Messaging
Most recent messages are at the top
| Richard | |
| The MS store didn't have XBox's? XBoxes? XBoxii? At this rate you'd probably be able to get a cheaper and faster one online? Perhaps Amazon? You could even just go down the street. :P | |
| Alex T. | |
| Day 10 - Exploring on a beeeeautiful day
Sunday January 13, 2008 
Blue skies smiling at me Nothing but blue skies do I see What an amazing weekend interns of weather! Blue skies for an extended period of time! I woke up to this beautiful Sunday morning and I couldn't resist heading out to explore the neighbourhood and to do some photo-ing. Our neighbourhood and the main Microsoft campus is separated by a a half board, half dirt walking trail through some wetlands (hence the name of our community: The Trails of Redmond. Ginormously tall trees sprung from the ground, moss was growing, ferns were reaching about, and the water was flowing. I haven't experienced such nature since... Kearney back in Grade 6 when we were at Chester Le? The small river along side the trail was completely still, reflecting like a mirror until I noticed some ripples emanating from the south. I thought the wind picked up and started to zip up my coat, but then I noticed a whole formation of ducks invading the still waters. Cool. =) 
Following the trail leads to the Microsoft campus. That's how close we are to Microsoft. In the afternoon, it was time to head out again and do some more shopping. Adrian and I both had big ticket items on our lists. For myself, I was in search of a bicycle - another perk of a Microsoft Intern. Microsoft is paying for a bike + helmet + shipping it back to Toronto at the end of the term. Getting the bike into our car was an interesting endeavour. Whoever designed the Chevy Impala should take a lesson in user-friendly and intuitive design... 
That was simple enough. Now for Adrian's big ticket item: an XBOX 360. It was surprisingly difficult to find one in all of Redmond. Surprising, isn't it? It was out of stock everywhere. Our hunt for the XBOX brought us to Redmond Town Center, again, EB Games and Game Stop, Fred Meyer and Target. Nothing. We decided to head home and call up places to check stock instead. Circuit City? Nope. Best Buy? Nope. Sears?? Nope. Just for kicks, here's a pano of the central area in Redmond Town Center: 
But before heading home, it was time for grocery shopping again. Yay! I've been enjoying this experience for some reason. There's something about picking out my own ingredients and cooking/experimenting that's quite satisfying. We made our way to a nearby Asian Food Center and found the prices reasonable. I'm happy. So at the end of the day, we have no XBOX 360. I'll end of the day with the rest of the photos (mainly from my morning stroll through the trails): | |
| Alex T. | |
| Day 9 - Seattle Premium Outlets
Saturday January 12, 2008 And let the the second weekend in Redmond begin! For some reason, it always seems to start off with a shopping theme. Kevin, Jeff, Jenny, Angela, Adrian, and I went out for lunch and then headed 40 miles northwest to the Seattle Premium Outlets. I was more interested in the journey than the destination, so here are photos from the journey: We'll probably make another trip there later in the term since this time around was mainly for initial scouting of the discounts. | |
| Alex T. | |
| Oh Dan, as someone important in my life once said to me: sharing is caring! =D | |
| Calvin | |
| Dan, with if you buy six eeePCs, then you could give one to me and 5 other of your BEST FRIENDS XD | |
| Alex T. | |
| It could be contagious | |
| Richard | |
| Might want to get that checked out, Alice. | |
| Anonymous | |
| *cough("wait for version 2 for macbook air")* xD | |
| Alex T. | |
| But you can get SIX(!) EeePC's!!
=D | |
| Dan H. | |
| okay, i know the eeepc is only $300...
and macbook air is only.... 1800$...lol but... i'm a mac head!! what can I say? i think i might get one! i've been waiting for something like this, alex! :D | |
| Alex T. | |
| So Dan...
eeePC? Macbook Air? eeePC? Macbook Air? Does one tip the scale? (readers can decide if there's a pun here) | |
| Dan H. | |
| When Steve pulled the Macbook Air our of the yellow paper envelope, I was like... WTF!!! So Thin!!
Also of note... for the 64GB SSD hard drive: add $999 Expensive bytes!! | |
| Timbo | |
| That's what I was thinking in the office too! Sitting on one of those would definitely be... interesting to say the least. | |
| Anonymous | |
| i bet they just "mehh"-ed it off.
I wonder what would happen if you accidentally sat on one :x | |
| Richard | |
| I'm interested in hearing what the MS reaction was... | |
| gloria / www.urbanebloc.com | |
| bonjour! I don't know why I thought people would be interested in this - but Macbook Air!!! oooo (: hi! | |
| Dan T. | |
| Awesome phone lol, makes mine look like its from the stone age.
ooooo fleet...99.9 miles/gal now that's efficiency =D TimBits are awesome =D you guys should travel to BC and smuggle more back over the border lol. | |
| Alex T. | |
| And don't believe all the words on the street, it's dangerous ;) | |
| Alex T. | |
| But if it made coffee, you could start your own coffee shop at your desk ;)
I'll see what other interesting commentary I can conjure up to keep you smiling, Miss :D Who cares if the scroll wheel is out of place... it's a scroll wheel! The kids at Apple have a scroll wheel, why not Polycom? AND we have a touch screen too!! Best of both worlds!! Now we're just missing a scroll pad, a thumb jog wheel and a trackball... wait, those are in the prototype! | |
| Richard | |
| But if it made coffee... | |
| Anonymous | |
| omg, you quoting the Toyota Prius behaviour made me smile xDD
Seems like you're having a smashing good time :) And about the keyboard and mouse, I have no real preference except that they're wireless XD (and you know, comfortable, yet practical.... i don't need any blinking light x) or for it to make me coffee... :P ) | |
| Richard | |
| That is one slick looking phone, but I think the scroll wheel looks out of place. Nevertheless, loving that synchronization with Office Communicator.
What kind of discounts do you get on... say... a Zune? Word on the street is that Ultimate is $80... | |
| Alex T. | |
| Day 8 - Lunch with the Interns
Friday January 11, 2008 Today, the a whole bunch of interns gathered at Building 40 for lunch. Now, Building 41 is at the very south of Main Campus. How do all the interns scattered throughout the campus and in separate West and North Campuses get there in time for lunch? So here's the coolest company service: free on-demand shuttles. Since the campus is so huge and consists of so many buildings and satellite campuses in surrounding areas, we have our own fleet (FLEET!) of buses, vans and Toyota Prius Hybrid vehicles to taxi employees around from building to building. Need a ride to lunch at the Building 41 Cafe in the Main Campus but you work in Building 84 in North Campus? No problem! It's as simple as asking the building receptionist (during business hours) for a shuttle for your party and a vehicle arrives at your pick-up point within a matter of minutes. The friendly driver then shuttles you to wherever you need to go. After business hours, we need to pick up the phone and call the dispatch service ourselves. This is too awesome and convenient. It allows people from all over the company to come together and meet. How do the shuttles arrive within a matter of minutes? Apparently, the fleet operates 75 to 100 vehicles at a time and they all have their fancy dispatch systems, location tracking and LCD screens in their vehicles. Watching the Toyota Prius energy monitor information display screen is also quite fascinating. "The battery's recharging! There goes the gas motor! We're at cruising speed and the electric motor's kicking in! Look! It's all green! 99.9 miles per gallon! Sweet... According to the Microsoft Quick Facts page, our shuttle service transports 2,000 passengers a day on average! | |
| Alex T. | |
| Day 7 - Completing the office
Thursday January 10, 2008 Office space seems to be at a premium at Microsoft even though we have hundreds of buildings. This term, I am sharing an office with another Waterloo graduate, except he is a much younger fellow who recently graduated from the Software Engineering program. He returned from vacation (back to Canada) and smuggled back two large containers of Tim Bits. Nice! 
My office became pretty much complete today with the installation of my phone. I got a brand spanking new Polycom IP phone running on Office Communicator Phone Edition, part of the Unified Communications initiative. This phone syncs with my Office Communicator 2007 (the corporate version of Windows Live Messenger) that runs on my desktop computer system so I can see my contacts and their statuses right on the giant touch screen display. Calling someone is as easy as scrolling to their name with my finger on the screen or using the iPod-like scroll wheel (but who really wants to use the dated scroll wheel when one can simply use the power of touch =D). The phone even displays my status by changing the colours of the circle-y arrows in the bottom right corner. It's also got a fingerprint reader at the top for quick authentication - swipe to lock, swipe to unlock. It's so sweet. Most of the full-time employees don't even have these phones. It seems like all the interns got it though. Hurray for being a newcomer! One of the full-time lab guys walked into my office today and remarked "You'd better chain that phone to your desk!" So many people envy us having these cool phones because they are all stuck with the simple old monochrome phones.  | |
| Alex T. | |
| Day 6 - First full day of work
Wednesday January 9, 2008 So we can't really call it "work" yet. None of the interns have been ramped up to speed yet, so most of us are going through the mandatory HR online training modules, reading documents or sucking back free drinks. One of the perks of working at Microsoft is the free drinks - tons of free drinks. I counted today and there were over 35 types of beverages in the fridges. Various pop, juice, V8, milk, carbonated flavoured water, everything under the sun. I haven't even ventured to the hot drinks yet. It's a simple cheap perk, but many times, it's the small things that count. Some places have free "drinks"... 
My workstation consists of a nice 21" Samsung 213T LCD monitor and a couple machines for dev and test all overkillingly connected to an 8-port KVM. Nice. Now I just need to find myself six other boxes. Haha. I am still incomplete without my desk phone and intranet access though. All in good time, right? I was welcomed to the larger organization through an email sent from my manager and I met a couple UW Alumni through that introduction. My next door neighbour is a UW Electrical Engineering graduate from the class of... 1979? The first thing he does when he walked into my into my office was to ask: "Do you know about the big Red Room??" "I think that was before my time..." I replied. Yes sir, times have changed. That was my highlight of the day. | |
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