Craig Bailey

Blog

December 22, 2009

Frankly Speaking – Microsoft Podcast

By Craig Bailey
2 Min read
6 comments
22December

I can’t be any clearer: You must listen to this podcast. Frankly Speaking is the new weekly (kinda) podcast from Andrew Coates and Michael Kordahi. The guys have hit their 6th podcast (in less than 6 weeks!) so they are definitely on a roll. They cover technology news, Microsoft news and conduct interviews with all kinds of crazy people. If I were a software manager, here’s what I’d be...

December 20, 2009

Microsoft Visual Studio and Quality

By Craig Bailey
3 Min read
14 comments
20December

I was pleased to see Somasegar’s blog post last week announcing that the Visual Studio 2010 and .NET 4 release is being delayed. The reason: quality. The Beta 2, whilst good, isn’t up to the standard they wanted in order to meet the current release schedule. Thus, they’re going to extend the beta period in order to get it right. In fact they’re going add an additional release in Feb to...

November 26, 2009

The Problem with Internet Explorer

By Craig Bailey
5 Min read
20 comments
26November

After watching the second keynote from PDC last week, I’m now puzzled by Microsoft. In the first keynote, they seemed to get everything right. Embrace open source. Embrace cloud. Embrace what their customers want and need. Embrace strategic change.  In the second keynote they seemed to do the opposite. Steven Sinofsky, in a somewhat self-congratulatory ‘review’ of the ‘lessons...

November 19, 2009

Why Microsoft needs to ‘own’ WordPress

By Craig Bailey
9 Min read
9 comments
19November

WordPress running on Windows Azure. You can see it announced, discussed and showcased from the 23:56 minute mark in Ray Ozzie’s opening keynote at Microsoft PDC this week: The reason this is so significant is because it represents an important strategic shift in the ‘yes we do support open source’ talk that Microsoft has been peddling pushing. This announcement is much more than Microsoft...

November 9, 2009

Shower Thinking

By Craig Bailey
1 Min read
28 comments
09November

UPDATE: I’ve been using the AquaNotes Aqua Notepad for the last few weeks, and highly recommend it! I think best when I’m standing. And particularly well when I’m having a shower. In fact – but don’t picture this – some of my best ideas have been captured only as a result of me rushing out of the shower to excitedly explain a thought to my wife before they were...

November 6, 2009

How to explain SEO to cynical developers

By Craig Bailey
5 Min read
Add comment
06November

Have you ever been involved in the hiring process for your company or team? If you have, then perhaps you’ve been astounded at how terrible the CVs of many highly intelligent candidates you interviewed were. Senior developers who excelled at their craft, were recognised as brilliant by their peers, and yet, couldn’t seem to put together a coherent CV to save themselves. Why? It’s a little...

November 5, 2009

SBTUG: Social Networking and Chocolate

By Craig Bailey
5 Min read
30 comments
05November

If you’re like me, then you probably cringe when you see people referring to themselves as a ‘social media strategist’. And if they point to Gary Vaynerchuk as their main example of why you too should embrace social media then I really despair. Too often it seems, we’re told of the wonderful success stories, with scant mention of the hard work, sweat and perserverance these overnight...

November 2, 2009

Nice knowing you Partner

By Craig Bailey
2 Min read
12 comments
02November

One of the core building blocks of Microsoft’s success over the past decades has been its close relationship with partners. The Microsoft Partner Network (previously Partner Program) has helped Microsoft reach (via their partners) every conceivable sector of the myriad markets they service. And in return, Microsoft was known to be very loyal, supportive and even protective of its partners...

October 21, 2009

Windows 7 Launch

By Craig Bailey
9 Min read
6 comments
21October

Or more correctly: The Jeff Putt Show   What you would do if you had to organise a product launch? How would you structure it? You’d probably get marketing to pump out a few of the pretty videos, crank the upbeat motivating soundtracks and speed through the nice photo slideshows. But then, what would you focus on? Would you put the Managing Director of the company up first. Yes, you would...

October 20, 2009

Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2

By Craig Bailey
1 Min read
Add comment
20October

I love the Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 pitch – no namby-pamby here: This is no namby-pamby beta. It’s a full-octane beta release with a “Go Live” license that you can use to concept, build, test, and deploy* your next project. The Beta 2 has just been released, and whilst it seems to be downloading/installing OK, I notice that most of the download pages still refer to Beta 1 (but I’m...

Craig Bailey

Archives