By ashvil on 2/26/2004 5:09 PM

Artima.com has a good interview with Anders Hejlsberg on the design of the C# language

Bill Venners: How much of the design of C# was based on usability research, how much on marketing choices, and how much on aesthetics?

Anders Hejlsberg: Ultimately, good language design boils down to assembling a team of people who have good taste. It boils down to programming aesthetics, as you are saying. Good taste is extremely subjective and hard to define, but you can sort of recognize it when you see it.

Ultimately, It is people who make the difference between success and failure.

By ashvil on 2/19/2004 6:38 PM

Bruce Tognazzini has a Dave Letterman style Top 10 reasons not to shop online. It's a shame that after more than 10 years of web development, companies don't seem to understand the concept of user experience on the web.

By ashvil on 2/17/2004 7:32 PM

Microsoft has some good concept videos on how Longhorn enables the next generation of applications.

By ashvil on 2/9/2004 7:01 PM

Orina and I went to Bryan Adams rock show on Sunday night. We forgot all the pain to to get there, find parking, wait, ignore the smokers, wait, ignore the dust around, ignore the warm up band on stage, wait, wait, wait --- when we looked into each others eyes and sang ....

Look into my eyes - you will see
What you mean to me
Search your heart - search your soul
And when you find me there you'll search no more

Don't tell me it's not worth tryin' for
You can't tell me it's not worth dyin' for
You know it's true
Everything I do - I do it for you

By ashvil on 2/5/2004 2:25 PM

One of the most important things i3Connect did right was to eat our own dog food. Eating your own dog food is about   making sure that you and your company use the product on a daily basis that you built before sending it out.

Our first product was Vista and one of the first features was IM integration with MSN and Yahoo. Even when Vista was in an early alpha stage, all the folks in i3Connect had to use Vista to connect and chat with their buddies on MSN and Yahoo.

Everyone not only found bugs but also usability issues that in a timeframe that reminds me of the phrase - A stich in time saves nine. But the main value in dog fooding is that is makes your developers and others think like customers.  

Most companies that ship products without dog fooding end up shipping products that are buggy and have serious usability issues - since except the product management team, no one has used the product the way an end users does.

By ashvil on 2/4/2004 4:09 PM

Daniel Pink has written a well researched article on the human element on Outsourcing. Having run a software product development company for three years in India, I feel the need to contribute to this debate, but am uncertain how I can add value or provide advice to folks who feel that having a job is a birthright.

Also, as Technology moves on, it will continue to replace jobs. I am more comfortable with using online banking portals rather than talking to a customer service drone - ANYWHERE in the world. Customers prefer ATMs instead of the talking to a grumpy teller - who thinks it's a crime to withdraw your money.

The current fad of Outsourcing will die out once Technology matures and is cheaper than human labor. But technology or outsourcing cannot replace the human element of creativity and innovation. That's where the next set of jobs are.

By ashvil on 2/3/2004 8:02 PM

>WER is a set of technologies built into the XP operating system that captures product crash data, allows end users to report the information, and allows software and hardware vendors to analyze and respond to these problems.

You must have seen the the window that comes up after an application crashes ... the one that asks you to send crash details information to Microsoft.

Using the Winqual site you as a Windows Developer can view crash reports, map specific files to your company, and provide real-time responses to your users who experience the crashes.

Now if only Microsoft would let WER send the crash details directly to your website.

By ashvil on 2/3/2004 7:22 PM

I have been busy with relocating to Bangalore and things went slower then expected. When you are busy, life just seems to pass by.

I am fairly settled now and hope to get back to sharing Tidbits :-) and working on India SIGs etc. More later ....

By ashvil on 12/30/2003 3:40 PM

Wishing you all the joy and happiness for the coming year. This New Year is also special to me and my beautiful bride as it's our first wedding anniversary.

Thank you Orina for standing by me in all the good and bad times.

By ashvil on 12/24/2003 8:05 PM

Wish you all the happiness and joy of Christmas.