Looks through my posting history - I'm exactly the opposite of a Microsoft apologist.
I applaud you for that, but there is still no need to cut Microsoft slack where they don't deserve it. Which words describe the situation better: 1) "little accident" or 2) "slow motion train wreck"?
They're not going to die this year, but they do have a long decline ahead of them, just like IBM in the 90s.
Unlike IBM they won't pull out of it because they have no lucrative hardware business to fall back and no loyal stable of clients to turn themselves into a service operation. And unlike IBM, who only earned the hatred of a few thousand professionals, Microsoft has earned the hatred of millions and is still working on it.
the loss isn't from Bing's success or lack thereof. It's from aQuantative's write off
It's from Microsoft's lack of online success in general. Aquantive was supposed to sell display ads but nobody wanted to pay Microsoft to display their ads. For some reason.
It's not from their "continued struggles", it's from a single acquisition 5 years ago.
Why do we keep hearing this tired apology over and over again? Aquantive was worth $6.2 billion on the day it was bought then slowly bled bit by bit until it was worth zero. What bled away was its "good will" (aka expected income) as it became increasingly apparent that Microsoft was unable to leverage Aquantive's auction model in the same way that Google had leveraged Applied Semantics.
Until there's something out there that "doesn't suck", I'd like Microsoft to remain healthy and viable.
What do you mean, "remain healthy"? Microsoft has had the corporate equivalent of liver cancer for a dozen years now. Chemo treatment has already started.
I actually read TFA and it said they lost $6B due to a bad acquisition and that's why the quarterly profits were where they were.
See, the real story here is that Microsoft has been concealing this loss by carrying Aquantive on its books at far more than its real value. They did this in order to make their quarterlies look better than they actually are, therefore support the stock price. Microsoft hoped that the market would then regard this as a one-time expense (when it was really an ongoing loss over a period of years) and thus forgive them. And judging from the aftermarket movement, this strategem has worked perfectly. Whether it is legal is entirely another question. The word "fraud" comes to mind.
Even if Microsoft gets away with this, which they probably will, one fact can't be denied: Microsoft is weakening. The upcoming Windows 8 debacle should put the icing on the cake.
And what is wrong with hating the hateful player that plays the hateful game? Apple has gone out of its way to make itself perfectly hateful so I for one must comply.
Let's take inventory. IPhone 4s. A minor upgrade. Ipad 3. A minor upgrade, and a downgrade in terms of weight, thickness and battery life. New products. None.
OK, I think I can see the pattern now. Apple plans to milk its existing assets for everything they're worth and has no intention of creating new ones. That would cost money, you see.
Probably doesn't matter in China, but they need a better name all the same. I don't doubt one will land presently. Remember, the Meego name came from a bunch of Nokia and Intel marketdroids. I doubt they have any love for it, other than as a way to identify their particular technology base so people don't think they're totally whacked.
Man, it is hard to make some people happy. Here's one of the more successful game companies trying to make a serious effort to bring better games to Linux, and after 8 comments, there are 6 complaints about it.
You can be pretty sure all eight were from Microsoft and Apple trolls.
It's not cool any more to own Apple products. None of them. I mean, they might be fine for whatever reason you might have for owning an iPhone, but it's important that you realize it is no longer cool. In fact, it is very specifically not cool to own Apple products or to support a company that calls the fucking Secret Service when the whole thing could have been easily handled if they'd just responded to the guy's inquiry about whether or not it was OK to do what he was doing. Think about this: the guy contacts Apple and explains his project because he's not looking for trouble and Apple calls the Secret Service (!) as if the guy had just expressed his plans to assassinate the President. I'm trying to figure out a way Apple could have been more dickish about this besides sending a team of chubby Genius Bar neckbeards to rape and murder the guy's family.
Apple is becoming the shit company to end all shit companies. Their list of anti-social, anti-competitive, anti-consumer and anti-freedom behaviors is growing, it seems, every single day. I understand that some of you already own Apple products and don't have much choice at this point, but unfortunately you're going to have to accept that Apple's behavior is going to rub off on you. Maybe you can buy some nondescript case that will obscure the brand of your device until you can afford to replace it with something that won't make you look like such a huge douchebag for supporting a company like Apple. I really feel for you, but it's not like there weren't signs last year when you bought that iPad 2 and signed the contract. Now you'll just have to live with the consequences of your willingness to ignore those signs. Plus, Apple stuff is so 2006.
But anyone who goes out from here on and buys a new Apple product is not only really not cool, but is inviting douchebag classification.
Secret fucking Service. Unbelievable.
But it's consistent with all Apple's behavior recently. Now... pissing off the environmentalists, that is definitely the last straw. Worse even than kicking in the door of a journalist or calling in an air strike on an artist by the secret service.
I really dislike when corporations decide to abuse the law like this. It makes my view of Apple even more cynical.
Please describe what abuse has occurred. Apple detected a computer intrusion at their stores. The software was being used to secretly record people and upload images to an outside server. Apple reported it to the authorities who happen to be the Secret Service. The Secret Service investigated. They questioned the individual and confiscated his computers. Please tell me how any of this is abusing the law.
The secret service is not supposed to act as a private security contractor for Apple. Does the word Pinkerton's mean anything to you?
I really dislike when corporations decide to abuse the law like this. It makes my view of Apple even more cynical. And I've bought precisely three Apple products in my lifetime and that will be ALL I buy. For example, when I was in the market for a new phone I eschewed the iPhone, not for it's alleged technical superiority - but for the fact you can't EASILY replace the battery and you have to use the craptastic dock connector as opposed to mine USB on the Android phones.
And I'll be in the market for a new PC soon. I can tell you it definitely won't be an Apple product.
I see that somebody from Apple modded down your perfectly legitimate post. Is anybody surprised?
" the artist who had the Secret Service raid his home at the behest of Apple, who was miffed with Kyle's surreptitious capture of people's expressions as they stared at computers in Apple Stores"
Holy hell. I didn't hear this story til now, but what the HELL was Apple (and Jobs since he was still in charge) thinking? A public facility is not only forbidden from discriminating against people based on race, sex, age, et cetera, but also forbidden from blocking people from recording (with camera, audio, pen-and-paper) what they witness in plain sight.
That's it. From this point forward when I hear someone waxing beautifically about hwo "great" Apple is, I will be linking to this story. And others. To show them how tyrannical the company has truly become.
Apple has officially succeeded beyond its wildest dreams... at becoming the most evil corporation ever. More evil than Microsoft. More evil than Phillip Morris. More evil than any environment trashing, justice perverting, antisocial corporation I can think of. Now we know what killed Steve Jobs. He ate himself out from inside.
And I notice that the usual gang of paid Apple astromods is in here downmodding right on schedule. Which is what made me really mad. You want a fight, Apple? You got one.
Slashdot Mirror
I have had quite enough reimagining thank you. Just make it smoother, more reliable, more options, fix bugs please.
How does this fit into my worldview where H1-B Visa holders are taking all of our jobs and lowering all of our wages?
It depends on your definition of "our". Maybe try thinking "we geeks" instead of "me and my 319 million dear friends in the glorious US of A".
Looks through my posting history - I'm exactly the opposite of a Microsoft apologist.
I applaud you for that, but there is still no need to cut Microsoft slack where they don't deserve it. Which words describe the situation better: 1) "little accident" or 2) "slow motion train wreck"?
They make ads for that steaming POS.
I take it you were not particularly impressed by Bill Gates' butt wiggle then?
They're not going to die this year, but they do have a long decline ahead of them, just like IBM in the 90s.
Unlike IBM they won't pull out of it because they have no lucrative hardware business to fall back and no loyal stable of clients to turn themselves into a service operation. And unlike IBM, who only earned the hatred of a few thousand professionals, Microsoft has earned the hatred of millions and is still working on it.
For Microsoft, this ends at $0 per share.
the loss isn't from Bing's success or lack thereof. It's from aQuantative's write off
It's from Microsoft's lack of online success in general. Aquantive was supposed to sell display ads but nobody wanted to pay Microsoft to display their ads. For some reason.
It's not from their "continued struggles", it's from a single acquisition 5 years ago.
Why do we keep hearing this tired apology over and over again? Aquantive was worth $6.2 billion on the day it was bought then slowly bled bit by bit until it was worth zero. What bled away was its "good will" (aka expected income) as it became increasingly apparent that Microsoft was unable to leverage Aquantive's auction model in the same way that Google had leveraged Applied Semantics.
Until there's something out there that "doesn't suck", I'd like Microsoft to remain healthy and viable.
What do you mean, "remain healthy"? Microsoft has had the corporate equivalent of liver cancer for a dozen years now. Chemo treatment has already started.
I guess when you're big enough you can do a six billion dollar oops and nothing much happens.
They didn't lose $6 billion, only $583 million.
No, they lost $6 billion+ on Aquantive. Thanks for playing.
I actually read TFA and it said they lost $6B due to a bad acquisition and that's why the quarterly profits were where they were.
See, the real story here is that Microsoft has been concealing this loss by carrying Aquantive on its books at far more than its real value. They did this in order to make their quarterlies look better than they actually are, therefore support the stock price. Microsoft hoped that the market would then regard this as a one-time expense (when it was really an ongoing loss over a period of years) and thus forgive them. And judging from the aftermarket movement, this strategem has worked perfectly. Whether it is legal is entirely another question. The word "fraud" comes to mind.
Even if Microsoft gets away with this, which they probably will, one fact can't be denied: Microsoft is weakening. The upcoming Windows 8 debacle should put the icing on the cake.
And what is wrong with hating the hateful player that plays the hateful game? Apple has gone out of its way to make itself perfectly hateful so I for one must comply.
Let's take inventory. IPhone 4s. A minor upgrade. Ipad 3. A minor upgrade, and a downgrade in terms of weight, thickness and battery life. New products. None.
OK, I think I can see the pattern now. Apple plans to milk its existing assets for everything they're worth and has no intention of creating new ones. That would cost money, you see.
Pretty sure that they were linux trolls.
Oh yeah, right, like the guy who said "we don't want shit like that in the linux land!".
Probably doesn't matter in China, but they need a better name all the same. I don't doubt one will land presently. Remember, the Meego name came from a bunch of Nokia and Intel marketdroids. I doubt they have any love for it, other than as a way to identify their particular technology base so people don't think they're totally whacked.
The China-first strategy seems brilliant to me. Far more price sensitive, which plays to their strength.
Hate to say it, but Nokia was going to die anyway.
That's self serving spin from Microsoft trolls and has been debunked.
Nokia was a giant in the cell industry but has been slipping lately.
Slipping? That's an understatement. Go check out the 1 year graph. You can't even see today's price because it's lost under the markers at the bottom.
The Linux market is at least a few million of generally above average intelligence and income users as proved by the Humble Bundle stats.
Man, it is hard to make some people happy. Here's one of the more successful game companies trying to make a serious effort to bring better games to Linux, and after 8 comments, there are 6 complaints about it.
You can be pretty sure all eight were from Microsoft and Apple trolls.
It's not cool any more to own Apple products. None of them. I mean, they might be fine for whatever reason you might have for owning an iPhone, but it's important that you realize it is no longer cool. In fact, it is very specifically not cool to own Apple products or to support a company that calls the fucking Secret Service when the whole thing could have been easily handled if they'd just responded to the guy's inquiry about whether or not it was OK to do what he was doing. Think about this: the guy contacts Apple and explains his project because he's not looking for trouble and Apple calls the Secret Service (!) as if the guy had just expressed his plans to assassinate the President. I'm trying to figure out a way Apple could have been more dickish about this besides sending a team of chubby Genius Bar neckbeards to rape and murder the guy's family.
Apple is becoming the shit company to end all shit companies. Their list of anti-social, anti-competitive, anti-consumer and anti-freedom behaviors is growing, it seems, every single day. I understand that some of you already own Apple products and don't have much choice at this point, but unfortunately you're going to have to accept that Apple's behavior is going to rub off on you. Maybe you can buy some nondescript case that will obscure the brand of your device until you can afford to replace it with something that won't make you look like such a huge douchebag for supporting a company like Apple. I really feel for you, but it's not like there weren't signs last year when you bought that iPad 2 and signed the contract. Now you'll just have to live with the consequences of your willingness to ignore those signs. Plus, Apple stuff is so 2006.
But anyone who goes out from here on and buys a new Apple product is not only really not cool, but is inviting douchebag classification.
Secret fucking Service. Unbelievable.
But it's consistent with all Apple's behavior recently. Now... pissing off the environmentalists, that is definitely the last straw. Worse even than kicking in the door of a journalist or calling in an air strike on an artist by the secret service.
I really dislike when corporations decide to abuse the law like this. It makes my view of Apple even more cynical.
Please describe what abuse has occurred. Apple detected a computer intrusion at their stores. The software was being used to secretly record people and upload images to an outside server. Apple reported it to the authorities who happen to be the Secret Service. The Secret Service investigated. They questioned the individual and confiscated his computers. Please tell me how any of this is abusing the law.
The secret service is not supposed to act as a private security contractor for Apple. Does the word Pinkerton's mean anything to you?
I really dislike when corporations decide to abuse the law like this. It makes my view of Apple even more cynical. And I've bought precisely three Apple products in my lifetime and that will be ALL I buy. For example, when I was in the market for a new phone I eschewed the iPhone, not for it's alleged technical superiority - but for the fact you can't EASILY replace the battery and you have to use the craptastic dock connector as opposed to mine USB on the Android phones.
And I'll be in the market for a new PC soon. I can tell you it definitely won't be an Apple product.
I see that somebody from Apple modded down your perfectly legitimate post. Is anybody surprised?
You named three parties. Two are stupid. The third is stupid and evil.
you are kind of a dick if you transgress against people by taking unauthorized pictures of them
Would that be secret service, flak jacket level of dick then? Or would the dick be you and the paid Apple astromods who modded up your worthless post?
" the artist who had the Secret Service raid his home at the behest of Apple, who was miffed with Kyle's surreptitious capture of people's expressions as they stared at computers in Apple Stores"
Holy hell. I didn't hear this story til now, but what the HELL was Apple (and Jobs since he was still in charge) thinking? A public facility is not only forbidden from discriminating against people based on race, sex, age, et cetera, but also forbidden from blocking people from recording (with camera, audio, pen-and-paper) what they witness in plain sight.
That's it. From this point forward when I hear someone waxing beautifically about hwo "great" Apple is, I will be linking to this story. And others. To show them how tyrannical the company has truly become.
Apple has officially succeeded beyond its wildest dreams... at becoming the most evil corporation ever. More evil than Microsoft. More evil than Phillip Morris. More evil than any environment trashing, justice perverting, antisocial corporation I can think of. Now we know what killed Steve Jobs. He ate himself out from inside.
And I notice that the usual gang of paid Apple astromods is in here downmodding right on schedule. Which is what made me really mad. You want a fight, Apple? You got one.