The Book is Done!

clock October 29, 2012 12:26 by author Kraig Brockschmidt
Programming Windows 8 Apps in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, a free ebook from Microsoft Press, is now available at http://blogs.msdn.com/b/microsoft_press/archive/2012/10/29/free-ebook-programming-windows-8-apps-with-html-css-and-javascript.aspx. Seventeen chapters and 833 pages in all. It's been a joy (even if it meant many late nights) to bring this work to fruition, as it's so much been a process of giving voice to many of the talented individuals on the Windows 8 team. Because it's a free ebook, there's no excuse not to download it  and there's plenty that will be useful to app developers working in languages other than JavaScript. A good portion of Chapter 13, for example, is about writing web services for periodic updates and push notifications, and those are applicable to apps written in any language. The PDF version is available now; other ebook formats will be coming along in another week or two.


Second Book Preview Available

clock August 22, 2012 06:06 by author Kraig Brockschmidt
I'm one again delighted to announce that the second preview of my free ebook from Microsoft Press, Programming Windows 8 Apps with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, is now available for the RTM release of Windows. The full announcement, including the material covered in the added chapters (12 in all now), is on http://blogs.msdn.com/b/microsoft_press/archive/2012/08/20/free-ebook-programming-windows-8-apps-with-html-css-and-javascript-second-preview.aspx. I'm happy to hear any and all feedback. You can direct it to me via Microsoft Press' address, msinput (at) Microsoft.com, or myself at kraig (at) kraigbrockschmidt.com. Enjoy!  


The Story of Windows 8 Begins to be Told

clock August 23, 2011 04:07 by author Kraig Brockschmidt

I'm happy to see that Steven Sinofsky has started up the Building Windows 8 blog, http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/, that will be exploring many aspects of the product I've been working on since Oct 2010 but haven't been able to say anything about! Hopefully I'll be able to start blogging on developer-related subjects here soon. In the meantime, I'll be seeing you at the //Build conference in Anaheim in a couple of weeks.



Two Interviews on Mystic Microsoft

clock September 5, 2009 03:42 by author Kraig Brockschmidt

After publishing Mystic Microsoft in 2007 I gave a couple of interviews that are available online.

7/15/2007: Appeared as a guest on Pathways, a show on the public radio station KBOO in Portland, OR. Available as audio.

11/26/2008: Appeared on Present! with Mel van Dusen on KMTV in Mountain View, CA. Video on YouTube.



A blog, finally...

clock August 26, 2009 13:36 by author Kraig Brockschmidt

It's been a long time coming for me to finally get a blog going. That I've done it was pretty much motivated by the need to post materials related to my work at Microsoft, which will likely form the bulk of the first entries. But I'll also be using this space for non-Microsoft stuff too, things that aren't lengthy or polished enough to warrant being an article on my main website.

I've actually hesitated for a long time to create a blog because of the whole commenting business. Yes, I know this is a big part of the democratic information/web 2.0/social bit, but fact of the matter is that most comments on blog posts leave much to be desired where thoughfulness is concerned (and sometimes prove that the commenter didn't actually read the post). The last thing I really want when I post a carefully thought-out article is to have oft-random comments and rants carelessly negate the points I'm trying to communicate. In other words, I believe that an article should carry more weight than the comments, and that an article should be presented in its own context without the distraction of comments.

This way, the main part of kraigbrockschmidt.com is a resource for people who are interested in what I, individually, am sharing with them. Thus anything produced in that spirit will continue to go on that part of the site. I'll make a reference to that piece on this blog and invite comments here; that way, there is still a space for discussion that won't othewise interfere with the presentation of the work itself.

Most of my Microsoft-related stuff, on the other had, will go directly here because obtaining feedback is one of the primary reasons for writing such pieces in the first place. (A curious side-note is that at Microsoft I'm part of a group that's focused on 'modeling' where software engineering is concerned, while 'modeling' has another place in my life in terms of model rockets and trains, thanks to my almost three-year-old son.)

In any case, this blog is up and running now using BlogEngine.NET, which is an easy system to work with on an ASP.NET-oriented website.

For more about my intentions for the blog (any the name I chose for it), see the About "Luminarity" page.