Scott Hanselman

PDC. I'm ready for a revolution. Impress me. Blow me away.

September 25, 2003 Comment on this post [3] Posted in Speaking | PDC
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I'm ready for a change.  I'm ready to be impressed.  If you know me, I'm all about Microsoft.  I dig them, their tech, especially their people.  While I've worked in Java on Solaris talking to Mainframes, I really cut my teeth on writing thunking code during the 16-bit/32-bit transition.  I know I'm not an "old timer."  I've never seen a punch card. (Although I've read Cryptonomicon. ;) )  I'm Generation X or Y, not Generation U or V.

I'm from a middle place.  I'm younger than some, but older than others.  I've coded on TRS-80s, TI99/4a, C64 and Apple.  I've used 8" floppies.  I've lived in DOS from >= version 3.  I've run NeXT, Amiga, GEOS, CP/M, OS/2, Desqview, Windows 3.0, 3.1, 3.11.  I've run SnowballChicago, Nashville and Memphis, worked in Daytona and Cario.  I love Whistler, look forward to Longhorn and really don't understand how Blackcomb fits in.  I scored 60.85% on the geek test.  No doubt, you and I are alike.

I was on AOL 1.0, Compuserve, GEnie, Prodigy, all from DOS.  I've surfed with Lynx, read mail with pine.  I ran Mosaic, I now run Firebird. I ran vi, emacs, pico, PaperClip, WordStar, WP5.1, and Office 2003 Beta

I had 8k of RAM and now I have 1.5 gigs of RAM.  I had no hard drive, then a Winchester Hard Drive, now I have 425+ Gigabytes at my desk.  I had a keyboard, then a mouse, then a mouse with two buttons, now a wireless mouse and keyboard with 5 buttons and a scrolly-thing.

I remember Shift-F7 would print in Wordperfect, I'm not sure why I haven't overwritten that mental cluster with more useful information.  Certainly I've at least marked the braincell for deletion with the first character as E5h or something.  Now I have a GUI, which brings me the the point of this rant.  I certainly haven't seen it all, but darnit I've seen some of it.

I admit it, while I'm privvy to many a Microsoft Pre-Alpha, I have not seen anything of Lornhorn's "real" UI, nor what I'm really interested in - Avalon

If you do one thing before you go to PDC - look at the demos of Mac OS X's Panther.  What I want is for Avalon to blow this away.  I want to be impressed.  I want a WHOLE new world.  I want to see some Microsoft UI Research and Usability to really come to a dramatic fruition.  I know Avalon is a next-gen graphics subsystem, but I want to see what totally new UI paradigms (read: moving past Windowing and the Start Menu) can be built on it.  I want to make my 256 meg Video Card dual-head Video Card WORK.

I'm coming to PDC thoroughly hoping and expecting to be impressed with the promise of the future.  Am I impatiently expecting a revolution in UI, while Avalon may be a just stepping stone on the way to...?

Will I be disappointed? 

About Scott

Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.

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September 25, 2003 17:57
Me too.
September 25, 2003 20:23
I've seen a little, and I don't think you'll be disappointed.
Erv
September 27, 2003 3:20
No, you won't be ;)

Panther is evolution. Avalon and Longhorn are.... *fsisck*

Remainder of this comment removed by Microsoft Interninjas(r)

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Disclaimer: The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent my employer's view in any way.