Google Loses Engineering Director Who Once Caused Steve Ballmer To Melt Down

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/13/google-loses-engineering-director-who-once-caused-steve-ballmer-to-melt-down/

by peter123 • 17 years ago

41 12 17 years ago

techcrunch.com

brown9-2• 17 years ago

This article is filled with some ... interesting statements:

Lucovsky has been an integral part of Google’s APIs, including the all-important Search APIs.

Would anyone characterize them as all-important? Also, this:

Lucovsky was also the architect of Microsoft’s Hailstorm project to port older Microsoft products into .NET. It’s a project that’s be named as a precursor to the current open web movement.

aarongough• 17 years ago

It's possible that they were referring to the Search APIs for internal use, which I would assume could be called "all-important".

edw5192• 17 years ago

“I wrote most of the kernel executive, kernel32, and the Windows API,..."

A quote like this gives hope to all of us.

No matter how complex or massive the software, it's surprising to find out it was written by one or two people.

I see this all the time. I once implemented an ERP package in a $100 million company. I called customer support and got one of the 2 guys who wrote the package! I couldn't believe it.

Believing that one or two people can code something large and awesome is often the first step to doing it yourself.

felipe• 17 years ago

I don't want to minimize their achievements, but it never takes one or two people to build something that large. There is an entire organization to support their efforts -- sales, customer support, QA, etc... There is a tendency to "hero"-ize developers in big companies, but at the end of the day it is an organization-wide effort.

edw5192• 17 years ago

I was referring to the actual programming only. Sorry if I inferred otherwise.

adharmad• 17 years ago

So that's the source of all those Ballmer+chair jokes on slashdot.

philwelch• 17 years ago

"Just tell me it’s not Google," Ballmer reportedly said according to court documents (for a case surrounding another Google ex-Microsoft hire). When Lucovsky said it was Google, Ballmer allegedly picked up a chair and threw it across the room.

What he apparently said next, will live on forever in Internet history.

"Fucking Eric Schmidt is a fucking pussy. I’m going to fucking bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again. I’m going to fucking kill Google."

Anyone else remember the old TNT made-for-TV movie Pirates of Silicon Valley? This kind of melodrama always reminds me of it.

andeka• 17 years ago

That movie is great. I own it and show it to friends who do not know the epic saga.

jonursenbach• 17 years ago

Well at least he didn't leave for Twitter like everyone else has been, I'm sure that would have caused Eric Schmidt to pull a Ballmer.

balding_n_tired• 17 years ago

I thought Dave Cutler was the principle architect on NT?

zandorg• 17 years ago

Chicago (Win95) came after NT.

Google Loses Engineering Director Who Once Caused Steve Ballmer To Melt Down

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