By Rob Knies, Senior Writer, Microsoft Research Networks are ubiquitous in the digital age. Whether you’re at home, in your car, on your phone, or sending files halfway around the world, you’re utilizing computer networks―working with them, communicating on them, being entertained by them. They…
By Janie Chang, Writer, Microsoft Research Computer security has been described as a game of one-upmanship, an ongoing escalation of techniques as both sides attempt to find new ways to assault and protect system vulnerabilities. The most prevalent forms of incursion over the last decade…
By Rob Knies, Managing Editor, Microsoft Research In September, pioneering computer-science researcher Gordon Bell and his Microsoft Research colleague Jim Gemmell published Total Recall: How the E-Memory Revolution Will Change Everything, a book that summarizes nearly a decade of an effort to record digitally everything…
By Janie Chang, Writer, Microsoft Research At Microsoft Research, there are computer scientists and mathematicians who live in a world of theory and abstractions. Then there is Nachi Nagappan, who was on loan to the Windows development group for a year while building a triage…
By Rob Knies, Managing Editor, Microsoft Research You employ cryptographic techniques on a daily basis … don’t you? Sure you do. Every time you type a password into a computer, you are practicing cryptography, using secret information to verify your identity. The same principle is…
By Rob Knies, Managing Editor, Microsoft Research These days, more than ever, it’s important for computing to be energy-efficient. Particularly in data centers, energy requirements represent a significant portion of operational costs, and power and cooling needs help dictate where data centers can be located,…
By Rob Knies, Managing Editor, Microsoft Research He rocks in the treetops all the day long, Hoppin’ and a-boppin’ and a-singin’ his song. All the little birds on Jaybird Street Love to hear the robin go tweet tweet tweet … * * * When L.A.…
By Rob Knies, Managing Editor, Microsoft Research How deep is the ocean? Geologically, the answer is straightforward: almost seven miles. This we know from a series of surveys, beginning in the 19th century, of the depth of the Mariana Trench, near Guam in the North…
By Janie Chang, Writer, Microsoft Research Once upon a time, Web sites were the online equivalent of data sheets. Now users go to the Web to run business apps, do their banking, buy products, socialize, receive a daily news fix, or play interactive games. Nor…
By Rob Knies, Managing Editor, Microsoft Research George Robertson is taking this meeting seriously. He focuses intently on other participants in the room, making eye contact, noting posture and visual cues, interjecting comments when appropriate. He studies diagrams scrawled onto a whiteboard, and, on occasion,…
By Rob Knies, Managing Editor, Microsoft Research Even now, almost a year after joining Microsoft Research New England, Yael Tauman Kalai can hardly believe her good fortune. “Really, really awesome,” enthuses Kalai, 34, about her experience at the lab, based in Cambridge, Mass. “Frankly, it’s…
By Rob Knies, Managing Editor, Microsoft Research Leonardo da Vinci and Filippo Brunelleschi resound through history as two of the guiding lights of the Italian Renaissance. Leonardo, of course, gifted us with the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, but he also excelled at mathematics,…
