Richard Sprague WebLog : Microsoft General

Yet another huge storm

sprague — Tue, 05 May 2009 17:18:52 GMT

It’s pouring buckets again today, with strong winds last night blowing some nasty winds. Fortunately, I’m extremely well-prepared, so it’s just another storm for me. That said, I’m looking forward to what’s next:

This is a good time to remind my readers, and anyone else interested in the rest of what I do, to please check out http://blog.richardsprague.com for more details and thoughts. Lately I’ve been doing a lot of Twitter as well, so please join me there too.

Just can’t get decent weather anymore

sprague — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 02:07:04 GMT

Just when we thought summer was near, we get reminded that we still live in the Pacific Northwest. Look at the view from my office window right now:

Somebody rescue us from this cold and snow!

Microspotting

sprague — Wed, 21 May 2008 03:15:03 GMT

If you're wondering what it's really like inside Microsoft (maybe because you want to work here?), read the interviews at the corporate blog Microspotting. In the most recent post, Ariel interviews Microosft platform evangelist Jeff Sandquist, who tells us what it's like to work for SanjayP and how surprised he was to see that Sanjay reads the blogs of people in his organization. Since Sanjay recently became VP of the Response Point team, I guess I better say hi too! (Hi Sanjay!)

Marketing Jobs at Microsoft

sprague — Thu, 08 May 2008 17:02:43 GMT

One of my favorite things about my job is the small, start-up feel to our organization and how I'm able to have the resources of a big company behind me, but with the flexibility and impact of a start-up. If you're interested in a job like that, please contact me, because my group is now hiring.

We have several jobs open, but in my marketing group I'm especially looking for people with an interest and passion for generating demand for a new product. We want to bring a new set of telephony devices to market, and we need people who can think creatively about how to get the word out, through marcom, PR, building new customer- and reseller-led communities, and more.

If you're the right kind of person, you probably either already have an MBA or have thought about getting one, but more importantly, you have ideas for how to turn a well-engineered product into a market success. If you have a background or interest in VOIP, IP PBX, small business telephony, or anything voice and consumer-related, give me a call. Our early reviews have been fantastic, so we know this has potential to be a real hit, and maybe you can help.

Snow showers in April

sprague — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 04:29:18 GMT

Unbelievable what I saw as I left the office tonight:

This is the parking lot for our office, Building 99. Here it is, heading into late April and we are getting snow! It's not fair!

Happy to be owned by Microsoft

sprague — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 02:57:09 GMT

Mike McCue, founder of Tellme is quoted in the Seattle P-I:

"We are pretty much doing everything we were doing before -- just a lot more of it," said McCue.

We had a nice offsite meeting with our Tellme friends last week and I can say the same thing. The Redmond people and the Silicon Valley people are working more together now than ever. Those of us who came here via the acquisition route have no regrets.

Bill Gates Last Day

sprague — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 03:38:20 GMT

If you haven't seen the video that Bill Gates showed at CES:

Bill Gates Last Day CES Clip

Time for Office updates

sprague — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 23:04:13 GMT

If you're running Vista and Office 2007, by now you'll have received notice of the new Office 2007 Service Pack 1. You'll need to open Windows Update yourself to pull it in and install, like I just did this weekend.

While you're at it, if you have a Windows Mobile phone you'll want to upgrade your Office Mobile to the latest bits, which among other things will let you read new Office file formats.

You can find a detailed description of all the new changes here (it's an Excel download). Lots of minor fixes, mostly nice-to-have, but cummulatively it should make your Office 2007 run much better.

All-in-all it just feels nice to have a clean, updated copy of Office, both desktop and mobile. Kind of like finally cleaning out your garage.

Steven Pinker Coming to Microsoft

sprague — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 18:16:42 GMT

As a long-time fan of Steven Pinker, I'm excited that he'll be visiting Microsoft this week to discuss his new book, the Stuff of Thought. (If you'll be in the Seattle area, you can also see him at Town Hall Seattle on Wednesday at 7:30pm).

What questions should I ask him?

See, we really are nice guys

sprague — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 06:51:00 GMT

The Wall Street Journal reports last week on a Harris Interactive study that shows Microsoft has the world's best corporate reputation. And we're up quite a bit from last year (80.74 vs. 78.11)

Huh?!? This plus the fact that Fortune ranked us one of the best companies to work for? Whatever happened to Evil Empire?