So far, Microsoft has done a very good job of impressing me the last week. In fact, I have seen some of the best decision-making out of the company in years. Although a lot of this may be due to One Microsoft and other forces already in play, some credit also certainly goes to Satya... Continue Reading →
Converting from Parallels to Hyper-V
You would think converting a virtual machine from one format to another would be simple. Especially when there are multiple blogs out there on how to do it. But, of course not - so time for another misadventure in computing post. I was asked by a colleague to get a copy of a demo virtual... Continue Reading →
Still a Jaguar Fan
I got my start in exotic cars with a Jaguar. A 1992 Vanden Plas, to be specific. I loved them for the formative years of my driving experience. But, for many years, I thought they lost their way. I couldn't see much worth owning beyond a late 1990s performance-oriented XJ - which I bought with... Continue Reading →
Time for 2014
My New Year's resolutions (in no particular order): Have fun building awesome products that delight customers and move markets (I'm not going to miss M&A mode - that's for sure...) More time for hobbies (which have been sadly neglected) - including photography, cars, and writing More quality time with family and friends (also neglected as... Continue Reading →
Out of Stealth Mode
With the acquisition of CommerceServer.net by Sitecore, it's nice to finally be out of stealth mode. This project has been the principal occupier of my time for the past many months. For more information, please see the acquisition recap at http://blogs.msdn.com/b/commerce/archive/2013/11/27/acquisition-recap.aspx. Information will continue to be posted on the Commerce Server and Sitecore web sites and... Continue Reading →
How the only surviving Hamilton Metalplane just happened to float by…
Mid-Summer 2013 #9, a photo by rdonovan on Flickr. Back in July, in between meetings, I just happened to note a rather curious site. A plane. But rather than flying past, it was sailing north on Lake Washington on barge. Luckily I had my 400m lens on the camera and was able to capture it... Continue Reading →
Misadventures with Windows 8.1 and BootCamp on a MacBook Pro
This weekend, I put Windows 8.1 Enterprise Edition 64-bit on a 15" mid-2011 MacBook Pro. It turned out to be much more of a (mis)adventure than I anticipated. What I Tried and Failed My goal was to simply burn a USB-stick installer, put Windows 8.1 on it, and then put the Bootcamp 5 software on... Continue Reading →
My Take: Adobe Creative Cloud, Office 365, Software Subscriptions, and Old Photos
OK, so I am taking the plunge. Sometime before the expiration of the July 31st cut-off for the CS6 migration promotion, I'll be switching to Creative Cloud. Why? Feature-value. I have been playing with an evaluation of Lightroom 5 (which coincidentally is the only product still available on a perpetual license). I'm sold. And now... Continue Reading →
My Review of Windows Phone 8
My first smartphone was a Windows Mobile device – a Motorola MPX200 to be precise. And that was all I used for the next few years culminating with the Treo 750W on Windows Mobile 6.5. Then, the iPhone 3G came around. Everything about my iPod and phone was combined into one. And everything Windows Mobile... Continue Reading →
Out of Pseudo-Stealth Mode
To summarize the last twelve months: wow! Since the acquisition of Cactus Commerce by Ascentium, a big part of my day job was working on integrating the two businesses into a new brand and value proposition. This finally came to fruition with the launch of the SMITH brand a few weeks back, along with the... Continue Reading →