Zune Social: 1. What type of Zune do you currently own?
All of them! I have 2 Zune30’s (pink and white), the Citron Zune 16 (Zune employee ship gift for the 2007 release, only about ~400 made), pink Zune8 (Zune Originals), a Zune80, and a Zune120. I use my 120 most of the time, and my wife owns the pink Zune8. And no, you can’t buy my Citron 16.
2. What have you learned from your friends at Zune Social?
That they like to send me some of the most random music! I am a Zune Insider, which means that I can have unlimited friends, and new users can choose to add me as a friend when they sign up. I get tons of inbox messages daily, and it’s awesome to try out all of the great music people enjoy.
3. Tell us about the origin of your ZuneTag?
My ZuneTag is Skipdeez, which was taken from my Xbox Live Gamertag. I got the nickname Skippy (remember the show “Family Ties”?) wayyyy back in 8th grade. Sadly, that nickname has stuck with me throughout my life. Back around 2000, I was involved in a hip-hop group/record label, and my emcee name was Skip. One of my buddies started calling me Skipdeezy in his rhymes, and it just stuck. Now Skipdeez has become my internet-alter-ego. If ya don’t know, now ya know…
4. What type of music do you listen to (name as many as necessary -- genres/groups)?
I listen to EVERYTHING! However, I generally listen to Hip-Hop, electronic music, and some alternative rock. I’d say my favorites in each genre are OutKast, Daft Punk, and Radiohead.
5. What's your favorite thing about Zune (favorite feature)?
My favorite feature has always been wireless sync. Not just because I was the first test engineer to work on this technology, but because it’s just so nice to be able to dock your device every evening and have all of the new podcasts, channels, etc, automatically sync’d to the device. I just grab it off the dock in the morning and go.
6. Tell us about some of your day-to-day duties at the Zune offices?
I usually come in about 30 minutes late, then just space out for a little while… oh wait, that’s Office Space. Seriously though, I am an SDET (software development engineer in test) so I usually fire up the newest daily build of the product first thing when I get in to see what new things the developers have implemented and give a quick glance over my features and make sure everything is as expected. If I encounter any bugs, then I spend some time debugging the issues and getting them logged in the database. I usually have 1-3 meetings every day, so it’s generally off to a meeting after that. After the meetings subside, I will work on creating new test cases, creating test plans, and working with the PM and dev team to plan new features. After that it’s onto the forums to answer private messages, gather data on the top issues our users are encountering, and post some troubleshooting tips. Of course during all of this, there are Nerf wars going on and I am jamming whatever latest tunes I have downloaded from the Marketplace. I do lots of other things as they come up over the course of the day, but that’s a pretty typical Zune day at work for me.
7. What are some of your hobbies? What's your life like away from Zune Social?
I am an avid golfer, so when I am not at work on a nice day, you can usually find me on the links. I also trade stocks, so at home I’m watching Mad Money and doing my due diligence on my next stock play. I also love playing some Xbox360 (Uno, anyone?), and I have to admit I’m a bit addicted to Animal Crossing on the Wii right now. Aside from that, I love to go out and have a good time with friends, so you might even see me out and about town with some buddies.
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