There is a misunderstanding exhibited by many posts here that "R&D" is about "experimentation".
Only the "R" part of R&D is to do with experimentation, and that is what MSR does. The "D" component is product development -- the thousands of developers, testers and program managers, plus all the staff around them, that do the development of the many future products coming down the line, as well as the maintenance on products already shipped. The focus of development is basically to ship something.
MSR is not about shipping products, but about researching new technolgies in general; technologies that could either lead to future product features one day or whole new product categories -- but only after actual development (in a product development group outside of MSR) takes place. MSR does not work on product development itself except in rare and small cases where research can directly spin out into a product that generally doesn't fit into an established product group.
The dollar figures MS posts for R&D do not break out the proportion that is R and the proportion that is D. Since there are less than 1000 researchers in MSR, but multiple 1000s in development, "you do the math."
They make a great context for learning, and are fun too, appealing to a broad community at various levels. A number of groups are exploring, researching and promoting robotics-based beginner programming classes. Gaming and multimedia provide other great contexts for learning.
The paradigm is less important IMO -- as someone already said, you ideally need to understand many. Context is the more important factor.
Maybe they wrote the software stack, but that's just standard software development, not a new invention. BFD. Read the RFCs. MS and MS Research staff are in the authorship of a number of the IPv6 RFCs (and others), often in collaboration with others. Up to you if you define that as invention/innovation or not.
"Network Stack Improvements The Windows Vista TCP/IP and HTTP stacks have been re-architected and re-implemented for improved performance, reliability, security, and extensibility. Support has been added or greatly improved for the IPv6 (scheduled for beta 2), IPSec, IDN, and RSS protocols. Kernel-mode access greatly improves the performance of the HTTP and Windows Sockets protocols. Significant improvements have also been made in the areas of wireless networking, quality of service (QOS), and Windows Firewall."
Our R30 is a dog. You can't put it on any flat surface because it heats up and cuts out. We have to use it with an inch airgap (it sits on a tower). Yes, the fan whirrs. Incredibly noisily too. Horrible experience. Anyone else seen this?
But otherwise, I've had good experience with a 600X (apart from the batteries), T32 and T42. And heart-in-hands, have just ordered an R52...
Slashdot Mirror
Official list of product contributions: http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/about/techtransfer/default.aspx
There is a misunderstanding exhibited by many posts here that "R&D" is about "experimentation".
Only the "R" part of R&D is to do with experimentation, and that is what MSR does. The "D" component is product development -- the thousands of developers, testers and program managers, plus all the staff around them, that do the development of the many future products coming down the line, as well as the maintenance on products already shipped. The focus of development is basically to ship something.
MSR is not about shipping products, but about researching new technolgies in general; technologies that could either lead to future product features one day or whole new product categories -- but only after actual development (in a product development group outside of MSR) takes place. MSR does not work on product development itself except in rare and small cases where research can directly spin out into a product that generally doesn't fit into an established product group.
The dollar figures MS posts for R&D do not break out the proportion that is R and the proportion that is D. Since there are less than 1000 researchers in MSR, but multiple 1000s in development, "you do the math."
BTW, regarding tech transfer, MSR has documented its tech transfers for a number of years now. For example, the most recent list is here: http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/about/techtransfer2007.aspx
They make a great context for learning, and are fun too, appealing to a broad community at various levels. A number of groups are exploring, researching and promoting robotics-based beginner programming classes. Gaming and multimedia provide other great contexts for learning.
The paradigm is less important IMO -- as someone already said, you ideally need to understand many. Context is the more important factor.
What, like Windows Workflow Foundation?
http://msdn.microsoft.com/workflow
Or Sharepoint workflows?
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointdesigner/CH100667661033.aspx
Yes, you're reading it wrong:
"IPv6" is an implementation of the "Internet Protocol version 6" -- quote marks mine for emphasis.
The claim is of the *implementation* (and specifically for XP, in the context of the reference), not of the protocol.
http://research.microsoft.com/aboutmsr/pastpresentfuture/contributions.aspx
It is the only thing that is directly visible...but with windows that's all that there is, eycandy and features that still aren't there.
d efault.aspx
Perhaps you missed the substantial amount of documentation available that describes the new features:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/windowsvista/reference/
etc.
"Network Stack Improvements
c ommunications/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dnl ong/html/communication_infrastructure.asp#communic ation_infrastructure_topic3
The Windows Vista TCP/IP and HTTP stacks have been re-architected and re-implemented for improved performance, reliability, security, and extensibility. Support has been added or greatly improved for the IPv6 (scheduled for beta 2), IPSec, IDN, and RSS protocols. Kernel-mode access greatly improves the performance of the HTTP and Windows Sockets protocols. Significant improvements have also been made in the areas of wireless networking, quality of service (QOS), and Windows Firewall."
Ref: http://msdn.microsoft.com/windowsvista/reference/
ACM Student Research Competition is sponsored by Microsoft Research:
http://www.acm.org/src/
These other Microsoft-sponsored student competitions are more pointedly international, but US students can enter:
http://thespoke.net/Imagine/ (6 different CS and applied CS themes)
http://www.windowschallenge.com/ (Embedded Systems)
> does the MPAA have a site like that of the British Board of Film Classification?
MSN Search (or that other engine) not working for you?
http://mpaa.org/movieratings/about/index.htm
Because he went to MIT last year:0 2-26MIT.asp
http://www.microsoft.com/billgates/speeches/2004/
And UIUC, Cornell, CMU, and Harvard.
Our R30 is a dog. You can't put it on any flat surface because it heats up and cuts out. We have to use it with an inch airgap (it sits on a tower). Yes, the fan whirrs. Incredibly noisily too. Horrible experience. Anyone else seen this?
But otherwise, I've had good experience with a 600X (apart from the batteries), T32 and T42. And heart-in-hands, have just ordered an R52...
Yeah -- here's Motorola ignoring Microsoft: MPx200
Of course there are! Here's the story they're reading: Windows Embedded Cool Devices Quick Reference Guide