Tag: Microsoft

Categories
Idle Life Microsoft Tech

Thoughts on being a closet MS employee

I was always at odds with myself when I was working in the Mac group at Microsoft.  The team is a great, smart bunch of people who really love the Mac platform and really want to do right by the Mac and turn out cool software.  I knew we were doing good work but there is so much zealotry in the Mac community that it took me a long time to refer to Microsoft as “we”.  If you check out comments on Omar’s blog you can see first-hand some of the quasi-religious fervor that can follow any post which is construed as anti-Apple.


Well, it’s taken me a long time but I can finally say I’m proud to be a Microsoft employee.  Having worked at Microsoft for almost nine years now I’ve come to realize the public’s view of Microsoft as a big, evil company who’s sole purpose is to crush all opposition is both not the view of the majority of the public and also just not true.  The people with whom I’ve worked are, with few exceptions, driven to excel and truly passionate about producing great software for their customers.  We are a competitive lot, but while having another company (e.g. Google or Yahoo!) producing cool e-mail software may drive me to want to out-do them I no more want to destroy Yahoo! than I would want to injure an opponent when playing soccer (besides, if Yahoo was destroyed, I’d feel really bad for Hans, Rob and Randy… they’re great people).


Seeing as it’s past 2AM and I’m on the road, having trouble sleeping without my lovely wife around… I was thinking… Being a white, American male growing up in the ‘burbs (raised Christian to boot), working on Macintosh software at MS provided me with what is probably the closest experience I’ll ever have to true racism.  And I’m know it’s nothing compared to what blacks, gays, Muslims, handicapped etc. people may face. 


So, I suppose it’s no great triumph of human will against insurmountable odds… baby steps.

Categories
Hotmail Microsoft Tech

Yes, we have no bananas,

I appreciate the enthusiasm folks have for becoming part of the mail beta, but I don’t, unfortunately, have any invites to give out at this time.  When I do have some invites to give out I’ll be sure to make an announcement here.


Thanks,
Reeves

Categories
Idle Microsoft Photography Tech

Raw diet

The various competing digital RAW formats have been a boon to professional and pro-sumer photographers but to date the support for them has been limited to the manufacturer’s software and expensive photo editing software.  Yesterday’s news that MS is going to support RAW in the OS is great news, I hope it will drive some serious improvements for the format (compatibility, closed standards and more abound).  Just having the big camera manufacturers talking about the same topic is fabulous.


More info:
Press release: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2005/jun05/06-01RAWWindowsPR.asp
Omar’s comments: http://www.shahine.com/omar/MicrosoftRAW.aspx
Sean Alexander’s comments: http://blog.seanalexander.com/LonghornGetsRAW.aspx
MS How-to article on dealing with RAW in XP: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/expert/rawfiles.mspx

Categories
Hotmail Microsoft Tech

A history of Hotmail on Wikipedia

Omar pointed out today that Wikipedia has a good article on Hotmail.  Lots of interesting facts including the origin of the service’s name, “Hotmail”.


From Bengt, the original Hotmail logo:


logo.gif

Categories
Microsoft Net Security Weird

I couldn’t resist

New Tech News World article: Microsoft and Pfizer Team Up Against Viagra Spammers


C’mon, what happened to the good old days of clever headlines?  How about:



“Unwanted advances from Viagra spammers turn off Microsoft and Pfizer”
                  Or
“Microsoft and Pfizer work to hold down Viagra Spammers”


I’m sure you can do better than that, give me your best headline, click the comment link.


Related story: EarthLink, Microsoft, Pfizer File Barrage of Spam Suits

Categories
Hotmail Microsoft

Who knew?

Here’s some Hotmail trivia to impress your friends:

  • Hotmail is used in more than 220 countries and territories – more than the number recognized by the United Nations.
  • If MSN Hotmail’s 190M active accounts were citizens of a single country, it would be the world’s 5th largest country.
    • No. 5, MSN Hotmail, 190mm
    • No. 6, Brazil 184mm
    • No. 7, Pakistan, 159mm
    • No. 8, Russia, 144mm
    • No. 9, Bangladesh, 141mm
  • If connected hand-to-hand, the 190 million MSN Hotmail members would circle the Earth at the equator over five and a half times.
  • MSN Hotmail e-mail service members number more than the combined population of the world’s 20 largest cities.
  • If all MSN Hotmail members were standing in single file, they would line the length of the Great Wall of China or the Nile River (the longest river in the world) over 17 times.
  • The MSN Hotmail user base has grown more than 18 times since January 1998, which is more than the world population has grown in the last fifty years.
  • Since 1997, MSN® Hotmail® has grown nearly 20 times from 10 million to 190 million subscribers.
  • In 2001 and 2003 MSN Hotmail was featured in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s largest free Web-based e-mail service provider.
Categories
Microsoft Music Net

More free music*

I love free music… well, I love free legal music.  I may have to wait a while for another Mercedes Benz mixed tape but starting tomorrow (2/8) MSN Music is starting its Grammy blitz by giving away one free song from each category.  A panel of music professionals is going to attempt to predict the winner in each category… then MSN Music will give away the song predicted to win.  So, not only is it free music, it’s good, free music.  You know it’s good, the professionals told you so.


Now, before you point out that I’m just being a corporate pawn to Microsoft let me say this… first: I am a total pawn, second: even if I weren’t a pawn I still like free music.  So there, I’m a sell-out… but I’m a cheap, stingy sell-out… that must be worth something.


There will be one free song per day, starting on February 8th.  Using my top-secret, internal Microsoft sources I’ve determined the order the songs will be released in is:



  1. Tuesday, Feb. 8: Best Male Pop Vocal Performance/Best Female Pop Vocal Performance
  2. Wednesday, Feb. 9: Best Rock Song
  3. Thursday, Feb. 10: Best Rap Song
  4. Friday, Feb. 11: Best R&B Song
  5. Saturday, Feb. 12: Best Country Song

So, there you are, in the greatest of corporate traditions a big company has told you what you’re going to like.

Categories
Hotmail Microsoft Reference Software

Want less Spam in your Hotmail account?

There’s a quick and easy step you can take: turn your junk e-mail filter from “Low” to “Enhanced”.  At the lowest level Hotmail will delete the known junk e-mail before it even lands in your account.  There are, however, clever filters that deal with junk e-mail we haven’t heard of yet… when you switch from “Low” to “Enhanced” you get the added benefit of Hotmail moving the mail we’re not quite sure about into the junk e-mail folder for you to examine later.


To help protect yourself from junk e-mail:


Turn your junk e-mail filter to “Enhanced”
Cranking it up from low is the difference between “we know this is junk” and “we think this is junk.” Hotmail gets rid of the things we know are junk… the things we think are junk we move to the junk e-mail folder… but only if your filter is set to “Enhanced.”
Add your friends’ e-mail addresses to your address book
You can import, use the contacts builder feature on the contacts page or simply check the box on the sent mail confirmation page.
Add other addresses to your safe list

Adding amazon.com addresses to your safe list but not your address book keeps your address book tidy but makes sure you receive your e-mails from Amazon.
When you receive junk e-mail in your inbox, select the junk e-mail and click the “junk” button

When you report the junk we missed the junk e-mail automatically goes into a system which trains our filters to be better in the future (be patient, though, it does take some time for the filters to learn, you won’t see an immediate effect, but like exercise, it works over time).
Check your e-mail every day
This sound funny but it is really more of a psychological trick than anything else. If you check your Hotmail account every day you’ll find that the amount of junk in your inbox is quite small and easy to deal with. When you take the task in small bites it’s easier to stomach (and frankly, quite painless).

To turn your junk e-mail filter from 1 to 11:



  1. Sign into Hotmail
  2. Click the “Mail” tab
  3. Click the “Options” link (it’s at the top right, near “Help”)
  4. Click the “Junk E-Mail Protection” link
  5. Click the “Junk E-Mail Filter” link
  6. Select the “Enhanced” level
  7. Click the “OK” button
  8. Get less spam in your inbox

Too many steps? Try my direct link to your Junk E-Mail Filter Options.


lgo_msn_118x40.gif

Categories
Microsoft Software Video Games

I can quit any time I like


Normally I don’t like it when my honey goes out of town… I get lonely and sulky, I don’t shave and I eat way more cereal than any human should. 


Tuesday was the release of Halo 2.  Thursday Paula went to New York to attend the bar mitzvah of a good friend’s son.  Since she left I haven’t shaved, I’ve bathed infrequently and I’ve eaten cereal for dinner… but I haven’t been lonely.  Halo 2 is by far the best online game I’ve ever played, esp. when playing with friends.


Since Paula’s been gone I’ve had my Xbox connected to Xbox Live for most of my waking hours, but when she gets back I’m going to spend much less time online.  But what’s an addict to do?  I can’t miss a game.


Now I don’t have to.  I’ve signed up for Xbox to send me either an IM if I’m signed into MSN Messenger or to send a message to my cell phone if I’m away or offline.  I never have to worry about missing a game again!


The easy way to find the sign up is to sign into MSN Messenger (Windows Messenger won’t work) and click the Xbox tab.  Once the Xbox tab loads click the Live tab and look to the bottom of the frame for the “Add Xbox Live Alerts” link.  Follow the instructions and you’re golden.  Note: you will need to associate your messenger account (Microsoft .Net Passport) with your live gamer tag in order to get this working, but after you’ve gone through the effort you’ll be able to see who’s online and what they’re playing right from MSN Messenger (pretty cool, huh?).  Oh, if you’ve turned off the tabs in options, go turn them back on again (I won’t tell you how, you figured out how to turn them off, after all).


Now… if I can just find a clever way to distract my wife for hours on end…

Categories
Hotmail Microsoft Tech

Bizarre tech support techniques

Hotmail is a really big service – servers measured in the thousands, active users measured in the hundreds of millions, incoming mail measured in the billions.  It’s not cheap to run (yeah, we’re Microsoft, cry you a river).  To keep our costs down we don’t make it easy to e-mail a human directly to get technical support and as a result users get (understandably) frustrated.


Enter Reeves, fearless, rogue cowboy PM, roaming the uncharted wastelands of the net searching for Hotmail users in need.  I spend tireless hours combing the dark corners of the net looking for…


OK, I don’t even believe myself.  What I do is set up Google alerts to drop me an e-mail once daily when news reports mention Hotmail.  My primary interest is to find out what reporters are saying about Hotmail but I occasionally find gripes mixed in with the news.  Last week, for example, I came across a pro-wrestling reporter who had to re-write his weekly article because he was unable to get into his Hotmail account.


Since I’m not in support the only ways for me to be able to help people with Hotmail is to post info on my blog, free-lance by tracking down gripes on the web or (crazy thought here) to proactively design new features for Hotmail which make it easier to use <gasp>.


So, as always, if you have a gripe about Hotmail, e-mail me.  I love to hear compliments about our product but hearing complaints is the next best thing.  Coming up with brand new stuff is hard… fixing stuff we broke is easy, if we know it’s broke(n).


P.S. it appears Hotmail is becoming a regular topic in the industry news… I wonder if I’ll get a chance to meet The Rock.