Keith is getting ready for OOPSLA:

In the day-long tutorial that runs on Monday 25^th (T40 : Using Domain Specific Languages, Patterns, Frameworks and Tools to Assemble Applications) we plan to use a large proportion of the time to walk through a detailed example of using Software Factories ideas to build four different variations of the same application. This involves us using some existing technology, some technology that will ship in Visual Studio 2005 Team System, and some technology that isn’t yet planned, but which could readily be built by Microsoft or one our partners. As we plan to show the whole process – from soup (business case, business capabilities and business processes) to nuts (running code), this involves a lot of work with help from several teams here at Microsoft. It is coming together well though, thankfully!

You thinking what I’m thinking? Software Factories hands-on lab…

I’m sure this has made the rounds, but VPC 2004 SP1 is available. Among other updates, it has a new version of the VM Additions, which significantly improves the performance of XP SP2.

I said I wasn’t going to blog any political reasoning (for now), but there is one quasi-political subject that I want to address – the media. Not to steal Bill Maher’s shtick, but we need a new rule: Members of the media can’t talk about the media as if they aren’t a part of it. I occasonally listen to as much talk radio as I can without throwing up (usually about five minutes). But beyond the obvious partisanship, the spewing hatred and the outright lying that goes on, there’s this thin veil of bullshit that somehow these radio shows are telling you “truth” that “the media” won’t. When Rush Limbaugh says something along the lines of “Here’s something the media won’t tell you” he is outright lying because he’s part of the media:

Media: A means of mass communication, such as newpapers, magazines, radio, or television.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

Note the use of the word “radio” in the definition? Radio is, in fact, part of the media – go figure.

There’s this myth in this country that the media is liberal. Maybe it was back before consolidation, national syndication and 24-hour cable news networks, but it sure ain’t now. Rush and his cronies distance themselves from the concept of “the media” in order to keep that myth alive. The reality is that most of what passes for news and opinion in the media these days is more like carefully scripted partisan theatre intended to further their host’s own agenda rather than tell any of the actual truth.

Major kudos to Jon Stewart for pointing this out to the staff of CNN’s Crossfire.

Update: In the second to last paragraph above, I changed “host’s own conservative agenda” to simply “host’s own agenda”. I was momentarily guilty of the same type of partisan manipulation that I am accusing others of. It isn’t only conservatives that have an agenda. For example, Michael Moore has a pretty obvious liberal agenda and, as a filmmaker, is also a part of the media. Of course, Michael’s media efforts aren’t masquerading as the supposedly unbiased evening news.

My father recommended I not blog politics, under the mistaken assumption that this is a “technical blog”. For the record, this isn’t a technical blog, it’s my personal blog and I blog about what I’m interested in. Usually, it’s technology, development and/or architecture. Sometimes it’s hockey. Sometimes it’s movies. Right now, I’m abnormally interested in politics – go figure. I’m a week behind on tech blog reading, but I’m currently reading over a dozen political blogs every day.

This political “season” has had a significant effect on me. Call me a slow learner, but I’m beginning to figure out that politics isn’t just something to think about once a year at election time – or worse, once every four years when at presidential election time. I’m sure regular readers can guess who I support for president, but I haven’t quite figured out how my new-found-interest in politics will effect my day-to-day life after Election Day. I won’t bother you with any political reasoning (yet) since you’ve either made up your mind, in which case nothing I say will make a difference either way, or you haven’t, in which case you’re getting bombarded on all sides to make a decision and anything I say will be lost in the cacophony. But I do want to share one quote with you, which I found doing a little research:

“Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.”

• George Washington

Regardless of who wins in November, I will never turn my back on this troublesome servant and fearful master again.

Two new architect bloggers to note. Jim Clark is a business architect on the Architecture Strategy Team. Jim spends a lot of time with what he calls “Red River” – identification and definition of business architectures, ontologies and environments that promote trusted business solutions. His first post is about Familiarity and Trust. Steve Cook is a contributor to Software Factories and works for Keith. Steve is looking forward to OOPSLA. So am I.