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Seven Years and Seven Habits…

A lot can happen in seven years. 

Nice to receive a cake, as it were… I received several notes and a couple of IMs today congratulating me on my anniversary, as today is my 7-year anniversary at Microsoft, a little less than a third of my career.

So before my next discussion at 5pm, I leave you with Seven Dirty Habits of Highly Effluent People, courtesy of Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs fame…

Obviously, I’m ripping off Stephen Covey, whose seven better-known habits got my attention not so much for their content, which I find suspicious, but for their surprisingly modest number, which I find manageable. Here then, are my “Seven Dirty Habits,” each gleaned from a worker I met on the show, and bolstered by true stories of personal enlightenment and lingering humiliation.

  1. Never follow your passion, but by all means bring it with you.
  2. Beware of teamwork.
  3. Vomit proudly and whenever necessary.
  4. Be careful, but don’t be fooled–safety is never first.
  5. Think about what you are doing–never how.
  6. Ignore advice such as “Work smart, not hard.” It’s dangerous–and moronic.
  7. Consider quitting.

One good turn deserves another, so here are seven manageable habits for maintaining focus on the customer experience and ultimately satisfaction…

  1. Know that customer service is really everyone’s job
  2. Make your customers feel like they are your top priority
  3. Understand the customer’s needs
  4. Jump through hoops for your customer
  5. Listen — and be willing to take a whack sometimes
  6. Learn from others (these are a few of the lessons from the Xbox Team)
  7. Most of all, Be Nice (one of Dalton’s Three Rules 😉

Have a good afternoon.

Tags: tips, satisfaction, customer experience, whack

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Of interest: Windows Vista isn’t just blue, it now comes in (red)

You may be used to seeing the Windows Vista user experience in a shade of blue. (Well, it looks blue.)

Now it comes in red.

image

Nick on the Windows Vista blog has a post on an announcement with Dell and (RED), to be made this at Davos. 

You can see for yourself on the Microsoft Windows Vista site and read more…

“Windows and Dell have joined (RED) to help eliminate AIDS in Africa. When you buy a Dell (PRODUCT) RED PC with Windows Vista Ultimate (PRODUCT) RED, Windows and Dell will jointly contribute $50 to $80, depending on the product, to The Global Fund to fight AIDS in Africa.

“Co-founded by U2’s Bono and Bobby Shriver, Chairman of DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade Africa), (RED) is an innovative and sustainable way businesses and consumers can work together to change the world.  It is a business model, not a charity. Working with (RED), companies create special versions of their products with the (PRODUCT) RED brand. When consumers choose to buy (PRODUCT) RED, a portion of the profits goes directly to The Global Fund to help eliminate AIDS in Africa.”

Of interest: info on the Windows Vista blog about the new packaging for Windows Vista and Office 2007.

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Forget Y2K, DST and Time Zones: this weekend, it’s the Y2.038K bug

This weekend will mark another interesting milestone in Time and Date, oone that actually doesn’t occur for thirty more years, in 2038.  

Also known as the ‘Friday the 13th’ bug, the 2038 issue is due to the way 32-bit systems note time in seconds rather than by an actual coded date.  The full impact will be felt on January 19, 2038, when systems many not work accurately, or even crash.  The initial wave of the challenge would likely impact customers in the financial sector, particularly those with (pardon the pun) an interest in long term products (mortgages, investments, bonds) with maturity dates post Jan 19, 2038.  But those with longer maturity instruments would’ve seen an impact years ago.

As this involves dates and times, Wyn asked today about this impact, as this smacked of an issue similar to what we saw last year with the various DST and time zone changes around the world… 


“I have not found too much on this and I am not sure if anything is know or being done to avoid the problem…”


Good question.  I asked several of our product groups if any of our products will be impacted by the date.

A nod of thanks to Geoff for noting this MSDN article from way back in 1998, “All Ready for 2000 and the Euro? What About 2038?” (September 7, 1998).  If Y2K did anything for the industry, it was to spur an analysis of any date and time issues that could impact the operating system and software products…



First it was Y2K. Then the Euro conversion. And now, as if the Y2K and Euro problems weren’t bad enough, there’s the year 2038 bug. Dr. GUI got a letter from Mahmoud Saleh alerting him (reminding him, actually) of a similar problem that will face C and C++ programmers in coming years: we can call it the Y2.038K bug.

The problem stems from the common definition of the time_t as an integer containing the number of seconds since midnight, January 1, 1970. Most C/C++ runtime libraries define time_t as a long int. On most systems, long int is 32 bits, which means that we’ve got a range of 2^31-1 (2,147,483,647) seconds—until sometime on January 18, 2038. (Assuming Dr. GUI’s Windows CE Palm-size PC has it right, that’s a Monday. Figures.) When the clock rolls over, it’ll be back to the ’70s for everyone. Get your leisure suits ready ‘cuz you’ll be catching Boogie Fever and Nixon will be President again. Four more years indeed!

Anything that uses time_t is also in trouble. That includes the time_b structure (not commonly used, anyway) and, very unfortunately, the MFC CTime class. Code that uses time_t, directly or indirectly, will need to be changed sometime before you start dealing with dates after 1/18/2038. (Note that if your program deals with, say, 40-year bonds, you’re in trouble today.)


As Geoff pointed out, SYSTEMTIME has no problems and can go until the year 30,827, and FILETIME, a 64-bit integer (two DWORDs representing LOW and HIGH values) since January 1, 1601 (Julian).  It too can represent a 30,000 (or 60,000 unsigned) year interval.  From the MSDN article:


…the Win32 SYSTEMTIME structure… stores the year part of the date as a 16-bit integer, and the Win32 FILETIME structure, which stores the date as the number of 100-nanosecond intervals since 1601. The problem is that neither of these structures have many supporting functions.

Better yet is to use the automation DATE object. DATE is typedef’ed as double, so there are 53 bits of precision—enough for your program’s lifetime. The whole part of the double number represents the number of days since midnight, December 30, 1899. (Negative numbers are before 12/30/1899.) The absolute value of the fractional part represents the time in the day: midnight is zero, noon is 0.5, etc. You can convert the automation DATE objects to other formats with various variant API functions.


Overall, the advice is that if you have custom applications you might want to check to see if they are using C/C++ time_t, which will run out in 2038.  Just as I noted previously on how Windows handles historical events, you might want to check any custom or ‘home-grown’ line of business applications that use time_t.  Looking quickly at Windows, the core OS appears to run just fine with dates far into the future. 

I will have to check one of my old Apple systems at home running (quite reliably, I might add) System 9, which according to Apple, is good up until February 6, 2040; the current Mac OS up until 29,940… Windows will be accurate for an additional 887 years after the latest Mac release fails, but I’m sure Apple will have an update long before 29,940 rolls around. 😉 

(Interesting factoid that stuck in my mind: in the H. G. Wells classic novella, The Time Machine, the hero of the story travels to the year 802,701 A.D.  I’m hopeful in that future, the downfall of mankind will have nothing to do with the failure of the modern OS to cope with dates past the 301st century.)

For more information, please see these articles courtesy of a quick MSDN search. 

Tags: Apple, Microsoft, Vista, Windows, Time, 2038.

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What I’ve read this week (Christmas Eve)

Remember, there are still .6 shopping days ’til Christmas.

Need some conversation starters for your holiday get-togethers? Here are a couple of my favourite strange and funny news stories to help get you started, along with a reading list of things I’ve read. 

Start with MSN Search, Comcast odd news and Weird News.  Think of it as a small present to kick off your holidays.

Now, off to the reading list. Keep in mind that the descriptions come often are taken directly from the articles.

Happy Christmas Eve…

think denk: the blog of Jeremy Denk, concert pianist – Of all things, my six-year-old came across the blog of Jeremy Denk, a concert pianist in New York. Worth a read particularly for those interested in the everyday musings of a concert pianist.

Deirdre Imus: Missing the Mercury Threat: An appeal to New Jersey’s Governor – Politics on The Huffington Post — Deirdre Imus writes this week on her blog about the decision last week in New Jersey where members of the Public Health Council voted to mandate four new vaccines for children in 2008: two of the vaccines contain thimerosal (mercury).

Analysts wonder when Whitman will leave eBay – Verne Kopytoff, Chronicle Staff Writer, 12/22/07 — Early in her reign at eBay, Meg Whitman said she couldn’t imagine being in charge for more than 10 years – an anniversary that is coming in February.

Amazon.com: High-Definition 101 – High Def in a Nutshell: With up to six times the resolution and superior sound compared to traditional formats, high definition is the perfect way to watch your favorite movies, TV shows, and sports. In other words, you don’t watch HD–you live it.

Media Mechanics : Blinded by the Shine on Apple – “Companies are seeing the success of Apple and for fear of losing market share are going after them from many angles. Others can, and are, copying the design principles. In some cases blatantly ripping off the Apple look…

Max Builds a PC (Computer Science Teacher blog) – “My friend Max is building a PC from parts. Over at Channel 8 (First post in the series here) he’s looking for recommendations and suggestions about parts. Looks like a good conversation is taking place already but there is always room for more.

Steve Clayton: Geek In Disguise : Steve Jobs on Software + Services – “For a while now I’ve been banging on about Software + Services being an industry thing not a Microsoft thing and then something odd happened. I was at Web 2.0 and someone showed me the Bill Gates/Steve Jobs interview from All Things D on their iPod Touch…

Windows Live Photo & Video Blog : Photo Gallery is now on Microsoft Update – Friday, December 07, 2007 10:39 AM by pixblog — This is a special shout-out to our BETA program participants! At our last estimate, the Windows Live Photo Gallery BETA was installed by nearly 3 million users worldwide. Our BETA testers give us feedback…

Office Offline blog: A few notes about reader-submitted comics 

Windows SteadyState

BetaNews | ‘PlaysForSure’ logo being replaced with ‘Certified for Vista’ – ‘PlaysForSure’ logo being replaced with ‘Certified for Vista’ By Scott M. Fulton, III, BetaNews December 12, 2007, 6:24 PM Without much explanation, Microsoft’s PlaysForSure Web page, which had once been the meeting ground for its portable media technology…

BetaNews | Microsoft ends free software for monitoring giveaway – By Ed Oswald, BetaNews, 121207 — Microsoft pulled the free software offer from its Web site Tuesday, which made free copies of Vista and Office among other applications available in exchange for feedback.

BetaNews | Vista SP1 release candidate goes live – By Scott M. Fulton, III, BetaNews — This morning, BetaNews FileForum was alerted to the availability of the latest release candidate for Windows Vista Service Pack 1, just released from Microsoft.

BetaNews | Microsoft bug deletes files instead of sharing them – By Ed Oswald, BetaNews December 11, 2007, 2:03 PM The company’s FolderShare application is intended to allow customers to synchronize files across multiple machines, but a bug has ended up deleting them.

BetaNews | IDC: Fewer desktop PCs to be sold from now on – By Scott M. Fulton, III, BetaNews, 121107 — Emphasizing the declining role of the desktop PC form factor in worldwide sales, the analysts of IDC’s Quarterly PC Tracker now predict portable PCs will constitute 65% of US PC sales by 2011.

BetaNews | CNBC: Apple preps sub-notebook for Macworld – By Ed Oswald, BetaNews December 7, 2007, 1:29 PM With just a little over one month before the yearly meeting of the Mac faithful, the rumors of an Apple sub-notebook have started to appear.

A Long, Long Wait for a Wii (businessweek) – Nintendo says the shortage is costing it big time, but some analysts say it’s all part of the buzz machine by Cliff Edwards

BetaNews | MovieBeam to shut down on December 15 – By Nate Mook, BetaNews 120607 — One of the first online movie download services is calling it quits after failing to make its business model work despite over $100 million in funding.

Smooth Sailing for Software Stocks – S&P likes the Systems Software subindustry’s stock-price momentum and positive fundamental outlook. Among its top picks: Microsoft and Oracle, by Sam Stovall, From Standard & Poor’s Equity Research

For Managers, Ignorance Isn’t Bliss (businessweek) – December 9, 2007 — Not knowing one’s own faults and weaknesses—and being unaware that they even exist—is dangerous for top executives. Look no further than Zoe Cruz, by Rick Wartzman

Big Shoes to Fill at Adobe (businessweek) – Valley Girl December 10, 2007 — Chizen will be a tough act to follow. Can Narayen, with an ambitious plan to remake how we gain access to the Web, fit the bill? by Sarah Lacy

Billion Dollar Innovation (businessweek) – December 7, 2007 — A Finnish study profiled twelve U.S. companies to give insight on how successfully applied service innovation can bring in the big bucks, by Jeneanne Rae

Home Theaters: Less Is More (businessweek) – Home Theater December 7, 2007 — The minimalist look popularized by the Apple iPod is finding its way into your living room, by Cliff Edwards

Leadership Is About Doing, Not Saying (businessweek) – Marshall & Friends December 4, 2007 — Don’t waste your time on crafting motivational messages if you can’t back it up with action. Leaders must walk the walk as well as talk the talk, by Marshall Goldsmith

How to Write a Winning Business Plan – The founder of 18-employee Seahorse Power details the process behind the company’s award-winning business plan—and uses an annotated version of it to offer advice by Kerry Miller

Plasma vs LCD – which is best? | APC Magazine – There are many claims and counterclaims about the merits of each, so we decided to test out a selection of the latest plasma and LCD sets from companies such as Toshiba, Sony, Panasonic, Samsung, LG, Philips, Grundig and Pioneer… saved by 14 other people … on dec 11

Dealing with Microsoft Haters (Microsoft Certified Professional) – Microsoft may be the world’s best-known brand, but it’s not necessarily the best-loved. Here are ways to overcome deal-busting objections, by Anne Stuart, July 2006

Employee Communication: 3 Ways To Create Transformation In Organizations (Best Syndication) – 121007 — “There are two distinct ways to use employee communication; one is to inform employees about what is happening in an organization, the other is to engage employees in the process of change. In this article we are going to highlight 3 case studies…

Microsoft Leads Accessibility Effort (eweek) – By Darryl K. Taft, December 10, 2007 — Microsoft is heading a group of technology companies that will collaborate on creating IT products for the disabled, chartering an initiative called the Accessibility Interoperability Alliance…

Fixes for Windows standby and sleep problems | Workers’ Edge – a productivity blog from Dennis O’Reilly – CNET Blogs – Courtesy Lifehacker: “If you’re familiar with putting your PC in Standby or Hibernate mode (and hopefully you know the difference), you probably know that both are anything but a sure bet.

The Virtues of Virtualization (businessweek) – S&P says spending on virtualization software and services is likely to skyrocket by Kimberly Castro

Behind Chavez’s Defeat in Venezuela – Chavez had predicted that he would win the Dec. 2 vote by up to 20 percentage points and promised to step down if he lost. He also threatened to cut off oil to the U.S. if Washington interfered in the vote. He didn’t comment on either pledge…

Inviting the hackers inside | CNET News.com – By Ina Fried, 1/04/07 – Editors’ note: This is part two in a series examining how Microsoft’s security strategy has evolved over the past decade.

BetaNews | Microsoft: Firefox users in danger due to more frequent updates – By Scott M. Fulton, III, BetaNews November 30, 2007, 4:39 PM The author of a controversial white paper comparing Firefox’ security integrity with IE’s has released an update, which now makes an even more contentious claim than the original.

A way to avoid phone tree hell | Seattle Times Newspaper – A way to avoid phone tree hell By Craig Crossman, McClatchy-Tribune News Service.

Lawyers: Vista branding confused even Microsoft | CNET News.com – By Tom Espiner, 11/28/07 — Lawyers for plaintiffs in a case brought against Microsoft over Vista’s marketing have claimed that even the software giant’s marketing director was confused by the prelaunch campaign in the U.S.

Protecting Your Precious (Intellectual) Property (Redmond Channel Partner Online) – It’s almost impossible to be too cautious about safeguarding your company’s creative assets — and it’s never too early to start taking defensive steps. November 01, 2007

The customer and the CEO (indiatimes.com) – While many factors including brand equity, pricing, service and quality play an important role in maintaining a brand’s success in the marketplace , in an increasingly competitive scenario, customer service has become a distinguishing tool.

Costco boss bucks Wall Street by being generous to workers, customers – to retail marketing strategy management customerservice … on nov 30

HP expands PC market share lead over Dell in 3Q07, says iSuppli – Hewlett-Packard (HP) in the third quarter continued to expand its lead over rival Dell in the global PC market, shipping 13.1 million PCs, a 32.7% and 3.2 million unit increase from 9.9 million in the third quarter of 2006.

Taiwan market: Toshiba and Sony to launch new blue-laser drives (digitimes) – Jimmy Hsu, Taipei; Adam Hwang, DIGITIMES 11/30/07 — There will be a promotion competition between the HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc (BD) standards at the IT Month expo in Taipei, which will run from December 1-9…

Dell moves 40,000 Ubuntu PCs | The Register – By Ashlee Vance in Mountain View, 11/30/07 — Dell agreed to ship PCs and laptops with the Ubuntu operating system after more than 130,000 people promoted the notion on the company’s IdeaStorm web site.

BetaNews | Microsoft shows off Windows Mobile update, but not 7.0 – By Nate Mook, BetaNews, November 29, 2007, 3:58 PM — Two dozen invited attendees to Microsoft’s Mobius event in Amsterdam this week got a first peek at the next update to Windows Mobile. It’s not version 7, code-named “Photon,” but the reviews are positive…

Zune 2.0: Playing Tomorrow’s Tune? (businessweek) by Stephen H. Wildstrom, 11/28/07 — It won’t catch the iPod soon, but it may be a harbinger of the subscription era. One thing you can say for Microsoft (MSFT): It doesn’t give up without a fight.

Mike Walker’s Ramblings about Industry Architecture : How NOT To Use PowerPoint – “This is a bit off topic but I thought it was pretty funny. Since I do a my fair share of public speaking I thought I would share some comedic wisdom with you after this long holiday weekend.”

Microsoft gets better at carrying a Zune – International Herald Tribune – By David Pogue, Nov 29, 2007 — “Microsoft might finally be getting the hang of hardware. The company’s overall track record for designing gadgets is pretty awful. Remember the Smart Display? The Spot Watch? The Ultra-Mobile PC? The original Zune? Me neither.

The Day the Video Games Died (extremetech) – By Joel Durham Jr. , 11/29/07 — A reviewer’s view of Sony and Xbox replacement policies for impacted hardware. “So I’m down two consoles, one of which I had to replace by dropping $180 on a new one (and wait for the online stop to ship it to me).

RAID Class Terabyte Hard Drives Reviewed–Western Digital WD10EACS and Seagate Barracuda ES.2 (extremetech.com) – For this article, we’ve tested and reviewed a pair of enterprise RAID class terabyte hard drives, and also compared their performance with a few desktop terabyte drives.

Three-Way Music Software Comparison featuring Cakewalk, ACID Music, and MAGIX Music – By Joel Durham Jr. 11/28/2007 — “Who needs a band? If you can jot down a few lyrics, wield a mouse, and maybe bang some keys on a MIDI keyboard, you can create your very own music. The process can be as simple as dragging a few readymade loops onto a timeline.

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Microsoft joins the AIA on Accessibility Efforts

Interesting article in eweek this week by Darryl Taft on how Microsoft has joined up with other technology companies to “collaborate on creating IT products for the disabled.” More on the new Accessibility Interoperability Alliance can also be found here in this PR, noting the four projects that they will initially work on:

  • Consistent keyboard access. Developing a set of keyboard shortcuts to provide consistent behavior to users of assistive technology products in any Web browser
  • Interoperability of accessibility APIs. Modifying and/or extending existing accessibility models (Microsoft UI Automation, IAccessible2 and others) to improve the interoperability and exchange of information between IT and assistive technology (AT) products
  • UI Automation extensions. Adding features and capabilities to support additional rich document scenarios, address new Web scenarios and more.
  • Accessible Rich Internet Applications Suite (ARIA) mapping through UI Automation. Designing the mapping of rich Web accessibility information through UI Automation to ensure maximum value for AT products and, therefore, for people with disabilities

“Today, developers must work across divergent platforms, application environments and hardware models to create accessible technology for customers with disabilities,” said Rob Sinclair, director of the Accessibility Business Unit at Microsoft. “The AIA is an opportunity for the entire industry to come together to reduce the cost and complexity of accessibility, increase customer satisfaction, foster inclusive innovation, and reinforce a sustainable ecosystem of accessible technology products.”

More information about the AIA can be found at http://www.AccessInteropAlliance.org