So, it was bound to happen sometime...our faithful server that has been serving our sites, blogs, and applications for many years finally died early January

Further, the bad luck also made the hard disks dead, leaving most of the data (blog posts, etc) but a memory. Once again, we were reminded of the importance of backup, and if you read this suspecting you are not covered, please take my advice and do it right away!

Anyway, now the brand new server is up with the latest of hardware (quad, of course) and software (all ending with 2008 now), and it feels great. When I came to setting up the blog once again, I realized that the one I’ve been using (dasBlog, thanks for serving well) was missing a few things that I wanted. I made a short study of the market, and found that BlogEngine.NET by Mads Kristensen was what I was looking for. I’ve spent the day setting it up. Installation was a breeze in 2 minutes, and the rest of the the day was spent configuring everything how I like it, and putting back posts.

I’ve posted some of my older posts (the once I could find on my laptop) just to see how everything works, and now I’m ready for posting on some new stuff again.

I had an idea back in the 80's of a portable book that would have a great screen, that would be connected, that had access to all the books. I thought that the biggest obstacle was to get the authors (or rather the publishers) to believe in electronic books, and that the copyrights was my biggest challenge. Hey, I even started the drawings for the patent (ok, give me some slack, I was young then), but I never actually made any serious attempt. Then, I bought my first handheld, a Casio Cassiopeia E10, I thought that the screen wasn't great and it wasn't connected but still, I was amazed. I showed it to my friend Andy, and he was amazed, and that was almost 10 years ago.

Now, when I look at the Kindle, I see that Jeff Bezos has another idea that is far from new, but he has some points. He also aimed for a great screen, all books, and connectivity. I still think that he missed out on the first one (even if a bunch of authors say it's great, I'll wait for the color display ), but he really got it on the second. I agree with Rob Tiffany on all points, but as a WM developer, it's the connectivity that gets me. I'm tired of reading all the connectivity small print ("...Connectivity and synchronization may require separately purchased equipment and/or wireless products...") on many WM pages. On an event back in 2000 I asked if Microsoft would enter the operator business because I believed (and still do) that the operators don't understand what an open wireless Internet can bring to everyone (it doesn't have to be free, but free us from abuse). I still ask the same question when I see they offer great devices without specifying the operating system. What is that? If I could reformat any phone (Nokia, etc) and install WM, they did have to inform me, but now I'm almost always stuck with what the manufacturer and/or the operator put in there. How could the mobile phone industry go so wrong?

Please Microsoft, the operators is not doing their job, let us free, get our users an open Internet...

Another weekend of hard work is approaching, and it feels great! I have some cool technology to look forward to, like a brand new ASP.NET 3.5 architecture design and Windows Mobile Web Services along with some plain old WinForms and Reporting Services. The blog title comes from an informal event (read; socialize with beer) every late Friday afternoon that I heard of today. The term refers to "After Ski" which is a similar event after a great day of skiing. There are several reason why I think that it's a great term.

First of all, the idea of relaxing after doing something funny all day, like coding, is a nice concept. That is really how I see it! I take both pride and joy in my work as a developer because I create all day long; how many people do that every day? The creation makes us artists, and that is where most of the pride comes from. Another aspect I like is the focus on code, and the "code" of our business is exactly that - code! We are the modern "workers" that create the products that other people use. We are mostly still craftsmen like most professions a few hundred years ago (shoemakers, tailors, etc), even if parts of our "industry" is moving towards an approach focusing more on customization (building with standard products and components). We are the brain-brawn, and I take pride in that too. In Wikipedia's definition of code you find "...code is a rule for converting a piece of information...into another form or representation...", and that is how I see my role as a developer. I convert business information, according to rules, to another (better) form - applications!

Although I will probably not have much "After Code" this weekend, I think it's a great concept ;-)...