Fortune.com - Fast Forward - Microsoft Is Not Complacent About Innovation Fortune's David Kirkpatrick talks to Rick Rashid who runs Microsoft Research - the mavrick group within Mincrosoft that has now overtaken Xerox PARC as the most talked about innovative research facility where the technology of the future is being built. I recently went to a conference where Microsoft Research were presenting - and they do indeed have some fascinating stuff they're working on - some of which are now becoming commercially available. SPOT for example, (Smart Personal Object Technology) is looking at putting intelligence into everyday object. One of the first such commercially available objects is a Dick Tracy -like watch that uses radio signals to communicate with local sources and downloads everything from the local time, weather, your e-mail, your stocks, etc all into a cool little watch.

Needless to say, they have some unusual practices to encourage their scientists to be innovative. No budgeting for example (something I'm sure only Microsoft could get away with!). This article is definately worth a read - as is a trip to Microsoft Research's website to get an idea of some of the "crazy" things they're working on...