First Light

Astronomers have a concept named "First Light".

After years or even decades of work, a new telescope is finally ready for to be used. You point it someplace interesting, open up the shutters, and the first light enters the instrument. And you find out whether your hard work has paid off.

Usually it does, but sometimes you end up with something like this:

So, it's always a exciting and worrisome time.

Back in 2000, I was lucky enough to be involved in the initial release of C#, and the sense of excitement was palpable. We were pretty sure the reception would be positive, but it was the oppressively hot PDC in Orlando in July that confirmed it.

Today, I'm lucky again - we have shipped the beta of Microsoft HealthVault. And as much as I enjoyed C#, I think that HealthVault has the potential to have a bigger impact on the world, because healthcare is something that impacts everybody.

There's an MSDN dev center and a HealthVault developer blog for developers who are interested, and I'm planning on doing some posts on this blog as well, now that, for the first time in perhaps 3 years, I'm able to talk about what I'm doing.