Nighttime at Microsoft

March 7, 2006 By

Damn, things are busy here at Microsoft tonight. I’m hanging out with the first open source team at Microsoft (the WIX team). Here’s a photo I shot while we were eating pizza. I didn’t realize this, but they meet every week until late in the evening. They do this on their own time. Their installer technology is used by almost every team at Microsoft (and many, many companies outside Microsoft).

Across 520 Sanaz has a team working on shipping some new stuff for Live.com tonight. I’m heading over there soon to get a look.

I should do a video of all the things that happen at night here.

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  • http://www.theportermethod.com/blog Doug Porter

    MySQL and SugarCRM both use WiX to create their Windows installation packages. WiX is an awesome product. WiX’s original creator Rob Mensching also has a great blog here (with full text feeds I might add Robert): http://blogs.msdn.com/robmen/default.aspx

  • http://www.theportermethod.com/blog Doug Porter

    MySQL and SugarCRM both use WiX to create their Windows installation packages. WiX is an awesome product. WiX’s original creator Rob Mensching also has a great blog here (with full text feeds I might add Robert): http://blogs.msdn.com/robmen/default.aspx

  • http://www.theportermethod.com/blog Doug Porter

    MySQL and SugarCRM both use WiX to create their Windows installation packages. WiX is an awesome product. WiX’s original creator Rob Mensching also has a great blog here (with full text feeds I might add Robert): http://blogs.msdn.com/robmen/default.aspx

  • Jens

    Wix means “masturbate” in german. “The WiX team”, made me chuckle… ;-)

  • Jens

    Wix means “masturbate” in german. “The WiX team”, made me chuckle… ;-)

  • Jens

    Wix means “masturbate” in german. “The WiX team”, made me chuckle… ;-)

  • Jens

    oh, and please don’t make a video of /that/… ;-)

  • Jens

    oh, and please don’t make a video of /that/… ;-)

  • Jens

    oh, and please don’t make a video of /that/… ;-)

  • http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ scobleizer

    Doug, thanks! RobMen was the guy who invited me over. I think that’s him with his back to me in the photo. You’ll see him in the video I shot of the team.

  • http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ scobleizer

    Doug, thanks! RobMen was the guy who invited me over. I think that’s him with his back to me in the photo. You’ll see him in the video I shot of the team.

  • http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ scobleizer

    Doug, thanks! RobMen was the guy who invited me over. I think that’s him with his back to me in the photo. You’ll see him in the video I shot of the team.

  • http://theblogconsultancy.typepad.com/ Drew B’s take on tech PR

    Do publish a vid!

  • http://theblogconsultancy.typepad.com/ Drew B’s take on tech PR

    Do publish a vid!

  • http://theblogconsultancy.typepad.com Drew B’s take on tech PR

    Do publish a vid!

  • http://blog.myspace.com/paulwheeler Paul Wheeler

    Arg. Live.com keeps getting slower and slower. I’m considering going back to start.com. The MSN team may have changed their name but they *still* haven’t learned the Google lesson: Simple and Fast Wins!

  • http://blog.myspace.com/paulwheeler Paul Wheeler

    Arg. Live.com keeps getting slower and slower. I’m considering going back to start.com. The MSN team may have changed their name but they *still* haven’t learned the Google lesson: Simple and Fast Wins!

  • http://blog.myspace.com/paulwheeler Paul Wheeler

    Arg. Live.com keeps getting slower and slower. I’m considering going back to start.com. The MSN team may have changed their name but they *still* haven’t learned the Google lesson: Simple and Fast Wins!

  • http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ scobleizer

    Paul, I just talked with Sanaz. They are in the middle of replicating the changes from one server over to their servers. Give it a few hours and it should get faster.

    And, yes, we’re all still here in the office. Looks like it’ll be an allnighter for the Live.com team since they are working on ramping up their infrastructure.

    Remember that Google has the same problems when starting up a new service too, if people find it too early (did anyone remember the little trick with Gmail of only handing out a few invites every hour so that they would make sure they didn’t overwhelm their infrastructure?). Heck, my son stopped using Blogger because it was too slow and that’s been up and running for years now.

    Give the team a day to shake the cobwebs from the system before judging the performance.

  • http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ scobleizer

    Paul, I just talked with Sanaz. They are in the middle of replicating the changes from one server over to their servers. Give it a few hours and it should get faster.

    And, yes, we’re all still here in the office. Looks like it’ll be an allnighter for the Live.com team since they are working on ramping up their infrastructure.

    Remember that Google has the same problems when starting up a new service too, if people find it too early (did anyone remember the little trick with Gmail of only handing out a few invites every hour so that they would make sure they didn’t overwhelm their infrastructure?). Heck, my son stopped using Blogger because it was too slow and that’s been up and running for years now.

    Give the team a day to shake the cobwebs from the system before judging the performance.

  • http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ scobleizer

    Paul, I just talked with Sanaz. They are in the middle of replicating the changes from one server over to their servers. Give it a few hours and it should get faster.

    And, yes, we’re all still here in the office. Looks like it’ll be an allnighter for the Live.com team since they are working on ramping up their infrastructure.

    Remember that Google has the same problems when starting up a new service too, if people find it too early (did anyone remember the little trick with Gmail of only handing out a few invites every hour so that they would make sure they didn’t overwhelm their infrastructure?). Heck, my son stopped using Blogger because it was too slow and that’s been up and running for years now.

    Give the team a day to shake the cobwebs from the system before judging the performance.

  • http://haarball.wordpress.com/ Haarball

    Is this your job? What is your job?

  • http://haarball.wordpress.com/ Haarball

    Is this your job? What is your job?

  • http://haarball.wordpress.com/ Haarball

    Is this your job? What is your job?

  • http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ scobleizer

    I don’t have a job. Jobs are things that you hate to do, but you get paid for.

    I love what I am doing.

    I’m sure not compensated to stay at the office from 9 a.m. to 1 a.m. helping people out.

  • http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ scobleizer

    I don’t have a job. Jobs are things that you hate to do, but you get paid for.

    I love what I am doing.

    I’m sure not compensated to stay at the office from 9 a.m. to 1 a.m. helping people out.

  • http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ scobleizer

    What I get paid for is doing videos on http://channel9.msdn.com.

  • http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ scobleizer

    What I get paid for is doing videos on http://channel9.msdn.com.

  • http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ scobleizer

    I don’t have a job. Jobs are things that you hate to do, but you get paid for.

    I love what I am doing.

    I’m sure not compensated to stay at the office from 9 a.m. to 1 a.m. helping people out.

  • http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ scobleizer

    What I get paid for is doing videos on http://channel9.msdn.com.

  • http://blogs.msdn.com/mahjayar Mahesh

    I just tried the new version and the image section shows no images in IE7 beta2.. Works fine on IE6
    Please please make sure that this works in IE7 beta2

  • http://blogs.msdn.com/mahjayar Mahesh

    I just tried the new version and the image section shows no images in IE7 beta2.. Works fine on IE6
    Please please make sure that this works in IE7 beta2

  • http://blogs.msdn.com/mahjayar Mahesh

    I just tried the new version and the image section shows no images in IE7 beta2.. Works fine on IE6
    Please please make sure that this works in IE7 beta2

  • http://www.brandonlive.com/ Brandon Paddock

    Sanaz’ team wasn’t the only one working late in RedWest!

  • http://www.brandonlive.com/ Brandon Paddock

    Sanaz’ team wasn’t the only one working late in RedWest!

  • http://www.brandonlive.com Brandon Paddock

    Sanaz’ team wasn’t the only one working late in RedWest!

  • http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ scobleizer

    Brandon, ahh, toolbar and desktop search teams working late too? Damn, what did we do, hire MarkL back? :-)

  • http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ scobleizer

    Brandon, ahh, toolbar and desktop search teams working late too? Damn, what did we do, hire MarkL back? :-)

  • http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ scobleizer

    Brandon, ahh, toolbar and desktop search teams working late too? Damn, what did we do, hire MarkL back? :-)

  • http://spaces.msn.com/matta Matt Augustine

    There are usually a few of us over here in RedWest on the late-night schedule.

  • http://spaces.msn.com/matta Matt Augustine

    There are usually a few of us over here in RedWest on the late-night schedule.

  • http://spaces.msn.com/matta Matt Augustine

    There are usually a few of us over here in RedWest on the late-night schedule.

  • http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ scobleizer

    Ahh, cool, I should have brought pizza over. I’m still in 18. It’s 1:21 a.m.

  • http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ scobleizer

    Ahh, cool, I should have brought pizza over. I’m still in 18. It’s 1:21 a.m.

  • http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ scobleizer

    Ahh, cool, I should have brought pizza over. I’m still in 18. It’s 1:21 a.m.

  • bubba

    An open source Windows installer. Bobby, you guys must be so proud. Wake us when you guys release an OSS project that means something. Like say, MS Office file formats…

  • bubba

    An open source Windows installer. Bobby, you guys must be so proud. Wake us when you guys release an OSS project that means something. Like say, MS Office file formats…

  • bubba

    An open source Windows installer. Bobby, you guys must be so proud. Wake us when you guys release an OSS project that means something. Like say, MS Office file formats…

  • http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ scobleizer

    bubba: our MS Office file formats ARE open now. Or, didn’t ya hear?

    But, isn’t it ironic that open source projects like MySQL rely on Microsoft developed technology? It MUST be evil!

  • http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ scobleizer

    bubba: our MS Office file formats ARE open now. Or, didn’t ya hear?

    But, isn’t it ironic that open source projects like MySQL rely on Microsoft developed technology? It MUST be evil!

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