Even Microsoft wants G5s

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This entry was published at least two years ago (originally posted on October 23, 2003). Since that time the information may have become outdated or my beliefs may have changed (in general, assume a more open and liberal current viewpoint). A fuller disclaimer is available.

UPDATE: Please take the time to read my followup post, Fifteen Minutes of Fame, for my thoughts on what happened after I posted this picture, why it happened — and most importantly, why I don’t blame Microsoft for their actions. Thanks!

It looks like somebody over in Microsoft land is getting some new toys…

Microsoft's shipment of G5s come in

I took this shot on the way into work on the loading dock (MSCopy, the print shop I work in, is in the same building as MS’s shipping and receiving). Three palettes of Dual 2.0Ghz G5’s on their way in to somewhere deep in the bowels of Redmond. Hopefully they’re all in good condition when they arrive — the boxes are slick enough that a few of them took a bit of a tumble (you can see them back in the truck)!

443 thoughts on “Even Microsoft wants G5s”

  1. Dude some of you people really need to shut up! Who the hell cares if he posts a picture of some G5’s that MS bought. It’s obvious that any company that large that even writes software for apple would own at least a few G5’s. Boohoo already. Yeah, they have that right to fire him but it still makes them a jackass. Just cuz you can do something doesn’t mean you should, they could have solved this a lot more elegantly. For all those flamers, think about this, did you never see something at work or while you were not on your own time that you thought was intereseting and either told your friends/family or showed them a picture? If not, get a life =P Leave this guy alone, he was just trying to share a little funny irony with the world and got bit for it. Good luck dude and don’t mind these flamers

  6. Microsoft developes software for Apple, hence Office for Macs, so why is it such a big deal that
    Microsoft has G5s. I mean sure they were once notorious for having poorly tested code, but
    heaven forbid they get the newest technology to test their newest version of Internet Explorer on it.
    I’m hardly a Microsoft proponent, but I really don’t see the overwhelming surprise in them having
    G5s. However, I do think that Microsoft’s firing of this employee is unjust. Whatever this man decides
    to do in his personal life and on his own time, is exactly that his own time, and not Microsofts.
    So basically, there is no big surprise Microsoft has G5s, not really worth pissing your pants over,
    and not sure why Microsft feels this picture is so scandilous. It you wanna see scandilous, check
    out the blue screen of death that plagued mid 90’s computer geeks.

  7. Like others, the photo and heading seem innocent (for me, I took it as partially tongue in cheek) nor do I have much love for Microsoft. I also feel for the loss of the job but the fact is many large companies do not want employees permanent or temp to go around shooting photos internally no matter how innocent they may be. It is about the easiest way to discourage workers from bringing cameras from the start as opposed to having a do’s and don’t list of what things are acceptable. A permanent worker may have been given a little more leeway and would have probably just received a reprimand and warning but temps really have little rights and so are expendable. While this was nothing like the case with the trade secrets cases against Juan Gutierrez (the Apple temp worker who leaked photos back in 2000 of upcoming hardware products) or Juan Lopez (an Apple contract worker who leaked schematic drawings of the Power Mac G4 MDD systems in 2001), just be happy that MS did not go the legal route which would have been heavy handed even though well within their discretion.

    As for having G5’s in Redmond, don’t see anything wrong with that since there are probably units that do work closely with the MacBU in Silicon Valley for compatibility cases (does anyone know if the Mac development of the Windows Media stuff is now part of MacBU since before, it was still part of the group in Redmond). This is no different than Apple buying Dell’s for their own developers for AppleWorks, QuickTime and iTunes for Windows.

  8. haha thats funny, but if microsoft dont want you taking pictures then you shouldnt. they probably asked themselves why would you need to bring that cam to work.

  9. What were you thinking?? Of course the ‘Axi$ of Evil’ uses Macs. Thats how they nicked the GUI in the first place! Tough break getting sacked and all, but that’s the big-leagues . . . these guys play hardball. Especially since you proved to your employer (M$ and Xerox!! – wowy – double point score!) you could be a risk for Industrial Espionage. Good luck in your future, kid.

  11. Why was this so bad. Microsoft produce a number of software titles for Mac, its just pointless and it creates more of an anti microsoft sentiment around both PC & Mac users.

  12. I find it funny that so many people are focusing on the Macs at Microsoft angle. It’s called an NDA. Non Disclosure Agreement. I bet he signed one, and It looks like he violated it. I’m willing to bet that it could have been a pallet full of post-it notes, and if someone high enough up in the company saw it, he’d get canned. I used to work at MS and used a Mac as my main workstation. It wasn’t that big of a deal. Especially when you consider that back in 97 MS very publicly bought $150 million dollars in Apple Stock.

  13. I dont understand how this could be a security issue. I can get a map of the Microsoft campus off “Yahoo”. You should Sue these guys.

  14. read about mr michael hanson on theregister. Too bad man. But i do envy a person who has Macs and I have’nt./ MS is’nt the only employer out here. Just carry on your good work.

    And yeah, could you get the form fields for Name, Email and URL properly aligned against the fields?

    —
    cheers

  15. He wasn’t fired for posting that MS had Macs, he was fired for telling folks where to go to find an unattended loading dock full of very expensive hardware.

    A map of the MS campus is available on-line, and is would be easy enough for an enterprising young thief to pick that out and say “Hay, just go here and wait, sooner or later I get free stuff.”

    As a former security professional, this is the sort of thing I took people to task for. Never got any one fired though…

    quote:

    The picture itself might have been permissible, but because I also mentioned that I worked at the MSCopy print shop, and which building it was in, it pushed me over the line.

  16. microsoft does seem to be security conscious with Gates supporting rfid and all.
    are the G5’s shipped with OS X? unix & mac in redmond. delicious

  18. Do stupid stuff and get fired. Such a sad commentary on the world we live in, this idiot wants us to feel sorry for him because he used poor judgement. Sure Gates=Incubus, but the process of natural selection cannot be stopped. Fuckups get fired, then next thing you know, they are pumping your gas.

  20. What the?! Surely microsoft have now generated more publicity by sacking you than they would have if the post was just removed, as you offered to do…

  21. If I has posted unauthorised pictures and information about a
    company I had worked for I would expect disciplinary action.
    Sorry but you really do deserve it. This is the way of the real,
    professional working world in IT

    why do you use THEIR definition of “professional” ?
    those who make these silly rules are the minority on this planet,
    and the sheeps follow instead of revolting.
    “professional working” can be everything, and it is not unprofessional
    to say what you think, or post on your website what you have seen
    somewhere, it is just human.

    i hope he gets a good job at apple and i hope he will post anything
    on the web what he wants to, and not what apple allows him to. :)

  23. Probably, but if that was me or a co-worker, I’d come up with the idea that as long as they don’t know, I can do whatever I wanted with the photos, so I’d just keep them for say, a month or two, then forward it around as some e-mail and Microsoft won’t know it was me and then. It was a bad idea, and let’s hope that this lesson isn’t wasted.

  24. When you started work at MS do you remember when you signed your contract?

    Sure you do … it was that legal document with the section about confidentiality in it.

    doh!

  27. he’s not being fired for the picture, although the sucurity issue could be factored in, but for the fact that he directly violated a contract he signed when becoming employed. If microsoft doesn’t doesn’t respond to this incident what next, they guys posting pics of longhorn before ms releases them?
    It sucks for the guy, but rules are rules, If corperations make exceptions it opens them up to all sorts of lawsuits, because it could be ‘discrimination’. I know upon entering intel, (of which I’m not an employee) I sign a wavor, have an employ cosign for me and see ‘no camera’ and ‘no photo’ signs everywhere.
    The guy is unlucky. But if microsoft really wanted to it could have done more. If it was about the photo they could have demanded it’s removal even after it was taken.

  28. Comment from Australia: I find it disgusting that the U.S. has it’s 1st amendment to it’s constitution (guaranteeing freedom of speech) only to have someone terminated for performing it. Stand up America to Microsoft acting so badly!!!!

  32. it´s a shame for ms that they fired you.
    it´s just a fact that they bought G5´s so they should
    be able to handle that fact. -and of course handle this fact
    in public.

    they are poor minded, so don´t worry and get yourself a new job.
    – i think you have learned something about that.

    all the best…

  33. Hi there michael….
    I just wondered…….those G5’s….Did Microsoft paided them in advance??? I don’t think so because you will have the same payement-policies like here in the EU. The will probably paid them in a month or so. So that makes me wonder: was gear (G5) at that moment actually property of Microsoft???? (legally….)

    Goodluck!

    MacB

  37. I would be suprised if Microsoft did not have any Apple computer equipment. How are they supposed to write Macintosh compatible software witout it?
    Maybe they will make a better version of SoftWindows XP that will be less of an emulator and more of an operating system.Ã

  40. Microsoft gets remembered, but it is NOT a pleasant picture with which they replaced an innocuous post.
    It has not enhanced their image in ANY regard, so all publicity is not good publicity.

    If they were smart, they could have used the blog to their advantage in the Apple user community & left their winDoze base largely unaffected.

    Obviously when Mr Charlie decides a harmless, self-evident joke is not to their liking, he can send his sharecroppers packing.
    That makes Mr Charlie powerful, but not a redeeming quality.

    Nonetheless, I think the blogger gave excess detail about the place he works that was a little dumb. To say Microsoft is one thing, but to add elaboration implies he doesn’t always think before he leaps. But a long way from sufficient reason to sack an employee in this case.

    Perhaps they need to sack the person who made the decision to sack this guy?

    As for the guy writing about the religion of Eisner & Co, as detailed in another tangental posting here – It shows not everyone that writes can craft a good paragraph. I thought the column point was muddled & rather amateurish in that last paragraph.
    I think there might be a point made, but as stated it was close to nonsequitor in presentation.

  42. Nunca pensei que a Microsoft compraria Mac… Ou sera que o Tio Bill percebeu que o Windows nao vale nada? Afinal, Mac eh futuro e PC eh Passado! eheheh
    []’s

    • Esta eh a minha opniao!

  43. sorry for the accident.
    What were the official reason of your lay-off?
    did they think you were a 007spy? :-D

    ribes

  44. I bet they use Panther for copying some nice features for their own Longhorn OS that will be released in 2006.

  46. Whoever prepared those computers for shipping, I assume at Apple, should be FIRED also!! An entire roll of shrink wrap cost about $9, and it takes about 1/20th of a roll to properly wrap a pallet. In the picture you can see the total carelessness of packing, there is just a feeble thin amount of wrap around that fallen pallet. So Steve Jobs please pass this along to your shipping team, the person in charge of wrapping pallets sucks!

  50. Gee, I was under this impression that Microsoft makes the rules at their own company. Did you think that perhaps they might not like you photographing sensitive material at work and publicly posting it? How would you feel if Microsoft published your pay stubs publicly on their website?

    What a bananahead; you deserve to be unemployed due to stupidity. You should refer potential future employers to your blog so they know they would know they are hiring a potential spy.

    And no, I don’t work for Microsoft or own any stock, etc.

    Mark

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