June 9, 2005

Farewell, good friend...

This morning, one of my most faithful companions finally bit the bullet after nearly six years of service.

Back when I was up at Microsoft's Redmond campus in October 1999, I bought a durable metal retractable lanyard for my badge from the company store for $3.50 plus tax. I kept that lanyard the entire time I was at Microsoft. While at Microsoft, I had to replace the badge clip twice, but the mechanism worked like a charm.

At Layton City, we used sensor badges to get in, and again, my lanyard worked well. Admittedly, it was getting pretty scuffed up. You could barely make out the extension for Microsoft Security that was printed on the face, and I had to replace the clip another two times, but it continued to serve me well.

This morning, I reached for my card on my belt clip and pulled it towards the badge reader and heard a sickening "click" from inside the retracting mechanism. As soon as I heard the click, all of the thread inside just fell out. I couldn't save it this time, even though I wanted to.

My lanyard died at 9:57am this morning. A private ceremony will be held this weekend. In lieu of flowers, say a prayer for the most reliable Microsoft product I have ever used.

Speaking of Microsoft, I received an E-mail today from Microsoft Recruiting asking if I wanted to interview for a position on the Longhorn team. I declined. After all, Longhorn may be the OS of the future, but I'm already working on the cutting edge. And trust me, once the gag comes off, you're going to hear all about it.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You are either a very gentle lanyard user or the quality of retractable lanyards at the company store has dropped. I get through 3 or 4 per year.

Of course I had to click the google ad for designer lanyards http://www.womanrare.com/id_badge_lanyards_two.htm