A View from Elsewhere
John Montgomery's Weblog
Levers and Fulcrums: Where Does the Rock Stop?
As I was eating breakfast here in Paris, I was thinking more about Jon's theory of Levers and...
Author: johnmont Date: 06/15/2005
Hacks and User Experience
Jon is now trying to explain why AJAX is interesting so that I can understand it. His analogy is...
Author: johnmont Date: 06/14/2005
What Does “In” Mean? A Conversation with Mary Jo Foley
Over the weekend, Mary Jo Foley (Microsoft Watch) asked me, “What does it mean that something is IN...
Author: johnmont Date: 06/13/2005
I’m Missing Something Here
Jon Udell’s recent postings on AJAX and “Web friendly” Flash got me to thinking (as most of his...
Author: johnmont Date: 06/12/2005
When Headlines Go Bad
Read the story at https://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1820228,00.asp. Then read the headline. Do...
Author: johnmont Date: 05/25/2005
More Headlines to Love: Exploding Toads
This one from MSNBC. Gruesome. And yet, were it in the context of a Drew Carey show, it would be...
Author: johnmont Date: 04/29/2005
Thanks to the People Who Broke Into My Car
I want to thank the folks who broke into my car. Despite the fact that they stole my stereo...
Author: johnmont Date: 04/29/2005
Five Neat .NET Apps
Google Deskbar -- create .NET plugins for the Google Deskbar app Grouper -- share music with...
Author: johnmont Date: 04/26/2005
I Feel Mulch Better
My wife and I spent the weekend gardening and I consider it a great weekend. I am become middle...
Author: johnmont Date: 04/25/2005
Fewer CS Majors?
Cnet recently ran the results of a study that indicated that fewer college freshmen are interested...
Author: johnmont Date: 04/24/2005
Headlines to Love: Trap-Building Ants Torture Prey
One of my favorite daily news sources is the BBC News. Today while browsing their RSS feed, I ran...
Author: johnmont Date: 04/24/2005
Get and Post: Once More Unto the Breach
Last Thursday, Jon Udell wrote about the HTTP commands Get and Post after Dare Obsanjo (the person...
Author: johnmont Date: 04/24/2005
Whatever Happened to the Micro ISV?
In September of 2004, Erik Sink wrote an article on MSDN about the "micro ISV" -- the one-person...
Author: johnmont Date: 04/24/2005
Staff Grammarian v2
This morning before coming into work, I replied to an email from Andy Lees (my VP) correcting a typo...
Author: johnmont Date: 04/22/2005
NASA World Wind
There's been a thread going around internally about this really cool application written in C# on...
Author: johnmont Date: 04/20/2005
Clustering Search Results
A few months ago, Clusty launched a clustering search engine. I thought the idea was really...
Author: johnmont Date: 04/20/2005
Workshop Work
In order to figure out how to make the new workshop work, my wife asked me to lay it out on paper....
Author: johnmont Date: 03/20/2005
Pump Up the Volume
This morning I was listening to some MP3s on my computer. A particularly fine tune came on (Holst's...
Author: johnmont Date: 03/20/2005
Building Sandwich Boards for Fun and Not-for-Profits
About a month ago, my wife told me that someone had stolen the sandwich boards for the Wallingford...
Author: johnmont Date: 02/24/2005
Celebrating "ZEB"
At Microsoft there is a stage of the development called ZBB or "zero bug bounce." ZBB basically...
Author: johnmont Date: 02/24/2005
Building a Shop
For many years I've wanted a larger wood shop. I have a couple hundred square feet in the basement...
Author: johnmont Date: 02/20/2005
At Microsoft, Monday Starts at 7PM on Sunday Night
I was at a party last night to celebrate the finish of a friend's kitchen remodel. (I arrived late...
Author: johnmont Date: 02/20/2005
New RSSBandit Beta Rocks
Wow. Must download.
Author: johnmont Date: 02/05/2005
"2014: The Press As You Know It Has Ceased to Exist"
You really need to watch this. You think that 2014 will see news doing this? The Google Grid?...
Author: johnmont Date: 02/01/2005
Super Bowl Sunday: "If You See Something, It's No Big Whup"
Reading through my daily headlines, I found a CNN story about tiny cameras that Fox is placing in...
Author: johnmont Date: 02/01/2005
Interviewing at Microsoft
Each year I interview upwards of 200 people for various positions at Microsoft. Joel on Software...
Author: johnmont Date: 01/31/2005
Headlines that Just Seem Wrong
"Children to be offered free nicotine patches." Set aside the context and join me in a moment of...
Author: johnmont Date: 01/31/2005
What if I Blogged About the Press?
Every day members of the press get to write about their interactions with Microsoft -- often...
Author: johnmont Date: 01/31/2005
The 18-inch Roller and the Shur-Line Edger
I was watching one of those home improvement shows the other day and noticed that one of the...
Author: johnmont Date: 01/30/2005
The Errors of My Ways: Mistakes I've Made Recently
I realized that my HVLP sprayer required 40 psi, not 90 psi. That made painting much less painful. I...
Author: johnmont Date: 01/30/2005
Old Car, New Mold
I have a 10-year-old Miata. After about eight years, the gasket around the driver's side door began...
Author: johnmont Date: 12/18/2004
Note to Self: Don't Joke About Rick Getting Me Coffee
I came in this morning to find that Rick Samona had dumped about 400 packets of office coffee in my...
Author: johnmont Date: 12/16/2004
Having a Cup<T>
Jason Zander, the PUM of the common language runtime team, gave me a mug a couple of weeks ago. On...
Author: johnmont Date: 12/16/2004
Writing Secure Code
One of the things that my team is responsible for is helping developers understand the importance of...
Author: johnmont Date: 12/15/2004
Thinking about Windows Forms and Avalon While on Vacation
While I was on vacation last week, I spent a lot of time thinking. Probably too much time. But one...
Author: johnmont Date: 12/15/2004
Driven to Distraction
I was born and brought up in Boston and learned to drive there. To me, Boston-style driving is...
Author: johnmont Date: 12/15/2004
Evaluating the i-mate SP3i Mobile Phone
About two weeks ago, Jonathan Wells loaned me an i-mate -- one of the Windows Mobile-powered...
Author: johnmont Date: 12/14/2004
Heading On Vacation
I'm off to Florida to ride roller coasters and generally ignore work for 10 days. See you later!
Author: johnmont Date: 12/01/2004
Windows Forms and Avalon Interop
Internally, the Avalon and Windows Forms teams have been kicking butt on getting interop working....
Author: johnmont Date: 12/01/2004
Can It Be True?
Is Aaron Hess leaving Rex Hill as the winemaker? Rex Hill has some of the best pinots in Oregon and...
Author: johnmont Date: 11/30/2004
Fixing My Father-in-Law's Computer... Or Not
Today at 11AM, my wife arranged for my father in law to call with an Outlook Express problem. So...
Author: johnmont Date: 11/28/2004
Windows Forms and Avalon
A lot of people have written on Windows Forms and Avalon, from Michael Harsh and Joe Stegman on the...
Author: johnmont Date: 11/27/2004
If I Had Kids...
I was browsing bbspot today (as I often do to learn the latest international news), I ran into a...
Author: johnmont Date: 11/27/2004
Throw The Yule Log On Uncle John
Yesterday we bought a Christmas tree. Originally, after much discussion, my wife and I had decided...
Author: johnmont Date: 11/27/2004
Building a Platform Bed and Renting an Industrial Space
For several months (ahem, maybe a year) I've been meaning to build a platform bed. Right now our...
Author: johnmont Date: 11/26/2004
Are Home DIYers Getting Smarter?
I consider myself reasonably handy -- drywall, framing, electrical, plumbing (shudder),...
Author: johnmont Date: 11/25/2004