Rajat Arya

I finally got around to updating my site’s versions of WordPress and Gallery2. Unfortunately, I didn’t read the fine print about the Gallery 2.1 upgrade demolishing all previously working themes and modules. (Odd that a “minor” 0.1 update would incur such wrath on previously working themes, but alas, I cannot complain for not being diligent with my preparation prior to the upgrade.)

Anyway, I had to do some manual surgery to Gallery’s db in order to eliminate my now busted WordPress theme. So, now I don’t have the “fancy”, er, barely working, links from the Gallery to the main WordPress page. I also don’t have the same CSS page – so the fonts are incorrect. Hopefully this weekend I’ll sort it all out. Maybe I’ll use the WPG2 modules/themes. Maybe I’ll role my own. Maybe I’ll do nothing and have a social life instead. Maybe you’ll have to wait to find out.

I realized several weeks ago that denying myself to write about what excited me technically would be an oversite that I would regret later in life (since this blog is still focused as a public journal).

So, I’ve created a Technical category to the site – allowing me a place to talk about whatever technical thing strikes my fancy. This will probably lead to a lot more blog posts by me, but, in the end, I think that is for the best.

Another oversite I am looking to correct is regarding my employer. I have refrained from mentioning that I work for Microsoft through out my website. I am pretty sure it is due to my concern that stating my employer on my website would imply that I agree with them ideologically. However, as I’ve realized over the years, any employer (and more so for the first corporate employer) imprints themself onto their employees in some way. This isn’t a brainwashing comment, or a drinking the kool-aid comment, just that each corporate culture leaves an imprint on you.

So, to try to use my website as a public journal about things that I think I’ll find interesting to read in 10-15 years to not include my employer would be an oversite.

So I thought I’d take a minute to mention that I have worked for Microsoft since September 2002. Since that time, I’ve held three distinct titles and positions.

1. Developer Support Engineer – in the Support division, helping developers write printer drivers for Windows NT 4.0 through Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.
2. Software Design Engineer / Test – in Core Operating Systems Division as a Quality Assurance representative, working on shipping Windows Error Reporting components in Windows Vista.
3. Software Development Engineer – in Windows Live division working on Codename Max, designing and developing the code.

So, that has been my career with Microsoft so far. I will write more about my position in Codename Max during a future post.