My Trip to Microsoft: Last Day Here

Today is Bill Gates’ last day at Microsoft and its mine as well.  Unfortunately I didn’t get to attend any of his parting festivities, but it was hard to walk far on campus without overhearing conversations about his departure.  He’ll be missed.

Last night we had dinner at The Third Floor Fish Cafe overlooking Lake Washington and I tasted swordfish for the first time in life.  It was excellent.  One the high points of our trip.

Today we wrapped up our work in the lab, and our host, Sanjay Mishra, was kind enough to take the lot of us to visit Snoqualmie Falls.  It was breathtaking and pictures will be posted soon!

First, however, I would like to write just a bit regarding Sanjay.  He is a program manager with the SQL Customer Advisory Team, and our company’s technical contact within Microsoft.  He has been in charge of the testing lab, meeting coordination, and other business around the campus during our stay.  He’s also been kind enough to take us out to eat, visit the falls, and show us around campus (especially where to get food).  If it weren’t for Sanjay, we would be lost in most of our endeavors here.  He’s as curtious as he is informative and a pleasure to work with.  He also needs to hurry up and visit us in Memphis again so that we can take him out to find more vegetarian food at local steakhouses.  Always fun.

And now I must close this post before adding images.  My flight leaves at 6:40 in the morning which is mere hours away and I must sleep!

My Trip to Microsoft: Day 4

Last night we left the lab earlier than ever:  8:45!  We had dinner at Red Robin (again) and consumed sufficient quantities of beer.  Good times were had by all, and many jokes were considered far funnier than they actually were.

This morning we met with Sunil Agrawal, one of the geniuses behind the storage engine in SQL Server.  He is hands down one of the most intelligent people I’ve ever had the pleasure of speaking with.  His knowledge and passion for what he does is quite inspirational.  He talked to us about the complex issues of Read-Committed Snapshot Isolation in SQL Server and made it sound so simple and obvious.  If you’re interested in this subject, or any other SQL Server related info, his blog is located here.

My boss gave a 40ish minute talk on our company, what we do, how we use technology, etc.  It was well done and reflected great on the company.  Go David!

This afternoon we got beer in the lab.  Lots of it.  Unfortunately, I just took a large dose of Sudafed to fend off my sinus infection.  Blast it all. 

 Now we are off to eat dinner somewhere fancy that I’m not currently sure the name of.  Details to come tomorrow!

 

My Trip to Microsoft: Day 3

So far I’ve mostly talked about my general experiences here at MS, but today got a bit more involved technically for me and so will my post.

This morning we got to meet with the developers of the Sync Framework (aka Sync Services for ADO.NET, aaka Local Database Cache).  We got to discuss with them the direction they see the framework moving, specifically mentioning that the wizard in Visual Studio 2008 for Local Database Caching was originally built as a starter-point to Sync Services for ADO.NET, but they expect it to expand its functionality to incorporate more of the core features of the framework.  They also spoke to our questions regarding Sync Agent vs Sync Orchestrator, two objects that seemingly did the same thing.  The answer was that Sync Agent is targeted a hub-and-spoke (client-server) architectures whereas Orchestrator is focuses on peer-to-peer setups. 

We also got to have a similar conversation with the team involved in Cluster management and its user interface.  Hopefully some of our suggestions for a more consolidated view of a cluster in the new system will come to fruition.

At lunch we got into a lengthy discussion regarding the complexity of job titles of Microsoft employees.  Product Managers, Program Managers, Project Leads, Managing Directors, etc.  It was very circuitous and I’m not sure that I know any more now than I did before, except that the org chart for Microsoft looks different based on whether you are looking at it for who-reports-to-who, pay grades, or actually project management.  Very interesting.

That conversation stemmed somehow from a completely esoteric conversation (my favorite kind) about the biodegradable utencils I mentioned in yesterday’s blog.  We started discussing the potential for biodegradable computer components.  I imagined throwing old dead PC parts into the flower bed after they’ve stopped working.  Then I thought about how fun it would be to describe the amount of fertilizer I used in terms of gigabytes, megahertz, and USB version.

I was able to snap some pictures today, but I haven’t had a chance to get them on the laptop yet so those should come soon.  Come to think of it, I haven’t had time to do a whole lot here since we’ve been in the lab from 9:00 A.M. till close to midnight for the last two days… and probably tonight too.  Is it sad that I spent my break still at my computer typing this?

Shacknews.com is giving me stuff!

I just discovered that I am a winner in a Shacknews competition to win a free copy of Command and Conquer 3: Kane’s Wrath for the Xbox 360!  I’m apparently also receiving a Kane bobble-head, a t-shirt, and possible other unnamed stuff!  Yay!  Everyone go to Shacknews and read their awesomely-written articles, click on their advertisers’ links, and watch the crazy videos on the Replay Couch!

My Trip to Microsoft: Day 2

There are no white headphones at Microsoft.  White head phones have become ubiquitous as the Apple iPod has grown in popularity over the last few years, but they are not to be found here in the land of Zune.  I’ve been consciously looking for them and haven’t seen a single pair.  Talk about loyalty to your company!  Down with iPod!  Long live Zune!

On my first day here, I noticed that there was an enormous effort being made to keep the company as environmentally aware as possible.  Every trash can was accompanied by an aluminum-can recycling bin.  And each of those with a can for polystyrenes.  Light switches have little signs, elegant ones I might add, that read “Please conserve energy.”  Its a wonderful series of touches that more of America should adopt.  Today, however, the campus’ real “green” initiative kicked off.  There are no more recyling bins for aluminum only, or polystyrene-based goods.  Instead, there is a recycling bin that accepts ALL recyclable goods.  There is still a trash can, but only for things like used ketchup-packets and other plastic wrappers.  The polystyrene plates, forks and knives are a thing of the past.  Now they are using fully biodegradable utencils and plates. 

Did you get that?  Biodegradable forks, spoons and knives!!  I’m bringing some home to plant at the base of a tree so that they can feed the tree and I can observe how long they take to biodegrade.  This is fascinating.  I can’t state strongly enough how much I’m digging this.

Also, there was some interesting commentary regarding the product battle between SQL Server and Oracle.  The statement was made by one developer that it was easier to convert the average person to be specifically a Republican Catholic than to switch an Oracle user to SQL Server or vice versa.  That prompted me to comment on how hard it would be to convert someone to a Republican Catholic Oracle developer.  Now I’m just curious, are there any Republican Catholic Oracle developers reading this?

My Trip to Microsoft: Day 1

I’m fortunate enough to be spending this week at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond testing out different feature configurations of the new SQL Server 2008 database server as well as configuration of the new Sync Framework for ADO.NET. 

This is my first trip to MS and hopefully not the last.  The “campus” here is beautiful and full of all sorts of nerd amenities.  Foosball, ping-pong, Starbucks-ish coffee, and break areas with scenic views are a stone’s throw from our lab room in the SQL building.  Having previously worked at the FedEx World Technology Center, I’m not unacustomed to the grandiose presentation of workspace, but the sheer scale of this facility is mindboggling.  Gates didn’t create an international company, he created a small city that is centered around the central goal of providing software to the world. 

I find myself in complete agreement with Douglas Coupland (author of Microserfs and JPOD) that corporate America’s development of the “campus,” rather than the typical concept of an office, is a devious means of keeping workers in a perpetual adolescance so that they see work as play, and therefore intertwine their lives more deeply with their work than otherwise.  I don’t think this is a good thing.  I believe that as an individual, my activities and decisions outside of work are what define me as a person, not so much my career despite the time and effort I put into it.  However, after being here for only one day, I can easily see how the campus mentality and office-with-a-playground mode of work are appealing, much more so even than at the luxurious FedEx campus back home in Memphis.

Its simply a pleasure being here surrounded by the finely-tuned minds that produced the majority of the software I use.  Today I’ve gotten to meet some of the people behind SQL Server, NUMA architecture, and Sync Services.  And this has only been the start!

I’ll try to keep posting this week on the activities that I am getting to participate in.  Hopefully there will even be pictures! 

Back From Microsoft 2008 Launch Event in Memphis

Just got back from the Visual Studio 2008 Launch Event hosted by the Memphis .Net User Group.  Despite not winning a free copy of VS 2008, I was able to come away from the event with more than just a free t-shirt. 

Demos of WPF, LINQ to SQL, Framework targetting, Office Add-Ins, JavaScript debugging, AJAX enabling, and many other fun new technologies were conducted. 

There are many more launch events happening around the country through the rest of the summer so do register to attend if at all possible!  This experience was a first for me and definitely will not be a last!

Selectable Text in Silverlight

A coworker of mine has posted an issue on Microsoft’s Connect site, which is a gateway to presenting MS software issues directly to the developers of MS products, regarding the Silverlight web development platform. 

Apparently, in Silverlight, unless text is contained explicitly inside of a TextBox or similar control, you can not use your mouse to highlight and then cut/copy the text for pasting elsewhere.  This is pretty standard behavior for text displayed on any other web page or software application, unless the text is rasterized as an image or displayed as a label in a Windows Forms application.

If you have any interest in Silverlight’s growth and you have access to Connect, please go to this issue and validate it.  MS has replied that they will correct this only if there is significant feedback from the community.  If you don’t have an account with Connect, apply for one, or find another channel to air your feelings on the matter.  I can’t believe that MS doesn’t see this tiny bit of functionality as imperative.

Playing Super Wing Commander On The 3DO

Saturday night I brought my Panasonic 3DO game console into the living room and hooked her into the 52″ LCD and 5.1 surround sound.  This very well might be the most grand treatment one of these 3DO systems has ever received.

After playing some cursory Road Rash and ill-controlled Super Street Fighter II Turbo, I threw in my copy of Super Wing Commander.  Back in the 90’s, I was a HUGE Wing Commander enthusiast.  Needless to say I played and beat every installment in the series.  Wing Commander 1 was the title I spent most of my time with, having played through it multiple times on the Super Nintendo and once through on PC. 

The 3DO version is made “Super” by adding voices that weren’t originally in the game, even though the PC version later had a voice pack added.  It also replaces many of the graphics in the game such as ship sprites, the interactive rooms on-board the Tiger’s Claw, and a slew of prerendered cut-scenes.  These improvements aren’t so much improvements as they are means of slowing down load times on everything in the game.  I think if you are new to the game, they wouldn’t interfere, but being a long-time veteran in the series in search of nostalgia its a let-down. 

I can’t help but be a bit of a contrarian on this issue though, in that there is the part of me that is disappointed in the crappy graphics that replaced the crappy graphics that I loved, but I’m also mezmerized by the game because it is still a Wing Commander experience and one that I never enjoyed in the 90’s. 

I’m halfway through the story line and I intend to keep playing to completion.  Ahh, there is nothing like weekend hours poured into playing old classics on obscure consoles.

An EMP Tried To Destroy Me

This morning, while I was playing some Fallen Empires: Legions, my home office was struck by what I can only describe as an EMP:  Electromagnetic Pulse.  All the electronics freaked out, my speakers almost exploded, the PC rebooted, my router went crazy, and worst of all:  I was kicked out of my game! 

Why would someone direct an EMP at my home office???