If you don’t already spend countless hours of the day browsing Reddit, it’s never too late to start. What I think sets Reddit apart from other similar communities is the discussion-only sections. More recently, a new section dubbed “IAmA” – short for “I am a…ask me anything” – has taken off by storm by allowing interesting and sometimes notable people (under the cover of anonymity if they wish) to answer random questions from complete strangers.

As dubious as this may sound, it actually works quite well and have since brought under the spotlight award-winning musicians, hackers, descendants of Nazis, 9/11 firefighters, lottery millionaires and of course, the most interesting of them all, Microsoft developers.

So far, three anonymous Microsofties have already stepped forward to answer several hundred questions in total. One worked on Windows Vista and Windows 7 (and will also be working on Windows 8), another is a 10-year Office veteran, and the latest is a junior Windows developer who wrote two lines of code that shipped in Windows 7.

Like most anonymous postings, what’s valuable is the honest insight into the politics, technicalities and thought process behind the scenes at Microsoft. Here’s just a slice of some of the most interesting responses I’ve come across so far.

“One more question: how much info does Microsoft have on us?” (#)

Almost none. Any data that gets collected (including data from WGA and elsewhere) is EXTENSIVELY filtered for PII (Personally Identifiable Information). If any data ever got through to somewhere it didn’t belong, like an email address, social security number, or credit card number, we would consider that to be a very serious bug and would place a very high priority on making sure we never recieved that data again.

In general, any data that we collect from users (and this includes our advertising) is impossible to link back to a unique person. I’ve worked with our privacy and legal teams on this stuff before, and they are deadly serious about it.

“Are you guys even thinking about the next os? or are you more focused on continuing to improve this one, update, service packs, etc?” (#)

Planning for “Windows 8” (the next version) has consumed all of our time for the past few months. It’s amazing to see how much work goes into just planning the OS.

Do you get to see other peoples code? I mean: is there some kind of version control used for the entire Windows branch, or is it more like: “I code my stuff and use compiled objects for the stuff I don’t need to know about”? (#)

Anyone who is working on windows can see the entire windows source base. Technically, anyone with access can compile the entire OS down to an ISO. Realistically almost no one does because it takes a ridiculous amount of time to do.

“The [Windows 7] leaks seem obviously intentional . . . otherwise we’d see leaks of other major software all the time, which we don’t — not even other Microsoft software. Please explain how I’m missing the point — why is there “not a lot we can do”?” (#)

Most other major software doesn’t have nearly as many people working on the project or with access to daily builds. Last time I checked we have something like 6000 people and even more that have access to the builds. I’d guess that 10,000 people have access to our builds. Any time you have that many people with access to something… It’s going to leak.

But yeah, there are probably some positive benefits to it. We’re definitely not leaking intentionally (and if we are, they certainly haven’t told me about it).

If you like what you’re seeing, head over to the original discussions to read lots more. Of course, if there’s also something on your mind you want to ask you can also submit a question. Hopefully these guys (and others) are still around to respond to them.

A couple of weeks ago some very interesting Windows news flew by under the radars that I think deserves much more credit than it received, considering how much we rely on the web and the impact this has on making it safer.

In the September 2009 update to the Windows Root Certificate Program, Microsoft has added to the list of trusted root certificate authorities StartCom Ltd, notably its first member who issues amongst others free SSL digital certificates.

What this means in practice is that out-of-the-box in Windows 7 and if installed as an optional patch under Windows Vista and XP, free digital certificates issued by StartCom will be inherently trusted by the operating system and its applications.

Besides simple identification, one other benefit delivered by digital certificates is the ability to transparently encrypt and secure the connection to a server via HTTPS and this is what makes what Microsoft did so notable.

Up and until now the digital certificates market has been dominated by large corporations who charge quite a pretty penny for the privilege, limiting the use of HTTPS. Unfortunately at the same time due to the nature of digital certificates and the chain of trust, a limited number of root certificate authorities (CA) in operating systems such as Windows has limited the adoption of free digital certificates as offered by some companies like StartCom. Granted Firefox and Safari has supported many of the certificate authorities issuing free certificates for some time, Microsoft has not, until now.

With StartCom as a Windows root CA, web developers now have a practical free alternative for digital certificates if they wish to secure their websites or web services that by default works with Internet Explorer and other Windows applications.

Not only is this great for developers but even more so users who can look forward to more websites that encrypt the data they send to and receive from – reducing the risks of sniffing and man-in-the-middle vulnerabilities, especially when using wireless and public networks.

If you’ve ever pondered about the future convergence of mobile devices and the web, then you might have envisioned something like the scenarios shown in these three speculative (mock) advertisements for Microsoft Tag, courtesy of a familiar director Marty Martin who also shot the Windows 7 college spots.

Produced by “White Rabbit” in collaboration with Microsoft, these three 60-second spots dubbed “teen” (above), “mom” and “business” shows how Microsoft Tags could seamlessly bridge the divide between real tangible objects with content and services on the web.

Examples shown in the video enabled by MTags include the discover and downloading of new music from an artist’s poster, finding stores who sells a piece of clothing you see in a magazine and streaming a movie trailer to a portable media player all from a movie poster.

What I like about these videos is that they illustrate scenarios that very practical but not currently possible with the ease of clicking just a button. Sure you could bring up a browser on your phone and type away but by the time you’re done you would have probably lost interest. A picture on the other hand is a snap.

Say what you might about their products on the market, but when it comes to flashy prototypes and revolutionary concepts, Microsoft is indisputably a clear leader in the industry.

The latest of these perpetually next-generation prototypes out of Microsoft Research to be shown to the public is an integrated home office environment that combines the wonders of interactive wall displays, a Microsoft Surface and a digital assistant, albeit with a creepy voice and unsettling-long response time.

This particular demo presented by Yusuf Mehdi, Senior Vice President of Microsoft’s Online Audience Business, to the crowd at the Interactive Advertising Bureau MIXX 2009 conference assumes the scenario of an architect designing a pond, and I’m sure they do and spend as much effort in. The architect uses this computer to plan, simulate and collaborate with others in designing the pond.

Those of you who recall the 2019 vision video might see some similarities in the visual aesthetics of the graphics and animations used in the prototype suggesting this is most likely an Office Labs project too.

The video I extracted from the low-quality stream doesn’t really do the visuals justice. To get a better look of the wall, check out the photos from Microsoft Advertising’s Flickr stream.

Some lucky Zune HD owners in the land of the free and the home of the brave might remembering seeing this first time booting up their shiny new toy, but for the rest of us watching from the continental sidelines here is the cool and somewhat trippy minute-long “Welcome to the Zune HD” rite of passage into the “social”. Remember, you can look but don’t touch.

For the musically curious, the song is “Blackout” by The Whip who according to their MySpace profile is all too familiar with the Zune-ies.

A couple of months ago the Microsofties from Entertainment and Devices division moved into four brand new state-of-the-art buildings on the Redmond campus much to the awe of the other employees. Besides just the glamor and smell of a new building which I’ve been told is even better than the “new car smell”, each of the four building’s atrium feature a three-story high interactive installation that makes traditional vertical banners look pathetic in comparison.

The installation designed by MODE Studios utilizes a transparent LED system called curveLED making it possible to both see and see through the display. The interactivity of the installation comes from sensors both inside and outside the building that analyzes traffic patterns, weather and thermal patterns inside the building. Combined with a single unmarked “hotspot” that allows for direct interaction, the installation features procedurally generated imagery that is always dynamic and evolving.

Yeah the economy is hitting Microsoft really hard.