Roadmap

Ok, those two posts were in retrospect, to add a little drama. I have been a keen Delphi developer for the past 10 years, initially through being a multimedia programmer for Perth's interactive science museum, and then further multimedia and game development work in my own consultancy, and for the past 2.5 years as the Software Team Leader for a medical device manufacturer.
Delphi has served me well, and technology-wise, I have no reason to leave it. But jobs are now scarce for a Delphi developer in Perth, and I couldn't recommend it myself for most large new projects, due to future maintainability and finding and keeping staff. C# and .Net have recieved almost unanimous praise in the research I have done, especially from Delphi people. C# shares its Chief Architect, Anders Heijlsberg
with Delphi. I already know (and prefer) C syntax, and C# combines that with the clean OO features and framework design of Delphi, plus the resources and market demand of a Microsoft environment. As much as I despise Microsoft's shameless
tactics, I have decided to not be religious about technologies, and follow what makes the most sense for me now. And if Mono ever gets off the ground, I'll look
for opportunities with that.
This blog is about the journey from Delphi to C# and .Net. I intend to record what I learn along the way. Breaking into a whole new field involves not just lots of reading, but its important to find out what to read. Its easy
to find dozens of courses and books offering to teach you, but hard to find the
best content over the best marketted content. Hopefully this will help others
get through the noise as I do.
I have a few months to do so, and in order to be employable I hope to gain Microsoft certification (to prove my skills, in the absense of "professional" - which seems to mean "employed" - experience). I also have a website in mind to build as a learning exercise.

Now I'm that stone-faced guy

A manager walks over to me and asks me to come with him. Strange (and serious). I follow him through the foyer past a professionally dressed unfamiliar lady into the lunch room and sit down opposite the CEO. There's a pay slip with some large numbers on it and he says words like cutting costs and restructure, then says I have been chosen. Like a rerun of a dream, it seemed wierdly familiar. I was no longer required. I had daydreamed about being free of the 9-5 grind before, but not this suddenly. I have Tania and baby Mikaela to think about now. Then I looked at the numbers. I don't have to work for months!

I leave the lunch room and return to my desk slightly shaky, like I'm not supposed to be there. The unfamiliar woman is waiting for me in the meeting room. I've been trying to leave here for months, but on my terms. My resume is ready, and the lady is from an employment agency. She'll want to see my resume, so I print it and take it in. She says I may have feelings of anger or depression. Joy wasn't on her list!
I'm not sure if this is good or bad, but its nice to be free.

Just another day

Drove to work. Got my coffee. Worked on some unit tests. Went into the lunch room expecting a meeting and found I had walked in on a private meeting, with one stone-faced guy facing someone else. Walked back out.