Jeff Maurone

You don't need one

I remember seeing posters scattered through Microsoft talking about a future in which a Windows Home Server would sit in every garage alongside the fly-fishing rods.  My irreverent thoughts from back then could be euphemized as, "that'll sell about three units."  Apparently the team responsible for this baby has also come to that conclusion and taken to the streets. 

This morning I rolled into the venerable Overlake Transit Center on an overcrowded bus and found protesters.  No, not engaged protesting members of a healthy democracy.  These were Microsoft Mercenaries.  Their hardened target?  The 109,902,089 American households still uninterested into a "home server."

Their Kalashnikov?  Pamphlets.  Yes, ones made of paper.  With a link to this site.  Don't worry, Santa, the days when the average family is willing to administer a dedicated server at home are still far off.

Resting up and catching up

It's been a great week of decompression from the flurry of activity associated with launching msnbc.com.  I've been in Tucson since last Friday tearing through the end of Moby-Dick, Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff, and now Joseph Ellis's most recent book, American Creation.  I've been less personal as of late, so let's catch up. 

Last week we toured Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West.  If you're not into architecture, FLW split his time between his Taliesin studio in Wisconsin and his Taliesin West homebase in Scottsdale.  The facility in Scottsdale is not only a beautiful artifact of organic architecture, it's also a functioning architecture school and profit-earning firm.

I've also watched a number of interesting movies worthy of a mention.  Focus is a dark but cerebral take on Arthur Miller's work of the same name, set in the racially tense Brooklyn of the 1940s.  The Fog of War is an awesome documentary on Robert McNamara.  Helvetica is a smart documentary of Helvetica – yes, the font.  I loved Helvetica because it peals back so many layers of an onion (typography) that few appreciated beyond its ability to tell a story (through text).

And Thursday I roasted my first turkey.  It was fantastic. 

Busy weeks lie ahead.  Tonight I'm headed back to Seattle, Wednesday is a great team off-site and Thursday I'm headed to Philadelphia, New Jersey and Connecticut until the following Tuesday. 

The post about The Post

I have a piece up on the new MSNBC Alpha Channel blog entitled, "The best of print and the best of the web."  If you haven't seen it, I promise you a quick read (you can find it here).

With the post I wanted to, ever so slightly, "open the kimono," and expose how we achieve the dynamic layout functionality you can find across the new msnbc.com (with full support of management).  Granted, if you were in a position of endeavoring to build a similar competent, there'd be a large gap between what I share and the kind of complex designs you'd need to implement.  So, while not completely see-through, I'm less opaque than the average technology shop.

This is all in my path toward a conclusion to which I've been drawing ever so nearer.  That is: intellectual property is becoming less and less a contributor to competitive advantage in the software and Internet space.  More to follow...

The drama for which we live (the new msnbc.com)

"I didn't sign up for this.  I hate my job.  Is it possible I can quit next week?"  Anyone who has shipped a software product knows the pain: the feeling at the outset when you sit before what seem to be insurmountable hurdles, the steady charge through feature development and finally, the completion of new coding -- code complete.  Of course, code complete represents not an ending of pain but the beginning of real stress.  The weeks and months leading up to a product launch are an unending roller coaster: testers discover new bugs every day, developers work feverishly to fix them and the cycle repeats.  On some days the sun shines (metaphorically, folks -- this is Seattle), on others you're certain that the entire project will fail.

Last night was the type of product launch that made all of the pain worthwhile.  Section by section, with editors, designers and product development folks from MSNBC and NBC gathered in Redmond, New York and London we threw the switch on the new msnbc.com.

The excitement and energy of the MSNBC newsroom was palpable as we ran a fully staffed news desk well past midnight on a Friday night, with editors manipulating and publishing the components that our technology team built.  Each section culminated in an official rollout from the centralized newsroom conference room (our "nerve center", per se).  Behold the magic...

Creative director Ashley Wells alongside Editor-in-chief Jennifer Sizemore about to publish our new cover

Concepts producer Ben Tesch tracking rollout status on an enormous thirty inch display

Equipment and food strewn about

The moments before launch

One of the corks we pulled to celebrate

I've had the chance to be a part of three exciting product launches since college: Times Reader, Windows Vista and now, msnbc.com.  If launching Vista was the least exciting, then launching msnbc.com was by far the most exciting.

More than one hundred people from offices in Redmond, Secaucus, New York, London, Shanghai and Hanoi worked on this project for nearly a year.  The excitement of seeing this launch makes the pain and grueling months of development all worthwhile.  It is these moments for which we who work in product development live.

Additionally: I'm nearly finished a piece on the redesign that will run on the MSNBC Alpha Channel blog.  I promise a link soon!

Watch the debates with Bill

If you caught a glimpse of one of the places where I drop media (Facebook, Twitter, this blog, Flickr) last week, you saw that Bill Clinton visited Microsoft.

I saw this invite and, knowing the late hours Microsoft employees typically keep, thought I'd have a major advantage showing up at 6:45 in the AM.  Not the case!  Walking into the Microsoft Conference Center well before the sun rose led me to a scene of forty or so employees camped out and thoroughly engrossed in laptops.

Regardless, I still got great seats (I think roughly five thousand people entered the event after me) and managed to get a few good shots of the humorous, inspiring and charismatic presentation that we have all come to expect from President Clinton.

This first shot is a favorite.  That bald head is worth somewhere north of twenty billion dollars (Ballmer).  That twenty billion didn't get him a seat more than two feet in front of mine, though!

At the start of the presentation, we were all given the direct instruction that Bill would not have time for a rope-line and that we shouldn't approach the stage after.  It took me about six seconds to decide that I'd break that rule with my trusty, "Don't tase me bro," response prepared.

Fortunately a bunch of people went forward along with me where I managed to get a few shots and negotiate a token handshake.

And if you've made it this far, you deserve an explanation for the subject of this post.  If you idolize Clinton as I do, you'll love this video of him watching the debate in a random house in Kansas. 

Wandering Woodland Park Zoo

My good friend and fellow Villanova graduate, Justin Knabb, recently started blogging (welcome, Justin!).  Justin and I were chatting about blogging goals and why one sets out to blog.  My response to this question has probably changed five or six times over the nearly four years I've been blogging.  My current response is that this blog serves as an outlet for creative expression.

I get into a book and feel like I need to evangelize it, so I turn to the blog.  I get into writing and need a place to publish.  I take photos and need a place to share them.  To the blog I turn.  To that end, here are some favorites I shot recently wandering Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo.

Though the first shot is my favorite, I'm saddened because I can't go back to that hippo and thank him for his deliberate posing that yielded my good shot.

These guys are clearly out of their natural habitat!

A new MSNBC.com is almost upon us

Over the past year I've been knee-deep in a project bigger than the project I was knee-deep in a year ago (Times Reader).  A year ago this time we were just thinking about how we'd execute on the lofty goals we set for ourselves.  And now...

As I've lightly discussed new features and brands we've unveiled on MSNBC.com I always carefully added that there was more to come.  That more I've been heralding is almost here.  We're a short while away from a whole new MSNBC.com.  If you're interested in a short tour of what should be on the site soon, visit our Alpha Channel blog.