Re: are you still working for macrosoft?

[<http://dummy.us.eu.org/robert>]

--- Gail <http://profiles.yahoo.com/gail_sx> wrote:
> I have been totally astounded by my experience at M$. For the most part,
> everyone in my group has been bored to death. We wait for days for a new
> build, and really have absolutely nothing to do. My work ethic has gone to
> hell in a hand basket, and I spend a lot of time surfing. 

One of my co-workers sent me this link:

http://qbrundage.com/michaelb/pubs/essays/working_at_macrosoft.html

It sounds like your experience was quite, quite different than this guy's.
   
> When we do get a build, it has to be done yesterday. Never enough time and
> they always ship it anyway because dates were decided in back rooms months
> before the development cycle even started.

I've had that happen at other companies.  Tell_me is quite good (and hopefully
will remain so!) that no software is released before its time.
   
> Bugs are never addressed... it's either working as designed, not bad enough
> to fix, or go check it again in the next build and see if it's still a
> problem. I mean, under those conditions, why even bother to test? 
>    
> Anyway, don't get me started.  The only reason your voice recognition works
> is because M$ hasn't started working on it yet. Kiss that good product
> goodbye. Sigh. It has also been my experience that everyone here is really
> nice too. They'd be exceptionally nice if they were trying to acquire you...
> I have a whole bunch of theories about the relationship between the number of
> contractors at a company and how *bad* that product is... but I won't bore
> you with it. I don't think it's any coincidence that M$ has the highest ratio
> of contractor to full time of any company I've ever seen.
> 
> Speaking of bats  I heard from one of the researchers I worked with in New
> Zealand. I was a volunteer on a project relocating baby short tail bats to
> Kapiti Island in hopes that they would form a colony there. It's tricky
> because you have to get the bats when they're old enough to be
> self-sufficient, but not old enough to be imprinted with their birth
> location. Evidently the colony finally took (when I was there they were
> trying the relocation for the third time) and the babies we relocated are
> having babies of their own... all on Kapiti. Cool!

That's great news!  Wow.  It's amazing when little reversals of the destruction
man has wrought upon the planet come through.