The Toronto CFUG is hosting a meeting tonight on server virtualization and consolidation. If you are not in the Toronto area you can still take part via Connect.
Details posted by Ryan Favro (who will be presenting).
Microsoft has
announced that it will not be releasing any new versions of Visual FoxPro, although it will continue to support the technology for another 8 years or so. This is no surprise to anyone, I'm actually amazed that Microsoft continued to maintain FoxPro for as long as they did.
I may be dating myself by admitting this in public, but way back when DBF was a big part of my life. Does anyone else remember Ashton Tate's dBase III and III+, the ill-fated and very bloated dBase IV, SAY and GET statements, NDX files (and the MDX versus CDX debates), Concentric's superb R&R Report Writer, PRG files, Borland's tragic Ashton Tate acquisition, little upstart Fox Software being acquired by Microsoft, Nantucket's wonderful Clipper (which, like many other quality products, was acquired and then killed off by CA), Borland's pathetic attempt to port dBase to Windows, ...?
Way back when, just about all of the contract work I did (while still in school) was DBF based. Those early experiences helped create a strong database background which has served me well ever since. Of course, in hindsight the limitations of the platform and products are painfully obvious. Still, for many of us it was DBF and the companies built around it that formulated our understanding of databases, and influence our thinking to this day.
And so, while unsurprising and not unexpected, it's sad to see the announcement of the end of an era. <sniff>
I get e-mails from recruiters pretty regularly, and I generally pay no attention to them (I like what I do and am not planning a job change any time soon). But this morning I received an e-mail from a Microsoft recruiter that caught my attention because the detailed message explained that they were specifically contacting Macromedia employees. So, I replied, and said that while I was not interested in a position right now, I was curious as to why they wanted Macromedia employees specifically. And the single line response (copied and pasted as is, complete with the typo) was:
Because of the great dev experience Macormedia employees have
Thank you Microsoft, the compliment is greatly appreciated!
