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Ray Ozzie's Departing Memo a Warning To Microsoft
itwbennett writes "In a parting memo to Microsoft, Ray Ozzie urges Microsoft to 'really, truly, seriously start thinking beyond the PC,' writes blogger Chris Nurney. Nurney suspects that 'Ozzie has been making these points internally for some time,' and that the memo 'could be his way of putting it in the public record.' Some of the memo's juicy bits: 'It's important that all of us do precisely what our competitors and customers will ultimately do: close our eyes and form a realistic picture of what a post-PC world might actually look like, if it were to ever truly occur. ... Today's PCs, phones & pads are just the very beginning; we'll see decades to come of incredible innovation from which will emerge all sorts of "connected companions" that we'll wear, we'll carry, we'll use on our desks & walls and the environment all around us.'"
I think someone has missed Windows Phone 7 and the tablets Microsoft will be releasing shortly. Hell, Microsoft Courier looked like the only tablet I wanted. Screw iPad, Courier was cool.
But the truth also is that Microsoft has a huge dominance on computer market and that isn't going anywhere. They are truly dominating it. I don't think it's a warning as such to Microsoft, just a suggestion for if they want to grow. And interestingly, that is what Microsoft is and has been doing for many years already. Xbox360 is a truly fantastic product too.
Just bring me something that Courier was supposed to be. I want it, I need it! Combine that with environment like Windows where everyone can freely develop their software and include things like XNA and Xbox Live and you have a wonderful product on your hands!
"Sent from my iPad"
The future of the PC is not immediately viewable from the window. One must step out and look around.
That sounds great!
Your fiction stinks and your biggest fan is dead. Luckily, he's in a better place now.
*
For the love of all that is good, I sincerely hope Ray Ozzie's choice of the term "Connected Companions" was solely so that this message could be interpreted by the buzzword-based PHBs at Microsoft, and not a hint that he wants to turn the next company he goes to into the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation.
Demanding constant attention will only lead to attention.
TFL;DR
Summary, please?
As soon as they can mix that companion thing with life-size holographic projections and make them look like anime characters, sales will go through the roof.
Viewing of "Don't Date a Robot!" required before buying.
A lot further ahead! Better computer security, fewer viral plagues, faster software, more open standards, better interoperability, cheaper software and support. Microsoft is just a drain on the economy that we can't afford in this economic climate, just ask the London Stock Exchange.
This would have been great advice 10 years ago, when MSFT might have had a chance to carve out a foothold in device computing, but not now.
It's like the Zune. An okay product but late to market and no evolution.
MSFT is what you get when your grandpa runs a tech company.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
Among video game consoles sold in North America, Xbox 360 is the only one that officially allows game development by prosumers. It's not perfect, but it's better than what Sony and Nintendo offer.
That "memo" runs more than 3500 words. If that counts as a typical memo over at Microsoft, I think they've got another problem beyond the one Ozzie's term paper discusses.
#DeleteChrome
Steve the plumber!
The great fallacy nowadays is that everything should be designed for the Apple consumer.
did you forget to take your meds?
In other words, the use of application service providers (ASPs) and storage service providers on the other side of the Internet will increase, and users will more often access the applications and storage through appliances, or Internet-connected devices designed for accessing ASPs. Applications and storage won't be "on" a device; they'll be on rented space on a server. And more devices, such as elevator controllers and refrigerators, will become Internet-connected appliances with sensors for remote troubleshooting.
To: Executive Staff and direct reports
Date: October 28, 2010
From: Ray Ozzie
It was cool. So was Knowledge Navigator. But vapor is vapor, and products people can actually buy are the only tangible indicator of what's important at a company. The fate of Courier shows that advocates of a radical, post-Windows approach lost a big internal fight. Microsoft continues to clearly demonstrate that Windows is their anchor.
Anchors keep you from getting blown away when a storm comes. They also keep you from moving forward.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
Umm, isn't this the same thing Bill Gates has been saying for the last decade or more?
As wireless internet access becomes even more robust, the first company that can deliver a solution to keep a user's "state" consistent across all of their devices is going to be the winner. It's a problem that the industry has been working on since the dark days of syncing your contacts up through a USB1 connection to a palm pilot. I imagine it's why Apple is building their enormous data center - they are about to make manual data management a thing of the past. A slick interface could yield some badass results for stepping your data to a network volume if it's unusually large, and then streaming backups during off-peak hours to iBackup or whatever you want to call it. Otherwise, every time you start to edit a doc, the filesystem is intelligently streaming the backup directly to their data center. If your laptop gets nicked, then you log in to your me.com account, destroy the encrypted volume if they connect it to the internet, and grab another laptop and a few hours later you are back up and running.
Computers are going to disappear - your information will be always available from any device with an internet connection. You'll just have a variety of interfaces to it, from your phone, to your media viewer (iPad) to your netbook (I mean MacBook Air, Steve!) and your desktop. They will all sync intelligently, and store larger, non-streamable information locally on SSD drives. Only video creators will be forced to continue managing physical volumes until 4g goes nationwide and uncapped.
It's a good idea, and a fucking bummer that Apple is the only company doing it.
Or all of the above?
I sometimes wonder if MS senior management isn't full of guys making good money, looking at how much time they have until retirement is a real option and thinking "If we can just string this Windows/PC model along for a couple more years, I'll be set. Retire in my late 50s. Second home (or boat or ....) paid for. Enough savings to live off until 401k money kicks in."
I can see where it could almost become a cultural mindset, coupled with a financial analysis that says the "real money" comes from Windows, Office, Exchange & SQL. Everything else (phone, tables, hardware, software, etc) is a half-assed feint to keep Wall St. quiet, keep key industry experts locked into long employment contracts and out of the hands of competitors, and occasionally hit the lottery when something sticks to the wall.
Or is it the actual management model? Keep the Windows/Office core profit engine running, fuck around on the margin and assume you can manipulate the market enough to keep your dominance forever?
I've already purchased my last Apple, Nintendo and Sony products for my lifetime.
You'll find a lot of geeks who agree with you, but the majority does not. The majority "can live with the restrictions without really owning anything". And the majority spends more money on products than the geek subculture: less per person but far more people. That's why video games targeted at the majority come out on consoles, not PCs. How should we as geeks try to convince the public that consoles' restrictions aren't worth the loss of an end user's right to do what he wants with what he owns?
Windows Phone 7 : Too Late to the party ...
Or perhaps it saw that the party was being held on a Sunday night, knew it had work to go to the next day and decided not to go.
:-/
Meanwhile, Apple (which had a great time and was the life of the party) turned up at work late, badly hungover and looking like death. After failing the drugs test, it was finally let go by the Company, around the (same time that Microsoft was given that promotion) and went into a sad decline, never able to move on from its college partying days and accept that its popularity with the cool college kids didn't mean long term success.
Err... to be honest, that sounds like there should be a metaphor in there, but on reflection I doubt it. It was just my extrapolation of one colloquial expression to the point of drivel. Sorry folks
"Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
You might as well be arguing that typewriters are eternal, or ledger books. Just because something is integral to business for generations does not mean that it will occupy that role into infinity. PCs have been the best way to get things done for the last few decades, and they'll still be for another few, but I wager they will cease to be important to most businesses in the developed world by the end of the century at the latest. Honestly I think it will be before 2050.
I support the Slashcott and will not be reading or commenting from 2/10/14 to 2/17/14. Beta is steaming pile of dog shit
> they're not looking for 'superior' so much as they are looking to lock users into their
> App stores.
Actually not quite right.
This would make sense if....
the app store was launched with the iphone. But it was in fact an afterthought.
Originally Apple wanted everyone to get "Apps" which were web based (javascript/ html) things online. Developers wanted to write more persistant application that would run without an internet connection, thus one year later the App Store and the SDK.
Sometimes you make a device and the market shows up.
XNA Creators Club is not suitable for making anything beyond little toy games is my understanding.
Define "little toy games". I certainly haven't drunk the proverbial Kool-Aid about XNA, but can you think of any significant limitations other than what I already list on my page?
At that point you might as well make an Android or iPhone app and get yourself a much larger customer base.
Android and iPhone are counterparts to the DS/PSP/DSi/3DS, not a set-top multiplayer gaming device like 360/PS3/Wii that just needs extra gamepads. On a smartphone, four players mean four $70/mo voice and data plans. The last time I checked, a "family plan" at a U.S. cell phone carrier covered one smartphone and one to three "feature phones". Android has no counterpart to iPod touch: a model with the same app store but no cellular radio. And with the apparent discontinuation of Windows Mobile Classic and the commercial failure of both Zune and Kin, it doesn't appear that Microsoft will have anything to show in this arena either.
What are those wires coming out of the back of his head?
Gadgets are gadgets. Gadgets may resemble tools but tools are specifically designed for their purpose(s).
Nothing will replace a workstation's keyboard, local storage and large displays for professionals, they may be plugged into a smaller case/form-factor but it will still need a functional environment, applications for tasks and data back-ups. MS is driving hard to sign-up the masses for streaming services in the "cloud" so they can sell dumb(er) products and meter all the utility however they deem fit(fit=profitable). Reality is vapor and finger-pointing is what you get when services and connections are disrupted or storage crashes with no recovery. I'd prefer to put my head in a lion's mouth than to put my data in MS's, or anyone else's, "cloud".
Imagination drew in bold strokes, instantly serving hopes and fears, while knowledge advanced by slow increments...
How many people have more than 10 different devices (expect maybe apple fanboys) which they use daily ?
PC, cell phone, home phone, TV, DVD player or game console, cable box, home stereo, car stereo, car engine, refrigerator, microwave oven, coffee maker, home lighting, home climate control, home security, now how many gadgets am I up to? The point of the memo is that more and more of these devices will become Internet-connected. It mentions "telemetry", which I take to mean that a device can, for example, report to you when it is malfunctioning.
...the reality of the Kin fit in with your fantasy view of Microsoft?
"LOL WUT?" The smartphone market has run its course? You are kidding, right? Smart phones are going to continue to sell strong as ever. While they may not grow a ton, people have to stop pretending like growth is all that matters. It smacks of wet behind the ears stock investors who have no sense of scale or history.
Smart phones are going to be a huge market until, well, someone figures out something to replace the phone. I haven't even heard of any ideas along those lines much less products. So I think it is safe to say the market has decades, or more, of life.
Also you might notice that in terms of OS the battle has not been won, nor may it ever be won. Symbian didn't win (it was by far the largest), BlackBerry OS didn't win, iOS hasn't won, Android hasn't won. The fight is on going, and it may well go on forever. Given the locked down nature of phones and carriers, there may not be the push for a single platform like there was with PCs. There people wanted software portability, but you don't get that on phones anyhow.
Also you might note that MS is and was in the mobile market. Windows CE smart phones have been around for a long time and while not huge weren't trivial either. This is a (needed) revamp/update, not a new entrance in to a market.
As a older post stated, Microsoft didn't give a crap about Windows Mobile 6 and prior. It would have taken a skeleton crew of developers and support guys to keep that platform on the forefront, but they didn't even want to do that. Probably because they thought their only competition was Palm 4-5, so once that "demon" was vanquished, they went about ignoring it. But, this time they've got competition on a whole lot of fronts. The days of simply making a press release saying you're doing the same thing as a competitor and killing off a competitor's project are over.
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
"We’ve seen agile innovation playing out before a backdrop in which many dramatic changes have occurred across all aspects of our industry’s core infrastructure."
It's a boring sentence trapped in a boring, verbose memo, so I found it a new home in a Philip K Dick story:
"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tanhauser Gate. I watched agile innovation playing out before a backdrop in which many dramatic changes have occurred. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. [pause] Time to die."
I would argue that if it actually deserved better, it would have received better from the market. While I'm not a free-market purist, I find it hard to blame the Zune's sales record on anything other than the Zune.
What he's saying about all these devices about to happen probably rings true for most /. readers, including me. The problem is that visionaries have been saying it for years. Legal chafing between content providers, carriers, patent holders. et. al. has slowed the roll-out of super-toys to a crawl. He who can predict how fast the lawyers will move is the true visionary.
- The Kessel run is for nerf herders. I can circumnavigate the entire Central Finite Curve in a lot less than 12 parse
So you agree there are significant limitations?
Some other Slashdot users appear convinced that a developer should just accept the limitations of XNA, design games around them exclusively for XNA on Windows and Xbox 360, and hopefully use those games to build "game industry experience", one of the two pieces that the console makers require before a developer becomes eligible to buy the real devkit. (The other piece is a dedicated office.) But with your "little toy games" comment, I thought you had some different limitations in mind that were even more severe than those described on my page, to the point where one couldn't even make games comparable to those on the Super NES.
There is an "android touch" samsung makes it.
I wasn't aware of Samsung Galaxy Player 50 until I just searched Google to find out what you're talking about. The anythingbutipod.com story is less than a week old. This article states that it appears to have Android Market and other Google apps ordinarily seen only on phones. But with "no word on a US release yet", how much will the customs duty for a gray-market import run? And will a unit built for the European Union be able to access the Market from an IPv4 address that geolocates to the United States?
I have two smartphones on a family plan with verizon, runs about $130month.
Your plan at $65 per handset per month is still not low enough to convince a mom to buy four smartphones instead of a land line and four Nintendo DSi systems.
Until you point out how the shiny new things actually help you get work done, the OPs point stands.
You snicker about "typewriters" but the is that they still live on in the current PC technology. So do ledgers. HELL, electronic ledgers were the first killer app for the PC.
The productivity killer app for the new batch of shiny things has yet to show itself.
As long as the new shiny thing is centered around Apple, it probably won't be either.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
I'm still waiting for someone to grow a clue and make the EVO 4G into a truly awe-inspiring presentation device/mini-computer.
And I'm still waiting for Google to grow a clue and let HTC and other manufacturers put the Google apps on a cheaper version without a cellular radio, so that I don't need to pay $1679.76 over the course of a 24-month service commitment. That's how much Sprint.com just quoted me for the cheapest service plan that works with the EVO 4G.
Why aren't we plugging it into a TV
You can't plug HDMI into a standard-definition television. That's one of the advantages of consoles over PCs for cash-strapped gamers: you get SDTV output as a standard feature.
using a wireless keyboard and mouse (or gamepads, for that matter)
Operating systems tend not to support more than one distinct keyboard and mouse, and Bluetooth gamepads are still about twice as expensive as USB gamepads.
I used to own a Motorola Q running Windows Mobile. The phone was great, and at the time was quite a step forward for cell phones. Now, I've got an android based phone, and while I think android is great and intend to support it, I see Microsoft being able to take a lot of customers from android in the corporate world. Blackberries have a good foot hold, but since MS owns and wants to support exchange, they can make Windows Mobile phones easier to interact with exchange whereas google makes it difficult because they want you to migrate to their system. Summary - Windows mobile is not bad, and stands a good chance at being a serious competitor. I also agree the Zune wasn't the success it should have been just because of who was backing it likely.
Arguing with an engineer is like wrestling a pig in mud. Soon, you realize the pig is dirty, and he likes it.
Yup. Because the PC is dying man! It's been dying for THIRTY FUCKING YEARS NOW! You'd think it'd have the good grace to have kicked off long ago and made way for a more compact, less powerful, less configurable, less open, complete cluster-fuck of a platform like smart phones or something. You know, something that can be locked down against their own users. Something you can charge through the nose and out the ass for development tools and support for.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
Apple barely makes any money from the iTunes stores.
Didn't you get the memo from the haters? Apple is literally! RAPING developers by charging them 30% at the app-store. Literally.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
Have never used a single aimbot or wall hack in my entire life, and having been playing FPS games since Wolfenstein, I finally got sick of it
Did you mean Wolfenstein or Wolfenstein 3D?
Other than being able to cheat a game, what is your average consumer going to care about?
Making and sharing mods. Apart from RPG Maker 2, LittleBigPlanet, and WarioWare DIY, console games tend not to have the extensive modding tools needed to turn one game into another. For example, I should be able to turn a shooter into a football sim by changing object behaviors. And I find that in every medium but video games, plenty of consumers find themselves turning into prosumers, or consumers who also produce. Complete this analogy: Basic cable television is to YouTube as major label video games are to what?
They should not be allowed to use more than 640Kb of RAM.
Cell Phone - Cell Phone
Phone - Cell Phone
If everyone in your house has a cell phone, why does your house need its own line?
Because kids can't afford a cell phone bill. Would you propose buying a phone and a plan for a single-digit-year-old child? Or are you of the opinion that any child old enough to be left alone deserves a phone on a parent's family plan?
TV - PC
DVD Player - PC
A 19" monitor doesn't work well for several people to sit around in the living room, and most people aren't geek enough to pull HDMI through the wall from the PC room to the living room. Appliances have a higher wife acceptance factor.
Game Console - PC
People buy separate appliances to play specific games or even entire genres that are exclusive to those appliances. For example, what's the closest PC counterpart to Jak/Sly/Ratchet/Crash, Metal Gear Solid, Smash Bros., Mario Party, or Animal Crossing?
Cable Box - PC
[...]
General-purpose computing devices (PCs) are able to do most of those things, and with linux and free (beer or speech) software available, can and are doing so.
How? This article claims that CableCARD OCUR doesn't support any operating systems for general-purpose personal computers other than some editions of Windows. Besides, what do you do when you want to watch TV while your daughter is typing up her homework?
Home Stereo - PC
True if you're listening in the PC room. But what about another member of the household listening to something else in the living room?
Car Stereo - Car
Car Engine - Car
The stereo might run on the same computer as the navigation, but the engine runs on an independent computer systems for safety reasons. Therefore, a car counts as two devices, each with its own telemetry.
Home Lighting - SmartHome
Climate Control - SmartHome
Security - Smarthome
Granted, a smart home might present a single proxy for all kitchen appliances that need to report status to outside. But one point of the article is that they will become able to report such status.
Computers are going to disappear - your information will be always available from any device with an internet connection ... It's a good idea, and a fucking bummer that Apple is the only company doing it.
I absolutely agree with most of what you say here -- the company that does transparent "cloud" sync/storage best will win the game. Unlike you, my take is that Apple is actually way behind in this area, while Google has a convincing, if not insurmountable lead. This isn't about Android, though you can see it a little bit in the way that Android devices instantly populate themselves via the 'net using only a Google ID. By contrast an Apple iDevice won't even turn on until you plug them into a desktop via USB. You can also see it in the piece of crap that is Apple's current .Mac offering ($99/year for, basically, stuff you can get for free elsewhere, with minimal device integration --- yes, I pay for it and I'm ashamed).
But mostly you don't see Google's advantage, because it manifests primarily in the unglamorous, invisible stuff like cloud infrastructure. Google has an order of magnitude more server capacity than most competitors, and absolutely crushes Apple in terms of the user data it holds, not to mention its (still nascent, but growing) customer base for services like Mail, Docs, Maps and Apps.
Apple may show up to the party one of these days --- maybe they'll get 'net-based activation by iPhone 5. But what people fail to understand is that moving from a device business to a cloud business is a not a natural transition, and so far Apple has demonstrated no real instinct for it. To give a silly analogy: at the moment Apple is building the grandest, prettiest castles in town, while Google is buying up all the roads and sewers. One day I fear that Apple will realize how badly they need that infrastructure in order to keep building, and Google will be the only one who can provide it.
M$ is all about their Windows/Office monopoly. On the PC. Period. For almost two decades now, the company's whole business strategy has really just been about maintaining that monopoly. It's what they've always done best.
Sure, they dabble in many other areas, but unless it soon starts to look like it has the potential to make them billions, just like Windows and Office, they quickly lose interest.
Innovation? Nope. They just buy other companies that look interesting, assimilate the knowledge, achieve relatively little as a result and then move on. Seriously, I can't think of anything unique that they themselves have ever come up with besides M$ Bob, which was a total flop, and perhaps a miserable animated paperclip. All of their other ideas have either been bought or stolen.
Seen in this light it's easy to predict when M$ will die: when the PC dies. Once their traditional monopoly has faded, M$ will be just another software company struggling with the competition... except that they never learned how to innovate -- they've never had to!! Oh, of course there are more people at M$ who know that and fear the inevitable, but they can't change anything. Their ship's course was fixed long ago and it can never be altered. Ray should have known that and avoided them like the plague, but I suppose he was just being stupid or greedy... or both. Within that company, however, he's hardly a unique case; just more well known.
Compare and contrast Ray Ozzie's farewell with that of another recent high-level departure, J. Allard. These men, at the heart of technology for all their adult lives, were in positions of the highest influence at Microsoft. They're obviously both brilliant, and not needing to cash a paycheck. They see a change coming - a huge change - and they want to be a part of it. They don't see that happening while they work in Redmond. So they go. But on the way out they look back at the poor souls they leave behind and they tell them in their farewell: "You too can be a part of this new world. You just have to think different." The door swings shut with a click and the obvious conclusion remains unsaid: "but you won't."
Help stamp out iliturcy.
For everyone who wants to make their own maps, there are hundreds if not thousands of other players who simply want new maps and expect that someone else will create those maps for them.
You can gain from an environment that embraces prosumption even if you yourself don't produce, as long as you have a prosumer in your social group. But if you can't mod, you can't install maps made by someone else.
Actually, 30% isn't too bad once you figure out what you figure out your app's non-development costs. Things like marketing/advertising/promotion/hosting will surely cost more 30% if you had to do it completely on your own. It would be nearly impossible to price apps at a few dollars under that scenario.
Rudimentary neural interfaces exist right now. In two generations that will lead to the deprecation of any interface other than thought itself. Wireless bandwidth is increasing rapidly with ultrawideband wireless on the horizon. In a matter of decades we'll be remotely interfacing by thought with medium strength AIs that will be doing calculations and busywork to spec. That has fuck all to do with "shiny things". It's a matter of a wholesale evolution of methodology as great or greater than the PC revolution or the internet revolution.
I'm glad people are so focused on the next quarter that they can't connect the dots on all the emerging technologies. Typewriters4evar!
I support the Slashcott and will not be reading or commenting from 2/10/14 to 2/17/14. Beta is steaming pile of dog shit
It's a good idea, and a fucking bummer that Apple is the only company doing it.
Also, in a very big and comprehensive way, Google.
Operator, give me the number for 911!
I see decades of innovators being sued for questionable patent infringements. I see no true innovation. I see mostly more of the same in smaller and shinier packages at greater profit margins to the manufacturers. I see a stagnant technological future in which the only major innovations come in the form of devices to kill, maim, and infringe the freedoms and actions of the individual/society. At least I will be able to enjoy it all on my iPucker-GE(Green Edition) made from recycled sequestered carbon in the form of a trendy Graphene case.
The new right fascists are bilingual. They speak English and Bullshit.
...but really, all this talk about mobile devices and the "future of computing" smells rankly of investor hype to me.
Everyone's chomping at the bit to replicate Steve Jobs' success with the iPhone - to jump on the next big thing before the competition does.
But really, what's going to displace the PC? A revolutionary new type of battery, maybe. A very high resolution miniaturized projector. A revolution in CPU design.
It's hard to envision what could eclipse the keyboard and mouse for sheer ease of use and tactile feedback.
Just why is everyone so excited about mobile devices, and so convinced they are the "future of computing"? What real work are people doing on these devices?
Maybe I'm just an old curmudgeon with no imagination but these things just all seem like toys to me. Very profitable toys without a doubt. But still toys.
I think it's inevitable that Windows will decline, but all this kind of hype about a "revolution in computing" is just hype until there's a technological revolution to go along with it.
Anyway, I'm sure someone will explain how myopic I am.
We have a 40" LCD TV in the living room, attached to a PC
Which puts you in what appears to be a tiny minority. As CronoCloud pointed out in a previous comment: "But what you don't understand is that most people simply don't want to hook up their computer to the TV. Let me say that again: Most non-geek people simply have no desire to hook up their computer to their TV."
CableCARD OCUR doesn't support any operating systems [but] Windows
World of Warcraft doesn't have a Linux version, either... nor does Steam, Counterstrike, Call of Duty 4, the Sims 3
As I understand it, CableCard OCUR uses a kernel-level Protected Media Path to make sure that no cleartext digital video appears on any user-accessible connector. The games you mentioned do not use this.
Wine
Wine is for running user-space applications, not kernel modules.
For years the industry was dominated by ugly, loud, flimsy hardware running buggy, crashy, maddening software. Apple has built a brand around being the alternative to that chaos. Protecting this brand often means locking their users inside a padded room.
Not only do I get it, dear Coward, but I'm predicting this becoming de facto for the Mac in the very near future as well.
And where's the Ogg format? Why must I use iTunes to put music on it?
You don't; at least on Windows, See: Sharepod, Winamp, Foobar2000, Songbird.... Google (and even Bing) is your friend in regards to searching for alternatives.
The *music* is no longer DRM'd, but the product they own (even after you've paid for it) is even more locked down than it was.
If you have alternatives, why are you worried about this? Stop spreading BS for the sake of spreading BS and buy whatever makes you feel good.
Do not read this
Didn't you get the memo from the haters? Apple is literally! RAPING developers by charging them 30% at the app-store. Literally.
If you think 30% is high, I don't think you've been in the marketplace. I've seen most contracts start at 45% plus fees like credit card fees. 30% is generous. Of course you can set up your own business, your own website, your own payment systems, etc. But then you have to administer all that. Your time or your staff's time and costs quickly bring up the total cost. Or you could pay Apple their 30%. More time or more freedom, that's your choice.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
Ogg point is ... pointless stupidity. Yeah, it is an "open" format, so what? The point of MP3 and AAC is the same as Ogg, which is to encode sound. Complaining that it doesn't play Ogg is like complaining that a Ford Ranger can't haul 20 tons of bricks. You want to haul 20 tons of bricks buy the truck that does. Complaining that a Ranger can't is stupid. Most people don't care.
Lastly, I'll bet you can't tell the difference between Ogg encoding vs MP3 or AAC at any sufficient bit rate though your earbuds or while driving down the road. Go buy your Gold Plated Monster Cables and be all smug.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
A memo is not written to inform the reader but to protect the writer.
And suddenly your eyes are open to the truth.
vi +
To: Executive Staff and direct reports Date: October 28, 2010 From: Ray Ozzie
Ah, I thought I was the only one wondering about that for a bit...
P.S.=> I am going to let YOU continue to embarass yourself, and watch you eat your words (and so will everyone else here reading), because you shot your mouth off both times above and I had reliable sources disproving you at every turn and you called me NAMES? WELL, time to watch you squirm is all, unless you can prove me wrong... apk
That's a lot of talk from someone who hides behind an anonymous handle. If you read the MS case study in detail (which you didn't), you would see that it says: "MDDS receives direct feeds from NASDAQ's trade reporting system, and collects the data, storing it in SQL Server 2005. It is then available in real time for queries by market participants, including those using the NASDAQ Workstation, a Web-based tool that connects to NASDAQ trading systems. " MDDS "connects to" the trading and the reporting system? But isn't MDDS the trading system? That's a logic problem there.
Like many case studies, MS trumps up what it did. Every company does it; Oracle installing a small DB at company might issue a press release how said company is installing Oracle into "vital systems." Yes the MDDS system "supports" the booking system. Traders large and small rely on the information that MDDS provides; however, MDDS is not the trading system itself.
If you read carefully, logic would lead anyone to that conclusion that MDDS is not the trading system. 100,000 queries a day is nowhere near adequate volume for NASDAQ. It is however, adequate for a reporting system. A you never addressed this point. How can a 100,000 a day system handle the sheer volume of NASDAQ? NASDAQ reportedaverage daily share volume of 311 million for February 2005. Average Daily Volume of 311,000,000 / 6.5 hours / 60 minutes per hour/ 60 seconds per minute = 13,290 trades per second. How can a system that handles 100,000 queries a day handle that? NASDAQ would only be able to function for 10 seconds a day. Logic and math would lead that it can't. If I were you, I'd read more carefully as you seem to read just the headlines but no details. I'd also do more research from other sources: Google seems to confirm what you refuse to admit that NASDAQ's trading system does run on Linux. Like many other companies, NASDAQ runs multiple applications on multiple platforms.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
The reason you hide behind anonymous handles is that you can lie and say you never said things when you actually did.Unfortunately for you, you actually admitted in your http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1836934&cid=34016684post:
Answer to BOTH = BOTH systems were built using Windows Server 2003 + SQLServer 2005 and were for the purposes of trade data dissemination & booking.
When you get caught you simply say you never said it like a coward.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.