Author Archives: Michael

Microsoft says you need to change how you are building your applications

Microsoft TechEd 2008 was held in Orlando, Florida the week of June 2nd.  I was fortunate to attend many of the technical sessions.  I was surprised how many speakers were conveying the same message:

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DONE equals DONE

As I said in a previous post, I had the pleasure of attending a presentation by Ron Jeffries at the St. Louis XP User’s group meeting back in January.  Another portion of his talk that really hit me was on the subject of “done equals done.” Continue reading

Grids, Clouds, and Fabrics. Oh My!

Lately when I talk to architects and administrators about the Appistry fabric, I often hear the same question: “Is your fabric the same thing as a grid or cloud?”

The confusion is understandable.  We software types can’t construct a good naming convention without someone else trying to overload them.  In this post I am going to provide my best definitions of the phrases cloud, grid, and fabric.  Each are valuable tools, but with different meanings and usage patterns.

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Smaller Releases Help Management as Well as Developers

Ron Jeffries presented at the St. Louis XP User’s group meeting back in January. As he put it, the topic of the presentation was anything that came to his mind at the moment. He simply stood at the front of a crowded room and talked while drawing on an overhead projector.

I won’t try to transcribe the entire meeting, but there was one statement that has stuck with me that I wanted to share.

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No Fluff Just Stuff Symposium Tour 2008 – A Must See

After hearing about it for a couple of years, I finally got a chance to attend the No Fluff, Just Stuff tour here in St. Louis this past weekend.  In short all I can say is “wow”.  If you get a chance to attend this event as it comes through your town I highly recommend it.

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