CoolBeans: From College to Industry

While waiting for my latest change to compile, I discovered the “preview” option for TV episodes on Xbox Live is a great way to find out more about a series. I don’t really keep track of when new stuff is on, in general I’ll rent a TV series on DVD instead...

It’s important that as a new developer you do not succumb to a mind numbing repetitive task. One, you’ll look like an idiot when someone else does the same thing with a script or a tool but in 1/100 th the time. Two, you could have tons of time...

As a new hire, you will mess up. But don’t sweat it, it's to be expected. You will learn more from a mistaked because you will be forced to find a solution when someone points it out. Indeed your success as a new hire isn’t a question of how few mistakes...

Something to be prepared for when accepting any new far away job is the culture shock. While I’m sure it’s more of a thing for people who leave their country, it can still happen when changing states. One thing that got me about Redmond was the snow...

While on vacation, there were many holiday moments that were highlighted by their streaks of geekdom. Such as my mother going into tears after seeing LOLCATs for the first time or me hooking up a router so my brother could play Xbox live (and now has...

Since starting work, I’ve been exposed to a bunch of different pillars of software requirements. These can include security, performance, localizability, etc. One big one that is hard to see (no pun intended) is accessibility. How does a blind user...

For some reason, every major airport loves to charge "7.99 for 24 hours of access!" which really means "7.99 for the 30 minutes you're going to be here!" (Really, who is willingly in an airport for 24 hours?) Rochester International Airport, however...

Here’s a bug I came across that earns the “phase of the moon prize”. See if you can pick it up: class Storage { public : Storage() : valx(0), valy(0) { } Storage( int x, int y ) : valx(x), valy(y) { fValid = x != 0 &&...

In line with this post , writing in a manner that best shows your message in your work environment will help improve your communications with coworkers. Plus you won’t annoy them. However, more importantly is knowing what’s appropriate to send to a...

Kids of Microsoft employees have it quite easy. Not too long ago I had to run from house to house out in the cold only to discover half the time no one was home or it was the old lady who only gave out dimes or it was a “Can’t college students just buy...

I do a lot of recruiting and tech fest trips. I look at these times off of work as mini vacations. I get to travel to new places or back to old places and see friends from school. I get to use the company credit card to buy food, hotel and rental car...

An ironically little known fact is that the PowerPoint and Office Graphics teams are more famous than most movie stars. It’s not because of our awesome physiques, or sexy smiles or even because our autographed pictures show up on eBay. It’s because...

What’s awesome about working for a company? Free recruiting trips back to school. For those at RIT I will be there next Tuesday. 1) NTID Career Fair (10:30a-5p) 2) Event with SSE at Atrium in Gollisano (6-8pm)

...has never been easier to spot . Pretty freakin' sweet.

Sometimes, the reward of your investigation is finding out someone else has to do the hard job of actually fixing the problem. The Background The bug I was tasked with solving was this: Add a word to a shape, double click the text, do this specific...

There’s a sub shop I routinely visit that irks me. The food is good, but the layout is terrible. You go to the right side of the counter under the “Order Here” sign and look up to see what’s available. But alas! The menu is posted on the wall near...

I had a great time meeting people at Cornell and Columbia this past week. Answered a bunch of questions about PowerPoint, Office Graphics and just Microsoft work life in general. It’s amazing how tired your tongue can get after 3 hours of straight talking...

Being a developer in Office, I’ve seen a lot of different priorities for fixing bugs. First off, bugs have a priority assigned from 1 to 4, 1 being the highest “we can’t ship without this fixed” bug. Then there’s a “Now” bug which is for things...

Feedback is very important. I’ve found though, that as you become more embedded in your team and you begin to demonstrate independence after starting a job, you may get less and less of it. (That is, unless you’re doing a terrible job in which case...

A quick PowerPoint (and Excel) tip of the day: Insert a shape. Hit CTRL+D Move the new shape somewhere. Hit CTRL+D again. (Be amazed)

You know why I like work? Because I’ve slept in more the two years I’ve been here than the 4 years I was trying to get a degree by sleeping through class. My sentiments are echoed by coworkers who tell me horror stories of other teams with 9 AM meetings...

I’m watching NOVA on one half of my screen while playing Geometry Wars on the other. It's smart too as it keeps the "primary" image at the correct 16:9 aspect ratio and compresses the "secondary" image to what's left (which is of little consequence for...

I just discovered that my TV has a split screen mode. I can watch TV and do something on the Xbox at the same time! This is great because I wanted to queue up a bunch of downloads, but I also wanted to watch recorded MythBusters. Thus I saved myself 5...

Over this last week I had to debug two issues. If you’re a college student and read this blog, you would have discovered the problems in no time. MessageBox from Nowhere As a warm up, the easy one and a new Visual Studio feature: Break All. The...

I was gone most of this week for a 3-day event, so I’ll leave you with this quick tip. In Visual Studio, when you’re debugging and you’re stepping through the program, move the cursor over a variable. Notice how you can expand it by clicking...