• No email/no web for a week!

    My domain name adventures continue. savas@parastatidis.name will not work and the web site will not be accessible for about a week. Apologies to all for the inconvenience. This is frustrating but it seems to be the only way 🙁 You can use <firstname>.<lastname> (at) microsoft (dot) com if you need to reach me.

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  • From the Web: "Free Hugs Campaign"

    One of the YouTube awarded videos. Brilliant!

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  • At Microsoft Mashup Day… Looks fun

    Just arrived at the 4th Microsoft Mashup Day (here’s a video from one of the past events). It’s really fun. This is my second one and I am planning to take the opportunity to do some work with the Windows Live SDK, perhaps develop a Windows Sidebar Gadget and do a mashup. Should be fun.…

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  • There may be blog/web/email troubles ahead

    I just wanted to let you know that there might be some troubles with my domain name in the next few days. I am trying to transfer from register.com to godaddy.com and renew my domain registration for another 9 years in the process. I am doing this because godaddy.com seems to support more features for online management…

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  • What a week! (and new toys)

    This has been an extremely busy week. It’s been the first time since my PhD I actually stayed at the office overnight and continued working throughout the next day non-stop; and I did that twice in the week. We hosted scientists (for various events) so I also had to go out for dinner. Of course,…

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  • John W. Backus, 82, Fortran Developer, Dies – New York Times

    John W. Backus, who assembled and led the I.B.M. team that created Fortran, the first widely used programming language, which helped open the door to modern computing, died on Saturday at his home in Ashland, Ore. He was 82. Link to John W. Backus, 82, Fortran Developer, Dies – New York Times

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  • R2D2 as a letter box!

    I went to the US Postal Services website to let them know of my upcoming change of address and I saw an R2D2 moving around. A quick search on the Web revealed that for the 30th anniversary of StarWars, R2D2 will become a letter box around the US. Hmmm.

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  • BPEL for Windows Workflow Foundation March CTP

    I just read on the Web about the availability of this package from Microsoft. Cool. I knew a CTP was coming but didn’t know when. I’ve been trying to explain to scientific workflow people that Windows Workflow is a generic framework without any built-in semantics and that any type of dataflow/workflow could be implemented, if…

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  • Steven is joining Microsoft

    Woo hoo! I’ve been waiting to blog about this for some time. Steven Newhouse is joining Microsoft and the HPC team. The OMII has a blog post about it. I’ve known Steven since I returned to Newcastle in 2003 and engaged with the Grid community. He’s a great asset for Microsoft and I am really glad…

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  • New skis, bindings, and boots

    This must be one of the smartest purchases I’ve made. My Salomon X-Frees have been getting really really old; I bought them 6 or 7 years ago. I have been demoing various skis throughout the season but last Saturday I tried a pair of K2s (the Apache Recon); they felt really good. After a quick…

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