Microspotting

Microspotting: Inside the Microsoft Archives

Nov 01, 2013 at 12:35PM

by Larry Larsen
Average of 5 out of 5 stars 9 ratings

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15 comments

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Description

A morning ritual for Microsoft employees is reading MSW on our corporate intranet. This is where we see news, events, campus maps, and other information that we use every day at Microsoft. One of the features of MSW is a video series called Microspotting. Even though these are targeted toward employees, we thought you would enjoy them here on Channel 9 as well. - Larry

Long-time company archivist Amy Stevenson takes us behind the scenes of the Microsoft Archives, a collection of artifacts that preserve our history and embody our culture. There, you'll find decades worth of Microsoft software, advertisements, documentation, memorabilia - and skulls? You'll just have to watch to understand.

Fun facts about the Microsoft Archives

Founded: 1989
Number of items in collection: 65,000
Scariest artifact: A life-like Bill Gates doll (wearing a jogging suit), sent by a Russian doll artist.
Amy's favorite: The carpet receipt from the first Albuquerque office.

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The Discussion

Jason818

Thanks for this video Larry. I'll be sure to check back to see more Microspotting.

Last modified Nov 01, 2013 at 10:55PM
felix9

Ahh... Microspotting should be a nice series ! interesting !

Last modified Nov 02, 2013 at 10:22AM
KiwiHarry

Interesting episode. I haven't seen one of those Microsoft folders in years, or the 5 1/4 floppy diskettes.

Last modified Nov 03, 2013 at 8:29AM
elliotbridgewater

I could spend days looking through these archives!

Last modified Nov 03, 2013 at 3:58PM
Oink

Awkward and weird.

Last modified Nov 03, 2013 at 7:53PM
piercove

I think that Clippy needs to be in the next Halloween special and get eaten by some Zombies.
Definitely fun looking through the archives.

Last modified Nov 04, 2013 at 5:16AM
Fallasteeni

Freeze at 2:41. What's with the Apple logo on the top right corner?

Last modified Nov 04, 2013 at 3:48PM
BrentMorrisRTP

Nice job folks

Last modified Nov 05, 2013 at 8:42AM
LarryLarsen

@Fallasteeni: We have made a lot of products for Macs over the years. I suspect it is either one of those products or hardware to allow one of the products we made to be used.

Last modified Nov 05, 2013 at 11:08AM
Flashback610

@Fallasteeni yes, Larry's right. What you see is a Mac on our shelf--as far as I know we are still the largest producer of Mac software besides Apple. Our Mac hardware usually comes directly from the Mac testing labs.

Last modified Nov 05, 2013 at 2:23PM
Jason818

@flashback610 But I thought macs are a competitor of Microsoft. This is complete madness!

Last modified Nov 06, 2013 at 9:32AM
Flashback610

@Jason818:

Last modified Nov 06, 2013 at 10:19AM
Kris

Last year I was in someone's garage. I see a CD that printed Microsoft IE 4 :)

I don't know what it means for after 15 year. I thing about if our current software make any sense after 10 year.

oops, We can use 10 year old stuff but it's never happen with Software. Nobody like to run 10 year old VS.

Last modified Nov 07, 2013 at 1:31AM
HubertD

Wow. Finally saw that package of MuLISP. One of the reasons I was hired into Microsoft Support (too long ago) because I mentioned I had experience in programming XLisp in AutoCAD

Last modified Nov 08, 2013 at 4:23AM
saichirravuri

where is this located, campus? building#

Last modified Jan 14, 2014 at 1:49PM