Typically, we recognize big change after it happens, not before. That gives you great appreciation for life-changing events that you realize are upon you. In my life, becoming a husband and becoming a father are two great examples of this. Today is another. Today is my last day as a member of Microsoft’s field organization.

After nearly five years “in the field” with Consulting, the National Technology Team and the .NET Adoption Team, I am moving into a new position at corporate HQ with the .NET Enterprise Architecture Team (known as .NEAT). I’ll be working for Adam Denning (who in a previous life wrote a couple of books on ActiveX Controls). .NEAT is a part of the Platform Strategy group headed up by Sanjay Parthasarathy which is in turn part of Eric Rudder’s Servers and Tools division. I get to work with some great people, most notably Pat Helland. Among other achievements, Pat was a “founding member” of the MTS team and he coined the term Autonomous Computing. Plus he’s got a great singing voice.

My role on .NEAT will be to foster Microsoft’s architect community. Currently, we have the MSDN Architecture Center, Architect Webcasts and the Community Architecture and Design GDN Workspaces. My goal is to expand the reach and membership of these efforts as well as improve the two-way communication channel between MSFT and the architect community. There is a lot of work to be done around architecture. When I heard John Zachman speak, he stressed that we are at the very beginning of the Information Revolution. If we look to history and see the widespread effects of the Industrial Revolution, we come away with a better understanding of just how much change the Information Revolution will bring. Much more than one company can do alone in my opinion. Architecture will play a key role in the Information Revolution, so involvement in a community of architects that shares ideas and distributes influence is pretty critical for Microsoft.

While specific community plans aren’t fully baked yet, I imagine it’s pretty obvious that blogging will be a part of them. In fact, after Scoble I may be the second person at Microsoft to get a job in part due to my blog. One of my first duties is to get Pat blogging. Watch for that soon. Pat’s working on the next generation of the Autonomous Computing architecture vision, code named Metropolis. Get more info on that at the PDC Architecture Symposium.

In addition to working with Pat, Adam and the other people on .NEAT, there are some other benefits of this change:

• I don’t have to travel so much. My wife and 7 month old son are very excited about this. When I do travel, it will be to work interesting conferences, like PDC.
• I can wear jeans every day and listen to music while I do my job. It’s pretty hard to listen to Linkin Park while presenting on SOA.
• I get my own office with windows and a door. I figured since I was the new guy on the team, I’d get a cube near the bathroom or something. Apparently, those five years of seniority count for something. However, the rumor mill has it that we’re moving soon so I don’t know how long I’ll have it. They are even recarpeting it right after I start.
• I have a lab of hardware “at my disposal”. <insert evil laugh here>
• Since I don’t travel so much, I should be able to make at least one of Scoble’s geek dinners at Crossroads. I’ve been out of town for all of the ones he’s arranged so far, including this past Wednesday. Of course, if Scoble’s been planning them around my travel schedule, he’s screwed. 😄

Of course, there are a few downsides.

• I may be joining a great team, but I’m also leaving a great manager and a great team that I helped build. I will miss working with them. It’s the first team I’ve been a part of at Microsoft that handed out official team nicknames like Guns, Groove Train, Voodoo, Jet and Swahili Wild Ass. Mine was Wizard, an obvious reference to Harry Potter.
• With each job I take at MSFT, coding seems to become less a part of the job description. This is no exception.
• Since I have an office, I can only assume I’m supposed to be in it regularly. After being a technical nomad for five years, the idea of going to the same place every day is sorta weird. At least there’s free soda there.
• I have to give up my Toshiba Tablet PC. Since I don’t travel, I can’t justify two computers. So I picked power over style. Maybe a Tablet PC vendor would like to give me an extended loaner?

In the short term, I may go dark on this blog since I’ve got a lot of work to do before PDC. Don’t worry. In the famous words of Arnold Schwarzenegger, I’m running for Governor of California.

I just signed up for the PressPlay free trial. I’m on the road and just needed some tunes. I guess I should also try some of the other the services, but so far I’m very impressed. Only a couple of annoyances: the whole “Portable Download” concept is way more complicated & pricey than it needs to be. Everyone else just charges 99¢ a song (or less). What’s with the buying “packs” of portable downloads? And, of course, their music collection could be bigger – no AC/DC 😦. But lots of stuff that I haven’t listened to since I was a DJ for my college radio station.

Speaking of college radio, writing this post inspired me to google my old radio station KSCR. I guess it never occurred to me before now, but of course they are streaming over the Internet. Currently playing: World’s On Heroin by All. Never heard it before, but I like it. Current show on KSCR is Yay For Punk with Naitze “DJ Naitze Naitz” Teng & Kate Wilcox. Their on-air sound needs work and apparently the issues of DJ’s arriving on time still hasn’t been solved.

After blogging that I use a Nomad IIc for digital music, Sean Alexander blogs on Notmad by Red Chair Software. They even have a version specially for the Nomad II Series. I need to check this out.

My old teammate Rick Culpepper has started a blog. He wanted to use my code for his site, but it’s such a complete mess at this point that he wisely chose to go the .Text route instead. He may not think he’s got anything interesting to blog about, but he’s one of the more interesting guys I know. Interesting enough that I wish he was still a borg and a teammate. Subscribed.

I was on IM with a friend from LA a couple of days ago. He asked what I was listening to. So I thought I’d give a quick rundown on the albums loaded in my Nomad. I know everyone is all ga-ga over the iPod but I really like my Nomad IIc. It’s got 256MB of storage, giving me enough for about 6 albums in 96kbit WMA format. I actually like the fact that I don’t bring my whole music collection with me. It gives me a chance to proactively choose some music that I haven’t listened to in a while.

The Uninvited – Teenage Dance Party

While I’m on record as hating LA now, it was a great place to be twenty and single. I made friends with a bunch of bands that had great music, but never really made it big. This is one of those bands. They’re broken up now (and frankly, only two members of the original band were still with it at the end) but they wrote some of my favorite songs ever. Granted, they might have been my favorites because I heard them live about 100 times. This album is a series of rarities and versions of songs that never got released anywhere else. It ranges from silly (“Let’s Drive a Wooden Stake Thru the Evil Heart of Garth Brooks”) to serious (“Shed My Skin”) to eerily timely given the current state of the world (“Armageddon Blues”). Favorite Song: “Everybody Is A Whore”.

Pat McGee Band – Shine

This is a friend by family band. My brother introduced me to these guys. Sorta Dave Mathews-ish, but better IMO. Like Dave, Pat Mcgee Band encourages their fans to tape and trade live shows, which is pretty cool. Shine is their latest and their first label album (Giant/Warner Bros.). Favorite Song: Minute.

Reel Big Fish – Cheer Up

I’m a sucker for horns, so I love ska. This album isn’t as good as their previous two, but it’s not bad. I haven’t listened to it in a while which is why it made in onto my Nomad. Favorite Song: Suckers.

Uncle Kracker – No Stranger To Shame

While I don’t like straight up rap, I do tend to like cross over stuff. Uncle Kracker got his start off Kid Rock’s fame, but then hit on his own with Follow Me. While the first track of Shame (and hidden last track) are rap crossover, the rest of the album is pretty bluesy, obviously trying to capture the sound of Follow Me. They have a good cover of Drift Away, but my Favorite Song: I Do (as I said, sucker for horns)

David Lee Roth – A Little Ain’t Enough

Overshadowed by the release of Van Halen’s For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge the same year, this is a great, if underrated, album. With the exception of Right Now, every song on Knowledge is entirely forgettable. But I dig pretty much everything on A Little Ain’t Enough.. Need to check out his latest: Diamond Dave. Favorite Song: Hammerhead Shark.

Linkin Park – Meteora

I haven’t given this one enough listens yet. I liked Hybrid Theory and so far I like what I hear of Meteora. Favorite Song (so far): Somewhere I Belong.