#microsoft.

Durant le week-end, Microsoft a dévoilé son réseau social expérimental : So.cl. Ce nouveau service se situe à mi-chemin entre Facebook et Storify, ce qui peut, à première vue, sembler innovant. Cette première conclusion permet de conclure que Steve Ballmer (#1 des pires CEO selon Forbes) n’y a pas collaboré; ce qui est plutôt positif.

Two weeks ago, I started teaching myself a computer language called C# (read: C Sharp). It allows developers, for example, to write applications for Windows Phone 7, such as the MiniBrowser app I created below.

While hanging around in my favorite café recently, a thought crossed my mind: “We’re entering a Golden Age!” Well, maybe not all of us. But 13-year-old kids who teach themselves to write code and create applications, set up services, start companies — maybe even future empires — certainly are.

“Is it too late to start learning computer languages from scratch if you’ve just turned 40?” I ask myself this question often, but with every app I write, I’m getting more and more confident: “The window of opportunity is still open — even for an old dog like me!”

I believe computer literacy is a crucial virtue, as does Wikipedia:

“Computer literacy is defined as the knowledge and ability to use computers and related technology efficiently, with a range of skills covering levels from elementary use to programming and advanced problem solving.”

In a not-too-distant future, computer literacy will separate those who own the restaurant from those who bus tables. That might sound a bit dramatic, but take a look around. Everyone has a PC, everyone uses a smart phone or tablet, everyone is engaging on social networks. Our world is already divided between those who consume digital technologies and those who actively shape them. It’s like two continents drifting apart — and the gap is widening quickly. On which side are you standing?

Puzzle it out. As I wrote in a previous blog post, I started teaching myself some initial IT basics a few months ago: I took a server apart and put it together again, started taking a closer look at virtualization technologies from VMware… Now these “puzzles” are coming together and starting to make sense: I’m taking my first steps as a rookie developer within the Microsoft.NET Framework. And I’m exploring VMware products, such as ESXi 5 and vSphere 5, to virtualize my physical hardware: I run Windows 7 applications on a virtual machine, Windows 8 Developer Preview on a second and Linux on a third.

It will take me years to become computer literate, but it’s not too late. I’ll document my learning progress with a blog post series, and hopefully inspire you to join my journey to computer literacy.