Archive for the 'General' Category

London, New York, Paris!

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Nick Heppleston
on Monday, 18th August 2008
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I’ve just spent a great weekend in London with the parents, doing the tourist ‘thing’ (the photo above was taken from the London Eye); In September I’m off to New York for my 30th, then in November I’m off to Paris and Egypt - I think I’ll need Christmas off to recover!!

I’m really overwhelmed with what to do when I go to New York - does anyone have any suggestions for must see attractions? I’ve already pencilled in the Empire State Building, the Statue of Libery, the Guggenheim Museum and a Broadway show (which one?!?). Any other recommendations?

Inaugural UK SOA/BPM User Group Meeting - Thursday 17th July 2008

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Nick Heppleston
on Friday, 20th June 2008
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My old colleague Mike Stephenson just e-mail me to help promote the inaugural UK SOA/BPM User Group Meeting, which will be taking place on Thursday 17th July 2008 at Microsoft’s London office.

The meeting will include a presentation on Oslo (Microsoft) and Enterprise Computing in 2015 (SunGard), plus the obligatory beer and pizza - full details can be found at the UK SOA and BPM User Group website.

If you’re in the London area, I’m sure it will be an excellent first meeting. Unfortunately, I can’t make it - I will be diving with seals off the coast of Northumberland - its a hard life!!

Did Microsoft make an Announcement about a new Product Release?

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admin
on Wednesday, 23rd April 2008
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I think a new product was announced today, had some ‘R3′ designation or something - don’t have a clue what it was…

A Bad Day for UK Software Patents….

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Nick Heppleston
on Wednesday, 19th March 2008
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An old uni friend, Paul Russell, has a worrying blog post about a recent High Court ruling over UK Software Patents - software can’t be patented in the UK, but it would appear that the court upheld an appeal from Symbian following the rejection of an application the software firm made to the Intellectual Patent Office (IPO):

“Symbian filed for a patent relating to the way computers use a library of functions that can be accessed by programs. The claim was discarded by the IPO last July, on the grounds that it related to software-based innovation - the IPO says patents are not available in the UK for solely computer-based programs, only for inventions that use software programs.” - Computing.

It would appear that the presiding Judge ruled in favour of the appeal as the IPO exlusions put UK software companies at an unfair disadvantage compared with rival developers in Europe, where the legal landscape works differently. The European Patent Office (EPO) has already approved Symbian’s application.

Apparently the IPO plans to contest the ruling at the Court of Appeal:

“on the grounds that the judge did not follow procedures created following a benchmark case in 2006.”

All is not lost.

How to Write a Microsoft Press Release

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Nick Heppleston
on Monday, 28th January 2008
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If you read the SimpleTalk blog (aka RedGate Software), you’ll probably have read Phil Factor’s latest entry ‘Microsoft Boy announces his School Homework‘ which is a piss-take on the standard Microsoft marketing blurb, attempting to imagine how Microsoft Marketing people relate to their fellow men outside work, by giving a glimpse of ‘Microsoft Boy’ during a History Lesson at school:

“The past week has been an amazing time for the me as I geared up to announce the delivery of my essay.. The response to my announcement from friends and parents has been overwhelmingly positive – in fact, even my aunt Edith wants to read it. What is catching users’ eyes? Legibility, correctness, conciseness….the list goes on and on. Simply put, this history essay is a significant release for me – one that builds on all of the great things that I was able to deliver last year in the Lower fifth. I see it as a critical step forward for my academic life here, and the foundation of the broader vision for my school career. Based on what we are hearing from people who have seen the current version of my essay, it seems that everyone agrees.”

How amusing to then read this blog post from the Data Platform Insider, talking about the Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Roadmap Clarification - here are the first two paragraphs:

The past few months have been an amazing time for the SQL Server team as we gear up for the start of the global launch wave on February 27. The response to SQL Server 2008 has been overwhelmingly positive – in fact, we now have more 100,000 downloads of our CTPs. What is catching users’ eyes? Scalability improvements, Resource Governor, Filestream, spatial data support, data compression, policy-based management…the list goes on and on.

Simply put, SQL Server 2008 is a significant release for us – one that builds on all of the great things that we were able to deliver in SQL Server 2005. We see it as a critical step forward for our data platform and the foundation of our broader vision for business intelligence. Based on what we are hearing from customers, as well as the results of the latest benchmarks, it seems the industry agrees.

Notice any similarities? Oh how I laughed.

ps. I passed my PADI Advanced Open Water and Dry Suit qualifications at the weekend in an old disused quarry near Leicester - sorry, the British National Diving Centre - the water was a barmy 4 degrees Celsius! Photos of me in a gimp suit to follow shortly ;-)