Working for The Man
Originally published at Alex Rasmussen. You can comment here or there.
Here’s something you never thought you’d be hearing from me: I’m working for Microsoft this summer.
Well, I’m working for Microsoft Research this summer, anyway.
Wait, put out those torches, put down the pitchforks and let me explain.
Some of you may know that I’ve been somewhat … critical … of Microsoft in the past. My anti-Microsoft sentiments have mellowed somewhat in recent years, however, The XBox 360 may have been to blame for that, and my hatred of Windows has ebbed since I realized that building operating systems is hard and keeping them working is even harder. Also, it’s no longer my job to fix PCs running Windows (thank goodness) so I haven’t seen the Windows installations of security-casual college students in a while.
So why MSR? Microsoft Research is where a lot of the interesting corporate systems research is happening right now, and the project I’ll be working on is really closely related to my current research. I’ll get to spend three months in the Seattle area during the three months that the area’s weather is really nice. Compared to what I would make at UCSD in three months it’s a huge chunk of cash. It’s a huge stack of win all the way around.