MVP Insider Archive: September 2004Victor Garcia Aprea - Capital Federal, Argentina
Most Valuable Professional, Visual Developer |  | Victor Garcia Aprea is the cofounder of Clarius Consulting, where he works as a software architect. He recently published the second edition of his first book, Beginning Web Programming in C#, andis finishing his second book, ASP.NET 1.1 Solutions Toolkit, which will be available in December 2004. Victor’s community contributions include his involvement in Microsoft public newsgroups and the ASP.NET forums. He has presented at Microsoft DevDays, MSDN Briefings, and Ask The Expertworkshops, and often speaks at conference programs offered by Microsoft Argentina. |
What does MVP mean to you?I was designated as an MVP in 2002. The first thing thatI remember thinking when I received the "Welcome"letter was a big "WOW!" So initially, being an MVP islike a big "WOW." Seriously, though, it is an honor tobe recognized by Microsoft and my peers as an experton a particular technology and to help people aroundthe globe become familiar with such technology.If you could ask Steve Ballmer one question aboutMicrosoft, what would it be?One question would be "What is one area where youthink Microsoft needs to improve most quickly?" I alsowould ask, "What is the roadmap regarding Microsoftinvolvement with the development community for thenext 10 years?" Oops, those are two questions insteadof one. Sorry!What do you think the best software everwritten was?Well-do I have to choose just one? Great Escapewas a game made for the ZX Spectrum and I’m stilltrying to figure out how they managed to fit it in theavailable 48KB of RAM. Doom for the PC is anotherexample of incredible software. Turbo C fitting on a5.25 double-side (360KB, if I remember correctly) andlater Delphi, both from Borland, are also examples ofincredibly written software. Concerning Microsoft®products, I would opt for Windows® 95 and WindowsXP Professional as my favorite choices.If you were the manager of Visual Developer, whatwould you change?I would put even more resources on building toolsfor developers. I’d include both stand-alone tools andtools integrated with Visual Studio®.NET to exploitmetadata by creating new tools to supplement theones already in place. I want wizards, add-ins, richUI editors, etc. Everything to make developers’ liveseasier by letting them concentrate only on theirapplication-specific domain code and nothing else.IntelliSense® is great, but there is room for more.Imagine custom UI editors that appear while you’retyping-start typing a regex and get a cool editorthat lets you test the expression and check that it isworking as desired. Also, current wizards look a lotlike the wizards that we have been using for nearly10 years. I want something clever-I want differentwizards to be able to talk to each other, and I alsowant to send wizards by e-mail! I want the classbrowser to preview code in different languages andfor UI editors to offer better browsing experiences.Lastly, I would package Lutz Roeder’s Reflector withVisual Studio .NET vNext to save me (and a lot ofother people) a separate download. | If you were given unlimited data bandwidth,what would you do with it?I have to admit that I’m pretty satisfied with mycurrent bandwidth, but of course there are a lot ofthings I could envision doing with more bandwidthlike-video blogs! If I was given unlimited databandwidth, I would sell it in order to provide Internetaccess to a lot of places where it is not currentlyavailable.What was the last book you read?Well, I’ve been reading and rereading BeginningWeb Programming in C# from Apress approximately20 times during the last two weeks since it is a bookthat I’ve co-authored, and I’m serving as the primaryreviewer for its new edition. But I guess that doesn’tcount. I’m also reading The Jungle Book by RudyardKipling. On the technical front, my last read was WebProtocols and Practice by Balachander Krishnamurthyand Jennifer Rexford.What music CD do you recommend?I listen to a diverse array of music, which mostlydepends on how I feel on a particular day. FromArgentina, I would recommend the musical groupBersuit Vergarabat, though their early albums (from1990) are better than their latest releases. I alsolike many tango artists, such as Astor Piazzolla andAdriana Varela. Other than local music, I also likemusic by U2, Pink Floyd, Tori Amos, and SineadO’Connor.What makes you a great MVP?Am I a great MVP? My main contributions havebeen: a lot of answers (more than 4,500, and counting)to questions in the public newsgroups; co-authoringtwo books; writing a lot of articles for local andinternational magazines and Web sites; givingpresentations at Microsoft events and user-groupmeetings. Mainly I try to assist as many people aspossible through the newsgroups; there are manypeople who are just beginning to learn ASP.NET, andI try to point them in the right direction during theearly stages, which is fundamental to their success.Of course, I also like the tough questions-helping aperson who has spent a day or two combating eithera badly documented feature or a nasty bug is also alot of fun. | What’s in your computer bag?Nothing really interesting. I carry a (heavy) Sony Vaiolaptop, a PocketPC, and a Sony Ericsson mobile phone,plus chargers for all three. I also carry a bunch of my(new) business cards, some candies, a few printedpages with random articles and a small (non-technical)book, currently The Jungle Book.What’s the best thing that has happened sinceyou’ve become an MVP?All of the benefi ts that the MVP Program provides arereally great. You get much of the latest information tokeep you busy, as well as being invited to Redmond tospend time with the product groups and many othercool benefits. Also, a lot of recognition comes with theMicrosoft MVP brand, which generally helps to open afew doors.What is your motto?Carpe diem. I try to live so that I enjoy everymillisecond of every day.Who is your hero?My father is my hero. During his life he taught mea lot of things and prepared me for what may come.Every day I try to live by his example, and I can tellyou - it’s really hard work!What does success mean to you?Success in a software project means getting thingsdone on time and on budget - quite a challenge, isn’tit? Success in my career means having the chance tolearn new, cool things everyday. Success in my privatelife means spending as much time possible with thosewhom I love. |
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