Bring It On

Historically, Microsoft has been known as company that insists on using its own software tools internally, almost at all cost (even when it is somewhat less effective to do so). I have read numerous articles pointing out this fact in several different publications.

It has come to me as a great surprise to learn that Microsoft did not use its own Windows Media encoder to record some developer presentations (live screen captures) for MSDN TV but instead opted for Camtasia Studio? I wonder if this means that developers have somewhat greater freedom at choosing the tools to use?

In a somewhat related note, have you ever noticed how Microsoft developers use notepad and other simple editors for XML editing during those MSDN TV presentations? I know that Visual Studio XML editing supports sucks, but it is far better than editing XML by hand. Having in mind wide spread use of XML everywhere, including Microsoft, I find it strange that Microsoft hasn't come up with a lot stronger support for XML editing in Visual Studio yet. I guess we'll have to wait till Whidbey comes out for that...

One would think that after so many studies and conferences on spam, and many good techniques presented, Microsoft engineers would be able to produce decent spam filter.

Somehow, I am sure they are more than capable. So why are we given that? By my account, when set on high, it misses 20% of spam. I have observed this percentage on a test corpus of more than 10K of messages, and more than 3 months of usage.

I have applied for a Microsoft beta tester few months ago. Yes, I went to the trouble of filling in huge form, and I've made sure I carefully and correctly provide all information. As I see it, my application was very clear - I wanted to be a tester for development related products. I did not express any desire nor interest for anything else, nor am I in possesion of huge network of different devices all running some variant of MS software, thus being suitable for variety of products. I just wanted to play with code.

Yet, few weeks later, I got a confirmation letter that I've been selected to beta test MS multimedia software, probably next versions of Media Player, one of the few MS applications that I never use. Does anyone actually read these applications, or do they just pick people randomly??