So... the employee "responsible" is trying his best to move up the food chain... Or, he's bringing practices from above down below.
The company is more than twice the size it was when I left, but I find it hard to believe somebody not at the Junior VP level or higher would be able to pull off a stunt like this _internationally_. Maybe it's a lowly employee in Sweden, but this scheme has been orchestrated by someone with their fingers in a lot of pies.
I'm an ex-MSFT employee, and I know a lot of current and former MSFT employees. They're pretty much all good guys/gals.
You cannot project the individual up the corporation, however. (And it's not several hundred thousand. Last I looked, they were still under seventy thousand employees.) I don't know any members of the executive staff or board, however, and THAT's where decisions like this OOXML fiasco come from.
The culture within the company makes sure that the only people who can survive well enough to make it to the junior or senior executive level are cutthroat enough to think up plans like this. It's been that way since the 80s. It's taken until the last few years, though, for the company to grow enough that there's enough yes-men under the execs to insulate them from some levels of negative market reaction to their behavior. For a long time fines where just a cost of doing business at MSFT. I don't think they've realized until too late that the segment of the industry actively working against them is growing rapidly and is more effective than ever before.
The fact that they actually believed Vista was worth releasing was one clue. Another is that they've lost this initial push at OOXML. The third might not come until they try to EOL XP. (Or if IBM decides to chase the money from the SCO/IBM lawsuits.)
Actually, the issue isn't that there's a disconnect between the research and products arm at Microsoft. The problem is that the products arm won't start on a project unless it's "worth their time." Given the amount of overhead a typical product requires, it's going to have to sell a lot of copies or be very strategic to get underway. Most of the ideas that come out of R&D are cool, but too small to matter to MSFT.
I don't have first hand experience with them, but Google doesn't really seem to care about that. They release projects on the merits of the project, not the numbers the sales staff can generate.
What MSFT needs is something akin to Daimler's old Plymouth division. A risk-taking company that doesn't expect large sales numbers. I remember a presentation from a couple MSFT researchers back in 1994 on something pretty similar to what Second Life has become. The tech wasn't there to make it happen properly at the time, but it's something that could have been in that subsidiary's backlog of ideas. It just got lost within MSFT.
The current state of cellphone service in the US is such that 90% of existing cellular users will not be able to buy this phone, because only a small handful of users will be nearing the end of their existing contracts. Furthermore, the high price of this phone is going to dissuade some people that were on the fence already. Furthermore...Cingular isn't exactly a shining beacon of customer service these days, and their presence in some markets is outright laughable.
So, 90% can't buy the phone. That means 10% can.
And, if 10% of those 10% buy the phone, you know what you get? A hell of a lot of customers and, IIRC, Apple's goal for the first year.
You aren't going to be seeing these as often as blackberries, but you'll be seeing them. And people will look silly looking at people using them while trying to not look like they're looking.
Yup. I know one. And I work for a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner. The guy actually researched four different models and ended up going with the Zune.
In a related note, Target used to have their Zune stuff on an endcap. Now, it's buried off in the middle of one of the aisles.
> Go back and you'll see the exact same comments when Windows 2000 came out, when Windows XP was released, when the first Xbox was released and when the Xbox 360 was released.
So, in other words, Microsoft hasn't learned a single thing about shipping software in 8 years.
Sounds about right. Me? I'm sitting here on a Win2K machine I built that simply works. I've added loads on to it over time, and it still functions beautifully. Just lately, I've thought about upgrading it to Win XP MCE. I _might_ go the Ubuntu/MythTV route, but that's still problematic to set up. I run Ubuntu full time on my laptop, so it's not like I'm scared of Linux, just not sure I have the time to get things functioning properly.
Perhaps what needs to happen here is artists need to get together and found their OWN record label, paid for by artists, run by them, and run FOR them. Then join the RIAA and wreak havoc at stakeholder meetings!
Short of the "join the RIAA" part, isn't that in effect what Discipline Global Mobile is? IIRC, copyrights to the songs remain with the artist on DGM as opposed to nearly every other label.
Then show me an article claiming the reverse... I'm happy to believe it, but I do not recall there EVER being an article published showing errors in electronic voting machines in the US where the error favored a democrat candidate.
And I quote from the submission: "It is a well-known fact that most proprietary software companies lose a significant amount of their revenue because of illegal copying of their software."
No.
The accurate statement is:
It is a well-known fact that most proprietary software companies lose some undetermined percentage of their potential revenue because of illegal copying of their software.
If it's revenue, they've already made the sale. To actually lose their revenue, you'd have to steal the money from the company.
Looking at my prismemail.com stats, my spam peaked in March 04 at 5682 pieces of spam. Things dropped significantly after that down to 1900 pieces in May 04, just two months later.
I've since dropped as low as 700 in a given month (Aug 05), but I have seen a bit of an increase lately.
Slashdot Mirror
For those of us (like myself) that work closely with the banking industry, the phrase "NSF-Funded" produces quite a bit of cognitive dissonance.
>>
No, you just overpaid by 25% in a week. The remaining 4gb models are going out the door (new) at $299.
That amortizes out to 1300%/year for you. The early adopters amortize out at around 190%/year. YOU should give ME a shirt for that one.
>>
So... the employee "responsible" is trying his best to move up the food chain... Or, he's bringing practices from above down below.
The company is more than twice the size it was when I left, but I find it hard to believe somebody not at the Junior VP level or higher would be able to pull off a stunt like this _internationally_. Maybe it's a lowly employee in Sweden, but this scheme has been orchestrated by someone with their fingers in a lot of pies.
I'm an ex-MSFT employee, and I know a lot of current and former MSFT employees. They're pretty much all good guys/gals.
You cannot project the individual up the corporation, however. (And it's not several hundred thousand. Last I looked, they were still under seventy thousand employees.) I don't know any members of the executive staff or board, however, and THAT's where decisions like this OOXML fiasco come from.
The culture within the company makes sure that the only people who can survive well enough to make it to the junior or senior executive level are cutthroat enough to think up plans like this. It's been that way since the 80s. It's taken until the last few years, though, for the company to grow enough that there's enough yes-men under the execs to insulate them from some levels of negative market reaction to their behavior. For a long time fines where just a cost of doing business at MSFT. I don't think they've realized until too late that the segment of the industry actively working against them is growing rapidly and is more effective than ever before.
The fact that they actually believed Vista was worth releasing was one clue. Another is that they've lost this initial push at OOXML. The third might not come until they try to EOL XP. (Or if IBM decides to chase the money from the SCO/IBM lawsuits.)
I have always maintained that Poker is a bluffing game that uses cards as a tiebreaker. It is not a pure card game.
Therefore, it should be quite a bit harder than chess to program effectively.
> Well, if it is a case of a broken record, are they going to sue themselves for using the backup copy they made? :)
Nah - it's handled by the automatic deduction off the royalties for breakage.
> 1. The iPhone won't work as a phone when docked into speakers.
I own a Scion xB, and it's got an iPod jack. (not an Aux jack - it's got one of those too - but one that plugs into the dataport.)
Will it still work as a phone if I've got it plugged into the Scion?
Actually, the issue isn't that there's a disconnect between the research and products arm at Microsoft. The problem is that the products arm won't start on a project unless it's "worth their time." Given the amount of overhead a typical product requires, it's going to have to sell a lot of copies or be very strategic to get underway. Most of the ideas that come out of R&D are cool, but too small to matter to MSFT.
I don't have first hand experience with them, but Google doesn't really seem to care about that. They release projects on the merits of the project, not the numbers the sales staff can generate.
What MSFT needs is something akin to Daimler's old Plymouth division. A risk-taking company that doesn't expect large sales numbers. I remember a presentation from a couple MSFT researchers back in 1994 on something pretty similar to what Second Life has become. The tech wasn't there to make it happen properly at the time, but it's something that could have been in that subsidiary's backlog of ideas. It just got lost within MSFT.
...this plays straight into the whole "Hi, I'm a Mac. And I'm a PC" ads. In fact, it fits so well it smells like a joke.
"iPhone is to much fun to get work done. We must have a windows-based 'business' equivalent."
Please. Enough already.
Yup. I know one. And I work for a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner. The guy actually researched four different models and ended up going with the Zune.
In a related note, Target used to have their Zune stuff on an endcap. Now, it's buried off in the middle of one of the aisles.
We all know MSFT counts something as sold the day it leaves the warehouse, not the day it leaves the store.
I know more people with Archos products (2) than Zunes (1).
Coincidentally, the only band I break my RIAA boycott on also has their entire album up on their website. The Tragically Hip. (http://www.thehip.com)
> Go back and you'll see the exact same comments when Windows 2000 came out, when Windows XP was released, when the first Xbox was released and when the Xbox 360 was released.
So, in other words, Microsoft hasn't learned a single thing about shipping software in 8 years.
Sounds about right. Me? I'm sitting here on a Win2K machine I built that simply works. I've added loads on to it over time, and it still functions beautifully. Just lately, I've thought about upgrading it to Win XP MCE. I _might_ go the Ubuntu/MythTV route, but that's still problematic to set up. I run Ubuntu full time on my laptop, so it's not like I'm scared of Linux, just not sure I have the time to get things functioning properly.
Perhaps what needs to happen here is artists need to get together and found their OWN record label, paid for by artists, run by them, and run FOR them. Then join the RIAA and wreak havoc at stakeholder meetings!
Short of the "join the RIAA" part, isn't that in effect what Discipline Global Mobile is? IIRC, copyrights to the songs remain with the artist on DGM as opposed to nearly every other label.
"Uunartoq Qeqertoq"
I really want to see the point values for Inuit Scrabble.
Aphex Twin probably has.
Then show me an article claiming the reverse... I'm happy to believe it, but I do not recall there EVER being an article published showing errors in electronic voting machines in the US where the error favored a democrat candidate.
No.
The accurate statement is:
It is a well-known fact that most proprietary software companies lose some undetermined percentage of their potential revenue because of illegal copying of their software.
If it's revenue, they've already made the sale. To actually lose their revenue, you'd have to steal the money from the company.
Comcast's cable TV ads lie constantly about satellite TV, why should they behave any different here?
Yes: http://mdoyle.blogspot.com/
Looking at my prismemail.com stats, my spam peaked in March 04 at 5682 pieces of spam. Things dropped significantly after that down to 1900 pieces in May 04, just two months later.
I've since dropped as low as 700 in a given month (Aug 05), but I have seen a bit of an increase lately.
I think, by definition, if they guys he bribed turned him in they weren't the right guys.
Over 13,000 games are on that site, and there's tons of support files, reviews, session reports, rankings, etc. Everything you could want, really.