Life

Xbox E3–Jump In

The Electronic Entertainment Expo or E3 is a popular conference where new games and consoles are announced.

There was no expectation of new consoles being announced, but I had even heard murmurs that this would be the last generation of consoles. I didn’t think that would be the case, but you never know.

Fortunately, Phil Spencer, head of Xbox at Microsoft, announced that the hardware team is in fact working on the next generation of consoles. There was no timeframe given and I’d expect it wouldn’t come any sooner than 2020 or 2021, but it was encouraging to see that they are working on the next generation.

There are some great looking games coming as well. It reminded me of my pile of shame… the long list of games I have that I’ve never played. Some were from the Xbox Games with Gold that are free with the Xbox Live Gold membership and some are from where I bought them on sale.

You can watch a small part of the E3 conference where Microsoft commits to gaming in the video this week as well as some changes coming to my YouTube channel.

Chad Carter Leave a comment

Microsoft Still Wants Your Feedback

I’m back in Seattle writing another blog post talking about how Microsoft wants your feedback.

I’m attending the Microsoft MVP Summit. To attend this summit, you have to be a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP).

I was fortunate enough to receive this award from Microsoft back in 2009, and I’ve been given the award every year since then.

Originally, I received this award for DirectX and XNA. Then I was awarded for ASP.NET / IIS and now I’m a Windows Development MVP that focuses on Mixed Reality.

One of the big benefits of being a Microsoft MVP is that you get to meet the product teams at Microsoft and provide feedback. I’ve been spending my time between Windows and ASP.NET sessions.

Being able to provide feedback to the product teams is a great perk of being a MVP, but…

Here’s a secret…

You don’t have to be a MVP to provide feedback.

Sometimes it can be easy to think of Microsoft as this massive faceless company that only cares about the bottom line.

As somewhat of an insider, I get to meet the actual product team members that make the great software and products we get to use.

It isn’t a faceless corporation. It is a company made up of tens of thousands of employees who are dedicated to creating great experiences for their customers … you and me.

One way they can do that is by knowing which things they are doing well and which things can be improved.

The feedback forms in many of the applications go to the actual teams that make the product.

You can let your voice be heard by simply providing feedback through the app.

It’s a great privilege to be able to come out to Seattle every year and meet with the product teams. I’m hoping I’ll be fortunate enough to be able to attend next year.

Every year, a theme I hear from the different teams is they want to know how they can improve and what they can do better.

So take the time to let your voice be heard. You don’t have to be a MVP to get Microsoft’s attention.

I made a companion video to this blog post, which you can watch here:

Chad Carter Leave a comment

Developer Contests FTW

A couple of months ago I mentioned that Dream Build Play was happening. There are some sweet prizes available.

Well, now there is another contest where you could win all of the following:

  • Surface Studio (2TB / Intel Core i7)
  • Surface Pro (256GB / Intel Core i5)
  • Surface Dial
  • Acer Windows Mixed Reality headset
  • Xbox One X
  • Custom Xbox controller with engraving
  • $2,500 USD advertising credit

To have a chance to win, all you need to do is update or publish an app targeting the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update (build 16299) by November 17, 2017.

So go ahead and update that app you already have out there, or create something new…

And if you are making a game then you could really rack-up with the awesome prizes from Dream Build Play.

Chad Carter Leave a comment

A Story from a 17 year .NET Developer Veteran

In my video this week I talk about the history of .NET and why I think now is a great time to be a .NET developer. I was at a conference in Las Vegas back in the fall of 2000 and I saw Scott Guthrie, wearing his now famous red polo shirt, talking about this new technology called ASP+.

It would soon be renamed to ASP.NET. It was fantastic and I’ve been using it every since that announcement, well before it was officially released in 2002.

If .NET Core 2.0 has as much life as the original, then it will be around for at least another 15 years and that is a good thing. The performance of .NET Core 2.0 is fantastic.

I hope you enjoy my story as I talk about why I started using .NET all those years ago…

Chad Carter Leave a comment