less is more

I just signed myself up for the Blues and Rock classes at the National Guitar Workshop (NGW) this coming summer.

Looking forward to it.

After a brief period of disappearance, I’m back.

First, an obligatory recap of 2006:

1) 2006 was a good year for me.

2) The technology I contributed to shipped in 2006. And so did the book I wrote about it.

3) For the first time in years, managed to take a *real* vacation to spend time with my wife and daughter.

4) Was fortunate to meet and spend time with my 98 year old grandfather in India.

5) Played and listened to a lot of Blues.

So, what am I up to in 2007?

1) Inspired by Doug, I have been running 3 miles everyday since January. The net result of that (and controlling my eating habits) is that I’m 20 lbs lighter today.

2) Working on couple of interesting software projects which are keeping me very busy.

3) Been spending my time with ObjC, Cocoa, Scheme, LINQ, REST and the Atom Publishing Protocol.

4) Thinking of buying another guitar.

I’m on vacation.

I have a lot to do once I get back but right now I’m trying hard not to think about it.

I have some really good music and books with me.

And, for the first time in years, I don’t have my laptop with me.

It feels great!

You can download the sample code for the activities covered in my book here.

Once I get back from vacation, I’ll also create an errata page for the book on this site.

Essential Windows Workflow Foundation is finally available!

I got my copy yesterday. Both Amazon and Barnes and Noble claim that they are shipping it within 24 hours.

Writing this book was truly a labor of love for us. Hope you will like it.

Last week was fun. The after-work time was filled with some old/new technology tinkering.

1) Bought a new iMac 24’’ home. Wrote my first Cocoa/ObjC app.
2) Did a whole bunch of COM programming – ROT, Monikers, custom marshaling… Old habits…
3) Played with WPF/E.
4) Played with Amazon web services.
All this was made even more enjoyable by Gnarls Barkley playing in the background.

Now, back to work.

Chapter 3, “Activity Execution”, is now available for download.

Also, I have created a separate page for all things related to Essential WF.

Jeff Richter has written a nice article on Concurrency and Coordination Runtime (CCR). Also check out the corresponding Channel 9 video.

I just brought this Marshall half stack home.

It sounds so much sweeter in my living room than my garage. So, at least for today, it will stay there .

My neighbors are in for a treat.

In case you live nearby, the weekend set will definitely include:

1) Sunshine of your love (Cream)
2) Ride On (AC/DC)
3) Blue Jean Blues (ZZ Top)
4) When a Blind Man Cries (Deep Purple)

:-)

Sergey Chub,developer on the WF Designer team, is blogging.

WF blurs the line between design time and runtime authoring/editing of programs. Sergey’s Workflow Manager Application shows the dynamic editing aspects in action.