Philip Richardson

Blog Software Update

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 12:55:00 -0800

Until a few days ago I was using BlogEngine.NET a popular ASP.NET based blog app from Codeplex.com. While running a routine upgrade I encountered a few issues. Digging into the source code of the app I found too much bloat for my liking. For now I'll run a slimmed down 'pure RSS' feed. Most modern browsers apply a stylesheet to RSS so the reading experience should be OK. The old BlogEngine.NET URI format has been preserved (thanks to some handy HTTP handlers).

American Express: Shameful

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 22:24:50 -0800

Here is the password policy for American Express' web site:

Your Password should:

Contain 6 to 8 characters - at least one letter and one number (not case sensitive)

Contain no spaces or special characters (e.g., &, >, *, $, @)

Be different from your User ID and your last Password

Max 8 characters with no non-alphanumeric characters?!?! Are they freaking joking? Sadly not....

Please American Express: give me the option of having a secure password.

BTW: Actually finding the 'change your password' link on their site is an exercise in futility.

Spooky Data Centre

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 22:16:47 -0800

Check this out. It looks cool but I'm not sure I'd like to actually go to work at this place every day (although it is better than the alternative: going to work in a beige underground cube farm).

via the ever passionate cloud-warrior: Dave Lemphers

OOF

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 22:12:57 -0800

I'm OOF until the 12th of January. The term OOF is one of the classic Microsoft slang words and we use it constantly. It basically means you are 'out of office'. The original was from the old Microsoft Xenix mail server. Read more here.

While I'm OOF I'm spending most of my time at home with the family (it after all supposed to be paternity leave). I also hope to squeeze in some work on a little technical project which has been 'itching away at me'. I'll also be using the time to do some career/'country I want to live in' thinking.

I'll be pretty slow to respond on my @microsoft.com email during this time - but at can be reached at my @philiprichardson.org account pretty easily.

Windows 7: Day Two

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 21:46:22 -0800

I took the plunge this morning and went on to a recent build (day old) of Windows 7. I was so impressed by the M3 version that I was ready to try something a little more raw.

Now that I'm using a non-public version I can't really discuss any of the features. However I can definitely saw it's the best OS I've ever used and a lot of people in the company are getting very excited about Win7.

Windows 7: Day One

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 20:48:42 -0800

Last night I upgraded my Lenovo T60p from Vista to Windows 7. So far it’s been smooth sailing with all my apps and drivers working perfectly. I’m running Build 6801 (which I believe is the M3 build we gave out at the PDC). If you have the opportunity to try out Windows 7: I thoroughly recommend it.

CRM5 Features

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 22:21:38 -0800

The ever observant Simon Hutson has been scouring public sources for CRM5 features. He has compiled a great list on his UK CRM Blog. Naturally this isn’t a complete list – but it does give a good idea of some of the themes in CRM5 (the code name for release currently under development). Given that most of these features were spotted in the wild at the PDC you can expect that they are platform/developer focused. Expect some more business user focused features to be previewed at Convergence North America next year.

CRM Analysis by Gartner

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 14:14:00 -0800

It's so much nicer when Gartner says it for you....

"Gartner believes that the technologies underlying Dynamics CRM (code named Titan) represent a significant opportunity for Microsoft. Thus far, little emphasis has been placed on this technology, which has potential to be a mainstream offering that will compete with SFDC’s force.com platform at what Gartner calls aPaas, a type of cloud/web platform application infrastructure service. In fact, Titan represents the only tool/off the shelf technology as part of Windows Azure that actually helps facilitate the building of multitenant apps. Larger questions remain about the specific applicability of multitenant app servers and Microsoft apparently has not made final decisions as of yet. However, “Titan” does represent a potential under invested, under marketed alternative to more complications, comprehensive approaches."

Verdicts of a Casual Hypocrite

Sun, 02 Nov 2008 16:17:21 -0800

A few days ago I switched my Zune 30 (aka Zune Classic) over to a 8 gig iPod Touch. It’s awesome. Enough said.

Now… while we are on the subject of disapproval. We packed our little tribe off to Stumptown on 12th/Madison yesterday for a decent coffee and to restock our beans. The beans: awesome. The coffee: rat-shit. I don’t know who is doing training and/or quality control for Stumptown – but please do something about the baristas you had on duty yesterday. The espresso in my cappuccino was badly burned and my foam was sub-par for a Starbucks. That kind of crap would never pass muster at Vivace. I was tempted to take it back – but it was so bad I didn’t know where to begin: eg. “there isn’t any thing good about this coffee”.

Azure Whitepaper

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 21:13:07 -0700

For many the Azure announcements this week might be a little perplexing. I’d strongly recommend reading Dave Chappell’s whitepaper and others on the Azure site. Over the next few months many SMEs, Enterprise, ISVs and SIs will be examining cloud based architectural components and experimenting with their potential within their own ecosystems. Prudent and innovative adoption of these technologies will give many organizations significant advantages over their competition in terms of raw computing capability, cost and agility.