award tour

Apparel isn’t a regular topic of interest here on awardtour but I thought I should point out these Tretorn boots that I bought yesterday. They’re basically the rubber equivalent of Chuck Taylor’s and they’re awesome. It is cold and rainy today in Toronto and they are warm, waterproof, and comfortable. They would have come in handy in Seattle. If you’re in the US you can find them at Zappos and in Canada Little Burgundy has them (and free shipping).

Microsoft announced today that quarterly net earnings were down 11% to a mere $4 billion. The big headline for the story though is that the company is laying off 5000 people. The Seattle Times has a ton of reporting on the story and breaks out the employment numbers a bit better here and here. The scoop is that 1400 people got canned today and the majority in Redmond. Around 5000 full-times will be let go in the next 18 months but they still plan on hiring 2000 to 3000 new people in the same time. I’m sure the number would be much larger if you count the contractors who aren’t going to get renewed contracts (”The layoffs, along with salary freezes, the elimination of contract workers, lower marketing spending, and other measures are expected to reduce operating expenditures by $1.5 billion this fiscal year.”)

The bad news for the Seattle economy is the fact that Microsoft is now delaying all construction on the expansion of their campus.

And one interesting remark from Techcrunch on the news: “Microsoft’s Web business nearly doubled its operating loss to $471 million. That loss was on flat revenues of $866 million. Not a good sign for the health of Web advertising.”

Lastly, Microsoft stock is off 9% today, down to $17. Amazon releases quarterly numbers a week today. I’m very interested to see how the holidays went for Seattle’s other big tech employer.

Looking at feedburner trends over the last few months it looks like there’s about 30 people who read awardtour five days a week. I highly suspect that I personally know every single one of these people. I also suspect that this won’t be news to any of them as it’s been in the works for a very long time…

I’m leaving Amazon in May and Seattle in June. I’ll be driving my 2000 VW Golf across the USofA and should be arriving at my final destination, Toronto, sometime during the second week of June. Soon after that, you’ll be able to find me at the offices of Unspace near Queen & Spadina. I met the guys from Unspace at Railsconf last year and I’m quite honored that they asked me to join their ranks. I suspect this is when I start asking everyone I meet “Hey, do you need a kickass Ruby on Rails consultant for your cool project?” or exclaim “What do you mean you’re not going to RubyFringe? Are you out of your mind?”

“But Tyler, don’t you love Seattle and enjoy working at Amazon? Have you lost your mind?”

‘Tis true. I am quite fond of Seattle and Amazon, excluding my brutal first year, has been great. But as you might also know, I’ve been dating my lovely girlfriend (who’s still in Toronto) for the last 3 years. Three years of phone calls and flights is more than enough for me. That said, I’m so excited to be moving back to Toronto (more so than Jessie Spano on caffeine pills).

Seattle people, I have no idea when the going away party will be. Toronto people, would asking for a parade upon my return be out of line?

That’s all for now.

Oh, I also suspect this is when Ram comments “Fuck ya! Toronto rules! What took you so long?”