You know what would scare me if I was a Microsoft employee?The prospect of waking up and seeing the headline on Slashdot "Worst ever Windows vulnerability found in &ltpiece of code you wrote"&gt. That is, unless you're writing sound recorder or something . Just kidding, Rosh:-)

I met Soma during TechEd in Blr - amazing down-to-earth and funny guy.

I know what you mean about Slashdot Sriram and also about your comment on MythG's C9 entry - I havent heard her interview yet (no headphones here). All that kind of FUD however seems so inane when you look at it from here. There is a tremendous insulating effect inside of MS for some reason - a lot of it has to do with absolute lack of free time.
Soma, it is rumored, is one of the only microsoftees ever to have been rated a 5 on 5 during an MS appraisal. Now thats saying a bit around here.

When I said FUD I meant /. not C9.

Err..I dont understand 2 things

- How did you come to know of that comment on C9?

- How is that connected to my original comment on..err..you writing Sound Recorder? :-)

Just confused

The one incident I would never forget from TechEd BLR is when someone asked Soma why he was wearing a particular suit (since it was quite hot). He replied in Tamil 'Ennaya pandrathu - pannam kuduthu vankiten' which roughly translates to 'What to do? I have already paid for it'.

I was blown away - that is definitely not the kind of humour and down-to-earthness you would expect to see from a corporate vice president of Microsoft.

I also had a pretty interesting conversation on moving from coding to a management job. He said "You have withdrawal pains for 2-3 years..then you get used to it. But in the end, do remember that it is the Don Boxes and the Anders Hejlsbergs that do the products - we just get out of their way"

Rosh, A breaking build from XXXXXXXXXLAB is untolerable :p and for that matter I do not think its worthy a piece to be /.d!

Well Sriram you are on the other side of the river and you are looking at a spot that which just falls in to your line of sight, It doesnt / need not be entirely true. Remember the world is all smoke and mirrors and if I can say a lot of FUD too :). I hope you got my point.

"But in the end, do remember that it is the Don Boxes and the Anders Hejlsbergs that do the products - we just get out of their way"
I know what you mean - you should see the managers at this place: mind blowing. I had a team meeting a few days and there was this one person I didnt recognise. He was sitting next to my manager with a laptop so I figured he is someone higher up (though that is not neccessarily the case). I remember through the meeting that there were only a few times he spoke but when he did he had some very carefully thoughtout points. I remember thinking that I should try and meet him after the meeting.

Towards the end my manager turns to him and says "So Amit..." and then it struck me that he is the head of the entire Windows team at India. In other places I would have expected everyone to stand up or talk very hushed or polished when the head of of your division is around. Not so in Microsoft.

These days I am on a coding spree. I havent been on one like this for a while now, not since I originally wrote the DDL, I think. I am enjoying it, a little rusted from years of unuse, but I am enjoying it.

Hey Roshan, Congrats to you and Pooja .....we didn't get to meet after all. All the best!

Raj

Hey! Long time no see :)

So you moved to Hyd while I moved to bangalore. Those debates in CREC were great.

Well, best-of-luck in your new venture, I guess you are very happy since you were a passionate fan of MS all along :)

[I hope no more pirating thier stuff ;) ]

cheers!

Hello Raj, Nice to hear from you.
Yes, we should have met. The last days in CTS and in Bangalore however were rather hectic and lacking in sanity cream. Things are calmer now and if you are ever visiting Hyd, drop me a line - roshanj@ms... ok.
Cheers!