A couple big changes this week involving the guys from the Mac team (I used to test PWS, IMN, OE and Entourage for the Mac team):
Tantek Çelik has decided to leave the MS fold and strike out into the world. Tantek was a key player in the IE browser for Mac and is well known for his CSS contributions. He also worked to get his teams’ excellent rendering engine into one of our set top boxes, unfortunately without success. He has a great summary of his MS work in his open farewell letter. He has yet to announce his next project.
Also related to Microsoft Set top boxes, Dick Craddock has come on board with Hotmail as the Front Door Development manager (we call the servers which host all the chrome and features for Hotmail the “Front Door” machines because users enter through the front door). Back in 1998 when Microsoft bought Hotmail the Mac Internet client team (IE and OE) in San Jose was kind of cut in two as many people went “downstairs” to work on the newly acquired service. Dick took the reigns and I had the pleasure of reporting to him for a time. Dick moved buildings along with the Mac IE team and went to work on Ultimate TV and then onto other MS TV products. Now, almost six years later, I get a chance to work with him again. Dick’s migration is 100% upside for Hotmail.
I moved from the Mac group to Hotmail in ’98. Kristin, who used to report to me as a tester, joined later. Omar, who first came to MS as an intern in my team, is now a lead here. Dick, to whom I used to report, is now a dev manager here. Hey, the world does revolve around me!