What should I do now I can compete?
My departure from Microsoft is very nearly reaching its first anniversary.
As befits someone approaching that milestone, my thoughts drift to ... the non-compete clause.
That's the niggling part of the contract every Microsoft employee signs, and which restricts them, to lesser or greater extent, from engaging in any activity considered to be competitive to Microsoft, using knowledge gained while working at Microsoft.
Now, in my case, the non-compete clause is weak to begin with - a condition I made of my employment was that I could continue my WFTPD work, which was, in some ways, directly competitive to Microsoft's FTP server in IIS.
It's further weakened, I'd say, by the fact that Microsoft sent me to exactly one class while I was there - the mandatory coding security class - and bought me one book - the mandatory "Writing Secure Code".
But, weakened or not, I have chosen to observe it steadfastly - I have not added a single feature to WFTPD or WFTPD Pro or WFTPD Explorer that was based on anything I learned at Microsoft, or even on anything I had hoped to add to Microsoft's FTP server during my stay there. I have even steered clear of adding features that I was planning to add to WFTPD and WFTPD Pro before Microsoft offered me the job, just to avoid the appearance of competing with my ex-employer.
So now, I'm giddy with anticipation, as this mostly self-imposed deadline is about to expire.
What should I start to code into my software?
Well, there's an open comments section below - what do you think I should do, now that I can compete?