The Far Corner of the EEC : Microsoft

Random Rumblings

kenhiatt — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 00:14:00 GMT

I received an email yesterday requesting that I post something new in this blog. So, here goes an attempt to put something of interest here on a more regular basis.

Since my last post (WSOP2007...I busted out of the tourney in just under four hours...still a bit of scar tissue on that one), things have moved in several directions for me. Shipping Windows Server 2008 earlier this year was one of those things that I'll remember forever as a "life achievement". In my mind it's the best Server operating system ever shipped and the amount of testing that went into it was unparalleled in the history of Windows Server. After shipping WS08, I changed jobs and moved from the Windows Server Build Team to the Windows Build Engineering Program Management team. While this may not sound like different things, those outside of MS could look at it as analogous to a move from driving a car to a position where you plan how we should design the next engine for that car. Changing to Program Management is going to be a good move for me longterm (I think) and it's pretty cool to get back to learning a whole new discipline.

The Face of Windows Server 2008

kenhiatt — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 23:13:00 GMT

A project I lent my face to is now live on the web: The Face of Windows Server 2008. Neat idea, looks like there are a few glitches in the site, but overall it turned out pretty cool.

If you haven't checked out Windows Server 2008 (Formerly code named "Longhorn"), it's worth checking out. Getting Windows Server 2008 built and ready for customers is my day job. I'm more excited about this release than any I've worked on in the past.

decknique: cool card manipulation

kenhiatt — Sat, 26 May 2007 00:07:00 GMT

Yesterday I spent my afternoon and evening dealing poker for the incoming Microsoft Interns. An added bonus for me was seeing an intern named Richard perform. His control of a deck of cards blew me away such that I informed him that he was not allowed to deal or shuffle in any of the regular poker games I frequent.

Richard runs a website "decknique.net" that is definately worth checking out. The site includes a ton of videos and from the random sampling I've done so far, most of the videos have a higher production standard that much of what's on the net. Spend a few minutes on the site and you'll probably be thinking of grabbing a deck of cards. Fair warning: after Richard demonstrated a particular card flourish, I asked him how many hours it took to learn that and he responded, "Years."

No Heroics Necessary

kenhiatt — Thu, 10 May 2007 21:33:00 GMT

Yesterday I spent the bulk of my afternoon attending the WSD (Windows Server Division) Quarterly Manager's Meeting. The meeting was focused on improving manager's coaching skills, but a side discussion emerged towards the end of the meeting concerning rewarding employees that get the job done without resorting to heroic measures.

It was clear in the discussion that we were not talking about the employee that just puts in his/her time, but rather the employee that through proper planning and execution is able to get exceptional results without having to resort to "fire-drill" mode. It was also clear that identifying these employees is more difficult than identifying those that have a short-term high-impact during a "fire-drill". The exceptional non-heroic employee is not the one in the spotlight and it can take months to realize the business impact of someone who is quietly good at their job.

It struck me that these are employees that we need to reward and retain. The nature of our business is such that we do occasionally need the folks that can jump feet first into the fire, but the exceptional non-heroic work style is the one that is long term sustainable and ultimately the style that will continue to make Windows Server a success.

The other side of the camera

kenhiatt — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 01:57:00 GMT

Spent a bit of my time today over in Microsoft Studios contributing to a bit of work that should hit the web middle of next month (I'll post a link once it's up). Different experience being on the other side of the camera. Having make-up put on me was not one of my all time favorite experiences, but as none of my friends or co-workers were there to razz me, it wasn't that bad. The photo portion went quick and the photographer was using a Canon (a much nicer one than my aging D-60). I felt a bit awkward during the video bit, but overall I think it went okay.

One of the "prompting" questions asked during the videa was something along the lines of "so what makes Longhorn special?" This one was easy for me to answer. This is the best Beta release I've ever been a part of (and I started with MS back in '95 and have worked on Windows the whole time). This release is rock-solid. I'm not just happy that we hit a milestone, I'm proud of the level of quality across the board for Server. As Iain McDonald said in his Channel 9 interview, this Beta is production quality.

There are a few things we need to fix. There is some fit and finish work that needs to be done. But, this is release is something I'm proud of.

Longhorn Beta 3 Released!

kenhiatt — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 09:25:00 GMT

Around 3:10 this afternoon, the final signoffs were completed and we released Beta3. This has been my number one priority (and that of most of the folks I work with) for the past several months. A lot of hard work and many, many, hours of ship rooms, but we are releasing the Beta with a level of quality of which I can be proud. Additionally, we are building Longhorn with Longhorn!

Check out the video in Dave's post. (For those that know me personally, I have a very minor part...you can see me 31 seconds into the video and hear me a bit later when I say something like, "How about we deliver it with the morning newspaper".)

Back to Build

kenhiatt — Wed, 10 Aug 2005 06:33:00 GMT

Two big events for me recently...I hit the ten year mark here at Microsoft and I started a new job, taking a position as the Build Manager for the Windows Server Build.

When I started at Microsoft at the end of July 1995, I began my journey in the Windows NT Build Lab. Windows NT 3.51 had shipped, NT development had recently moved from building 2 to building 26, and during my first week we released the first official NT build with User and GDI in kernel space. Over the next four and a half years, I did builds and helped build the build team. Build is an exciting and demanding job, but after Windows 2000 shipped, it was time for me to move on. I spent a year in Windows Sustained Engineering and then the next four plus years with the Enterprise Engineering Center. Now as I hit a decade I find myself, in some ways, back where I started.

But, wow, things have changed. While many things have remained mostly the same, it's almost shocking to see how much further down the path of maturity the engineering process has become. The bottom line of the build lab is the same, get the build out, drive the code forward with high quality. The way we do this has evolved. Processes are in place to help drive quality, security, and assist in delivering on schedule.

I've always enjoyed my work at Microsoft, but I find that I'm once again excited to head into work and loathe to leave. As I get my feet back under me in my new role, I hope to post a few interesting tidbits about the development process and what goes into building Windows.

A Busman's Holiday

kenhiatt — Mon, 03 Jan 2005 05:38:00 GMT

From the Merriam-Webster Online dictionary:

busman's holiday: a holiday spent in following or observing the practice of one's usual occupation.

I just returned from a week at my Dad and Kathy's home in Connecticut. The week was a relaxing one, Dad and I got in some woodworking, spent a couple of hours shoveling and plowing snow, walked the property line taking notes with his new GPS, and generally relaxed. Kathy, my step-mom, put on a fantastic Christmas Eve fondue dinner (delayed two days for my benefit), cooked up some wonderful desserts, and made sure I got my fill of taco pizza. All in all a nice holiday break. But no trip to Connecticut would be complete without solving a computer problem or two.

This trip was fairly light in that respect, I spent a couple hours at Keith's (family friend) setting up a new computer, and a bit of time at one of dad's neighbors checking up on a RAM upgrade. Add in a couple of minor issues with Dad and Kathy's computers and a few phone calls where a bit of reassurance was all that was needed. The "big" issue, helping out with a web page, didn't get handled, but I did get the basic idea of what was needed and I think I'll be able to follow up via email.

Living in Redmond, being a Microsoft employee is not that big of a deal to those that I normally come in contact with. But, when I go to Connecticut, I have instant status as a computer genius once Microsoft is mentioned. All in all I would guess that I usually spend 5-10% of my vacation time representing Microsoft. I don't begrudge my time spent helping with the computer issues. To the folks I'm helping, I am Microsoft. The "busman's holiday" portion of my vacation allows me to work one on one with Microsoft's customers, see how they are using their computers and what they want from the software.

Over the past couple of years, Microsoft has, more and more, embraced the concept of community. The numbers of blogs, like this one, that give a bit more of a personal feel to those of us that work here has skyrocketed. Every day more folks are doing web-casts, diving into the newsgroups, doing whatever they can to reach out to customers. I think this is a good thing. Working in the Enterprise Engineering Center gives me the chance to meet and work with many enterprise customers. Vacation time gives me the chance to work with a few home consumers and the occasional small business. Both of these give me a direct sense of what Microsoft means to those that use our software.

For the MS types out there reading, think about this a bit the next time you're on vacation. Find someone with a computer problem and help them. It's pretty cool helping out a customer without having to work it into your review goals.

XBox Media Extender for Windows Media Center

kenhiatt — Fri, 24 Dec 2004 07:52:00 GMT

I like Microsoft. I think we make cool products that make life better for folks. Despite my prejudice in this area, I do think that Microsoft often misses when it comes to first releases, especially when releasing things that involve hardware. I remember getting a Microsoft keyboard some years that had special features and buttons that did cool things...it was a neat update to the standard keyboard I had been using for years. But, all of the cool special features were not supported under Windows NT...which was the operating system I was running on my primary machine. Thinking from a cool, logical, strictly business perspective, I can see where it really didn't make sense making the thing work on an OS where it would seldom be used. In my mind though, I was trying to use a Microsoft hardware product with a Microsoft software product and it didn't work. The early editions of Windows CE required some hoop jumping to get to work with NT as well.

So, my past experiences have led me not to expect too much from new things, especially when they involve some geeky piece of hardware. Even so, I decided to spend a few dollars at the company store and pick up the XBox Media Extender. After leaving it sit for a couple of days, I had some time last night to hook it up. I didn't expect it to work right off, figured I was in for at least an hour of two of twiddling both with the XBox and the Media Center PC.

I popped open the box, scanned through the brief manual and proceeded to set things up. I was short places to plug things so the first task was 15 minutes searching for a power strip. Usually I have these laying everywhere, but, of course, when I really need one I can't find one. Finally broke down and stole one from the garage. Plugged it in, powered up the 10/100 hub, connected both the PC and the XBox, then realized I didn't have an ethernet driver loaded for my Media Center PC (it's been using a wireless card for it's network connectivity). Spent another 15 minutes locating the correct driver and getting it loaded. Now it was time to work my way through the actual Media Center Extender setup.

First step was to make sure the XBox and the PC where connected, preferably through a wired connection. Check. Next step was to put the XBox DVD in and let the XBox Media Center Extender software boot up. Check. Put the other CD into the PC and follow the setup wizard...couple of Next, Accept, etc clicks, entered a product key, entered the number from the XBox screen. Within about 5 minutes I was watching content via my XBox that was stored on my Media Center PC. I was amazed.

IMHO, Microsoft (specifically the guys in eHome) has really hit a home run with this one. It was simple to set up and it works first time. I'm sure that there are those out there that have had problems, but it was smooth sailing for me. If I don't see any problems with this in the next week or so, I'll move the Media Center computer to another room (get rid of the fan noise and such). There are additional features that I would like to see, the top one being the ability to use multiple Media Center boxes, but it works great as is. I can leave the XBox hooked up to the TV and watch recorded TV, listen to the radio, live TV, etc.

I'm really looking forward to the next advances for home entertainment from Microsoft. It's a cool time to be a geek.

Who's writing Transact-SQL#?

kenhiatt — Fri, 17 Dec 2004 14:47:00 GMT

I understand the basic principles of SQL, can listen to DBAdmins without getting totally lost, and have used SQL Server to host all sorts of data from pictures to stats on which Free Cell games I've played. By no means do I consider myself a SQL programmer, but I can dabble when the job requires it.

Well, right now the job requires it. Some relatively simple stuff, back end for a web site...user account tables, comment tracking, content storage...nothing exotic. While the project is a fast track, I do have a bit of extra time, and I've decided to do at least some of the things the "right" way...put the database logic in the database.

I've fired up SQL Enterprise Manager and the Query Analyzer (I know, I should be doing this stuff within Visual Studio, but old habits die hard) and started knocking out a few functions and stored procedures. Things go well until I attempt to add a couple of lines to do something REALLY SIMPLE. An hour later I've solved the problem, but this should have taken me about 15 seconds. Admittedly, it was due to my ignorance of some of the nuances of SQL, a simple mistake that resulted in perfectly legitimate SQL code that in no way did anything remotely connected to the problem I was attempting to solve.

After some discussion with one of my buddies, Richard, I've come to the conclusion that I've gotten lazy. Not necessarily lazy in a bad way, more like lazy in the manner presented in the The man who was too lazy to fail¹. With the introduction of C# by those wonderful guys over in the Developer Division, I've stopped writing code in C and C++ for the most part. C# provides a wealth of the basic functionality that I would normally have to code. I don't spend my time building complex data structures, linked lists, queues, and the like anymore. With C# I can focus on the task and (for the most part anyway) use the framework to take care of the grunt work.

In building the framework, the dev div has also made coding up a lot of simple tasks easier. I don't have to think much about how I can accomplish a bit of bit twiddling, it comes much more naturally (for me anyway).

Switch back to my SQL development, I no longer have all of nice features of C#. I have to use vintage constructs like "BEGIN...END", think about whether I need to use "SET or SELECT", and have you looked at a SQL switch (CASE) statement lately? I don't doubt that someone at Microsoft (and elsewhere I'm sure) are currently hunched over keyboards writing the next great SQL language. While there are a ton of DB folks out there that shudder at the thought of change, a few years back there were those that scoffed at the need for C#. No rush, anytime before next Tuesday will work for me.

¹The man who was too lazy to fail is a short story about a man who wants to get away from the hard work of the farm and succeeds wildly due in no small part to his desire to avoid "honest work." It is presented in Robert A. Heinlein's Time Enough For Love.

Pot luck in the control center

kenhiatt — Wed, 15 Dec 2004 03:05:00 GMT

From the title you might think that we had something weird going on in our data center, but no. It's the holiday season and our team had a pre-holiday break pot luck and white elephant gift exchange in our control center this afternoon.

Everyone brought vitals with the menu ranging from the chili to cookies with everything in between. Beer, wine, and root beer were on hand to wash everything down. One of our former interns (now full time) finished the menu and added to the festivities with holiday colored jello shots (now there's some X-mas "spirit"). My favorite dish was a fancy and hearty cinnamon bread (put in a request for the receipe...I'll see if I can get it up here).

After an hour or so of eating and socializing, we started the white elephant gift exchange. While these types of things are not normally my cup of tea, this one was quite enjoyable with a few of the antics and comments coming close to that ever-present "line" (okay, some of it went right past the line without looking back, but I don't think anyone was offended). The gift I ended up with was the game "Twister" (remember that line I was talking about? Probably enough said about Twister, except, in my defense, the game is still shrink wrapped and nobody shot any video of the party...and I'll plead ignorance if called in for questioning).

You might think from the above commentary that all the groups across Microsoft routinely get together and have a good time socializing with each other. That's not the case. IMHO, it's only the best groups do this. The team at the EEC (which is now actually the Windows Server Customer Connection Team) while diverse in opinions, skills, likes and dislikes, etc. is the best TEAM that I've ever worked with. We all care about what others on our team are doing and are willing to help out each other. Other teams I've worked with have approached this, but in this team we even went so far as saying that "teamwork" is one of our three top values.

Any team will get together for free food and booze. But I think it's a fair barometer of the teams health to see how much socializing actually happens.

Over the past couple of years, I've given some thought as to why the EEC has been so successful with every single customer that comes to our lab. In a nutshell, I think that the major contributing factor is not the strength of the individuals that make up the team, but the strength of the team itself.

...of course, free beer doesn't hurt.

The Future of Home Entertainment

kenhiatt — Fri, 10 Dec 2004 11:28:00 GMT

I videotaped a short interview of a colleague the other day as part of the content for a web site that I am helping to create and one of the questions I posed was, "What product/feature would you like to see from Microsoft (or technology in general)?" After the interview was done, he turned the question back at me. While there are a ton of things that I would love to see Microsoft get involved in, one that has been on my mind lately has to do with one of our specialized versions of Windows, the Media Center Edition.

I have several computers in my home, two of which are set up as Media Center machines (and I'm adding a third one this weekend). Even with three tuners there are occasions when there is something on that I would like to record but can't unless I'm willing to cancel recording a show that I normally do.

NB: I'm discounting all of the legal aspects (which I suspect are surmountable if formidable) here, I'm sure they would make an interesting discussion, but that's for another time.

I would love to see a future where I would have access not only to my media center, but also that of my friends. If my buddy Richard recorded a show that he liked, he could shoot me an email and let me know that he has kept it on his machine for me to watch. Take this a step further...Richard doesn't watch that much TV, so there's a good chance that if I have a scheduling conflict, he could record something for me. Since we are using computers for the task we could even build an interface where Richard can allow me to use his computer to record when he's not using it. Another part of the interface would allow me to remotely schedule the recording. Even better...I discover that I missed a show that I meant to record, I could search through my friends listings and see if someone fortuitously had recorded it.

I don't see this as evolving into a Napster like video swap. That goes beyond what I think is legally doable. More of an automation of something that can already be done with VCRs. I could go on for pages spinning this out, but I think this presents the general idea.

Technical Thoughts...

Assuming an increase in bandwidth along the same lines as we've seen in the past decade, within a year or two there would probably be enough bandwidth for me to view the show in real time directly from his computer. If that is not the case, there would still be fallback positions. If top-notch quality was not needed, there are technologies (Divx comes to mind) that can compress the size of video and still keep it at a watchable level. Services likes BITS could be used to slowly trickle a show from one machine to another.

The interface I briefly allude to would have some challenges. While I have a decent understanding of quotas and resource management, the average user would need a simple way of saying, "Ken can use up to 10% of my disk space to record shows assuming that I'm not already using more than 70% and he can use 90% of the other system resources (net, CPU, etc) assuming that his use will not cripple my computer if I need to use it at the same time."

A Digital Jaunt to the Library

kenhiatt — Wed, 08 Dec 2004 23:02:00 GMT

Among the many resources I have at my disposal as a Microsoft employee is access to the Microsoft Library. As you might imagine for a company that spends billions of dollars each year in research and development, the Microsoft Library is a pretty good one. Without fail, every time I've gone looking for a book on a subject for work, the MS Library has something for me.

So today I went looking for a book. A quick search identified not only regular books, but some eBooks as well. While I prefer the feel of a "real" book, the information I needed was minimal so I decided that I would go with the eBook. The process for "checking out" an eBook from the MS Library took me over 15 minutes. Quite a bit of this time was due to the site being a bit misleading (IMHO) about what I needed to do to get to the "just let me read the book" step.

I won't bother you with the details of my clicking back and forth, nor with the number of times I managed to open a picture of the cover in a separate window. Overall, this was a fairly simple task, it should have been fairly simple to accomplish quickly. I have a technical background and understand how the web site should work from the electrons to the user interface. If it confused me a bit, I shudder to think what would have happened if someone non-technical needed to use it.

While this portion of the MS Library web site is outsourced (most likely to allow someone else the headache of dealing with the DRM issues involved), it would not take me too long to find similar examples of the problem in our (Microsoft) products. The problem? The site was not geared toward the task at hand. There was not a logical progression from locating a title to getting the title up in whatever reader was necessary. As the world continues along it's both of making computing more and more accessible to everyone, common tasks (I want to find and read an eBook) must evolve. I suspect that if I could look through a time lens into the twenty second century, I would find that most common tasks will have evolved to the point that movement through it will be as simple as browsing through a magazine.

I read an article a couple of years ago about the technology in a book (the old fashioned kind that I can pick up and flip through pages). The article presented the book as a mature technology has become refined to the point that most people that use it don't think about the technology, nor the technological advances that were required to get to where we are today. The web is very young. A dozen years ago or so, most of the web sites that were out there did not have any images and the amount of layout was minimal. Today, there is so much going on in the web that any web developer can put together a somewhat confusing interface and no one balks at having to dig through it. As it matures, conventionalization (as opposed to standardization) must emerge.

Side note: As I noted above, in the early days of the web there was little layout. Most early web sites had a few headers via the tags <H1>, <H2> and so forth. They had a paragraphs via <P> and lists <OL> and <UL>, but the content was basically a stream from start to finish with only the most minimal of layout. Today we are seeing a bit of a resurgence for that style of web, pages that by themselves have little layout. The layout is then introduced via the means of CSS. Everything old is new again.

The far corner of the EEC

kenhiatt — Wed, 01 Dec 2004 03:26:00 GMT

Greetings from the Enterprise Engineering Center. I do in fact have my office in one of the corners of the EEC. It's nice and quiet here which allows me to edit video a bit easier.

A bit about me...

I've been with Microsoft since July of 1995, starting in the Windows NT Build Lab (4.5 years) then proceeding to the Sustained Engineering team (1 year) and finally settling into an ever changing role within what is now the Enterprise Engineering Center.

My current role sees me shooting and editing quite a bit of video, occasionally creating or tweaking a graphic, and lately helping put together a web site. From that you might assume I have a background in the graphic arts or possibly some web related field. Nope. I trained in college to do programming. Even did that full time for about 3.5 years after leaving college. While I occasionally still write a bit of code, today it's just one tool in my bag of tricks.

I've somehow managed to work into a role where I get to take several of my hobbies (photography, videography, playing with images, etc) and apply them toward helping the EEC reach the MS product teams.

Away from work you might find me at a dropzone preparing to jump from a "perfectly good plane" or in my garage pretending to know my way around the woodworking tools I have scattered around.

What to expect from my blog. Not a whole lot. I figure if your expectations are low, then when I do post something you like, you'll be pleasantly surprised.