"CEO diagnosed with testicular cancer"... "Amy Jones in Accounting bakes prize winning chocolate cake"... "Share price falls 45%, massive layoffs expected in next quarter"... "Come dressed as a super hero next week to raise money for the homeless"... "CFO indicted on embezzlement charges"... "News ticker updates outsourced to India, job losses in that department expected"
Christ, can't we just start shooting all the lawyers and get this over with? The whole thing is an increasingly mad dash to innovation armageddon. I think no patent system at all would be better than the absurdities of this.
Indeed. I won't be upgrading my iPhone 4 until I'm sure that Google has an app in place. I do not feel that I should be caught in Apple's shifting allegiances.
The only thing you need to know is that he loves money, and has found a niche that happily pays him plenty of it.
Frankly, I long ago gave up any hope that any of the major Conservative commentators was being sincere. There's so much money to be made preaching to the choir, and it does matter how over the top the rhetoric they will lap it up, that I think Conservative talk shows are about as real as a carnival side show. Think of Rush as the bearded woman and you've figured out the secret.
What he is is an incumbent faced with an impotent competitor, who is increasingly becoming dominated by trying to fix his own gaffes. Few presidents have ever had the good fortune that Obama is enjoying politically.
That was precisely the kind of thinking that lead to the US scrapping big chunks of its Navy post-WWI, as part of a general disarmament program. And boy, that sure did work out well.
Ummm... a lot of Naval theory springs from WWII, when the Allies were matched, if not evenly, then at least by other potent naval powers. The Japanese and Germans both had formidable navies that did go head to head against the US and the British Empire.
I wonder how Ghaddafi feels about Obama's use of projected power.
I do love partisans though. If Obama doesn't thump some Arab leader with a big stick, he's an apologist pussy. If he does thump some Arab leader with a big stick, why he's a warmongering Congress defier. One gets the sense that it is irrelevant what a sitting President does. If he's wearing your team's colors, he's 100% great, if he's wearing the other team's colors, he's 100% bad.
"Lots of Christians protesting" for Last Temptation meant a few really angry types marching outside movie theaters. The director, writers and actors didn't have to have armed guards or live in fortresses forever after.
By and large in the West we've pulled a sufficient number of the Church's teeth that even Piss Christ or South Psrk's scatological sacrilege get only the rabid few even to respond.
Nothing demonstrates how backwards and filled with fear some populations are than this latest event. Allah must be one pathetically weak god if he needs a mob to kill an ambassador whose only crime was to share the nationality of the silly kooks who made this film.
And as to those kooks, it strikes me that the response has proven them right.
I've had this conversation in many different formats over the years, and I keep coming back to the peculiar nature of programming, or at least good programming. There is no doubt that technical background or training is highly desirable, but there is also an intuitive aspect that makes it more than just fitting blocks together. Given the right tools, I think anyone can code, but programming beyond basic HTML form processing or Excel macros takes something more.
What you're missing is a customer base. If I build an app for iOS or Android, I instantly have millions of potential customers. Ask WP7 developers how well all those nifty tools helped sales.
If AS is an installable option, then I can see no pressure that Redmond could apply. Managers, in particular senior managers, are going to go to the IT department and go "You just updated to Exchange 2015 and now my iPad 5 can't check email", and IT is going to go "Oh yes, we need to install that module". Sure Redmond can send its sales boys in, but it's still playing catch-up.
Besides, unless Microsoft is going to completely bust new versions of Exchange's ability to synchronize and work with older versions, I'd just be keeping Exchange 2010 servers (or last AS compatible version) going to provide those services.
I don't think Microsoft can meaningfully take this tact any more, because there is the potential to risk damaging one of their big moneymakers; Exchange-Outlook. After all, Google already is reasonably close to turning GMail and Google Calendars into an Exchange-like replacement, and I doubt it would take that much effort to complete Outlook compatibility, and most certainly Apple, who has a helluva lot of cash looking for somewhere to be spent, would pursue a solution.
It isn't 1995 any more. It isn't even 2005 any more. Exchange's position, and with it the whole Windows server ecosystem, is secure so long as there is some capacity to integrate other technologies. Microsoft pulls the rug out on that, it may soon find that gaining a toehold in the mobile world saw their hold on the enterprise world damaged.
If Microsoft were to pull that stunt, I can tell you right now I would seriously start looking at Google's groupware counter-solutions. I'm not going to box my organization into not only a single vendor software enterprise, but a single or limited vendor hardware enterprise.
But that is putting the cart before the horse. You could have the world's easiest platform to develop for, but if no one is buying the platform, then ease of development is irrelevant. By extension, you might have the worst platform to develop for, but if the platform is selling well, then that is is the singular consideration.
To my mind, at this point, if I were Microsoft, I would be going out of my way to make porting from Android and iOS to WP8 as easy as possible.
Can settings on your phone be centrally altered via Group Policies? The whole point to having a "Windows" phone in an enterprise, to my mind, would be the ability to make a domain member and to use the same tools I use for member servers and workstations.
Then everyone would just figure out how to grab the data off the OMA/OWA site like guys figured out to do for Yahoo and Hotmail back in the day. ActiveSync makes things easier, but it isn't the only way to grab data. Besides, I'm sure if it came to that, someone would just build a middleware solution. The day when Microsoft could use its market dominance to bully everyone else is done.
And besides, you can't patent protocols or APIs, so I'm reasonably certain that trying to leverage Exchange in that way would certainly bring Microsoft back in the cross hairs of European regulators, and by the time the war was done, Redmond would be forced to open it all up anyways, and suffer substantial fines in the process.
I don't know about you, but I don't develop for platforms that are the easiest to code for, I develop for platforms that have sufficient market share for me to have a reasonable chance of making back the money and resources I invested into writing a product. So even if WP8 is some sort of developer's heaven, what difference does that make? I'd sooner spend 20% more time developing for a platform I have a reasonable chance of making money on than 20% less on a platform with virtually no customers.
Yes, they could kill ActiveSync, but in the process not only would they deeply anger everybody from medium sized businesses to large corporations, and most likely they would land themselves back in Antitrust Hell.
In my case, pulling a stunt like that would mean I would just keep my current Exchange server going, even if its only purpose was to serve the Androids and iPhones feeding off of it. Exchange 201x won't support syncing with my iPhone or my business partner's Android, well then, just won't upgrade to Exchange 201x.
The only reason X-Box is a "successful" consumer brand is because Microsoft has dumped billions into buying market position. Microsoft hasn't even made back its investment into the X-Box. But unless Microsoft and Nokia are basically willing to sell at a substantial loss for a considerable length of time, they are intruding into a market already crowded by iOS and Android devices.
What do you mean "dither"? Apple just released a new phone, there's some new Android device coming out with the same frequency as cows take a shit. Both the iOS and Android app markets are mature. What is Microsoft going to do to attract the developers? Why would any app developer take a chance on Microsoft, particularly considering how notorious Microsoft has historically been for smacking developers down just as they get used to a specific toolset.
If I were to start developing apps right now, at this very moment in time, WP8 would not even be on the radar. Why would I invest the time and money into a new and untested platform by a company who has screwed over developers before?
Microsoft came too late to the party. If it had wanted to be a meaningful player in the game, it should have put the effort in three or four years ago.
Slashdot Mirror
Could be a great news ticker!
"CEO diagnosed with testicular cancer" ... "Amy Jones in Accounting bakes prize winning chocolate cake" ... "Share price falls 45%, massive layoffs expected in next quarter" ... "Come dressed as a super hero next week to raise money for the homeless" ... "CFO indicted on embezzlement charges" ... "News ticker updates outsourced to India, job losses in that department expected"
Can't wait for my feed based spreadsheet software. Man oh man, will that make things work SOOOO much better!
Christ, can't we just start shooting all the lawyers and get this over with? The whole thing is an increasingly mad dash to innovation armageddon. I think no patent system at all would be better than the absurdities of this.
Indeed. I won't be upgrading my iPhone 4 until I'm sure that Google has an app in place. I do not feel that I should be caught in Apple's shifting allegiances.
The only thing you need to know is that he loves money, and has found a niche that happily pays him plenty of it.
Frankly, I long ago gave up any hope that any of the major Conservative commentators was being sincere. There's so much money to be made preaching to the choir, and it does matter how over the top the rhetoric they will lap it up, that I think Conservative talk shows are about as real as a carnival side show. Think of Rush as the bearded woman and you've figured out the secret.
What he is is an incumbent faced with an impotent competitor, who is increasingly becoming dominated by trying to fix his own gaffes. Few presidents have ever had the good fortune that Obama is enjoying politically.
That was precisely the kind of thinking that lead to the US scrapping big chunks of its Navy post-WWI, as part of a general disarmament program. And boy, that sure did work out well.
Ummm... a lot of Naval theory springs from WWII, when the Allies were matched, if not evenly, then at least by other potent naval powers. The Japanese and Germans both had formidable navies that did go head to head against the US and the British Empire.
That, and they are the center of a carrier group. You don't just get a carrier, you get a whole host of other ships along with it.
I wonder how Ghaddafi feels about Obama's use of projected power.
I do love partisans though. If Obama doesn't thump some Arab leader with a big stick, he's an apologist pussy. If he does thump some Arab leader with a big stick, why he's a warmongering Congress defier. One gets the sense that it is irrelevant what a sitting President does. If he's wearing your team's colors, he's 100% great, if he's wearing the other team's colors, he's 100% bad.
"Lots of Christians protesting" for Last Temptation meant a few really angry types marching outside movie theaters. The director, writers and actors didn't have to have armed guards or live in fortresses forever after.
By and large in the West we've pulled a sufficient number of the Church's teeth that even Piss Christ or South Psrk's scatological sacrilege get only the rabid few even to respond.
Nothing demonstrates how backwards and filled with fear some populations are than this latest event. Allah must be one pathetically weak god if he needs a mob to kill an ambassador whose only crime was to share the nationality of the silly kooks who made this film.
And as to those kooks, it strikes me that the response has proven them right.
I've had this conversation in many different formats over the years, and I keep coming back to the peculiar nature of programming, or at least good programming. There is no doubt that technical background or training is highly desirable, but there is also an intuitive aspect that makes it more than just fitting blocks together. Given the right tools, I think anyone can code, but programming beyond basic HTML form processing or Excel macros takes something more.
Been going on since the dawn of time. How else would you describe Ovid's work?
I feel the same way. I long ago judged you to be a malevolent sex fiend, as is my right.
By which time Google's groupware offerings should be sufficiently advanced to render the strategy useless, or possibly even self defeating.
What you're missing is a customer base. If I build an app for iOS or Android, I instantly have millions of potential customers. Ask WP7 developers how well all those nifty tools helped sales.
If AS is an installable option, then I can see no pressure that Redmond could apply. Managers, in particular senior managers, are going to go to the IT department and go "You just updated to Exchange 2015 and now my iPad 5 can't check email", and IT is going to go "Oh yes, we need to install that module". Sure Redmond can send its sales boys in, but it's still playing catch-up.
Besides, unless Microsoft is going to completely bust new versions of Exchange's ability to synchronize and work with older versions, I'd just be keeping Exchange 2010 servers (or last AS compatible version) going to provide those services.
I don't think Microsoft can meaningfully take this tact any more, because there is the potential to risk damaging one of their big moneymakers; Exchange-Outlook. After all, Google already is reasonably close to turning GMail and Google Calendars into an Exchange-like replacement, and I doubt it would take that much effort to complete Outlook compatibility, and most certainly Apple, who has a helluva lot of cash looking for somewhere to be spent, would pursue a solution.
It isn't 1995 any more. It isn't even 2005 any more. Exchange's position, and with it the whole Windows server ecosystem, is secure so long as there is some capacity to integrate other technologies. Microsoft pulls the rug out on that, it may soon find that gaining a toehold in the mobile world saw their hold on the enterprise world damaged.
If Microsoft were to pull that stunt, I can tell you right now I would seriously start looking at Google's groupware counter-solutions. I'm not going to box my organization into not only a single vendor software enterprise, but a single or limited vendor hardware enterprise.
But that is putting the cart before the horse. You could have the world's easiest platform to develop for, but if no one is buying the platform, then ease of development is irrelevant. By extension, you might have the worst platform to develop for, but if the platform is selling well, then that is is the singular consideration.
To my mind, at this point, if I were Microsoft, I would be going out of my way to make porting from Android and iOS to WP8 as easy as possible.
Can settings on your phone be centrally altered via Group Policies? The whole point to having a "Windows" phone in an enterprise, to my mind, would be the ability to make a domain member and to use the same tools I use for member servers and workstations.
Then everyone would just figure out how to grab the data off the OMA/OWA site like guys figured out to do for Yahoo and Hotmail back in the day. ActiveSync makes things easier, but it isn't the only way to grab data. Besides, I'm sure if it came to that, someone would just build a middleware solution. The day when Microsoft could use its market dominance to bully everyone else is done.
And besides, you can't patent protocols or APIs, so I'm reasonably certain that trying to leverage Exchange in that way would certainly bring Microsoft back in the cross hairs of European regulators, and by the time the war was done, Redmond would be forced to open it all up anyways, and suffer substantial fines in the process.
I don't know about you, but I don't develop for platforms that are the easiest to code for, I develop for platforms that have sufficient market share for me to have a reasonable chance of making back the money and resources I invested into writing a product. So even if WP8 is some sort of developer's heaven, what difference does that make? I'd sooner spend 20% more time developing for a platform I have a reasonable chance of making money on than 20% less on a platform with virtually no customers.
Yes, they could kill ActiveSync, but in the process not only would they deeply anger everybody from medium sized businesses to large corporations, and most likely they would land themselves back in Antitrust Hell.
In my case, pulling a stunt like that would mean I would just keep my current Exchange server going, even if its only purpose was to serve the Androids and iPhones feeding off of it. Exchange 201x won't support syncing with my iPhone or my business partner's Android, well then, just won't upgrade to Exchange 201x.
The only reason X-Box is a "successful" consumer brand is because Microsoft has dumped billions into buying market position. Microsoft hasn't even made back its investment into the X-Box. But unless Microsoft and Nokia are basically willing to sell at a substantial loss for a considerable length of time, they are intruding into a market already crowded by iOS and Android devices.
Can I write Android and iOS apps in VS?
What do you mean "dither"? Apple just released a new phone, there's some new Android device coming out with the same frequency as cows take a shit. Both the iOS and Android app markets are mature. What is Microsoft going to do to attract the developers? Why would any app developer take a chance on Microsoft, particularly considering how notorious Microsoft has historically been for smacking developers down just as they get used to a specific toolset.
If I were to start developing apps right now, at this very moment in time, WP8 would not even be on the radar. Why would I invest the time and money into a new and untested platform by a company who has screwed over developers before?
Microsoft came too late to the party. If it had wanted to be a meaningful player in the game, it should have put the effort in three or four years ago.