Reading this history it's striking about how Bill managed to keep so many strategically valuable product lines producing real, highly lucrative, but also *new* products, without going down more of the highly ambitious dead-ends like Cairo. That said, I recall at the time that Cairo seemed like a pipe-dream, even from my perspective as an avid (and long-time) industry-watcher who was also not yet an actual industry participant. So much so that I vividly remember how Longhorn was supposed avoid all of Cairo's mistakes, skip the over-ambitious and unachievable expectations, and *ship*. And yet...
I've always loved your phrase, "Learning by shipping" - as a software developer going back decades I reckon that is just about the best summary of how to learn the art of software development that there is.
I was completely unaware of the existence of Tiger before I read this post, it was an enlightening read, especially seeing how well it reflects today's streaming landscape.
Out of curiosity, what was your reaction when you heard of this project?
It was before DVRs even so the whole idea of different tvs being able to pause and restart at different times was the most mind blowing. Plus just how fast forward and rewind worked really were crazy. Hotels had movies but at the time PPV was on a schedule. They would start a movie every hour so you could pay and tune in then. So even starting at 8:37 was kind of wild.
That said, it seemed even to me at the time that the idea of people on roller skates replacing hard drives had no future. Even in the lab or in small deployments it was difficult to keep going at any scale. It required a wildly different implementation which did eventually come along.
This was also a few years before DVD movies. With that came purchasing movies for $20 or less. At the time Studios were not open to easy digital distribution but with DVD they changed quite a bit but saw closed distribution digitally as a way too thwart illegally copied DVD movies.
I had the luck to work with/within MSR during my PhD years. I distinctly remember flying to Redmond to give a quick presentation to Craig Mundie of our prototype software for biological systems - the hype on everything bio/heatlh/pharma related in 2000-2010 was higher than it is now. As often happens with research, it might have be too haed of its time, or simply not relevant; as far as I know MS did not pursue that road.
Anyway, I always admired how MS dealt with MSR; having a separate, academic like division running "wild", but with frequent contacts to see what could become a product. Sometimes research will not produce a viable product, sometimes it will, but too early (as with Tiger), sometimes it will.
I appreciate your appreciation for Bill attracting and hiring some of the most influential people in the industry into MSR and ACT. For me, Jim Blinn was one such luminary.
I remember climbing the StairMaster at the PROClub once and up walks Jim Blinn to grab the machine next to me. I couldn’t believe it. Of course, he devoured an issue of some SIGGRAPH publication while my eyes were glued to a Sonics game.
Reading this history it's striking about how Bill managed to keep so many strategically valuable product lines producing real, highly lucrative, but also *new* products, without going down more of the highly ambitious dead-ends like Cairo. That said, I recall at the time that Cairo seemed like a pipe-dream, even from my perspective as an avid (and long-time) industry-watcher who was also not yet an actual industry participant. So much so that I vividly remember how Longhorn was supposed avoid all of Cairo's mistakes, skip the over-ambitious and unachievable expectations, and *ship*. And yet...
I've always loved your phrase, "Learning by shipping" - as a software developer going back decades I reckon that is just about the best summary of how to learn the art of software development that there is.
Thank you!
I was completely unaware of the existence of Tiger before I read this post, it was an enlightening read, especially seeing how well it reflects today's streaming landscape.
Out of curiosity, what was your reaction when you heard of this project?
It was before DVRs even so the whole idea of different tvs being able to pause and restart at different times was the most mind blowing. Plus just how fast forward and rewind worked really were crazy. Hotels had movies but at the time PPV was on a schedule. They would start a movie every hour so you could pay and tune in then. So even starting at 8:37 was kind of wild.
That said, it seemed even to me at the time that the idea of people on roller skates replacing hard drives had no future. Even in the lab or in small deployments it was difficult to keep going at any scale. It required a wildly different implementation which did eventually come along.
This was also a few years before DVD movies. With that came purchasing movies for $20 or less. At the time Studios were not open to easy digital distribution but with DVD they changed quite a bit but saw closed distribution digitally as a way too thwart illegally copied DVD movies.
I had the luck to work with/within MSR during my PhD years. I distinctly remember flying to Redmond to give a quick presentation to Craig Mundie of our prototype software for biological systems - the hype on everything bio/heatlh/pharma related in 2000-2010 was higher than it is now. As often happens with research, it might have be too haed of its time, or simply not relevant; as far as I know MS did not pursue that road.
Anyway, I always admired how MS dealt with MSR; having a separate, academic like division running "wild", but with frequent contacts to see what could become a product. Sometimes research will not produce a viable product, sometimes it will, but too early (as with Tiger), sometimes it will.
I appreciate your appreciation for Bill attracting and hiring some of the most influential people in the industry into MSR and ACT. For me, Jim Blinn was one such luminary.
I remember climbing the StairMaster at the PROClub once and up walks Jim Blinn to grab the machine next to me. I couldn’t believe it. Of course, he devoured an issue of some SIGGRAPH publication while my eyes were glued to a Sonics game.
Jim was/is indeed amazing as an asset to the company and industry.
I was always suggesting you uplevel your stair master reading at the Pro Club :-)