Four weeks left! My Outlook calender for the final week has been filling itself with intern events. Of the many available intern events I did attend a presentation by, the Head of Microsoft Studios, Phil Spencer. In general I avoid the intern events unless they sound like something worth doing for their own merit.

Work wise I rewrote my second project’s core into C++.  When I wrote the same core in C# it also took a week but I got a few extra features implemented. In all I would guess C++ is about half as fast to develop. This is balanced by the fact the C++ program runs several times faster.

Day 50

Seatltle/Redmond decided to give us real rain.

Snapshot of my walk to work.

The Microsoft cafeterias are not cheap. A typical meal costs ~7$. The food is high quality so it  is not a bad deal per say. Many coworkers, especially the married ones, bring a launch. Since my launches are a chance to escape from the dearth of selection at the apartment I have been buying Max Sized salads. Past a certain weight the salad bar caps out at $7.99. Since the salad bar has much more than lettuce I can buy 1.5 meals and save the extra for a mid afternoon meal.

Typical “salad”. There is in fact lettuce underneath that fried tofu.

Day 51

Nothing of note beyond a productive day of coding. I did snap a photo of the floater laptop I’ve borrowed from my team lead. I leave it on the second desk to make my office look less sad and empty. The laptop itself is not an official intern thing, just a spare laptop they had handy when I asked to borrow one. I do use it every so often.

Vista era desktop replacement which means it packs a 17 inch screen, external battery, and outlook takes a minute to launch.

Day 52

Our team got the final allotment of the financial year’s morale budget. This being the last day to spend it we went Go-Karting! I cannot drive and my only other go-karting experience was kid-safe go-karts on a family trip. Thus this was a new experience and incredible fun! The thrill of acceleration! I can see why people might buy sports cars.

View from my kart in the last charging station. About half the other racers are my coworkers.

The track was indoors which is good since it rained earlier in the morning.

Later that night was a Spotlight Intern event where company executives give presentations every few weeks. I did not attend the earlier presentations but I made an effort to attend Phil Spencer’s presentation since I love video games. I was not alone in curiosity and the event hall was filled beyond capacity. Walking through the door’s you felt the temperature difference. I spent the event in the back next to the open doors where I could walk outside into the hallway for fresh air. Of the event itself Phil Spencer knew how to handle our demographic. I get the impression that he understands video games. Which makes it odd in how mis-targeted the Xbox One was.

Food was in the room’s rear so the other half of the room is even more crowded.

Day 53

In celebration of Windows 8.1’s preview launch every floor of building 28 got frozen yogurt. Me and Eric, my mentor, got first in line so I had room to take this photo. By first I mean we were at the line’s front. The distinction is important because there was no line when we arrived. Some other engineer must have seen me and Eric standing close together decided to stand behind me. Thus creating a “line” of three people. Others who had been randomly standing around soon decided to get a spot in the line before more people came. Before I realized it there was a massive queue snaking from me and Eric down a hallway, a corner, and through another hallway!

Update 2013-10: If you are still interested please consider reading through the overview of my internship.