Safari 4 supports tabs in the Windows 7 taskbar
That’s a single instance of Safari – both tabs are easily seen. Unfortunately, Aero Peek is not properly implemented, and the window will appear black when attempting to preview a tab which is not in-focus within Safari.
I am, of course, ecstatic that third parties are finally picking up on Windows 7 features. Hopefully this will increase even more as Windows 7 moves into RTM and then general availability on Oct 22, 2009.
Working at Microsoft
In celebration of roughly 1 year without blogging, It’s time that this site becomes active again.
This summer I was offered an intern position at Microsoft. I can’t see why anyone would ever pass up the opportunity, regardless of how they felt about Microsoft products. I’ve been working for about a week, and I can already tell that the benefits available to a full time employee (or an intern) are far superior than anywhere else I’ve been. Not to mention the interesting and intelligent people that are literally everywhere.
I was placed on a team called Windows Experience (or WEX), as a Software Development Engineer (or SDE in Microspeak). As can be determined from the name, this team encompasses much of the user-facing development for Windows. Some of the core groups within WEX include Media Player, and HomeGroup – the new networking technology in Windows 7 which aims to simplify sharing files and devices over the network.
The Redmond campus is a big place, it’s actually split into several sections. I was told that Redmond North Campus (top) was at one time an insurance company that Microsoft bought out when in need of more space.
Being that this is the World Headquarters for a company that has an annual revenue of over 60 billion dollars, there is quite an elaborate shuttle network to move employees around the campus, and the surrounding Seattle area. This is just one of many cool perks that seem to be rare elsewhere.
Any receptionist can arrange for a car to pick up and drop of an employee within a couple of minutes. They sat to estimate up to 15 minutes, but in practice I’ve never waited more than 5. Microsoft says this saves more than 20,000 gallons of fuel each year.
Aside from the on-campus shuttle connect, Microsoft has created one of the largest private bus networks in the world, named the Connector. The Connector is fleet of WiFi equipped coach buses which travel from points in the surrounding county and Seattle, to the Microsoft campus. Employees, contractors and vendors are encouraged to use the service.
After only experiencing life as a Microsoft employee for about a week, it’s tough to make a decision on whether or not this is the best place to work ever, but it’s sure shaping up to be better than IBM and Intel already. I’ll continue to update with some of my experiences throughout the summer.