Michael Lehman's Independent Innovation

Feature Builder 1.0 Ships!!!!!

Michael_Lehman — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 17:26:00 GMT

I am very, very proud to say that my team at Microsoft shipped Feature Builder 1.0 - a Power Tool for Visual Studio 2010 which enables developers to create Visual Studio Extensions which incorporate templates, guidance and tools.

This "1.0" release is the work of 6 years of development and organizational journeys I began when I joined Microsoft back in 2004. It's hard to imagine how complex an organization Microsoft really is, especially when you combine it with complex scenarios built on top of a 10+ year old product (Visual Studio) and it's myriad customer demands.

I hope you'll head over to http://channel9.msdn.com/tags/FeatureBuilder and check out the introductory demos and download the bits for a test drive.

Announcing the Feature Builder Power Tool for Visual Studio 2010 (Preview)

Michael_Lehman — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 17:53:00 GMT

It’s been nearly a year since I posted this: “Since February, I … have [started] spending my time working more closely with the Visual Studio team and am looking forward to seeing what comes from that collaboration.”

Today, I am finally able to talk about what I’ve been doing since last February: the Feature Builder Power Tool for Visual Studio 2010!

Feature Builder is a completely re-thought implementation of the automated guidance + tools + templates work I’ve been doing for nearly 6 years here at Microsoft. Some of you may remember Project “Glidepath” and the two versions of Blueprints which were released between 2006 and 2009. Feature Builder tops them all in terms of functionality, integration within Visual Studio and most importantly product group alignment.

Working directly with the Visual Studio Architecture Team (from whom this release originates), I’ve had the pleasure of participating in a serious effort to turn conceptual theory and 5 years of “incubation” within DPE into something very cool: product group power tool bits!

I’ll be posting hints-and-tips as well as keeping the Feature Builder FAQ post up-to-date during this preview period.

For an overview of the Feature Builder and step-by-step screencast how-to walkthroughs, head over to Channel9 where you’ll be able to find all things Feature Builder: http://channel9.msdn.com/tags/FeatureBuilder

Note: What we are releasing today is a “preview” which requires Visual Studio 2010 Release Candidate (RC) and the Visual Studio SDK for RC. Bits compatible with VS2010 RTM will be available later.

OnStartups.com - Underpants Gnomes?

Michael_Lehman — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 13:23:00 GMT

If you are a startup I think you'd find www.onstartups.com very worth your time.

They have a post relating most startup plans to those of the South Park "Underpants Gnomes" who's business plan is:

Steal Underpants
?
Make Profit

Always a good idea to have a good #2 step in mind before you leap!

You can also follow them on twitter.

Happy St. Patrick's Day - Cloud-based testing tools

Michael_Lehman — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 13:16:00 GMT

Just ran into BrowserMob a cloud-based load testing tool based on Firefox and Amazon EC2.

It allows you to throw hundreds or thousands of "virtual users" at your web site simultaneously. Unlike most load testing tools however, it uses actual browsers (Firefox) to do the work which can give you a more realistic experience than simulation.

I'll be trying this on my next web app.

Operating Systems Don't Matter - I agree

Michael_Lehman — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 15:03:00 GMT

Joe Wilcox over at Microsoft Watch today wrote a piece entitled "Operating Systems Don't Matter".

As I wrote in the comments to that post, I was a partcipant in a concrete example of his thesis: Digital Research, Inc.

DRI wrote and distributed operating systems starting in 1977, beginning with CP/M and then MP/M, CP/M-86, MP/M-86, CP/M-68k and Concurrent CP/M-86. I was the director of Research and Development at DRI from 1981-1984.

Each of these were state-of-the-art for the time and contained more functionality than the competition (PC-DOS/MS-DOS). However, as Joe points out, end-users don't buy operating systems, they buy tools that help them have fun, do their job or save time (at best all three!).

Digital Research and Microsoft were of approximately equal size (~200 employees) in 1983 with Digital Research leading the way with a broad range of "ISVs" or independent software vendors. We even held our own trade show CP/M-83 in January 1983.

Gary Kildall who founded DRI had a strong philosophical stance that would, eventually, be the downfall of DRI: "We write operating systems and languages but we do not write applications. We don't want to take market share from our ISVs".

Microsoft, on the other hand, started writing applications shortly after PC-DOS was shipped and that made all the difference. The pull through for MS-DOS, and eventually Windows, was driven, of course, by applications and Microsoft wasn't afraid to participate in the application side of the market.

That, in my humble opinion, made all the difference. Digital Research never went public and by 1991 had been bought by Novell and eventually faded into computing history. Microsoft went public, kept buidling applications and, to my continuing bemusement, I now work there (not building applications mind you but creating tools for those that do).

Pascal/MT+, it was 30 years ago today

Michael_Lehman — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 22:46:00 GMT

It was 30 years ago today that I started, in earnest, to build Pascal/MT [wikipedia link], the first source-code-to-binary Pascal compiler. In those days one could either use UCSD Pascal (a P-code compiler/interpreter) or Pascal/Z which compiled to Z80 assembler code with then had to be run through the Zilog Z80 assembler.

Pascal/MT, which was written entirely in assembly language, also auto-linked the run-time so that the end result of a Pascal/MT compilation was a single running .COM (CP/M executable) file containing the application program compiled to native 8080 assembly language.

I sold the first copies in a ziploc bag with a "xeroxed" manual at Computerland of San Diego in July 1979.

Later that year we won a contract from Atari to build a Pascal compiler for the 6502 but retained the rights to re-target it to any other environment *except* the Apple-][. We built Pascal/MT+ using Pascal/MT and in September of 1980, we shipped this compiler as Pascal/MT+ for CP/M.

In January of 1981 we won a contract, competing against Microsoft, for a version of Pascal for Intel's RMX-86 operating system and in October 1981, we sold the whole company (MT MicroSYSTEMS) to Digital Research (the makers of CP/M).

Cloudcamp Seattle videos.

Michael_Lehman — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 04:07:00 GMT

The nice folks at Seattle 2.0 webcast the Cloudcamp sessions.

It was a great day with brilliant people and awesome energy.

Recorded versions should be available soon.

Attending Cloud Camp - Seattle

Michael_Lehman — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 16:37:00 GMT

Just signed up for Cloud Camp Seattle which is tomorrow Feb 28.

There are 34 free tickets left and it looks like it's going to be very interesting.

“CloudCamp is an unconference where early adopters of Cloud Computing technologies exchange ideas. With the rapid change occurring in the industry, we need a place we can meet to share our experiences, challenges and solutions. At CloudCamp, you are encouraged you to share your thoughts in several open discussions, as we strive for the advancement of Cloud Computing. End users, IT professionals and vendors are all encouraged to participate.”

Looking for digital content distributing independent innovators!

Michael_Lehman — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 03:33:00 GMT

Tomorrow, I am going to start podcasting and blogging regularly again.

My day job (at Microsoft) has been consuming every spare cycle that I didn't need to eat and/or live but many things are converging which have inspired me to, once again, be attentive to (both personally and professionally) independent innovation and podcasting.

If you sell and/or give away your digital content and are interested in an interview, drop me a line using the email link.

Here's to a mighty fine 2009!

Giving Posterous a Whirl...

Michael_Lehman — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 17:04:00 GMT

I've just started a new separate blog over at http://independentinnovation.posterous.com/ which purports to be a zero-friction blogging platform.

The appeal, for me, is that I can post blog entries via email instead of having to be connected either to this site or to my Windows Live Writer.

As this will let me post easily from my morning bus commute, I'm going to give this a try for a while and see how it works.

At least, for now, I'll cross-post to both blogs.

7 Tips for Living a Happier Life - from Aesop

Michael_Lehman — Fri, 09 May 2008 00:22:00 GMT

Over on The Positivity Blog, Henrik Edberg, a 27 year old student from Sweden, gives us 7 Tips for Living a Happier Life, derived from Aesop of the "Fables" fame.

Here are the 2500-year-old gems of wisdom (see Henrik's blog for more details):

1. Your wishes may not be all that they are cracked up to be.
2. Learn not only from your own life.
3. Beware of complacency.
4. Work on your own goals.
5. Kindness is always good.
6. What they say might not really be about you.
7. Help yourself.

Wisdom comes when you need it most and often times from unexpected sources!

Putting Things Off - PTO - The laid-back productivity blog

Michael_Lehman — Thu, 08 May 2008 20:05:00 GMT

Ok, this is just too fun to pass up: http://putthingsoff.com/

In Nick Cernis' own words: "Put Things Off (PTO) helps freelancers, entrepreneurs and busy people just like you work smarter, play harder and live the lives they love. PTO talks about productivity, freelancing, running your own business, making money online, setting goals, software, web applications and more"

And he just released his first book, Todoodlist, in which he recommends paper and pencil... something to think about.

Steve Rubel - Three Ways to Mitigate the Attention Crash, Yet Still Feel Informed

Michael_Lehman — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 21:36:00 GMT

Steve Rubel, with whom (and a few others) I once tried to form a Mastermind group (our schedules never could mesh), has a great new post about Three Ways To Mitigate the Attention Crash.

Summary:

Inbox Zero - www.inboxzero.com - A technique to use "email dashes" instead of on-demand reactiveness
Invest in Search - Both Web and Desktop
Make Unusable Time Usable - Use Audible to listen to business books (I highly recommend that also) and Instapaper.com (something I've got to check out).

Highly reccomended.

Cognitive Surplus - Finally a way to figure out where to get the time to create new stuff!

Michael_Lehman — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 18:44:00 GMT

Clay Shirky's talk at Web 2.0 Expo this week, finally enabled me to figure out where to get the time to create podcasts, eBooks, etc.... STOP WATCHING TELEVISION (or at least sitcoms)...

Your thoughts/comments? What do you to to make time to create new things?

Web 2.0 Expo - San Francisco - Day 2

Michael_Lehman — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 23:27:00 GMT

At the Web 2.0 Expo this week. Interesting conversations with people who are at the forefront of moving the world to (and from) the web.

Hanging in the blogger's lounge the energy is amazingly high (and this is during the keynotes!)

Good connectivity, Flip is selling mini video cameras for $60 and the blog/twit-o-sphere is burning!

DM on Twitter (Michael_Lehman) if you want to meet in-person.

Write/Build e-Book in 3 Days?

Michael_Lehman — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 23:12:58 GMT

The folks over at GET WISDOM! have a blog post today entitled How To Create Your Own E-book in 3 Days.

Day 1: Brainstorm about something you'd personally like to improve and go gather information about that and write/compile your content.

Day 2: Plan your product, joint ventures, and how you're going to build "social proof":

"With out social proof that your
product works, you will have a difficult time selling it.
A majority of people are a little bit skeptical when it
comes to buying info products online so you also might want
to invest in a quality copywriter who is experienced in
writing sales letters for info products."

Day 3: Write a sales letter and plan your "element of scarcity" that will encourage browsers to buy right now rather than waiting.

I'm not sure I can do it in 3 days but I like the challenge!

Technorati Tags: eBook

MIX08 and 41 Blog Success Tips

Michael_Lehman — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 20:39:00 GMT

I'm in Las Vegas for the MIX08 conference. Part of what I'm doing here is finally, and I promise that I really mean it this time :), blogging regularly again!

So here's the first of many posts this week!

To help out, I'm reading Chris Garrett's 41 Blog Success Tips from 10 Years of Blogging You Can Learn Today.

Build something of value -- something that people want, and something that will be profitable at the appropriate point -- and the world is yours.

Michael_Lehman — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 15:11:46 GMT

Marc Andreesen, the developer behind the original Netscape browser, and now Silicon Valley pundit, wrote a blog post that contains the essence of success in building a company: Build something worthy!

His overall post is about the effect of the proposed Microsoft acquisition of Yahoo on Silicon Valley's startup "machine". He believes, as do I, that it will have little effect since (a) the big guys aren't acquiring many startups these days and more importantly, (b) don't build a company to "sell it" build a company tha makes something people want to buy!

Big Cartel » Bringing the Art to the Cart

Michael_Lehman — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 02:02:48 GMT

If you are a Independent Innovator you've got to check out Big Cartel » Bringing the Art to the Cart whose motto is: "It’s your money - you keep it".

Costs max $20/month.

Escaping from cubicle hell

Michael_Lehman — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 23:15:17 GMT

Working from "home" is one of the most common options for the independent innovator and now Inc (via Yahoo) has a article that points to a couple of interesting sites:

http://www.chiefhomeofficer.com and http://www.workingsolo.com

HUGH macleod - GAPINGVOID reignites my microbranding efforts

Michael_Lehman — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 17:05:15 GMT

Hugh MacLeod, author of the gapingvoid blog/comics today posted an "Important Announcement" in which he comments on how his consulting business has been both the beneficiary of his microbranding/blogging efforts and has taken his focus away from microbranding/blogging.

I too have been having the same scenario play out regarding my blogging and podcasting efforts as I've recently gone "dark" for a few months working on Microsoft Software-plus-Services Blueprints. As Hugh opines, it's recently been on my mind that it was time to re-think the value of the seemingly "frivolous" blogging/podcasting hours I've been slacking up on.

There are many Michael Lehmans in the world. For example, the CFO of Sun Microsystems, a famous film director (he directed Heathers, 40 Days and 40 Nights, The Truth About Cats and Dogs, Hudson Hawk, Meet the Applegates and also Airheads.) as well as many other interesting Michael Lehmans who are doctors, and physicists.

However, if you search for "Michael Lehman" on www.live.com, www.google.com or even on the meta search engines like www.metacrawler.com or www.dogpile.com my podcasting and blogging sites are always at the top. Even my twitter site and my facebook site show up not too far down the list in some of the searches!

I even have the job I'm doing at Microsoft in significant part because I started blogging and podcasting 3 years ago.

So, it seems that it is a good idea to put more regular effort into bloging and podcasting that I've been doing given how the value of my "microbrand" has played out in real life.

So, having said all that, I decided I'd actually write a blog entry *before* I added a thank you comment to Hugh's blog and... this is it.

More soon!

Second stage ignition...

Michael_Lehman — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 12:42:56 GMT

Unlike the plan which I had in place, I've been silent for the past two months going heads-down on a new project. It's been a major push and I'm happy to say it's nearing an end as it will be unveiled next Monday, November 5th, at the Microsoft TechEd : Developers conference in Barcelona, Spain.

Before that happens, I'm at the 7th annual European Shareware Conference, being held in Cologne, Germany, where I'll be speaking on a panel discussion Saturday morning at 9:00 AM and giving an talk about independent innovation on Sunday morning at 10:00 AM.

If you are a MicroISV @ ESWC, I'd love to spend 5-10 minutes with you and highlight you and your products. Ask any of the conference organizers or use the email link and we'll plan a time for an interview.

In addition, I will be ramping up my blogging and podcasting on this site in a major way over the next few months and if you are an independent innovator, software developer or otherwise, I want to help you share your story with the world. Please use the email link to contact me and we'll setup an email, telephone or in-person interview.

I look forward to connecting with you soon!

Independent Innovation is in the air!

Michael_Lehman — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 01:05:00 GMT

Ok, September has officially started and life is back "in session".

After moving, a great vacation and recovering from the digital debt of being "off-the-grid" for 12 days in a row (a record in recent history!) I'm now ready to continue my exploration of the brave new world of the 21st century.

While I'll be writing more later, I got an email from an old coworker whose email was entitlled "Greetings from Kazakhstan!" in which he told me that he and his wife are setting out to live the Independent Innovator lifestyle. He's always been a surfer on the leading edge and I look forward to hearing, and sharing what I can, of his adventures.

Once upon a time.... the tangled web of the story of CP/M-86, 86-DOS and PCDOS/MSDOS

Michael_Lehman — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 20:25:00 GMT

Nearly twenty years ago I started a small company which was, at first, called MetaTech and then, after the threat of a lawsuit, changed to MT MicroSYSTEMS to build Pascal compilers. The company was what we now would call a MicroISV and, if the Internet had been available, certainly would have been an Independent Innovation company. In those days floppy disks + Xerox'ed manuals in a ziploc bag were the only distribution method available for software... no one was even using boxes yet! (Note: This is not a I-had-to-walk-to-school-in-the-snow-uphill-both-ways story :) )

A few years later, just before IBM launched the PC, MT MicroSYSTEMS had become successful enough to become an acquisition target for what was then the 800 lb. gorilla in the software business, Digital Research, Inc. The company was sold and I went on to become the Director of R&D for DRI until September 1984.

All this background is to provide some context about why I still care about the "Gary Kildall went flying" story and the discussion which is now going on over on Robert Scoble's blog entry about his interviews with Tom Rolander, early Digital Research employee and author of MP/M, eventual Vice President of Operating Systems at DRI and more.

I won't duplicate what I wrote in my comment on Scoble's blog entry but suffice it to say if you care about the history of the software business, the interviews with Tom are not only good stuff but first-hand straight information from someone who was there, in person!

At Gnomedex 2007 - JibJab - an Independent Innovation success story

Michael_Lehman — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 21:20:00 GMT

Gregg Spiridellis of JibJab is presenting at Gnomedex 2007. JibJab has been self-funded by Gregg and his brother from the beginning (1999) and, through a lot of hard work, kept it going through the dot com crash and, as pretty much everyone knows, hit it big with the "This Land" political animated video before the 2004 election.

They're just now releasing a new beta of something called "Starring You!" which allows you to put your own head into animated videos and then send/share the results with friends. It's very funny and it appears that they'll continue to be profitable!