Barking Frog

no comment…

barkingfrog — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 14:59:16 +0000

mmm…

barkingfrog — Sun, 11 May 2008 07:13:18 +0000

I cannot believe that Steve Ballmer would use a Mac… but this photo is still quite funny…

iPhone at Microsoft…

barkingfrog — Sun, 04 May 2008 19:14:38 +0000

Here is a mail I sent to a friend who works for Microsoft in Redmond:
Subject: Art handoff Call me to organize 4251112222 Sent from my iPhone

and Microsoft’s gateway response telling me why this email wasn’t delivered:
Delivery has failed to these recipients or distribution lists: A Friend Your message wasn't delivered because of security policies. Microsoft Exchange will not try to redeliver this message for you. Please provide the following diagnostic text to your system administrator. The following organization rejected your message: mail05.microsoft.com. Sent by Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Diagnostic information for administrators: Generating server: SERVER.xxx.zzz afriend@microsoft.com mail05.microsoft.com #550 5.7.1 ##

Mentioning an iPhone at Microsoft must indeed be obscene…

Selling my car and revisiting my expectations…

barkingfrog — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 01:32:59 +0000

I was talking online with my (French) sister-in-law this morning (late afternoon for her) and I mentioned that I was going to sell my car today – and that I had not done anything about it yet but that it would probably work out. She seemed completely unconvinced. Actually she probably thought I was crazy. But it is 6PM and the car has been virtually sold for 4 hours (I just need to find the title in the middle of the move mess and bring it to the buyer tomorrow morning). Her reaction was completely normal: she has expectations, created by her environment that one has to wait 6 weeks to get a new car, that nothing happens in such a short time… On the other hand, 6+ years in the US has reset my expectation to a certain level of fluidity in business dealings… I guess I am going to have to revisit and readjust my expectations once I am back in Europe…
Update: the car did get sold in a day…

Leaving Microsoft

barkingfrog — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 18:27:45 +0000

Leaving Microsoft and subsequently moving to a new country seems to have emerged as a strange pattern in my life… In 1993, I left Microsoft (France) and shortly after moved to Ireland. In 1999, I left Microsoft (Ireland) again, to go to Belgium and now, I am about to leave Microsoft (US) to move back to Europe.

I have had some good years at Microsoft, worked on cool stuff with great people and I will always be grateful for the experience & the great people – not so much for the cafeteria food though…

However, now is a great time for me to leave and move on to work on new exciting things, enjoy a different lifestyle and provide my kids with a different perspective on the world.

I will miss many people and things in Redmond but I sure won’t miss Microsoft’s cheesy internal videos such as this one…