However, I have to rant as I thought Slashdot was "News for Nerds. Stuff that matters." Why does ANYONE care what this Mossberg guy thinks / writes - first off, simply due to the fact that he writes for WSJ should be warning enough to not care what he has to say about anything technology based (just in case anyone forgot, the WSJ is a FINANCIAL newspaper - the only reason they have other sections of marginal interest is to broaden their reader base). Secondly, his ignorance about technology and bias to companies wooing him is simply blatant and laughable (his ignorance that the car amp being the primary driver for the sound produced by the Nano is evidence of his ignorance to various technologies - or maybe he just wanted to brag about the fact that he has a convertable and speeds) - essentially, this Mossberg guy provides surface-level fluff reviews that are rudimentary at best and essentially align with weather a respective product company is kissing his a** or not.
Note, I worked for the self-proclaiming "leader in interactive services" and I know for a fact that a good deal of executive attention was required for this guy to write a favorable article - then again, the article was primarily a self-prophecy for the executive in question - but still, this guy ended up writing a positive story about the product in question features and value to the consumer AND then, when the attention went away, he wrote in a article just a few months later talking about the exact same product that "the program is clumsy, bombarding you with promotions for features you don't use."
Note that the article states the AOL's "next-generation AIM release will also be an open platform" - OPEN PLATFORM, NOT OPEN SOURCE.
Two very different things - what this means is that AOL will open up it's platform to the AIM system (not client) for licensing. This is classic big company marketing spin - has nothing to do with open source or Mozilla.
AOL is clearly floundering when they have piggy back on the movement of Mozilla / Firefox. Even the abandoned but still barely breathing Netscape division of AOL is piggy backing on Mozilla / Firefox. Hell, they used to own / manage Mozilla before their brilliant executive management decided to let them go because they were clueless on what to do with Open Source technology (and thank God they did for Mozilla's (and our) sake).
Additional proof that AOL executive management for the past 10 years are complete boobs and absolutely clueless about real consumer software - AOL killed or derailed every innovative company they purchased during that time period: WinAMP, PersonaLogic, CompuServe, GNN, Netscape, Mozilla, Spinner, ShoutCast, WAIS, InfoGate, Mapquest - ICQ, MovieFone and Signingfish are they only companies they did not F-up (yet).
Heck, they launched AIM into the non-AOL member base market 8 years ago to attempt to capture more web users but completely failed due to executive managements ignorance of the market changes and lack of any strategic vision - they are doomed within the next 1-2 years.
But they do make a great mass CD marketing company with that CD distribution model and modem pool management (only after the whole America Offline debacle of course) - that is about the only two things they seem to know how to do - maybe that is their next stage (ha ha ha). CD distribution and the Internet boom of the late 90's is the only thing AOL can be thankful for - AOL has nothing of value long term.
Slashdot Mirror
However, I have to rant as I thought Slashdot was "News for Nerds. Stuff that matters." Why does ANYONE care what this Mossberg guy thinks / writes - first off, simply due to the fact that he writes for WSJ should be warning enough to not care what he has to say about anything technology based (just in case anyone forgot, the WSJ is a FINANCIAL newspaper - the only reason they have other sections of marginal interest is to broaden their reader base). Secondly, his ignorance about technology and bias to companies wooing him is simply blatant and laughable (his ignorance that the car amp being the primary driver for the sound produced by the Nano is evidence of his ignorance to various technologies - or maybe he just wanted to brag about the fact that he has a convertable and speeds) - essentially, this Mossberg guy provides surface-level fluff reviews that are rudimentary at best and essentially align with weather a respective product company is kissing his a** or not.
Note, I worked for the self-proclaiming "leader in interactive services" and I know for a fact that a good deal of executive attention was required for this guy to write a favorable article - then again, the article was primarily a self-prophecy for the executive in question - but still, this guy ended up writing a positive story about the product in question features and value to the consumer AND then, when the attention went away, he wrote in a article just a few months later talking about the exact same product that "the program is clumsy, bombarding you with promotions for features you don't use."
Two very different things - what this means is that AOL will open up it's platform to the AIM system (not client) for licensing. This is classic big company marketing spin - has nothing to do with open source or Mozilla.
AOL is clearly floundering when they have piggy back on the movement of Mozilla / Firefox. Even the abandoned but still barely breathing Netscape division of AOL is piggy backing on Mozilla / Firefox. Hell, they used to own / manage Mozilla before their brilliant executive management decided to let them go because they were clueless on what to do with Open Source technology (and thank God they did for Mozilla's (and our) sake).
Additional proof that AOL executive management for the past 10 years are complete boobs and absolutely clueless about real consumer software - AOL killed or derailed every innovative company they purchased during that time period: WinAMP, PersonaLogic, CompuServe, GNN, Netscape, Mozilla, Spinner, ShoutCast, WAIS, InfoGate, Mapquest - ICQ, MovieFone and Signingfish are they only companies they did not F-up (yet).
Heck, they launched AIM into the non-AOL member base market 8 years ago to attempt to capture more web users but completely failed due to executive managements ignorance of the market changes and lack of any strategic vision - they are doomed within the next 1-2 years.
But they do make a great mass CD marketing company with that CD distribution model and modem pool management (only after the whole America Offline debacle of course) - that is about the only two things they seem to know how to do - maybe that is their next stage (ha ha ha). CD distribution and the Internet boom of the late 90's is the only thing AOL can be thankful for - AOL has nothing of value long term.