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Stuff + nonsense. Updated daily. So far. Pretty much. Overwrought by Scott Knaster.
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Saturday, March 01, 2003
I am sort of not working at Microsoft any more (Part 1)
This is the story of how I visited a secret Microsoft office for an hour and ended up staying for seven years. Way, way back, before the bust, before the boom, in 1996, I wanted a new job. I was working at General Magic, a really fun company that wasn't doing much with the Web -- and I was in love with the Web. I had been at Magic for 5 years, so I was a little burned out and bored anyway. But the Web was so darn cool that I really wanted to find a job that let me learn and play there. Naturally, the first place I went to interview was Netscape, the unofficial World Headquarters of the Web. The place was startup-style chaos, and the writing manager was swamped. We sat down and she rattled off a list of 8 different projects she needed writers for. The only sour note came when I said I was a Mac guy. She rolled her eyes in a "you really don't get the Web, do you?" kind of way and told me they did cross-platform development that included Mac versions shipping at the same time as the other platforms. Still, I left excited that I was probably going to work there. After our meeting, which was on a Monday, the writing manager promised to call with an offer within 2 days. Those 2 days passed, with no call. The rest of the week went by, too. The following Monday, I called her back, and she recited her reasons for not calling, most of them having to do with how swamped she was. She assured me she really wanted to hire me and that the offer would be ready, again, in 2 days. As another week went by with no contact, I wondered whether she was trying to blow me off but wasn't able to do it directly, or she and the company were too busy to get the offer together. Neither of those was good! So I decided to return a Microsoft recruiter's call. She told me she called a lot of Mac people, but few bothered to call back. She told me there was a small group of Mac fans working in San Jose on Internet Explorer. I had tried Mac IE, after hearing about it from Dave Winer, and it was good. Unlike the bloated cross-platform Netscape browser, Mac IE was Mac-only, and it showed. I decided to go there for an interview and I found a whole gang of Mac folks from places like Apple, Claris, and Radius. How weird was this? The big, evil company had a skunkworks doing the really cool Mac browser. The beloved upstart had the cross-platform Windows port that crashed all the time. This, like, blew my mind, man. So I signed up. For the next 3 years, I worked on a bunch of fun tasks. I wrote docs for various projects, including the late and loathed ActiveX for Macintosh, and pitched in on several versions of IE and Outlook Express. Because the mothership in Redmond didn't really grok the Mac, I got to do lots of demos, trade shows, and press interviews. Working for Microsoft and showing up at Macworld in 1997, in the dark days of Word 6, was...interesting. I had a guy ask for a bunch of IE CDs because he wanted to destroy them in his microwave. Once while I was being interviewed by a radio reporter, Macworld attendees stood behind me and flipped me off, intiating the radio reporter into the whole Mac vs. Windows thing. But I really loved it. We were doing great things, including IE, Outlook Express, and Office 98. Eventually, people saw that Microsoft had figured out how to do good Mac software rather than grotesque Windows ports. And I was there for the surreal moment in Boston in 1997 when Steve Jobs and Bill Gates announced Microsoft's $150 million investment in Apple. Eventually, the huge success of Office 98 led to the end of our little IE skunkworks in San Jose, as we were folded into the Mac Business Unit, the group that created Office. That was the end of my personal public relations department, as the pros in Redmond took over. But I still got to show our stuff at Macworld Expo. I also tried out a new job as Program Manager, helping ship a version of Outlook Express. But there was less and less for me to do, and I was kind of curious about some new projects that were happening in the somewhat larger part of our company that worked on Windows... (To be continued.)
Friday, February 28, 2003
Straight outta Redmond
I'm quitting Microsoft! Today is my last day. Starting next week, I'm a freelance writer. I am excited and sad and happy and worried and thrilled. I'll write more about this later, but right now I have to start getting ready for my exit interview.
Go Dave
In which Dave drives cross-country to his new life. Good luck, Dave! "Are you bringing a laptop?" Now that's journalism!
It all started with a mouse
Here's the news you've been waiting for: Willard has been remade and opens on March 14th.
Thursday, February 27, 2003
Thriller
This is an astonishing true story, expertly told.
Lightning gives tree root canal
Monday's root-canal related freak thunderstorm struck and destroyed a tree in Cupertino (second item on page).
Dandy Sandy
The once-mighty, once-proud Dodgers franchise hits new lows when the incredible Sandy Koufax cuts all ties with the team. I am so heartbroken.
Wednesday, February 26, 2003
Slouching toward listening
Another online music service. This one is run by our pals at AOL. So in addition to having to pay for the privilege of buying music, you get to pay to join AOL for the privilege of paying to pay for your music. This is sort of like going to Barnes & Noble, paying to get in the door, then paying more to get into the music department, where you are then permitted to buy CDs. And they call us the pirates.
Tuesday, February 25, 2003
Flash Mind Reader redux
Some people are writing that they try Flash Mind Reader, and it works for them "some of the time". Heh. Recheck your math, folks.
A slightly eventful root canal
Some activities, like airplane flights and dental work, are best when they're routine. Yesterday, I had a slightly eventful root canal. I'm no stranger to the endodontic arts. I have a mouthful of happy, healthy teeth. Except for the Gang of Four: the rearmost two on the bottom, left and right. All my dental work are belong to them. I have had numerous cavities, plus 3 crowns and root canals on those bad boys. And without exception, I find that getting a cavity filled is more annoying and more painful than a root canal. My theory is that "root canal" is such a bizarre and scary term that it has gotten bad PR over the years. Like eggplant, it needs a new name and a better press agent. Because my beloved regular dentist, Dr. Ron Pack of Sunnyvale, was out of town, I visited another guy (whom we shall call "Dr. Otherguy") for my root canal. The first hint of trouble came when they botched my appointment time. My Official Dental Scheduling Card said 1:00, but when I showed up, they had me for 2:00. Nobody told me that -- I spotted it on the Official Dental Schedule behind the desk. When I asked if they had booked me at the wrong time, the receptionist lied no, my appointment was at 2:00, she said. Quickly I brandished my schedule card. She backed off and adopted a new tactic: soon Dr. Otherguy would see me, because "he can work on two patients at the same time". Great. The procedure started when Dr. Otherguy placed a latex sheet around my bad tooth. The assistant then started to use the tiny dental vacuum to clean the schmutz from around my tooth. Oops! Dental vacuum snares and removes latex sheet instead! She pried the sheet loose from the vacuum. Dr. Otherguy reached for the sheet to reposition it, but the assistant, a woman of indeterminate provenance, snatched it away and snapped "I WILL PUT!" like a tantruming 6-year-old. Yow. I spent the next hour and a half getting a fine 20 minutes or so of root canal, as Dr. Otherguy and Nurse Ratched dropped by in between servicing the other patient with the better 1:00 appointment. As I reclined on the lovely dental chair, trying to keep my mouth propped open for 90 minutes and concentrating on not having foot spasms, the lights in the office suddenly went out. A moment later, a massive BOOM shook the office. Thunderstorms around here are rare, especially in winter, and this was one of the loudest thunderclaps I've ever heard. I knew then that God was punishing me for not waiting for my regular dentist. As I was considering what it would be like to bolt for the exit with the entire top of my tooth open to the world, the lights came back on. The rest of the root canal was relatively calm, if a little surreal. Dr. O. and Nurse R. spoke only professionally to each other as they completed the procedure. The lightning-addled radio faded in and out, producing strange, tinny music that was perfect accompaniment to the mood in the room. At last, I was dismissed, having been relieved of my diseased pulp and restored to dental near-fullness. Dr. Pack, I'll be seeing you soon for that crown. And I swear I'll never stray again.
Monday, February 24, 2003
Pure as snow?
Apparently repeated exposure to cold and snow has dulled minds here.
Back home again
We have returned from our 3-day journey to the Happiest Place on Earth, and it was great as usual. Meanwhile, Disney is moving along with plans for a third theme park in Anaheim. Talk about getting right back to reality today: at 1:00 I have a root canal. Oh boy!
Sunday, February 23, 2003
Silicon valley meets the happiest place
Disneyland has a sort of permanent trade show called Innoventions. One of the cool new products there yesterday was a Segway. The actor doing the demo had the name slightly wrong: instead of “the Segway Human Transporter”, it became “Segway, the Human Transporter”. Sounds like a movie monster. She clearly loved riding around on the Segway, going down the ramp, then back up, then reaching the bottom and zipping around through the audience. Looked like fun.
