Brian Groth's Life at Microsoft

Have you ever got seriously into navigating or tracking yourself with a GPS? I am thinking of getting better at using my GPS (I know how to read it, but not really use it) so once our puppy is old enough to hit the mountains with me, I can geek out with...

Have you ever wanted to tell Microsoft about a feature that you want in a product? You can easily do just that, and more, at http://register.microsoft.com/mswish/suggestion.asp . And yes, the people building our software do actually read these suggestions...

This is great! Thanks to Steve Makofsky for pointing it out. Check out NASA's WorldWind software (it's a free download ). In a nutshell, it allows you to zoom from any satellite altitude into any place on earth using various images captured from LandSat...

Yes it is possible and you can learn more about it on October 2 nd (this Saturday) at a variety of locations. See http://www.solarwashington.org/Tour/2004/index.htm for more information. My suggestion: start using solar power now and be the cool kid on...

InfoPath is part of the Microsoft Office System and lets you easily create forms that can do pretty complex things. Do you want to translate some text in your form from English to French, or a bunch of other languages? Here is a little example to let...

I just saw this via Gizmodo : The Voltaic backpack has 3 waterproof solar panels embedded into the back, which can generate up to 4 watts of power, which charges a Li Ion battery pack for your devices to tap into. This would be a great way to make sure...

The Seattle Times has an article about the latest version of the Microsoft Home. It's hard to believe that the MS Home has been around for 10 years. I remember the old building that it used to be in (building 15 I think) when the "home" was sort of just...

There are quite a few ways to deploy Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2). Check out what TechNet has to offer on the subject. I point it out here because SP2 is worth deploying, but I know many corporations face different challenges when trying to deploy...

OK, so it probably isn't an "official" interview question (if there are any), but I have asked it during interviews in the past. For me, it is simply a way to help loosen up the interviewer and have some fun, but if the only answer I get is "I don't know...

This entry is a very simple explanation of "TaskList /SVC /FO TABLE" When using Windows Task Manager, I often wonder what some of the .exe files are doing. These are listed under the Image Name column under the Processes tab. But, with Windows XP SP2...

Back when Office XP was in beta, I was building "Information Worker" demos. One of them was to show how to make PowerPoint "speak" the speaker notes to you. This isn't quite Accessibility at it's finest, but it certainly doesn't hurt. You could figure...

When I tell people that I work at the Redmond MTC , I often get asked about other customer-focused facilities that showcase Microsoft products and technologies that are on the Redmond campus. Here is a list of them so you know what's available at our...

Thankfully, Seattle is still a pretty clean place to live, although traffic seems to get worse all the time. Check out http://www.scorecard.org/index.tcl to see how your city rates. Hey Michael (my brother), I know the skiing is great at Alta , but Salt...

At Microsoft, we are fortunate enough to have a variety of guest speakers come to campus. Recently, Gary Erickson, the co-founder of Cliff Bar came to talk about how his company got started and how his values kept him from selling his company AND how...

Check out the Enterprise Engineering Center ’s WebLog at http://blogs.msdn.com/eec/ . We partner with this team for the Proof-of-Concept offerings. They have great facilities and people, so if you want to keep up on some great work happening for customers...

I just wrapped up a day-long training session with Doug Lipp and some of his associates. The course was all about interacting with our great Japanese co-workers, partners, and customers. Think culture, communications, meetings, expectations, etc. This...

So what is in this demo that I have mentioned? Without listing all the products that we have in it, we generally try to present a fake company that is an "Intelligent Organization" that: Enables Core New Capabilities Provides Mobile Access Empowers Users...

If only I had the room for one. Check this out from a newsletter I just got from http://www.onthesnow.com/ : Triple chairs from Heavenly's venerable Waterfall lift are being sold by the South Lake Tahoe resort for $200 a pop (cash only) at the California...

More about what my team and I do: From http://www.microsoft.com/services/microsoftservices/mtcoffer.mspx : Capitalizing on expert knowledge, best practices, and industry leaders, the MTC staff can show your organization how to get the most out of Microsoft...

What Makes This Blog Different? Most of the blogs at Microsoft are from some great people who either work on building a product, or are working "out in the field" to generate excitement around Microsoft's products (now those are cool jobs!). Yes, that...