Keith's Amusing Musings » Workplace

Moving to Windows Phone Engineering

Keith — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 15:12:09 +0000

It has been 3 months since my last post. Mostly this is due to TB and I moving to less frequent Owen updates—which reminds me we still need to post a 2 1/4 year photo. We have also fallen victim to the Facebook craze which most our family and friends use to keep up with our latest goings-on.

However, it is also due to my recent move to the Windows Phone Division from the Developer Division. Good thing I began my switch to Windows Phone when it debuted last year, eh?

I spent my entire 13 years at Microsoft in DevDiv working on a litany of platforms and tools developers have used to build consumer and enterprise applications for mostly desktop computers and servers. Now, I am off doing pretty much the same thing, building application platforms, but this time targeting mobile devices. Phones are obviously an exciting place to be with all the buzz and tremendous growth surrounding iOS and Android. Having worked on several seminal products—including Visual J++, ASP.NET 1.0 and Silverlight 1.0—I am accustomed to being the underdog in the highly-charged race to woo developers to nascent technology. Perhaps I will start a series on what I think makes Windows Phone special having spent the last few years as an iPhone devotee. Stay tuned…

In other news, Owen started playing soccer in Arena Sports Lil’ Kickers. He’s in the Thumpers (2-3 year old) group where they mostly run around, kick stuff, and learn to follow the coach’s instructions. It is really funny watching him develop and a good way to get the family outdoors each Saturday morning.

Owen’s First Soccer Practice

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Microsoft gives employee special Halloween treat

Keith — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 23:00:46 +0000

We have great benefits at Microsoft. One category of benefits involves commuting which includes free bus passes, Connector buses, and designated parking spots for carpools/vanpools. For example, I take the bus to work a couple days each week using my free bus pass. TB and I are registered carpoolers for the times we ride together.

Carpoolers share a single parking badge which must be displayed whenever a vehicle is parked in one of the designated spots. On several occasions when we both drive, I have admittedly broken the rules by parking my car in a carpool spot without the badge. Four or five times over the past 10 years I have received parking violations from Microsoft Security reminding me that I cannot park my car in a carpool spot without displaying the badge. Nothing more has ever happened but each citation stated the violation would be recorded and my car is subject to immediate towing.

Well, yesterday, Halloween, a Friday when I was at work until 7:30 PM, the big payback hit like a sledgehammer. A security officer with the initials JH had the 626 towed, y’all. My baby was in lockup for the first time.

I was tired and ready to go home after another long week so I made my way to the parking garage to the area I normally park. I don’t normally park in carpool spots but I had parked in one Thursday morning to carry a monitor into the office. Not an excuse but that’s the reason. I decided to be a good commuter and caught the bus home from work on Thursday evening. As a result, when I got ready to leave work on Friday evening, I didn’t remember exactly where I left my car the previous day but I always park in roughly the same area. Well, last night I couldn’t find my car. I walked around and around for about 5 minutes. The garage was relatively empty—it was Halloween Friday after all.

“No one would steal the ‘97 626 sitting on 14s,” I thought. I walked to the phone just near the elevator entrance and dialed security. The dispatcher asked the location and the make, model and color of my car. I could hear her punching everything into a computer and, after a few moments, she said, “Yes, your vehicle was towed from building 40 at 10:31 this morning. It says here it was due to a carpool parking violation.” “Are you serious?” I bellowed incredulously. “I mean it’s Friday. Halloween. That’s just mean-spirited. You couldn’t send me e-mail or something to let me know I’d been towed so I could make arrangements? Who can I contact about this policy?” Not one of my finer moments, I admit, but I was completely taken aback by the sheer irony of being a registered carpooler, doing my commuter duty catching the bus and, of course, being a good worker by staying in the office late on Friday.

There are two things you don’t want to happen to you on a Friday evening: 1) Getting jailed and 2) Getting towed. Although I had never been towed, I have heard about the exorbitant impound/storage fees and knew my car sitting in some lot was costing me some serious coin. After I made it home—by bus, of course—TB cut me no slack (as usual) but did suggest I call the tow company immediately to see about getting my car back as soon as possible. The dispatcher claimed the Isben towing is closed outside normal business hours and I would have to wait until Monday to get my car. Thankfully, TB wasn’t buying it. I called the company and they took my information which was relayed to the on-duty truck driver, Morgan. He called me back a few minutes later and said he could meet me at the facility in 30 minutes but I would have to pay an after-hours fee if I didn’t wait until Monday. The daily storage fee is $60 (billed in half-day increments) so after doing some quick math, I could save $60 and get my car sooner. I agreed to meet him in 30 minutes. It was 8:15 PM.

On the way to the facility, I received a second call from Morgan asking where we were. We were still about 7 minutes out which meant we would be a couple minutes late. He said he had another call and if we didn’t get there in the next 5 minutes he would have to leave and meet me back there in an hour. What that really meant was he had already left—towing is big business on the weekend—and, sure enough, it was a ghost town when we arrived. I could feel TB’s anger in the cool, damp evening air. She wanted to wring someone’s neck and I was the only one around. Luckily we both had our iPhones. I read blogs and surfed while she played Sudoku for the next hour sitting in her car in front of a non-descript facility on a Friday night. Happy Halloween.

Morgan, arrived almost exactly an hour later. I posted the $335.18(!) to free my baby and off we went. It was just after 10 PM.

Thank you Microsoft Security, JH in particular, for showing me so much love. I sent a strongly-worded message to the appropriate team regarding the parking policy for not notifying me I’d been towed despite the requirement that employees register their vehicles with security. I fully expect them to respond along the lines of “Do the crime, pay the fine.” Guess who won’t be parking in the carpool spots without displaying a badge from now on.

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We made the New York Times

Keith — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 23:39:35 +0000

Remember that new job I started two months back? Well, we have been hard at work preparing for our first public release. I’m happy to report we went live this past Tuesday as the new & shiny Silverlight Toolkit, which will have surpassed 10,000 downloads by the time you read this.

What’s really cool is we were briefly mentioned in the New York Times on Wednesday as part of the Microsoft Professional Developer Conference in LA this week.

That is a pretty big deal for a new team like ours. We are already working on the next release since part of our charter is shipping new controls with full source code early and often.

So you’re probably thinking, "Why should I care? I’m not creating a Silverlight application anytime soon." First, stop hating. Second, the answer is that Silverlight is growing rapidly and gaining ubiquity so you will likely experience many of your favorite sites through Silverlight in the future. For example, Netflix announced this week it will begin using Silverlight to bring its on-demand, instant streaming feature to both PCs and Macs by end of year. See, Silverlight is for movie lovers too.

Happy Halloween!

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My new job

Keith — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 21:14:41 +0000

I started a new job as the Group Program Manager (GPM) of the Presentation Platform Controls (PPC) team, back on August 25 .

I decided to return to my roots in the product group after 33 months in marketing. I had a blast in marketing and will miss my team and responsibilities as Director of Product Management for Microsoft Expression dearly. Why leave? Two reasons.

First, as those of you who have followed my blog can attest, I am a big Silverlight fan and my new gig gives me direct responsibility for helping the technology succeed. My new team is tasked with delivering first-party controls for Silverlight. That includes basic components for building user interfaces like button, textbox and label in addition to advance controls like calendar, datagrid and scrollview.

Second, I missed the day-to-day aspects of creating the products that will reach billions. As GPM, I will be leading the program management discipline for the PPC team. You can learn more about what program managers do at Microsoft on the Microsoft career site.

I moved offices and began getting settled into my new job before heading out for a vacation in Belgium the week of Labor Day. That post is coming up next.

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Keith@MSFT: 3,653 days and counting

Keith — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 17:35:51 +0000

Today, June 22, 2008, marks my tenth year as a full-time regular employee at the world’s largest software company.

Ten years at a single company is a long time in this industry, but it has passed rather quickly. Milestones are exciting and I always look forward to reaching them the closer they get. As for the gifts, I got a clock at 5 years but it no longer keeps the time. To commemorate my tenth year I will receive a massive Lucite desk ornament that resembles a crystal structure that would make the Son of Jor-El proud. (You all remember Marlon Brando as Superman’s father in Superman, right?)

What have I been able to accomplish in 10 years at the ‘Soft? First, here are the products I have shipped over the years:

Visual J++ (Windows Foundation Classes DHTML Controls)
Internet Explorer 5 (DHTML Editing Control)
Visual Studio 2002 (Web Forms Designer)
ASP.NET 1.0 (Performance & Stress)
Visual Studio 2003 (Windows Forms Designer)
Visual Studio 2005 (Visual Web Developer)
ASP.NET AJAX 1.0
Windows Vista (IIS7)
Silverlight 1.0
Windows Server 2008 (IIS7)
Visual Studio 2008 (Visual Web Developer)
Expression Studio 2 (Web, Blend, Design, Media, Encoder, Subscription)

I also helped orchestrate the launch of the following Microsoft sites over the last 2 years:

Yes, I have met Bill and Steve. I’ve also had the opportunity to talk with James who has been on Microsoft’s Board of Directors since 2001.

Oh, I also get 10 shares of MSFT stock which, at Friday’s close, was $28.53/share. That $285.30 would feed a starving kid for 864 days, or about 1/4th the time it took me to earn it. At that rate I’d better start the Feed Keith Foundation. Actually, if I donate that stock to charity, I can get Microsoft to match my contribution and double the fruits of my labor. Hmm…

For kicks, I looked up the Washington State sentencing guidelines to see what minimum level of felony, from 1 to 16, one would need to commit to warrant a ten-year sentence.

Serious repeat offenders must commit a Level 8 or higher offense for a 10+ year sentence. Here are the Level 8 felonies in Washington:

1st Degree Arson
Reckless Homicide by Watercraft
2nd Degree Manslaughter
Sex Abuse of a Minor
1st Degree Prostitution
Theft of Ammonia (WTF?!?) :confused:
Reckless Vehicular Homicide

First-Time offenders must hit Level 13 or higher:

2nd Degree Malicious Explosion
1st Degree Malicious Placement of an Explosive

Levels 14 to 16 are reserved for the most heinous trafficking, explosion and murder convicts.

Why am I discussing crime and punishment in what started as a Microsoft 10-year anniversary victory lap post? Uhh. Umm. Yeah.

It’s for the kids:

A sidebar for all the kids out there reading Keith’s Amusing Musings today and tomorrow:

Remember you can lose a career at Microsoft in the blink of an eye. While you may want your name to appear at the top of many lists as you mature, stay away from those maintained by the FBI, DEA and ATF. Oh, and stay in school.

All you repeat offenders and hardened criminals had better stay away from that ammonia. If you are walking down the street and see three H’s hanging around an N, run the other way.

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From Far East to Northwest

Keith — Thu, 08 May 2008 17:01:57 +0000

I made it back home after dropping off the grid for about 10 days traveling around China and Korea for work. The business side of the trip was very productive. I kept a dense agenda meeting with colleagues from the three main regions (Japan, China, Korea) in addition to press, customer and partner briefings while in Seoul. The leisure portions were few and far between. After working 12-16 hour days, I generally would return to my room to work an additional 2-4 hours to sync up with my team back in Redmond. There was a lot going on last week with the launch of Expression Studio 2 which we have been gearing up for since MIX.

I found a few hours on a few days to do some sightseeing, take some pictures and get a glimpse of the Chinese and Korean cultures. In fact, I achieved the tourism objectives I set at the outset of the trip. I have added pictures I took of the Terra Cotta Army in Xi’an, the Shanghai skyline, and the Great Wall, the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square in Beijing.

As an added bonus to you, my faithful readers, I also recorded some video during my trip using a handy Flip Ultra that I bought from Amazon right before the trip. I’m now a big fan of the Flip. You just can’t beat its combination of price, convenience and video quality. I’ll post some videos from the trip once I’ve finished editing. Stay tuned…

Some unplanned but immensely enjoyable experiences include biking along the Xi’an city wall, dancing until the wee hours of the night in a Sanlitun club, and in Tiananmen Square taking pictures with Chinese couples (and their children) who clearly hadn’t seen a Black American person up close before. The White coworkers I was traveling with had a ball with that last one, walking around telling the locals I’m a famous basketball player. Thankfully, English literacy is relatively low throughout most of China.

Though I’m suffering from some serious jet lag and recovering from the long days, it’s great to be back home. There is so much to catch up on and so much I’ve already missed (a birth and death in the family, for example) making the trip to Asia even more surreal than the countries, their histories and their people. TB left for Chicago early this morning to meet our newest niece, Abria Lynn, born to her twin sister and her husband on Cinqo de Mayo. While being home alone is, generally, no fun, I’ve been around people non-stop for ten days. The peace and quiet is sure to be therapeutic. Speaking of being therapeutic, the Chinese foot massages are amazing. For only $16, you can get a 90 minute foot, leg, back and neck massage at a high-end establishment. I had two in ten days. I fell asleep both times. If you’re ever in Beijing or Xi’an, ask your concierge or tour guide for the nearest “Massage & Spa” franchise—you won’t be disappointed.

So, what about Seoul? It definitely ranks in the top 3 of places outside the States I would like to live—Cape Town, South Africa is still #1. Seoul is a new New York done right. The city uses technology in ways that blow away a techno-gadget geek like me. For example, their automobile GPS/navigation units provide real-time traffic avoidance and display broadcast TV on 7” widescreens…for free…no monthly charges! The units even warn the driver of nearby police cameras to avoid speeding and parking tickets. Yes, the police department scans the streets for parking violations using cameras mounted throughout the city. I must admit, it was eerie knowing our actions were being monitored at all times—there are cameras everywhere in Seoul.

I also had lunch in the touristy Itaewon district home to many American stalwarts including McDonalds, Burger King, Subway, Outback Steakhouse, Cold Stone Creamery, etc. I didn’t get a chance to visit the Korean DMZ but I did eat kimchi and partake in an authentic Korean barbecue, as planned. I stayed in the posh Park Hyatt while in Seoul. The service and rooms both eclipse the Tokyo Park Hyatt (reference) in terms of ridiculous opulence. Below is a panorama view of the city I shot from my 22nd floor suite—the highest floor for guest rooms. (Maybe Park Hyatt will hire me to shoot panoramas from all its hotels.)

By the way, I kept running while on the road and have surpassed the halfway mark of the “108 miles in 12 weeks” goal set back on March 29.Similar Posts

My First Trip to China and Korea

Keith — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 05:43:23 +0000

Tomorrow afternoon I board a non-stop flight from Seattle to Seoul, South Korea, on Asiana Airlines. After the 12 hour flight and a 90 minute layover in South Korea’s Incheon airport, I depart on a Korean Air flight to Beijing, China for the first leg of my business trip. I’ll be in China for about a week participating in an Asia strategy summit alternating between Beijing, Xi’an and Shanghai. This is my first time visiting China and mainland Asia and my travel buddy, TB, isn’t coming with me—TB is also short for travel buddy, he he.

I’m trying to mentally prepare myself for my first trip to a Communist nation but everyone I know who has been to China says it’s an amazing place. The only negative I’ve heard so far is the poor air quality in Beijing. I must have a good time since just getting there is such a pain. For example, acquiring a business visa for China is no easy or inexpensive endeavor. The final tab was close to $300 for a one-year, multiple-entry visa and required two visits to the federal building in downtown Seattle and overnight shipment of my passport to the Chinese embassy in Los Angeles. I also had to have our assistant sign a cover letter to the embassy promising I wouldn’t become a financial burden on their government, I would have the means to care for myself during my entire time in China and my employer would guarantee my return to the U.S. The cover letter also had to provide the names, addresses and phone numbers of the people in China responsible for me during my stay. Crazy.

I plan to visit the Terra Cotta Warriors while in Xi’an, do a day trip to the Great Wall of China (of course) and check out Tiananmen Square while in Beijing.

After about 10 days in China, I’ll return to Seoul from Shanghai on Korean Air, arriving at Kimpo airport in about 2 hours. I’m not sure what I’ll do in Korea except try some authentic kimchi and Korean barbecue. Following two days of customer and partner visits in Seoul, I return to Seattle with memories to cherish and jet lag to suffer.

My running will continue during the trip and I will take pictures as possibly shoot some video if things go as planned with my packing. You may recall, I only do carry-on regardless of climate, trip duration or weight. If I can’t carry it with me on the plane, I can’t take it on the trip.

TB told me to bring her back something nice. I told her I’d bring her a couple bags of rice with the recent retail and wholesale shortages and all.

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MIX 08 is a Wrap

Keith — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 22:30:32 +0000

It has been an eventful and, by all accounts, successful week for Team Microsoft here in Las Vegas.

The UX Summit went more smoothly than the previous three—several participants commented my involvement helped considerably. MIX was an amazing experience for customers, partners, trade press, industry analysts and employees alike. We stepped up and delivered a compelling story that has resulted in some very favorable reporting on top tech news sites and blogs.

My team pulled off the Expression 2 MIX communications plan, which we have been working on since January with our internal PR team and our agency account executives at Waggener Edstrom. You would be amazed how much work goes into a press release, press kit, and an executive blog post (penned by yours truly). I am especially proud of that last item since Soma is a newly-minted Senior Vice President at Microsoft and he keeps a tight rein on what gets published on his blog.

The following list of articles include quotes attributed to me from a subset of press interviews and analyst briefings at MIX:

eWeek: Keith introduces Microsoft Expression 2, Expression Professional Subscription and Expression Community site
ComputerWorld: Microsoft-Novell patent agreement for Moonlight
ZDNet UK: Keith posits on scenarios and pitfalls of a more interactive Web
Technaute/La chronique de Nelson: Keith discusses Web designer/developer workflow (English translation)

All in all, I could not feel more pleased with the results of this week. It is onward and upward from here as we head into fiscal year 2009 planning, the MIX Essentials events happening around the world, Tech-Ed US and PDC this fall.Similar Posts

Playing to Wynn

Keith — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 03:13:26 +0000

I have a few minutes to check in before my next activity. I was up at 5 AM yesterday and didn’t turn in until 2 AM today. This is going to be a long week. The UX Summit went from 8 AM to 6:30 PM and we dined as a group in the private dining room of the upscale Daniel Boulud restaurant inside the Wynn hotel. There were 50 of us and, as co-host, I made the rounds throughout the evening and was in the last group to leave. The four-course dinner didn’t wrap up until 11 PM(!) but the evening still didn’t end.

A smaller group of us walked back to the Venetian and watched a colleague play roulette for about 30 minutes. We then went to the V Bar (also in the Venetian) and talked over drinks. I finally called it a night and headed to my room just after 1 AM to prepare for Day 2.

Day 1 of the Summit was great based on attendee participation and feedback. My presentation went smoothly and I successfully rolled out the marketing strategy for the duration of the fiscal year and ahead into FY2009. We started on time, ended on time and kept everyone engaged, which is an accomplishment for such a long day holed up in a hotel conference room.

Today I was up at 6 AM and we just wrapped up again at 6:30 PM. I am double-booked for dinner tonight with the Summit attendees dinner and an invitation-only event with key partners & press from Japan. (You may recall they love me over in Tokyo after Remix last fall…Keith-san Ichiban is back!)

Day 2 of the Summit was another long haul but it’s done and the event was a resounding success. Tomorrow is the big event, MIX, and I have a day/evening full of press briefings and press events following the 3-hour keynote. I’d better get some sleep. Perhaps after watching the presidential primary coverage while the results from Ohio and Texas are analyzed.Similar Posts

MIXing it up in Las Vegas

Keith — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 07:55:38 +0000

Wow, have things been busy!

If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you know it is that time of the year again. The 3rd annual Microsoft MIX conference kicks off this week (Wednesday) at the same location, the Venetian in Las Vegas. I arrived in Vegas just before 11 PM tonight in preparation for the User Experience (UX) Summit I am co-hosting on Monday and Tuesday prior to MIX. This week is going to be packed. As with previous events, there are some major announcements planned for MIX and lots to discuss with our fellow UX Summit attendees.

This is the fourth UX Summit which, twice a year, brings together roughly 60 Microsoft employees from around the world to plan strategy and tactics for advancing Microsoft’s platform and tools products for the Web, Windows and devices. Attendees include Microsoft Expression product managers, designer audience marketing managers and user experience evangelists for the US, the UK, Canada, France, Germany, India, Korea, Japan, China, etc. I have been involved with MIX since the inaugural show (ahh, the early days) and I have participated in every UX Summit (including the one last fall in Madrid). However, this is my first time officially co-hosting the event with one of my colleagues in the Developer & Platform Evangelism group. It is one of the new duties I have since completing a massive re-org within my parent organization which began before Thanksgiving and was officially rolled out in mid-January.

My friends and family always ask exactly what it is I do at Microsoft. It is now actually quite simple to articulate: I lead the team of product managers for Microsoft’s designer audience and tools. Our responsibilities include inbound/outbound marketing of Microsoft Expression Studio, a suite of tools for professional designers, and designer audience marketing. If you are a designer or developer using or considering Microsoft products to create Web or Windows applications, chances are high you have already come across our work. If not, click here or here or here to visit the marketing and community sites created and managed by my team. We have been very busy, indeed.

I will capture this week’s activities on my blog as time permits. I need to get some sleep since we’ll be going from 7 AM to ~11 PM tomorrow. I won’t be getting much sleep between now and when I return to Seattle on Friday. The good news is TB is coming down on Wednesday night so we can celebrate her birthday together in Vegas.Similar Posts