Can you tell the difference between the two breeds of corgis? If you’re like many, you probably are barely even aware that such dogs exist, let alone the fact that there are two—and only two—kinds of corgis. Add the detail that those two breeds are…
Posted by Rob Knies A couple of years ago, a few Microsoft researchers published a couple of interesting papers on storage efficiencies. Now, with breathtaking speed, the concepts in those papers have been embraced across the cloud-computing world. Technological change can occur at lightning speed.…
Posted by Rob Knies Operating a datacenter at web scale requires managing many conflicting requirements. The ability to deliver computation at a high level and speed is a given, but because of the demands such a facility must meet, a datacenter also needs flexibility. Additionally,…
Simon Peyton Jones’ contributions to computer science continue to be recognized, and now, so is his advocacy for computing education. On June 10, during the 35th annual conference on Programming Language Design and Implementation, hosted by SIGPLAN, the Association for Computing Machinery’s (ACM’s) Special Interest…
As part of its commitment to basic research, Microsoft invests in creating joint research centers around the world. These collaborative engagements typically involve multi-year research programs across a broad range of projects that push the boundaries of computer science. In the last week, Microsoft Research…
Gaurav Sharma appeared relaxed but focused in his purple hoodie on January 16, 2014. Less than 20 seconds later, Sharma, a 15-year-old from Lakeside High School in Seattle, found himself the owner of a Guinness World Record® for fastest text message using a touch-screen mobile…
Leslie Lamport first began dabbling in computers while he was still in high school. Nothing too unusual about that—until you consider that this was in the mid-1950s. Lamport was attending the Bronx High School of Science in New York, and he and a friend used…
If any city can be called opinionated, it would be New York City, so it’s somehow inevitable that HereHere is making its debut in the Big Apple. It’s Friday in Manhattan, and despite reports of several broken parking meters on its streets, the Upper West…
On Feb. 25, Yale University Press released the highly anticipated new book by danah boyd, principal researcher at Microsoft Research New York City, titled It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens. As one of the world’s pre-eminent authorities on social media, particularly teenagers’ social-media…
Today, February 5, 2014, marked the kickoff workshop for the Swiss Joint Research Center (Swiss JRC), a collaborative research engagement between Microsoft Research and the two universities that make up the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology: ETH Zürich (Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich, which serves German-speaking…
Radio and TV channels, mobile communications, GPS, and emergency communications are just a few examples of applications that occupy the airwaves. The radio spectrum is a finite resource, but demand for bandwidth is accelerating. As a result, the telecommunications industry is facing what the U.S.…
How do you spark excitement about computer programming among preteen girls? “Make me a Hunger Games arena.” That’s the challenge Kate Miller presented to a group of middle schoolers during last summer’s Penn Girls in Engineering, Math & Science Camp (GEMS) at the University of…
