Jeremy de Souza

Google/Doubleclick

With Microsoft bid for Yahoo at $45b afoot, more than a few employees at MSFTare talking about the deal. I was chatting with a coworker about the deal and the Google Doubleclick merger eventually came up.

I remembered this New York Times blog entry a while back that's worth looking at:

Microsoft's argument against Google/Doubleclick marriage

The article links to a diagram modelling the effect of the merger on the online advertising space:

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/technology/bitsonlinead.prf.pdf

HP PC gets personal campaign

I thought this HP ad featuring Jay-Z was pretty cool when it first surfaced.

Then my brother sent me this great ad featuring Bill Gates for Windows Home Server product which is on the market this fall:

Video: Microsoft Home Server HP Comercial

Leopard chasing Vista

I just saw this article written by Mary Jo Foley that questions the originality of features in Leopard. "What struck me at the June 11 Apple Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) event wasn’t the glitzy demos, the rockstar-like worship of Apple CEO Steve Jobs or the “I’m Steve Jobs” parody video by the “I’m a PC” guy. Instead, it was the excitement by the 5,000 WWDC attendees about many technologies in the forthcoming Mac OS X “Leopard” release that already exist in Windows Vista." Don't forget to look at the comments under this article to see how some pro Apple readers reacted.

Microsoft acquires Tellme Networks

A pretty cool acquisition that will complement our existing investments in speech recognition. TellMe was a very long running IPO candidate.

Some interesting reading:

Behind Redmond's TellMe deal @ News.com

Press Release on Microsoft.com

Rode in the elevator with BillG this morning ...

The week after Thanksgiving I started working in building 34 which is also the building in which Bill Gates works. Around 8AM this morning, I saw this Lexus pull into the secured parking area which is near to where I park. When I walked in to take the elevator, the other guy that got in was BillG. He was reading some documents and a napkin that he had written on, so other than "good morning" I didn't elevator pitch him on why he should make me his new technical assistant - such a cool job.

I was pretty excited. Wouldn't you be?

CodeFactory.es and mobile accessibility

Last week Bonnie and I met with CodeFactory in Barcelona, an assisstive technology vendor that creates screen readers and magnifiers that run on mobile devices such as PDAs and smartphones. I was really impressed by these guys - they are producing great software and have really built a great leadership and engineering team for a company of their relatively small size.

They demoed MobileSpeak Pocket to us on a range of Windows Mobile devices. MobileSpeak Pocket is a fully featured screenreader for Pocket PC and Pocket PC phones. I was at first concerned about performance but as I played with the devices, they clearly had optimized the experience so that running a screen reader or magnifier didn't limit what you could do with the handheld device.

We discussed some of the challenges for mobile devices interms of barriers to adoption by the accessibility community in Europe and technical hurdles that they face on our platform as well as Symbian's. Windows Mobile smartphones are clearly gaining in popularity but there are still some perceptions of WM smartphones as business class devices.

We got a chance to meet the whole team and learn a bit about them - they were from a number of different countries and have made Barcelona their home. I also took their first team picture:

I'm probably going to install MobileSpeak on my Treo so I can navigate the UI without looking while driving - I'm not very pleased with built-in Voice Command.  Eduard Sanchez, CodeFactory's CEO, did have a good story about installing MobileSpeak on Stevie Wonder's Treo. If it's good enough for Stevie Wonder, it's probably good enough for me.

TechEd Developers Barcelona in review

TechEd was a great time. My baggage was delayed on the way into Barcelona but other than that the week was pretty positive. We had a booth for Accessible Technology in ATE and we got a fairly high volume of traffic most of the week. I was a the booth following my talk and I got some great questions from developrs working in the space.

This was also the first year that TechEd was split into two events: TechEd Developers and ITForum. I was there exclusively for the developer event. At the end of the conference we were told that feedback from atendees regarding the split was generally positive.

I saw a lot of people that I knew and met some new people too. Folks I know from WPF were also at Ask The Experts at TechEd Developers: Rob Relyea, Henry Hahn. I also ran into Miguel de Icaza from Novell who was at TechEd spreading the word about Mono.

I also managed to do some sightseeing with Bonnie. We checked out some Gaudi architecture such as the unfinished Segrada Famillia and La Perdera.

   

After that we were on our way to try some Tapas with Constance Audren at El Choquito which is a little restaurant on La Rambla. The meal ended with these three local students playing music and locking us in as customers...

The week ended on Friday with the Speaker Dinner at El Principe which was pretty nice. Champagne and wine were free-flowing and we were bused from the speaker hotel to the the restaurant and back. If wasn't flying to Lisbon the next morning at 7AM, I'm pretty sure my night would have ended pretty late.

TechEd Developers Barcelona

I've been invited to speak at TechEd Developers in Barcelona next week on Accessibility in Windows Vista. It's a 300 level session that will give developers an overview of our new platform accessibility investments that allow them to build accessible applications and assisstive technology aids. I will also be at "Ask the Experts" right after my session.

Accessibility in Windows Vista (DEV367)
Date: 9 November 2006
Time: 13:30 - 14:45

I'm super excited about giving this talk and interacting with developers in Europe again. When I've worked in Europe in the past, it was as a direct consumer of developer platforms so it's exciting to switch places and help developers understand the value proposition for our platform.

TechEd is going to be a great opportunity for people to learn about Microsoft technologies and network with people in the industry. If you can make it to Barcelona, I would strongly recommend it!

After TechEd concludes in Barcelona, I'm flying to Lisbon to spend a few days vacationing and hopefully meeting up with some family. I've never been to Portugal so I'm even more excited about that.

Accessibility in Seattle Times

Nice article in the Seattle times about Accessibility in Windows Vista. Rob Sinclair and Annuska Perkins whom I work with are featured in the article. What they are saying really highlights the way we think about assisstive technology at Microsoft - our approach doesn't simply target people with disabilities but really attempts to empower all our customers along functional lines. Speech recognition makes it easier to interact with your computer if you have limited mobility with your hands. Magnifiers make it easier to read text on those webpages that have ultra small type but really pretty layouts.

Extreme Home Makeover - the Llanes family visits Microsoft

Earlier this year several members of the Accessible Technology Group's marketing team, that Bonnie Kearney runs assisted with the production and filming of a special episode of Extreme Makeover Home Edition. The reality show generally tears down and rebuilds the homes for deserving families in seven days.

The Llanes family from Bergenfield, whose home you will see rebuilt next month, represent many of the target customers that we build platform accessibility solutions for in the Accessible Technology Group at Microsoft. The family consists of Maria, the mother, Vic, the father who is blind, son Zeb who is deaf and two teenage daughters whose vision is degrading dramatically.

Maria, Vic and Zeb were here in Redmond this past Thursday to meet members from our team and learn about the work we do. I have to say that they were some of the most positive and inspiring people I have ever met. What's most amazing is how enabling even simple technology can be - especially in situations where you cannot take the ability to see or hear for granted. When the episode airs, many viewers (myself included) will have a chance to see how they live as well as the wild high-tech smart house they now live in.