All posts by nadyne

Nadyne, VMware

joining VMware

3 Comments

On the flip side of leaving Microsoft, I have now joined VMware.  There, I’m going to conduct user research across the product portfolio.  I’m excited to have a geekier focus than I had at Microsoft — my two undergraduate degrees are in CS and math, so a geeky focus is perfectly in line with my own predilections.

Today was my first day, which consisted mostly of new-hire orientation.  When I went through Microsoft’s orientation in Redmond five years ago, there were ~300 people in the room with me.  Today, there were 10 people in the room with me, and another ~20 on the phone.  Size of the class aside, the orientation was pretty similar in structure to those I’ve had at previous employers: why you should be happy you’ve joined the company, the benefits options available, the checklist of things you should get done in your first couple of weeks.

I’ve been tweeting as I go through my new experience, so you can follow me on twitter here if you’re so inclined.  There, you’ll see exciting slices of my life such as the plastic pink flamingo I found tucked in some landscaping today, not to mention a picture of my new office.  Tomorrow, I plan to find the turtles, which I think are near the cafeteria.

Nadyne

leaving Microsoft

8 Comments

Today was my last day at Microsoft. In my five years here, I shipped two full versions of Office:Mac, as well a few other things like Remote Desktop and Entourage for Web Services.  MacBU has been a truly awesome team to work with, and I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished together (especially in Outlook!).

I’ve been blogging since I started at Microsoft (you can see my first post on my old blog here).  I’m planning to continue to blog, although I have no idea how it will evolve in the coming weeks and months.  I think it’s safe to say that I’ll write slightly less about Outlook, though. 😉

I’m going to take a little bit of time off before starting my next adventure.  Watch this space to see what’s coming next!

Exchange, Outlook

Exchange Connections slides coming

Today, I presented two sessions with Bill Smith at Exchange Connections: Administering Macs in Exchange and Outlook:Mac 101. Once I get back to a better network connection, I’ll post my slides here. For those of you who attended the conference, the slides will get posted to the conference site as well.

I wasn’t sure what to expect out of the sessions, since this is my first time here.  We ended up with about 50 people in both sessions, with about half of those attending both.  So I was really pleased with it.  I’ll be waiting to see the conference evaluations to see if I’m the only one who was pleased.

Microsoft

Thriller flash mob

To take a teensy break from Office:Mac, here’s a video of a Thriller flash mob that took place in the cafeteria last Friday.  One of the zombies is someone I mentored (and you can read into that what you will!), and the eagle-eyed observer will see that I’m one of the people watching the zombies.

Entourage, Office:Mac 2011, Outlook

Macworld: Make a smooth switch to Outlook

2 Comments

Joe Kissell wrote an article about how to make a smooth switch to Outlook from Entourage for Macworld.  He also published a guide to Outlook keyboard shortcuts.  They’re both pretty useful articles, although I have to admit that I’ve been using Outlook for so long that my muscle memory has been reprogrammed for changed keyboard shortcuts for ages.

I am surprised that he calls Outlook’s Scheduling Assistant a new feature.  While the Entourage one wasn’t as easy on the eyes, nor as easy to use, as the Outlook one, it did exist.  My colleague Amir wrote a blog post titled How does Entourage work? that includes a screenshot of the free/busy information that’s provided by the scheduling assistant in Entourage.

Joe’s list of Entourage features that you might miss includes NNTP support.  Even though I’m an old-skool Usenet user myself, I can’t say that I preferred having it in Entourage to using a separate client.  That said, my preferred Usenet newsreader is still tin, so I think it’s fair to say that my usage isn’t representative.  Not that I’m sure that there’s really any representative Usenet usage left out there.

Exchange, Nadyne, Office:Mac 2011, Outlook

looking forward to Exchange Connections

Amongst everything else that’s going on in the past few weeks, I realise that I’ve completely forgotten to mention that I’m speaking at the Exchange Connections conference!  I roped Bill Smith, one of the Outlook:Mac MVPs, into giving two talks with me: Administering Macs in an Exchange Environment, and Outlook:Mac 101.  Both talks are on Thursday morning.

Sadly, this is a super-busy week for me, so I’m not going to be able to spend as much time at the conference as I had originally planned.  If you’re there, say hi!  Feel free to email me, or just catch me on twitter for my current whereabouts.

Nadyne, travel

the window vs aisle debate

4 Comments

I saw a link on Upgrade: Travel Better to a travel survey that attempts to understand the differences between those who sit in the window and those who sit in the aisle.  I’m firmly in the window camp — in fact, I vastly prefer the starboard window to the port window.  This is a result of an old injury to my right shoulder, sitting in the starboard window seat means that no-one can accidentally bang my shoulder.

Aside from protecting my bionic shoulder, I like the window because I like looking out the window (especially on evening flights returning home from Redmond — I love watching the sun set from the plane.)  The window seat is easier to nap in because I can lean on the window.  When I get aisle seats, I’m forever getting whacked in the head by someone who isn’t paying attention with their bag or their coat.  I’m even writing this blog post from seat 16F on Virgin America using their in-flight wifi.

For the most part, I match the aisle dweller much better than the window dweller:

  • I am married.
  • I have given a speech to more than 100 people (and I wonder how big my audience will be at Exchange Connections next week!).
  • I habitually check email — it’s a Big Deal if I turn off email sync on my iPhone.
  • I view “roughing it” as “staying in hotel that isn’t a very good Westin or W”.  I’m not sure that it would be possible to convince me to go camping.
  • I have subscriptions to Rolling Stone, Food and Wine, and Wine Spectator.
  • I have lots upon lots of books.  I’m currently reading Being Geek.
  • I’ve voted in every federal, state, and local election since I turned 18 (and filling out my California absentee ballot is on my to-do list for this weekend when I get home from this trip).
  • I have Premier status on United, and I’m a member of several other airline programmes (including my current favourite of Virgin America — love them!), and I have elite status with both Starwood and Hyatt hotels.
  • I don’t like camping, and I haven’t been on a cruise either.  The concept of a cruise mostly isn’t very attractive to me, although I would like to go on an Alaskan cruise.
  • Yes, I’ve eaten caviar, and will do so again.
  • I have a total of three college degrees, one of which is a MS.
  • I can’t stand Ikea.  I’ve been in Crate & Barrel lately, but all of their sofas are either tan, a slightly-padded rectangular box of boring, or a sectional (or all of the above), so I’m in the market for a brightly-coloured sofa that has a nice shape, is comfortable, and is emphatically not a sectional.
  • I mostly find New Yorkers fine, although I refuse to drive in Manhattan.  That’s not really about New Yorkers, though, but rather about being in a city with both useful public transit and lots of cabs everywhere.
  • I just got my passport renewed, and am headed to Sydney for the holidays so that it will get its first stamps.
  • I have two AmEx cards (one business, one personal).
  • I have a well-stocked bar, I have several Riedel glasses for different varietals.  On my last trip to Sydney, I brought back four cases of wine after a couple of days visiting wineries in the Hunter Valley.  I just finished the last bottle from one of those cases last week.
  • I’ve been on the internet since 1993 (and BBSes before that).

So where do I match up with my fellow window-seat lovers?  Well, I am female, and I’m 34 so I’m just barely still in the right age range.  I use a manual toothbrush.  I bake frequently (including peppermint-mocha cupcakes earlier this week).  I don’t wear a wristwatch, although I do admit to coveting a co-worker’s Lego watch.  The aisle profile is much closer to me, but I avoid the aisle if at all possible.

What about you?  Where do you fit into the great window/aisle debate?

Office:Mac 2011, user experience

the design of the new Office:Mac icons

2 Comments

Along with all of the other changes, Office:Mac is sporting new icons for all of the applications.  We worked with Frog Design to create these visual elements.  Frog posted about redesigning an icon to talk about what went into creating the new app icons, and Fast Company Design has a discussion of it too: How Frog created the Mac icons for Microsoft Office 2011.

App icons are important.  They’re one of the first things that you see when you install an application.  They live in your Dock, and you see them every day.  It’s important to get ’em right, and I think that Frog did an awesome job.  I’m terribly biased, but I especially like that lovely goldenrod O that has been a constant companion in my Dock for months.