SEATTLE -- What does Microsoft know about fun? The engineers who designed Xbox, the new 128-bit video game console that Microsoft plans to release sometime next year, know too much for their own good.
After unveiling the console's specs at a trade show last March, the team held a small party to celebrate. Having polished off several bottles of champagne sent by well-wishers, the engineers piled into an elevator to head home. Ignoring the capacity sign, they squeezed inside. The last one in was Seamus Blackley, Microsoft director of advanced techno- logy, who had to launch himself into the air over the heads of the other people to fit.
The doors closed; the elevator plunged. Three floors later, a group of suddenly sober engineers emerged. They may have been sober, but they still had a lot to celebrate.