Behind The Code

Minds, Machines, and Intelligence: A Conversation with Eric Horvitz

Charles — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 19:41:00 GMT

Microsoft is well known for Windows, Office, .NET, Xbox, Zune and a long list of other products and technologies.

Less discussed however, is a group at Microsoft that isn’t necessarily focused on ship dates, packaging, or competing products. Instead they think about how computers and technology can make life easier, with an eye towards developing new technologies that can improve all our lives and often in cooperation with product team, but also working with people in academia, governments and industry. The name of this group is Microsoft Research.

Eric Horvitz, today’s guest, joined Microsoft Research with two colleagues in 1993 to form the Decision Theory and Adaptive Systems group. Since then he has been at the center of a variety of projects focused on machine intelligence and adaptation, and the related tasks of information discovery, collection, and delivery

Richard Ward: Windows Architecture - Past, Present and Future

Charles — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 17:30:00 GMT

Artists embody a diverse set of talents and interests. This gives them a rich array of experiences to draw upon in their work. In the same way, Richard Ward brings an eclectic background and collection of interests to his efforts at Microsoft. He brings this diversity to his own art of programming within the Windows Core Architecture team.

While most Windows developers are focusing on the next version of Windows, Richard and his team are already hard at work on the version which will follow. In this episode of Behind The Code, we will discover what experiences Richard finds most helpful, as he focuses on building out the core infrastructure components of what will, one day, be running on the vast majority of the world’s computers.

Read Richard Ward’s { End Bracket } column in MSDN Magazine.

Rebecca Norlander - Challenge and Success

Charles — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 16:13:00 GMT

In the often male dominated world of computers, Rebecca Norlander has made a name for herself by taking on big challenges, and proving she has what it takes to deliver results. Join us to learn how Rebecca got her start at Microsoft, advancing through roles where she had tremendous impact on Excel, Internet Explorer, Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista Security, and now as Technical Strategist to Chief Software Architect, Ray Ozzie.

Rebecca will share with us her insights around the obstacles she has overcome, the lessons she has learned, and how she became a strong advocate for customers while working on a variety of high profile projects.

Terry Crowley: On the History and Evolution of the Internet

Charles — Thu, 08 May 2008 17:19:45 GMT

It is hard to imagine a time when the internet wasn’t a part of our lives. It has been over a decade since the Web transformed the Internet from an academic exercise into a common household name.

Terry Crowley may today be hard at work focusing on the advanced features and capabilities which will be part of Office 14, but he was also deeply involved with the early history and evolution of the early Internet. Join us as he shares with us his reflections of the Internet, the origins and evolution of FrontPage, experiences in Office, and his expectations for where this technology is leading us.

The venerable Robert Hess conducts this interview.

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Zune file.
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Read Terry Crowley’s { End Bracket } column in MSDN Magazine

Patrick Dussud: Managing Garbage Collection

Charles — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 16:28:40 GMT

Where do objects go when they aren't used anymore (and how to know that they are no longer useful to the executing code that created them)? Might seem like a silly question to most developers, but that's what Technical Fellow Patrick Dussud has been dealing with for most of his career. His special area of focus is implementing garbage collection (GC) in various programming languages and systems (from JScript to the CLR).

In this episode, we discuss with Patrick how GC concepts and implementations have evolved over the years, how the GC in the .NET Common Language Runtime (CLR) might be different from others, and how GC improvements in the future may need to change to deal with advancements in both software and hardware systems.

Patrick also has some interesting things to say about clowns.

This episode of Behind the Code is hosted by Robert Hess, Director in the Developer and Platform Evangelism Group. Although new to hosting Behind the Code, Robert is no stranger to hosting technical shows. For more than seven years, he hosted The .NET Show, a popular on-demand webcast that focused on providing architectural and programming information to developers around the world.

Low res download file for bandwidth challenged.

Mohsen Agsen: Bridging the Gap between PC and Enterprise, Developer and Designer

Duncan Mackenzie — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 18:11:57 GMT

A rolling stone gathers no moss. What it does gather, however, is a great deal of experience. During his long career at Microsoft, Mohsen Agsen has been actively avoiding gathering moss. LAN Manager, MCS, bCentral, Exchange, Visual Studio and … oh yes … games too. These are just a few of the products and technologies that Mohsen has been involved in. At each step along the way, he's built and maintained a reputation for being a strategic thinker and technical leader.
During this episode, we discuss with Mohsen some of the challenges that Microsoft has faced in the past, and learn how not just Microsoft, but the industry in general can deal with the challenges of today.

Peter Spiro: Building great databases. Making great teams. Leadership. WinFS. The power of having fu

Charles — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 10:58:04 GMT

Don't get a real job until you're 30. This is Technical Fellow Peter Spiro's advice, and something he fell just short of doing. Discover how this forestry student got a job at Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) and then came to Microsoft to help build the team that drove SQL Server to the huge success it is today.

How do you learn the necessary skills for leading huge projects?

Try restaurant work or being in the Peace Corps. Also, never underestimate the power of knowing how to live it up. In this episode, learn how Peter uses his passion and energy to influence technology across Microsoft while empowering talent and growing teams to produce first-rate software.

Catharine van Ingen: Software Architecture, Global Warming, MIPS and Hydrology

Charles — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 17:50:48 GMT

What do global warming, a scientific instrument weighing about 4500 tons and bill collection have in common? The once Berkeley ‘hippie chick’ turned Software Architect Catharine van Ingen. Catharine has a wealth of experience in hardware, including work with the Alpha machine and MIPS processor teams, industrial-strength software for algorithms used to manage water flows, logging data from particle accelerator detectors, and buying Mickey Mouse watches over the Internet.

Rico Mariani: Writing better, faster code

Charles — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 19:03:00 GMT

For eighteen years at Microsoft, Rico Mariani’s contagious enthusiasm for technology has inspired countless others to write better and faster code. Most people inside Microsoft know this software architect from his frequent postings on the internal performance tuning alias, and other people know him by reading his blog on MSDN. He often says that being an architect is a teaching gig and his passion for sharing knowledge has established him as an industry expert. Additionally, what you might not know is Rico is responsible for many of the cool features and tools that make programming easier like value tips.

See more Rico on C9 here.

Rob Short: Operating System Evolution

Charles — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 19:00:32 GMT

Rob Short is an operating system pioneer. He helped Microsoft transition from the 1980s with DOS and 16 bit windows into the 32 bit world with Windows NT in the 1990s. More recently, Rob was part of the team that further enhanced windows to take advantage of the 64 bit processors of the new millennium. Today he is the Vice President overseeing development of windows kernel and virtualization technologies.

You can see more Rob

Tony Williams: Co-inventor of COM

Erik Porter — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 18:31:53 GMT

This episode features the co-inventor of COM, software architect, Tony Williams. In his eighteen years at Microsoft, Tony has worked on the Windows team, in Microsoft Research, and on Office. His contributions benefit not just Microsoft's applications, but the fundamental way that all Windows applications are written. Tony has been an unwavering champion of componentized application development. Today (8/06) Tony is driving the design of a new component framework which will be used in Office 12. This interview is hosted by software architect, Keith Kaplan.

Mark Zbikowski - From DOS 1.0 to Windows Vista

Charles — Wed, 17 May 2006 18:43:51 GMT

This is Behind the Code’s pilot episode with Core File Services architect, Mark Zbikowski. Mark began his career at Microsoft in 1981, working on DOS 1.0 as a designer, coder and liaison with IBM. His quarter century long career has included significant involvement in OS/2, Cairo’s Object File System (OFS), and the NT File System (NTFS). In addition, he has been a key player in all of Microsoft’s File System work. Former Microsoft software architect Pat Helland interviews Mark about the early days at Microsoft, his passion for product development and the challenges of producing software.

Conversation with scientist, engineer and database legend Jim Gray

Charles — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 21:56:37 GMT

This episode features Jim Gray. He is a "Technical Fellow" in the Scaleable Servers Research Group (Sky Server, Terra Server) and manager of Microsoft's Bay Area Research Center (BARC). Jim has been called a "giant" in the fields of database and transaction processing computer systems. In 1998, Jim was awarded the ACM’s prestigious A.M. Turing Award.

Before joining Microsoft, Jim worked at Digital Equipment Corp (DEC)., Tandem Computers Inc., IBM Corp. and AT&T and he is the editor of the “Performance Handbook for Database and Transaction Processing Systems,” and co-author of “Transaction Processing: Concepts and Techniques.” In this interview, Jim is joined by former colleague from DEC and partner on the Terra Server project, Researcher, Tom Barclay.

This episode of “Behind the Code” is hosted by Barbara Fox – former senior security architect of cryptography and digital rights management for Microsoft

Life and Times of Anders Hejlsberg

Charles — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 22:50:11 GMT

This episode features industry luminary, Anders Hejlsberg. Before coming to Microsoft in 1996 he was well noted for his work as the principal engineer of Turbo Pascal and the chief architect of the Delphi product line. At Microsoft he was architect for the Visual J++ development system and the Windows Foundation Classes (WFC). Promoted to Distinguished Engineer in 2000, Anders is the chief designer of the C# programming language and a key participant in the development of Microsoft’s .NET framework. In this show, Anders is joined by a surprise guest.

This episode of “Behind the Code” is hosted by Barbara Fox – former senior security architect of cryptography and digital rights management for Microsoft.

“Behind the Code” with Jim Gray to be released March 2006