What does MVP mean to you?Well, that is a complex question as I have strong feelings about that. First, it is definitely an honor to share the MVP designation with such great company. I really have a great respect for MVPs; they really know their stuff! I’ve learned many, many things from them, their weblogs, articles, and books. Second, the responsibility of being an MVP is meaningful to me. I have a responsibility to work harder to know even more about .NET Framework, about data access technologies, about Longhorn, to be a better programmer. If I become a better programmer, then I can be more helpful, more "valuable" to my fellow MVPs and .NET developers in my country, in my region, and also in the global .NET community.If you could ask Steve Ballmer one question about Microsoft, what would it be?If it must be a question directly about Microsoft, then it will be, "In your opinion, in what area does Microsoft, as a whole or some part of it, have to do a better job, have to make progress, to be even better, to achieve even better results, and why?" What do you think the best software ever written was?I think "best software ever written" is a somewhat strong statement. We [programmers] all think that best software is yet to be written. That said, there are great designs in the past; for example, design ideas around development of original UNIX operating systems or around original Visual Basic® which, in my opinion, revolutionized Windows® GUI development. If you were the manager of Visual Developer, what would you change?Well, that’s a hard question because this is a question that the brightest software engineers on the planet discuss to the death. As for technical details, I would think about implementing more libraries of completely managed code, not just as wrappers around COM interfaces. As an example, I really miss the pure managed library for manipulating with MS SQL Server metadata (something like SMO in Yukon) and the pure managed library for accessing Active Directory. As for VS.NET, I really appreciate introduction of MS Build as the build environment, and state-of-the-art support for test-driven development that brings us a solid version control system. | If you were given unlimited data bandwidth, what would you do with it?Wow! That would be great! For now I have just dial-up access from home and Internet access from my day job is also far from "unlimited broadband access." I would do normal things like listen to music on a radio station online, or watch streaming video (participate on webcasts, for example). Another idea would be to share this bandwidth with my colleagues and friends and set up some kind of "cooperative community" where we could have fun "virtually" programming together, real-time. I could also see sharing it with schools for talented kids who like programming. It could give them boost to help them move rapidly to the future on the online resource to solve problems, how to design things, etc.What’s was the last book you read?I read a lot of programming manuals. Aside from that, I am reading a book by Ken Henderson entitled The Guru’s Guide to SQL Server Architecture and Internals. It’s not easy reading, but it is filled with information that one can’t find elsewhere. As for non-computer books, I read The Elegant Universe by Brian Green. It is popular book about theoretical physics, about theory of superstring which at last unified Einstein general relativity and quantum mechanics. It was truly fascinating reading. What music CD do you recommend?My favorite singers/bands are Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi, Meatloaf, Def Leppard, and The Corrs. As for albums, Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band’s Live 1975-85 is in my opinion, one of best albums ever made. MTV Unplugged with Eric Clapton is also good piece of music as is The Corrs VH1 Live from Dublin. I like all of this music recreationally, but while I code, I like to listen to instrumental music, for example movie soundtracks like Vangelis’ Conquest of Paradise. Lyrics can distract me when I’m in deep thought coding, especially when I’m designing something new. What makes you a great MVP?Well, I can’t say, nor can anyone else say, I am a great MVP. I would rather answer what I think makes a great MVP. I think it is very important for some one to have a passion for technology, in my case for programming. One has to be excited about something first before getting others excited about it. In communities, people can see your passion for technology from your words and statements and how much personal time you spend on it. They can gauge how sincere you are about it, realizing that your interest in technology is real, not just what you are getting paid to do (like on your job, for example). This is an important distinction. One who does something for the money, as a result, can be very good at it professionally; what makes the difference is when they give of themselves because it is a good thing to do and become good at it. Because they believe that they can help make world better by programming, they contribute to community and attract others to create living communities. These kind of people can create something that makes a difference. Simply, these are great MVPs. | What’s in your computer bag?I have an HP Omnibook 6200, with 512 MB memory, DVD-CD writer combo, and a 20GB hard drive (I know that this is almost unacceptable, but I am planning to buy something bigger). I also carry a cell phone, Ethernet cross cable to connect two computers directly, and some CDs with MP3 music. What’s the best thing that has happened since you’ve become a MVP?By far, it’s been the invitation to the Global MVP Summit. I see it as a chance to see, in person, the many people who I know only via the Internet, a chance to associate faces to weblogs, e-mail addresses, and newsgroup handles. It is also a fantastic opportunity to listen about technical details of Microsoft products directly from the engineers and architects who created them. It is certainly a different experience to listen about Indigo from Don Box, or about ASP.NET from Scott Guthrie, than just read something from a book or Web site. What is your motto?It is a quote by Muhammad Ali: "Champions aren’t made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them—a desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have last-minute stamina, they have to be a little faster, they have to have the skill and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill." I believe that this really says that everyone is unique and has a gift which may be given to others. Those gifts of helping each other and letting our talents become apparent and useful for all is worth more than anything else. What is really important is what is deeply inside us, not what is around us.Who is your hero?From computer world, it is Anders Hejlsberg, ex-Borland, now distinguished engineer with Microsoft. He was the creator of Turbo Pascal compiler, architect of Delphi, principal designer of C# language. From the non-computer world I have no clear hero, but I have almost endless respect for Pope John Paul II. It is just unbelievable to me how many things he has managed to do, what gigantic work he has done, and how authentic or "normal" he seems if you were to meet him in person. He and I are probably completely different people in terms of temperament or personality, but I have endless respect for him.What does success mean to you?Success is when one does something and can say without a doubt that it was done right, managed toward a successful end, and has everlasting value. |
