History of Microsoft: A trip down Memory Lane

on Microsoft

31/7/2020 UPDATE If you've found information in this post useful then you might also like the post A Brief History of Bill Gates: From Microsoft to Today which was kindly sent to me by Anna J. who's son was doing a project about Bill Gates and the start of Microsoft and came across my post! Thanks Anna for sharing this link! If you’re a software developer using the Microsoft development platforms you are probably either currently at the Microsoft Build 2014 conference or like me you might be just catching up on the conference content through the…

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Microsoft Build 2014 Keynote Summary

on Build 2014, Microsoft

So earlier today Australia time the Microsoft Build 2014 conference kicked off with lots of new announcements. If you haven’t watched the 3 hour keynote and are interested to know what was covered here’s a quick summary of the presentation.  Windows Phone 8.1 Cortana: The Windows Phone personal assistant revealed. Uses Bing at it’s core and is different that competitor products in that it is able to better understand users as opposed to just being a voice command system. The Verge’s The story of Cortana, Microsoft’s Siri killer. *Notification Centre: *Windows Phone now finally…

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Satya Nadella: The chosen Microsoft CEO that was Meant To Be

on Microsoft

By now you will have heard that Microsoft has selected Satya Nadella as its new CEO replacing Steve Ballmer effective immediately. Nadella is an Indian born 22 year Microsoft veteran who most recently held therole of *Executive Vice President – Cloud and Enterprise. *Despite not being very well known publically to many outsiders, Nadella’s achievements in the Cloud and Enterprise divisions which includes Microsoft’s Windows Azure have been remarkable. So why Nadella? Microsoft took over 6 months to announce a replacement for Steve Ballmer since he announced his retirement back in August. So, after such a long search…

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The Start button is back, just not as you know it

on Microsoft, Windows8

So by now you’ve probably heard that Microsoft is bringing back the Start button in Windows 8.1. This follows some of the backlash that Microsoft has received since the removal of the Start button/menu in Windows 8. Whether or not this is an important change I guess this is debatable. However, I think the important distinction to make here is that the Start*Menu* is NOT coming back! The start menu that you’re used to from previous editions of windows is gone for good. I just wanted to put this out there just in case people…

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Pondering the future of an IT Career: Part 2

on Career, Microsoft

In Part 1 of this post I’ve shared my assessment of how my career has progressed so far since I joined the IT workforce and I mentioned the things that I like and the ones I don’t. In this post I will expand further on the comments that I mentioned under The Future and* How To Get There* sections. In those sections I noted that I like working with new technologies and that I really enjoy doing R&D to find the best ways of utilizing technology to solve business problems as well as being passionate about…

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Pondering the future of an IT Career: Part 1

on Career, Microsoft

For a while now I’ve been trying to think of how best to shape the future of my career. Over the past 7+ years I’ve worked in many environments on various roles and responsibilities. However, I now feel that it’s time for a change. After working in my current role for over 5 years, I’m at a stage where I feel that there is not much that is new for me. No new challenges …etc. This has lead me to start thinking about what the next step should be and I’m hoping that through this…

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Data as a Service: The next big thing?

on Business, Microsoft, API

As you all know this year has been a huge year for Microsoft with several product launches, corporate logo change, Microsoft Surface, Sinofsky leaving the company and a few more out there. With all of these changes Steve Ballmer also this year announced that Microsoft is becoming a devices and services company. All in all these are some huge changes for a large company in a single year and the question now is whether these changes will allow Microsoft to compete well with other companies in the so called post-PC era. It could, but… If you lookback a few…

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Steven Sinofsky: Other reasons why he left Microsoft

on Microsoft, Sinofsky, Windows8

The news of Steven Sinofsky leaving Microsoft is a week old now. However since then I’ve been thinking about some possible reasons why he actually left and whether there could be another reason despite what’s been speculated by many last week. I think I’ve found one and below are my thoughts on this. The way Sinofsky’s departure was handled would certainly indicate that there were a lot of internal politics involved. If you’ve read some of the articles from last week you will know that many people noted that he is a difficult person to…

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Microsoft Leadership Changes: Goodbye Sinofsky

on Microsoft, Sinofsky

By now you will have probably heard that Steven Sinofsky has decided to leave Microsoft after being with the company since 1989. Without knowing much about what happens within the teams at Microsoft I must admit I was very surprised at hearing this news especially with all the recent product launches at the company that were lead by Sinofsky. However tech blogger Mary Jo Foley seems to be one of those not surprised by the news and in fact seems pleased with Sinofsky’s departure. Update: "Some might notice a bit of chatter speculating about this decision or timing.I…

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Microsoft Surface: Review & why I decided to buy one

on Microsoft, Surface

So by now you are probably aware the Microsoft Surface has become available for purchase in several countries and many have already gotten their hands on one – including myself! There is already a whole heap of content out there reviewing the device itself and showing videos …etc. of how to use and operate it. Rather than tell you much of the same which you can find online I have decided to take a different approach in this post. There are several reviews on Surface out there but you will find extensive coverage about the Surface on Paul Thurrot’s WinSuperSite…

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