steve clayton: geek in disguise

[The Insider]

Does he or doesn’t he? A post titled Cardio with Obama set pulses racing today not because Neal Santos was racing on the treadmill with the president elect but because he apparently spotted him using a Zune. What? How could that be possible? He posted an update with some clarifications but maintains that Barack is indeed part of the Social.

After Apple getting mocked on The Simpsons, what can we expect next? Bill Clinton beta testing Windows 7?

Rock on.

I posted about Proporta a while back – fine folks from the UK who ship lovely gadgety gear and send you a tea bag with each order :) Well they’ve noticed that the 2.5% VAT cut here in the UK isn’t exactly going to make us overnight millionaires so have stepped in and decided to pay all of the VAT for you on orders – basically a 15% saving. Not bad with all the good Christmas schwag they have. The offer is UK only I guess and ends midnight Sunday 7th December 2008. Get the details and the necessary code

I’ve recently taken delivery of a Ted Baker Six Pack from them which makes mobile charging very easy (and cool) along with a stylish Maya pouch for my HTC S620….which I was I’d had last week when I dropped it and damaged the screen. Thanks to JasonLan I have a shiny new one!

Mucho thanks to Hannah and the team!

A quick shout out to anyone interested in joining us for a beer or two in London next Thursday night to meet and talk about Live Mesh and cloud computing. As Steve Lamb says we have Jeff Hansen and Angus Logan in town so it should be a fun chat. Jeff reports to Ray Ozzie so can tell you even more than this months Wired article :)

I’ll be there with a few other softies and a few beers so if you’re free from 6-8pm next Thursday in London, come along to The Coach and Horses. It will not be a marketing pitch – just a chance to share a few cold ones and chat with some clued up boys from Redmond. I’ll be the one handing out the business card shown above and my even drag my pal Hugh MacLeod along

If you'd like to join us please edit the wiki to add your name - that way we'll have a good idea of how many people to expect.

Where: The Coach and Horses pub, 29 Greek Street, Soho, London W1V 5LL    

When: 11th December from 6pm to 8pm (and onwards for anyone that fancies it)

Who'd enjoy this? Anyone who's interested in discussing cloud computing with two of the leaders from Microsoft

 

Jeff Hansen, General Manager – Services Strategy / Live Mesh, Microsoft Corporation

Jeff Hansen reports to Ray Ozzie and is responsible for helping drive Microsoft’s services strategy.  Central to this strategy is the “Software plus Services” approach that brings together the best of cloud-based services and the software that resides on a world of devices. An approach that utilizes the power of local client and/or on-premises server software combined with the reach and always up-to-date nature of services in the cloud.  As part of this effort, over the last three years Jeff has worked closely with Microsoft’s Live Services platform team on the mesh initiative - providing Product Management support for the Live Mesh offering and the recent introduction of the mesh technologies in the developer focused Live Framework – Community Technology Preview.  Live Mesh is a marquee example of the S+S approach – providing symmetry between the client and the cloud by using the web as a hub to bring together a wide range of user’s devices.  Enabling individuals to manage, access, and share their information and programs seamlessly on the web and across their world of devices.  Deliverying on the vision of computing experiences that seamless span the ‘data, devices, people, and applications’ people interact with everyday.

Angus Logan, Senior Technical Product Manager, Live Services, Microsoft Corporation

Responsible for all technical product management of Microsoft’s Live Services (consists of Windows Live Platform / Live Framework / Live Mesh), Angus’ team manage content creation, high-value opportunity management, and developer experience. Prior to being on the Live Services team, Angus was a Portals Technology Specialist with Microsoft Australia, worked for several Microsoft partners, was an MVP, and co-authored a book on Microsoft Content Management Server. You can read Angus’s blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/angus_logan/ or spot him around the world.

Lovin that video – I want to see those Windows Azure trucks rolling down my street!

Fun aside, the Generation 4 data centers that are depicted here and talked about at length on Mike Manos’s blog are a big deal. They take many of the conventional concepts regarding data centers and throw them out of the window. Raised floors are a thing of the past and even the new Microsoft data centers in Chicago is Generation 3 – being partly containerised.

“Gen 4” data centers from Microsoft take modularisation to a new level and though the analogy with the Model T Ford is a good one, I also like the notion of turning data centers in to Lego like building blocks. From server racks in containers to power supplies that are specified and manufactured consistently hence driving down cost, build time and the potential for faster global rollout. That last part really intrigues me and I’m looking forward to a call I have with Mike Manos this week to find out how this can help with even faster global expansion.

The flexibility enabled by this modularisation provides huge potential and is another signal of how serious Microsoft is about the provision of services as part of our Software plus Services strategy. It’s a fascinating blog post from Mike and the team that talks about how different applications demand different solutions – something we have to think through rigorously as Live Search is a different beast from Exchange Online both in the service it provides and the customers it serves. Things like latency become critical in the provision of business services.

The amount of information these guys are sharing is also impressive. In an arena of huge competition (think Amazon, Google and others) the details of data centers are considered competitive advantage so the amount of sharing is surprising. With things like a roofless data center and commitment to reduce or even eliminate water usage, Manos acknowledged that the design will be controversial.

“By sharing this with the industry, we believe everyone can benefit from our methodology,” said Manos. ” While this concept and approach may be intimidating (or downright frightening) to some in the industry, disclosure ultimately is better for all of us. Gen 4 design (even more than just containers), could reduce the ‘religious’ debates in our industry.”

As I’ve been saying for a while, this data center battleground is going to be a big one. These guys continue to impress me with their openness and radical approach. I hope it pays off for us.

I’ve become a big user of Office Communicator over the last few months – I’m finally seeing the light that Mark and Julian promised me :) More seriously, the benefits of unified communications are even more obvious in the current economic climate. Let me explain….

My job sees me on the phone a lot – working as part of a virtual team and often in contact with colleagues around the world. I also find myself in Seattle quite frequently and like to call home regularly. Doing all of this in the past from my mobile phone wasn’t cost effective and also tested the battery life of my phone to the max. In addition I was getting concerned about the amount of time I spent using a cellular phone.

A few trips back whilst in Seattle I decided to switch to using a headset that worked with Microsoft’s Office Communicator. Thanks to Plantronics who kindly sent me 2 of their models to review, I rarely use my mobile phone now for anything but the briefest of calls. These UC headsets are comfortable to wear and provide easy VOIP calling that is integrated in to my contacts from Outlook and our global address list. It’s actually hard to get the benefits until you use it but basically they’re these

1. Free phone calls across the world – my phone bill used to be BIG. Not saying how big but now it’s WAY smaller.
2. Free conference calls – I can call one person and bring another in to the call with the click of a mouse
3. Comfortable calls – no longer relying on the battery of my cellphone or my Bluetooth headset
4. Outlook integration – I can see if someone is available before I call them (presence info)

thanks to the Plantronics guys for two great headsets – you just plug them in and they work providing crisp audio and simple controls. I now have one at home connected to my PC and one I carry around with my everywhere. Sure I may look like Janet Jackson with a weird headset on in a coffee bar but I can smugly smile knowing it’s cost effective and comfortable.

In this economic climate you’d be mad not to explore this solution.

A couple of my pals (David Brain & Jas) have this image as their Twitter avatar and I almost bought a small print of it last weekend. Makes for a very cool rug in red or blue from Pedlars - hand-made exclusively in Uttar Pradesh, India

£435 a pop…tempting

For those who don’t know the history, I’m sure Tony Cocks can give us all the details but in brief, the image is from a 1939 poster that was issued by the Ministry of Information at the outbreak of World War II. Love that, Ministry of Information….I may rename my blog to that :)

Get it whilst it’s good…seems it’s being pulled from YouTube and Hulu at the moment. You know you’ve reached Zen cool status when The Simpson’s parodies you.

thanks to Frank for reminding me :)

It’s flown by. I’ve met amazing people, found some lifetime friends and basically had a blast – if I get time over the next few days I may write up my top 11 moments at Microsoft.

Thanks to Bill, Steve, Neil, Karl, Natalie, Alistair…etc etc etc….and Microsoft. For paying me to do my hobby for the most part…I’m a lucky man

cheers!

I came across this demonstration of Surface being used for car configuration at the BMW Blog. I actually posted this quite a while back from the Vectorform site who are the Microsoft partners they have been working with.

I believe that the real power of software is in delivering experiences – ideally more enjoyable and entertaining ones and for a retailer of any type, Surface holds huge potential here.

Technology is great but experiences are better.

The latest toy for the Twitter kids – get your rank at twitter.grader.com – I was also pleasantly surprised to find myself at #27 in the Twitter London Elite ranking. I guess the village aint so big after all…but as all the kool kidz find this little tool and change their location to London the leaderboard is more volatile than the stock exchange. I’m already bumped to #48

Hat tip to Lloyd for directing me to the game :)

“For those to whom much is given, much is expected” – the words of Bill’s late mother.

Sort of spooky the way I read a tweet from James Tutt about this piece in The Times tomorrow right as I was posting the Girl Effect video you see below this post. They’re very related.

Melinda and Bill Gates: saving lives is an amazing profile. It really focuses in on Melinda and she just moved in to my Top 5 people I’d want to find myself sat next to on a long plane flight.

It really doesn’t matter what you think about Bill Gates but after you read this (which I hope you do) you can’t help but be impressed and inspired by the work he and his wife are doing alongside others like Bono and Buffet. With no pomp or ceremony they’re saving millions of lives and changing the world.

Terrific journalism and a breathtaking story.  

Two different friends (both guys) sent this video to me this week. An amazing, thought provoking video and an noble cause. 

Thanks Douglas and Jeremy.

Directions on Microsoft published an interesting list this week - Five Strategies Microsoft Got Right. I wont steal their thunder by adding all the details but here are the chosen 5

1. Software Is King
2. Outsource Your Sales Force
3. Technology for the Masses
4. Developers, Developers, Developers!
5. The Long View

It’s a pretty good list. In fact it’s a very good list and I can’t think of anything I would replace in that list. Perhaps a #6 would be hiring smart people across the whole organization. That’s one thing that never ceases to amaze me is the calibre of talent.

Some of the 5 are pretty obvious but one people often overlook is #5. Microsoft does take a very very long view and invests in an incredible amount of research and diligence around those investments. Some would argue too much and that hampers nimbleness which I could agree with…but the long view is something I really admire about the company.

People will concentrate on the 5 but what is a more useful list in many ways is what it teaches according to DOMIS

1. Lesson #1: Question the rules. Change the game.
2. Lesson #2: Create win-win partner situations to grow fast
3. Lesson #3: Don’t neglect your customers’ most important need: a better price
4. Lesson #4: Make it easy for partners to customize your product.
5. Lesson #5: Business isn’t a sprint; it’s a marathon. Be persistent.

In this video from a recent session SteveB had with UK students he talked about nobody ever watching the video afterwards. He also mentioned how the UK audience didn’t hurl eggs :)

It’s actually a pretty good and candid session with Steve – he talks about how primitive computing and meetings are today and how much further we have go to. Take that back, it’s really good and pretty funny where he talks about the future of watching TV with Bill Gates and buying golf balls together. He flips from that to energy research and then goes on a recruiting drive with our UK students :) It’s not often you hear a CEO of an 80,000 person company invite you to send your CV/resume to him!

Love him or hate him, he’s a great speaker as you never know where he’s going to go and he’s always passionate. Oh and he talks about changing the world….which I love of course.

Hats off to MarkJo for putting the day together.

I saw my pal Dan Scarfe of DotNet Solutions quoted in The Sunday Times last weekend and it seems like he’s in demand appearing here on Sky News. Dan talks about the impact of the current environment on small businesses and how tough it is but also notes 40% growth in their business using Microsoft solutions that help take cost out of their customers businesses. He also touches on the challenges of raising finance in these times though – especially for small business.

Congrats on the PR Dan and on the business results. Great to see our innovative partners like DotNet at thriving. All round good chaps the boys from Windsor.