Near the end of the Redmond 520 freeway spur we followed the directions to the part of the Microsoft Corporation that David works at as an editor for the Microsoft encyclopedia, Encarta. We called up to David and while waiting for him, gazed into the lobby of one of many of the campus buildings in that area of the Microsoft complex. It was a cross between a college building and a corporate headquarters. A beautiful marble reception desk flanked one wall. A variety of quite striking art pieces were above and on all the other walls. Quite handsome! David came out to let us in and fortunately, as it turned out, the pass card reader on the entry door did not work to let us back into the building. So we had to go around to the side entrance. As we walked down the hallway back to the main lobby we came to a dark glass walled studio area. “That’s where they do the video and sound stuff,” said David.

Sara stopped and looked into the locked area and as she turned to go and catch up with us a young man inside waved to us and said “hey, would you guys like to have a tour of the studio?” Would we like to? You bet. This fellow was working late on a Saturday night doing his job as an engineering tech. He was routing the miles of the cable it takes to make all the electronic gear work and be interactive in this part of the building. He took us for a spin around what appeared to be a small well-appointed studio. We first went into a conference room, which had a large, screen and various tape decks and control panels. We sat in very high tech looking but surprisingly comfortable chairs while our guide looked for something to demo for us. He was frustrated in not finding a tape of the latest work he had seen being done in the studio but instead found a tape of a “scan” they had made the day before. Appearing on the wall screen was the 3 D outline of a human head with hundreds of lines like a complex wire sculpture. This lined image rotated 90 degrees then it started to dissolve like water or mercury was being poured over it. Then from the bottom up, a super sharp picture quality likeness of the founder and Microsoft CEO was built up before us on the screen. “Oh yes,” said our guide “this is the scan they did of Bill G. yesterday.” We were quite impressed

With that we went out and saw the scanner device that was used. We thought the tour was over but our new friend kept on walking around one wall and we walked into another lager studio. This was more of the editing area. “See those blue computer CPU’s? 444 megahertz or 4 times the speed of most PC computers, at a cost of about $40,000 apiece.” (note: for those who know processor speeds in the year 2001 this shows the speed increase and price decrease in just 4 years). Walking around another wall we went into a huge studio with large workstations, each one sporting the distinctive blue computers and very large screens. This is the area of the creative computer animation where the fellow who had been the project manager of the computer animated movie “Toy Story” now worked This was turning out to be quite a fun introduction to the world of the fabled Microsoft Corporation. We saw some of the latest animation and a taste of how it was done. After the tour of the techno-wiz area we went to see David’s area where the editors of the Encarta Encyclopedia worked. In nice but small work areas the detail people edited and checked the voluminous data that is sold on a paper-thin CD disk. David is happy with his job, which allows him to work in a related area to his college degree, a rare opportunity for a literature major. He seemed bemused with the scale and intensity of the Microsoft world but happy to have a good, quiet job doing what he enjoyed.

Bill Gates has just written a book called “the Road Ahead” and this weekend Ted and Jamie were given a glimpse of what a huge and convoluted highway of technology it really is. Boy were we surprised and excited.

The following weekend we went for a return visit to Seattle. This time we went to the Seattle Art Museum. You may or may not know that Bill Gates made the winning bid of $30,000,000 at Christies Auction House in New York for one of Leonardo Di Vinci’s amazing notebooks called the “Codex Leicester.” Mr. Gates allowed the museum to have a public showing of his new acquisition. Now we all know that Leonardo was quite the Renaissance man in fact he’s the one that they coined the term for. He was truly an amazing painter, sculptor and musician. As we explored the 2nd floor of the Seattle Art Museum we found how much more the term “renaissance man” encompasses. Di Vinci was the leading scientist of his age, an inventor, civil and military engineer, botanist and astronomer. What a man! The Codex Leicester is an 18-page notebook written in mirror image (no less) exploring the natural forces of the world centering on the earth’s water. It encompasses varied studies including fossils on the top of a mountain, water currents and the reflection of the earth on the new moon. The exhibit was truly “awesome” as they say in the 90’s (Leonardo was a 90’s guy, 1490’s that is). In the resplendent galleries of the museum his life was well documented with the highlights of his paintings and scientific accomplishments. http://seattlep-i.nwsource.com/leonardo/examples.html. In the basement floor a room of experiments was set up to the delight of all the kids and many of the adult visitors. For Jamie the computers were the highlight of his visit. There were computers through out the exhibit with a CD interactive story of Leonardo Di Vinci’s life and works including a complete translation of the Codex Leicester. With a little black “mouse” you could go to any section of the manuscript and translate the highlighted passages, go to hypertext links or run an excellent audio video presentation of that selection. Now as almost everyone in the modern world knows Mr. Gates is well know for his involvement in the computer world. Over 95% of the world’s P.C. computers use Microsoft Windows as their operating systems. The link between Bill Gates and Leonardo through computer technology was interesting and I think appropriate. Bill may not have the artistic or scientific genius of da Vinci but his genius is the ability for cutting and pasting a defining moment in human direction.