George Walters

A framed picture is resting on the music stand of a piano next to some plants. The image is a legal document that has been cut into 4 pieces, each painted and reassembled to echo the Microsoft logo.

I have made a piece of visual art to commemorate my time at Microsoft. It is the first page of my separation agreement.

New NAS installed.
Raid 10 plus a hot swap spare
31.98 TB of space

Only .6TB used, all backed up to a Backblaze S3 bucket.

This is overkill 😂

James A. Lovell Jr., Commander of Apollo 13, Is Dead at 97 He led the three-man crew that survived a near catastrophic explosion in space in 1970, and was later immortalized by Tom Hanks in the movie “Apollo 13.”

Breaking News: James Lovell Jr., commander of Apollo 13, the spacecraft that survived a near catastrophic explosion as it approached the moon, has died at 97.

Apparently being RIF'ed from Microsoft does not mean I'm removed from getting paged via the incident tool. I suppose this happens when you RIF an entire team and no one is around to clean up the ICM config.

Taking time with the family at Watkins Glen race track. Don't forget that your family is the most important part of your life. Chaos and politics happen every day for centuries.

The EU has approved its 17th sanctions package against Russia, targeting nearly 200 shadow fleet ships.

New measures also address hybrid threats and human rights.

More sanctions on Russia are in the works.

The longer Russia wages war, the tougher our response.

Microsoft Build 2025 Book of News

Here it is - the Microsoft Build Book of News!
news.microsoft.com/build-2025-b...

I guess I'm getting on blue sky more mostly because several thousand of my closest friends got laid off from Microsoft. Feel free to reach out. I got an open ear. Happy to help where I can.

Microsoft Build | May 19-22, 2025 Connect, code, and grow at Microsoft Build. This is your moment to collaborate and problem solve with your peers, refactor your skills, and experiment with available code snippets—all in Seattle, May ...

Today's the start of #MSBuild! build.microsoft.com

Seattle has decided to give a traditional welcome of rain 😅

How it feels when I do a group policy advice

Going to SQL Saturday NYC going to talk to @geowalters.bsky.social @way0utwest.bsky.social and who knows who else.

Breaking news: The US has been stripped of its top-notch triple-a credit rating by Moody’s on concerns about rising levels of government debt www.ft.com/content/e456...

YouTube video by Scott Hanselman EPISODE 16 - Scott and Mark Learn To… Feedback

The latest Scott and Mark Learn To podcast episode is out, where we learn to "feedback":

www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYcE...

SQL Saturday NYC 2025 Conference, a Success! Once again, the organizers and volunteers of SQL Saturday NYC created a wonderful experience at the Microsoft Times Square office!

Once again, the organizers and volunteers of SQL Saturday NYC created a wonderful experience at the Microsoft Times Square office!

Oh my

sinclairinat0r.lol

We're back from a bit of downtime — thanks for your patience just now!

Our team is working to investigate the root cause. We share downtime updates at status.bsky.app.

Most people do not want to marinate in politics 24/7. Nothing relevant to their day-to-day lives, especially what they do for leisure, their artistic interests, business/enterprise, or tech is a recipe for a grim silo

Taylor Swift holding glasses

*takes off glasses*
You're doomposting. In this economy? We don't have the state capacity for this, Nathan! Revolutions are built on hope, isn't that what your stupid anime said?

With so many families still missing loved ones, there are undoubtedly many lonely tables this Passover.

And so, Israelis came out in droves to hold their Passover Seders in the Hostage Square in Tel Aviv.

When our own are hurting, we come out to show them they are not alone.

us government went from telling miners “learn to code” to telling coders “learn to mine” in less than ten years

Key Highlights from Fabric Community Conference 2025 Fabric Community Conference 2025 just finished this past week. There have been a lot of updates since last year when I published this blog: Please review that blog for the basics around Microsoft Fabric, and how to migrate towards it from Power BI Premium. This is the official Microsoft Fabric blog showcasing new features: One new overarching collection of blogs is by Worldwide Fabric lead Marc Reguera: Check the Fabric blog frequently for new updates! Here are some features to notice: Shortcuts for OneLake Shortcuts are objects in OneLake that point to other storage locations.

Key Highlights from the Microsoft Fabric Community Conference 2025

Yes.

90's -- going to night school to learn programming leading to computer jobs instead of Mech Eng.

2000 -- moving to massachusetts. Life changing
2006 -- Accepting job at MSFT.
and other things along the way.

There was a time when I was strongly encouraged to apply for a role at something called Channel 9 at MS. I wonder sometimes about the multiverse version of me that chased that career

Do you have a moment in your life that you know peeled off a different version of you out there somewhere

DOGE Plans to Rebuild SSA Codebase In Months, Risking Benefits and System Collapse Social Security systems contain tens of millions of lines of code written in COBOL, an archaic programming language. Safely rewriting that code would take years—DOGE wants it done in months.

BREAKING: DOGE is starting to put together a team to migrate the SSA's computer systems entirely off one of its oldest programming languages in a matter of months, potentially putting the integrity of the system—and the benefits on which tens of millions of Americans rely—at risk.

A screenshot from Teams, showing the prompt to add people to a team. It reads "Start typing a name or email". In the name field is "Mary Jo Foley" and underneath is a message "We couldn't find any matches."

OK we're safe on teams at work

Meta Seeks to Block Further Sales of Ex-Employee’s Scathing Memoir An arbitrator has prevented the employee from promoting her book and disparaging the company until private arbitration concludes.

Meta won a legal victory on Wednesday against a former employee who published an explosive, tell-all memoir, as an arbitrator temporarily prohibited the author from promoting or further distributing copies.

Hamburg Airport Halts All Flights as Ground Staff Strike The airport in Germany’s second largest city said the one-day strike, called over pay and conditions, began earlier than expected “without any notice.”

The airport in Hamburg, Germany’s second largest city, said it had canceled all flights on Sunday because of a one-day strike over pay by ground staff called by a labor union that started its action earlier than expected without little warning.