myShoggoth

Beta invites?

In case you missed it and you're really hoping to get a Windows Live Messenger beta invite, make sure you check out this post by Marty on how you can put yourself on the list of people who want one!

Messenger Beta

I know a lot of you really want invites, I'm afraid that even though I work on the team I don't get any more invites than others do in the beta program.  My friends and family get first dibs on my invites, and once they're covered if I have extra I'll be happy to share.  Maybe I'll run comment contests or something.

If you're in the beta, please use the "Send Feedback" option in the Help menu to let us know what you think.  Good, bad, ugly, we want to hear from you.

No matter if you're in the beta or not, please enable the CEIP (Customer Experience Improvement Program) option for Messenger.  This gives us information when you crash or hang the program so we can figure out what the issues are and get them fixed.  The more people that send us that data, the better we can solve the problems.  Yes, we can and do use that info.

Whoops, been slacking

General update since I haven't done any for a while...

I've been having bouts of insomnia recently, which I am prone to.  I think it is a combination of the stress on my body from the ankle surgery, now doing physical therapy to get strength and flexibility back, as well as getting back into full swing at work after about three weeks total off for holidays and surgery.

Things are really buzzing for the Messenger team right now.  Deadlines are looming, the challenges are mounting steadily and we've got way too much work to do.  Overall we're taking a very hard look at what features we'd like to have, where they are at, and how much time is left.

My focus right now is on performance and the brand new and very cool platform we're building for your buddies.  In many ways it is a longer term investment but I think you'll see payoff in the next major release as well as maybe elsewhere...

Bad Day

Got a bad start today, waking up late and missing a meeting.

Good news is that I'm able to use my cane to move around instead of one (or two) crutches.  Much easier to deal with, although I have to move a lot slower and it is a bit more painful.  Not happy about having to take pain meds while at work but I guess the alternative is not to come in.

Picked up my new glasses this morning, they're very comfortable.  Apparently I have a nickle allergy (and 20% of the population does), so when the finish wore off my old glasses it exposed the nickle-rich metal beneath that essentially ate away my skin at the ears and nose.  Fun!  Selected the new glasses carefully with that in mind.

AAAAAAAAAAA

Freakin Spaces ate my blog post, I guess because it took me 4.5 hours to write it.  Not happy.