1. The first thing I noticed when we arrived at the Microsoft campus on Monday, November 6, at about 7:45h in the morning. A car with the sign Microsoft Dining Services. I immediately wondered if that would mean a beta-breakfast. And I finally understood the "Will Write Windows Applications for Food"-movement of former MS-employees. It's obvious that if you have your own Dining Services, you never learn how to cook and survive outside the campus.
3. One of the MS canteens where the 25,000 employees on the campus have lunch. It looked a lot like a mensa. Except there were no students, it was clean, quiet and comfortable, and the food was pretty good, even for vegetarians. And the drinks were for free. So it looked a lot like a mensa, but in fact it didn't.
5. Yes, extended limos are indeed very big. This is half of the group inside the limo. Portuguese journalist Vitor Alves, Dutch journalist Hans Sonders, MS Product Manager Hans van der Meer and the wonderful MS pr-manager Aurelia van den Berg. The bar was empty by the way.
7. The other day we had a buffet at Theoz, a neat restaurant in Seattle owned by a Dutch emigré. Rumors spreaded that Bill Gates was going to attend in person. A lot of journalists got excited, as they usually get by rumors. Except me, but only because I didn't know there were any rumors in the first place. Ofcourse he didn't show up,so we ate all the cream pies that were ordered for the occasion.
Meanwhile we managed as best as we could with doing what journalists are really good at: drinking and smoking.
In between Cristina, Vitor and Rodolfo you see Herbert Blankensteijn, my colleague at TROS Radio Online.
9. The Microsoft Force Feed Back Construction Site was also visited by the famous Blue Angels, as part of a vital military defense research project. They signed their names on the wall. I thought that was cool, but no one really appreciated it when I tried to scribble some graffiti too: "Linux rulez!"
11. Vital system resources accompanied by Hans (2x) and Aurelia.
13. The Microsoft Store was our last stop. I wanted to buy a Microsoft Cordless Phone because on the trip to San Francisco a week earlier, I bought myself a Sony headset for cordless phones without realizing that the cordless phone I use at home doesn't have a socket to jack it into. And I'll never hesitate to spend another 150 dollars to be able to use something I bought for just 20 dollars. But they didn't sell the phone. So I wandered around the shop looking for another useful device. I ended up getting a baseball cap with the logo of Slate, my favorite online magazine.
2. This is what the famous MS-campus looks like. It's what the Dutch call an 'office garden' (kantoortuin), but turned inside out, mixed with concrete and Japanese garden architecture. Like all MS products it looks allright at first sight, functions reasonably but lacks any specific taste in design.
The campus also has it's own - integrated - shuttle transport system. As we were all transported by MS-cars and -buses I didn't find out if this system is compatible with the public transport system. Or if it just killed the public transport system.
4. This is NOT the MS shuttle transportation service as mentioned in '2.', although it somehow was. The friendly MS-people from Holland and Portugal - who did their ultimate best to make sure we had a pleasant stay in Seattle - arranged this extended limo to transport the Dutch and Portugese section of the international media herd to a very nice restaurant near the harbor.
Usually for some reason or another these kind of limo's are used mainly by Japanese business people. Maybe because Japanese cars are quite small. But on the other hand: why are Japanese cars small if they like them extended?
6. I always have this stupid 'raising eye brows'-reflex whenever a flashlight is used. Sitting next to me in the back of the limo is Portuguese tv-reporter Cristina Liz. Next to her is MS pr-manager Rodolfo Oliveira.
8. Everyday we were offered intensive excursions, like visiting the Windows testlab (a *huge* building, as you might understand). This here on the picture however is a more serious place. It's called the Microsoft Force Feed Back Construction Site, aka The Game Room. Here the most important Microsoft research is based, like testing a new steering wheel to be used in critical simulations, for instance Need for Speed III.
10. That night we really had to recover from the information overload. Fortunately there was some Pellegrino and some delightful red fluid.
And again I instantly raised my eyebrows when the light of the camera flashed. I suppose it is a kind of biological General Protecton Failure.
12. The last we day we visited the Microsoft Museum, which turned out to be a small room. But then again: MS is a young company. Herbert, who is also the curator of his own Computer Museum, laid his hands on a nice piece of hardware. The two of us recorded some nice audio-material for our radio show, although Herbert thinks I played foul by secretly reading the accompanying texts while pretending to the listeners I knew all these fine technical details by myself. But hey, I'm a journalist! This is what I am supposed to do for a living...