James Lyle keeps getting cast as Englishmen -- could it be the impeccable accents?
The geek in question: James Lyle
The job title: Program Manager in Windows International Globalization Services.
How long have you been here?
I just passed my 9th anniversary at Microsoft. I got my PhD from the University of Washington in the late ’90s and my full intention was to be a professor of linguistics. But I knew some people who were working here who had come out of linguistics and came to check it out.
I had been looking at language in a very academic way with all these abstract theories about syntax. And when I got here, I started seeing the real thing. Once you start trying to build a grammar checker, you’ve got to know what all kinds of language real people are using in the real world every day. I felt like one of these 19th century biologists boating down the Amazon just looking at thousands of un-catalogued species with no time to even stop and say, “That’s what that is, and that’s what this is.” I was seeing so much language every day!
Microsoft is known for all of its acronyms. As a linguist, do you feel like there’s a whole separate company language? Continue reading →
Zeke's aha moment
Geek in question: Zeke Odins-Lucas
Job title: Principal software developer on Internet Explorer
How long have you been with Microsoft?
I started contracting in 1994, and was hired in 1996.
How’d you get here?
Well, that goes back to 1993. I was working at the gas station that’s on 148th and 51st, here in Redmond. I was managing that little hole, and I was miserable and commuted an hour and a half each way by bus from Seattle. At least I had a job, but yeesh.
Then one day at a friend’s piercing studio in Seattle, I met this guy — he was like 7 feet tall and 300 pounds and shaved head, had a big tusk piercing through his nose and was getting his nipples pierced that day. We started chatting and realized we both worked on the East Side. This guy was like me (23 at the time, and no college), and he says, “Yeah, I work out in Redmond, too. I work at Microsoft.”
And I was like, “Oh, that’s just like a few blocks away from me. What’s it like to work there? ” He said, “Just come on by and see…”
Continue reading →
