Steve Clayton

Where to get your Clayton fix

stevecla01 — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 15:50:54 GMT

Greetings. You may have noticed that things have been rather slow around here for a while….apologies for that but it’s with good reason and there is a solution to maintain your geek fix. see below

Next at Microsoft is my main beat now…thanks to your support of Geek in Disguise over the years, the man gave me a real blogging job and much of what you’d previously seen here is now available at www.microsoft.com/next or by clicking on the image above. You can grab the RSS feed, subscribe via Feedburner or subscribe to Next at Microsoft by email

Here’s a glimpse of what you may be missing on Next

my Posterous site hosts the stuff that doesn’t fit with Next – cool videos, interesting ads, unusual products and anything that I stumble across that I wan to bookmark. Here’s a glimpse of what you may be missing there

I hope you find time to check out both and maintain your fix! feedback welcome as always…

I’m up for a Niney

stevecla01 — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 23:40:00 GMT

Gosh…I’ve been nominated for a Niney!!

Surprised and honored especially with the esteemed company in the category of favorite Microsoft Blogger. I’m up against Larry Osterman, Scott Guthrie, Mark Russinovich, Raymond Chen and Scott Hanselman. Seriously….me in the same group as these guys. I feel ashamed to call myself a geek.

Nevertheless, I’ll be there at MIX11, quivering in my seat when the winners are announced and smiling charmingly when I don’t win.

Cast your vote now in the favorite Microsoft Blogger category – all of the others guys write killer blogs so if you chose to vote for me, you have my eternal thanks and a guaranteed beer in Vegas or coffee in Seattle.

AI past and future

stevecla01 — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 00:37:00 GMT

A fun cartoon by Tom Gauld

Another year, another business card

stevecla01 — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 05:50:00 GMT

My latest official card – this one has my job title as Editor: Next at Microsoft – which is where the tag below takes you. You can grab a Tag reader for most mobile devices by browsing to http://gettag.mobi from your device. My other job title is Senior Director, Storytelling which according to Fortune.com is a “wacky” job title :)

What’s in my sack?

stevecla01 — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 05:05:00 GMT

I was inspired by Hugh’s recent post on his portable studio, I got thinking about what I carry around every day – what are the tools of my trade?

My main use bag is the Rapha backpack from the legendary cycling company. The build quality of their stuff is second to none and this bag is no exception. The detailing is wonderful with little touches of their trademark pink here and there. The bag itself has a good selection of external and internal pockets including a laptop divider. It’s big enough to house my essentials while being small enough that I have to judiciously pick what I carry. Here’s today’s inventory

Lenovo X301 laptop + small power supply. Though I have a smaller laptop with my Vaio X, the Lenovo is the perfect combination of power to weight.
Zune HD 32
Bowers and Wilkins P5 headphones. Okay, they take up too much space but they’re to good to leave at home!
Leica D-LUX 4 – used for taking snaps around campus. More of which will be showing up on Next at Microsoft soon!
Micro USB cable – for sync and power of my Samsung Focus
Oakley Flak Jackets – I live in Seattle. I live in hope.
Numerous pens and markers
Cowshed lipbalm – did I mention I live in Seattle? “Stolen” from High Road House
Various memory sticks – 2x4gb, 1x16gb (rarely used) given the cloud syncs all my stuff.
Do Epic *** stickers – I just got a load more of these and friends keep asking me for them.
Microsoft Arc Touch Mouse – flat and perfect
Sony ICD-UX200 digital voice recorder. Slowly being made redundant by my Samsung Focus and OneNote

That’s my daily load – all I need (and more really) to get my gig done. What’s your haul look like?

About those Windows Phone ads…

stevecla01 — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 20:55:00 GMT

Art imitates life imitates art. Poor girl…but too funny not to share.

…remind you of anything?

The Sartorialist is one of my heroes

stevecla01 — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 00:42:00 GMT

when your hobby becomes your job, you'll never work another day in your life. I've gotten pretty close to this....as has The Sartorialist (albeit he's a bit more famous).

I’ve decided to pick up my camera and start to shoot more of Microsoft and my travels. Some of it will appear here, some will appear on Next.

The processor is an expression of human potential

stevecla01 — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 08:02:35 GMT

spotted in Vegas…one Hugh MacLeod, looking well, drawing brilliantly and quick witted as ever. Hats off to Intel for nabbing him for the show!

as for The processor is an expression of human potential – it’s created a ton of jobs, wealth and amazing things so I can’t disagree with that.

What’s Next?

stevecla01 — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 05:20:00 GMT

As you may have noticed, things have gotten pretty slow with updates to this blog of late – it’s been a hard decision to not post as much here given Geek in Disguise has been a labour of love for about 5 years. My new home is taking up much of my time though so if you haven’t had chance to wander over to Next at Microsoft, now may be a good time. The content is pretty similar (though some of the random stuff is now on my Posterous site) so I’d encourage you to update your bookmarks or RSS settings and sign up to Next as it’s where I’m going to be putting a lot of my energy in 2011. There will still be the odd post here for stuff that doesn’t fit with Next.

Here’s a glimpse of what you may be missing on Next

I’m also an occasional author of posts on the official Microsoft Blog – a few recent posts have been

So come on over to Next…the water is warm

Happy Christmas!

stevecla01 — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 13:30:00 GMT

Wonderful composite video

stevecla01 — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 23:09:00 GMT

Lovely work from GE and similar from Nike

hat tip to FlowingData

British IT humour

stevecla01 — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 22:37:00 GMT

Enfield and Corbett. Classic…and given Google is a verb, ironic that it didn’t make it in to the sketch!

Minifig yourself

stevecla01 — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 07:02:00 GMT

I got sent a minifig of myself recently and they’re scarily good. Check ‘em out at Sculpteo – 3D printed using two photos of you.

The link between ID theft and going green

stevecla01 — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 06:56:00 GMT

One thing I’ve been impressed by as I’ve settled in to life in the US is the easy with which you can choose to have most of your statements from banks, insurance, utilities and pretty much everyone else delivered to you electronically. The reason most companies give for this choice (which they often set as the default) is to save trees – my suspicion is they’re at least as keen to help you avoid ID theft but they don’t mention that for fear of spooking people. I’m totally cool with it – saving trees and saving my ID and both important and I was reminded of the latter with a great infographic from which the above stat is taken. see below courtesy of Reflectionof.me

Windows Phone 7 and personality

stevecla01 — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 00:44:00 GMT

Hugh’s latest seemed entirely appropriate for Windows Phone 7 – this product has more personality that any other Microsoft product I know.

Dilbert on social media

stevecla01 — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 00:39:00 GMT

Simple Wallpaper

stevecla01 — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 10:57:00 GMT

Love this…and many more wallpapers from simpledesktops.com

The difference between need and want

stevecla01 — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 07:15:48 GMT

Just in case anyone is listening (pun), I absolutely definitely need these headphones. This is not a case of want, it’s definitely need.

If the B&W MM-1 speakers are anything to go by, these will rock the house (pub). Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Bowers and Wilkins P5 headphones. Did I mention they include a microphone which apparently is designed for an iPhone but clearly needs me to test with Lync on my PC and my Windows Phone 7. Oh and earpads crafted from the finest quality New Zealand sheep’s leather. Oh yes, this is want factor 10.

13 years at Microsoft. What’s Next

stevecla01 — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 07:37:00 GMT

Today is my thirteen year anniversary at Microsoft and though 13 is supposed to be an unlucky number, today I feel pretty lucky. I’m about to start a new era where a hobby becomes my day job. Nope, I’m not leaving Microsoft but I will be leaving this blog a little.

A few hours ago, I hit publish on the first post on a new site called Next at Microsoft. As some of you may know, I moved to Seattle about 6 months ago and have been heads down working on a lot of things – this new site has been one of them. A lot of the type of posts you’ve seen here over the years will start to appear on Next at Microsoft. My job title these days is storyteller and this blog, which has been a hobby in many ways, is a big reason for the change. I have a passion for telling the Microsoft story and when the chance came up to turn that in to my day job, it was hard to resist. For 13 years I have resisted the pull of the mothership but the time and the job were right.

My days are now spent dashing around Microsoft’s offices here in Redmond, Bellevue, and Seattle – as well as chatting with folks on the phone in our offices around the world – gathering stories about the people, products and places where they work. Next at Microsoft will be the place I post those stories so the frequency on this blog will go down as I focus my efforts there. As some of you know, I also have a Posterous site where I post the irreverent stuff I find on the web. That will continue.

I’d like to do 3 things

thank you all for following, commenting and encouraging this blog. it’s never been a day job and at times has gotten me in to trouble (you know who you are), it’s won me awards and introduced me to some lifelong friends.
invite you to Next at Microsoft and the associated twitter handle @MSFTNext. if you like what you read here, I think you’ll like my new home. I now have greater access to a lot more of the goings on here in Redmond so you’ll hopefully see some deeper insight in to that world.
bring a friend with you – let your friends know about Next at Microsoft and to give it a read. no subscription fees, no penalty if they cancel their readership :)

When I walked through the doors of Microsoft UK 13 years ago, I was amazed I’d managed to bluff my way in and I’ve never looked back. Have I looked beyond Microsoft at times and thought about what’s next? Sure, everyone has I imagine but for me, right now What’s Next is Next at Microsoft.

Talking to Slate

stevecla01 — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 23:52:04 GMT

No, I haven’t got myself an iPad and starting talking to it….I’m talking about a demo fest I helped host yesterday with the crew from Slate’s Culture Gabfest. Stephen Metcalf, Dana Stevens, and Julia Turner came by to check out Kinect so Ryan Moore and I took them over to our Visitor Center and showed them River Rush, Kinect Sports, Kinectimals and a few other things.

They headed to downtown Seattle that evening to record their podcast in front of a live audience and talked for quite a while about the Kinect experience. My favourite line was

“A technology that has so much crazy promise to do so many things we can’t even dream of yet”

Yep…we’re just scratching the surface. Head over to their site to hear the podcast discuss Cher and Christina Aguilera's new film Burlesque as well as "MFA vs. NYC”.

Kinect hits the comics

stevecla01 — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 20:45:59 GMT

[image credit – foxtrot.com]

Kinect meets popular culture.

Microsoft Store in my Windows Phone

stevecla01 — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 05:50:44 GMT

I was searching the Zune Marketplace today and happened across the Microsoft Store app for Windows Phone. It’s actually a pretty nicely executed app and though I don’t see myself using it a ton it was handy to check prices of gear at our store, opening times and see what classes are on. I shouldn’t admit this but I may actually attend a class or two – to see what’s being said but I expect I’d learn something I don’t know on topics like Windows Live Essentials 2011. I know that’s tantamount to admitting I’m not a geek but honestly, that suite is chock full of chachka.

The most fun part was seeing my partner in crime, Kim Stocks right there in the middle of the application. Task for 2011 – get my mug shot in there. Ha ha…

Anyway you can grab the app if interested – reviews are pretty good but I agree with one comment that it’d be cool to have a daily tip or something like that to give me a reason to check back.

Technology meets the football…at last

stevecla01 — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 18:52:18 GMT

The video speaks for itself – this ball could change the game of football and usher in an era of transparency…and statistical overload.

The obvious features are the ability for the ball to highlight when it’s crossed a line for a goal, corner, or throw in. Perhaps even more interesting is the stats that could be generated from this thing – we’d get very accurate details of time in play, speed of travel and if players had RFID in their boots we could see who had spent most time with the ball at their feet. Huge potential.

Of course the naysayers will say it’ll be hacked and start flashing for goals in the center circle – for a moment though, lets just rejoice that innovative minds out there are thinking up such things. Mexican studio Agent just won the coveted Red Dot concept award for this work.

via fastcodesign

Your mileage may vary

stevecla01 — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 05:55:31 GMT

Great to see British Airways have now embraced mobile boarding – alas not on Windows Phone 7. We seem to be doing a decent job of getting some of the most popular apps on to WP7 though so hoping this one makes it across soon.

Meantime, my friend John Caswell has been road testing the app already. Your mileage may vary it seems

Killer artwork of The Killers

stevecla01 — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 20:54:10 GMT

I remember having to do a detention essay back in school when I was 16 on pointillism…it was boring. I can’t tell you the reason for the detention…far too cheeky I was…but it’s no longer boring.

The Killers IE9 website was art in itself but now I may have another reason to bolster my fledgling art collection. Oooh, is it Christmas?

Paul Normansell is the man behind the album cover for The Killer’s latest album, Day and Age which won him critical acclaim from Rolling Stone who voted it the best album cover of the year. I’d never really taken that much notice until I heard a limited edition collection of the cover and band portraits was being issued to commemorate the anniversary of the album’s release. I did a little digging…

When you look a little closer at Normansell’s work, you can see there is huge attention to detail. Check out the techniques section of his site and you’ll see why his work has attracted so much attention as his use of dots to create a final image can take weeks. The work has led to some impressive assignments, most famously with Kate Moss. Needless to say, that work is sold out.

As of late last week though, this new series went on release. It’s officially endorsed by the Killers and the work is available in an traditional paper serigraph or aluminium serigraph. Best of all, they’re all authenticated, numbered, and signed by Normansell which makes them even more collectable.