At the Romanian Parliament

Previously, I mentioned our visit to the Romanian Parliament last week and the Windows Vista demo for Varujan Pambuccian. Well I finally got around to uploading some photos from the visit, including this one showing all of us in one of the Parliament chambers.

That's me on the far left, standing next to Varujan. Julian MacLauchlan (another Microsoft GM) is in the middle.  Olvidiu Artopolescu is the General Manager for Microsoft Romania. Fil Alleva (my boss, who runs the Speech & Natural Language group) is at the far right.

I'm told that the Romanian Parliament building is the second-largest building in the world, a hugely extravagant and wasteful monument to the megalomaniac who was thrown out in the 1989 revolution. Varujan gave us a tour, including a look out over the balcony once used only by the Top Guys. Here we are, with Silviu Hotaran, who leads the Southeastern part of Microsoft's European division.