Home MVC Storefront

Blog Trickery and The Isolated Geek

While I was in Redmond last week I got to talking to a few people, and was surprised when a few of them said "Yah, I saw your post on [thingX]". It's strange - those MS guys seem to just know when you blog about things they're working on. Is it magic? Nah - I'm just a little slow sometimes...

It's all about Google Alerts and Technorati. Both of these services can track your blog, and what people say about your or your project. Sort of a dash of vanity, and a dash of measuring public opinion. The MS guys (and some geek friends of mine) are all over this stuff.

You can have some good fun with this by invoking (Voldemort style) their names and DEMANDING they leave a comment if you caught them. Names like... oh for instance:

  • Phil Haack (I know this guy's all over technorati and every other social tracking service)
  • Scott Guthrie (One of Scott's golems will find this mention, I'm sure)
  • Brad Abrams (he let it slip - he's a Google Alerts guy)
  • Shawn Burke (ditto)
  • Jeff Atwood (knock knock... you there?)
  • Ayende Rahien

Not sure if they'll fess up - but I KNOW they got a ping in their inbox :). I'm bored, if you can't tell, which leads me to the next subject...

I Just read Scott Hanselman's post on starting at Microsoft - an interesting read. He nailed an issue (read here, point number 10) that I've had for a while:

"Working from home is very lonely. I've setup lunches at least 2-3 times a week to stay connected and sane, so if you want to have (or buy, nudge nudge) lunch with me, just let me know. I need the war stories..."

I love working remotely (and also at home). I get to see my kids grow up and don't have a commute. The only social interactions I have, however, involve my wife asking me what color I want to paint the bathroom and my daughter Ruby (the shouter) wanting to sit on my lap and pretend to type on my keyboard.

I try to get out of the house as much as I can, and that usually includes going down to the Hanalei Gourmet (it's a horrible website) for lunch. After I read Scott's post I started thinking...

If you're ever on vacation out this way, and find yourself on the North Shore (which you should, it's amazing here), please keep me from writing posts like this (second only to blogging while drunk ... although it's probably a bit too late for that)! I'll buy you and yours lunch, and we can yack about anything - geek or non-geek (spouses hate the geek stuff).

Open invitation - just shoot me an email if you're headed out!

Brad Abrams avatar
Brad Abrams says:
Friday, October 05, 2007
Ok, Ok... You got me... Good one!

scottgu avatar
scottgu says:
Saturday, October 06, 2007
Sorry for the 4 hour delay in responding - I'm out in Texas today. I'll make sure to respond faster next time. ;-)

Shawn Burke avatar
Shawn Burke says:
Saturday, October 06, 2007
Google Wha? I've never even heard of that, whatever it is you ditto'd me with. I'm an IE-reader guy, seriously. No koolaid needed, it's just the one that works for me. Anyway, sorry about the comment thing. Love your work.

Ayende Rahien avatar
Ayende Rahien says:
Saturday, October 06, 2007
Nice one.

Steven Harman avatar
Steven Harman says:
Sunday, October 07, 2007
Hmm, two whole days and still no sign of Phil "that's hott" Haacked... at what point do we file a missing geek alert with the authorities?

Haacked avatar
Haacked says:
Monday, October 08, 2007
@Steven, I don't respond to such transparent attempts at comment baiti... ah fuck!

Rob Conery avatar
Rob Conery says:
Monday, October 08, 2007
You swore on my blog! Dude you're in for it now...

Dave Gardner avatar
Dave Gardner says:
Monday, October 15, 2007
You should try to start a Jelly work-together. My best friend Wikipedia tells me that the population of Kauai isn't huge, but you don't have to limit it to people who work in tech-related fields. Put out the call both online and offline and maybe you'll be able to find half a dozen or so people who would be interested.


Search Me
Subscribe

Popular Posts
 
My Tweets
  • @codinghorror: I may be weird but I don't ask my cats to write my blog entries :p.
  • @blowdart sure! Wanna come on and do a webcast with me - plugging CardSpace in?
  • People are very, very weird. Skypecasts are creepy.
  • Is Rob Howard trying to tell us something? http://www.rob-howard.net/
  • New storefront posted- all about OpenID :) http://tinyurl.com/5rkgux
  About Me



Hi! My name is Rob Conery and I work at Microsoft on the ASP.NET team. I am the Creator of SubSonic and was the Chief Architect of the Commerce Starter Kit (a free, Open Source eCommerce platform for .NET)

I live in Kauai, HI with my family, and when my clients aren't looking, I sometimes write things on my blog (giving away secrets of incalculable value).