It was 15 years ago today…

It’s hard to believe it, but 6/21/2007 marks the 15th anniversary of my permanent arrival in Seattle. I’d spent the summer before in Redmond interning, but in June of 1992, I graduated from college, bought a car, packed up my stuff, and headed out to Seattle. When people would ask me how long I expected to work at Microsoft, I said, “I don’t know… I guess I’ll stay three to five years and then figure out what I’m going to do with the rest of my life.” Tomorrow, of course, marks the 15th anniversary of starting work at Microsoft.

On the one hand, an incredible amount has changed at Microsoft and in my life since then. On the other hand, I’m still working with the person who had the office next to me when I joined. Life, I guess, is funny that way.

5 thoughts on “It was 15 years ago today…

  1. Roger Jennings

    Congrats on your 15th anniversary in the B0rg Cube!

    15 years ago today, I was about 70% complete with "Special Edition Using Access for Windows" and learning the differences between "Embedded Basic" and the WordBasic that I’d been using to write macros.

    As I recall, you were with the Access group in that era of CompuServe newsgroups for beta testers.

    I still have the CompuServe mailbox from those days.

    Cheers,

    –rj

    Beta ID: 100855

    Reply
  2. Bud Labitan

    Paul,

    Congratulations on your 15th anniversary. Here is your present from me and Greg Binning: an open project written in old vb6 code + XML + Microsoft Agent that does A.I.

    Download the file and test it on 2 virgin pc’s; running XP on one and Vista on the other. That way, your team will learn about the "enduring nature" of vb6 or the lack thereof.

    We are pleased to release this open-source software that provides simulated Warren Buffett responses in basic sensible investing. Greg Binning of Louisiana and I in Indiana have combined our open sourced vb code and investing workbook into a free software application called archbot. Archbot A.I. open-source software combined with xml brainfiles now provides simulated Warren Buffett like responses to your typed questions on investing. So, this open source vb code A.I. software simulates Buffett’s investing ideas in an xml brainfile. All the files, including support and source code are in one big 28MB download here: http://www.frips.com/setup1.exe

    We welcome comments and volunteers who are motivated to enhance and make this free project even better.

    Finally, remind your team that building a solid language release is like building an "enduring competitive advantage." Knowing that guys like Greg and I are still working with vb6 and innovating A.I. projects with it is a tribute to the old team that put vb6 together.

    Congratulations! We hope you like the present. Just make sure you test it on a virgin pc. Even in 2007, we still run into .dll hell once in a while. Once it runs fine, feel free to share it with everyone. They can port it to newer version of vb and enhance the features.

    Bud Labitan

    budlabitan@aol.com

    http://www.frips.com

    Reply
  3. tj hock

    Hi Paul,

    I really enjoy reading your posts. I’m curious though that after 15 years, you’ve written only one book … 🙂

    Reply

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