Between Microsoft's online bug reporting page, their employee blogs, channel9.msdn.com videos, etc., the openness and responsiveness of Microsoft over the past couple of years has been absolutely unprecedented in the history of the software industry.  Here's an online chat transcript with MS about VS2005:

http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=49356

For the past few years, I have fallen in love with this technology...from a distance.  You see, I normally don't have time to make use of it myself.  I do a lot less coding than I used to (which still pains my soul), but I know that if I really wanted to, I could force myself to use it more.

Maybe I'm being lazy...

Maybe I'm just overwhelming myself with all I know I need to learn.

.NET is HUGE -- the framework, especially.  And I still have not grokked it.  I have over 75 (yes, 75) books on .NET.  And if you saw my bookshelves, you'd see a bookmark about 20% into each book.  I'm all over the place on this stuff.

I've learned a lot by osmosis.  But my biggest problem is that I'm not learning by DOING.  There are so many programs I want to write -- utilities to make my job easier.  But I don't know which to do first.  I'm rarely undecided in my job -- but when it comes to things I want to do on my own time, I'm very undecided.  I want to do it all.

Isn't it strange how a discussion about .NET turns into a rant on my failings?

Like I said, this blog is for kicking myself in the ass.  Join in if you'd like.

Because I just started this blog, I'll be posting more often than normally.  I have a lot of crap to get out of my system.  I may go weeks without posting anything, but I seriously doubt that.  But for now, I continue to spout...

Like I said, I'm a Software Architect.  That's just my latest role in the field of software.  It is said that modeling is one of the best things you can do towards reaching your goals in life, and in your field of work.  I have had some heroes in my field.

One of my first heroes was an English chap I'll call Richard W-1.  He wasn't perfect -- not at all.  He spent most lunch hours drinking.  But he was one of the first real smart developers I ever knew.

By the way, unless I have only positive things to say about someone, I won't be mentioning full names in my blog.

I was just starting out in my first programming job (seems like yesterday, of course) at a large bank in NYC.  COBOL (which I actually liked -- I liked the verbosity of it.  Maybe that's why I'm a VB .NET guy today).

My first day on the job, right out of the training program, was one of the scariest days of my professional -- no -- my ENTIRE life.  I was in WAY over my head.  I wish I could remember the name of the developer who I had to report to that day.  She had a very non-caring attitude about her job.  Here I am, in my first real programming job (which I thought would be FUN), totally scared to death, because I just took a look at the first program I was supposed to maintain, and it was the worst piece of shit I've ever seen written.  And the person I was reporting to could not care less about her job.  How did I keep my enthusiasm about my field of choice???

Well, I did make it through my first few months, quite well, thank you.  But mainly, it was thanks to Richard W-1, and his English partner in code, Richard W-2.  RW-2 was the NEATEST coder I have EVER known (and HE was always sober, as far as I could tell), but RW-1 was smart as a freaking whip.  You find me a smart whip, and I'll...whatever...

I learned more from these two guys about clean, structured programming, than anyone else in about 5-6 years...

COBOL, no less...

So, the Richard W's were my first real software heroes.