I know that. I think everbody knows that: It was a bit hard to miss the handover ceremony!
The perception in the West (rightly or wrongly) is that Mainland China pulls the strings in Hong Kong: Nothing happens without their blessing, and given the US beat up China on Piracy last week, the verdict would have to be welcomed by the Communist Party.
This comes a week after Australia extradited to the US an Australian Citizen who never stepped foot in the US for a similar offense. Australia's excuse is it's sycophantic Prime Minister it'll do anything the US Government tells it to. What's China's Excuse?
(Sadly) this isn't the Chinese government kissing American butt. They've got some
"bad"publicity
last week, so this poor sap is being made an example of.
Every security system invented by corporate programmers has been defeated by hackers. Latest case in point AACS, and before that CCS, WGA, not to mention modded XBOXes themselves.
Next time you are given 5 mod points, try and spend them wisely.
> Microsoft Bans Modified Xbox 360s From Xbox Live
Evidently Microsoft doesn't understand "hackers", and I'd bet on a hacker over a Microsoft programmer any day of the week. I'd give it 48 hours before has a counter-mod for Microsoft's anti-mod mod.
IBM's appalling, much malfunctioning Deskstar HDDs ended with IBM quitting the HDD business. Many lost data (including me!) Worse, IBM knew the DeskStar line was faulty, and continued selling them anyway and denied there was a problem. http://consumeraffairs.com/news03/ibm_drives.html IBM quit the business and sold to Hitachi who didn't even think to change the charred brand name. I wouldn't touch anything from that lineage. The Hard Drive is the most important part of your PC to take the chance: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/10/24/deskstar_7 5gxp_the_pain_continues/
Offtopic my ass! The PP suggested Lynx as an alternative to FF, and I pointed out the links were broken. Try having your first cup of coffee before you start modding, dammit!;-)
Cool! This information is bound to come in useful at a later date. "I find your ideas fascinating and would like to subscribe to your newsletter".
BTW on the Satirical Show the Chaser they asked "How much have we really learnt?", dressed a guy up in a snake outfit, took a basket of apples and handed them out in front of churches, synagogues and mosques (yes, they're open too) over Easter. Everyone who took one was labeled "SINNER". An Orthodox Jew took the Apple and said "C'mon, what are you selling, really?" The snake replied "Why can't a snake hand out apples without being accused of doing something wrong?" The only person that refused the Apple was Sydney's Gay Archbishop George Pell (or is he Anti-Gay? I keep getting that mixed up!) I think the Easter Episode was #6: http://abc.net.au/tv/chaser/war/vodcast/
For the non-SSL version, you actually have to e-mail the guy to download it: "NOTE! Due to new ISP bandwidth rules, the above 2 files have been disabled from downloading. If you want a copy, send me an email to jamesYYMM [at] spoonfork.org, where the y's and m's are numbers representing year and month." How big are these downloads anyway? No wonder Firefox won the browser battle with Lynx. Lynx: Not Trying Very Hard(TM)
Hey thanks for the update! I loved Rambo III: It was one of those movies that was so bad it was good. Burma? Cool, but doubt the Burmese Dictators will let Aung San Suu Kyi make a cameo.
Sly Stallone was caught recently in Sydney Airport importing (heh heh... drug smugglers smuggle, but Celebrities "import") quantities of Testosterone and Human Growth Hormone. Maybe Sly is updating his image for the YouTube generation. He wants to not only be a big troll, but a big scary troll too:
"I want... what they want... what those trolls. They just want to be heard. {grabs mike} Bill Gates, I'm comin' to get you!" (Whacks Steve Balmer with chair and dives out the window with DRM lawyers in pursui
Sly sad it was prescribed by his doctors for a "mystery medical ailment". No, seriously.
Don't panic, Rambolovers and Rockettes. Being a 51st State of America, Australia extends immunity to Hollywood Celebrities too. Sly will gush about he loves Australia and walk free. Just as well. Here's to Rambo IV, where he goes back and kicks the ass of the Tabliban guys he freed in III.
> Microsoft won't reveal these 235 alleged IP infringements Microsoft: Put up or shut up.
Anyway, Two can play at this game! let's take the fight to Microsoft. In the vast swath of patents washing around the US these days, there is bound to be many that Microsoft is itself to have violated. Occasionally a company gets one of these and gives Microsoft a bad day in court, after which Microsoft inevitably offers to buy them out. What if Open Software was to get such a patent? Either from a commercial partner, or one granted to an individual who cares more about Open Source than they do about potentially millions of dollars. Rare, but these people do exist.
Now imagine the spectacle of a judge somewhere issuing a court order for Microsoft to cease selling Windows while this is resolved in court. For good measure, why hold back now? We can tell the press that while this is in the courts we will be "going after Microsoft's customers too". You want FUD, Microsoft? All you've got is lame lawyers, sloppy programmers and a few congressmen in your pocket. We've got our anger and there are many more of us. You've got FUD, Balmer? We'll double your. We don't crap and this time you've gone way too far. Let's see how you fight with your crappy VISTA operating system flagging, a full-blown patent assault and a new anti-trust suit by the end of the year.
The Best defense is a Good offense. About time we organize a defense. What candidate patents do we have? Anyone want to break it to the press?
To be sanguine, everything has an upside. Come back in thirty or so years and the third-world will be a more affluent, with better health, education and standards of living. We in the west have such a high-standard of living (though you'll rarely here anyone of us admit it) that surely we can make do with our existing home theater systems for a few more years and stop at three cars per household. Having more healthier, happier, more educated world is good for everyone.
Old mind trick: Think of the worst thing that can happen to you, and when you think about it, it isn't that bad. A wise (American) once said "I've never known a man who has died of hunger or frozen to death." If you're an IBMer losing your job, it's unlikely you will find yourself living in cardboard box. Eventually you'll get another job and it may be in a different industry and not as 'satisfying' as working for IBMGS (cough), but if you're not happy now you never will be. Of course, this is no excuse to hand your job to someone else on a silver platter. By all means ask your Congressman why he's "selling out America". If he preaches the value of 'Free Markets' or tells you his hands are tied, remind him what 'Democracy' means and for God's sake don't vote for him next time!
Points for effort, but analogies don't work because people say "Whoa dude, but this *ISN'T* XYZ..."
Problem is really pretty simple: American Corporation fires Americans and hires cheaper Indians to please American Shareholders. American Shareholder feels smug and bugs Chinese-made Widescreen TV. American Congressmen purchased with cold hard cash won't do anything to stop it, and fired American employee re-elects him anyway. American Company and Country goes down the gurgler.
H1B Openness? Americans can't get the equivalent for India. Unlike America, The Indian Government looks after their workers.
The moral: Buy Indian Rupees and invest in China. America is going down.
> the outsource firms are bringing workers here on HB-1's and then *who* trains them? They do, or American companies do?
On the comments on Cringely's two recent IBM stories http://pbs.org/cringely, it was American IBMers training the very same Indians who were to take over their jobs. The Indians went back to India, and the Americans were fired (except of course, IBM's generously compensated CEO).
Balmer's recent threats that anyone using a version of Linux that hasn't signed up with Microsoft an "undisclosed balance sheet liability" sums up Microsofts attitude nicely. Why wouldn't it? The DOJ has been muzzled and Microsoft have been able to do anything they damned well want to, but by the end of this year there will be someone else in the Whitehouse. Maybe it'll be same-as-usual. Maybe not. I hope not:-)
PS. Microsoft Astroturfers respond to NUL: pls
Interesting. Other differences in Japan are there isn't the huge disparity between Executive and worker wages and perks: Everyone is on the same side, and everyone can work together because no one is making out like a bandit. Lets be honest. There's nothing the least bit special about Sam: there are a hundred thousands inside and outside who could do his job, and many of them could do it better. In IBM at the moment we're seeing glutinous pilfering from the executives, who aren't even running the company well, while at the same time asking employees to make the ultimate sacrifice.
IBMs has embraced every management fad to come down the line. This time the suspicion is that Sam is using LEAN as a smokescreen: A nice sounding acronym that makes him sound "with it", at the same time he retrenches thousands of employees.
> Free market capitalism works... up until a point.
If the Government hadn't stepped in, every American would now be an employee of The Rockefeller Corporation.
The trouble with Free Markets, is they're usually not. Heard a Pundit on BBC World Service saying we shouldn't worry about Rupert Murdoch taking over the Wall Street Journal because it's a "Free Market" anyone can set up a blog and compete. (Level playing field, my ass.)
> For example, Toyota is often held up as a prime example of LEAN. Let's See. Toyota did LEAN. Toyota doesn't treat their employees like crap. Therefore, IBM doesn't treat their employees like crap.
No, I don't think that logic works.
> But, everyone here seems to be of the opinion that Cringley's full of shit. I'll have to agree. Everyone? You don't speak for me, Buddy. Cringely has been around for a long time, does great PBS series and usually is insightful on his column. He's made some goofs over the years, but he's still worth hearing out. I'm just wondering why there are people who are so venomous in attacking Cringely yet so vigorous in their defense of IBM. Stakeholders, perhaps?
IBM now has more employees in America and India than anywhere else. Just last week while all this was going on Sam was in India paving the way for more IBM business to be transferred there. IBM is the modern day Benedict Arnold. Sure, Indians are going to do great out of this and all's fair in love and war, but I don't see why the Americans losing their job should bend over and take it.
> You know nothing (none of that "how much spare time do you have. I'm talking about core, basic MS tech, the stuff junior devs learn within weeks) of MS offering. It could be better, yes, but basically the arguments you gave were garbage.
Ah funny how net abuse like this doesn't bother anyone anymore.
Considering I develop for Windows, your taunts should in theory worry me. For some reason, they don't. Man, you're using tech arguments that'd get you fired in a business environment. That's telling. Now run along and call someone else names.;-)
> A) The old stuff sucked, and I didn't bother looking at the new. > C) I don't understand what Microsoft tool or platform XYZ is used for at the high end level, but just playing with it for 5 minutes I can't do anything useful with it, so it sucks.
How much spare time do you have? Microsoft comes out with new tech all the time and most of it is nothing worth getting out of bed for. Wait two years and it's usually in a morgue. They've got a Flash clone now called Silverlight, right? You going to waste next week learning about that? Nope. Why should you bother? If you want to use Flash, you'll use Flash. You going to ditch your current DB and do a port just to see if Bill's latest incarnation of SQL Server is any better? Best idea when MS brings out yet another new tech is to let it sit on the shelf for a couple of years and see if people are still using it. Usually it dies. A lot of their tech these days is me-too.
> B) Backward compatibility is causing them to suck!. But if they dare breaking it to bring something good to the table, they need to die!
Didn't say anything at all about Backward compatability. You didn't respond to stuff like Visual Studio 2003 being slower than Turbo C++. Surely that sucks.
Anyway: MS don't make anything worth getting excited about. That's why there is no cult.
Someone joked 'because they suck', but it was incorrectly modded Funny. Seriously: It isn't hard to see why. Their products are at best uninspired. They take their users for granted. They don't respect or even pretend care about their customers. Let's look at their portfolio:
Windows Vista: No one asked for this. Slow, DRM-heavy, UAC slapdown. Our only choice is not to upgrade. Office: It's a word processor and spread sheet. How sexy can that get? After '95 nothing more to add. Visual Studio: This is slower than the old Borland Turbo C++! Incremental compiles aren't. In 2003 had a huge bug that *really* slowed the linker, which they never fixed. http://www.workspacewhiz.com/OtherAddins.html SharePoint: It's hard to get excited about redundant software with this sort of PR drivel: "Create powerful solution applications on the SharePoint platform to enhance your productivity and deliver rich-looking sites." Zzzzzzz SQL Server: Early versions were a buggy dog. Did it get better? Who cares. We use MySQL, Firebird or Oracle instead. IE: Compare Firefox to IE. The only people using IE are the lamers who don't know about spyware, malware and trojan horses. MS only updated IE when Firefox cocked their leg on them. How lazy is that? ActiveX: Any barely awake geek could tell this was a bad idea when they first heard of it. Yet Microsoft blundered off and did it anyway. Zune: Small, brown and fits in the palm of your hand. Much like taking Fido for a walk. MSN Microsoft Search: Google does it so much better. DirectX: Version 10 won't be supported with XP. Way to leave us hanging. Use OpenGL instead. Older OSes: XP is the exception: wasn't bad. ME was a disgrace. 95 was a ripoff, but a pretty one.
Every time Bill gets on the tube and declares he has something new and "COOL", the "COOL" part has always that he'll make more money. When Steve Jobs says something is "COOL", it usually is. Jobs is printing money, but he at least cares about quality and delivering to his customers. Same can be said of companies that do have a Tech Cult. Microsoft on the other hand doesn't care about us, so why should we care about it?
Slashdot Mirror
Thanks for an interesting perspective. For once it seems, we can't blame the damned Commies! :-)
With all those RIAA Shills with so many branches in so many countries, do they hold Annual Shill Conventions in the Bahamas or something?
I know that. I think everbody knows that: It was a bit hard to miss the handover ceremony!
The perception in the West (rightly or wrongly) is that Mainland China pulls the strings in Hong Kong: Nothing happens without their blessing, and given the US beat up China on Piracy last week, the verdict would have to be welcomed by the Communist Party.
(Sadly) this isn't the Chinese government kissing American butt. They've got some "bad" publicity last week, so this poor sap is being made an example of.
Meanwhile the RIAA and MPAA continue to lie, cheat and steal with politicans at their bidding (that's the DMCA Congressman).
Every security system invented by corporate programmers has been defeated by hackers. Latest case in point AACS, and before that CCS, WGA, not to mention modded XBOXes themselves.
Next time you are given 5 mod points, try and spend them wisely.
> Microsoft Bans Modified Xbox 360s From Xbox Live
Evidently Microsoft doesn't understand "hackers", and I'd bet on a hacker over a Microsoft programmer any day of the week. I'd give it 48 hours before has a counter-mod for Microsoft's anti-mod mod.
> Google Wins Nude Thumbnail Legal Battle
e rgey-brin-and-anne-wojcicki-260039.php
Just in time for Sergei Brin's wedding!
http://valleywag.com/tech/wedding-announcements/s
mod parent insightful.
7 5gxp_the_pain_continues/
IBM's appalling, much malfunctioning Deskstar HDDs ended with IBM quitting the HDD business. Many lost data (including me!) Worse, IBM knew the DeskStar line was faulty, and continued selling them anyway and denied there was a problem. http://consumeraffairs.com/news03/ibm_drives.html IBM quit the business and sold to Hitachi who didn't even think to change the charred brand name. I wouldn't touch anything from that lineage. The Hard Drive is the most important part of your PC to take the chance: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/10/24/deskstar_
Offtopic my ass! The PP suggested Lynx as an alternative to FF, and I pointed out the links were broken. Try having your first cup of coffee before you start modding, dammit! ;-)
Cool! This information is bound to come in useful at a later date.
"I find your ideas fascinating and would like to subscribe to your newsletter".
BTW on the Satirical Show the Chaser they asked "How much have we really learnt?", dressed a guy up in a snake outfit, took a basket of apples and handed them out in front of churches, synagogues and mosques (yes, they're open too) over Easter. Everyone who took one was labeled "SINNER". An Orthodox Jew took the Apple and said "C'mon, what are you selling, really?" The snake replied "Why can't a snake hand out apples without being accused of doing something wrong?" The only person that refused the Apple was Sydney's Gay Archbishop George Pell (or is he Anti-Gay? I keep getting that mixed up!) I think the Easter Episode was #6: http://abc.net.au/tv/chaser/war/vodcast/
For the non-SSL version, you actually have to e-mail the guy to download it: "NOTE! Due to new ISP bandwidth rules, the above 2 files have been disabled from downloading. If you want a copy, send me an email to jamesYYMM [at] spoonfork.org, where the y's and m's are numbers representing year and month." How big are these downloads anyway?
No wonder Firefox won the browser battle with Lynx. Lynx: Not Trying Very Hard(TM)
> My free will can't override my instinctual reaction to kill whoever modded that insightful.
Sure, but wouldn't killing them send them to a better place?
> Fruit Flies Show Spark of Free Will
If they've got free will, does that mean they can go to heaven or hell?
Not hard to imagine Fruit flies swarming over the Apple in the Garden of Eden, though they would probably have preferred a banana.
Hey thanks for the update! I loved Rambo III: It was one of those movies that was so bad it was good. Burma? Cool, but doubt the Burmese Dictators will let Aung San Suu Kyi make a cameo.
Sly Stallone was caught recently in Sydney Airport importing (heh heh... drug smugglers smuggle, but Celebrities "import") quantities of Testosterone and Human Growth Hormone. Maybe Sly is updating his image for the YouTube generation. He wants to not only be a big troll, but a big scary troll too:
y -for-illegal-hormones/2007/05/15/1178995115011.htm ll -apology/2007/05/15/1178995136992.html
"I want... what they want... what those trolls. They just want to be heard. {grabs mike} Bill Gates, I'm comin' to get you!" (Whacks Steve Balmer with chair and dives out the window with DRM lawyers in pursui
Sly sad it was prescribed by his doctors for a "mystery medical ailment". No, seriously.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/stallone-sorr
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/stallones-ful
Don't panic, Rambolovers and Rockettes. Being a 51st State of America, Australia extends immunity to Hollywood Celebrities too. Sly will gush about he loves Australia and walk free. Just as well. Here's to Rambo IV, where he goes back and kicks the ass of the Tabliban guys he freed in III.
> Microsoft won't reveal these 235 alleged IP infringements
Microsoft: Put up or shut up.
Anyway, Two can play at this game! let's take the fight to Microsoft. In the vast swath of patents washing around the US these days, there is bound to be many that Microsoft is itself to have violated. Occasionally a company gets one of these and gives Microsoft a bad day in court, after which Microsoft inevitably offers to buy them out. What if Open Software was to get such a patent? Either from a commercial partner, or one granted to an individual who cares more about Open Source than they do about potentially millions of dollars. Rare, but these people do exist.
Now imagine the spectacle of a judge somewhere issuing a court order for Microsoft to cease selling Windows while this is resolved in court. For good measure, why hold back now? We can tell the press that while this is in the courts we will be "going after Microsoft's customers too". You want FUD, Microsoft? All you've got is lame lawyers, sloppy programmers and a few congressmen in your pocket. We've got our anger and there are many more of us. You've got FUD, Balmer? We'll double your. We don't crap and this time you've gone way too far. Let's see how you fight with your crappy VISTA operating system flagging, a full-blown patent assault and a new anti-trust suit by the end of the year.
The Best defense is a Good offense. About time we organize a defense. What candidate patents do we have? Anyone want to break it to the press?
To be sanguine, everything has an upside. Come back in thirty or so years and the third-world will be a more affluent, with better health, education and standards of living. We in the west have such a high-standard of living (though you'll rarely here anyone of us admit it) that surely we can make do with our existing home theater systems for a few more years and stop at three cars per household. Having more healthier, happier, more educated world is good for everyone.
Old mind trick: Think of the worst thing that can happen to you, and when you think about it, it isn't that bad. A wise (American) once said "I've never known a man who has died of hunger or frozen to death." If you're an IBMer losing your job, it's unlikely you will find yourself living in cardboard box. Eventually you'll get another job and it may be in a different industry and not as 'satisfying' as working for IBMGS (cough), but if you're not happy now you never will be. Of course, this is no excuse to hand your job to someone else on a silver platter. By all means ask your Congressman why he's "selling out America". If he preaches the value of 'Free Markets' or tells you his hands are tied, remind him what 'Democracy' means and for God's sake don't vote for him next time!
Points for effort, but analogies don't work because people say "Whoa dude, but this *ISN'T* XYZ..."
Problem is really pretty simple: American Corporation fires Americans and hires cheaper Indians to please American Shareholders. American Shareholder feels smug and bugs Chinese-made Widescreen TV. American Congressmen purchased with cold hard cash won't do anything to stop it, and fired American employee re-elects him anyway. American Company and Country goes down the gurgler.
H1B Openness? Americans can't get the equivalent for India. Unlike America, The Indian Government looks after their workers.
The moral: Buy Indian Rupees and invest in China. America is going down.
> the outsource firms are bringing workers here on HB-1's and then *who* trains them? They do, or American companies do?
On the comments on Cringely's two recent IBM stories http://pbs.org/cringely, it was American IBMers training the very same Indians who were to take over their jobs. The Indians went back to India, and the Americans were fired (except of course, IBM's generously compensated CEO).
Balmer's recent threats that anyone using a version of Linux that hasn't signed up with Microsoft an "undisclosed balance sheet liability" sums up Microsofts attitude nicely. Why wouldn't it? The DOJ has been muzzled and Microsoft have been able to do anything they damned well want to, but by the end of this year there will be someone else in the Whitehouse. Maybe it'll be same-as-usual. Maybe not. I hope not :-)
PS. Microsoft Astroturfers respond to NUL: pls
Interesting. Other differences in Japan are there isn't the huge disparity between Executive and worker wages and perks: Everyone is on the same side, and everyone can work together because no one is making out like a bandit. Lets be honest. There's nothing the least bit special about Sam: there are a hundred thousands inside and outside who could do his job, and many of them could do it better. In IBM at the moment we're seeing glutinous pilfering from the executives, who aren't even running the company well, while at the same time asking employees to make the ultimate sacrifice.
IBMs has embraced every management fad to come down the line. This time the suspicion is that Sam is using LEAN as a smokescreen: A nice sounding acronym that makes him sound "with it", at the same time he retrenches thousands of employees.
> Free market capitalism works... up until a point.
If the Government hadn't stepped in, every American would now be an employee of The Rockefeller Corporation.
The trouble with Free Markets, is they're usually not. Heard a Pundit on BBC World Service saying we shouldn't worry about Rupert Murdoch taking over the Wall Street Journal because it's a "Free Market" anyone can set up a blog and compete. (Level playing field, my ass.)
> For example, Toyota is often held up as a prime example of LEAN.
Let's See. Toyota did LEAN. Toyota doesn't treat their employees like crap. Therefore, IBM doesn't treat their employees like crap.
No, I don't think that logic works.
> But, everyone here seems to be of the opinion that Cringley's full of shit. I'll have to agree.
Everyone? You don't speak for me, Buddy. Cringely has been around for a long time, does great PBS series and usually is insightful on his column. He's made some goofs over the years, but he's still worth hearing out. I'm just wondering why there are people who are so venomous in attacking Cringely yet so vigorous in their defense of IBM. Stakeholders, perhaps?
IBM now has more employees in America and India than anywhere else. Just last week while all this was going on Sam was in India paving the way for more IBM business to be transferred there. IBM is the modern day Benedict Arnold. Sure, Indians are going to do great out of this and all's fair in love and war, but I don't see why the Americans losing their job should bend over and take it.
> You know nothing (none of that "how much spare time do you have. I'm talking about core, basic MS tech, the stuff junior devs learn within weeks) of MS offering. It could be better, yes, but basically the arguments you gave were garbage.
;-)
Ah funny how net abuse like this doesn't bother anyone anymore.
Considering I develop for Windows, your taunts should in theory worry me. For some reason, they don't. Man, you're using tech arguments that'd get you fired in a business environment. That's telling. Now run along and call someone else names.
> A) The old stuff sucked, and I didn't bother looking at the new.
> C) I don't understand what Microsoft tool or platform XYZ is used for at the high end level, but just playing with it for 5 minutes I can't do anything useful with it, so it sucks.
How much spare time do you have? Microsoft comes out with new tech all the time and most of it is nothing worth getting out of bed for. Wait two years and it's usually in a morgue. They've got a Flash clone now called Silverlight, right? You going to waste next week learning about that? Nope. Why should you bother? If you want to use Flash, you'll use Flash. You going to ditch your current DB and do a port just to see if Bill's latest incarnation of SQL Server is any better? Best idea when MS brings out yet another new tech is to let it sit on the shelf for a couple of years and see if people are still using it. Usually it dies. A lot of their tech these days is me-too.
> B) Backward compatibility is causing them to suck!. But if they dare breaking it to bring something good to the table, they need to die!
Didn't say anything at all about Backward compatability. You didn't respond to stuff like Visual Studio 2003 being slower than Turbo C++. Surely that sucks.
Anyway: MS don't make anything worth getting excited about. That's why there is no cult.
Someone joked 'because they suck', but it was incorrectly modded Funny. Seriously: It isn't hard to see why. Their products are at best uninspired. They take their users for granted. They don't respect or even pretend care about their customers. Let's look at their portfolio:
Windows Vista: No one asked for this. Slow, DRM-heavy, UAC slapdown. Our only choice is not to upgrade.
Office: It's a word processor and spread sheet. How sexy can that get? After '95 nothing more to add.
Visual Studio: This is slower than the old Borland Turbo C++! Incremental compiles aren't. In 2003 had a huge bug that *really* slowed the linker, which they never fixed. http://www.workspacewhiz.com/OtherAddins.html
SharePoint: It's hard to get excited about redundant software with this sort of PR drivel: "Create powerful solution applications on the SharePoint platform to enhance your productivity and deliver rich-looking sites." Zzzzzzz
SQL Server: Early versions were a buggy dog. Did it get better? Who cares. We use MySQL, Firebird or Oracle instead.
IE: Compare Firefox to IE. The only people using IE are the lamers who don't know about spyware, malware and trojan horses. MS only updated IE when Firefox cocked their leg on them. How lazy is that?
ActiveX: Any barely awake geek could tell this was a bad idea when they first heard of it. Yet Microsoft blundered off and did it anyway.
Zune: Small, brown and fits in the palm of your hand. Much like taking Fido for a walk.
MSN Microsoft Search: Google does it so much better.
DirectX: Version 10 won't be supported with XP. Way to leave us hanging. Use OpenGL instead.
Older OSes: XP is the exception: wasn't bad. ME was a disgrace. 95 was a ripoff, but a pretty one.
Every time Bill gets on the tube and declares he has something new and "COOL", the "COOL" part has always that he'll make more money. When Steve Jobs says something is "COOL", it usually is. Jobs is printing money, but he at least cares about quality and delivering to his customers. Same can be said of companies that do have a Tech Cult. Microsoft on the other hand doesn't care about us, so why should we care about it?
Jobs was right: "Microsoft has no taste."