Hail Satan! (or: Day 1 at Microsoft)

Many cultures have “big players” that form part of their collective demonology, symbols that are reviled, yet envied at the same time. Small-town folks in the U.S. point to New York City and Los Angeles as bad places filled with bad people who get a disproportionate share of the pie; small-town Canada does the same with Toronto. For indie musicians and filmmakers, the reviled and envied demon is Hollywood. In the world of software, the world in which I work, it’s Microsoft.

And as of this morning, they’re my employer. Hail Satan!

Truth be told, I’m pleased to be working on a team with a lot of smart people, some of whom were already my friends. I’m also happy to be employed again, and for a company that’s going to give me the chance to reach more people than ever before. I’m also thankful for the new company-issued laptop, which has a working up-arrow key!

(My personal laptop’s up-arrow key doesn’t work, and I’ve come to appreciate how important the up-arrow key is. If you haven’t yet done so today, go to your computer right now, look at your arrow keys straight on and tell them how much you love and appreciate them!)

Ahem.

The next few months on my tech blog, Global Nerdy are going to be interesting ones. Part of my new job as a Developer Advisor (a.k.a. Developer Evangelist) is to blog, and since my tech blog already has a decent-sized audience, it’s the best onhline vehicle for my work.

I’d like to point a couple of new articles on Global Nerdy about the new job, and for the most part, they’re layperson-friendly.

Company Man (or: The New Job)

In case you haven’t yet read Company Man (or: The New Job), it’s the article in which I announced to the world that I’ve accepted a position at Microsoft.

California Bound (or: I’m Going to PDC2008)

Next up is California Bound (or: I’m Going to PDC2008), the techiest of the articles I’ll point to here. It’s about my flying down to Los Angeles next week to attend Microsoft’s Professional Developers Conference.

The Journey Begins

Finally, there’s The Journey Begins, which covers what I plan to do for my first few months at Microsoft.