Leaving Microsoft

Hello Friends,

After six glorious years here at Microsoft I have decided to pursue a few start-up concepts based out of Vancouver.

In my first weeks at Microsoft, I blocked the largest software release in history - Windows XP SP3 - with a recall class bug just two days before RTM. This is truly an experience that only Microsoft could provide! An amazing start to an incredible career. I’ve worked on a broad set of great projects and technologies with the brightest and most interesting minds that I’ve ever encountered.  What a great experience!

It has been an honour to witness the transformation of Live Search into today’s Bing.com, and to facilitate that transformation through my efforts in test, operations, and infrastructure. I wish you all the best in your continued pursuit to revolutionize search - I truly believe our efforts at Bing are making the world a better place. 

I will miss all you fine people and this bustling atmosphere of engineering excellence.My last day will be December 13^th, 2013.

Thanks for everything!

Please keep in touch!

Another Day

It's Wednesday. Another day at the office.

8am wake up. High tide. Small breakfast and Drew and I are out paddling for waves by 830.

First teleconference is at 10am PST – so that’s not until noon here. There’s time for second breakfast and I log on to casually close out an easy work item. Time for scrum! Reclined in a hammock, I dial-in with salty fingers and wet shorts. There is always a Priority 0 bug to deal with when you release every day. Hammer time.

A truck rolls up to the hostel with ceviche, fresh fruit, or fresh pastries. Time for some more meetings – these ones are fun brain storming sessions or time set aside to discuss implementation details. Then it’s time to code – today I’m consolidating one of our frameworks onto a different configuration system. The heat of the day goes unnoticed as my mind and my keystrokes drift off to Seattle. I bring elegance and order to a chaotic realm of divergent configuration solutions. The sun is softening and I race to test my changes and send out the code review. My favorite part of the day is sunset out on the break.

There is howling today as the horizon blazes. The waves are mellow and glassed and at high tide even I can drop one or two of them. Paddle hard for a Right. You got it, you got it, you don’t got it. I back-paddle and take a minute to look up. “This sport is weird. It’s about waiting.” My back is to the sunset, but still the sky is pink and purple. On the horizon, the full moon rises over the trees.

Home is a beachfront family Casona which operates as a hostel during Costa Rica's busy season. It’s a 250 meter walk from south beach. My brother Drew and I join forces with solo travelers and a group of firemen from Canada to make a beast of a community dinner. Fresco.

Bellies full, drinks in hand, we head down to the beach and find a couple sitting alone at a roaring bonfire. “Of course! Of course you can join us,” says the woman. The man says nothing and glares at us with disapproval. Blocked! as fifteen of us join in a circle around his fire. Sara and Drew assemble drum kits from drift wood, rocks, and hollowed out turtle shells. Adam, Les, and I share two guitars - my god, Adam can wail.

It gets late. Drinks get drunk and we sing and smoke and smile. But tonight is special. I've been talking about it all day. We have brought longboards down to the bonfire hoping the moon will provide enough light for one last surf. Five of us strip down naked and start to paddle out.

*

Thursday morning comes early. High tide.

“Hey Kenn?" Drew's voice comes from the bunk below me. "Surfing?”

Just another day at the office.

And the ladies...
Photo from Emma.

New Years Bowl - Cloudburst Mountain

Nothing like bringing in the New Year with a three day ski trip into the back country. New and old friends together with alcohol, good food, and untouched powder lines. We intended to head out to Roger's Pass for some alpine action but stayed local to try to get into the Tantalus. We called Blacktusk Helicopters on Friday night to book a Saturday flight, but they recommended to avoid the Tantalus right now. We decided to skin up to Cloudburst leaving Saturday morning.

Leaving the car at 11, we arrive in New Years Bowl after a four hour skin. Photo shows Ken Jones following a pre-cut ski track on approach to the bowl.

Time to catch some laps before dark.

As night falls, we begin to dig the snow cave:

This is us in the cave when it is complete. I thought it was our best roof yet! Cribbage, dinner, and drinks in the cave.

New Years Eve! Very grey day.

We take our snow profile of a North-East face.

Amazing snow pack! A firm base with stable powder. Green light for steeper lines!

A few short gladed runs close to camp. Jones and Tim skiing back down to our skin track.

In the afternoon we pick our line up the gut of New Years Bowl. I don't have a good photo of the entire slope. This photo shows the topmost third with the straight zigzag on the left showing our ascent and perfect turns on the right for descent.

Tim up on the ridge. We spent our days in the shadow of the mountain but caught a few rays of light up on the ridge before descending off left.

Paul and Natassja are expected to join us before dark but they are nowhere to be found. We ski down and find them after thirty minutes or so. Two hours to skin back up to camp with our new heavy load - firewood, three bottles of wine, tequila, champagne, bottled water, snow peas, Doritos, a French Press, and dry mittens. Paul brings the party as usual!

Evening starts with a few drinks by the fire.

Fighting in the snow and New Years count down.

Bring in 2013 with a midnight slightly intoxicated ski! First of the year!

New Years Day is a blue bird! We are running laps up to the ridge for that beautiful 40% powder descent. Each lap is about an hour up and ten minutes down.

View from the bottom. The graininess, noise, and lack of colour is 'art' (this was a terrible photo taken from very far away).

View from the top of the ridge:

After two laps on the ridge we ski for about two hours through gladed terrain and logging roads. When we reach the car, we head straight for chicken and bacon.

OMG bought a GPS last week!!! I'm really enjoying this.