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Subject:RE: Bill Gates Frustrated by Windows From:Gause_Brian -at- emc -dot- com To:<techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Thu, 26 Jun 2008 19:08:08 -0400
My reaction to this is to jump up and down, screaming "Hallelujah"...Finally, he understands our frustrations.
Of course, the truth is far more complex than this and I don't blame him for every MS feature that doesn't work.
But still, it feels good to know that he shares our frustrations...
Brian Gause
Technical Writer
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+gause_brian=emc -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+gause_brian=emc -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of Stephen Arrants
Sent: Thursday, June 26, 2008 1:51 PM
To: Dan Goldstein; TECHWR-L
Subject: RE: Bill Gates Frustrated by Windows
Dan Goldstein wrote:
> The blog links to an interview where they showed Gates a printout of
> the
> e-mail. He smiled and said, "There's not a day that I don't send a
> piece
> of e-mail... like that piece of e-mail. That's my job." (See
> <http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/archives/141821.asp>)
>
> The original e-mail was sent to multiple recipients, with no
> "confidential" or "private" flag.
>
> In other words, when Gates writes an internal e-mail, his first
> priority
> isn't the company's public image or legal protection. He writes like an
> engineer: "This doesn't work. Here are the specific, ugly details of
> the
> problem. Fix it."
>
> I admire that attitude, and I'm frustrated that it hasn't been
> translated into higher quality products.
Back in the Stone Age (1980s) when I worked there (along with some others here and on HATT),
there were always regular program reviews with Bill--not only usability issues, but documentation,
the internal "guts" of the software, marketing, etc. Things he brought up were either fixed, or the
feature was dropped from the product. *Everyone* on a product's team knew where he stood on the
product and how it was "experienced" by the end user.
Things seem (from the outside) very, very different. I've heard--and someone please correct me if I'm
mistaken--that technical writers at Microsoft no longer work on a "book" or a "piece" of documentation any more.
They work on individual 'Topics" or "Units". Ah well...I guess there have been many, many changes since the early days...
--
Steve Arrants steve -at- mbfbioscience -dot- com
Writer
MBF Bioscience (Microbrightfield, Inc.)
+1.802.288.9290 ext: 124
www.mbfbioscience.com
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