Check out the (MS) research…

As you may have noticed, there tends to be a theme throughout my posts where I highlight things to do to help fill those moments of work boredom with some geek/tech-related stuff that could, if caught by your line manager, probably just about be classed as legitimate work-related research.  You’ll be glad to know that the same pattern will continue…

Today’s recommended time-filler is a trip to Microsoft Research Labs.  Now I’m guessing that there are some people out there who have the opinion that whenever Microsoft need some new tech/product they simply go out, find someone who is already doing it, buy the company, rebrand the product.  The number of projects being carried out at the various MS research centres and labs across the globe does a pretty good job of highlighting how much R&D they’re actually doing.  They’ve also got some pretty cool stuff to download.  Some of it could be classed as work-related such as the Microsoft Research TCP Analyzer, others less so such as Songsmith but worth having a play with for the entertainment value alone.  Auto Collage is another that falls into the not-completely-work-related category but is also worth a look.