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Microsoft Using .MS TLD

mqudsi writes "Microsoft is using the .MS top-level domain, assigned to the Caribbean island of Montserrat, for its Web 2.0-flavored Popfly project. You can get your own .MS name if you really want to — there are no restrictions on foreign ownership — at $180 US for 2 years. As of this writing microsoft.ms is available." In an obliquely related note, TechBlorge has up a rumination on the resemblance of the Popfly logo to Tux.

14 of 308 comments (clear)

  1. You mean DUCKS look sorta like PENGUINS?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You'd almost think they were both birds or something.

    1. Re:You mean DUCKS look sorta like PENGUINS?! by insertwackynamehere · · Score: 5, Insightful

      why is this a troll? I agree, the idea that the duck is a stolen idea from the penguin is stupid. not everything has to become an argument over copyrights and logo stealing just because its microsoft.

  2. why not? by WrongMonkey · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Why don't major corporations have their own TLDs as part of the system? It would cut back on a lot of phishing and ICANN doesn't seem to be reluctant to do whatever they can to make a buck.

  3. how about by AresTheImpaler · · Score: 5, Funny

    http://i.hate.ms/

    That way it really looks Web 2.0!! yay..

  4. or... by Ariastis · · Score: 5, Funny

    linuxsavedmefrom.ms

  5. Could this be... by tiffany98121 · · Score: 5, Informative

    ... the absolute lamest Slashdot article ever posted?

  6. Re:is bluescreenofdeath.ms available? by skribe · · Score: 5, Funny

    proble.ms

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    Blog
  7. Re:Popfly? by karmaflux · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Also from the About Us page:

    From left to right: John Montgomery (Group Program Manager), Andy Sterland (Program Manager), Alpesh Gaglani (Developer), Tim Rice (Developer), Suzanne Hansen (Program Manager), Steven Wilssens (Program Manager), Vinay Deo (Engineering Manager), Michael Leonard (Test Developer), Jianchun Xu (Developer), Dan Fernandez (Product Manager), Adam Nathan (Developer), Wes Hutchins (Program Manager), Aaron Brethorst (Program Manager), Paramesh Vaidyanathan (Product Unit Manager), and Murali Potluri (Developer).
    That's nine managers and six developers. No wonder the team "hustles for resources." They're probably going broke paying management wages to sixty percent of the staff. It says three more people aren't pictured -- we can bet that two of them are more managers.

    This team sounds like a developer's nightmare.
    --

    REM Old programmers don't die. They just GOSUB without RETURN.

  8. Let's start a pool... by grcumb · · Score: 5, Funny

    How long before rectu.ms points to goatse?

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    Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.
  9. Re:Popfly? by Oswald · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Props for having the stones to use a name like MSFTVet on /. but come on:

    The team is a small band of folks with a passion for democratizing development, housed within Microsoft's Developer Division based in Redmond, Washington. Like most startup ventures, the team hustles for resources every day and is innovative, scrappy, and fun. Oh, and we also dream big.

    That's just sad. Women, men, motorcycles, music, sports, dogs, horses, science fiction (back when it was worth a shit), Smalltalk, dancing...these are just a few of the things people can be passionate about. Democratizing development, whateverthefuckthatmeans, is not on the list. Smells like marketing to me.

    White boys should not try to talk like they grew up in the hood, lesbians should not piss standing up, and corporations with US$50 thousand million in the bank should not try to act "scrappy". All of these acts display a combination of confusion, dishonesty, and poor taste. It's no sin to be bigger than God; just don't try to act like you're too cool to suffer the ill effects.

    This is not a criticism of the people on the team because I can't possibly know anything about the people on the team (well, I know that Aaron Brethorst turned his last name into a verb, which is pretty creepy, but we'll let that slide). I'm criticizing Microsoft management for thinking they can pull this off. They're off to a great start, with 9 managers and 6 developers.

    It doesn't matter if Popfly [isn't a popfly usually an out in baseball, btw?]is a cool app or not, because it will go away. If it's cool now, then it will be exploited by MS in some off-putting way as soon as it gets remotely popular, and if it's not cool then having a rich daddy won't help it.

    On a positive note, the website makes pretty nice use of color.

  10. Re:Popfly? by bmo · · Score: 5, Funny

    "That's nine managers and six developers. No wonder the team "hustles for resources." They're probably going broke paying management wages to sixty percent of the staff. It says three more people aren't pictured -- we can bet that two of them are more managers."

    Three lions escape from the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle.

    They decide to split up, to improve the chances that they won't all be caught all at once, and agree to meet three months later to compare notes.

    So three months pass by and they all meet. Two of the lions are all skin and bone. One is shaking, he says "I ate one kid at a school and they chased me into the woods. I had to live on voles, shrews, and the occasional mountain biker...stringy, they are." The second lion, also skinny, said "I ate a cop, and they chased me 'round the city and I wound up having to climb up Mt. Ranier and all I could find to eat was squirrels."

    So the two look at the third lion and ask why he's so fat and happy:

    "I hid in the bushes next to Microsoft's main entrance. I ate a manager a day and nobody noticed."

    --
    BMO

    (joke shamelessly stolen and adapted from IBM to Microsoft)

  11. Re:That'll make you cringe by pasamio · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Now what I loved was all of the managers:
    1x Group Program Manager
    5x Program Manager (one of which is the token female)
    1x Product Manager
    1x Product Unit Manager
    1x Engineering Manager
    1x Test Developer
    5x Developers

    Or to reduce it to developers and managers: 5x Developers vs 10x Managers - I wonder who the three people missing are? No wonder Microsoft have issues shipping product, 1:2 dev to manager ratio is insane!

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    I always wondered where this setting was...
  12. Re:is bluescreenofdeath.ms available? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Can't believe no one has mentioned R.ms yet.

  13. Re:is bluescreenofdeath.ms available? by QuickFox · · Score: 5, Funny

    Its our's no'w! W'e wont giv'e i't bac'k! H'a!

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    Terrorists can't threaten a country's freedom and democracy. Only lawmakers and voters can do that.