Slashdot Mirror
Ballmer Sends Wakeup Call to Staff
Puneet writes "An MSNBC article outlines details of how the world's biggest software company seems to be facing a technology gap. Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer of Microsoft, sent a memo across the company basically saying that with no immediate breakthroughs in technology coming, and with the Linux computer operating system and a batch of other open-source programs biting at its heels, Microsoft will have to do a better job of persuading customers it has something they need.
. Microsoft must "improve business consistency" so that customers are not hit with unexpected - and unwanted - changes. Also covered by Forbes but in lesser detail."
Microsoft will have to do a better job of persuading customers it has something they need
sounds like a few tobacco companies I know....
"get 'em hooked young, then they'll never stop!"
I'm sure if Microsoft could nicotine to a product, they would.
Mike
Much like Fox News. If you say it often enough, people will start to believe it.
Woo! Look at my Pulitzer!
...all of a sudden that iLoo isn't looking like such a bad idea...
If Microsoft emails keep leaking like this, it is about time they came up with a "Trustworthy employee" program before the "trustworthy computing" initiative.
.ACMD setaloiv siht gnidaeR
I guess Steve Ballmer was right when he said that the open-source movement stifles innovation. I mean now Microsoft has to spend all that money telling us their products are great instead of coming up with the next Clippy.
"I'm tired of all this 'Aren't humanity great' bullshit. We're a virus with shoes" - Bill Hicks
Microsoft must âoeimprove business consistencyâ
The best way to improve "business consistency" is to stop upgrading your Microsoft products. Just keep them the same.
--Lawrence Lessig for Congress!
Ballmer is well known for blowing a lot of hot air, so it's often hard to know What Exactly He's Really Saying.
From this I know you are incorrect.He's the most lucid and clear guy I've ever seen. He even repeats it just in case you don't understand.
.ACMD setaloiv siht gnidaeR
"...with no immediate breakthroughs in technology coming..."
Translation: We've run out of other people's ideas to steal.
Ruby on Rails Screencast
...school sales literally kept [Apple] afloat while the IBM PC ate their lunches (...)
:P
What do you mean? They had swimming on their schedule or something?
I agree. I would guess that the average man in the street has first and foremost on his mind to get the hell outta the street...
Any sufficiently well-organized Government is indistinguishable from bullshit.
nothing more than about a 90MHz Pentium with 2GB of disk
You want to run OpenOffice.org (or current KDE or Gnome) on a 90Mhz pentium . That would be a good school distro. Start the computer when the child enters kindergarten, it will be up and ready sometime around graduation.
It's probably even money that they'll bow to internal pressure to get something out, sort of like a WinME for XP or something, a stop gap to make people buy something.
Otherwise, all those people who paid extra to be in the guarenteed update program will be upset, because it will become obvious that they are not getting very much for their money.
That's kind of the delema that they've painted themselves into. We will ship no software before it's time. But we've already taken people's money so that they can get implied promised upgrades.
Our father, who art in Redmond
Microsoft be they name
Thy monopoly come, thy will be done
throughout the earth as it is in the US.
Give us this day, our daily license activation key
And forgive us our bug reports
as we forgive our system crashes
And lead us not into competition
But deliver us from innovation
For thine is the Control, and the Power and the Greed
Forever. Amen.
Those who would give up liberty in exchange for security and DRM should switch to Microsoft Palladium!
" . . . and with the Linux computer operating system and a batch of other open-source programs biting at its heels, Microsoft will have to do a better job of persuading customers it has something they need."
"I know you're out there. I can feel you now. I know that you're afraid. You're afraid of us. You're afraid of change. I don't know the future. I didn't come here to tell you how this is going to end. I came here to tell you how it's going to begin. I'm going to hang up this phone, and then I'm going to show these people what you don't want them to see. I'm going to show them a world....without you. A world without rules and controls. Without borders or boundaries. A world where anything is possible. Where we go from there, is a choice I leave to you."
I need to sue SlashDot for all the Hot Coffee I spilt on myself laughing!!!
HenryJamesFeltus.com
I'm waiting for the day Microsoft jumps on the BSD bandwagon. They'll have an avatar for each of the Daemons in the system. The first dark one you see will be Charon the boatman, who takes your credit card info in exchange for passage to the underworld.
During operation, you will interface with Cthulu the resource manager. (Hell the task manager seems to consume averything available already.)
The messenger system will be the Roman god Rumor.
"Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
--Dr.W.Edwards Deming