could say that he wrote the book on SharePoint.  Rob was actually the first guy that I invited to MOSSCamp, but he was unable to make it to the event.  If you get a chance to see Rob speak, take it!

A couple of times over the past two weeks I got to experience a coworking session.  Simply put coworking is when individuals work on their own projects, but they do it in a common location, most often a place like a coffee shop.  The concept of coworking started by people who were working from home or who did not have a formal office and I suspect was at least partially driven by the need to occasionally interact with another human being.  The idea has really blossomed as people have discovered that it is a great outlet to bounce ideas off each other.  Many people who work on "side" projects (trying to start the next 15 billion dollar social network site) find it a great way to devote time to their projects.

As I mentioned, I have got to experience a couple of ad-hoc co-working experiences with my teammates recently and look back on them as great experiences where I was able to get a lot of work done (contrary to the notion that you get the most work done when you are locked away from all human contact).  Much more than what I was personally able to accomplish was how much better I could work when I had people to bounce ideas off of.  "Does anyone have a second to look at this CSS style and tell me what I am doing wrong?" and "How do you setup feedburner for a podcast?" are the types of questions that can be quickly thrown out to the group.  I also learn a lot just hearing what other people are talking about (a good way to stay up on the latest trends).

Probably not for every project and not for everyone

There are certain projects that you could be working on where the casual environment of coworking is not the ideal environment.  Editing a podcast is one that comes to mind (because you would look silly with the headphones on).  Also if you are trying to debug your multi-threaded application to figure out why your objects are not being deallocated, you probably need extreme concentration and your don't want someone talking about what color pallets to use on their blog.  Also if it does not sound like fun to work around other people who are working on other projects, then it might not be for you (and that is okay - not everything has to work for everyone).

Would you like to try coworking?

If you are looking for a group to cowork, there is a Coworking Wiki over on pbwiki that might help you find a group.  I will caution you that many of the entries are for place to cowork, rather than an active group.

Are you in the Milwaukee, WI area (my current residence)?  The guys and gals over at the Web 414 group will generally get together a coworking session 1 or 2 times a month, generally on the east side and generally at night.  They currently don't have one scheduled - might be the holidays keeping everyone busy.  If you see one get scheduled on their site, stop by and introduce yourself and get to work.  I would also like to start an occasional afternoon coworking group in Brookfield, WI.  So I am going to throw out a date and location, and hopefully someone will join me (It is not coworking if I am there by myself).  Drop me a line if you are coming.

Date: Monday December 17, 2007
Time: 1:00 - 5:00
Location:
Einstein Brothers Bagels (map)
17000-A Bluemound Road
Brookfield, WI 53045

Note: there is a Starbucks Coffee next door and the folks at Einstein's let you bring in your Starbucks (they rent the space to Starbucks).

The first ever MOSSCamp was held this past Friday (November 9th, 2007) in Chicago, IL.  This was a devcamp style event that was focused around Windows SharePoint Services and SharePoint 2007.

Standing Room Only

Standing Room Only

One of the highlights of MOSSCamp was the number of people that showed up to the event, as near as we can figure we had about 110 people at one point or another during the day.  Closely related to this highlight (actually directly proportional to it) was the lowlight that we pushed the facilities to the edge.  It was standing room only for the first couple hours of the event (as you can see by the photo, campers were literally spilling out into the halls).  I appreciated the patience that everyone showed with tight quarters.  We capped the registration at 130 campers and wait listed 10 more folks (many more people wanted to come to the camp, but we had to turn them away).  To answer a question that many people might be asking, we did not plan for 110 people.  We actually thought we would get between 80-90 (we based the estimate on historical drop off figures from past events, which are typically 25-40%).  Clearly we underestimated the interest that people had in MOSSCamp and when we have a MOSSCamp 2008 (and there is a good chance that we will), we will adjust the registration numbers and / or get a bigger room.

The camp organizers did all that we could to ease the congestion.  I for one gave up my seat at the event, and even exited the main room (I hung out in the kitchen area and talked with campers).  Many of the camp organizers also skipped lunch so that we could make sure everyone got a shot at the pizza (thankfully everyone did get at least one plate of pizza).  The office manager at Clarity ordered up dozens of cookies for an afternoon snack (the pizza went so fast that nobody was able to get seconds).  The guys at K2 stepped up big for us by having an unplanned breakout session during lunch so that we could relieve some of the congestion in the main room and even ran that session twice (thanks guys).

My Favorite Parts of the Camp

Airing of Grievances

I have to say that the SharePoint airing of grievances was one of the best parts of the camp.  We gave the campers about 15 minutes to stand up and say things they don't like about SharePoint or to raise issues that they have had when using the platform.  It was meant to be a fun activity, but was also an opportunity for people to connect.  We had several people bring up issues that other people in the camp had either solved or had some expertise around the problem so that they were able to help each other.  Here was the grievances that were aired during the session:

The other thing that I enjoyed was talking to the campers on how they were using SharePoint.  I met a gentleman from a large company that was telling me about their SharePoint implementation and he mentioned that they had "200,000 users on their implementation".  I said "Oh, you have an Internet facing implementation".  He said "No, we have that many employees and they are all on SharePoint", he then showed me some very impressive architectural diagrams on the implementation (jaw dropping).  I also met a guy who told me that he is "an open source guy", but SharePoint is compelling enough that his consulting company is starting to focus on it.

Don't call it a barcamp

Kevin Marshall

MOSSCamp was structured as an unconference, but the organizers made it clear that that we should not draw any parallels to barcamp.  Barcamps are user generated conferences that cover a broad variety of topics (I was in a gene splicing conversation at a barcamp), but in general the barcamps are focused on Open Source technologies.  Because SharePoint is a commercial product we wanted to make sure that we did not say "it is like a barcamp".  We also made sure that the camp Wiki was not hosted on http://barcamp.org.  This was also a good chance to show how you can host a wiki on WSS.

There was some trepidation at first with the unconference style of the event.  It took a few minutes for the campers to get into the groove of participating in the event.  By the end of the day, people were just hanging out in various parts of the Clarity office learning and sharing with each other.

This morning I had to take my son Zachary to Manitowoc, WI for a 3 hour event.  Since Manitowoc is an hour and 1/2 drive from our house it did not make any sense to try and drive home.  My plan was to bring my laptop and do some work while waiting for him to finish up.  Through a series of comical errors, I would up in Manitowoc with 2 laptops, but no cell phone which I was going tether and use my data plan to get Internet access (as a quick aside the AT&T 3G network is amazing, I get close to DSL speeds when I tether).  My plan B was to find a place that would have Internet access was fruitless (Manitowoc is a decent size city, but the concept of free wi-fi hotspots has not arrived here based on my short search).  McDonald's is usually very good, but the girl behind the counter had not even heard of wi-fi (she said at one point, "I know what the Internet is, I just didn't know you could get it wirelessly").  Frustrated, I ordered a cinnamon melt and sat down to see what I could get done.

The most productive 3 hours of my life (or at least the last few months)

My first thought was about all the things that I was not going to get done: "Can't check my e-mail", "Can't upload those photos to Flickr", "Can't check the price of Guitar Hero III that I want to buy the family".  But then I started to see what I could get done and was amazed at what I accomplished.  Even though I could not get my new e-mail I could work on that back log of e-mails that were in my inbox (I had 16 messages in there that I had to take action on - I had already deleted the fluff).  I have replied to a great majority of them and they are waiting to go out when I connect the the Internet.  I use RSS Bandit as my RSS Feed Reader and it caches the posts locally on my computer, so I was able to catch up on about 25 unread blog posts that I have been meaning to read.  I addition I was also able to do a bunch of other stuff like organize all the of the podcasts that we have been recording lately (The show will launch very soon) and sync the photos off my camera and get them organized so when I do get a connection, it will be easy to upload them.

Online can be well - distracting

I attribute much of this great burst of productivity to the fact that I was offline.  My IM clients (Office Communicator for the corporate contacts, Live Messenger for the personal contacts) were silent for the full duration.  I love being able to "ping" people with quick questions and like to make myself accessible in the same way, but every time you get an IM it causes you to "task switch".  I have heard studies that say it can take up to 20 minutes to get back in "the zone" when you task switch like this.  E-mail is just as bad and it seems like all e-mail clients have multiple ways to distract you when you get a new message ("would you like us to put an icon in the system tray?", "would you like us to play a sound?", "would you like us to pop-up a message box?").  Plus there is a tendency to follow hyperlinks when you are online.  You have done that, start looking for a place to buy Guitar Hero III and the ADD kicks in and next thing you know you are reading about Scientology on Wikipedia. 

The Magic of Software and Services

Viewing blog post offline

The other thing that I attribute this burst of productivity to is the ability for much of the software I use to work in a connected and disconnected fashion.  Today I used Outlook, RSS Bandit and Groove all of which tap into services on or over the Internet to make them work, but all of them have the ability to "degrade" nicely and work in a disconnected fashion when those Internet services are not there.  I am even writing this blog post offline and Windows Live Writer lets me do that and even see a preview of what the post will look like when it is published (the image on the right is a very existential screen shot of this blog post that shows how the post will appear when it is posted). 

This ability for software to work in this fashion is one of the tenants of the software and services (s+s) vision that we will be discussing at the next ArcReady (http://arcready.com) event.  ArcReady is a free in person seminar for architects and developers coming up in Indianapolis (December 6th), Milwaukee (December 12th) and Chicago (December 14th).  Check the ArcReady site for registration and for dates in other cities. 

Note:  There is a new version of Windows Live Writer that is available and I understand that they have taken the Beta sticker off the product (I am still running a version from a couple months ago).

Scrum Down
Originally uploaded by Catherine Trigg.

The term Scrum comes from Rugby where it is the formation used when the two teams compete for the ball after it has gone out of play.  The Scrum is a key part of the game that is also one of the most intense times of the game.  It is often the source of injuries, up to and including breaking your neck.  The practice of Scrum for software development teams is not nearly as violent, but it can be just as pivotal.

What is Scrum?

The term Scrum also means an agile software development method for team organization.  I highlighted method in the last statement because I want to draw the distinction between a set of techniques that you apply on a project and a full blown methodology.  Scrum is not a methodology, because it can be used with any methodology (but works best with more lightweight or agile practices).  I highlighted team organization because it differs slightly from the detention that is currently in the Wikipedia Article.  Scrum has components of it that allow you to help manage a project, but it is more than just a project management methodology.  It is a way for a team to self organize and manage their processes.

Major Components of Scrum (adapted from the Wikipedia article)

Product backlog of every feature that is requested in the product.

Sprint that is a fixed set of time (usually 30 days) that is used to deliver a set of items from the product backlog.  At the end of the sprint all the items should be "shippable".

Planning Meeting at the beginning of the sprint where the backlog items that will be delivered in the sprint are decided.

Demonstration at the end of the sprint where the product team shows of the features that were developed.

Scrum itself, which is a daily stand-up meeting at which progress is explained, upcoming work is described and impediments to progress are raised.

Common Scrum pitfalls

Scrum is not perfect (no methods are), but when the organization is really committed to the practice it almost always works.  There are a couple of pitfalls that I have personally experienced that I would like to share with you as you think about Scrum:

ScrumFall - This is the term that is applied when a team is using Scrum, but the rest of the organization still follows a Waterfall methodology (the term can also work for organizations not practicing a methodology).

Using it on non-project work - The first time I was on a team were we tried to apply Scrum we tried to use it to manage all our team's activities and not project work.  There was some very useful things we got out of it (the daily stand-up was great), but when you are working on non-project based stuff, the backlog kind of falls apart)

Turning the stand-up into a status meeting - I heard about a stand-up that was going 1-2 hours everyday.  Project Managers need to have status meetings (They are necessary, but I think they are also a biological compulsion with PMs).  Have your status meeting without the development team, let them go to work after the stand-up.

Want to learn more about Scrum?

There are a few books on Scrum, and if you want to read about Scrum I would start with Agile Software Development with Scrum by Ken Schwaber and Mike Beedle.  This was the first book and probably the best of the bunch.  Once you have the basic terminology down (it only takes a couple hours to read that book), I would recommend talking to a Certified Scrum Master (this may be a partial list and a little dated).  When you are ready to take the plunge you are going to want to retain the services of one.  Scrum is deceptively simple, and you will want an experienced practitioner for at least your first few sprints.

The VSTS User Group in Chicago is having Scrum as their topic this next Wednesday (November 14th, 2007 at 6:00 PM).  The majority of the meeting will be focused on Scrum, but then they will spend some time showing how you can adapt Team System to use Scrum.  Details and registration are located at http://vsts.sogeti-chicago.com/Pages/November2007.aspx.

On Thursday, October 25, 2007 the 2nd Annual Chicagoland Innovation Summit was held in Chicago, IL.  The event was presented by Innovate Now.  Microsoft was a sponsor and we had a large presence at the event, but Microsoft was not the only company at the event. the booth next to ours was manned by Wolfram Research, the creators of the Mathematica software.  Mathematica is very cool in and of itself, but I was most intrigued by the computing device they had on their display table.  This is the fourth article about some of the innovations that were showcased, the first article was on Photosynth and is located here, the second article was on Seadragon and is located here, and the third article was on Surface and is located here.

100 Dollar Laptop
Originally uploaded by jodieandlarry.

What is the 100 Dollar Laptop?

"The 100 Dollar Laptop" is a nickname that seems to be sticking to an initiative that is being spear headed by a not for profit organization called One laptop per child.  The goal of the organization is: "To provide children around the world with new opportunities to explore, experiment and express themselves."  There are lots of components to this goal, but one of the central components is to put into the hands of every child a computing device that they can use to foster education.  By every child they mean literally every child in every country on the face of the earth (clearly they are going to focus on developing countries).  In order to be successful, they figured that they would need to find a way to get the price of the device to around $100 USD and that is where the nickname comes from.

What challenges do they need to overcome?

There are several challenges to overcome with producing a laptop for $100 that can be used by every child.  It would be challenging enough to produce a $100 laptop for use in the United States, but imagine the challenges brought forth by delivering it in the 3rd world.  In the United States we take our power systems for granted, they are pretty much there 100% of the time (the occasional weather related outages aside).  In most 3rd world counties you do not get consistent power outside of the major cities and in the smallest villages there is no power at all.  They are designing this laptop so that it can be used without power (using a hand crank or foot pedal - the design is still not complete). 

Another Challenge is the network connectivity.  They are envisioning a time when in each school there will be a network connection, but probably only one.  The laptops are being designed with a Mesh Network that will allow the individual laptops to connect with each other using their onboard antennas and if one laptop is connected to the Internet, all of the computers will be to share that connection (remember that the next time you complain about the slow network access at a hotel or coffee shop).  If there is no network connection, the computers in the mesh network will be able to share between each other.
 

100 Dollar Laptop in Tablet Mode
Originally uploaded by jodieandlarry.

This is not a "toy" computer

At first glance this looks like a toy that your would find at the toy store at your local mall.  It has a plastic shell and the keyboard and other items are accented with a bright green color that looks very playful.  Each of the choices that they have made in the device are a function of the design goals.  The device has to be rugged, lightweight and cheap to produce, so a molded plastic is probably the best choice given those constraints.  The device is also designed with a hinge that allows it to be folded for carrying and also allows it to work in a tablet style mode.

Will they make their goal?

The project is currently quite a ways off from reaching their goal of $100 per unit.  The current model (which actually goes on sale on November 12th, 2007) will cost about $200 to produce.  They are placing it for sale in the United States (and elsewhere), but they are asking people to buy 2 units for $399.  One of those units will be delivered to you and the other will be sent to a child in a third world country (and you get a $200 tax deduction).  I have no doubt that they will eventually be able to produce the unit for $100, it is simply a function of the price of the components continuing to drop and the fact that they will have economies of scale because they are going to produce millions of these devices.

Second Life has come up a lot over the last few weeks and I must admit that I still do not "get" what it is all about.  I have never been in world (honest), but it seems like the virtual world is starting to spill into the real world.  I cite some recent examples:

CSI:NY

I watch all 3 of the CSI shows (And I am convinced that they would have more than 3 if they could figure out what WHO song would work for the show openings, "My Generation" and "Happy Jack" just won't cut it).  Probably my favorite one is CSI: New York (Gary Sinise is one of my favorite actors).  The episode from a couple of weeks ago had a tie in with second life.  There was a murder committed in real life and the CSI team had to enter second life to solve the crime.  The shows creators have taken it a step further and have created a second life version of the show where you can solve crimes. 

Note: I did not actually get to see this episode, my DVR freaked out and did not record it, but I will catch the repeat when it is on.

Is it virtual Cheating?

My wife Jodie asked me the other day if I had heard about the guy that is married in real life and has a virtual wife in second life.  I have not heard of it, even though it is a rather big new story, the Wall Street Journal covered it.  Short story is that the guy is married and lives in Phoenix, AZ and he got married to a woman in Second Life last May, but he has never met that woman.  Should his real world wife be worried?  Funny twist to the story is that they met online as well (but the old fashioned way - in a chat room).

Jodie asked me if I thought that this was cheating.  I answered honestly, yes, I did think that this was cheating.  The way that she asked the question I could tell that that was the answer that she wanted to hear and I am not sure what I would have done if I disagreed with the notion that he is cheating.  I do think that if you go through the ceremony, even if it is in a virtual world, that you are breaking the marriage vow.

Just a note to Ric Hoogestraat (the first life) or Dutch Hoorenbeek (the second life): if you are going to go off an get hitched, don't post wedding photos where your wife can see them! 

The Office gets into the "game" as well

I signed up for Second Life about a year ago. Back then, my life was so great that I literally wanted a second one. Absolutely everything was the same...except I could fly. - Dwight Schrute

Probably my favorite TV Show is the American version of "The Office".  While CSI: New York embraced the virtual world, the office did what it did with everything else, it looked at it from a more light hearted approach.  You got to see the Avatars for Dwight and Jim and while Jim was originally making fun of second life, you get the impression that he gets "hooked" into it.

Dwight Schrute: Second Life is not a game. It is a multi-user, virtual environment. It doesn't have points, or scores, it doesn't have winners or losers.
Jim Halpert: Oh it has losers.

User Groups in Second Life?

My pal and teammate, Zain Naboulsi, has been talking my ear off about second life since pretty much the moment I met him.  Zain has been working on putting together a .NET development community in second life.  He and some other people have quietly put together the Second Life .Net Developers User Group and have had a couple of smaller meetings (picture on the right is Horatio Decosta presenting at a meeting).  The first big event for the group will be taking place in early December the C# Day is an all day event targeted at people (avatars?) that are new to the C# Language.

Big Companies in Second Life?  

The most interesting reference to second life was one that I heard recently on an NPR Podcast called "Virtual Recruiting for Real-World Jobs".  It talked about companies that were using virtual job fares and virtual world interviews to hire candidates.  I was shocked to learn that Microsoft had actually actually done recruiting in the virtual world (maybe that is how they found Zain?).    The podcast talked about the advantages to virtual recruiting and the pitfalls as well.

You know that this is being taken seriously when a company like Manpower, whose entire existence is to screen and hire candidates, makes a huge investment in a second life presence.  A local developer / architect / entrepreneur, Justin helped Manpower put the site together.

Despite all of these references to second life popping up in the media and corporate world, I still have no plans to go out and create a second life account.  I have started to take second life (and other virtual worlds) more seriously, because they seem to be becoming much more main stream and accepted.  I am not sure if I will ever be enticed to go into the virtual world, for now I am content to work on my first life.

My colleagues Jon Box and Josh Holmes told me that Charles Petzold will be speaking at the Memphis Day of .Net next Saturday (November 10th), which is a free event put on by the Memphis .NET User Group.  If you have worked with Microsoft technologies for the last 15 years and you have not read a Charles Petzold book then you have been missing out on what of the best technical authors for the platform.  He is one of the most prolific authors (he has written literally dozens of books) and he does not just "crank out" books, his are usually considered the definitive books on the topic.  I am currently reading his book, "Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software" and I am only about 25 pages into it, but it is a fascinating book and it is quite different than the reference books that you might be used to from Charles.