What did I just drink?

Microsoft Veterans Leaving

mark-baciak — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 00:19:00 GMT

2008 is turning out to be a big year of change for Microsoft Corporation. Many of the known personalities are leaving to either pursue other interests or simply enjoy their accumulated wealth. Either way it is clearing some senior leadership positions for new blood. Here is a list of people that have announced their departures. I should also compile a list of senior people from 2007 to properly elucidate how Microsoft is starting to change from an organization perspective.

Bill Gates

In case you’ve been living under a rock, Microsoft’s founder and CSA will be retiring this year to pursue his foundation full time.

Jeff Raikes

After 26 years Mr. Raikes will be handing over the very successful Microsoft Business Division.

Bruce Jaffe

Bruce Jaffe, who heads its acquisitions, is leaving as the largest software maker gives individual unit leaders more control over deals.

Jaffe, a vice president and 12-year Microsoft veteran, will leave Feb. 29

Charles Fitzgerald

After over 18 years at Microsoft, he is calling it a day. I was at a meeting last month where Steve Ballmer called him the “Velvet Hammer” because of his ability to cut thru the BS and provide candid commentary to the executive leadership.

First WPF Application

mark-baciak — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 16:00:00 GMT

Media.Copy

This summer, August to be more precise, I spent some of my vacation learning WPF. Whilst my wife wasn’t happy about this, as most things computer related and my time, it was really a lot of fun with dashes of excitement, loads of frustration and a case of beer. Like most people I don’t do things just for the sake of it I wanted to solve a problem that I had. Since the late nineties I’ve been burning my CDs to different formats and the directory structures had gotten out of control. My collection is well over 250 CDs so it is no small task to try and organize it by hand (read file copy).

Removed Source Code Link until I Find Another Place To Host It From

Problem: My directory structures did not match the CDs that were ripped over the years to my liking. Instead I wanted it to be arrange by Artist / Album versus having all tracks in a single directory.

Solution: Write a program that will read the ID3 tags and then create a series of directories and copy the files where they need to go using WPF as a front end.

Ignorance: Writing a WPF application should be very similar to writing a smart client application.

Warning: This program was written quickly and not intended to show how to properly code things under the UI. Comments related to “why did you hardcode this or that, you should have made it more extensible, blah blah blah” will be promptly ignored. J

The first thing I did was grab my trusty pen and paper to sketch out a few UI designs and list features that I would like to have. This took about 30 minutes or so and then my first step would be to get the thing working as a smart client application and then port it over to WPF. This way I know the underlying code will work and only the UI needs to be touched. That part took a few hours of searching around the internet for source that can read MP3 and WMA file, putting that into a project and then bolting together a quick UI using my design. Done and it transferred files as expected.

Now the port to WPF…

Where the hell is my designer???

For us dev types I found Expression Blend to have a steep learning curve. The beer may have loosened my tongue however it did not do much for my patience. Getting up a basic design surface thru nesting is not easy to accomplish for first timers. I lost count how my times I hit Cntl-Z when doing any type of modification. After a day my UI looked way better than the smart client version and I thought to myself: WPF does indeed rock. Hit compile and time to test…

It found the files and displayed them all in the ListView as expected. Now I just have to hit the Transfer Button and watch the gloriousness that is WPF update the UI. Wrong. WFP is STA and the usual smart client tricks for UI updates didn’t work. WPF turned into WTF and then I had to completely re-write things to make them multi-threaded. Talk about an extra task that I didn’t need to go thru previously. Moral of the story is you have to think about threading when doing anything that is computationally intensive (read more than 100ms) or be prepared for the great application hang. No nicety such as Application.Refresh() or similar to be had. Well, everything is now working and I just today updated it to Visual Studio 2008.

The source code is online via my SkyDrive if anyone wants to check it out. It contains both the UI and code so you'll be off the races in little time. If you make some cool changes let me know and shoot me a link to the updated source!

I’ll do a follow-up post that contains the two books I bought, the three day online course I casually watched, and the internal emails (sans aliases) that got me to my first WPF application. J

Science as Art

mark-baciak — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 14:18:00 GMT

So do you love science as much as I do? Check out the below first place winner of Science as Art held at the Materials Research Soceity (MRS) Fall Meeting in Boston.

To read more, click Nanowerk

Nano-Explosions Color-enhanced scanning electron micrograph of an overflowed electrodeposited magnetic nanowire array (CoFeB), where the template has been subsequently completely etched. It’s a reminder that nanoscale research can have unpredicted consequences at a high level. (Image: Fanny Beron, École Polytechnique de Montréal, Montréal, Canada

If you use WEP you are in DANGER

mark-baciak — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 13:55:00 GMT

We all know that WEP was never meant to be entirely secure or anything like that. However, most wireless access points around are still using this as their default security mode versus WPA or WPA2. I won’t go into the details of WPA or WPA2 and will instead use this as a public awareness exercise to explain that if you’re using WEP and reading this blog then shame on you as you should be technically literate.

Don’t worry I was in the same camp until early last year. A friend of mine who works in security came over for a beer and to generally catch up since we hadn’t seen each other in almost a year. Of course we talk about tech security and he loves to go on about how the “average person and average company” aren’t very bright. I challenge him on this much to my chagrin and he proceeds to demonstrate using me as the example.

So he asks, “Do you have wireless at your house”? I quickly reply that I do like most people. He asked me what type of security I had on it. This I knew to be WEP and felt good because at least it wasn’t open. He then asked if I had a 64-bit or 128-bit key. I said 64-bit because I was too lazy to come up with a 128-bit one in hex. He keenly smiles and then says, “It doesn’t really matter because I can probably get into your network in a few minutes regardless.” Oh you can, can you. Prove it. The peril is that I know he knows his stuff and that if proven correct I will not hear the end of it for many years to come.

He breaks out his laptop, boots up Linux and has a special antenna that plugs into his USB wifi device. He executes a few scripts and then asks me which wireless network is mine. I tell him and then he proceeds to do his magic. Sure enough, within 10 minutes he had my key and was on my network parading around. Luckily all my boxes are locked down and authenticated via my domain controller so he wasn’t able to do much except gain use to my broadband connection. That didn’t make me happy either.

So if you have wireless at your domicile or business please make sure you are using WPA or WPA2 with a strong key (meaning characters, numbers and special characters) that is at least 20 long since the only way to crack those is with a dictionary attack!

A New Job for the New Year!

mark-baciak — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 17:26:00 GMT

So I've taken on a new role at Microsoft as a Principal Architect in the Relationship Experience Division (RXD). Should be some exciting times ahead and I'll keep everyone informed of what this new role means, what technologies I'll be working on and the areas I plan on innovating around.

A teaser is something called a Global Knowledge Platform (read Semantic Web). This is based on several years of research I've done with this domain as well as having implemented a very functional taxonomy and social networking technology for the Windows Division way back in 2001/2002 that now runs critical parts of that organization.

Although I haven't been a fan of blogging or anything else public for that matter this year brings a change for me. Feel free to add yourself to my LinkedIn network!

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/6/697/993

Try searching “Mark Baciak” at FaceBook.

Career Advice for Aspiring Architects

mark-baciak — Tue, 23 May 2006 14:02:00 GMT

Welcome to the NEW Aspiring Architect Community!

Skyscrapr is the community for aspiring architects. There are millions of professional developers and aspiring architects looking for a rich, valuable introduction into the world of Architecture. Skyscrapr allows them to explore, train and study architecture and makes Microsoft the ‘go to’ authority to study or plan a career in architecture.

Skyscrapr is driven by 78% of developer saying they are interested or very interested in learning about architecture and 1/3 of developers identifying career aspirations of becoming an architect. What this really tells us is there is a huge opportunity to cultivate relationships with people interested in learning and growing their skills in architecture.

Always wondering what Service Oriented Architecture really meant but too afraid to ask? Now you can find the complete definition and how it differs from a solution, infrastructure and strategic architects point of view.

Skyscrapr will offer online training, an acronym decoder, a glossary of terms, our own Archipedia, blogs and even a surprise or two. So send your brother, sister, cousin, customer, friend. Anyone who has ever wondered what it meant to be an ARCHITECT. Community starts with you!

There’s a little something for everyone so come Meet the Architects!

Iron Architect Competition

mark-baciak — Mon, 08 May 2006 17:18:00 GMT

I’m excited to announce the 1^st Iron Architect contest is underway! This contest takes place at TechEd. Architects from around the world are invited to submit their solution to our architecture riddle. The only requirement is that they attend TechEd. Semi finalists will present their solutions to the panel of MVP judges in a chalk talk session on Thursday of TechEd week. Once the two finalists are chosen, they will be given their ‘ingredients’ to compete in the final Iron Architect showdown on Friday. The audience will vote real time via Windows mobile devises on the final winner during a session on Friday.

Please check out the blog for all the details.

Mix06 Videos Online Now

mark-baciak — Thu, 04 May 2006 11:20:00 GMT

All 52 MIX06 session videos are now available for online (and offline) viewing. If you didn't have a chance to attend then this is the next best thing, enjoy.

Sessions here: http://sessions.mix06.com/

More here: http://blog.mix06.com/blog/archive/2006/05/03/2367.aspx

And here: http://blogs.msdn.com/mswanson/archive/2006/05/03/589692.aspx

SOI - Service Oriented Infrastructure

mark-baciak — Mon, 10 Apr 2006 16:26:00 GMT

Recently I have been working on something entitled Service Oriented Infrastructure (SOI). The premise being the infrastructure required in order to effectively apply service orientation to an enterprise or large scale software component. Most people shy away from this problem due to the sheer number of moving parts that in contains. Moreover, the bar for entry to this realm is high with many people/vendors touting a big bang theory.

My take on this is radically different. Besides giving my normal diatribe about how maturity models suck, I'd like to talk about how to lower the entry constraints and get what the client really wants: a way of understanding and integrating the newer technology. To do this is really quite simple, and it all comes down to perspective.

Capabilities are arranged into hierarchical structures with each level being known as a generation. I normally start out with up to three generations within a given domain, SOI for instance, and then go from there once the customer has deduced what they would like to see.

Here is a list of the capabilities for Generation 1 System and Gen2 Service Monitoring. There are plenty more generations under Gen3 item, but this is a pretty good first take on what you'd like to understand about Service Monitoring.

System				1	2	3	4
	Service Monitoring		monitor the service and client
		Availability	is it up and running and doing what it should be doing. Are all the dependencies there (app service, rdms)	x
		Auditing	Audit what is going on. What does the request and response look like? Who are the identities? Go through and analyze what is there.		x
		Logging	Storing the audited information, global, local, files, db. SOAP envelopes,	x
		Perf	general performance metrics. A measure of performance.		x
		QoS	response time, timeouts, arranged with a SLA			x
		Synthetic Transactions	Transaction that tests the services with artifical transactions to make sure services are meeting SLA.				x
	Exception Management		capturing all exceptions	x

ASK: Does anyone have other capabilities that they believe would fall under Gen2 Service Monitoring? Also, for each Gen3 capability what would you expect to see under each?

A New SDLC Feedback Mechanism: A MUST READ

mark-baciak — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 15:40:00 GMT

As this video shows, Microsoft is on the cutting edge of organic feedback mechanisms. This first part is mainly for the developers but one can imagine how they can distribute this technology to all areas of an SDLC. From bad decisions by the business to ambiguous bug declarations by testers, this brings the emotional response to a whole new level.

Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005 RTM Internal Completed.

mark-baciak — Thu, 27 Oct 2005 14:50:00 GMT

Today, the internal RTM of Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005 was announced. This is a tremendous milestone and is in anticipation of a public release on 7.Nov. for all versions of the products. Microsoft is also releasing the 32 and 64-bit versions of the .NET Framework 2.0 and the .NET Framework SDK to the Microsoft download center for immediate public consumption. For those that have MSDN Subscriptions, Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition and SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition are now available for download. I am personally excited to work with these new products as they will change how we do architecture, development, test, analysis, operations, and data.

Soon to come:

Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2005 Team Edition for Software Architects (English)

Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2005 Team Edition for Software Developers (English)

Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2005 Team Edition for Software Testers (English)

Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2005 Tools for the Microsoft Office System (English)

Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server Beta 3 Refresh (English)

Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite (DVD) (English)

Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite Trial Edition (DVD) (English)

Here is some text from Soma's Email:

Visual Basic developers will love Edit and Continue, the My Classes, and the wide array of new features for client development in Windows Forms. Visual C# developers will instantly be more productive with refactoring, generics, and numerous new debugging capabilities. Visual C++ developers will have seamless access to the full power of the Common Language Runtime and .NET Framework, advanced browsing, editing and debugging, numerous security enhancements and the best performance ever. Web Development has never been faster or easier with Master Pages, Personalization, Web Parts, and declarative data access to databases and business objects. Office application development is taken to a whole new level with Excel and Word designers, Outlook support, and the integration of Windows Forms controls. Developing applications for the devices is now truly a 1st class citizen in Visual Studio. The Visual Studio development environment enables both individual productivity and team productivity. Simply amazing!

Enterprise customers are already jumping to the Visual Studio Team System product line which provides tools to support Architects, Developers, Testers and Project Managers. With visual designers for enterprise systems, load and unit testing tools and the performance analysis tools used internally at Microsoft, we are enabling teams to successfully and predictably build and deploy mission critical solutions on the .NET Framework. With the just shipped final beta of Team Foundation Server and its final release early next year, we will deliver a truly integrated, collaborative platform for the entire software development lifecycle.

The .NET Framework, Common Language Runtime, and ASP.NET have the highest stress and scalability rates we’ve ever achieved. With the .NET Compact Framework, native 64bit support on the server, built in database caching in ASP.NET and managed stored procedures in SQL Server 2005 we are delivering the preeminent multi-tier application development platform in the industry.

We took transparency with the community to a whole new level and provided customers with unparalleled access to our vision, processes, builds, struggles, defects, and successes. We delivered Community Technology Previews every 6-8 weeks and got valuable feedback from our customers through the MSDN Product Feedback Center. We had 24 early adopter (TAP) customers and a number of internal customers deploying in their production environment the Release Candidates of Whidbey and Yukon and they all signed off on the product release. To our customer community I say, “Thank you, for helping us build and deliver great products”.

What does the Solutions Architect career path look like?

mark-baciak — Fri, 02 Sep 2005 00:36:00 GMT

I’ve talked to a number of solution architects over the years and one thing that I always try and figure out is why they are where they are. Is it a mindset or personality type that typically fills this role, and if so, what did it take for them to reach it? Now I’m going to go out on a limb here and loosely declare a few things in order to get feedback. If the below sounds viable or if there are different tracks that people have taken please, please send me comments.

After interviewing many people there seems to be two higher order paths: consultant and developer track. Not to say that one isn’t most likely a facet of the other, but their differences lie in their realm of execution. On the consultant side of things they typically work for well recognized bodies that deal more in a pragmatic implementation style versus a heavily padded implementation model. They understand the business problem, are effective communicators and can normally create a solution that hurdles many obstacles to achieve a mutually accepted notion of success in terms of project delivery. Their diverse project landscapes afford them the opportunity to understand many different industries and synthesize their own style and notion of what it takes to realize an effective solution.

Career Path for Consultant Track

Analyst > Senior Analyst > Consultant > Senior Consultant > Manager > Solutions Architect

The developer tracks differ not only in sponsorship but more in terms of relevance to a particular industry and organization. As the consultant will tend to move from company to company, the developer will move from project to project and business unit to business unit within the same company or a small number of companies. Their time on the ground in a single company allows them a deeper understanding of the political landscape, enterprise dynamics at play and ultimately how to leverage these variables to effectively create solutions for a myriad of business problems.

Career Path for Developer Track

Developer > Senior Developer > Lead Developer > Development Manager > Group Development Manager > Solutions Architect

So the question is: If someone wants to be a Solutions Architect what career path should they take and what have others taken?

Microsoft Certified Architect

mark-baciak — Tue, 09 Aug 2005 18:39:00 GMT

I was reading David Ing's blog and came across an entry talking about what it takes to be a software architect.

Microsoft has also found interest in trying to qualify these individuals and has come up with its list of competencies as follows: (for those who are too lazy to click on the link or want a quick summary keep reading)

Leadership: Candidates demonstrate that they develop partnerships with stakeholders across the organization on their projects; that they can mentor others; that they develop and form strong teams; and that they achieve successful results.
Technology Depth: Candidates demonstrate that they have a deep understanding of the concepts and application of at least two core technologies (for example, messaging, storage, Windows, networks, etc.) plus the ability to quickly assimilate information about new technologies.
Technology Breadth: Candidates understand architectural best practices and are able to apply them across a breadth of technologies to orchestrate a solution. They also have views on the future development of a technology and how it might influence current solutions. Finally, they understand the interaction between infrastructure, solution, and enterprise architecture and practices.
Strategy: Candidates demonstrate understanding of enterprise architectural frameworks such as TOGAF and operational frameworks such as ITIL and be able to use these frameworks in their projects. They also understand project management principals and how architects interact with project managers to deliver projects. In addition, they understand the economic dimension of projects and how costs influence the available choices for technology.
Organization Dynamics: Candidates show that they are able to recognize the key stakeholders in a project and that they can work with those stakeholders to drive a project to a successful conclusion. They present the ability to pick the right battles at the right time and then recognize the political landscape that influences a project within an organization and then influence organizational politics for the success of their projects.
Tactical/Process: Candidates demonstrate that they can gather and refine project requirements from both a technical and business perspective. They understand how to effectively prototype and test a solution and also showcase the talent to create effective project artifacts. Lastly, they exhibit the ability to refine project goals and the tactics necessary to achieve those goals as the project develops.
Communication: Candidates show that they maintain well-written and accurate project documentation; they are able to present information on a technical subject in a concise and measured manner; they have the ability to influence others; they have the ability to manage conflicts effectively; and to tailor their communication to the needs of the target audience.

So for pioneering individuals wishing to relate to the architecture community or more specifically would like to become an architect, the above highlights some of the skills required.

FYI the program is very saturated with requests at the moment and once they weed through the applicants to produce candidates they'll be accepting more of the former.If, by chance, you are lucky enough to get into the program expect a very grueling board awaiting to see if you truly have the “right stuff”. <Paper Certification individuals need not apply>

Can You Pass the Lexicon Please?

mark-baciak — Fri, 29 Jul 2005 03:19:00 GMT

I am not qualified to speak about SOA nor does one person come to mind that can articulate it effectively to the masses either. There are other things that I can delve into that will overlap with common elements of this buzz word. Now I have to be careful here (like the first sentence really was) not to tread on too many toes.

Who is the target audience of SOA, at least in its current state? My belief is that enterprises are going to be interested in this because of the many promises embodied in those three little letters. The excitement is palatable as are the hunger pains from a lack of substance. Everyone loves a high class buffet because they can grab what satiates their needs and desires while leaving the rest to the other hungry people in the room. No two palates are identical nor are two enterprises.

When I look at this problem space I try and employ terms and views that many people can agree on regardless of their bias or industry. The biggest thing to take away from this is a capability based conversation. If one is ambitious enough they could unravel and decompose all the different viewpoints around SOA and they’d probably run down to base capabilities that are consistent. If it’s that easy then why the hell don’t people just do it?

Individuals rarely do things in plain sight much less a group with a common purpose. My intention with this blog is to practice in the open as much as practical despite my many reservations and training to do quite the opposite.

Back to the topic at hand: capabilities. Capabilities naturally arrange themselves into hierarchical structures that are organic in nature allowing growth, interaction, and synthesis into the communities they couple with. Embracing this view will allow disparate perspectives to align as they can all agree on the capability regardless of the impact per vested party member. Still sound too ethereal?

Some times the best way to present a new concept is to provide examples that are relevant. To elucidate the above let’s start and decompose identity management for a moment.

Identity Management

Extensible Integration of Identity Repositories

Synchronization

Life Cycle Management

Approval Workflow

Simple

One-Step

Multi-Step

Complex

Password Management

Self Service

Helpdesk

Change & Reset

It is extremely easy to talk to someone about this without even mentioning how to implement it (this means platform, technology, et. al.). Most sane people can agree that password management is a capability of identity management. They will probably even be able to agree that change & reset is a capability of password management. Next thing you know your CxO, architect, developer and 13 year old computer gamer across the street all not only agreed on something but they internalized it by using a common taxonomy and viewpoint.

Enough for tonight it's 0027 and I'm tired. Just to set expectations, this will be an evolving topic that will probably take a month to loosely cover so don't expect a conclusion any time soon!

But Will You Respect Me In The Morning?

mark-baciak — Thu, 28 Jul 2005 03:46:00 GMT

I suppose I should have embraced blogging some time ago but hindsight is truly 20/20. Then again, if I could really turn back the hands of time I would have made some very strategic investments and started blogging from my yacht anchored in Monaco about a multitude of vices. The main point trying to be made here is that I am a neophyte in this space but am a fast study so being kind for the first few posts is appreciated.

I’ve decided not to use my first blog on Pluralsight to talk about my CV, current position at Microsoft, or why peanut butter on toasted bread with banana drives my dog nuts. I’d rather engage with a thread that Don Box and Jeff Schneider have started. This thread is about the lack of messaging around how Microsoft uses SOA internally versus the perceived dollars spent on the evangelism of SOA.

First off, you should not encounter a Microsoft person actively talking about SOA much less about how we do a SOA internally. The main reason is that it’s hard to define what a SOA is much less having two people in the same room agree on it. Internally, this is for MS IT, we prefer to think in terms of Service-Orientation and how to apply it to our enterprise and business problems using available technology. I can speak at great lengths to how we do this internally as I was the architect doing R&D on the subject matter for over three years and still maintain a healthy relationship with MS IT. Part of what we've done internally can be shown by projects that participated in our technology or other blogs such as Roy Osherove's. The analyst briefings, some stories around Connected Systems, and executive briefings showcase what we've done and elucidate our thought leadership and innovation.

Before we start venturing down the rabbit hole there are several things that need to be in place. This isn’t about skirting the issue at hand but setting the context so that in the future more of how we do it can be appreciated and understood.

Anonymous person following the word du jour, “I already understand all about SOA, just tell me how YOU did it!” Why thank you anonymous and whilst I appreciate your tenacity for keeping up on relevant technologies and architectural trends whose version of SOA are you using? Some say the vagueness of what a SOA is constitutes the reason for its success. This lack of clarity isn’t quite what it seems. Most companies will flex and distort the term so that it best aligns with what they are able to deliver or execute on and not strive for a more concrete structure that would expose weakness on their part. I’d like to avoid that pitfall if at all possible, thank you very much.

The beginning of all things that must work together stems around one thing: communication. There is a fair bit of irony in the fact that SOA is meant to streamline communication and interoperability yet people can’t even begin to speak to its composition or capabilities in any plurality. This lack of taxonomy and perspective is the cause of a major semantic dissonance. A call to action is to think about how to look at this problem and the enablers required to facilitate a proper dialogue that is based on empirical data versus speculation and gratuitous marketing.

Thought continuation soon to follow!