…like you’ve never seen it before. Hint: there are white baby grand pianos involved.

Once again, I love it when MSFT goes for WTF humor!

Megan Wallent (formerly known as Michael Wallent, General Manager with IE) is back on the job this week.

It’s been absolutely fascinating to read about her transition on her blog … and it sounds like things are going smoothly now that she’s back in the office!

I love this video from Loneserver.com.

“What ever happened to him?”

“Windows ME? He’s in the back, washin’ dishes.”

Related and absolutely required reading: Mommy, where do home servers come from?

Dare Obasanjo just wrote a great post about his job AND his blog:

Thousands of Microsoft employees share their ideas with their coworkers, competitors and customers via blogs on a daily basis. Lots of companies would clamp down on that sort of behavior and ensure that only sanctioned company positions go out in employee communications but not Microsoft.

Read Dare’s whole post.

The Zune Originals program lets consumers design their own devices. Professional artwork choices for new Zunes include graphics from two employees.
By Steve Birge
With more than a million Zune players sold, how can you pick yours out in a crowd? Thanks to the new Zune Originals program, you can give yours a personal touch by adding professional graphic artwork from its Artists Series. The back of the device can be laser-engraved with one of 27 designs created by internationally recognized artists, including two Microsoft employees.

Cutting-edge graphic art gives the device a strong statement of individuality, said Thomas Markert, Zune Entertainment creative director.

“Zune Originals at the top level allow consumers the ability to literally build their own Zune,” he said. “The consumer picks a color and then has engraved whatever they like on it, whether it’s five lines of text, a smaller design called a ‘tattoo,’ with or without text, or a design from the Artists Series. With that, the device is all yours, totally different than what you’d buy at retail.”

Continue reading →

Employees report increased productivity and reduced stress, thanks to The Connector. The free Microsoft bus service is poised for expansion.
By Fred Albert, January 24, 2008

It used to take Bryan Rutberg anywhere from 25 to 45 minutes to drive from his Seattle home to Microsoft’s Redmond campus. Unfortunately, the drive home was much less predictable, occasionally stretching to two hours due to the daily backups on Highway 520. “It drove me crazy and sent my blood pressure skyrocketing,” said Rutberg, director of the Redmond Executive Briefing Center. It got to the point where he stopped drinking water after 2 p.m., for fear of being trapped in traffic when nature called.

Three or four times a week now, Rutberg leaves his Saturn LS2 at home and commutes via The Connector, the free, WiFi-equipped bus service that Microsoft introduced to much fanfare last September. The Connector picks Rutberg up one and a half blocks from his home on Seattle’s Queen Anne Hill and deposits him at the Overlake Transit Center bordering the Microsoft campus, where a shuttle transports him to his office.

Continue reading →

Once considered a niche player, Microsoft’s Server & Tools Business is now a robust and growing business, and one of the company’s most promising.

By Joshua Isaac
January 25, 2008

Microsoft’s formal launch of its next generation of server and tools software next month will help solidify the Server & Tools Business’s position as a formidable and growing competitor in this crucial market.But it wasn’t always this way.

At the Windows 2000 launch eight years ago, Microsoft demonstrated its commitment to the enterprise business by lining the stage with servers powered by Windows Server 2000. The launch foretold a breakthrough for STB, which would grow into a market leadership position.

The launch in San Francisco in February 2000 conveyed Microsoft’s willingness to bet big on the server business despite doubts voiced by the press and a crowded field of competitors.

How wrong those skeptics were.

An InfoWorld article from the week of the launch captured the prevailing sentiment. One analyst said Microsoft’s growth rate was tapering off in the server space. Another commented that with the range of options now available, such as Linux and hosted applications, Microsoft wouldn’t be able to rely on the dominance of Windows with hardware manufacturers and ISVs to be successful.

Continue reading →

The geek in question: Jillian Venters aka “That Goth Girl.”

The job title: Technical Editor, Dev Div

What is it that you do here?

I edit help documentation for developers on the Dev Div team, and I’ve been an editor here at Microsoft as a contractor and then full time for about seven years now.

Continue reading →

The Shared Source Initiative makes publicly available the source code for many of Microsoft’s core products, including Windows and Office. And the company’s okay with that.
By Steve Birge

Believe it or not, there are non-Microsoft people digging into the kernel source code for Windows, Office, and other prized corporate assets.

Before you start to worry too much, the company knows about it and, in fact, encourages it. Don’t think the company has gone all open source on you. It’s part of the Shared Source Initiative (SSI), whereby almost anyone – including customers, partners, developers, academics, and governments worldwide – can access and work with actual source code of many Microsoft technologies.

Since 2002, more than 80 technologies have been made available through the SSI, including a set of .NET framework libraries just released for sharing in mid-January. Additionally, more than 600 non-Microsoft technologies have been released under a Shared Source license.
Continue reading →

The geek in question: Miguel Susffalich

The job title: SDET, BizTalk/Oslo
(and Peruvian rock star)

What are you working on?

I’m an SDET working in the Distributed Application Server team of the Connected Systems Division, specifically working in features for BizTalk Server and Oslo.

How did you get your gig at Microsoft?

I did a five year software engineering degree in Peru at UPC, and one of my career goals was to work at Microsoft. Last year I tried every option available to get in touch — I submitted my resume through the careers portal, I got into the rockstar coding contest on Jobsblog, and I had a friend refer me. I’m not sure how I actually got to the recruiter, but I got a call in August saying that my visa had been approved and I was able to take the next steps! And here I am! Continue reading →