Rob Mensching's Blog - page 4

Last year I mentioned that I've felt like I am 28. That still holds true today. But, for the last year, I was somehow convinced that I was 42. It wasn't until something like September--discussing plans for my wife's birthday if I recall correctly--that I realized I was mistaken. But, today I actually turn 42. So here's to a second year as 42!

The Crystal Method has been my favorite band since I discovered them as an intern at Microsoft. That's 30 years ago now! Well the next album drops September 28th.

Last month at the Windows Developer Day event Microsoft announced MSIX as the future for Windows application installation. The technical details were pretty light during the presentation. But that lack of detail means some pretty crazy conjectures are thrown about. So, I thought I'd posit some of my own theories before real details came about.

For the last twenty years or so I've felt like I am 28. It's strange since my life now--married with two kids running my own company--is quite a bit different than it was at 28. If I'm honest, 21 was way more like 28--dating and working at Microsoft. But I'm 41 today and it's time to review.

This isn't a "year in review" or "New Year's Resolutions" blog post. If you've followed my blog for the last few years you know I write that sort of blog entry on my birthday. No. Tonight I'm closing out 2017 in a way that feels simply apropos for this year. Tonight I'm talking about the WiX Toolset security release made official earlier today.

The WiX Toolset v3.0 released 8 years ago today. Since then we've released 10 versions that maintain a high level of backwards compatibility. For most that commitment to backwards compatibility makes it easy to pick up the bug fixes, features and security updates each new release offers. Sometimes supporting backwards compatibility means we end up dragging along quite a bit of legacy.

Tonight I'm doing something completely different. I'm not working on WiX. In fact, I'm not even working on one of my own projects.

During the final weeks of WiX v3.11 it was challenging just to find time to code much less write about the code. So our fun "Let's Code" sessions here were postponed while I focused on simply finishing WiX v3.11. But we are successfully past WiX v3.11 so let's talk about WiX v3.14. Actually, how about we create WiX v3.14 right now. Sound good? I thought so. Let's code!