I have a theory. The amount of hair of a Microsoft executive determines how eccentric he or she is.

• Bill Gates – lots of hair, not eccentric.
• Jim Allchin – fair bit of hair, bonus points for white hair, not eccentric.
• Ray Ozzie – a bit of hair, bonus points for white hair, not so eccentric.
• Steve Sinofsky – barely any hair, the man started a communications blackhole, a bit eccentric.
• J. Allard – did have hair before cosmetic surgery (bonus pity points), no hair now, eccentric.
• Steve Ballmer – barely any hair, very eccentric.

Over 3 months ago, I published an announcement and subsequent drawing of a competition to win 1 of 100 Windows Vista caps. I knew from the beginning the logistics of sending out 100 gifts would have caused problems both financially and physically. Luckily, Microsoft Australia came to help me out by distributing the caps through their channels. However, the three months that followed didn’t go quite as plan.

What was quite simply, a dropoff at the reception of Microsoft Australia’s Melbourne office, turned into the perfect plot for a Sherlock Holmes story. I won’t dive into the detail of how I got the caps on the counter, in short, it was a lot of work. I put it on the counter when I got in, and was still on the counter when I left. Somehow, nanoseconds between the elevator door closing and the receptionist opening her eyes again, the box vanished. It was as if MIB took the box, and then flashed everyone.

The box wasn’t finger-tip sized (as you can see from this archive photo). Perhaps it fell down an enormously large crack in a corner of the wall. Who knows. It was gone, and there was nothing I could do about it.

Luckily, Aaron from Microsoft in Redmond was generous enough to fulfill the request for another 100 Vista caps to make sure those who were promised one, got one. These caps were ordered, delivered and finally distributed in just weeks. Special thanks to Aaron and Bernard!

Some of you may have received your caps today. If you haven’t, they will be there soon.

You might notice the dissimilarities between the caps you receive and the photo of the caps I originally planned to distribute. That is because these are not the same caps. These were ordered from another merchandising vendor which had a different design to the originals.

Apart from an apology, there’s nothing better I can do at this time. It’s still a Windows Vista cap, but just not the orb. I hope you understand. 🙁

Thanks to Alex Khristov for helping me generate organize the PC extras. Casting by South Park Studio and Channel 9.

Update: I have used a Mac, and they’re great machines, but that’s beside the point.

Update 2: By the request, the image has since been distributed under Creative Commons for use on business cards and the like.

Dear Tjeerd stalking diary, today I found pictures of Tjeerd’s presentation slides from Microsoft’s Designertopia event in London from earlier this month. Special thanks to Darren Straight, a Microsoft Student Partner who attended the event and uploaded his photos.

This is possibly the 4th presentation I’ve seen Tjeerd give under the name of “Windows Vista User Experience Design”, but this presentation in particular contained a few things of interest.

One slide to make. One slide to rule them all.

Mmmmm. Legacy icons-licious.

Continue reading →

At the current rate I’m stalking Tjeerd Hoek, I’m going to have to learn Dutch sooner or later. Until then, here is a roughly translated summary provided by my good Dutch friend, Andre Fedosjeenko, of what Tjeerd said during the “De wereld draait door” TV show a few weeks ago talking about the design of Windows Vista.

• 2700 new features in Windows Vista
• Talking about Bill Gates

• Host: “Strange man, isn’t he?”
  Tjeerd: “Well, interesting and smart guy. He could be very abstract as if he is doing some mathematic thinking.”
• Host: “Are you able to talk to him?”
  Tjeerd: “Sure. Although…” (Bill Gates imitation..)
• Host: “Are you that high in function that you can actually address Bill Gates?”
  Tjeerd: “Sometimes during meetings. You should carefully think through what you will say before addressing Bill Gates.”

Continue reading →

My first magazine article appeared page 140 of the Official Windows Vista magazine, launch issue one.

The article talks about ways you can use Windows Vista to remember dates and schedules to keep you in sync with life. Any of you who read this blog probably won’t find it as useful as its aimed more at consumers rather than enthusiasts and geeks.

I want to tip my hats off to the editors at Future Publishing who made my article readable, and Jon and Paul from the team for giving me the opportunity to do so.

On the magazine website, there is a text-only transcript of this article, and links to subscribe for only £1 to keep everyone employed. Apart from my article, the rest of the magazine is well worth reading in the bathroom, like a good magazine is suppose to be read. 😉