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Microsoft Campus Tour

Friday, February 20, 2004
For your viewing pleasure and your mild curiosity, I spent an hour driving around the main Microsoft campus and two satellite campuses and took lots of photos. I also met with the popular Microsoft blogger Robert Scoble.

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Can somebody from Microsoft please explain what this is? It looks like some random patern of stones but it's actually carved from wood. It makes no sense to me.
Dylan Greene, posted 2/24/2004 11:21:00 AM
http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/artcollection/exhibitions/tomylou/cronicle.htm

It's Art! (or a bench when it's warm & sunny out)

Steve, posted 2/24/2004 5:34:00 PM
It's "Woodhenge", and as Steve notes, "art". It's made from lots and lots and lots of small blocks glued together.

Originally, the dark color would rub off if you sat on it and it had a powerful smell when it got hot, but it's mellowed over the years.

Eric, posted 2/24/2004 5:47:00 PM
Exchange used to be in one of the buildings around this work of "art". We had a special name for it. It was similar to woodhenge, although we didn't use the word 'wood'. When it was new, it smelled really bad. That should give you enough clues to come up with the pet name we had for it :-)

We had a ship party where we tried to make a pool out of "wood"henge... we put large tarps all over it and were filling it up with water, but somehow the artist found out and raised hell and we had to stop. Shucks.

KC Lemson, posted 2/25/2004 12:16:00 AM
Oh man, that party was a blast! One of the all time best Exchange ship parties.

But it got pretty ugly afterwords. The Microsoft Art Committe threatened to force all the Exchange people to attend "Art Appreciation" classes, and we had to fly the artist out first class (from Germany to Seattle) to inspect the sculpture to ensure that it wasn't damaged.

And I don't know anyone who called it "wood"henge. The most polite term I heard was "poo poo"henge. If you looked at it from the 4th floor of bldg 43, it looked just like it's namesake.

IIRC, the real name is "Skip To My Loo".

Larry Osterman, posted 2/25/2004 3:24:00 PM
When the woodhenge was built I sent a thank-you letter to the Art Committee for giving me the perfect excuse to use the word "coprolitic" in conversation. It's so seldom you get to use that word.
Eric Lippert, posted 3/26/2004 2:48:00 PM
A molester's paradise
what's-his-face, posted 4/17/2004 11:09:00 PM
It was called Lake Platinum, in fact, I have a picture of it on my site: http://peaboy.net/ngallery/albums/6/2177.aspx
PeaBoy, posted 7/23/2004 7:29:00 PM
These are CD's which they used to burn and pack after Microsoft launch new versions of softwares or beta versions.
Ishaq..., posted 2/21/2007 4:38:00 PM
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Microsoft Stonehedge Juncture
Jake Hopkins, posted 1/5/2006 1:19:00 PM
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Here you can see the fountain where many a lead has been thrown in during a ship party.
KC, posted 2/27/2004 5:37:00 PM
It's not a fountain, it's a "water feature." :-)
mike, posted 3/26/2004 12:36:00 AM
My manager at the time when this was built was an avid white-water kayaker. You can't see it in this picture, but there is a waterfall in this water feature, so he put together a team of kayakers and shot the falls.

There was an article in the Micronews that week about the exciting new extreme sport of "new waterfall kayaking", ie being the first person down a new waterfall. And since new waterfalls seem to spring up at Microsoft more often than in nature, it's the ideal location.

Eric Lippert, posted 3/26/2004 3:06:00 PM
This pool was also the home of the Exchange Dogfood Pager for a brief period between the end of the Exchange 2000 ship party and the next day when the servers went down....
Ted, posted 10/9/2004 1:10:00 AM
People are gethering together for the Final of WWE (Stone Cold vs Under Taker )
Ishaq..., posted 2/21/2007 4:40:00 PM
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Bill arrogantly parks his car in the driveway.
you know, posted 12/9/2005 2:24:00 AM
He really should go electric...
Anonymous, posted 1/21/2007 3:53:00 PM
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Parts of MS campus are named after golf courses. This cafeteria, located in "Augusta", is reputed as one of the larger and better cafeterias.
quanta, posted 2/25/2004 11:49:00 AM
Ugh. Larger yes. Better? No!

Different cafes have different specialties. Grill, Tapas, Pasta ya Gotcha, all at different cafes.

TabletPC Tester, posted 2/26/2004 7:59:00 PM
Starbucks is by far the best part of the caf....
kitm, posted 2/20/2005 3:32:00 AM
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Steve Balmer abandon furioso la sala de juntas, lanzando al suelo la sombrilla que estaba sobre una de las mesas.
Al Gonzlez, posted 1/22/2006 6:04:00 PM
Aunque si obserban bien vern que hay una sombrilla faltante, segn parece Balmer intent hacer arrastrar y soltar pero no pudo quitarsela de encima. Segn cont el taxista que le traslad en un "yellow Cab" se pas todo el viaje, haciendo doble clic pero la sombrilla segua entre sus manos, finalmente el taxista result ser un programador de cdigo Libre y le prest un mdulo con el que finalmente pudo soltar la sombrilla.
Marcos, posted 1/23/2006 4:52:00 PM
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Microsoft recycles more than old code.
Dylan Greene, posted 2/24/2004 11:22:00 AM
I used to run a lab in the Outlook team and we had a machine named Aluminum. No, we didn't name it after the garbage can, but we did steal one of these stickers to put on it.
Former Outlook Tester, posted 2/27/2004 5:38:00 PM
Many years ago there was a letter to the Micronews that said that the trash cans were in a "suboptimal" order. The writer pointed out that it should be first aluminum so you can throw away your can, then trash so you can scrape off your plastic plate, then polystyrene.

The response in the Micronews from the facilities department was "Your idea has great merit and will be implemented immediately". The next day, all the trash cans had been re-ordered. I love this company.

That was like a decade ago though -- I see that these cans are in the wrong order. But these cans are not particularly high traffic, so I suppose it doesn't matter that they are slightly sub-optimal.

Eric Lippert, posted 3/26/2004 3:30:00 PM
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I heard a rumor that the different bins was a farce. In reality, everything from all the bins gets meshed together, but they have the cans seperated to give the illusion of greenhood.
Anonymous, posted 2/20/2005 3:34:00 AM
Not quite accurate, but related to a true story. Back in my day (1996-2003), every office contained a paper recycling box, which was partitioned into two sections. These were labeled "White Paper" and "Colored Paper." Several buildings, however, did not have separate compactor/bundling machines to correspond. In those buildings, all the paper got dumped and bundled together, and thus destined for low-quality paper products, cardboard tubes for paper towels, and the like.
Bruce Wheelock, posted 11/2/2005 5:05:00 AM
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I was half expecting to see the Linux logo on the receptacles labeled Trash.
Dylan Greene, posted 2/24/2004 11:23:00 AM
Shouldn't that say "Recycle Bin" ?
Anonymous, posted 2/24/2004 4:08:00 PM
Introducing the new White People disposal Unit
what's-his-face, posted 4/17/2004 11:11:00 PM
Funny, I was expecting to see the Windows logo in this one...
Anonymous, posted 1/12/2005 1:25:00 PM
I think the reason it says "Trash" instead of "Recycle Bin", is because all 3 - Trash, Aluminum and Polystrene are recyclable. Technically they are all recycle bin's.
Logan M. Wood, posted 1/26/2005 3:49:00 AM
I think it is recycle bin of Windows
Vijay, posted 3/28/2005 11:53:00 PM
so which lab stole the name trash.*.microsoft.com?
another future employee, posted 5/19/2006 8:23:00 AM
what is supposed to go here!!
rejat, posted 5/19/2006 1:30:00 PM
If I had it my way, Apple would throw Windows Vista in that trash can!! LOL
maclover, posted 1/27/2007 9:29:00 PM
There should be another like " Only for Microsoft CD's"
Ishaq..., posted 2/21/2007 4:42:00 PM
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Looks more like a state penitentiary
Sandip, posted 2/16/2006 5:38:00 AM
Only with bigger windows and no barricades...anyone know which bldg this is?
another future employee, posted 5/19/2006 8:22:00 AM
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Just in case they thought they had come to the RedHat offices - this sign helps the confused visitor
Anonymous, posted 6/19/2004 3:21:00 AM
this is a great caption from the unietd states of ameriocqw in the
from the us likcoin, posted 1/7/2007 6:41:00 AM
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I was just here a couple of days ago for an interview... should be one of the buildings 116-119.
Herman Ng, posted 2/22/2006 3:14:00 AM
Building 116. E.g. local.live.com, Virtual Earth, msn search, Mappoint are located here right now.
Oliver Merkel, posted 5/1/2006 8:34:00 PM
your mom
anon, posted 6/16/2006 6:17:00 PM
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This looks like building 118 ... the Enterprise Storage Group houses there.
Martin Tuip, posted 2/26/2004 12:59:00 AM
not anymore - we're now in building 42 (and now part of the Windows Enterprise Management Division)
Anonymous, posted 7/8/2005 12:25:00 PM
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This area looks like space for future Microsoft buildings. Today it is home to hundreds of blackbirds.
Dylan Greene, posted 2/24/2004 11:24:00 AM
Crows, actually. (Corvus brachyrhynchos)
mike, posted 3/26/2004 12:37:00 AM
Where Microsoft buries Macintosh executives
what's-his-face, posted 4/17/2004 11:12:00 PM
Microsot Now has it's own Area 51. ;)
Steve, posted 6/5/2004 9:03:00 PM
And this is bill's house...
Microsoft Hater, posted 3/2/2006 7:27:00 PM
The area where microsoft keep those people who leake out the secrets of microsoft :D..
Isaac..., posted 2/21/2007 4:44:00 PM
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