Igor's Computer Blog

This is part of the  SaaS  series. Any connection to reality will be strictly denied. "Are you insane?" I half shouted at Biff, my college roommate. We had just finished our Operating  Systems midterm and were lounging at “The Bomber,” our college pub. Biff suggested we both do our last internship at Microsoft. I had no desire to work at Microsoft, the largest software company in the world back then.  At that point in my career the largest company I’d worked for had 200 employees, and my idea of process was running down the hall asking everyone if they agreed.    But, Biff sold me with his pitch “Look, MS will give us an apartment, a rental car, hell – they will even pay for our gym membership. We can cook awesome meals and get drunk whenever we want. Plus, Seattle has oceans, mountains, world class fencing and bikes everywhere – you’ll love it”. Biff knew how to convince me, so he paid for my IPA and we stumbled out of the pub with our next adventure g...

This is part of the  SaaS  series. Any connection to reality will be strictly denied. I started in Windows Azure in 2007. Back then, the name “Azure” wasn't invented, and Azure was still called “Reddog.” I started on the OS team, drawn in by my dream of changing the world, and getting to be Dave Cutler's lackey. I didn't get to work with Cutler, but I still may change the world - now that I’ve learned it’s OK to wake sleeping giants. My giant was named Jay. See, when you join a team at Microsoft, you're assigned a mentor and I was assigned Jay. Jay is a technical wiz. He knows nine flavors of assembly, and has every machine type back to the PDP-11. Jay's also a little odd. For example, my first day on the team, I wanted to make a good impression, so I sent a mail to the team calling out something clever with the intention of impressing. Four hours later, Jay replied with a 22-page analysis. I started reading, but by page two, I was sweating bullets and scared....

Jeff Atwood covered his religious experience with these monitors  here . I have another post talking about the monitor sizes and physical dimensions here . Most days I spend hours staring at my monitor.  As a result, I make sure I have the most awesome monitors I can afford.  Right now, that's 27" 2560x1440 IPS monitors.  If you've never seen these, find wise friend who already has them, and ask for a demo . Once you've seen them, you'll want to know how to go about buying them. In Feb 2013, you have 3 choices for this awesome panel: Choice 1) Off brand from  Korea , via EBAY ~ 330:  I got my first 27" monitor from Korea on Ebay for 330$ with shipping.  Shipping took 2 days, it had some missing screws in the mount (I don't care since I use monitor arms), and it had a Korean plug (I don't care since I have that plug ~ 4$).  The monitor only supports DVI input (this matters, we'll talk about it shortly). I...

This is part of the  SaaS  series. Any connection to reality will be strictly denied. “I bet you the bill that dude by the window is Canadian,” I challenged. Sam, my favorite architect, glanced over the top of his menu and nodded his acceptance. Sam was over-confident given I’d lost our last two design debates. But, as a Canadian engineer, I happen to know a bit about Mohawk Indians, Canadian bridges and epic failures, and I have no qualms about using said knowledge to pay for my IPA. You see, in the early 1900s, the Mohawk Indians found a profitable outlet for their intense, fearless nature – steel working. Their boundless courage enabled them to rivet steel girders 80 stories above the ground with the same vigor they ferociously displayed on the battlefield in days gone by. Mohawk men were the preferred steel workers of the time and with their help, construction began on the Quebec Bridge – the largest bridge in the world in its day. Soon after work began, the lead...