Another Day in the Antz Farm

Steve Vamos is making his way back to Australia after a stint as VP, Microsoft International Online Services Group. He was recently interviewed by MIS (a Fairfax publication) about Steve Ballmer’s Google strategy, Vista, his time in Redmond and what he plans to do when he leaves Microsoft. Steve also shared his advice for all Australian graduates out there look for new employment:

1. Find a place where you can learn from the people
2. A place where you can trust the people you work with

Great advice, Steve!

Steve has always been passionate about having the right values in place. During MS AU FY07 kickoff, Steve brought a trainer who elaborated the concept of having a player mentality. Not a political player but someone who takes undertakes responsibility, provides accountability and take pro-active steps to make sure that things happen the right way. I really enjoyed that session and I have a lot of respect for the man and his leadership style.

Related link: A Conversation with Steve Vamos (MISAustralia)

The following Microsoft Research Asia groups are recruiting interns for the period from Jul - Sep 08:

• User Interface
• Media Communication
• Data Intelligence and Tools
• Machine Learning
• Visual Computing
• Internet Media
• Search Technology Center

Internship program, background information and FAQ are avaliable from http://research.microsoft.com/aboutmsr/jobs/internships/about_china.aspx

Interested PhD candidates from Australia, New Zealand and Singapore universities, please contact me () for more information. Please note that I can only respond to relevent AU, NZ and SG enquiries.

Interested applications from other countries may email msraih@microsoft.com.

Microsoft continues expanding it’s research and development capabilities in China with the annoucement of a new $280 million centre in Beijing.

Extract

Software giant Microsoft yesterday said it will invest $280 million to build a research and development center in Beijing and significantly expand its research team in the country.

The new R&D campus, set to accommodate 5,000 employees, will become Microsoft’s largest research center outside the United States when it is completed in 2010, said Zhang Yaqin, the company’s China chairman.

Microsoft currently has 3,000 research staff in the country, with 1,500 full-time employees and another 1,500 working on a project basis, Dow Jones has reported. The company has said it will double the number of its full-time research employees in China to 3,000 in the next three years.

Source: Microsoft to build $280m R&D center in Beijing (People’s Daily Online)

The Australian reported a possible case of plagiarism by Griffith University Vice Chancellor - Ian O’Connor when he ‘cut and pasted whole passages of text from Wikipedia‘ in his opinion article in the same newspaper.

The opinion article was written in a response to reports that ‘Griffith had asked the Saudi embassy in Australia for a $1.37million grant for its Islamic Research Unit, telling the ambassador that certain elements of the controversial deal could be kept a secret’.

David Robinson, the last Australian Vice-Chanellor involved in plagiarims resigned from his role in Monash (2002) after instances of severe ‘liftings’ were uncovered in his previous books.

Related link

• Spot the difference (The Australian)

PS: I blogged about this incident only because I am passionate about the Australian Higher Education sector and the responsibility associated with academic freedom. To conduct a trial by media is not my intention.

This blog referral post is about effective use of email. If you are looking for tips on how to reclaim your inbox or how to obtain a work-life balance, find a nice white friend and talk about it over coffee.

Treat all of these tips as short experiments and adapt it for your own situation

1. “Batch” email at set times.

2. Send and read email at different times.

3. Don’t scan email if you can’t immediately fix problems encountered.

4. Don’t BIF (before I forget) people during off-hours.

5. Don’t use the inbox for reminders or as a to-do list.

6. Set rules for email-to-phone escalation.

7. Before writing an email, ask yourself: “what problem am I trying to solve?” or “what is my ideal outcome?”

8. Learn to make suggestions instead of asking questions.

Check out Tim Ferris’ blog “How to Stop Checking E-mail on the Evenings and Weekends” for further explanations on these tips.

If my post about the announcement of Microsoft Research New England sparked your interests about this new lab, please check out the Q&A interview with the founding members of this new lab. J. Chayes and C. Borgs shared their vision, goals and agenda for the lab and finally on the dynamics of a married couple working in the same lab.

Source: Dilbert

Wishing everyone a productive start to the new year.

Nick and his team of MSPs has done an awesome job of organising  Mix in the Campus party across Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney. There will be presenters from Australian Interactive Media Industry Association, VirtualRealm, Readify, QUT and of course Microsoft. The event will cover topics includng “How-to : start your own dotcom startup?“, “Why you should Popfly?”, “XBOX and Windows Games Development with XNA Games Studio” and “Step Up - the Web Careers“.

You can also stand to win

• Xbox 360 (1 per city, meaning 3 total)
• Project Gotham Racing Hooded Sweats
• Windows Vista Ultimates
• Microsoft LifeCam vx-3000s

For more information and to register , visit http://mixoncampus.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!D8659DF1D2B43F7E!138.entry

It’s for students and it’s free!

Today, Microsoft Research announced the promotion and appointment of Dr. Hsiao-Wuen HON as Managing Director of the Beijing Lab (Microsoft Research Asia, MSRA). Rob Knies, a member of Microsoft Research, interviewed Hon and posted an interview after news of this appointment.

BERNO: I really enjoyed working here in Microsoft Research Asia. The culture here is healthy, inquisitive, open and respectful. Everyone is keen to make their contribution to advance the state of computing and technology development and nuture the next generation of researchers. When I first joined the organisation, I received a personal welcome email from Hon. I felt very welcome and humbled to receive a direct email from an organisation then-deputy MD.

Xin Zou, a Research Dev Lead, a 10 years veteran with Microsoft wrote a blog entry about his personal interview experience. I think it is worthwhile to blog about this because it’s uncommon to find Microsoft interview process articles written in Chinese. Good read.

Your Work Performance is Your Best Resume - 你的工作就是最好的面试