Almost 30 years ago probably one of the more formative events in my life occurred. My father left my mother, and shortly thereafter my stepfather entered my life. Independent of any other emotional or parental changes, one singular part of that transition has affected me above all else: My stepfather introduced me to rock and [...]

In late February 1996 I was working on what would later become Windows 95 OEM Service Release 1 and Windows 95 Service Pack 1.  We’d learned a lot since the shipment of Windows 95 six months earlier and there were a number of updates and fixes being prepared for the market. Working in our Las [...]

[WARNING: THIS ARGUMENT CONTAINS MINOR SPOILERS] “You’re going to be nitpicky,” 10 year old me said, “I’m really not interested in nitpicky. I like movies based on where they take me, not how they take me there.” It was just before the opening 9:30am showing this morning of Tron: Legacy. I’ve loved Tron since the [...]

July.  July. It was crisp today, cool and clear. High of 70, and puffy clouds here and there. I still cant get used to it, although I love it deeply. I’d finished up some work on what we at Microsoft call a “Vision Document” which is often a critical component of driving new features and [...]

Early in the morning on May 16th, 1990 I was driving to high school. Thanks to some AP credits my last semester consisted of three study hall classes and senior English, so my day didn’t even start until 10:30 AM. I was feeling pretty good, I’d been accepted into Southwest Texas State University, so college [...]