The SchmidtHole » lou

Lou on Channel 9

Tim — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 14:37:14 +0000

My former coworker/buddy/drinking companion, but most importantly inventor of the Spark View Engine, Lou DeJardin, has a video interview up on Channel 9. Check it out.

MIX08 First Impressions

Tim — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 21:02:07 +0000

Silverlight, Silverlight and more Silverlight. We’ve only been to the keynote so far (which had lots of good stuff from Scott Guthrie as well as some good demos and an introduction by Microsoft Chief Architect, Ray Ozzie) but it’s already very clear that Microsoft really wants to emphasize Silverlight. It’ll be interesting to see if they can get any kind of market penetration to reasonably compete with Flash. But if the large corporate partners demo’d during the keynote are any indication, it could maybe get interesting.

And it’s not just Flash. Microsoft seems to have Adobe squarely in their sights. Their new Expression Studio tools are tailored for designers and even look like comparable Adobe tools.

One fairly significant annoyance: no wireless internet in my room?! Shame on you, Venetian! I’m paying (ok, Dow Jones is paying) $300/night for a room and you can’t even provide a basic service that I would expect from a Motel 6?!?!

One other thing conspicuously missing: caffeine. I haven’t seen a drop of soda yet! I can’t recall ever going to a Microsoft event and not seeing tables full of complimentary cans of soda. And Lou has been complaining bitterly about how difficult it is to flag someone down to get a simple cup of coffee during the meals they provide.

Caffeine Update: Ahh, I knew Microsoft wouldn’t let us down. We hadn’t made our way down to the 4th floor yet, where all the breakout sessions are being held. Once there, we were pleasantly greeted by numerous tables of soda, coffee, snacks, cookies, candy bars, etc. Huzzah!

Thursday in NYC

Tim — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 18:06:21 +0000

Late last week, I found out that I’d be going to New York with a couple coworkers to demo the project we’ve been slaving away on for the last month+. Well not so much “demo” as “be there for moral support for my boss’ boss, Jamie, who was actually doing the demo.”

So we flew out Wednesday night and did a little bit of drinking at some local establishments (and of course had a couple slices of Ray’s Pizza at 2:30am). We stayed at the Millennium right near Times Square. Here are some cell phones pics I took from that night:

On Thursday, we went to the Dow Jones sales conference which was in our hotel. Since I’m not especially fond of salesmen and I tend to think they’re rather phony, it wasn’t exactly a laugh a minute. But Jamie’s presentation was great and seemed to get everyone pretty excited.

Fortunately, when we broke for lunch soon after Jamie was done, he told Rotzen, Lou and I that we could ditch out on the rest of it and just hang out. So we walked from Times Square to Central Park, stopping for some Mexican food along the way to appease a complaining Rotzen. Then we walked down 5th Ave on our way back to Times Square. Along the way, we stopped at Trump Tower and walked right past 30 Rockefeller Center and Radio City Music Hall. Here’s some more random pictures:

And I had to take this picture considering my brother Ryan’s initials are RCS:

That night we got stuck in some nasty traffic heading out to LaGuardia. Then, because of the rain that day which was now turning into snow, a lot of flights were getting delayed. Ours ended up taking off about an hour late, so not a huge deal. Besides, it gave Lou (who absolutely hates flying and requires sedation) and myself a chance to visit the airport bar!