An end of an era is at hand: I decided to sight see at the newly built – and partially complete – main Microsoft campus in Redmond today and quickly deduced that the new buildings are going to follow the “tradition” of main campus and being identified by number, starting [again] with Building 1. Which of course leads to the obvious breaking of tradition:

Building 7 is now a real building.

Unless there’s a pool up on that rooftop, it suddenly feels like we’re living in an episode of Sliders or something.

For context, see this post from 2006: You Have a Meeting in Building 7.

Side node: I’m still honored that when you search for Microsoft Building 7, this 17-year-old link is still in the top 10-20 results.

Seriously: honored.

After having seen the videos today of the Windows phone 7 Series prototype device, it brings me back to a device that’s already in my pocket: the Zune HD. Same layout, same font, same “I want to go here so I’ll click there” UX flow… it works very, very well as a media device. Looks like it might work well as phone, but I guess we have to wait until Holiday 2010 for that… at least I know I’ll be too busy to notice the time pass, what will all the Xbox stuff going on!

If you want an early preview of the Windows phone 7 Series [music/video] UX will likely feel like go get a Zune HD and play around with it.

NetCrucible: This is a really bad article. The article asserts two falsehoods: one, that Microsoft is afraid of Google; and two, that Microsoft will win by being a relentless tortoise and copying features. Let’s talk about the “copying” theory first. Five years ago, Bill Gates shook up the industry by announcing a dual-pronged strategy — all productivity apps seamlessly integrated into the universal canvas of the web, and the “web as a platform”. This wasn’t vapor, this was what I used every day.

I personally like the comment of “take [MSN] Messenger, which has been shipping new releases three times a year. Google just shipped their first version. Please don’t say we pre-emptively copied Google.”

Good post.

On my drive into work every morning I pass our athletic fields. I usually give them a glance, to see if there’s any activity on them: games, practices, tents, parties, etc… Most mornings – since it’s before most of the campus is out of bed – there’s nothing much going on, aside from a lone tent occasionall [means a ship party has happened/will be happening]. This morning, however, there was just one guy with a set of bag pipes, pointing northward.

The only thing odder than seeing this is that I didn’t think it was odd at all: life on campus is kinda like that.

I’ve been playing foosball for a long while now. I picked it up while I was working for Symantec; since then, whenever I join a new company, I always lobby to have a table brought in for “in house” entertainment value. Besides, most people like to play it and it’s relatively inexpensive (as far as gaming tables go). Interestingly, Building 5 already had a foosball table in the 2nd floor “lobby”, where people can play during lunch and after 5pm – why the time limits? The table – and the players – make a good deal of noise that used to carry to a near by conference room, so most people only play after 5. What’s so strange or unique about this?
Continue reading Only @ Microsoft →

While a lot of companies are censoring their employees about company matters and warning them to keep their mouths closed – or at least ordering them not to Blog about things – Microsoft has swung in the other direction. They’ve got a number different technical sites running all over the place with “inside views” of technology just breaking to the scene but they’ve got two newer sites that haven’t seen anywhere else, at least in Blog format. They are Technical Careers @ Microsoft and Marketing @ Microsoft – want some insight into who they’re looking to hire to work out in Redmond? Go check them out, right now.