Last Monday was my first day in a new job: I’m now on the Product Evangelism team at Adobe Systems.  Prior to this, I was an analyst at Directions on Microsoft, focusing on explaining Microsoft’s developer tools and platforms to corporate customers, the press, and Wall Street, among others. Before that I spent 9 years (1992-2001) in Microsoft’s Developer Division, working on products like Visual C++, J++, and the first version of C#.

Some friends ask me why I moved to Adobe. It’s simple. If you’ve seen the totally brilliant movie Ratatouille, recall the food critics line near the end:

In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face is that, in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so. 

So after 6 years of sitting on the side, it’s time get back in the arena. I’ll be posting about Flash, Flex, and AIR from the perspective of someone steeped in the world of .NET.