shahine.com/omar/

The other day I had an experience with my computer, and MSN's software that just made me smile. You see, for the past year or so folks on my team have been involved on a feature that took coordination from dozens of internal teams. This was a big feature, one that I have spent countless man hours involved in, and some of my directs and co-workers an order of magnitude more time working on. It took everything from sharp technical minds, good business practice, relationships with carriers, partners, and of course operations, user experience folks and the usual suspects for any feature (development, testing, program management).

For the first time ever, I was able to use this feature with my sister, and I felt empowered. It's the kind of feature that makes me so proud to work here because I fully understand the complexity of what we did, and the simplicity of the feature to the customer. It's really my favorite kind of work, and it's incredibly satisfying to have been a *small* part of it.

So what is this feature? Let me first explain the scenario.

Today, when two people have SMS enabled mobile phones, it's possible to send an SMS (Short Text Message) from one phone to another phone. This is a fairly old system that was built years ago and was initially a hallmark of the GSM mobile phone system pioneered in Europe. Many years later we finally have SMS between all sorts of different carriers and technologies and in most cases it works world wide.

SMS requires a lot of inter carrier technology, billing support, and queuing technology. It's a widely popular system and something I use a lot to communicate with my friends and family.

Now we also have this MSN Messenger thing which allows you to do many of the same types of things between two users sitting in front of a computer. Today it's not a queued system but one that requires both sides be "online" at the time. So if I want to send a short message to some one who is not signed into MSN Messenger I have two choices: to send them an email, or to wait till they return online. In many cases my communication is not appropriate for email as a communication medium, and if I wait, I might forget about it. The current system does not allow me to continue the conversation with the person (even though that person may have a mobile device capable of having a text based conversation).

In the past few years there have been an effort to port the IM stacks to mobile devices to enable the same experience as the PC. However, there are millions of mobile devices that do not have IM stacks, and even if they are available, it's sometimes too cumbersome to sign in to the mobile IM stack. Finally, that system suffers from the same problem as MSN Messenger on the PC. The communications require both parties be online.

So what to do? Enter MSN Messenger to SMS communications (we call this Enhanced mobile messaging). The feature we've been working on for the past year (or longer) was to allow a user of MSN Messenger on a PC to send a message to some one that is not signed into MSN Messenger but has an SMS enabled Mobile device AND to reply to that SMS message and have a real time chat (in otherwords, a two way conversation between MSN Messenger and Mobile phone using SMS as the wire protocol). This last part is important, but to understand it I need to explain one more thing.

For the past few years part of the scenario above has been available through what I will call a hack. Most phones that have SMS also have an email gateway that can take a message sent to a special email address and forward that message to the phone. For example, an email sent to <phone number>@mmode.com will forward that message via SMS to the <phone number> of an ATT Wireless subscriber. However, the user cannot reply to that email enabling a 2 way chat. Furthermore, it breaks the SMS user experience that mobile phone users are used to.

So, to fix this we set out to build all the necessary carrier infrastructure, SMS infrastructure, and build the technology and carrier relationships to ship the ability for users to have a two way conversation from MSN Messenger to a Mobile device that has nothing more than SMS capabilities (practically every singe phone on the planet). Not only that, but we support "Offline messages" so that if a Mobile phone device replies to an SMS from Messenger, and you have signed out of MSN Messenger, the next time you sign in the message will be delivered to you allowing you to continue the conversation. This is EXACTLY the same experience you get with a Mobile phone since it can queue SMS messages if your phone is off, and always deliver them when the phone is on. Now we have the same capability in MSN Messenger, and I'm happy to say that this is possible because of Hotmail's participation (we are the store for all these offline messages, as well as delivery of the messages to Messenger). As a result of all this, two days ago, when my sister was "offline" from MSN Messenger, I was able to have a conversation with her from my Desktop PC and I had no idea where she was. That is super powerful and empowered me to do something that was not previously possible, and something I wanted and makes sense to me as an end user. One of the many reasons I love building software.

I write this because a lot of what I do at Hotmail is this kind of work. This isn't a big splashy feature with a lot of chrome. But it took some super hard work from so many people across Microsoft, and shipping it is really a testament to how we can build interoperable features across organizations, technologies and overcome numerous obstacles to deliver something that makes a lot of sense to our users . This feature is particularly interesting as well due to the numerous SMS billing models world wide. In the US we have Recipient Party Pays (the person receiving the SMS gets billed) and in many other countries Calling Party Pays (where you must pay a small amount of money to send the mobile IM from Messenger to the SMS device). These two models are negotiated with the different carriers depending on the prevailing business model in that market. Today in the US this feature works for Verizon and T-Mobile users. It's coming soon to other carriers near you.

You can read about how to use this feature in the mobile messaging help topic.

I'm with Aditya. Alaska Airlines sucks. Here is why:

• at least 50% of my flights are delayed
• they fly their planes so hard, they break all the time
• they only schedule 30-45 min turns on the ground which means that when one flight is delayed, it cascades throughout the day
• their "flight attendants" are incessantly annoying about stupid crap like sitting in the exit row, wearing headphones w/o any audio plugged in, and stuff like that
• their planes have the cheapest airline seats available, which are less comfortable than sitting on a wooden stool for 2 hours (some of their planes have new leather seats which are nicer, but not enough of them).
• Most of the Alaska Airlines PAX are happy go lucky tourists. When I am getting up at 5 am to go to Redmond at 7 am, to then return the same day at 8 pm, I don't want to deal with this crowd. I'm not on vacation, and the flight sux. They don't seem to care, and act like they have never been on a plane before. Grrr (yes, I am being unreasonable, but I'm allowed to be selfish every once in a while). Compare a Alaska flight to a United flight where 80% of the travelers are business travelers (and most elites). They know how to get on an off a plane quickly, and don't bug you during the flight and share my same thinking about flight delays and general micky mouse activity on a flight.

I have flown American 50,000 miles a year for 7 years. I have never had a delay that wasn't due to weather. Never had a mechanical delay.

It's no secret to anyone that knows me, but I love Patagonia. They are one of the greatest outdoor and recreational clothing makers. They have the best warranty/return policy in the business and they are a company that cares deeply about the environment. Last winter my 9 year old Patagonia Gortex ski jacket failed and started leaking. I went back to the store at the end of the season and they gave me a gift card for 100% of the original value plus tax no questions asked. It was a $425 jacket, so it wasn't cheap, but I got a brand new state of the art ski jacket that I got to use this past season and it rocked. Got to love that, and I will keep rewarding them with my business.

I own half the Patagonia catalog (I worked there one summer and spent most of my disposable income on their stuff). It wasn't a good way to make money, but when I snowboard, ski, swim, and travel I am still using all the gear I purchased over 8 years ago. I continue to buy stuff from them. Even the things that matter most, like their Capilene Boxers. They aren't cheap, but they are seriously the most comfortable boxers I have ever owned in my life. It's all I wear now.

Over the past few years they have started to invest more and more in their women's line, and my wife just started buying a lot of their clothing for exercising, swimming, etc. It's the highest quality outerwear and layering out there.

Here is why Yahoo Music is cool. Yes I work for MSN, and sure I wish MSN Music had this same feature, but I'm super excited that Yahoo Music launched their business. Why? THEY ARE BUILT ON OUR PLATFORM! Let me explain.

A few months ago I wrote this post about Technology Camps. Let me point out my favorite paragraph:

"Now contrast this to Microsoft. For the past few years the focus has been on building a world class platform. From the codec's, to the encoding technology, to the protocol for moving bits from the computer to the device, to the encryption technology, policy enforcement of digital rights, and servers to manage those rights it's all been spec'ed and delivered in a manner that any software developer can utilize. You can create your own Music Store and sell content to anyone with a compatible device. You can build a device that can play rich video and audio. You can build software that can manipulate that music, and organize it for users, or even a new shell that can present that media to the user who is sitting on their couch and interacts via a remote control. You can even buy a cell phone that can consume these media files! Talk about a rich eco system. But that's what it is; a platform for anyone with a desire to build on. Microsoft participates in this eco system via the MSN Music Store, and other various properties, but we do not dictate how much you will pay, and what device you will use. We give you choice, and history has shown time and time again, that choice is always more powerful. Choice and flexibility always wins. Consumers want choice."

A bunch of people made some very valid comments about my perspective on how this all relates to Apple regarding Choice. I'm not going to disagree with them. However, this is so utterly cool because Yahoo was able to build and bring to market their own music store that leverages our platform end to end.

1. Microsoft Technology for encoding and DRM
2. Microsoft WMA 192 KBps 2-Pass CBR Encoded files (iTunes is STILL 128KBps AAC)
3. Janus to deliver subscription audio to PlaysForSure Compatible devices
4. Sync to those devices via Media Transport Protocol

And they offer this all for the cost of 3-4 music CDs a year with access to their entire Music collection. They are far cheaper than Napster-To-Go which I complained as being too expensive and buggy for my tastes.

Now how much do you want to bet that Apple is going to eventually have to offer subscriptions? I bet that the reason they have not yet done so is because Steve doesn't believe it makes sense.

"Steve Jobs, has dismissed the idea of subscription-based services, saying people want to own their music"

I'm not so sure about that. Me thinks that Apple is going down the exact same path with the iPod as they did with a Mac. They have build a phenomenally successful and wonderful CLOSED ecosystem. Just like the Mac. And we all know what happened there.

Yahoo does things that have potential positive revenue impact. They did not have to spend their resources building a platform, delivery mechanism, tools, services and whatnot to make this happen. They had to licence content, create a user experience and launch it. Anyone can do this.

My iPod is an island. My Creative Zen Micro just had a new bridge built to Yahoo that gives me access to a million songs for 5 bucks a month. Apple isn't competing with Microsoft, they are competing with potentially dozens of companies, and now a big internet media powerhouse.

How do you like them Apples?

Well I returned from a 10 day break from work this past Saturday, and on Monday I hit the ground running. Of course before I left for work I made two big mistakes. I subscribed to these two mailing lists at work and I didn't want them filling up my inbox so I created some rules. Well I made a mistake, rather than filtering mail sent To a DL I filtered the mail From a DL. Well this is interesting in that if you do that and you get a message from some one who is a member of a DL, then the rule kicks in. I guess that makes sense, but the end result was hundreds of duplicate and redirected mail to these new folders. Ick...

Anyway, by the end of Monday I had managed to go from about 400 messages in my inbox to 5 messages. I did not check mail while on vacation. Not once, and that was the bomb. Not only did I go from 400 to 5, I did this on a rather busy meeting day. This was all possible because of:

1. Getting Things Done
2. ClearContext

Much of the email was thread based where I needed only the most recent version, so those were easy to delete. A bunch were questions I needed to answer, so I did. A big chunk were reference type information. This is where I love ClearContext. I can easily assign a topic to a message and hit Alt-M which files that message automatically to a topic based folder. This is FAST. No expanding folders, drag and dropping a message etc. Saved me a lot of time.

This made me realize something else. This was the second time this year I went 7 work days w/o checking email. You know what? It worked. I trust that when I get back to work I have a system that allows me to process all the stuff and get back in the game w/o increasing my stress level and ruining my vacation. Microsoft gives me 15 days a year where they pay me to do nothing... doing email on vacation is essentially losing out on time my mind needs to not do anything work related. I can tell you that I started Monday with a lot more energy and excitement specifically because I avoided thinking or doing work while relaxing.

Back to Maui. We thought we would do all this stuff on the island, but the place we stayed was in Kapalua which is about an hour north from the airport. Not close to anything really. So we basically sat on the beach, sat by the pool, drank good stuff, ate good stuff and had a good time hanging out.

Oh, and I learned to play Golf. I think I like it. I'm going to start going to the driving range near my apartment, maybe even get some clubs since I'm so tall and was told not to mess around with short clubs or I would develop bad habbits. My wife happens to be an excellent golfer (golfed since she was 8), so she is pretty happy about all this.

While reading this great Engadget Interview with Steve Heiner from Nikon, I noticed the mention of a new Nikon DX mount telephoto lens. I've been waiting for Nikon to release a lens like this for ages, and thankfully Amazon.com has it for sale (in stock soon). Soo exited. It's a 55-200 mm DX Lens.

I actually love how hard core the Engadget folks got when asking about DNG and the Encrypted White balance fiasco.

If you are trying to reach me over the next week, I will be unavailable. Many have asked me why I'm on vacation so much these past few weeks. Well, my wife has been in Oahu for the past 9 weeks doing a rotation at Kaiser Permanente. One of the things that a lot of residency programs do is "farm you out" so that you can get surgical and other experiences at other hospitals. Why Oahu? It's a long story, but I've been without a wife for the past 9 weeks and have been attempting to visit her as much as possible. After all, that is why we get 3 weeks vacation a year (next year I get 4 weeks, since it will be my 7th year at Microsoft).

Anyhow, I will be headed to Maui tomorrow for 6 days with my parents, and sister/boyfriend where I plan to learn how to play golf, and read a few books whilst soaking in the rays and getting a tan.

So, see you all when I get back. In the mean time do not expect any "online" activities from me.

BTW - I have to say. Hawaii is fantastic. This year was the first time I ever visited Hawaii, and I think I could easily live here. I feel so recharged when I get back to work. In fact I have been so much more productive the past few weeks, and I think that has a lot to do with relaxing in the sun, swimming in the ocean, and just being a bum. I haven't gone on a beach vacation in over 3 years and as a result I think my batteries weren't fully charged.

I'm not the only one who thinks the Comcast DVR with TV Guide software is buggy. I should call Comcast and ask for a refund. That will surely get them to notice the issues. Money talks...

I really need to read more, cause I really enjoy it. I picked up Ask the Pilot last week at the very excellent SeaTac Terminal A. It caught my eye, and after I read the description I had to have it.

You see, I have this thing about flying. I LOVE to fly. I mean every time I get in a plane and take off, I sort of still feel amazed and special. I've always loved flying since I was a kid and would travel to Egypt every summer for most of my life. I never got tired of it. I feel the same way about traveling to new places. Love it.

This book is like an FAQ about flying. It answers many obscure questions about take off, landing, planes, turbulence, automated landings, training, life as a pilot, the airline industry and so on. It's highly recommended if you are at all curios about what the airline industry is like, and what makes a plane go up and down .

This is just so funny to read, because my PSP came about in much the same way as Steve's. I just got up one day and got one after spending 2 minutes playing with one. I had ZERO plans to get one of these things and actually ignored 100% of the press on the thing. I think everyone who has played on my device thus far secretly wants one.

So far I own two games, Wipeout Pure and Untold Legends. I love Untold Legends, it's just like Dungeon Siege, which was a great game I was addicted to for 8 hours and then never touched it again. I just don't like sitting in front of my computer playing games, the PSP empowers me to do it anywhere I want.

Every few months, Outlook 2003 will get into a situation where it will no longer render images in the preview pane or the message window. If you reply to the message, then you will see the image.

Perplexed by the problem, I would take the brute force "Detect and Repair" solution but that isn't always desirable as it resets all the Outlook settings and takes a while. Months ago, some one posted to an internal DL that the problem can be fixed by deleting the Outlook Temporary Cache folder. Since then I had forgotten this solution, and noticed the problem re-appeared. I was talking to Reeves today and he mentioned that he is having the same problem.

Anyway, here is how you fix the problem.

1. Locate the Outlook Temporary Items folder by opening the Registry and locating HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Security\OutlookSecureTempFolder
2. Navigate to the value of this Key. It should be something like: %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\OLK3D\ where OLK3D is some randomly generated string that always starts with OLK
3. Quit Outlook
4. Delete the contents of the folder
5. Launch Outlook

Problem solved! I could not locate a KB article on this topic.

My good buddy, Jimmy (a.k.a. JimmyG) who no longer works for MS, spends all day taking spy photos of interesting things in Dubai, U.A.E. He happend to grab a pic of a very rare Mercedes G Class, and Microsoft's CEO walking with the Crown Prince of Dubai.

Lisa Brummel was just named Vice President of Human Resources at Microsoft. Previous to this role Lisa was Corporate Vice President of the Home and Retail division, which is where the Mac Business Unit has been located for the past few years (before that, MacBU was in MSN for a few brief months, and before that in Business and Productivity Group or BPG).

What I found more interesting is that the mention that Ken DiPietro, the former VP of HR, was replaced is in the middle of the press release. It didn't say where he went or what happened to him. Not sure what to make of that. The only thing I remember about Ken was 1) He was the dude that changed our benefits last year by altering our ESPP program and altered our prescription drug program a bit, and 2) can't remember, but I think I took some on line training as a result of some email that was sent out.

"Brummel replaces Ken DiPietro, who served as corporate vice president for Human Resources for the past two years."

I think the cuts could have been a LOT worse. But needless to say they were not popular. As it stands, the ESPP program isn't really very worthwhile compared to the old program.

But anyway, Ken was in this role from Dec 2002 till now. He was hired outside Microsoft and is being replaced by a long time Microsoft veteran that Steve has a lot of respect for (you could tell from listening to Lisa that she was highly regarded by Steve and Co.).

I'm sure Lisa is excited about her new role, and well I wish her luck! She has lived and breathed working in Product Groups most of her Microsoft Career and probably understands us employees better than anyone.

First of all, a big shout out to Adobe for creating an awesome upgrade for Digital Camera owners. I still don't understand why you insist on installing Adobe ImageReady when I never use it and curse it when I accidentally double click a PNG and watch it take forever to load. However, you fixed one of the biggest problems for me. Changes to Orientation of RAW files were never persisted to the XMP MetaData files, but thankfully you now write the tag:

<tiff:Orientation>8</tiff:Orientation>

Which makes a world of difference cause lots of my photos previously edited with Nikon Capture 4 trashed this data, and I was unable to fix the problem in Photoshop CS1 or Elements 3.0. Now these changes will persist across machines, and stick around with my photos.

First impressions. Adobe Picture bridge is worth the upgrade alone. The new Camera RAW editor is great. But best of all, THANK YOU for allowing me to use a product that is infinitely more usable and polished than every other product on the market that can edit RAW photos. They all suffer from any kind of normal and intuitive user interface.

The bottom line is that unfortunately for me, and fortunately for Adobe, I will continue to shell out money for every upgrade till I feel that the art of Digital Camera Workflow is mature in these products. I think CS2 is a huge step forward, especially with the guidance of many of the auto settings for editing RAW photos that are great for quick and dirty "make this not look like a raw file" type editing. But I still think we have a long way to go.

If you are currently an owner of a product that qualifies for an upgrade I would easily recommend the CS2 upgrade. If you are not an owner, and can't or don't want to shell out $500 for the full version, I suspect most of the core feature for managing Digital Photos will arrive in a new version of Photoshop Elements 3.0.

I can't even begin to explain how happy I am that we recently released the Office 2003 PIA download. I've known about this for a while but I had to keep my mouth shut . Why am I excited? Just read this and you will understand.

Not being able to install the PIAs is the single biggest deployment issue I've had with my Send to OneNote from Outlook PowerToy. I have about 10 emails in my inbox from users who could not install it and up till now I had nothing really to tell them except "sorry".

Well, I plan on releasing a new version of Send to OneNote from Outlook that includes the redistributable, as well as a few dozen bug fixes and minor features.

I really appreciate the work that the office folks did in releasing this. They listened to me yell and scream for a few months about this problem, and they fixed it. Thanks guys!