June 2005 Entries
Hmm, looks like my post last week got lost somewhere down the line
(really have to upgrade this thing to CommunityServer 1.1!). Anyway,
passed my driving test
(woohoo)...now trying to decide if I want to grab my car allowance cash
and keep driving the utilitarian runabout I bought from my
brother-in-law or just get an insanely over-the-top car instead (guess
which will win
;-)). I'm back in Reading this week at TVP (Thames Valley Park, the
main Microsoft campus in the UK) to get a bit more experience and
general settling in. We had a 'CDM' day last week (no idea what it
means...ah acronyms); where customers come
down for technical presentations and a bit of fun; we all went
go-karting (well, I had to squeeze my massive frame into a little cart-
painful!). It was a fun time and I, as usual, got a little bit sunburnt
(the weather in the UK is decidedly tropical at the moment).
Currently I'm sitting at my desk in the office (only person
here...eveyone else actually being possessed of a life); looking into
some of the cool secret stuff I get to see now I've had the implant
surgically inserted into my pre-frontal cortex (joke!). I've also been
playing with some Indigo stuff as well as VSTS (following the great
presentations by
Martin,
Morgan and
Darren at the CDM day).
I still have a lot to learn but luckily my team is pretty used to my
situation so they're pretty good at helping (and drinking...but that's
another story).
Getting closer to the point where I'll get back to the 'interesting'
stuff on the blog (especially when writing articles is considered part
of the job :-D). I'm not sure what I'll write about yet but hopefully
you'll find it vaguely engaging...
Slowly getting over the ‘shock and awe’ of my first week at Microsoft. Thankfully I have a 4 day period back home before heading back down to Reading for another week and a bit. One of the cooler parts of my new job is the learning component – for the type of consulting ADCs (Application Development Consultants; which is what I now am) do, we have to maintain a pretty high level of technical knowledge. The members of the PSfD team (Premier Support for Developers) are just incredibly talented and knowledgable in a huge variety of subject areas, ranging from mobile, ASP.NET, VSTS, Biztalk and all stations in between. I’m just starting out obviously but I’ve got a bit of an idea what my customers need to know (not that I have that many *yet*).
I’m now sending the next couple of days (between doing my driving test…50:50 is all I’ll say) delving a good deal deeper into the world of a few of the more esoteric areas of SOA / WSE as well as getting a lot better acquaninted with VSTS (umm…sorry for all the acronymns…getting caught in the backwash of the acronymn tidal wave which is Microsoft!). Hey, I haven’t started any sentences with ‘so’ yet 
.
Anyway, I will be posting techy stuff again soon, once I feel confident I’m not posting complete crap.
Well, I've finally got a handle on all the stuff which makes life bearable here, laptop, phone, all the other bits...I'm also realising that I'm going to be doing a TON of travelling and again, this is a new experience. Part of the philosophy here seems to be that most stuff is up to you to work out - there's no long training course when you start about how to do everything you just learn as you go. 'Drinking from the firehose' is an overused but really appropriate term for how you feel - most days I end up feeling like my brains are plastered all over the wall behind me...so very tired!
A lot of today was spent just trying to get to grips with booking hotels, flights etc...never a pleasant task; I've never really liked hotel rooms anyway...having to actively commit myself to being in one for more than a couple of days is a form of self-abuse :-). Not quite got it all sorted yet but it's close!
One good thing, it's taken my mind off my driving test next Wednesday...bugger!
Well I'm slowly getting the hang of things, still tons to learn though! One of the things I've finally got working is my new blog on
https://blogs.msdn.com/scottgall/ - this will be my more 'technical' blog (so less ranting and posting when under the influence of multiple nefarious substances ;-)) . Anway, apart from that I've picked up my first customer (REALLY looking forward to helping then on some really interesting stuff...some of which I'll allude to at some point :-)); got a ton of new stuff to learn, heading to Seattle in August which will be cool (hey Scoble, organise a dinner for TechReady :-D). Oh, and I *exist* (i.e, I have an alias which is REALLY important here ; apparently Microserfs was a little accurate). I am now scottgal at microsoft.com (I've adopted this as I don't have the ultra-paranoid spam filtering I have at home set up yet). So feel free to contact me / add me to your IM list (Office Communicator is pretty sweet).
So, what else....food is pretty nice, waiting for a couple of
gadgets important business tools (including a lovely 'Scoble Phone'). Still a bit overwhelming but I'm getting there!
Well, I've just got back to the hotel after my first day at my new
job...so very tired! There's such a lot to take in, all you've heard
about all the acronyms, departments and un-navigable intranet are true!
There's a lot to learn and I'm really excited about getting started
with my job proper. It's a huge cultural change as well coming to such
a huge company; this will be the first place I've worked where I'll
never know everyone by name - oddly that's a big thing for me. Anyway,
I do plan to bore you with some of the stuff I'm up to (a vast quantity
is of course ultra-high-top-secret...haven't seen an XBOX 360 yet
though ;-))
Scott Galloway [MSFT] (nah...not going to do that!)