thehowe_v7.1

Halo 3 launched today. So begins the war of attrition. My plan is to get a 360 & Halo 3 at Christmas. The question is: can my willpower hold out that long?

It just so happens that today is also the College of Engineering Career Fair here at U of M, which means Microsoft is here. And of course, they had Halo 3 at their booth. And of course, I played it for an hour after class. Tonight, I'm going to a special Halo 3 tournament.

So, can I hold out? This morning I sang the Halo theme song in the shower. Multiple times. Smart money's probably on no.

In case there's anybody who reads this that I don't talk to on a regular basis, I've got big news for you: A year from now I'll be a full-time Software Development Engineer at Microsoft. I'll be working with the Terminal Services team, the same team that I interned with during the summer.

There were many factors that weighed in my decision to go to Microsoft: the pay is good, the benefits are some of the best in the country, I love the Seattle area, and the team I'm on works on cool stuff. In the end, it came down to the fact that Microsoft works on more things that I find interesting than any other software company.

I just got back from Bill Gates' house.

I'll let that sink in for a minute.

Okay, so actually it was me and about 200 other interns at Bill Gates's house. All of the Microsoft interns get to have dinner at his house. And by met him, I mean I was one of 50 people crowding around him and asking him questions. So, not really all that impressive.

But still.

As with any Microsoft event, there are things I can't blog about due to non-disclosure crud. Interestingly, the one thing I saw tonight that I thought was interesting enough to mention here is completely in the clear:

Bill's pants had stains on them.

I'm not sure why, but I find that fact fascinating. There's something profound in that, I'm just not sure what. Perhaps it says something about his personality, or the informality of our profession, or maybe the relative importance of interns. I can't say.

I just find it fascinating.

Today at work I was putting together a presentation for a talk I'm giving tomorrow on the project I've been working on for the first half of my internship. Put simply, I added some functionality and a new user interface to an existing application.

Of course, that's not how my twisted brain thought about it. I started envisioning the code as the torso of a person, and the original interface as the head. In this analogy, my extensions would be like a cancerous mutant second head sprouting from the shoulder, with its tendrils extending down into the torso. It'd be all twisted and weird, and it'd always be drooling and chewing on the main head's hair. It'd have like five teeth and one eye would be bigger than the other.

I was this close to using the analogy.

As usual, I've been lax in updating during the summer months. I'm interning out at Microsoft this summer, out in Redmond, WA. I have to say, I'm really enjoying the experience. I was a little worried coming in, because the team I'm working for... well, let's just say their product isn't the most exciting in the world. Luckily, my project has turned out to be very cool. I can't really talk much about it, so I guess you'll have to take my word on it.

Another change for me this summer has been getting out to do more hiking. So far I've only been able to get out two weekends, but I've really enjoyed myself both times, so I'm planning on getting out as many weekends as I can before I leave.

I don't think I've mentioned it here yet: I'm going to be interning at Microsoft this summer instead of back to Amazon for a third summer. Since I put some time and sincere thought into it, I thought I'd post the email that I wrote to my Amazon contact:

Hi (Name Removed),

I'm writing to let you know that I interviewed & got an internship offer from Microsoft for this summer, and I've decided to accept.

I thought a long time about this decision, and it was not an easy one to make. If I were making a decision for full-time employment, there's no doubt in my mind that I'd come back to Amazon: I've had a great time, learned a lot, and worked with some fantastic people over the last two summers. I know that if I were to come back to Amazon I would have a lot of fun and work on very satisfying, interesting problems. However, I feel like internships should be more about gaining a broad set of technical and professional experiences, and I feel that Microsoft will be more valuable in that regard than coming back to Amazon for a third summer would be.

I'm currently planning on graduating with my Master's in April '08, and I definitely hope to be in contact with you more then to discuss the possibility of coming to Amazon full-time.

Thanks for everything,
Travis

The Amazon folks, of course, understood. This decision wasn't about not wanting to go back to Amazon. I made the decision because ultimately I believe that spending a summer at Microsoft is going to be the right thing for me to do, both professionally and educationally.

I knew it! I knew it all along! I just heard that Microsoft bought Rare, one of Nintendo's longest standing partners in the video game arena Past achievements Rare has made for Nintendo include the early 90's series Battletoads; revamping one of Nintendo's oldest characters in the Donkey Kong games; and Goldeneye and Perfect Dark, still considered two of the best multiplayer first person shooters of all time. Now Microsoft has gobbled them up into it's corporate maw. It's all part of Bill Gate's evil plan to completely dominate the gaming market by buying out all of his real competitors. Who's next, Square?