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Reflections on My Career at Microsoft

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Re: Reflections on My Career at Microsoft

#141

Post by Baeocystin »

jenscow wrote: post #131
shantly wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I finally got to use one (I think it was a bottom-tier gen 2? Whatever was current at the time) about a year and a half ago when we got one for testing stuff in IE/Edge. When I first heard of the Surface, what I thought it'd be: a bad laptop and a worse tablet. After I read and heard people raving about how great it was for years , what I thought it'd be when I finally got to use one: a great laptop and a good-enough…

Same here. I got one from work for testing with. I was completely underwhelmed. I think it's a combination of astroturfing and owners trying to convince themselves they made the right decision.

I genuinely enjoy using mine. It has a great screen, and the kickstand + pen makes for a solid photoshop experience.

I wish the battery life was better, and I think Microsoft is missing out by not having the detachable keyboard have a small battery onboard so that you could use the keyboard on the side while you're drawing. But it's my favorite mobile device, and I'm not joking, astroturfing, or anything like that.

Re: Reflections on My Career at Microsoft

#143

Post by mynameisvlad »

shantly wrote: post #129
bcrosby95 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, the Surface line was the first time since the original iPhone that I was actually excited about a piece of hardware.

I finally got to use one (I think it was a bottom-tier gen 2? Whatever was current at the time) about a year and a half ago when we got one for testing stuff in IE/Edge. When I first heard of the Surface, what I thought it'd be: a bad laptop and a worse tablet. After I read and heard people raving about how great it was for years , what I thought it'd be when I finally got to use one: a great laptop and a good-enough…

Surface Pro is currently in it's 7th generation. There is an enormous difference between the Surface Pro 2 and Surface Pro 7, let alone the other products that have come out since then like the Book and Laptop.

Re: Reflections on My Career at Microsoft

#144

Post by mynameisvlad »

Baeocystin wrote: post #141
jenscow wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here. I got one from work for testing with. I was completely underwhelmed. I think it's a combination of astroturfing and owners trying to convince themselves they made the right decision.

I genuinely enjoy using mine. It has a great screen, and the kickstand + pen makes for a solid photoshop experience. I wish the battery life was better, and I think Microsoft is missing out by not having the detachable keyboard have a small battery onboard so that you could use the keyboard on the side while you're drawing. But it's my favorite mobile device, and I'm not joking, astroturfing, or anything like that.

It existed for Surface Pro 2 (https://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-5VX-00001-Surface-Power-Key...) but was thick and didn't sell as well as the regular so it was discontinued.

Re: Reflections on My Career at Microsoft

#145

Post by jtms »

Someone1234 wrote: post #65
AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Call me skeptical, but there's not a whole lot of products I willfully pay Microsoft for. I have met many, many people who gladly pay for Office (specifically, Excel) or Visual Studio, so much does it increase their productivity. I'm not one of them, but I'm not an accountant and the code bases I work with are small and don't require VS's incredible tooling. There are also adherents of the cult of Visio, but I hone…

I strongly agree on Office/Excel. Fantastic product suite (except maybe Outlook which is long in the tooth/essentially unimproved for the last ten years). Visual Studio I'll slightly disagree on. I resent it. When VSCode, an electron application, can run lag/stutter/micro-freeze free and Visual Studio an IDE written in C++ cannot you know the codebase has become unmaintainable. This isn't a recent phenomenon either.…

Rider is really nice for c# - runs quite a bit better than vs

Re: Reflections on My Career at Microsoft

#146

Post by Baeocystin »

mynameisvlad wrote: post #144
Baeocystin wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I genuinely enjoy using mine. It has a great screen, and the kickstand + pen makes for a solid photoshop experience. I wish the battery life was better, and I think Microsoft is missing out by not having the detachable keyboard have a small battery onboard so that you could use the keyboard on the side while you're drawing. But it's my favorite mobile device, and I'm not joking, astroturfing, or anything like that.

It existed for Surface Pro 2 ( https://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-5VX-00001-Surface-Power-Key... ) but was thick and didn't sell as well as the regular so it was discontinued.

Sort of. That cover was designed to increase the battery life of the device itself- it didn't work as a detachable keyboard, and it was very bulky, like you mentioned. I'm thinking something more like a button cell that would get you a day's worth of unattached work simply as a wireless keyboard, then recharge when it's clipped back on at night.

Re: Reflections on My Career at Microsoft

#147

Post by FakeComments »

saagarjha wrote: post #126
jonfw wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think that help and handouts is bullying, and frankly I find it amusing that somebody would argue that

You don't see an issue with being unable to have your in-game relationships progress past "you're a woman and that's the only thing we care about you"?

I never said that they couldn’t progress past that — the overwhelming majority understood no or were willing to move past sex, in my limited experience of online games.

But it’s just misandry to pretend that women don’t use men for sex or have ulterior motives in starting friendships too.

To borrow a phrase, I think that women live such privileged lives, equality feels like oppression. Their vision of men when complaining is the few men at the pinnacle, not those tread under heel.

So as I said before, I want to see actual data.

Re: Reflections on My Career at Microsoft

#148

Post by rasz »

mc32 wrote: post #42
vezycash wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well that "buffoon" trippled Microsoft's earnings and doubled profits. But let these new growth areas slide because of the antitrust suit. If the market judged Microsoft by its earnings, it's stock would have been up. The internet, mobile was the blockchain and AI of the era.

I can’t judge whether he was a good CEO or not, but, goodness, that dude lived the company. He was an exuberant uninhibited promoter. More than Evangelizer. The guy didn’t care what people said behind his back when he got all sweaty, nope, he was there to promote the company. A great cheerleader for the team.

Used car salesman.

Re: Reflections on My Career at Microsoft

#149

Post by bjornsing »

kylec wrote: post #7
cbanek wrote: post #4

As a woman who worked at MSFT through the Ballmer era, I have to agree with this whole article. It really nailed it. Especially this part near the end where I never felt it would get better: "But my former female colleagues who reviewed this document in advance of its publication are unconvinced. None of them report feeling emboldened by the new Microsoft. They continue to withhold reports of discriminatory managemen…

According to Satya Nadella, the system is "long term efficient", so it'll all work itself out eventually https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2014/10/10/microsoft-ceo...

> "All HR systems are long term efficient, short term inefficient."

That’s an amazingly stupid comment from an obviously very smart person (Nadella). I’m quite sure it’s not true for women who do not ask for raises, but in my experience it’s not true in general either. Most HR systems tend to produce, promote and reward a certain kind of behavior - and that behavior is seldom very value creating.

Paraphrasing Nadella I’d rather say “All HR systems are short term inefficient, and most are long-term inefficient. Some are even outright ruinous, at least for the company and it’s shareholders, who (unlike employees) have no escape.”

Re: Reflections on My Career at Microsoft

#150

Post by wbl »

GordonS wrote: post #85

> The unsurprising result is that Windows continues its tradition of boring... Come on, I understand the criticisms of botched updates, but Microsoft under Satya has been anything but boring - the incredible push towards open source is something many thought could never happen! WSL and the upcoming WSL2 are likewise anything but boring - Linux! In Windows!

Windows NT had personalities for decades. It's a very old capability.
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