The Old Joel on Software Forum: Part 4 (of 5)

.NET Rocks

Anyone partake of these interviews? The name alone was bad enough, but the lead in to the interview I selected was so bad I just couldn't go any further -- some amateur local music store music (a masturbatory completely gratuitous musical intro), followed by a throat-cancer stricken Marge Simpson intro. The whole package seems like they're targeting the pre-teen category. They start with "put the kids to bed and grab a beer"...rightttt...

http://msdn.microsoft.com/dotnetrocks/

Maybe I'm just too critical.

Dennis Forbes
Tuesday, May 11, 2004

Ha! No, you're not too critical.

It's so bad that it's funny. It reminds me a lot of some really cheesy corporate promo pieces I've been subjected to.

If they'd lay off some of the commercials at the beginning I might be able to listen to some of it.

Steve Barbour
Tuesday, May 11, 2004

wtf? Is this real?? Ouch, I don't think Microsoft's general marketing department gave its consent for this. Jeeze... Why? I ask... Like, if it was the Chevy Family Owners Club, but this... Argh..

Amazing Amateurs on Audio
Tuesday, May 11, 2004

It's not official MS stuff even though MSDN does have it.

The official website is at http://www.franklins.net/dotnetrocks/dnrstats.aspx

Steve Barbour
Tuesday, May 11, 2004

Whoops that should be http://www.franklins.net/dotnetrocks/

Sorry.

Steve Barbour
Tuesday, May 11, 2004

Probably dreamed up by the morons who devised the "Great Moments at Work" ads for MS Office.

AMS
Tuesday, May 11, 2004

Looks like an outgrowth of that stupid Channel 9. (I still haven't figured out if and where there's any kind of interesting content on that site.)

I guess we should see it in the greater context of Microsoft trying to build an anti-Slashdot, anti-Java, anti-Linux community of groupies that is... just as useless as the original ones.

Chris Nahr
Tuesday, May 11, 2004

My god....at least the website is consistent (one of my peeves with websites is where graphics blend into white, and have white boundaries, but they never set the background color on the body. I use a light gray window color so it always looks absurd). It's good that they link the longest duck penis.

Dennis Forbes
Tuesday, May 11, 2004

http://www.franklins.net/dnrwallpaper.jpg

Do you have your copy?

Dennis Forbes
Tuesday, May 11, 2004

The problem is that there's some OK content in there... but padded with dross. And it's way too long. If they got busy with a scalpel to fit it into something more like 45mins then it might be more palatable (or less than 80mins so I can fit on a CD to listen to in the car).

But hey - they're not professional broadcasters, they're doing it for a laugh and to raise their profiles perhaps, and it's free, so good luck to them.

Duncan Smart
Tuesday, May 11, 2004

They're trying way too hard to emulate professional radio personalities (give a geek a budget and they think they're a radio host, comedian, video producer, tv personality...), and the end result is unfunny, crappy "radio", and diluted, too-low-signal-to-noise technical information. A turd is a turd.

This guy is talking about having lime disease. Amazing.

.
Tuesday, May 11, 2004

Chris- DNR predates Channel9 by a while.

Speaking of channel 9 - While some of the content is interesting, it's mostly silly and/or useless - the people who are in that particular blogosphere/echo-chamber need just to peek out every once and a while to see what the rest of the world looks like.

NameWithheldOutOfBravery
Tuesday, May 11, 2004

".NET Rocks"

so named to get thousands of links for .net on google. great marketing

send money
Tuesday, May 11, 2004

It sounds amateur, because it _is_ amateur. Microsoft has nothing to do with it. The music was composed by one of the hosts. It's basically just two guys trying to have a good time, talking about technology.

They do have some good people on from time to time. The quality of an interview is directly related to two things: the interviewer, and the interviewee. Since both the interviewers are relatively unpolished amateurs, you often have to wait for charismatic interviewees in order to get an excellent show (for example, Chris Sells and Don Box). I don't mean this as an insult, since I wouldn't be any better an interviewer. ;)

Of course, it's hard to get super technical with just audio, so the content will often leave you wanting.

Brad Wilson (dotnetguy.techieswithcats.com)
Tuesday, May 11, 2004

"But hey - they're not professional broadcasters, they're doing it for a laugh and to raise their profiles perhaps"

The interesting, or perhaps scary, thing is that they have viewed the interest in this show as an indicator of their success as radio personalities.

Carl Franklin mentioned on his blog how they wanted to branch out to other areas outside of technology and have "interesting" guests and content on the new show. You could see that they were getting all worked up on how they were going to take the world by storm.

I find their show to be somewhat amusing, but like others, it is almost too painful to listen to unless they have a really interesting guest, like Chris Sells, on the show.

Does not.
Tuesday, May 11, 2004

"It sounds amateur, because it _is_ amateur."

Hrmm...interviews with respected industry figures, prominently linked from Microsoft's main page (so much so that there is the confusion of who exactly sponsors this), and programs have commercial sponsorship. I think the line between "amateur" and "professional" is getting a little blurred, and amatuer is a fallback title when people just aren't very good at something.

.
Tuesday, May 11, 2004

"interviews with respected industry figures, prominently linked from Microsoft's main page (so much so that there is the confusion of who exactly sponsors this), and programs have commercial sponsorship. I think the line between "amateur" and "professional" is getting a little blurred"

All that notwithstanding, it's still a bunch of amateurs and it shows when you listen to their show.

That doesn't mean they don't have some good content here and there, but some of the dialog is like listening to fingernails on a chalkboard.

Hopefully, they will get better and drop some of the sophmoric bits.

Whatever
Tuesday, May 11, 2004

In case Carl and Rory read this I would like to say I enjoy the show - keep it up guys and ignore the people who bad mouth you. And since Chris Sells and Don Box come on the show, you must be doing something right. They probably think you are doing a Good Thing.

Besides, why take advice about broadcasting from programmers ? Listen to the fans ! :)

Heh.

(Lets go for a beer when you are in town for Dev Teach)

Kent
Tuesday, May 11, 2004

"And since Chris Sells and Don Box come on the show, "

I think you mean DonXML, not Don Box. I don't recall when Don Box came on the show.

Huh?
Tuesday, May 11, 2004

"In case Carl and Rory read this I would like to say I enjoy the show - keep it up guys and ignore the people who bad mouth you"

The mediocre seek out accolades for validation.
The strong seek out criticisms to improve themselves.

Maybe you like it, but I feel confident that for every you, there are a dozen or so professionals who hit stop and move on, judging the quality of the rest of the show by the intro (which is generally a fair judgement). It's unfortunate because Microsoft is tossing them a lot of gold, but they're managing to turn it into lead.

.
Wednesday, May 12, 2004

"All that notwithstanding, it's still a bunch of amateurs and it shows when you listen to their show."

The point was that by any definition of the word "amateur", they are most definitely not amateurs. If, however, by amateur you mean "unskilled" then I will agree.

.
Wednesday, May 12, 2004

Don Box was episode 44. Check the episode guide.

Brad Wilson (dotnetguy.techieswithcats.com)
Wednesday, May 12, 2004

At least it ain't VBTV

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vbtv/

Chris Altmann
Wednesday, May 12, 2004

Just some fun. If you like 'amateur tech radio' and are not afraid of swinging both ways, give http://www.lugradio.org/ a shot also.

Just me (Sir to you)
Wednesday, May 12, 2004

I have listened to about a dozen shows and they are much more entertaining and interesting than the MS Shows (.NET Show etc.).

These guys manage to make me laugh on my way to work at 7am, and that's an achievement.

Rock on, .net rocks!

Chris McEvoy
Monday, May 17, 2004

Actually, Don Box *has* been on the show. Check the archives.

Psychotic Rambler
Sunday, June 6, 2004

You're listening to the wrong shows. Try the earlier shows (like from #1 and onwards) up to about 6 months back from today. There is some amazing contest there and less of a "we're so cool" feeling to it. From Dan Appleman to the man who invented VB - there is some great content to burn and listen to in your car (and the earlier shows are just an hour long, too).
Lately its been less exciting to listen to (too many "corners" in the show) but still some great content every once ina while (Clemens Vasters for example).
Give it a try past the starting music. I think you'll like it.

Roy Osherove
Thursday, July 29, 2004