Entries for JKelley

What C9 has meant to me... [What C9 has meant to me...]

JKelley — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 03:21:04 GMT

Time for yet another C9 Birthday thread. Looking at my profile, it looks like I created my profile to be able to post about a week after the site first launched. If I think back over where I was 5 years ago, and the role that Channel 9 played in getting me to where I am today it's amazing.

When Channel 9 launched I was a software developer at a small company in NY state. At the time I had my heart set on trying to go join Pixar and do computer animation related work. Microsoft was about the farthest from my mind in terms of my career path, even though I used the MS platform every day at work. Then I started seeing some information about this new site. It was going to let us see inside the "cockpit" of Microsoft. What the heck was this?

Even though I wasn't interested in working here yet, I was interested to see HOW Microsoft made software. What were the processes, what were the roles of everyone on the team? I hoped that it would show us how we could improve our own practices at my job. Somewhere along the way some videos about the interviewing process got posted. Between that, and seeing the way that the people in these videos LOVED the work they were doing, I started to think maybe I should try it.

Fast forward to 2006 and I made the decision to apply, and I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to become a PM on a small team that made Power Toys for Visual Studio. Open Source software. At Microsoft. Working with the community. It wasn't what I would have thought I would end up doing, but it was a great opportunity so I took it. Since then my team got bounced around a bit, and eventually disbanded. Along the way I got to work on building a connection between the Microsoft product teams and the MSDN Forums, and then later on focusing on ALL the support forums (MSDN, TechNet, Expression, a little bit of Answers). Now I'm working on MSDN and TechNet blogs, as well as looking at what projects we can do to make our sites better.

We got cake today for C9's birthday, and that was awesome. Great thanks to Charles and Jeff and everyone else who was there, or who has come and gone. Channel 9 holds the nugget of what I think is special about Microsoft and I'm happy I could be a part of it, from within and without.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY C9!

in reply to What C9 has meant to me...

Calling all developer / designers and designer / developers! [Calling all developer / designers and designer / developers!]

JKelley — Thu, 22 May 2008 17:30:27 GMT

Hi everyone! It's been awhile since I posted a new thread here, but I promise you I've been lurking in the background every day.

The reason for my de-cloaking...

Way back in 2006 a C9 user by the handle of Shushovande made some pretty cool
I'm getting a lot of white space around the avatar area, which is distracting since it creates a column effect between the thread and the stuff on the left side. Since the column isn't split evenly it makes my brain hurt. :) I think if I had the avatars on the right edge of the post it would make the space look better to me.

Obviously not everyone would agree which is why I suggest the user preference.

in reply to Suggestion: Avatar justifying

Pack Installer 1.0 Released [Multi-posted from TechOff] [Pack Installer 1.0 Released [Multi-posted from TechOff]]

JKelley — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 20:56:32 GMT

[ I already posted this in TechOff but I'm a shameless attention seeker. :) ]

Hi everyone, I know I haven't kept up with letting people know about the development of the Pack Installer, but for anyone who is using it, or who might want to give it a try, I've just released the 1.0 build of the Pack Installer to CodePlex.

The 1.0 release is mostly bug fixes and minor improvements. One of the features we added that I'm really happy with is verification of downloads. Pack Installer will now make sure that what it downloaded is what you wanted before continuing the installation.

As always, your feeback is greatly desired, so good or bad, send your comments my way!

Happy downloading,

-Jeremy

P.S. I'll be putting up a note about how we figured out what improvements to make to the UI for this release on my blog in a little bit.

[Edit: Title changed for Sven]

in reply to Pack Installer 1.0 Released [Multi-posted from TechOff]

Pack Installer 1.0 Released [Pack Installer 1.0 Released]

JKelley — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 20:55:23 GMT

Hi everyone, I know I haven't kept up with letting people know about the development of the Pack Installer, but for anyone who is using it, or who might want to give it a try, I've just released the 1.0 build of the Pack Installer to CodePlex.

The 1.0 release is mostly bug fixes and minor improvements. One of the features we added that I'm really happy with is verification of downloads. Pack Installer will now make sure that what it downloaded is what you wanted before continuing the installation.

As always, your feeback is greatly desired, so good or bad, send your comments my way!

Happy downloading,

-Jeremy

P.S. I'll be putting up a note about how we figured out what improvements to make to the UI for this release on my blog in a little bit.

in reply to Pack Installer 1.0 Released

Things that will get your thread locked... [Things that will get your thread locked...]

JKelley — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 17:54:35 GMT

Channel 9 is a place to come and share ideas. That said, racism is not tolerated here. If you post such comments your thread will be locked, and you will be banned. This is the only warning I'm giving out, so don't be surprised.

Apologies to anyone that was offended by Darbacour's comments earlier. If he returns and continues that line of commenting he will be gone.

in reply to Things that will get your thread locked...

Re: IE 7 [Re: IE 7]

JKelley — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 15:45:11 GMT

shooby wrote:

jsampsonPC wrote:

shooby wrote:
...And besides that, it just plain sucks compared to Firefox 2.0...

Yeah, because 2.0 is soooooo wonderful, huh?

This is so funny I cant resist.

Dude, see all that other s**t on that list? Thats IE too, its just the shell you'll pointing at.

The rest of you dont even rate a reply

xx00

shooby

I never realized that Quick Time, Notepad, and Taskmanager were parts of IE! My eyes are open now! I see the light!

You'll have to do better than that, back in the cave with you troll!

(I know I'm feeding him, but it's just so easy...)

in reply to Re: IE 7

Pack Installer source code available on CodePlex [Pack Installer source code available on CodePlex]

JKelley — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 00:19:08 GMT

Hi everyone, I've finally gotten the source code that goes with the Beta version of the Pack Installer posted up to the CodePlex site.

I'm still working on new features for the 1.0 release, but we wanted to get the code posted sooner rather than later. If you'd like to contribute to the project, or just see how we did everything, head on over to CodePlex now!

-Jeremy

in reply to Pack Installer source code available on CodePlex

Pack Installer Beta released! [Pack Installer Beta released!]

JKelley — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 17:33:45 GMT

Hey everyone...

On Friday I got the Beta version of the Pack Installer released to CodePlex. Head on over to pick up the release. If you have things you like or don't like about it, leave me a note either here or on my blog and I'll see what I can do.

New features in the tool:

Sorting of the tools by several categories

Uninstall directly from the UI

Nifty new license agreement page - This is actually important because it will mean more flexibility in the future with regards to the tools we can release.

We also have a bunch of new tools you can download with the Pack Installer:

ILMerge - This tool rocks! I actually use it when I put the release of Pack Installer together. It lets you merge assemblies together so you can have a low footprint deployment.

Microsoft Best Practices Analyzer 1.0 - A new Power Toy from our team, the shipping version comes with an ASP.NET configuration analyzer and a nifty plug-in model for enhancement.

XML Notepad 2006 - Because really, who DOESN'T need a good XML editor? I find this is very handy to have around.

Visual Basic Power Packs - 2 Packs released by the VB team to enhance your VB development experience.

Thanks!

-Jeremy

in reply to Pack Installer Beta released!

Looking for suggestions what Power Toys to build [Looking for suggestions what Power Toys to build]

JKelley — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 22:24:43 GMT

Hi everyone, I posted over on my blog and wanted to make sure that I got the word out here as well. I'm currently looking for submissions of ideas for Power Toys for the Developer Solutions team to build.

The details of exactly what I'm looking for are over on the blog, so if you're interested in making suggestions about tools that would make VS 2005 easier to work with, head on over!

Thanks 9'ers!

-Jeremy

in reply to Looking for suggestions what Power Toys to build

Alpha release of Pack Installer [Alpha release of Pack Installer]

JKelley — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 23:53:13 GMT

Hey everyone, I just posted over in TechOff but I'm excited enough that I wanted to widen things up to anyone who doesn't read that forum. I've just posted the Alpha release of the Pack Installer project I'm working on over at CodePlex.

For those that don't know, the Pack Installer project is a frontend to let you download the Power Toys for Visual Studio and get them installed easily. Head on over and check it out! The more feedback I get the better.

Pack Installer

Oh and a special thanks to Bertan, the other major contributor to the project on the back end. He really helped get the file downloading parts coded and working.

-Jeremy

in reply to Alpha release of Pack Installer

Pack Installer Alpha released! [Pack Installer Alpha released!]

JKelley — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 23:48:35 GMT

Hey everyone! I am happy to say that the Alpha version of the Pack Installer I've been working on is now available for download!

Pack Installer

This first release will let you install 4 of our Power Toys for Visual Studio, they include: Managed Stack Explorer, TFS Admin Tool, MSBee, and VS Command Shell

Thanks everyone who contributed to the project so far by responding to my calls for feedback. The project is definitely better off for it.

So please head on over to the CodePlex site, download the Pack Installer and try it out. Write bugs. Lots of bugs. That way I know you're out there. :)

If you have any questions I will certainly try to answer them as quickly as possible.

-Jeremy

P.S. Sorry for posting in both forums but I'm really excited about this.

in reply to Pack Installer Alpha released!

Update on the Pack Installer, thanks all you users out there! [Update on the Pack Installer, thanks all you users out there!]

JKelley — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 23:55:03 GMT

Hi everyone! I've posted an updated pic up on my blog of the Pack Installer I'm working on. The redesign in this version is almost entirely due to customer feedback from both here and directly on my blog, so thanks everyone who commented. Especially those who took the time to create a mockup.

Hopefully you'll all approve of the changes I made, I think they make it look a lot better. Colors / Fonts will vary based on the system you run the app on so that's a big improvement already.

Thanks again! And keep the feedback coming.

http://blogs.msdn.com/JeremyKelley

-Jeremy

in reply to Update on the Pack Installer, thanks all you users out there!

Help design the Pack Installer I'm working on... [Help design the Pack Installer I'm working on...]

JKelley — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 22:09:27 GMT

Okay, I'm back again soliciting even more feedback on the new Pack Installer I'm working on. This time I'm going beyond just asking what you think, now I need you all to put your thinking caps on and redesign the pack installer GUI.

Well okay, you don't HAVE to redesign it if you like what I've done so far, but the goal here is to see if I've missed the mark with what I've done. The details for the basic program requirements are over at my blog, along with the screenshot of how it looks right now.

I've gotten some great feedback the last couple of times I've asked for it here at the 9 community, thanks very much for participating in developing this tool. Pretty soon we'll have enough done to put the tool up on CodePlex for people to get even more involved. If you have

-Jeremy

in reply to Help design the Pack Installer I'm working on...

Command line interface feedback [Command line interface feedback]

JKelley — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 00:53:49 GMT

Hi 9'ers. I'm looking for some more of your opinions (I know you've all got them, lots of them). This time the subject is Command Line interfaces. If you're interested in helping me out you can read the details over at my blog http://blogs.msdn.com/JeremyKelley

The more feedback I get from you all the better the end result for this project will be. As always feel free to send feedback as comments on the blog, or here in this thread. Last time, you guys gave me some great suggestions that really helped nail down the direction of the project. Thanks!

-Jeremy

in reply to Command line interface feedback

Anyone going to PAX? [Anyone going to PAX?]

JKelley — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 18:13:05 GMT

Hey all 9'ers...

Anyone in the Redmond / Bellevue / Seattle area planning on going to the http://blogs.msdn.com/JeremyKelley) talking about the current options that we're weighing. It would be great if anyone who's interested could take the time to read the post. Then of course it would be even better to submit some feedback to us about what might make things easier / better for you. I'll of course be checking back here, as well as checking blog comments for anything you all might have to offer. Thanks, and keep coding,

-Jeremy Kelley
Program Manager
Developer Solutions Team
Microsoft Corporation

in reply to Power Toys install experience (your feedback requested)

Hot on the heels of... [Hot on the heels of...]

JKelley — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 13:33:53 GMT

Following up on Zeo's big announcement last week (without stealing his thunder), I can finally announce that I also am joining Microsoft. :) In just a few short weeks I will be happily joining the Power Toys for Visual Studio team as a PM. If you haven't checked out what the team is doing, the projects are being hosted for download over at www.codeplex.com

I will certainly still be around here, and I hope I can be an even more productive member of the community. :)

-Jeremy

in reply to Hot on the heels of...

Another music thread (for all the cool UK people out there) [Another music thread (for all the cool UK people out there)]

JKelley — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 19:17:22 GMT

I was watching the VH-1 broadcast of the UK Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony the other day and was wondering if any people in the UK had seen it? I really only watched because one of my favorite bands, Joy Division / New Order, was supposed to be on the show. Horror of horrors they apparently got cut by VH-1!!!

So last night VH-1 Classic was supposed to show the whole thing un-cut so I recorded that too. Did anyone see the whole thing and did New Order perform / get inducted, or am I just wasting my time watching the un-cut show?

Oh, and it looked like there was a wee bit o' tension between David Gilmour and Roger Waters during the Pink Floyd induction. :) Looks like the reunion from Live 8 was short lived.

-Jeremy

in reply to Another music thread (for all the cool UK people out there)

Employee Performance Reviews [Employee Performance Reviews]

JKelley — Wed, 05 Oct 2005 18:42:07 GMT

This morning in my team's weekly meeting our boss brought up the issue of our annual performance reviews. We just adopted a new set of forms to fill out and he's just going through his second review process using them. Unfortunately what he's finding is that he doesn't care for them very much. They don't appear to be an improvement over our last forms and really don't serve much purpose.

So I pose a question, what employee review process does your employer use? Do you like it? What do you find you get out of the review process? Is there anything that works great or works absolutely horribly? Open comments / feedback are welcome!

in reply to Employee Performance Reviews

PDC Final Thoughts [PDC Final Thoughts]

JKelley — Mon, 19 Sep 2005 17:43:50 GMT

Okay so I'm back home, and have had a few days of reflection about my PDC experiences and I thought I'd give a quick final thought about it.

The technical details of everything I saw are still swimming in my head and its going to take a week or so before I manage to get a full trip report to my boss.

On the keynotes:
   Having never seen Bill Gates speak live before it was an interesting experience. He's definitely a "broad strokes" guy when giving speeches, which for his role is not bad at all. I actually enjoyed hearing his vision for software and where things are headed.
   I thought Jim Allchin while having some interesting content simply went on for way too long.
   The coding demo during the first day of keynotes was excellent. I thought the dynamic between the four guys was great and they showed off some cool stuff.
   The second day of keynote speeches was actually the bread and butter for me. I'd been waiting to see how we actually get to build all the cool XAML based apps and now we know! That was a highlight for me.

On the sessions:
   All of the sessions I went to were excellent. I can't think of any speakers that bored me or made me leave the class. I was focused almost exclusively on the presentation track though so that may have had something to do with it. I'm really excited to start building demos with the bits that they showed off to us.

On the overall experience:
   Getting to meet people like Don Box was very cool. Although he gets lots of press so I'll mention that Chris Sells, Doug Purdy, Chris Anderson and Brad Abrams were also very cool to meet.

On the Channel 9 presence:
   You guys rocked. You really had a very big presence at the conference and I think you all did an amazing job. I got to have lunch with Charles on Monday (I think it was Monday, that was when the power went out right?) and that was fun. Plus I kept running into Adam at various spots around the conference (guess we kept picking the same sessions :), so I give special props to him as "most visible" of the crew, for me anyway. It was cool to run into Mr. Scoble too. I know he was super busy running around getting videos ready (his arm must have been very tired after Raymond Chen's talk).

Finally...

Thanks to all the cool MS people that made PDC great. I have to say that after 10 years in this business this ranks as one of the best professional experiences I've had. I got to meet Ian and Zeo so that was pretty cool too.

Oh and one last shout out to the Xamlon crew. I had no idea who they were but I ran into them while looking for a Channel 9 meet up in the Westin Hotel and they invited me to sit and hang out with them, for which I am very greatful. Their software looks very cool and is definitely worth a look for anyone wanting to distribute XAML apps over the web. They give a very impressive demo.

Here's looking forward to next time,

-Jeremy

in reply to PDC Final Thoughts

Monday at the PDC [Monday at the PDC]

JKelley — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 16:49:50 GMT

Well its Day 2 of the Pre-Con and I'm heading up to the Framework Design Guidelines session. Yesterday's session was great, I hope today's keeps it up.

I should actually be able to meet up with people today so what are other people's schedules? There's supposed to be some sort of "Meet the Evangelists" event tonight at the Hotel Figueroa at 6:00, if nobody wants to do anything else I'll probably be there.

-Jeremy

in reply to Monday at the PDC

WinFX on Vista with no network [WinFX on Vista with no network]

JKelley — Tue, 30 Aug 2005 13:26:01 GMT

Okay so I'm trying to play around with development under the Vista Beta 1 that I got from MSDN. I went ahead and got VS2005 beta 2 installed and looked around for a bit. Everything looked cool.

Now I want to try developing some of the cool Avalon (excuse me WPF) apps that I've seen floating around so I need to install the WinFX runtime (since it isn't in the 400+ meg SDK download??). My problem is that I can't get the machine to be on the network. Our corporate network uses Static IP's and our MIS guy and me couldn't get that to work. So we plugged it into a Linksys router to try and use DHCP. Same story, no luck. For whatever reason the machine will NOT get an IP from the router and start talking.

So since I can't get the machine on the network I figured I'd just copy the WinFX runtime installer from my other PC. Unfortunately during install it tries to go out and download more stuff! Has anyone found a way to get the WinFX runtime install without needing to be connected? I just want one big download that I can install without being online.

Thanks!

-Jeremy

in reply to WinFX on Vista with no network

Posting Pics of 9 Guy [Posting Pics of 9 Guy]

JKelley — Fri, 26 Aug 2005 15:36:06 GMT

Okay I may just be blind but how do we post new pics of the 9 guy around the world? The forum for it doesn't seem to have a Post New button or anything. What am I missing?

-Jeremy

in reply to Posting Pics of 9 Guy

PDC Pre-Conference sessions [PDC Pre-Conference sessions]

JKelley — Thu, 25 Aug 2005 13:15:54 GMT

Hey all,
Is anyone else going to be at PDC for Saturday, Sunday, and Monday? I'm attending the pre-conference sessions but my coworker going with me isn't so he doesn't fly in till late Monday. If anyone is going to be around it would be cool to have an early in the week get together. It seems like there's a LOT going on in the evenings from Tuesday on so maybe doing something early would be better. Thoughts?

-Jeremy

And yes like everyone else going I'm totally stoked about it.

in reply to PDC Pre-Conference sessions