Jeff Lin, guitarist for Seattle band Harvey Danger, talks about Virtual Earth 3D, work/life balance, and finding your destiny.
Jeff Lin doesn't want a corporate mother
Geek in question: Jeff Lin
Job title: Program Manager, Virtual Earth 3D
What are you working on right now?
Virtual Earth 3D is all about realistic representation of the world. We’ve got a couple hundred cities with photo-realistic imagery and 3D geometry. You can add photos, make movies, do tours. It’s actually super cool. I think it’s one of the coolest things that Microsoft is doing.
Do you have to say that because you work on it?
Naw. I feel pretty lucky that I got this position. I just started in this group five months ago. I’d been over at MSN since 2005, and when I applied for this job, I was like, there’s no way. I think I just lucked out.
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Microsoft’s Baudboys head to San Francisco this week to compete for national a cappella singing title.
By Fred Albert
April 29, 2008
The Baudboys have been performing around Microsoft since the early 1990s. The current group includes (back row) Graham Sheldon, Ric Lewis, Owen Braun, Elliot Lewis, Dave McEwen and (front row) Jon Schwartz, Mark Adolph, Paul Eng.
It has all the makings of a Hollywood hit: Eight nerds band together to form a singing group. On the eve of the big competition, one of the members breaks his back, but the show goes on, and in spite of seemingly insurmountable odds, the geeks beat out the pros to nab the grand prize. Microsoft’s own Baudboys, an eight-man a cappella singing group, took top honors March 8 at the Pacific Northwest Harmony Sweepstakes, besting more experienced groups for the title of top a cappella group in the region, despite the fact that first tenor Ric Lewis had to spend much of the concert confined to a chair due to a degenerate disc.
“The fact that we won Northwest Harmony Sweeps was the upset of the year, because we were going up against six other professional groups,” marveled Dave McEwen, Baudboys president and a content project manager for Developer and Platform Evangelism. “When they finally announced who won, we were all in shock.”
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Fiddler in the woods
The geek in question: Alex MacLeod
The job: Senior Test Manager,
Exchange
Do you feel like the Exchange team gets no love? Like people see it as less sexy than, say, Xbox?
Totally. When people apply at Microsoft, they get this boilerplate form where they check their interest in different groups. And the only two check boxes I’ve ever seen marked are Games or Mobile Devices. And occasionally someone who thinks they’re a hardcore computer candidate will check OS, but no one ever chooses the Enterprise applications like Exchange. No one knows what it means and it doesn’t sound cool.
But see, I work on a product that for millions of people and millions of businesses across the globe, isn’t a “nice to have” feature. It’s a complete “must have.” There’s not a company in the world that doesn’t view their ability to communicate effectively with each other through email as total mission critical. And when it doesn’t work whole economies suffer. Continue reading →
Miguel
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 →
Graphic designer Iosefatu Sua has three designs among the available selections that reflect his Pacific Island heritage as a native of New Zealand.
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.”
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