A Microsoft PM tracks her story from aspiring astronaut to apprentice to SDET to PM to UX student

Dana Badeen

The geek in question
Dana Badeen

The job title
Program Manager, Engineering Innovation (Windows Server)

So, Dana. What did you want to be when you grew up?
When I started college at the University of Michigan, I wanted to be an astronaut. After two years in the Aerospace program I realized that the chances of actually getting into the Astronaut program are worse than getting struck by lightning! And even if you get into the program, you only have a one-third chance of making it to space.

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A Microsoft tester spills his guts about testing tools for devs, chugging the kool-aid, and dancing zombies

The geek in question
Justin Wilcox

The job title
Test Lead, MSMQ

MSMQ, huh? Nice Microsoft acronym. Break it down for me.
MSMQ stands for Microsoft Message Queuing, which ships as part of Windows. We’re a messaging platform that developers use if you’ve got an application on Computer A that wants to send information to Computer B, you use us to guarantee that information gets there, even if there’s a failure (e.g. machines burst into flames, someone trips over the Ethernet cable, asteroids, etc.) after you sent the information.

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