From Live to Embedded and from Redmond to Madrid

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A lot of big changes have taken place in my "world" over the past 6 months, and I'm using this post to formally kick-off a new chapter in my life (and in this blog).

From Live to Embedded.

Once again, I've taken on a new focus. I'm working on an initiative around "distributed embedded systems". More about this in future posts. :-)

From Redmond to Madrid.

When I moved from Madrid to Redmond in 2003, it was my intention to stay for 3-5 years and then return to Madrid. I'm thrilled to have found an opportunity to work as a Technical Evangelist (still my dream job) from Madrid, while continuing to work closely with product teams and continuing to form part of our corporate Developer & Platform Evangelism organization in Redmond.

Big challenges ahead.

So what's the big deal? This isn't the first time I've made a change in my technology focus. Over the past 5 years, I've worked on a number of evangelism efforts, including: Visual Studio Tools for Office and Visual Studio 2005, Windows Vista, and more recently Windows Live platform.

This is the first time I'll be working on a geo-dispersed team. I now work from home in Madrid; my manager (Arvindra Sehmi) and other team members (like Yuriy Zaytsev) are dispersed around the planet. Working from home does have a number of benefits, but it also introduces some interesting challenges - especially combined with frequent travel and working with people across a wide range of time zones. The impact on my life, how I work ,and how I schedule my time is definitely proving to be "interesting". :-)

A new title for this blog: Connecting the dots.

I've always had a tendency to prefer depth over breadth - I've been known to pore over WS-* specs, analyze difference between managed and native binaries, and monitor network communications looking for DCOM MEOW packets, all just for fun. There's a certain sense of confidence that comes from knowing the gory details, and I believe that's what's always drawn me to this approach.  But somewhere along the line, I've found myself increasingly attracted to the idea of bridging silos of expertise and looking for new scenarios and opportunities for next-generation products/technologies. So here's to the joy of "connecting the dots"!