Letter to David LaVallee

Ok, you don't know me, and I don't remember hearing from you before. But now that I found a few things about you, including your blog, I felt the need to write you this note, just to express my deepest envy for you:

• First, you are in a Guitar Craft right now! How can you?... Darn!
• The Guitar Craft is in Lunlunta, Mendoza, in that same house that gives me so many good memories of my teen years (even if I do not enjoy the company of the saints anymore). Thanks for the pics!
• You are so close to Mendoza city, where I was born and were most of my family and half of my friends live!
• You are part of the Windows Live Team! Darn, this one causes me the greatest pain!
• You helped invent Java! Ouch!
• Where you the one that convinced Steve Jobs of buying GarageBand? Wow!
• You obviously play the guitar better than me ;)
• And you are probably are a better programmer too ;)

Ok, ok. I do not really envy you. I just got amazed at all this, and wanted to wish you good luck and great success.

Do you like wine? Being in Mendoza, I hope you do! Enjoy the hospitality of the locals, and the delicious Malbecs. Anything you need, ok? I can recommend you a few good places to visit (You will find good people there too).

If you are bored, take the route, drive a few kilometers, and get a picture of you posing with a "Departamento de Lavalle" sign :)

An Apple in my future?

UPDATE: I have been reading the FAQs at BootCamp's Beta site, and I have changed my mind somewhat. They say they do not provide support for Windows running on a Mac. Not a brilliant way to get customers. Reading about the drivers they provide, I don’t get if they really want to get it right. Apparently they don't want to get their feet wet. They have still a long way to go in deciding whether they really want a good stake of the PC Business or not. They are so close, but I guess they are too arrogant or just used to the minority elite aura. I will wait and see if things improve. Anyway, I want my next computer to be a 64 bits dual core.

Sean Alexander reports that Windows Media Center Edition runs on his MacBook Pro.

I spent an hour last night talking with a friend that is a Mac fan. He almost convinced me. As I see it now, my next notebook computer could be an HP, a Sony or an Apple. There is a premium price for the Mac experience, but I think it is completely justified.

Now they have positioned themselves to get a significant stake of the PC business, the future of Apple looks brilliant.

The only thing I have against it is that as far as I know we won't get 64 bits mobile Intel Core Duos soon. Dual core AMD Turions seem to be closer. But Apple seems to be, like Dell, married to Intel.

We are Level 2 in CMMI

The company I work passed a CMMI Level 2 appraisal a couple of fridays ago, and we satisfied all the criteria for certification.

I seldom give names in this blog and have never mentioned the name of my employer, but this is such a good thing that I needed to do the show off and of course, also congratulate all my colleagues ;)

So congratulations to all, especially those that had the vision for it, those that worked so hard for it and those that supported it all: José, Melvin, Wendy, our Project Leaders, and many more.

Visual Studio and SQL Server 2005 Training

Today I began taking an intensive 40 hours training course on Visual Studio and SQL Server 2005. I hope by the end of the week the coarsest holes in my knowledge will be filled with substance ;)

I had the pleasure of meeting Adolfo Wiernik, a Solid Quality Learning consultant that came from Costa Rica to impart the course.

I wouldn't have heard of Adolfo before if I hadn't listened to his webcast last Wednesday. He is, although, famous in the community and a Microsoft Regional Director.

I am indebted to my company for sending me (along with two mates) to take this course.

Tomorrow is ASP.NET 2.0 day, clearly the technology I have been using the most for the last 9 months. I think Adolfo will be sick of me by tomorrow 6 p.m. ;)

Atomik Circus

This is just to show that this blog is not dead.

I have just seen Atomik Circus on TV, and it was hilarious. I simply did not know that you could do a movie like this. I mean, it seems impossible to try something like this and not to spoil it completely.

Everybody was sleeping at home, so I was not able to enjoy the music, but I think it must be good (I turned volume up a little and put my ear close to the speakers, just to get an idea).

So, I have to see the movie from the beginning again. Atomik Circus Part II anyone? :)