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Microsoft Debuts MySpace-Like IT Site
snib writes "Microsoft has launched Aggreg8, a 'social networking and collaboration space for the IT community.' Apparently, the owner of the popular open-source RSS reader of the same name sold the domains to Microsoft for $5000 in August in order to host what was then called 'Microcosm.' Microsoft hopes their new service, which utilizes Windows Live ID (formerly .NET Passport) authentication, will become a 'MySpace-like forum for developers to share scripts, tools, or best practices, or even to just connect with others within the profession.'"
MATERIALS PROVIDED TO MICROSOFT OR POSTED AT ANY MICROSOFT WEB SITE
Microsoft does not claim ownership of the materials you provide to Microsoft (including feedback and suggestions) or post, upload, input or submit to any Services or its associated services for review by the general public, or by the members of any public or private community, (each a "Submission" and collectively "Submissions"). However, by posting, uploading, inputting, providing or submitting ("Posting") your Submission you are granting Microsoft, its affiliated companies and necessary sublicensees permission to use your Submission in connection with the operation of their Internet businesses (including, without limitation, all Microsoft Services), including, without limitation, the license rights to: copy, distribute, transmit, publicly display, publicly perform, reproduce, edit, translate and reformat your Submission; to publish your name in connection with your Submission; and the right to sublicense such rights to any supplier of the Services. No compensation will be paid with respect to the use of your Submission, as provided herein.
Or; post code for your pet project on this site and we will use it and sell it as our own.
If man has no tea in him, he is incapable of understanding truth and beauty
You cant even browse around without logging in. Sites which require logins for visiting should be boycotted and not promoted on Slashdot.
May I be the first to point out that it is god-awfully ugly?
Mod me down if you so please, I hope to never see the light of day after seeing what I just witnessed.
I didn't get past the first page...
* No Passport for me, thank you
* The tag line is really trying to hard to be geek chic
I have a bunch of zer0-day sploitz I would like to share with my friends. Also, I would like to be able to stream teh l8test industrial rock on my Aggreg8 page. Will this be possible?
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
I mean, just about any name must be better than MicroSpace for that sort of site.
What the hell did you expect?
for the teenagers that "hack" HTML, webpages that take eons to load, and endless IE-viewable pages. What a great innovation, Microsoft.
It is as ugly as hell indeed. I think it's a good idea for Microsoft to offer such a service. Objectively though it is a bit silly that you have to login to view the page. Does anyone know of any good sites for IT networking? Please advise!!
Open Office- try it http://www.openofice.org
With THAT license, how many people do they expect to share the code?
First it was your Hotmail ID. Then your Passport ID. Now it's your Windows Live ID.
Stop renaming stuff! It's hard enough keeping track of all of these marginally useful services already.
The ______ Agenda
Actually, it makes a lot of sense.
Studies by psychologists in the 1990s found that most people in the IT industry are actually nerds, geeks, and other rejects who are desperately in need of friends, but are unable to associate with anyone other than their own kind.
It is very kind and generous of MSFT to cater to our special needs by giving us our very own Myspace-Like Site.
this will be great! I'm gonna have bill gates, steve jobs, linus and woz as ms-friends! this will be sweet! hell, i might even let balmer friend me
This comment is guaranteed*
*not guaranteed
yes, it's not like they can afford the best and brightest, they are obviously in need for some guidance by kids running Linux in their parents basement.
I just logged in, and tried to find a PHP/MySQL group to join. There is no group "search" feature under the "search for a group" link. You can only browse in a very obfuscated fashion. Honestly, they'd better change the interface soon, or you won't be able to find things. Plus, requiring a Live ID means that search engines can't index...and suddenly your site is a thousand times less useful. But I bet that sweet MSN Search is going to index it! Like anyone uses that willingly.
Yay!! Steve Ballmer is in your extended network!!
linus is my hero
Sounds like 10lbs o sh1t in a 5lb bag...
Maybe I'm missing something, but arent' the planets a simplified version of a networking site? Take planetpython.org for example. Its participant write their articles in their own blogs, the planet is just a way of bringing it all together.
I'll do the stupid thing first and then you shy people follow...
okay they paid 5000 bucks for the domain, but they still got the .net domain...in 6 months microsoft will sue him for like 5 million bucks
It looks like you're trying to post something. ...
Would you like me to
And furthermore, I think it's funny how they say "We don't claim to own yr stuff," and then explain how they have the right to do *every single thing that the owner of yr stuff is supposed to have exclusive right to do.
I imagine they're right about one thing: this site will be an awful lot like myspace (throngs of idiots posting drivel)
My turnips listen for the soft cry of your love
It's like pronouncing the eight finishes the word, how very childish. What kind of loser wants to hang out on MySpace, never mind a MySpace especially for geek losers? Aggrig8, the MS networking site for 8-10 year olds males and homosexual pedophiles. Microsoft have really done themselves proud here, innovation at last!
Someone, please create a "Free software", "FOSS", "Open source" group.
Please also add a "Unix" and "BSD" groups.
There already is a "Linux" group, please join it.
Establish a community, get people accustomed to it, then twist them and use them to your will.
Well-known procedure. Id especially suspect that when it comes from a company that doggedly fought freedom and open source and lost.
Read radical news here
Like, OMFG, developers, developers, developers, friend me LOL...
Or, as works with EVERY public forum. "Things you post in a public space are public knowledge and use.
There are actually quite a few companies that post source code and other information on the web with licenses that impose obligations on you if you as much as look at it.
For example, go to the Sun web site and look at the licenses under which they make Java documentation and source code available; read them carefully and then roll your eyes.
is community server, the same software powering thedailywtf where users agree that the forum software is the real WTF. Every page is served as text/html with a XHTML 1.0 Frameset DTD, without any frames* and many users call it "unusable". So it's a perfect match for Microsoft. Microsoft probably just threw their hands up knowing that even if they wrote a system from scratch, it could never outdo community server. Thinking about it some more, I take it back. Community server is written in ASP.NET using Viewstate, nobody can ever beat Viewstate for sheer WTF-tasticness. Pffft!
* Possibly to allow for users adding iframes because MSIE doesn't support xhtml object embedding? Still, WTF?
They will have to indicate that they will not sue any individual software developers, period, before I would venture within a thousand miles of that site.
Apparently this site will be "127.0.0.1 FOR IT PROS". This, one presumes, is what passes for clever humour in the Microsoft world.
While looking through the help to see whether Microsoft can spell RDF[1] or FOAF[2] (they don't appear to), I came across this[3]:
a tion_passport
"Why do I need to use Passport?"
"We chose Passport in order to help you consolidate the number of logins you have to manage."
*sigh* here was me thinking passport was dead.
[1] http://www.w3.org/RDF/
[2] http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/
[3] http://aggreg8.net/Aggreg8_Help_Pages.htm#registr
It will be full of sage advice and code samples from MSCEs.
We have a tester at work who is an MCSE. I've been teaching him shell scripting using bash in Linux, for which he is immensely grateful, embarrassingly so, as he bows and scrapes and calls me "Mr Unix Genius." His productivity has improved 10-fold, and now he has a new job at another company with better pay.
One Monday morning he proudly informed me that he'd spent a lot of time over the weekend reading the Advanced Bash Scripting Guide and that he'd, "copied and pasted it," so that he could, "read it on Windows." He'd spent hours copying and pasting all 800 pages from the web browser into Microsoft Word.
I asked him why he didn't just download the file. "But I want to read it on Windows."
Stick Men
You know, there is a difference between trolling and pointing out the flaws in your reasoning. Just saying.
The morons didn't even setup the authentication right. Anyone can change or delete anyone else's posts.
You cant even browse around without logging in. Sites which require logins for visiting should be boycotted and not promoted on Slashdot.
You forgot, logging in requires registering with Passport. That should not only be boycotted, the submitter should be tracked down and killed.
Isn't the appropriate response to immediately upload the NT source code that was released a few years ago? Now that I type that it doesn't seem as funny...
Boring home page. At least on myspace they try to invite you into the site with some content and "new profile" pics.
Kind Regards, Phillip
sourceforge?
Power to the Penguin!
"Localhost for IT pros"? "Loopback for IT pros?" Huh? I would guess they were going for "Home for IT pros", but that's just not what 127.0.0.1 means.
LOAD "SIG",8,1
..or does MS seem to be doing a lot of desperate things lately?
Buying hotels (the Four Seasons hotel group).
Developing an iPod-clone (Zune).
Launching what's essentially a copy of MySpace.
Removing the one-reinstall restriction from Vista.
The Vista voucher scheme (promising XP->Vista upgrades for PCs bought now).
The MS-Novell deal (which has a dozen different perspectives, but at least promoting Linux).
To me, it seems like MS is genuinely scared of becoming largely irrelevant in the not-so-distant future.
Privacy begins with
Good going linking to a bible-study -site... =]
Missed an F in that URL, didn't we, Buckaroo?..
do it; do it NOW!!!
(Too much repetition, WTF?)
It took me twenty minutes to figure out how to drill down into the working groups and find one about User Interface. It's very, very poorly laid out. Without the search everyone wants, it's functionally useless. Maybe this kind of thing works for social networking where it's just as valuable to "run into" someone as it is to be able to find them with some precision, but to also put this forth as a useful resource for IT pros is silly.
:)
This is not to say that if they can add a search I won't try it out in earnest -- I think MS is doing a lot to embrace the Linux and Mac communities, and I for one want to encourage that. MS has a lot of very intelligent people working for them -- they just need a bit more exposure to how the other 20% lives.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
Everything you post should look like the work of a college freshman.
/., wouldn't you expect to find it in other projects on Google's code search after a time? It's a community, not an information bank.
Really though, what did you expect? If you posted decent code on
I have nothing to say.
Go look up one post from yours. Whoever wrote their FAQ makes President Bush look like Einstein.
Please, for the good of Humanity, vote Obama.
It's a slow Sunday: It's been written in Java to protect the innocent.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
Like this: <a href="http:// url goes here">link text</a>
Why is it that when you believe something it's an opinion, but when I believe something it's a manifesto?
I thought that code under GPL cannot be taken out of being GPL
It can't (I think). However, that doesn't mean Microsoft can't use it - it means you can't post it on MS-MySpace. You would be violating the GPL, not Microsoft.
DATABASE WOW WOW
Right off, the first thing I see is a fixed-width format that takes up damn near most of my screen. Guess how often I'll be back. Try...oh....NEVER.
Its a trap !!!
Read radical news here
Creating a small world -- a ghetto, I call it -- where like-minded developers can hang out. Microsoft has their "Microcosm"; for the rest of us, the entire global web is our collaborative space.
It's a perfect analogy to how the MS model of closed development died on that day in 1991 when the web was born. Not even MS can field enough developers to compete with "everyone else".
you had me at #!
> I'm not sure Microsoft's endeavor should be compared to it.
You're right. That's not fair to MySpace. From what I'm reading, this thing will be awful. Whatever you do, don't post any GPL code there, or Microsoft will be able to claim it as their own. Actually, you *can't* put GPL code there you don't have rights to--their requirements look pretty incompatible with the GPL to me (you can't give someone GPL'd code that isn't yours and say that they don't have to abide by the GPL). Of course, IANAL, but still...
But they managed to come up with a brown mp3 player after all, so no surprises with this one.
What you're leaving out is that people with business and marketing degrees are running the show (unfortunately). I work in a company (leaving it soon) where you could redesign the back end of something and make it much more efficient but if you didn't change the way it looked and/or its name they would not understand what you did.
However, if you change the name to something new/exciting/edgey, then you are an innovator. Hence companies will change the names of products continually even if no changes were made.
Reminds me of the 60 minutes I watched where 90% of the products that say "new" on them are no different than the previously labeled one, but marketing research indicates people will buy it with the "new/improved" logo on it. As long as our businesses are dominated by people with marketing and business degreees this will remain the case. But I know the difference, and I'd rather be a real innovator than a fluff artist.
I see screwed people.
http://www.moerks.dk
I prefer to say the shows aired on TV may have value for entertainment. Most of us object to the presentation style, which wastes 22 minutes with ads, plus locks you into a certain time slot. NBC has gone a long way into the modern age by posting their shows online where they can be retrieved any time. (I am about to watch last Monday's 'Heroes" ... then catch *Tomorrow's*, thus enjoying two episodes back to back. Whereupon, I will 'forget' it for a while, and let the 'gauge build back up'.)
The ad ratio is smaller too - I think it was down to 30 seconds per segment, plus I can *scroll past irritating portions of the show* - so I am down to about 35 minutes for what was previously an hour show.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Microsoft launches a new developer community website every few months. I'm confused as to which one is the real one. Someone please inform?
"Unless otherwise specified, the Services are for your personal and non-commercial use. You may not modify, copy, distribute, transmit, display, perform, reproduce, publish, license, create derivative works from, transfer, or sell any information, software, products or services obtained from the Services."
So MS is claiming co-copyright, while all members have no rights to anything.
a MySpace-like forum for developers
Writing information like this in the FAQ scares me.
I shouldn't have to search for the signature for longer than 5 seconds in the Profile-page on a common forum.
And with my experience, MS likes to write things such as "Why our product is so much better than X" in the help files, when I am trying to look for something useful. Smaller FAQ:s means better sites.