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Robert Levy
07-14-2003, 11:18 PM
<img src="http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/images/genevamap.gif" alt="User submitted image" title="User submitted image"/>Buried in the \Windows folder of every Smartphone 2002 device is this file called genevamap.gif.<br /> <br />A message was posted in the Smartphone newsgroup asking what this file was for and Neil Enns, a Lead Program Manager in the Mobile Devices Division at Microsoft, responded with a great story explaining where it came from and gave us permission to publish it here as well.<br /><br />"Back in October of '99 Microsoft attended the Telecom 99 conference in Geneva. The show happens once every four years and is unlike any trade show I've ever seen. Apparently this year it will be smaller, but in 99 there were literally four-story exhibition booths with elevators, fountains, etc. This was spread through four different exhibition halls. Absolutely insane. (Our booth was a very modest two stories)<br /><br />Anyway, in '99 BillG had a keynote address. It was the first time Microsoft talked about our efforts in the cellphone space, and is when the world first heard about "Stinger", what became Smartphone 2002. Naturally a BillG keynote requires a demo.<br /><br />One thing to note about BillG demos is that you always have a backup. To borrow from my old choir teacher, if the building collapses the show must go on and your demo must work. Our demo included browsing to a website to locate a restaurant in Geneva for dinner from a live, working, Smartphone prototype (The phone was about as big as a cordless handset . The demo worked live, but we had a backup phone where all the necessary pages were burned into ROM just in case. The file below (as well as a couple of others) are remenants of that early demo. We found them before we shipped, but it was too late to pull them out since we are exceptionally risk averse in the end-game of a release.<br /><br />The restaurant, by the way, was "La Trattoria". We didn't know anything about it when we built the demo. One night when I was walking around Geneva after the show, I actually found the restaurant. A colleague and I ate there for dinner, and the poor folks in the restaurant couldn't figure out why we were laughing so hard and taking piles of napkins with the restaurant name on them I still have one in my office somewhere..."

spg
07-15-2003, 01:20 AM
lol! :) That is a great story, thanks for posting it here Robert. I guess this is an "accidental" easter egg... pretty nifty though.

Neil
07-15-2003, 03:11 AM
I dug around in my filing cabinet and found pictures from the show, including a pic of the restaurant. I'll scan them in and post them tomorrow. (I meant to do it tonight, but forgot the pics at work :oops:)

Andy Sjostrom
07-15-2003, 09:37 AM
Great story! :D

robcorn
07-15-2003, 02:01 PM
Wonderful story, these are what legends are made of! :D

Hopefully I'll get to see this file on my Samsung I600 when it comes out for Verizon as I am in a no-GSM coverage area....(hint, hint, all of you MVP's and others, how about a clue when I can get a Samsung Smartphone??? 8)