"So, a booth babe and a geek walk in to a bar..."

MVPeeps: get your clown on

2010-02-16T18:10:04Z

Hi, I think you MVPs are all in town this week? Come say hi if you’re near the Commons. I’m in Studio E, formerly known as 119, on the first floor in 1274. You can’t miss me. This is the second time I’ve left the house pre-dawn in red shoes and pink tights, thinking I look “cheerful” to find that, in full light, I actually look “clown-like.”

Welcome to the big top!

And welcome to Redmond. Hope the summit is great.

My laptop is in Spokane.

2010-02-12T05:28:00Z

I left it under the seat in front of 17C, flying back from LA. When I got off the plane in Seattle tonight, it stayed and flew to Spokane, in eastern Washington. Turns out the laptop will spend the night there, and fly home tomorrow via Fedex. It should have its own little passport and frequent flyer number. A little laptop road warrior. Like George Clooney.

I’m an old hand at this.

2009-10-02T21:35:55Z

I was recently informed that I’ve been at Microsoft for five years, all of a sudden. There is a bowl of Tootsie Pops outside my door, five pounds of them. Stop by if you are in Redmond, and pick up a celebratory TP.

Your friend,
Trika

Let’s get this guy off this rock!

2009-09-18T01:46:32Z

I’m supposed to be in charge of our advertising. That’s a part of my job, now, at Windows Embedded.

Sidebar: Windows Embedded makes Windows for specialized devices.

When I started this job, most of the advertising planning was done, so alls I had to do was a little project management-type stuff (pointing, shouting, banging fist on table) towards the end. The campaign just finished (it was running in China, Russia, Korea, Taiwan, Germany, and the US) and now we’re trying to figure out what to do for this year. It was kind of a graphic novel type thing. This is what it looked like:

There were little mini-videos that ran as ads online, too (you can find them in the lower left of the US landing page) and one of them had a guy stuck on a rock.

OMG.

So that’s what I’ll be doing, in case you were wondering what I’m up to. Just a little advertising, is all.

Your friend,
Trika

I don’t know what you’re talking about.

2009-09-17T23:58:54Z

What? I’ve been at my desk all day.

Lamp Attack

2009-08-04T01:56:49Z

I’m sitting in a little cube in the Seattle office. Right behind me, there is a lot of open space, and for some reason there is this lamp that hangs down too low, right in the middle of the open space. I just stood up to get a Diet Coke and hit my head on the lamp, for the third time today. The lamp then swings around kind of wildly and I try to walk out like nothing happened and it’s embarrassing. I haven’t seen anyone else run in to it.

I am not sure why this lamp is gunning for me, in particular.

put your paws in the air for our bike shop guy

2009-07-01T06:15:00Z

Maybe you've heard that there's a Commons as part of our new Studios West campus--home of Studio E!!!!--with shops and restaurants and whatnot, including a little bike shop? I've already used said shop to buy a helmet when I forgot mine, and some reflective tape when I was heading home late. I just lost a brake cable, so I was trying to look up their number tonight to make arrangements for repairs tomorrow while I'm at work.

Sidebar: This bike shop is very handy.

In any case, in my looking I came across a slightly snarky but harmless post lamenting the life of a Microsoft-bike-shop-guy, and the inevitable mini-jabs at Microsoft. Nothing out of the ordinary but for a response from the owner of the bike shop that I really liked; it made me like him, and like Microsoft. Read it in the comments on the original post, or here:

I am one of the owners of the “Bike Shop” in question so I thought I would add to the conversation to clarify some of the details. Our shop name is Eastside Ski and Sport and we are more than just a repair shop or a bike store as we also are a ski and snowboard retail, rental, and repair shop as well. Our new Redmond location currently provides retail and service and we are considering rentals.

As for our client base I will say that Microsoft as well as any other corporation for that matter has the same mix of people that you run into anywhere else in the world. The same types and kinds of people you will find in any bike store. The vast majority of people we serve are great customers who remind us why we went into this business to begin with which was to bring our passion for cycling, skiing, and the outdoors to others. These are the same type of great customers that have made your work experience in a bike shop a positive one.

Every bike shop has positive and negative aspects of the business that change based on the shop and ours is no different. However, our new store at the commons is completely counter to the perspective that Mr. Byron sets forth. We have been greeted daily with customers that are beyond excited to have a ski and bike shop on campus. I have received more hugs at my store in Redmond in the past week than in any other location that I have been in previously. On our opening day I had a customer come into the store actually bouncing because she was so excited wanting to know if we did snowboard tunes. When I told her that we did she was so happy she immediately gave me a huge hug and told me that she was so happy as she has been trying to get her board tuned for two years but just could not find the time to get that done with her schedule. That is the type of customer we have… happy, excited, appreciative, and positive ones.

As for the job in the store itself it is pretty damn cool. How I know this is I am the one working here from sun up to sun down. We are two guys that left the corporate world to follow a dream and I am thrilled every day that I get to work in either one of my stores to help provide products that make a positive difference in people’s lives. I frequently hear stories from my customers how they lost 100, 200, even 300 pounds and how the products I sell have changed their lives for the better. So this is not a big corporate bike store with employees that are bored out of their minds. I love every minute of every day that I am not sitting behind a desk or living out of a bag sitting in some airport waiting for yet another delayed flight.

Yes our Redmond location has some interesting and unique traffic flows but we all wear a lot of shoes here and there is not any down time where you have to “look busy” because we are busy. Properly servicing the customer takes time, effort and attention to detail and we are constantly moving to insure we meet our goals of excellent service. This location also offers us many amenities you don’t find in a typical bike shop which include a vast array of fantastic restaurants at our finger tips (try Chandy’s for amazing soups and sandwiches, Typoon for incredible Thai, and my long time Eastside haunt Acapulco Fresh), a spa/salon, Pike Place, a sports bar and an array of other great places I have not had a chance to try. This is also the first time I have had locker rooms, showers, and sports fields which support my active and commuting lifestyle.

To be clear we are a company that competed with other shops in teh area and won the opportunity to place our second store on this campus. Our services in Redmond are available to anyone with a Microsoft badge including vendors, their families and friends. So the commons project is a benefit to vendors as well as employees. We are not subsidized and we are not offering any special deals or pricing that we don’t offer in our other store with one exception. That exception is that we put on monthly clinics or seminars here to help educate our consumers which makes them better consumers and which helps grow the sports we love which benefits us all by having happier and healthier people in the community. This is really not an extra service as we tend to do this one-on-one in our Woodinville store. This Commons has so many more customers a group setting is a better use of our resources. Our value proposition is that we bring convenience, education and a high level of service to the local community. We also have the philosophy that we want to have fun at work and we compensate our employees well to keep and retain quality talent which allows us to offer a higher level of service which is our primary product. At the end of the day that is exactly what Microsoft is doing with the Commons project they are offering services that help attract and retain quality employees and which increase employee’s quality of life.

One of our other primary drivers we have is to help grow and to support commuting by bike. Microsoft has many other programs and subsidies to encourage commuting by bike and having our store//shop on campus is one yet one more. Is there anyone that would dispute that encouraging commuting by bike is a huge benefit to the community, the environment, and to the health and wellness of the commuter? Microsoft is doing the right thing here I am consistently amazed and the level of bashing that they endure. For instance many if not all of these building are LEED certified which if you are not familiar with makes these locations many times more environmentally friendly. Also the level at which Microsoft goes to separate their waste and to recycle I have never seen before and I have worked at some very large companies in my day. Maybe we could cut Microsoft a bit of slack here as they are doing some great things for their employees, vendors, the community, and the environment. Simply employing hundreds of thousands of people worldwide in today’s economy which creates many times that number of jobs in the community should be enough for people to offer a nod of thanks to Microsoft.

I hope they can fix my brakes tomorrow. In related news, let me take a second to say again that I sure do love that bike shop, Eastside Ski and Sport. Eastside Ski and Sport; for all your ski, snowboard, and cycling needs.

You do not suffer alone

2009-06-27T02:44:35Z

You know how you hate it when Microsoft renames products every 10 minutes and you have to try and keep up with what you’re supposed to call things? Please know that you do not suffer alone. Our part of campus has just been rebranded to match the new, adjacent Studios West part of campus. As a result, my building, Building 119, is now called Studio E.* And my old building, Building 117, is now called Studio H.** Buildings 116 and 118 are now Studios G and F***, respectively:

I think this is kind of funny.
See you soon.
Trika

* “E” for “effing ridiculous”
** “H” for “seriously? what the H.”
*** You do the math.

Live Meeting: Windows Embedded in Manufacturing

2009-06-20T04:16:17Z

Remember how I used to do Live Meetings all the time? It was very fun. As part of one of the campaigns I work on these days, we’re hosting a Live Meeting about embedded systems in manufacturing operations. If you’re interested in what’s new in manufacturing technologies and where Windows Embedded is involved, you should come.

Manufacturing and industrial solutions are what I’ve been learning about for the last few months. I have learned a lot, but it is a miniscule amount of what is to be known, so I rarely say a peep. But maybe you know even less than I do, so here are some interesting things I now know.*

In the area of industrial solutions, there’s building automation (like HVAC, security, safety systems), energy and power (windmills, nuclear, distribution systems), and industrial automation (breweries and foods, robots and assembly lines).
An HMI is a human-machine interface: usually input panels that let people talk to big factory floor machines. These are getting fancier and fancier with better UIs all the time. Sometimes they’re little panels attached to the side of a conveyor belt, for example, or sometimes it might be a huge screen hanging down from the ceiling.
A key part of factory automation is the PLC – programmable logic controller. It’s kind of the input/output center for running a machine, telling it what to do based on inputs it’s getting from the HMI and data reporting back from the machine. Something that’s happening, though, is that people are wanting these to be more like a PC, with ability to connect to other BI systems, do fancier on-the-spot analysis, post cute photos on facebook, use the Snipping Tool, etc. In the past they’d just scrap the needed things together on the PLC, or get an industrial PC and try to make it do the critical things only a PLC can do (like control something where lives are in the balance). But now there’s a trend to making a PAC – programmable automation controller – that is kind of a PLC with PC-like powers, all in one place.
The manufacturing equipment industry is really conservative, for the most part. These people wear ties. No, really, a lot of manufacturing equipment is really expensive, and stays in use for years and years and years – so they take their time to get it right and innovation doesn’t happen overnight; the development cycle is a lot longer for manufacturing systems than it is for a music player or something. And they do wear ties.
In the past, a factory’s IT was mostly managed separately from the rest of the company. They could do whatever they wanted with their technology over there. Like a little plant-floor version of Vegas. But it sounds like more and more a company’s (picture Nabisco or Volkswagen or Sony) CIO or IT org is taking on responsibility for manufacturing technologies as part of the whole enterprise IT, as plant floor technologies get more powerful and smart and connected, and need to integrate with other BI and systems across the co. This little video is kind of a cool vision of the future, per MSFT: Microsoft and Manufacturing.
OMAC** is the Organization for Machine Automation and Control, the “global organization for automation and manufacturing professionals that is dedicated to supporting the machine automation and operational needs of manufacturing.”
Our team went to exhibit at this huge show callled Hannover Messe, an industrial technology trade show that’s held every year in Germany. I was kind of blown away by how big it is; more than 200,000 people are ambling around there for about a week. I think Teched is about 10,000 people, right? They hold Hannover Messe in these huge airplane-sized hangars that sit empty the rest of the year. Vow.

I think it’s interesting, anyway.

Your friend,
Trika

* I’m pretty sure I know them, anyway.

**I nearly sent out a promotional e-mail that referenced OMAP.org instead of OMAC.org, as intended. Fortuitous that a copyeditor caught that before I announced to 20,000+ device manufacturers the connection between Windows Embedded and the Golden Path to Unlocking the Genetic Potential of Wild Rice Species.

My office is a mess. To wit:

2009-06-18T00:00:23Z

Updated at your request with photographic evidence. Three photos of piles of things:

And one photo of a half-dead plant:

I think we’re moving offices again and maybe getting an office mate, so I’ll need to get this tidied up asap. Unrelated: Here is a photo of Walla Walla, Washington.

And here is a photo of me with my friend Kim at a rodeo in Walla Walla, Washington. More specifically, me standing in front of the chicken strips truck with my friend Kim at a rodeo in Walla Walla.