Monthly Archives: April 2008

MyTV is Top-10 at DT Interactive TV Award

Posted on April 30, 2008 by awfurtado

  Once upon a time, a group of brazilian students created a software prototype targeted at enhancing tourism experience with mobile, online and context-aware technologies. Then lots of interesting things happened: In 2005, the project (called TravelMates at that time) … Continue reading →

Posted in Computers and Internet | 9 Comments

Scrum in a nutshell

Posted on April 30, 2008 by awfurtado

  I’m currently having the opportunity to get deeper in touch with Scrum, in an internal project here at Microsoft. Scrum is a lightweight/agile methodology for project management. The term "scrum" comes from rugby, which means a way to restart … Continue reading →

Posted in Software Engineering | 4 Comments

Break your comfort zone. Now.

Posted on April 26, 2008 by awfurtado

  Comfort zones are those in which you feel yourself stable enough in your career so that you avoid taking risks (actually taking any efforts at all) to move the next level up. It doesn’t mean you are mediocre. On … Continue reading →

Posted in Career | 17 Comments

Do not patchwork Domain-Driven Development!

Posted on April 20, 2008 by awfurtado

  In this podcast from a couple of years ago (transcription here), about the Microsoft DSL Tools, Steve Cook points out some interesting things: The starting point for Domain-Specific Development IS NOT about creatively defining models and then generating applications … Continue reading →

Posted in Software Engineering | 13 Comments

Spam @ US

Posted on April 19, 2008 by awfurtado

  Relocating to a new country requires you to adapt to the new culture, day-by-day life, rules and lots of other things.   One of such "other things" that is really driving me mad here in the US is the spam … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal | 12 Comments

Microsoft perks

Posted on April 17, 2008 by awfurtado

  For those who ask about employee benefits and general "perks" at Microsoft, the video below summarizes lots of them.    http://images.video.msn.com/flash/soapbox1_1.swf Video: A Microsoft Guy Tries to Use All His Benefits in One Day   I can testify they … Continue reading →

Posted in Career | 15 Comments

Brazil is the first to have VS community localization

Posted on April 16, 2008 by awfurtado

  Last year, as a Microsoft Student Partner, I was invited to review some Visual Studio documentation in Brazilian Portuguese, created from machine translation. While some things were still innacurate, the great majority of the text was understandable, requiring minor … Continue reading →

Posted in Computers and Internet | 9 Comments

Dashboard hero!

Posted on April 16, 2008 by awfurtado

  My friend Anibal Sousa just noticed that, in this website with cool stuff that Google has in its Zurich offices, Google employees are chilling out with Xbox 360. But that must be an enhanced musical version of the Xbox 360 … Continue reading →

Posted in Games | 14 Comments

Alice, the Parasites and The Book of Time

Posted on April 15, 2008 by awfurtado

  Bruno Evangelista has just made a video response to my original XNA Challenge Brazil 2008 finalists video. His video shows his game, "Alice, the Parasites and The Book of Time", which was 3rd place in the contest. Check it … Continue reading →

Posted in Games | 9 Comments

Game design creativity: less is more!

Posted on April 11, 2008 by awfurtado

  In a previous post, I’ve shared some thoughts on commonalities and variabilities for digital games development. Sometimes, however, you find a game with a so unique game design that its variabilities stands out, perhaps leading to a completely new game … Continue reading →

Posted in Games | 10 Comments