by Michael S. Kaplan, published on 2012/04/28 07:01 -04:00, original URI: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/michkap/archive/2012/04/28/10298622.aspx
So in order to understand this story, we have to travel into the before time.
Into the long long ago.
Because it hasn't always been the way it was yesterday.
Or even the day before that.
So I'll channel my Helen Buday, and I'll do the tell, so that we 'member who we was and where we came from...
Steven Sinofsky was a Senior VP, and both he and the Ronettes were still over in Office-ville.
BrianV was still at Microsoft, and Soma was still in Windows reporting to him.
Soma owned two different groups -- WinSE (Windows Sustained Engineering) and International.
International was run by Lori Brownell and was the team I was on in building 28, while WinSE was in building 24.
Its like you're there, right? :-)
And then....
And then...
There were some problems in building 24.
Problems in the labs.
You know, some brownouts, maybe even an electrical fire or two (depends on who you ask).
Soma looked at these twp groups and decided to switch 'em.
We moved to building 24, and WinSE moved to 28.
Strictly logical reasons for the move, mind you.
I mean both groups had labs, but WinSE had a lot more of 'em and higher power consumption for 'em, too.
Since he could fit the moves in his budget for the FY and he owned both groups, it was all inside baseball, much easier than anything else would have been.
For some of those who ended up in moved to 24, a different message was kind of implied.
Basically, if Microsoft had to decide which group was going to be burned to the ground, the Windows International team "won" the contest....
Years passed.
Some people moved on.
Others moved over.
And still others moved up.
And yet even now that so much has changed, I never was unable to unlearn that lesson.
To unring that bell.
If they had to choose which group to have burst into flame....
xpclient on 28 Apr 2012 11:03 PM:
If I could choose, which group could burst into flames, I would choose the current Windows group - the one led by Steven Sinofsky and Julie Larson Green.
cheong00 on 30 Apr 2012 2:28 AM:
I'm not sure if I can get the "choose which group to have burst into flame" part... From my view it's just Windows International team has lower power consumption but inside a building wired with higher power limit. Exchange building seems to be logical choice in management standpoint because you don't need the budget and possibly dayoffs for rewiring the building 24.
I mean unless the enviornment, etc. of building 24 is worse than 28...... :O
Michael S. Kaplan on 30 Apr 2012 7:28 AM:
Of course now we're mostly in neither, but...
Adam Hill on 30 Apr 2012 2:06 PM:
Perhaps the International team was thinner and/or balder, thus less likely to combust. :)