Goals for the next 3 months

It's almost a new year. So it's now time to come up with some New Year Resolutions. I've already looked back at what I've done the last year, so it is time to look forward.

First, I plan to write 1 blog entry a week on average. This is an aggressive pace, but I've already written 6 posts in the last 3 weeks which I'm counting since it is my list. There are 17 weeks between now and the end of March. So that means I must write 17 blog posts by then. Since this is number 8 of 17. I am off to a good start.

Second, I plan to redesign the look of this blog. I like to delve into many different areas of programming and web design and a site redesign is a good place for me to stretch myself.

Next, I am currently reading Strunk and White's The Elements of Style. I plan to finish this book within the next month. Afterwards, I plan to get halfway way done with the other book I am working on, the Self Paced training guide for Microsoft certification 70-536.

Finally, my Stackoverflow rating is currently 219. I would like to improve this rating to 300 by the end of March.

Overall, this is a much more conservative list, but there is still much for me to do.

Wishful Thinking

It was wishful thinking for me to think I could accomplish all the goals I set out to do over to months ago. Not in 18 months could I accomplish what I set out to do in 6 months.


In some areas I was successful. For instance. I did read 1 book a quarter. However. I was woefully off target with the number of blogs I posted.


Overall This is how I did:

• Blog posts: I posted 4 of the planned 26 posts. I've done more posts in the last 3 weeks then the last 18 months. Hopefully, I can keep up with this pace.
• Source Code: I did not read any software code projects at all.
• Development Books: I did complete Dreaming in Code, and I've read many other Development books, close to the pace of 1 per quarter.
• Developer lunches: I had some initial success with this, but the lunches did not last. Many of the people who would show up left the company. Only 1 other person is still working here, but his a DBA Engineer so their isn't much common ground for us to discuss.
• Release 2 Software projects: I released 1 Software project. But only to Google's Code base. After I uploaded the source code, I have not touched the Code since and only one other person is aware that it exists.

All in all, not a very good showing. Later this week, I plan to announce a more conservative plan for the next few months.

Microsoft Courier

I thought an appropriate post for the day before Christmas would be a wish list. There is only one tech item on my wish list: a Microsoft Courier.


Now If you haven't heard of this device yet, there's good reason for that, it hasn't been released yet. It's a product that Microsoft is keeping under wraps and won't publicly comment on yet. There have been a series of videos released that showcase its usability.


Video 1


Video 2


Now it is odd that such a stunning device comes from Microsoft, but as interfaces go, this one seems exceptionally stunning.


This isn't the first portable duel screen system that Microsoft has prototyped. There was an older system that Microsoft put together from two PDAs, the Codex


Both of these devices are intriguing and perhaps a glimpse of Mobile devices of the future. As someone who likes PDAs, this development is really exciting and one that I will be following for months to come.