I suspect the scene ended more along the lines of Ballmer throwing a chair at Mattrick and screaming "Get the fuck out and never come back, you piece of shit!"
It's kind of difficult to do that when the executives tell you that the point of the new product is to take a huge dump on the customer base and your job is to make sure they like it that way.
Yeah, except that Don Mattrick *WAS* that executive. He was the head of the Xbox division, not some low-level PR flunky. The only one he took orders from was Steve Ballmer. The decision to dump on the Xbox consumer base was all his.
Yeah, and you don't want that launch clouded by having the prick who told the military and hardcore fans to go screw themselves still at the helm. He had to go.
More likely that Balmer kicked Mattrick's ass out the door (with a chair thrown after him for good measure), then took personal command of the sinking ship in an effort to right it. Whether Ballmer himself is the right man for the job is debatable, but he could hardly do much worse.
why should Microsoft start firing non marketing people for technical failures
Because marketing people should know how to open their mouths without inserting their feet in them? Don Mattrick has had one PR flub after another for months. The guy seems incapable of typing or speaking a single sentence that doesn't make him and MS come off like insensitive, officious, clueless pricks. Not exactly the guy you want to be the public face of your new product (or any product, for that matter).
I would be very interested if a group of Average Joe's were given a chance to make a ruling with respect to the rights that a government has to keep details of its surveillance program secret.
"Average Joe's" in the U.S. probably don't even know what the 4th Amendment is, much less how to apply it.
The ridiculously narrow job requirements are specifically designed so they *don't* find Americans to fill their jobs. They want an excuse to hire H1-B indentured servants, and to go to Congress claiming that there are no Americans to fill them.
Well, in that case, better send the Congressional Police to arrest him!! They can put him in Congressional Jail with the many, many others who've lied to Congress and been prosecuted for it.
I seriously doubt NSA lied to the President. And they only lied to Congress because they knew that the Congressmen didn't really give a shit and were just putting on a nice show for the cameras. If they had thought for a second that Congress might actually follow up on their answers (or that the press even had the ABILITY to follow up), they would have parsed their language much more carefully.
I can see the Pentagon briefing now: "Clearly, the only obvious answer is to destroy the internet. Men, you have your orders! America...America...God shed his grace on thee..."
Actually, speaking from my own experience, I can tell you that a lot of gamers at that time had simply abandoned their consoles for Commodore 64's. You could even use the same joystick (beat the hell out of that sorry-ass 5200 controller). Atari had counted on 2600 fans to move on to the 5200. But for the same price, you could just buy a Commodore. And games were a helluva lot cheaper on the Commodore, since it was so easy to pirate them.
You don't wall it off, you just mark the appropriate apps "compatible with"
Well, I think that's a semantic difference, since either way you're separating console games out from general apps. But the point is that the Ouya has no reason to support the Play Store at this time, since it's incompatible with most of the apps there.
Of course it doesn't use the Play Store. It's not meant as a general-purpose Android platform (and neither would any Google console). It has to have it's own specialized store. You can't very well have a console loading apps that expect a touch screen, accelerometer, etc. Even if Google let their console use the Play Store, they would have to wall it off into it's own area.
I just can't believe that this company doesn't realize that this is a clear violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. You would have thought that the Kim Dotcom case would have made it clear to these people that New Zealand is under U.S. jurisdiction.
And what, pray tell, do you propose as an alternative? Should they abandon DRM to stick it to the man--immediately losing 99% of all their content? Yeah, now all that's on Netflix streaming are a handful of no-name indies, but they're all DRM free! We win!!!
Slashdot Mirror
I suspect the scene ended more along the lines of Ballmer throwing a chair at Mattrick and screaming "Get the fuck out and never come back, you piece of shit!"
It's kind of difficult to do that when the executives tell you that the point of the new product is to take a huge dump on the customer base and your job is to make sure they like it that way.
Yeah, except that Don Mattrick *WAS* that executive. He was the head of the Xbox division, not some low-level PR flunky. The only one he took orders from was Steve Ballmer. The decision to dump on the Xbox consumer base was all his.
Where are the reliable rockets coming and going like London buses?
Good news, everyone! The rockets you seek are on Futurama.
Bad news, everyone! It just got cancelled.
He and Zynga are a perfect match. No one would give a shit if either failed.
Yeah, and you don't want that launch clouded by having the prick who told the military and hardcore fans to go screw themselves still at the helm. He had to go.
More likely that Balmer kicked Mattrick's ass out the door (with a chair thrown after him for good measure), then took personal command of the sinking ship in an effort to right it. Whether Ballmer himself is the right man for the job is debatable, but he could hardly do much worse.
why should Microsoft start firing non marketing people for technical failures
Because marketing people should know how to open their mouths without inserting their feet in them? Don Mattrick has had one PR flub after another for months. The guy seems incapable of typing or speaking a single sentence that doesn't make him and MS come off like insensitive, officious, clueless pricks. Not exactly the guy you want to be the public face of your new product (or any product, for that matter).
I would be very interested if a group of Average Joe's were given a chance to make a ruling with respect to the rights that a government has to keep details of its surveillance program secret.
"Average Joe's" in the U.S. probably don't even know what the 4th Amendment is, much less how to apply it.
This is /. Yesterday's news is their specialty.
They would even provide him with a place to stay when he got back to the U.S.--a permanent place to stay.
The ridiculously narrow job requirements are specifically designed so they *don't* find Americans to fill their jobs. They want an excuse to hire H1-B indentured servants, and to go to Congress claiming that there are no Americans to fill them.
Well, in that case, better send the Congressional Police to arrest him!! They can put him in Congressional Jail with the many, many others who've lied to Congress and been prosecuted for it.
I seriously doubt NSA lied to the President. And they only lied to Congress because they knew that the Congressmen didn't really give a shit and were just putting on a nice show for the cameras. If they had thought for a second that Congress might actually follow up on their answers (or that the press even had the ABILITY to follow up), they would have parsed their language much more carefully.
I can see the Pentagon briefing now: "Clearly, the only obvious answer is to destroy the internet. Men, you have your orders! America...America...God shed his grace on thee..."
Actually, speaking from my own experience, I can tell you that a lot of gamers at that time had simply abandoned their consoles for Commodore 64's. You could even use the same joystick (beat the hell out of that sorry-ass 5200 controller). Atari had counted on 2600 fans to move on to the 5200. But for the same price, you could just buy a Commodore. And games were a helluva lot cheaper on the Commodore, since it was so easy to pirate them.
That's what happens when you give your employees one day a week to just work on crazy shit. ;-)
You don't wall it off, you just mark the appropriate apps "compatible with"
Well, I think that's a semantic difference, since either way you're separating console games out from general apps. But the point is that the Ouya has no reason to support the Play Store at this time, since it's incompatible with most of the apps there.
Ouya already has a bunch of emulators. BYOR, though.
Of course it doesn't use the Play Store. It's not meant as a general-purpose Android platform (and neither would any Google console). It has to have it's own specialized store. You can't very well have a console loading apps that expect a touch screen, accelerometer, etc. Even if Google let their console use the Play Store, they would have to wall it off into it's own area.
Oh man, I just hope Charlie Sheen is in this one too.
Looks like 2014 is shaping up to be the Year of the Consoles. LOTS of consoles.
Because I could swear I just saw one of these in a Best Buy flyer last weekend
I just can't believe that this company doesn't realize that this is a clear violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. You would have thought that the Kim Dotcom case would have made it clear to these people that New Zealand is under U.S. jurisdiction.
And what, pray tell, do you propose as an alternative? Should they abandon DRM to stick it to the man--immediately losing 99% of all their content? Yeah, now all that's on Netflix streaming are a handful of no-name indies, but they're all DRM free! We win!!!
And you obviously haven't seen just about any interview she's done in the last 15 years, or her appearance on just about any award show.