Best products from r/microsoft

Hey guys, I posted this over at /r/mechanicalkeyboards but figured that some folks here might be interested too.

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Hey Reddit - I know this isn't a mechanical keyboard, but there seemed to be at least some interest in the Sculpt keyboard and I just got my hands on one so I figured I'd throw together a quick review.

Overview

If you aren't familiar with the keyboard in question, I'm reviewing the Microsoft Sculpt, the successor to the Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 and Natural Keyboard Pro. This is more or less Microsoft's flagship keyboard in the ergonomics line, featuring a bi-sectional layout with an actual split between the two sets of keys, unlike their curve line which is more like a traditional keyboard, just wavy.

I was first introduced to this type of keyboard back in 1995 when the original Natural Pro came out. I was working at Microsoft at the time and our management wanted everyone to switch over. Using that experience as a template, if you've never used a split keyboard before and you do a fair amount of typing, it'll probably take about a week to two weeks to get used to the layout (assuming you're already a touch typer). If you only type sparingly, probably closer to a month.

The Sculpt keyboard currently only comes in a set with a mouse and the keyboard cannot be purchased separately at this time. The keyboard is wireless, connecting via a small USB dongle. The dongle connects all three desktop components - the mouse, keyboard, and 10-key numpad. The set MSRP's for $129.95 in the US.

Details

The keyboard has chiclet style key caps with scissor switches on top of rubber domes. The key caps are pad printed.

The layout of the keyboard is similar to the old Microsoft Natural Elite keyboards, with the squashed six-key configuration. Delete, Home, End, Insert, PgUp, and PgDn are in a double-row set of keys to the right of the main key set. There is no spacing between the primary keys and the six keys. The arrow keys are left in the normal two row configuration, but the left arrow is set directly underneath the right shift key and shares the row with the bottom Ctrl key.

The numpad is a separate unit entirely - configured in a full-sized 10-key layout. The numpad has a few extra keys mimicking an old-fashioned calculator input. It has an app button which is mapped to calc.exe by default, as well as a backspace and clear button. For whatever reason, there is also a calc.exe button on the main keyboard.

There are no lights on the keyboard. When you hit any of the lock keys, there is no physical indication. However there is a software popup in Windows itself - a tiny window that comes up over your systray for two seconds that tells you NUMLOCK ON, or NUMLOCK OFF.

There are no separate media keys, instead they are bundled with the half-height function keys as alt-actions. In order to use the alt-action functionality, you must toggle a physical switch in the upper right-hand corner. If you leave your toggle to "white", the F1 key acts as the normal HELP button. Click to "blue" and it is now the Play/Pause media button. Want to pause your music and refresh your webpage? Click to blue to make F1 pause, click to white to have F5 refresh. It's a little weird.

The keyboard has a small amount of padding on the wrist rest area - if you've used the Natural 4000, it's about the same, maybe a tiny bit thinner. The rest is wrapped in a pleather'ish material.

The keyboard also comes with a riser which lifts the front of the keyboard (the side towards the user) up about an inch higher. The installation of the riser is actually sort of slick - they used embedded magnets and the whole thing just snaps into place. In fact, they do the same thing for the battery covers for the keyboard and mouse (not the numpad though - that has a screw).

Impressions

I was not a fan of the Natural 4000 because the keys felt too sluggish and heavy (the 4000 was just rubber dome). The flat, chiclet style keycaps as well as the scissor switch makes the Sculpt feel much more springy and I much prefer the action on this new keyboard. It's obviously not a replacement for my MX Blues, but it's actually not bad.

The layout is a bit annoying. I'm not sure why Microsoft decided to squish the six key configuration as they did. Seems if they were going to rip the ten key off, they would have left the six key alone. I've been a touch typer for years and it's irritating to have to hunt and peck to figure out where my Home key went to. Leaving the arrow config normal was a good call - I don't think anyone liked the diamond layout on the Elites.

Assuming you use the Sculpt mouse, the entire set uses five batteries. 2 AA's for the mouse, 2 AAA's for the keyboard, and a CR2430 for the numpad. That seems a bit excessive to me, although I think I read somewhere that Microsoft expects the batteries to last for over a year (can't find any solid sources on battery life).

Conclusion

I like the Sculpt keyboard better than the Natural 4000, but probably not enough to replace my Rosewill 9100 with MX Blues full time. However, I do find the natural styles more comfortable to type on for extended periods of time. So if you don't want to or can't shell out the money for something like a Kinesis or an Ergodox kit, the Sculpt is not a bad piece of hardware.

Is it worth picking up this $130 MSRP package for the mouse and keyboard when you can just get the Natural Keyboard 4000 right now for under $40? That's honestly a hard call - I really like the action on the Sculpt better than the 4000, but the new Sculpt mouse sucks (IMO) when compared to the old Natural Laser Mouse 6000 - plus for around the same price, you could pick up the Natural 4000 and a Evoluent VerticalMouse (assuming you wanted an ergo-mouse too).

One big gripe - everything is black gloss. Fingerprints and smudges everywhere. Who thought this was a good idea?

I am a Microsoft "orange badge," also known as a vendor or contractor. I am a huge Microsoft fan boy and have worked in enterprise level IT for 12+ years in Houston. I got my job with Microsoft out of the blue, a headhunter found me randomly on LinkedIn. Like HanumanCT, I too do not have a college degree.

As HanumanCT stated, knowing somebody gets you nowhere in Microsoft other than the fact that they get a referral bonus if you get hired. I have two friends who were hired on 6 and 4 months before me (as blue badges), they just applied at http://careers.microsoft.com. The only thing their employment gave me was a little insight in to the culture.

The beauty of Microsoft however is that it is a giant corporation, and they love to promote from within if you are worthy. So, just because you don't get hired as a marketing guru straight out of college doesn't mean you might not end up there. Also, many vendors/contractors are eventually hired on full-time so don't fear the orange badge. I do not feel like a vendor or contractor, and with the exception of some legal and additional training stuff I have all the rights of an FTE and am treated as such.

Starting out at one of their retail stores may be a fantastic opportunity for someone like yourself, submit your resume and see what happens. Also be proactive and visit the store and ask about openings if they don't respond, sometimes a little initiative goes a long way. Come up with some ideas or promotions for the store, or anything to get your foot in the door.

One thing I learned during my early days at Microsoft (I am an Active Directory Premier Field Engineer), is be prepared to be humbled daily. There are so many brilliant people working there, that even though you may be the smartest of your friends or the best employee at your previous jobs, it takes a lot of hard work to stand out at a company like Microsoft.

I felt overwhelmed in my first few months, and I had over a decade of experience in my field. Heck, a year later and I still feel frequently humbled any time I'm on a conference call with senior engineers.

EDIT - I see you're from Houston. If you want to meet up for a beer or coffee and talk about it one on one PM me. I'd be happy to help anyway I can. I also highly suggest Stephen Toulouse's book "A Microsoft Life." It is a great inside look at Microsoft the corporation.

I went to school for it, but I'll be the first to tell you that a fucking class isn't the best way to learn how to code. What kind of questions do you have?

If you're confused about why something like "System.out.println("Hi");" actually prints something to the console, I can explain to you what everything in that statement means (it's actually really intuitive and easy, and it's something professors usually don't tell you when they're introducing you to code writing).

If you want a recommendation on where to learn, Khan Academy and Code Academy are fantastic free resources, but another free service that I've found to be phenomenal has been [tutorialspoint.com] (http://www.tutorialspoint.com/java/). I also just recently purchased [a really good C# book] (http://www.amazon.com/5-0-Nutshell-The-Definitive-Reference/dp/1449320104/ref=zg_bs_697342_6); I like what I've seen in it thus far and if one by the same author exists for Java I'd recommend it.

All that said, by all means, ask me (or anyone else in this thread that'd like to answer questions) whatever you'd want. You also might want to check out /r/learnprogramming, and when you start getting to the more intermediate levels of programming stackoverflow.com is one of the best collab resources out there.

I'm not sure if mods would be okay with a programming question thread in this sub, so if you make a new thread somewhere else make sure to PM me so I can help answer your questions.

I'm finishing up my BS in Computer Science at The University of Texas at Austin. I've completed 3 internships at Microsoft (Office, Windows, and Visual Studio) in the summers of '10, '11, and '12, and I will be returning to the Visual Studio group in January as a full time employee.

I nonchalantly gave my resume to someone at the Microsoft booth at a job fair for science majors at my school. Got a call and had a short interview at the UT campus. The questions weren't very technical or difficult: "how do you test software?" and "write a function to shuffle a deck of cards." Long story short, I was invited to Redmond to continue the interview process (they do this for all interns). I had 4 different 50-minute interviews in Redmond. The questions were more difficult, but nothing too terrible. After all, these questions were intended for interns.

I wanted to get some experience with a different team for the summer of '11, so I re-applied and re-interviewed. I had 4 more interviews with folks on the Windows team. I got similar questions. I think it's important to say that you don't have to blow all of your interviews out of the park; I certainly didn't. I was very nervous during the first one and didn't connect with the interviewer. I screwed up writing a factorial function, if you can believe that.

I prepared for the second round of interviews by reading this book, and I found it to be fairly helpful. Although it can't possibly have every interview question, it prepares you for the types of questions you can be asked.

After my internship with Windows, I wanted to return to Microsoft, but on the East Coast, where Microsoft has some Visual Studio development. I did a phone interview and was offered the position based on positive feedback from former interviewers.

The link you gave is for research interns, which as far as I know are for Ph.D students. If you're interested in a non-research internship, you should visit http://careers.microsoft.com/careers/en/us/internships.aspx.

Hope that helps! Cheers.

Edit: For those viewing the thread late -

For an entry level Surface tablet I'd currently recommend the Surface 3 64GB/2GB model + external monitor over the Surface Pro 3 i3 model since the performance is so similar - just don't expect to be able to play more than basic games or the ability to watch high bit-rate HD video.

If you want to splurge on a mid-range Surface tablet then I'd go for the Surface Pro 4 i5 128GB/4GB model - the CPU performs twice as fast as the low end tablets, and the graphics performance is about 70% better than all the others. The display is also higher quality and slightly larger, pressure sensitivity is increased x4, better camera, and it comes with a pen. The extra RAM and storage space will really help stave off any headaches you may experience with the entry models.

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I think the main decision here is how much money you are willing to spend on it. Objectively, more money gets you a better device, so setting a price point pretty much establishes which one you are going to get:

• Low-end: ~$400 - Surface 3 Atom 64GB | 2GB | 1.6 - 2.4 GHz | 2MB Cache | 600 MHz
  
• Low-end: ~$500 - Surface Pro 3 i3 64GB | 2GB | 1.5 GHz | 3MB Cache | 850 MHz
  
• Mid-range: ~$700 - Surface Pro 3 i5 s4 128GB | 4GB | 1.9 - 2.9 GHz | 3MB Cache | 1100 MHz
  
• Mid-range: ~$800 - Surface Pro 4 i5 s6 128GB | 4GB | 2.4 - 3.0 GHz | 3MB Cache | 1000 MHz
  
• High-end: ~$1000 - Surface Pro 3 i7 256GB | 8GB | 1.7 - 3.3 GHz | 4MB Cache | 1100 MHz
  
  * Image comparison
  
  The 10.8" devices are actually a Surface 3's with a Atom x7-Z8700 processors. The 12" devices are the Surface Pro 3's with core i3/i5/i7 processors. The i5/i7 CPU's generally perform twice as well as the Atom/i3 in benchmarks. The Surface Pro 4 also performs about 70% better than the Pro 3's in graphics benchmarks (+7-15% better in CPU tests).
  
  Since you are unlikely be using it for anything super demanding, I'd recommend you go for the mid-range Surface Pro 3 (see my note at the bottom about the Pro 4 though, which is a decent upgrade for +$80). Both screens have the same DPI (detail level), so you are getting roughly 25% more screen real estate with the bigger one (no quality improvement). Draw two rectangles with the following dimensions to get an idea of the difference in viewing area:
  
  9" x 6" vs. 10" x 6.7"
  
  Otherwise, the core i5/i7 processors have TurboBoost to add another 1 GHz of processing power (the i3 apparently does not, Atom has Boost for +800 MHz). 4GB of ram is much better than 2GB, and 128GB storage space would be much better than 64 as you could easily bump into the later's limit. 8GB Ram, 256GB storage, and a Core i7 are the top-end luxury options which have diminishing returns over the mid-range options.
  
  Keep in mind the following things:
  
  
• You may want to invest in a Type Cover in order to have a physical keyboard
  
• Similarly, you may want a USB or bluetooth mouse
  
• Try to get one which comes with Windows 10 instead of 8
  
• A larger investment, but potentially worthwhile one, would be an external monitor with a DisplayPort connector - both devices have Mini DisplayPorts for hooking up to monitors for lots more screen real estate
  
• There are Surface Pro 4 devices available which cost roughly $100 more for the same system specs as the Pro 3 versions, but with better DPI and .3" larger screen

That's not a limited trial. Office is now subscription-based.

That $80 gives you updates for the next four years, plus you get a terabyte of cloud storage. It's like $500 worth of Microsoft's "Dropbox" plus the most up to date version of office.

If you want an antiquated version of office, use openoffice or something similar. It's free and probably better than using an old version.

Check to see if Amazon offers the student version for less. I bought a year of regular office on Amazon for $65 (regular $100/yr or $10/month).

Edit: here is the four-year student subscription on Amazon for $70 (key card, not immediate download). http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-University-Subscription-Validation-Required/dp/B00B766VZE#

I got this Access Step-by-Step book for Kindle for about $10, and found it pretty good. I haven't finished it, so I'm not sure if it gets as advanced as you're looking for, but it's definitely a good start.

The Step-by-Step books are what Microsoft uses when they do their in-store personal training, for what that's worth.

I'm a casual gamer, but I play Links 2003 golf (which started out as MS Golf many moons ago) & it's PowerStroke feature requires precision. I've gone from Razer to Logitech to GigaByte to many rebadged brands in-between & frankly a £10 Chinese mouse from Amazon has proved to be great, I buy 2 or 3 at a time, as I play SO much golf the left-click always wears down, even on expensive mice

https://www.amazon.co.uk/TeckNet-RAPTOR-Gaming-Button-Non-programmable/dp/B00E290JRE

wired, 5 buttons, 3 speeds, no software required (although I remap buttons 4 & 5 with external software to suit various needs). Right-hand use only though

>* Microsoft Wireless Comfort Desktop 5000 (English & French) ($29) | Amazon

• Microsoft Wireless Desktop 2000 ($22) | Amazon
  
• Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 ($24) | Amazon
  
• Microsoft Universal Mobile Keyboard for iPad, iPhone, Android devices, and Windows tablets ($50) | Amazon
  
• Microsoft Wedge Mobile Keyboard ($35) | Amazon
  
• Microsoft Arc Touch Bluetooth Mouse for PC, Microsoft Surface, and Windows Tablets ($40) | Amazon
  
• Microsoft Sculpt Comfort Bluetooth Mouse (H3S-00003) ($16) | Amazon
  
• Microsoft Sculpt Touch Bluetooth Mouse for PC and Windows Tablets ($23) | Amazon
  
• Microsoft Wireless Mobile Mouse 3500 - Black ($12) | Amazon
  
• Microsoft Wireless Mobile Mouse 3500 Halo Limited Edition: The Master Chief ($15) | Amazon
  
• Microsoft LifeCam HD-3000 (T3H-00011) ($19) | Amazon
  
• Microsoft Wireless All-In-One Media Keyboard (N9Z-00001) ($18) | Amazon
  
• Microsoft Sculpt Ergonomic Mouse (L6V-00001) ($23) | Amazon
  
• Microsoft Wireless Mobile Mouse 3500 - Loch Ness Gray ($12) | Amazon
  
• Microsoft Xbox 360 Wireless Controller for Windows ($33) | Amazon
  
  all links have had affiliate tags taken out and just a direct link to respective sites

Dells own description on Amazon for this machine. Not bad at all Dell not bad at all.

No junkware or trialware, ensuring it is always clean, fast, and protected

2015 Newest Model Dell XPS13 Ultrabook Computer - the World's First 13.3" FHD WLED Backlit Infinity Display, 5th Gen Intel Core i5-5200U Processor 2.2GHz / 4GB DDR3 / 128GB SSD / Windows 8.1 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00RY4X8A4/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_A6dYub1JJQYWA
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00RY4X8A4/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_A6dYub1JJQYWA