Now you can make up your own placement algorithms, implement them in C# and use the above PInvoke to wreck your file system :)

"Ze also gave out missions, such as ... building an "Earth sandwich," which consisted of placing pieces of bread on exact opposite points of the globe." As featured on Slashdot.

From the end of one of his shows (whisky advert):

It is quite liberating to throw out all that stuff one doesn't really need. But choosing to not take the Dyson or the bicycle... tough call. Apart from laptops, those are the two most expensive things I want to take with, but though the Dyson will be a good weapon against the dust, I have to be realistic: the bicycle will get almost no play out in the desert. So 11 boxes it is:

www.sagoodnews.co.za/sa_teaching

There is reason to be negative, but from the above, there is equal reason to be enthusiastic about the future!

I am not yet convinced, but here is a good level of detail on how CardSpace works.

For an alternative take, check out this excellent presentation on SXIP.

You know you're in Japan when your hotel has more bandwidth than this geek has at home:

See you at GEEKs!

Today I'm deciding what to pack for the move to Dubai. There's like a hundred and one things to cancel, move, redirect, etc. but in the end, there's surprisingly little for me to pack and ship - a side effect of never being home :)

But first, I'm leaving for Tokyo tomorrow. A holiday in the far east for a whole week - yes it is quite out of character for me to travel for the sake of holiday, but the Dubai gig is a permanent job which means there is someone else in charge of my schedule. So I have to fit this in before I lose that freedom.

Planning involves me reading the tourist guide on the plane ride over ;)

New version of the VSTS Power Toys are now called Power Tools. For me, the best parts are the new check in policies and VS integration for the Process Template Editor.

The Community Technical Preview for Visual Studio v.Next is available for download right now! The easiest for me will be the two virtual machines with everything already pre-installed. There is a VM with VSTS including Team Foundation Server. If you haven't got it already, you will also need the Orcas Base Image.

Perhaps the last time in a long while, but this week I'm teaching near where I live in Manchester. Certainly a rare experience to "go home after class" in stead of "head to the hotel after class".

In other news, yes, with the delays out of Lusaka on Saturday morning (fog, security, etc.) I missed my connection to Manchester only to be rebooked on BMI, but of course without my luggage. The luggage only arrived yesterday evening, a full 24 hours later. Just one more Heathrow trip to Tokyo this coming week and then hopefully I won't visit there again for quite some time.

I may only have a week to get to know my students, but some of them get to know me all too well: Teaching in Turkey last week one of my students saw on my blog that I liked the music by Nightwish so he suggested a Turkish (?) group, Almora. No clue on the lyrics but I like the music!

Yes, I am. Cutting down on the intercontinental travel, I'll be based in Dubai and working mostly in the UAE but also across the Gulf: Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, Oman and perhaps even Saudi Arabia.

I'm told I don't need to learn Arabic but I sure want to. Right to left means real localization challenges, not just translation like across Europe.

We are almost feature complete! Stabilization has already started and we are now driving towards shipping v3.2. A couple of pilots are under way and feedback is coming in from both pilot sites as well as existing deployments (v3.1x).