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Hackdays on schema.org and Quotes on a Facebook wall
We just completed a 2-day schema.org-related hackathon at the Facebook headquarters. So much fun! It’s so cool seeing companies such as Microsoft, Google, Yandex, and Facebook* come together to code, experiment, and brainstorm on structured data/actions on the Web. Everyone cares about what’s best for the Web. We built prototypes and discussed interesting statistics about the state…
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Reactive Computing at the Heart of Cortana
In my QCon talk last year I talked, amongst many other things, about the need to react to the world’s information streams in near-realtime. The Bing Platform that powers Cortana and the Windows Phone OS were designed and implemented to support that vision. At the very core of each Windows Phone 8.1 device is a…
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My Cortana Interests on Bing.com
Isn’t this beautiful? I am not talking about the photo, which is gorgeous. I am referring to my Cortana interests (weather, stocks, news) that appear at the bottom of the bing.com homepage. We know what the user cares about so we surface it to their screen. Of course users have to be logged in with…
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Cortana
You might have heard the news about Cortana, Microsoft’s entry in the personal assistant space. I am very excited to see Cortana out there, even in her current “beta” state. “The most personal smartphone assistant” (Windows Phone 8.1 features) I have been involved, as the Architect of the Bing cloud platform that powers her, with…
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Please raise your voice against fascism
Mpampis, my great childhood friend, recently posted on his Facebook timeline a variant of Martin Niemöller’s “First they came” poem. It’s been a while since I first read and loved that poem. To me, the poem is a great reminder of the need for all of us to remain informed, engaged, active participants in the…
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Honesty in user interface design
I liked the “Dark Patterns: inside interfaces designed to trick you” article by Harry Brignull. Honesty in how we interact with our customers through our products is probably an obvious practice to most of us. Unfortunately, ill-conceived business thinking lead to products that place profit in front of users. Not surprisingly, as Bringull suggests, users…
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Make computers disappear from every desk and every home
Disclaimer: As everything else in this blog, what follows is my personal opinion! It shouldn’t be news to anyone that Ballmer is retiring from Microsoft. What follows is not about the past or present. It’s a quick note about how I personally see the future and Microsoft’s opportunity to shape it. Even in the late…
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Glastonbury 2013
Another year, another great Glastonbury. It’s already been a month since our trip to the UK for the annual Glastonbury festival, so this is post is long due. Better late than ever I guess 🙂 As every year, it was an amazing just being there. The great music, art, performances were added bonus! Before the…
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I knew I had some alien blood in me 🙂
Mary and I recently did the 23andme thing. I know it’s not as accurate as other methods but I still wanted to support the company in what they are trying to achieve and their contributions to genetics-based research. Also, it was Mary’s Xmas present so I had to do it 🙂 Well, the results are…
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Convergence of User Experiences
Disclaimer: These thoughts do NOT represent strategy or plans by my team or company. They are just that… thoughts. The way we consume information and services has transformed over the last few years. Small, specialized applications on smartphones and tablets have displaced the Web browser as our primary window into the digital world. Could the…