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For most of my career at Microsoft, I worked as a Program Manager on Windows Setup. No, not the Windows installer. Windows Setup – the tools and technologies that took a computer either from an earlier version of Windows or a bare PC, to an installation of Windows. But in this role, I still had to deal with the ramifications of how Windows applications were installed, and often would see the work of other teams incorporated into Windows setup –…

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This is my office phone. See the red light? Most people who know me know that the best way to reach me is always my cell phone or email (or Twitter). But that red light marks purgatory for those who didn’t know. You see, office phones and I just don’t get along. I’ve tried, really I have. But these “designed by an electrical engineer” phones have always driven me nuts. Right up there with fax machines and printers, the needlessly…

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If you’ve read my blog or followed me on Twitter for long, you know that I love to analyze patterns in spam and scams. Over most of 2010 and 2011, spammers (in particular the porn spammers in late 2012) were very prolific. I believe recent controls put in place are helping to regulate the amount of spam on Twitter to a better degree than before. However, last week, something happened that exposed a weak point in whatever algorithm Twitter is…

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In my last blog post, I discussed the different user interface approaches that Apple is currently taking across all of its platforms. Four platforms, four slightly different answers. There is, I believe, a rational explanation for each of them – and most importantly, a rational reason for all four to at this point at least, not have a completely identical experience. In a recent meeting at work, we discussed Metro and WinRT as they related to an article that a…

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This is the first in what I hope to be a series of blog posts about user interfaces; where we are, where we’re going, and where we’re likely not going. Yesterday, as I was pondering this blog post, I thought about where we’ve come with user interfaces. Today, PC users often point to the iPad as not being “ready for business”, yet the same thing happened when the PC poked its way into the world of typewriters and mainframes/minicomputers, and…

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When the Nest Learning Thermostat first came out, I went through a couple of different modes of thought. Let me walk you through them. Bewilderment – I read the initial news about the thermostat and thought, “Tony left Apple and made… a thermostat?” Excitement – I realized that the design team had followed what appeared to be an Apple-like philosophy of simplicity and task-based design. Disappointment – I realized that it was $249, which was a little more than I wanted…

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The other day, I was on a panel of 4 pundits where an audience member asked whether we felt Microsoft would approve a Metro app that was data heavy. The visual I got was a data grid application, something perhaps written in Access, VB, FoxPro, or some other visual designer at a time when raw data access was thought to be a good thing. I spoke pretty candidly about the fact that if you’re making the effort to port to Windows…

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Natural. A harmless word. As someone who grew up in Montana, if you used “natural” in a word-association test, the response I’d give you is probably Glacier National Park. But natural isn’t a harmless word anymore. Unlike the word organic, which (though overloaded in meaning) has a very explicit definition when it comes to food, the word natural means everything, yet means nothing at the same time. At a simplistic level, the word natural means “from nature”. However, unless it’s something…

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Privacy. It’s a good idea, right? But what the heck is it? For quite some time, I was a paranoid nutjob about Google. It irritated the bejeezus out of me that I knew how diligently they tracked everything, aggregated everything, and could really identify me in a digital crowd. Eventually, I rationalized that it wasn’t really a big deal to me that Google knew when I was sick, when I needed repair for my VW (or that it knew what kind…

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Growing up in Montana, “the backpacker’s credo” was gospel. This saying, “pack it in, pack it out”, applies to how important it is to take anything you bring with you to a campsite back out with you. Nobody wants to take a 15 mile hike to a gorgeous lake hidden in the mountains only to see someone’s beer six-pack ring or Snickers wrapper on the ground. Not only does it spoil the scene, but litter is far from ideal for…

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