Bill Gross is founder of the technology incubator Idealab and more companies than I can count (he says “100 companies in last 30 years” so perhaps I can count that high). Mr. Gross tweeted “while on [his] quest for learning in life and at conferences." (Follow him on Twitter as well...

News today: we have a new president in the Server & Tools Business: Satya Nadella , a respected technical leader here at the company (as noted here: http://bit.ly/i5ovIb ). Satya moved from MBS to the Online Services Division to head up the engineering division there, which includes Bing, MSN and...

Congrats to ex Microsoft-ie @ brad_lovering , as he just joined @ Splunk , as noted at http://t.co/zfMrUPn by the Seattle Times' own Brier Dudley ... Brad Lovering, one of Microsoft's top engineers until he left last year, is heading a new Seattle office for Splunk, according to a report by...

It's Thanksgiving, and again I am fortunate enough to spend my holiday with my friends and family. In a past post, I noted my posts on being thankful , in particular this one on being thankful , where I noted the Seattle P-I newspaper's slide show on " Words of Thanks ." "What are you most thankful...

In the category of the interesting and odd things I see around Microsoft, this is one of the most unique, one that has found its way onto the Internet. It's the fractal panda (or is that Fractal Panda?). It's used by our good folks in Microsoft during various college informational trips. (I noted this...

A little more than three years ago as I noted here , I joined the Windows division working in COSD for Jon DeVaan with the rest of his management team (as I initially noted here ) to work on Windows 7. I've certainly enjoyed the run in Windows, this being my second stint: I joined the engineering program...

Did you have a Windows 7 Launch Party? Gizmodo offers a gallery of photos from several different Windows 7 launch parties although most/all are uncredited with original owners/URLs. This one is certainly my favourite (is it yours?): Note to self: need to post more details of our own launch event. Tags...

Parking @ #BrickCon : $7. Coffee outside: $4 The line to get in the door? Endless, but worth it...   Interesting think about Twitter. It's a social network that's more than just a bunch of people talking about themselves, as Pam Baker noted in her article in TechNewsWorld … "To its detractors...

Of interest: reminding me of the brief series noted here , I found this article from Nicole Brodeur " Microsoft writer makes documentary on losing hand to cancer ", about the film documentary from Joshua Isaac, a writer at Microsoft. Isaac lost his left hand to cancer and has been dealing with...

(I've republished this post today due to a server issue that seems to be happening with the link to the original post.) How I Work: M3 Sweatt No matter what anyone tells you, there’s still a bunch of paper in this digital world. M3 Sweatt, Windows Core Operating System Division, Microsoft, U...

Of interest is this video from last week from Max Zuckerman of Channel 8 , speaking with Bill Gates on the importance of DreamSpark and the student community… You can find this video as well as Gates' keynote on the Government Leaders Forum press site (the conference was last week). Tags: Bill Gates...

Today I saw that NASA junkie Kevin Schofield , GM at Microsoft Research, spoke at Convergence 2009 this week and showed the now infamous view from MSR of the future in 2019 video… "So let me bring this close to home because, you know, this is kind of ethereal a little bit. And we talked about exploration...

There's a new article and interview up on Microsoft PressPass with my friend and fellow Canuck Peter Cullen from Microsoft on Data Privacy Day & online privacy. (Also available at http://tinyurl.com/pcullen013009 .)  The kids are in school today… did I miss a bank holiday somewhere? When asked...

As I've noted previously , Mark Russinovich hosts a virtual roundtable for IT pros worldwide . The next one is coming up in a few weeks, on Thursday, February 12, 2009, when the topic will be the Windows 7 Beta. Better still, you can submit questions in advance ( vrtable@microsoft.com ) to find out more...

To start my collection of random quotes, I offer this from one seven-year-old boy at the end of the new movie Iron Man just as the closing credits rolled. It's a testament to his proficiency on Guitar Hero and eclectic music library: "Is that Black Sabbath?  I love Ozzy Osborne ."  ...

Sad day.  According to news reports today, Majel Barrett-Roddenberry , the widow of television director/producer/writer and Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry , died today (December 18, 2008) as a result of complications from leukemia. You may remember her as the first officer from the original...

A new site has hit Microsoft.com, in support of our customers: the new community on the Microsoft Answers Site , Microsoft’s first consumer-focused support community. Chris Kilbourn (the Lead Site Manager for TechNet) posted today about the launch... "A few times in my career, I've been lucky enough...

I just received this from my incomparable friend, JuliAnn: the Wisdom Book movie: it seemed appropriate to include it here: http://www.wisdombook.org/ Please watch this video. Then take a deep breath and a few glorious minutes to take it in. Ask yourself- "What is the wisdom I carry to share with...

On my way to a meeting, but first: this top of the hat to Steve Clayton. As Steve posted and Tweeted today (you can see that for yourself here ), Hugh MacLeod is a Comic Genius. (More on his work briefly in a pastpost and on his blog/ site at http://www.gapingvoid.com/ .) I have to agree. "I was...

I'm out sick this week <cough, cough> whilst the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference 2008 (WinHEC) kicked off today at the Los Angeles Convention Center (thru November 7).  "WinHEC 2008 provides the opportunity to learn about the latest product news and opportunities from Microsoft...

On the Springboard Series Virtual Roundtable with Mark Russinovich, the panel discussed performance issues and common misconfigurations on Windows Vista.  Among others joining Mark were Gabe Aul of Microsoft and the incomparable Ed Bott , the scribe behind Ed Bott's Microsoft Report . Gabe Aul noted...

Yes, that’s right: our very own Steve Ballmer is on the Life without walls web site with his own video… Find any more memorable clips? Tags: Steve Ballmer , Windows Vista , Microsoft , video http://tinyurl.com/4osfqg

A while ago, Beth (who I first worked with in the Exchange group on DST and now on customer satisfaction improvements) told me a story that she'd heard from her husband in the past. When people leave a large company, it’s like when you remove your hand from a swimming pool: you don’t really notice a...

I just ran into Mark Russinovich (of Sysinternals fame ) in the hallway and was reminded that on September 24th, he will host a virtual roundtable for IT pros worldwide to explore as I'm told "top of mind performance issues, common misconfigurations, and tips on how to fix them. From boot times and applets...

An old friend of mine, the irrepressible Tim Bucher , is in the news this week, as he's preparing to go toe to toe, so to speak, with Apple's supported ecosystem... "Now Bucher is again squaring off against his former company. He's spearheading an ambitious plan at Dell ( DELL ) to break Apple's dominant...