Steve Rowe's Blog
Ruminations on Computing - Data Science, Programming, Test Development, Management and More
Monthly Podcast Update
It's nearing the end of the month so I thought I'd update you on what podcasts are filling my Zen...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 04/26/2006
Software Engineering - A Valid Aspiration?
I was listening to an interview with Alistair Cockburn tonight on my way home and thought he had...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 04/21/2006
HD-DVD Launches
The first of the next-generation formats officially launched today. As of now, you can walk into a...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 04/19/2006
Dangers of Test Automation Revisited
Here is a comment I received via e-mail in reference to my post on the Dangers of Test Automation. I...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 04/18/2006
HDCP Primer
HDCP stands for High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection. It is the encryption and handshaking...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 04/16/2006
Why I'm Not Buying an HDTV Yet
Working with video all the time, I should be an obvious owner of an HDTV set. Alas, I'm not. I've...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 04/13/2006
Apple Stories
I've long been fascinated with the history of computing. I've read many books and watched what few...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 04/07/2006
Podcasts I'm Listening to Now
Here's what I'm listening to this month. If you have any suggestions for things I might like,...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 03/30/2006
Naked Conversations - Live
Yesterday I went to see Robert Scoble and Shel Israel talk on campus. It was a stop on their book...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 03/29/2006
Blogosphere Gets Taken
There has been a lot of talk in the blogosphere about how it it replacing old media. The response of...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 03/24/2006
The Dangers of Test Automation
One of my favorite TV shows right now is House. In it a brilliant but antisocial doctor and his...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 03/17/2006
Becoming a Lead, Pt. 4 - We Not I
Another aspect of becoming a lead/manager that takes some time to wrap one's head around is what...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 03/15/2006
HDTV Primer Podcast
Another interesting podcast I've found, this time giving a lot of detail about HDTV. This comes from...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 03/14/2006
Becoming a Lead, Pt. 3 - Delegating
I've noticed that people new to leadership roles often struggle with the concept of delegating....
Author: SteveRowe Date: 03/14/2006
Becoming a Lead, Pt. 2 – Learning To Trust
When I became a lead, one of the first real changes I noticed was the necessity of trusting those...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 03/09/2006
Becoming a Lead, Pt. 1
At Microsoft, there are two classifications of people: Individual Contributors and Managers/Leads....
Author: SteveRowe Date: 03/08/2006
Understanding Networking
In my recent foray into podcasting, I ran across a gem. It is a 4-part series which explains most of...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 03/08/2006
HD-DVD Fighting Back
A few months ago, HD-DVD was written off by many. There were no exclusive studios and most vendors...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 02/28/2006
February Vista CTP Is Out
I won't be the first to mention it but I thought I would add my $0.02 about it. The February CTP...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 02/23/2006
Dependent Test Cases
As most of my blog posts do, this one stems from a conversation I had recently. The conversation...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 02/17/2006
Effective Text Editing
I ran across this article I thought I'd share: Seven habits of effective text editing. It's written...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 02/15/2006
Catching the Podcast Bug
With the new year, I decided to take advantage of my health club benefit. For the past couple of...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 02/09/2006
Friendly Reminder: Utilize Source Control
I just finished talking to someone who lost 1 1/2 weeks of work due to an inadvertent key stroke....
Author: SteveRowe Date: 02/07/2006
Lisp and Ruby
I recently came across Paul Graham's essay, Beating the Averages where he talks glowingly about...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 02/02/2006
Experimenting With Scrum Part 4
This is the last post in my "experimenting with scrum" series. After our bug smash time, we went...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 01/26/2006
Experimenting With Scrum Part 3
Our first attempt at using scrum came during what we call a bug smash. That is a time when we focus...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 01/05/2006
A Few Points Of Interest
A few interesting articles I've found on the web recently: Advice for those thinking about starting...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 01/05/2006
Experimenting With Scrum Part 2
It occurs to me that some of those reading this blog will not be familiar with Scrum. Before I go...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 01/03/2006
Making the Media Center Remote Keyboard Work
When Microsoft released their remote keyboard for Media Center, I was excited. Here was a wireless...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 01/02/2006
Experimenting With Scrum
I recently tried using some parts of scrum with my team at Microsoft. We're a development team in...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 12/30/2005
Dual Core Media Center Goodness
I recently put together a new Media Center PC. The old one was running on a Pentium4 1.7 GHz and was...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 12/09/2005
Language Inefficiencies
I spent some time yesterday trying to learn Perl. I'd looked at it some a few years back but never...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 12/01/2005
You Aren't Gonna Need It - Or Are You?
A coworker recently pointed me at this page from the C2 Extreme Programming Wiki. The basic theory...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 11/04/2005
Objective Statements - Do You Need One?
I've been doing a lot of resume screening lately so I thought I'd write up a few of my thoughts....
Author: SteveRowe Date: 10/25/2005
MSN Search Getting Better
As a good corporate citizen I began trying MSN Search several months ago with the initial release....
Author: SteveRowe Date: 10/17/2005
Some Perspective On Vista
It's been quite a while since Microsoft released a new operating system. Windows XP was the last...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 10/14/2005
Programming for the next guy
I'm taking a class this week. The subject is writing WDM drivers. The class assumes you have some...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 09/28/2005
I'm back. Hopefully.
Wow. It's been a while since I blogged. I have a lot of ideas but I've been quite busy of late and...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 09/28/2005
OS/2 Finally buried
IBM finally announced the official, final death notice for OS/2. Back before I joined Microsoft I...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 07/15/2005
Next Gen Game Console News
Some interesting news (rumors are more like it) about the next generation of game consoles: The PS3...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 06/30/2005
WMV-HD Is Now Hardware Accelerated
I am please to announce something I find pretty exciting. Windows Media High Definition Video (WMV...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 06/09/2005
Broadcast Flag's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
Back in February I talked about how the D.C. Circuit Court seemed to question the power of the FCC...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 05/07/2005
Black Box Testing
I attended a talk on campus yesterday discussing various aspects of testing. Part of the talk...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 04/28/2005
Programming Languages
Interesting article this morning on CNet. It discusses language usage. Bjarne Stroustrup (the...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 04/22/2005
It's not the idea
I had a chance this afternoon to see one of my favorite writers and thinks, George Gilder. He came...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 04/20/2005
Western Digital Understands Warranties
I have a hard drive which seems to be going bad on me. It's a Western Digital SATA drive. So far, no...
Author: SteveRowe Date: 04/12/2005