Week in Geek Podcast: Satya Nadella’s new book, Twitter goes to 280, and our trip to Microsoft’s mysterious new office

For anyone curious about the inner workings of Microsoft, Satya Nadella’s new book, “Hit Refresh,” is an interesting read. The Microsoft CEO is surprisingly candid and forthcoming in the book, according to GeekWire editor Todd Bishop, who reviewed it in advance of its launch this week.

We take a peek at what the book says about Nadella, how things have changed at Microsoft and his relationship with other tech leaders on this episode of the Week In Geek.

In other Microsoft news, we’ve been checking out the company’s tiny new office in the small town of Silverdale, Wash., an hour-long drive and ferry ride from Seattle.

GeekWire reporter Nat Levy paid the office a visit, and while he couldn’t find any of its employees, he still found out a lot about what the company is working on there. It largely revolves around the person in charge: recent Microsoft acquisition Nathan Evans, who was apparently the primary reason Microsoft opened the office.

To round out our Microsoft news of the week, the company’s founder, Bill Gates, took to a stage in Seattle to talk about something fairly far removed from Windows and Office. Gates, now an incredibly active philanthropist, spoke about the importance of supporting global health work around the globe and the successes of the past twenty years.

He also specifically talked about how he and other health advocates have pushed back on isolationism, skepticism of science and proposed funding cuts in Washington, D.C.

On a lighter note, Twitter made a controversial move this week: It rolled out 280 character tweets to a limited group of users, GeekWire’s Nat Levy being one of them. So is the higher limit useful, or is twice as much Twitter a bad thing? The jury is still out, but be sure to follow Nat to see how he uses it.

On the Random Channel this week: Seattleites get a Spielberg surprise; the tweet that epitomizes our frustration with smart assistants; and why Portland is more fun than Seattle.

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