It’s been quite a while since my last post. I must confess that I’ve neglected my blog a bit. I’ve been mainly occupied in two things: my new job at Microsoft and playing Playstation 3 (and some Xbox 360). As usual, I’ve also read several books, keep current on my favorite TV Series and watched a few movies, which I recently updated on my sidebar.

I was hoping to write this post under my new website design, but I haven’t made much progress with my WordPress theme. Things are looking better though, since I just upgraded this blog to WordPress 2.5 (after having a few unpleasant surprises with Wordpress 2.0.x). The upgrade went pretty smoothly, and the new features should help me write a couple of posts I’ve planned faster. My theme is now “widgetized” which should make the migration to the new design easier.

Regarding my job at Microsoft, it’s actually going pretty well. I still have a lot to learn, but it’s been a very interesting experience so far. Microsoft has a comprehensive training plan for new hires, which includes several online and classroom courses, such as MS101 and NEO –not the one from the Matrix–, but the New Employee Orientation. I also attended a Biztalk class in Washington DC (pictures in a future post), and an event for technical people held in Seattle called TechReady. I’m currently preparing myself to present a Biztalk certification exam.

I’ve also been playing several games on my PS3, such as Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, Resistance: Fall of Man, Stardust HD and Gran Turismo 5 Prologue. Overall I am quite pleased with the console, although a bit disappointed after finding out that most games are not 1080p as Sony wants people to believe, but 720p, which is comparable to many Xbox 360 games. After upgrading my TV to a 40 inch Full HD LCD I’m quite pleased with my current setup.

That’s it for a brief update on my doings, I’ll start posting a bit more often from now on, and hope to finalize my new design sometime…

I’m happy to inform that I have a new job at Microsoft. Effective January 2008 I work as a Technology Solution Professional for SOA & Process Platform based in Mexico City. I’m very excited about this new challenge in my professional life since I’ll get to know new technologies and products. I’ll be primarily focused on technical presales for Biztalk.

Just as a reminder, all views and opinions expressed here are my own and not my employers.

In some of my previous posts I mentioned that I was working on a full redesign for my site during 2007. Well, 2007 is over and I am glad to inform that the redesign is almost complete. It has been a three step process: graphic design, CSS layout and Wordpress template coding. The graphic design and CSS layout are done (except for very minor details), and I’m currently working on the Wordpress template. I plan to release the new site as soon as the template is done and I have tested it in the most popular browsers. I will no longer support Internet Explorer 5.x on Mac or PC. The blog content will be available on the new site from day one, but I will incrementally work on the rest of the site. I’m very pleased with the final results and hope to finish quickly. Stay tuned!

Just posting an update about my experience with Mexico’s Online Apple Store. I ordered two keyboards and Leopard on Monday, November 19. The following day I received my UPS tracking number. I was a bit surprised that the packaged was coming from the US, since it has to go through customs when arriving in Mexico. Anyway, here’s the route:

Overall very good service. Everything arrived in a huge box within a week of ordering.

If Amazon could deliver to Mexico City this efficiently and at this cost (free!) I would certainly buy more from them.