PatHelland's WebLog

Leaving Microsoft and Moving to San Francisco

Hello, Friends! Lots has happened since I last blogged. For almost two years, I've worked on Cosmos,...

Date: 09/30/2011

The Importance of Teams in Software Engineering

Sorry I haven’t been blogging for a while. Last Fall, I switch to work on Bing Infrastructure and...

Date: 05/13/2010

Building Blocks and the Three Bears

So, about a year and a half ago, I was working in Developer Division and there were lots of...

Date: 04/13/2009

“Book Report” on the UC Berkeley Paper “Above the Clouds: a Berkeley View of Cloud Computing”

As I mentioned in a previous blog post, I am very impressed with a recent paper from my friends at...

Date: 04/10/2009

Great Paper from UC Berkeley on Cloud Computing

My friends at the UC Berkeley RAD Lab have written a wonderful paper on Cloud Computing. It can be...

Date: 02/20/2009

Slides from SQL Service Broker Design Preview from August 2001

I know this is a LONG time ago but these slides were never made public before and there's some...

Date: 01/20/2009

Transaction Processing and the Barbarian Hordes

So, I'm starting to figure out how to put stuff up on Windows Live Skydrive and I have beginning out...

Date: 01/19/2009

A Wonderful Time at CIDR (Conference on Innovative Database Research)

Sunday, January 4th through Wednesday, January 7th was the Conference on Innovative Database...

Date: 01/09/2009

"Building on Quicksand" Paper for CIDR (Conference on Innovative Database Research)

I just submitted the final (photo-ready) version of a new paper called "Building on Quicksand" to...

Date: 12/12/2008

An Interview with .NET Rocks while I Was at Barcelona Last Week

Mark Dunn of .NET Rocks asked me to do an interview at TechEd EMEA last week. We chatted about one...

Date: 11/20/2008

Channel 9 Just Posted an Interview with Me on the Drive to Many-Core Processors

This was filmed at TechEd NA in Orlando last June. I received the link to the video today. It was a...

Date: 11/11/2008

I'm Doing Five Talks at TechEd EMEA Developer (Barcelona -- November 10-14)

Well, those folks at TechEd EMEA continue to be nice to me. Looks like I get to do four talks for...

Date: 10/16/2008

Confidence in the Cloud

So, one morning a few weeks or so ago, my colleague, Ruwen Hess, stuck his head in my door and...

Date: 09/01/2008

The Emissary Design Pattern and RIAs (Rich Internet Applications)

Here is a first draft of a new presentation. I gave it a couple of months ago just after TechEd and...

Date: 08/10/2008

SeaFair in Seattle!

One last personal post and then I'll get to the work stuff. Last Friday we got off the ship......

Date: 08/07/2008

Transferring to the SQL Team

Since I returned to Microsoft in March of 2007, I've worked in the Developer Division on a project...

Date: 07/23/2008

A while back, the fine folks at TechEd EMEA sent me a link to the video of me presenting last...

Date: 05/02/2008

Knowledge and Wisdom -- A Tribute to Jim Gray

I've been busy with a number of things; one of them is helping to prepare for the official Tribute...

Date: 04/25/2008

PDF version of the slides for "The Irresistible Forces Meet the Movable Objects"

Some friends of mine told me that they don't have Powerpoint 2007 (gasp!) and so it was impossible...

Date: 01/11/2008

OK... A Mediterranean Cruise in November Was Not My Smartest Idea...

In retrospect, we had a good time on our first week of vacation... but we would have had a better...

Date: 11/25/2007

Friday, November 16th -- A Day at Sea with a Major Storm...

Oh, my, it was moving!! I used to own a large power boat and have had it in 15 foot seas. Then, I...

Date: 11/25/2007

Wednesday, November 14th -- Pompeii, Sorrento, the Amalfi Coast, and Motion Sickness...

Naples! The evening cruise had been quiet and we were back at it with the tour busses. Our new...

Date: 11/25/2007

Tuesday, November 13th, 2007 -- Our Second Wedding Anniversary (and NOT in Rome as We Had Planned)

After months and months of talking about our second anniversary in Rome, we decided not to go after...

Date: 11/25/2007

Saturday, November 10th -- Departing Barcelona on Voyager of the Seas

Warning! There's nothing in this blog post but "what we did on vacation"... no computer stuff. So,...

Date: 11/25/2007

"The Irresistible Forces Meet the Movable Objects" -- Closing General Session at TechEd EMEA in Barcelona

The big presentation for me at TechEd was the closing general session. I did an entirely new talk...

Date: 11/25/2007

Presentation of "Data on the Inside versus Data on the Outside" at TechEd EMEA at Barcelona

On Wednesday, November 7th, I presented "Data on the Inside versus Data on the Outside" at TechEd....

Date: 11/25/2007

Presentation of "Life Beyond Distributed Transactions: an Apostate's Opinion" at TechEd EMEA at Barcelona.

On Tuesday, November 6th, I presented "Life Beyond Distributed Transactions: an Apostate's Opinion"...

Date: 11/25/2007

Presentation of "Metropolis: Interchangeability of Operations" at TechEd EMEA in Barcelona

On Monday, November 5th, I presented a talk I had written before leaving Microsoft. The first...

Date: 11/25/2007

Tribute to Jim Gray at HPTS

As many of you know, Jim Gray has been missing at sea since January 28th, 2007. Jim went on a day...

Date: 11/22/2007

Asynchronous and Synchronous are Subjective Terms

OK, this blog entry fits into the category of obsessive-compulsive... Every time I hear somebody say...

Date: 08/23/2007

Easier to Read Version of My Last Post

My good friend, Harry Pierson, told me the formatting of my last post sucked and was a pain to read....

Date: 08/20/2007

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