RyJones

I was on the team that migrated Microsoft from XNS to TCP/IP - it was way less involved, but similar lessons learned.

Migrating from MSMAIL -> Exchange, though - that was rough

USGEO used it in the late 90s, as well as RAID

Neat. I found a pen pal via MRR - lost touch for 30 years, found him a couple years ago, exchanging post cards now.

I digitized one of the VHS tapes we traded; presented for your enjoyment. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOgT48pM4GcsfPMvrDEUW...

The coolest low rider I ever saw was in Tokyo.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I was a contractor for HHS for a year or so. When I started, there was a server farm built for a contract that was powered up and maintained; never used, it was broken up and sold for surplus. Just before I left, HHS thought they would like that program again, so us US taxpayers bought another tranche of computers to power up. I don't know the end of the story.

I could type more, but it would be a long and boring story.

One of my favorite time killers [0] on airplanes is no longer in the Apple App Store. It's still in Steam, but it looks like the developer let his website expire, and Apple culled his app.

[0]: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hexcells-infinite/id1096540165

As a former construction worker, I marveled at this when I was in Hong Kong a few years ago. We spent so much time rigging scaffolding in the US - these guys just grabbed a bunch of bamboo, some rope, and built platforms tout de suite.

I did wired WiFi for CES one year. Made having our iot devices on WiFi on the floor much better than other vendors. It’s a long boring story but it was a fun hack.

Every round trip from the USA to Ukraine gets six stamps for me. I’m going to have to renew about five years early on this passport. I’ll get the fat passport next time.

Take a look: https://flickr.com/photos/ryjones/albums/72177720322369518/

From The Big Sleazy:

- But I'll tell ya what, how 'bout if I send you a $20,000 gift certificate from Bob and Jerry's World of Wicker?

- Hey that's wicker! Dude, thanks a lot!

My friends and I would say we were shopping for wicker whenever we were going out in high school.

So I bought wicker.com.

The guy who owns it now cleans out estates, and cold-emailed me. I said I didn't want money, I want something interesting. The 1544 printing was the offer, which I accepted.

His wife is a wicker importer.

I loved the Dead Milkmen. I bought the wicker.com domain for reasons. The guy who does the thing wanted this to be the way his wife wanted it to be

I traded wicker.com for a 1544 edition of La Comedia.

I’ve done that in bad weather. The professional drivers will keep the speed over the passes. I love reporting this. I’ve seen so many people drive in the ice and snow like it’s dry pavement and end up crashed.

If Microsoft had just tracked the market while he was CEO: what is the delta in market cap? His vision destroyed multiple Enrons of shareholder value.

I was on the Qualcomm side of the Windows 8 experience. It was terrible, not a good partnership. I have long, boring stories about the previous (to this) WoA attempt.

And the one before that.

What a wonderfully insane movie.

Gen III night vision relies on it; I don't know if they ever made it there, tho.

I worked for Ron Kohavi - he has a couple books. "Practical Guide to Controlled Experiments on the Web: Listen to Your Customers not to the HiPPO", and "Trustworthy Online Controlled Experiments: A Practical Guide to A/B Testing". I haven't read the second, but the first is easy to find and peruse.

The Baffler was a favorite read of mine in the early 90s.

https://thebaffler.com/

Many years ago, someone remarked in a meeting it was too bad we (Microsoft) couldn't ship these PowerPoints.

Yet, here we are.

OptumRX

I felt good at the end of last CY when I was able to get it filled in 3 month increments.

Ex-MSN person here. Hotmail accounts are made inactive after 180 days of disuse, deleted after 360. I don’t recall the recycle time; however, you might be able to get it back if it’s been recycled.

I can only make informed guesses. My feeling is the phone was shipped as a contractual obligation on both sides. Think the Microsoft kin phone and Verizon as an analog.

Project B veteran reporting! Everyone I worked with on Fire Phone knew it was doomed.

Completely agree. I get a lot of "CVEs" that are "test code has a hardcoded key" or similar. Once or twice a year I get a real CVE.

Here is a calculator:

https://cvss.js.org/

You near Seattle? We can meet

I traded a domain [0] for a first printing of a book [1]. I did it because it was a neat artifact.

[0]: https://wicker.com

[1]: https://www.prphbooks.com/blog/marcolini