Ever wondered what it is like working for Microsoft? Michael Brundage (a Microsoft employee) has written an article about his views on "Working at Microsoft"  What I really like about this article is that he's really a Mac guy and comes accross really well in the article.

 

Isn't it interesting how the people you work with think that you will drop everything when they say 'boo!'.  I look after the systems and infrastructure where I am currently working and I guess sometimes I am viewed as a bit of a Jack of All Trades (except coding, I stay well away from that).  That is great most of the time cause I know enough to get me through most situations but on the flip side I oten get lumped with stuff I would rather not do!

Here in Brisbane we have a great community of people that work within the Microsoft Solutions space,  one of the stand out people in my mind is Angus Logan, who until recently has been working as a developer for Data #3.  But alas all good things come to an end and Angus has recently moved to Microsoft down in Sydney, while this will not be the last that we see of Anugs here in Brisbane i know that Brisbane will greatly miss his efforts.

 

Congratulations Angus and good luck with the new job!

A couple of days ago I put up a post on John Howard,  Not the Prime Minister of Australia but a Microsoft Employee from the UK.  At the time I thought that it was funny could you imagine the Australian Prime Minister in IT (for those of you who don't know Australian politics too well here is a picture.)  Well imagine my surpise when John Howard from Microsoft UK posted a comment on my blog!  Here is to you John wishing you the best and greater popularity than our countires prime minister!

Here I am 9:30am on a Sunday and I can see I'm coming up on 2hrs of time in the office. But then I spose that is life on a project as you approach a deadline.

I am currently looking around a some utilities for moving some files around the network where I work and during my research I came accross the blog of this guy, who here in Australia wouldn't be to popular.

I have to say my team leader Steve is one of the funniest people I know, he's also very quick witted and always knows just when to change the topic to somthing a little lighter!

 

Today our team is sitting around in a group and we're passing around some idea's but we're not making much headway (complex issue!) Steve chimes in and starts by using "To make a short story long, this is how it is....." and keeps going without missing a beat. 

I've been so busy with lots of different work and personal issues lately that I have not had a chance to catch up on my blog reading.  So today I thought I would catch up on some of the blogs I subscribe to and I found this little gem on Mitch Denny's blog about a bus he saw.........

These days it's it's not just geeks that are running blogs and web sites but also their partners.  My wife Olivia has just started her own blog and you can check it out here!  Then again she'll comment on some of the stupid things I do so mabye you shouldn't read this............

Olivia and I were fortunate on the weekend to attend Nathan and Jennifer's wedding.  Nathan is an old friend of mine that I met at CCC Bridgeman Downs and he also spent some time flatting with me at Cannonbar St which was one of the warmest and most friendly rental houses that I have lived in.  The wedding was awesome Nathan looked great and Jennifer also looked a very beautiful bride. 

 

One of the great things during the night is the photographers set up a slide show to music to showcase the photos they took, absolutly awesome! 

 

I was also really happy to catch up with Brad and Claire, Criag and Colleen, Scott, Jason, Glen and a host of other people that I have not had the opportunity to catch-up with for some time.

 

Overall a great saturday wedding and once again congratulations Nathan and Jennifer

Chrisitan, one of the cool guys I used to work with over at Volante is selling his car.  This is a classic car and the owner needs to be someone who will take care of her.  If your looking for a classic car check it out here!

Saw this really interesting article on Lawrence Liu's Blog about a Micosoft Exec's response to a everyday situation!

 

Love it!

I am a geek to the core,  to the point that I am currently more focused more on the technology that will be going into my new house than the actual design of the house itself! But in my geekyness (yes my spelling sucks!) I have never really been into the programmer / developer side of IT. Imagine my surprise this morning as my wife (Olivia) and I were driving into town for work and through discussion on different topics she thinks that becoming a C# developer may be an interesting career change for her.

 

I must admit that I am very intrigued by her prosposal.  It would be fantastic to have my wife in the IT industry and also the fact that we would have very complimenting skills (her as a programmer and myself as a systems architect) we could really design a ver interesting smart house (yes I know the geek is really coming out in me today) but I think that it is an interesting point of view anywayz.........

 

To help Liv im going to pass her my basic C# dev guides and developer overviews (that I can never really get more than 5 chapters through) and see what she thinks!

 

Technical Writers are some of the IT industries best inventions as far as I am concerned!  It allows us that are technical to do what we do best and do technical things while only having a minimum level of interaction with the documentation for the work we do.  I am currently working with a Teachnical Writer at work and I am finding it fantastic!  I do the work tell the tech writer what I did and they write the words that make what I did sound impressive, I tell you Tech Writers Rock!

So I have started my new job with the Dep of Communities and as part of my role I have to produce a series of diagrams on the solution including infrastructure, information flows, application loading and the like.  Yesterday I produced the first diagram on the Information Flows.  It was fantastic, it listed all the servers in the Production environment and showed the linkages between each.  At the completion of the diagram you could see the flow of information from Application to Application shown in various colours.  But what do you do when your manager is colour blind and cannot determine what colour is what on your beautifully drawn architecture diagram????

 

Well I havn't quite figured it out yet, but for the moment he is just taking my word that the flows are correct............

Since before Schapelle Corby's case really hit the spotlight my wife and I have been watching Schapelle's case in whatever media has been available.  I can't really say what brought it to our attention or why, but I can say that we really feel for Shapelle and indeed anyone who get's put in a simliar situation.  It is really good to see though that their could be a witness that is willing to come forward and take ownership of the Drugs that were found in Shapelle's bag those many fatefull months ago.  

 

Here is an article on the fact that Schapelle's case has been reopened it for further evidence.