Visiting Speakers on Microsoft campus

Time for a foray into a “hidden“ perk of working at Microsoft. One of my favorite perks of the college-style atmosphere that we have here on the Redmond campus is a fairly wide array of interesting lecturers. Not only do we have our own people from Microsoft Research doing frequent lectures on their work, but here's a peak at the speakers this week:

• Nancy Pearl - the “person who inspired the librarian action figure“
• Peter Levitt - author of “Fingerpainting on the Moon: Writing and Creativity as a Path to Freedom“
• Jon Bridgman - UW Emeritus History Professor
• David Bornstein, “social innovation“ journalist
• Tom Ridge, Secretary for the Department of Homeland Security

Tom Ridge was the one person I've seen speak this week. I assume he was in the area for “important reasons”, but he still had the chance to speak to a room full of Microsofties. He made some good points, and was able to speak on some of the latest Trustworthy Computing efforts, like XP SP2.

Some of the other speakers I've seen have been James Watson, William Poundstone (”How would you move Mt. Fuji” author), Senator illary Clinton, Senator John McCain, Senator Patty Murray, Former NY Mayor Rudolph Guiliani, and NY Governor George Pataki. In case you didn't notice, I'm a geek who also enjoys science and politics. One interesting note about high level politicians- they have an uncanny ability to swing any of their policies into a positive light. Smooth talking senators will never cease to amaze me for their ability to say so much while saying so little. :-)

And now, time for some XBox Live. :-)

Greg