I thought of a good way he can prove that MSFT is writing big checks. Show us a scan of one written to him. Maybe they convinced him to do Transformers in HDDVD?
sell you.
Seriously folks, this is funny on so many levels. First, how in the hell would this "Director" know anything about what Microsoft is doing on this topic? He's pulling this out of his ass. There is no way in hell that MSFT is writing $100 million checks to keep this "war" going. MSFT may have a lot of money but they're not famous for wasting it. Who would they write those checks to?
Second, all the nonsense about "OMG - companies are fighting over formats!" is laughable. Of course companies disagree about which format is better - for them and for their customers. If anyone is surprised by that they're asleep. Sony certainly has an axe to grind on this topic, as does Apple and many many others. So what? Is that somehow "evil?"
As a not totally unbiased observer I'll say that as long as the movie companies keep us firmly attached to the teat of the DVD and its successors, the longer the user is going to be paying for the same content over and over again. Eventually they'll need to realize that all-digital/downloadalbe content is the way to go. If I have to pay a little more to ensure that I can replace my copy if I lose it or if they offer a new version with better graphics sound I might do that. Or, I can just buy a downloadable copy one-time. But buying physical discs is going to go the way of the do-do eventually.
Re: developers...I agree completely. I work with developers a lot but am not one myself. The only time they seem to want to work in a collaborative space is for short period in a "war room" setting.
I think you're make vast generalizations. Lots of people prefer the open concept because they're more social and like the interaction or because their jobs require more collaboration. Also, where I work people are increasingly working more remotely...half days or full days at home, more business travel, working somewhere else on the corporate campus...so not everyone really needs or wants their own little private office. I know of several people who have private offices who generally prefer to work in centralized lounges from their laptop...and their office sits empty most of the time.
I think you sound a bit paranoid when you talk about the company keeping an eye on more people at once. Wow. That's definately not my company. Management here could care less what people are doing on a minute by minute or hour by hour basis provided they get their work done. If you want to spend some time doing personal stuff while at work (like I'm doing now), not big deal as long as you meet your goals.
Microsoft is sort of famous among tech companies for giving every employee a private office, regardless of status/level. But increasingly some groups are deciding to move to open concept offices by choice. Each work group has a pretty high degree of autonomy to decide what they want to do and those that need a high degree of ongoing collaboration throughout the day like the open space approach. They aren't really cube-farms like at Intel. Rather, they're open spaces with little clusters of desks and lots of lounge-type rooms/spaces etc. The nice thing about it is the exposure to natural light compared to private offices where quite a few are on interior corridors. I have worked in both environments at various companies - cubes, cube-less open work spaces and private offices and I prefer private offices for privacy and quiet. Friends of mine who do design work really like the open space approach. To each his/her own.
Yes, slashdot is not the best place to get a sense of the real world. It's a bood place to find out what a small sliver of the world thinks about a slightly larger sliver of the topics that matter to the world. The ultimate success of Zune or iPod is hardly the most important topic of the day but it sure does get geeks excited. Here's one more geeks POV. Zune 2 is without a doubt NOT going to kill the iPod. Zune 3 may not either. Zune 4? Much better chance? Zune 5? iPod will be a significant player but will have lots its monopoly.
People just don't seem to get it: Microsoft rarely gives up on something that they decide is important. I'll go back to the old yarn about Lotus 1-2-3. At one point people didn't think there was a chance that Excel would be able to compete with Lotus... Lotus OWNED the spreadsheet business. Microsoft kept at it and...well, the rest is history. Let's talk gaming consoles. Microsoft decided that they needed to have a bigger presence in the living room. So they kept at it and now they're at worst at parity with Sony and Nintendo and more likely they're leading. They sell more games/unit and they're (finally ) profitable.
I'll say it again: Microsoft does not give up. Zune will eventually be a success.
Maybe you're just not a good developer. I spent several minutes thinking about any crashes I might have had. The only thing I could come up with was some kind of scripting error that gave me a warning saying, essentially, do you want to run this script which may slow down your system? I remember clicking "yes" and, in fact, it did slow down my system. If that's a crash then I guess you're right. In terms of havint the system just stop running, requiring a restart, I don't remember any. Maybe I'm just an optimist and have blocked it out but I don't think so.
Good use of bold, btw.
You said:
Note however that with those pretty massive advantages it still remains a very marginal player on the phone market.
Well, change "phone market" to "smartphone market" and the picture changes. Windows Mobile is doing very well in the smartphone market overall, especially in the US. That's where the innovation is happening. Anybody can build a basic little toy phone OS/experience.
I wonder whether you're being honest. I've used several Windows Mobile phones and can't think of a single crash - ever. Maybe I had one about a year ago when I installed some wierd app. Also, Windows Mobile has improved greatly in UI and Microsoft gives the handset makers pretty much total freedom to customize as they see fit. Windows Mobile is just a platform. It's the handset makers who do interesting things with it.
Any tool in the wrong hands is innefective if not dangerous. Take a circular saw...ever see someone who doesn't know what they're doing try to cut a straight line? Doesn't work. PowerPoint is somewhat similar. I have seen many PowerPoint presentations that we're well put together and did a good job of supporting the presenter. But as someone else pointed out above, many if not most presenters are weak and rely on the PowerPoint too much to make their...points. I say ban PowerPoint for dolts and make them write a real report. Everyone else can use it within limits.
Try it out. The UI is just as good (improved from previous version when Google was better) but the mapping is just better. Live search will automatically alter your route based on traffic conditions. The 45 degree angle shots are way superior to Google's overhead images. The only thing I'd ding Live search for is that SOMETIMES the screen re-drawing is slower. Not sure why. Any ideas from an AJAX expert?
You can find all you'd ever want to know and more about Microsoft's financials at www.microsoft.com/msft/. If the person who posted this silly topic had bothered to check facts beyond www.electronista.com (huh?) he might have noticed that Q1 is a down quarter every hear for Microsoft overall. You can look at the last five years and see the same pattern. It doesn't seem particularly surprising that Vista sales would generally drop over the summer when corporate procurement and individual PC sales are lower. Then Q2 whichOct - Dec you'll see sales go up. Big deal. d
Dude...this is about you controlling the information. I suppose MSFT or somebody else could build a desktop application that holds this stuff but that's not particularly practical for easy access by health care providers or insurance companies. The idea is that you can grant permissions to specific stuff that you WANT to share WHEN you want to share it. You're in control.
You can question the ability of MSFT to execute this in a way that works and is secure but the idea is cool. I read somewhere that something like 15% of all Web queries are related to healthcare. That means that there are dozens of millions of people every day who are using the Web to help manage their health related stuff. This is just another way to make that work better IMHO.
PS. I bet MSFT or someone else could easily write a desktop app that would store this info locally and then allow you to sync it up with a Web site when you want to.
Putting paranoia aside, managing healthcare information is a major pain in the butt. I see this as a way for ME to control how my information is shared rather than my Dr. or my insurance provider. If this idea matures I can see how insurance providers and health providers would need to ask for the patients permission to exchange information rather than just doing it...which is what happens today. If you're worried about the CIA looking into your health information this isn't going to make the problem any worse. Perhaps a little medication might alleviate your stress on that...
I used Vista on four PC's - both at work and at home - and like it a lot. It's not perfect. Installing it on two older machines could have been easier. I had a few minor driver problems. But overall the experience is great - far far superior to Windows XP. I'm not sure why this guy has his panties in a twist but perhaps he should talk to more real customers and see what they think about Vista?
Yeah except for two things. One, 89.927% of the idiots on/. would scream bloody murder if Microsoft were doing the same thing and two, Apple is increasingly showing bad signs of pulling a Microsoft circa 1990's in other ways as well - particularly iTunes/iPod. Just try to imagine the abuse Microsoft would get if they owned the most widely used media player AND they made sure that it only worked with iTunes.
You're dissembling. My point is that Microsfot's stragegy is to offer an integrated set of software and services. Quite honestly, they have a much more challenging job than Apple because Apple is the ultimate closed system...their hardware and their OS. Microsoft makes software that runs on billions of combinations of hardware and software. If you didn't know...doing that is tricky. Saying that integration is only relevant to the user at the UI levels suggests you don't know what you're talking about. Here's one easy example. One of the big challenges facing software in general is synchronizing. Synchronization should just happen according to rules set by the user. Making all of that happen is hard.
This is modded as interesting? Please. Hotmail works just fine for me and millions of other people. If you're getting a lot of SPAM on Hotmail it's because you're doing something dumb. Signing up for too many porn emails? I get maybe 2-3 spam emails in my Hotmail inbox a day among hundreds.
You use one word that turns your post from interesting to, IMHO, nonsense: tying. Microsoft's whole strategy for the last 15-20 years has been about integration. Their users have benefited greatly from integration. Framing something that many users (individuals and businesses) see as a benefit (integration) as a negative (tying)misses teh whole point. Yes, there are people out there who want to cobble things together themselves - essentially making the user into a system integrator. But the vast majority want their hardware and software to just work, connecting the information and devices that they use automatically. I'm not saying that Microsoft or Windows Live is doingn that perfectly today but there is absolutely nothing wrong with them trying.
Use of the word "tying" reminds me of Republican sleaze tactics to frame issues like the inheritance tax with divisive words like "death tax." All the sudden a reasonable thing - making it harder for the super rich to pass down vast amounts of wealth to their heirs - turns into an evil attempt to "tax death."
Slashdot Mirror
I'm not a free market maniac but, really, should governments mandate particular specifications like this? Seems intrusive.
They passed the AcidTest before Opera filed the brief with the EU so...come up with conspiracies elsewhere.
As I said in my reply to my original, maybe he can send us a scan of their check to him for Transformers? ;)
I thought of a good way he can prove that MSFT is writing big checks. Show us a scan of one written to him. Maybe they convinced him to do Transformers in HDDVD?
sell you. Seriously folks, this is funny on so many levels. First, how in the hell would this "Director" know anything about what Microsoft is doing on this topic? He's pulling this out of his ass. There is no way in hell that MSFT is writing $100 million checks to keep this "war" going. MSFT may have a lot of money but they're not famous for wasting it. Who would they write those checks to? Second, all the nonsense about "OMG - companies are fighting over formats!" is laughable. Of course companies disagree about which format is better - for them and for their customers. If anyone is surprised by that they're asleep. Sony certainly has an axe to grind on this topic, as does Apple and many many others. So what? Is that somehow "evil?" As a not totally unbiased observer I'll say that as long as the movie companies keep us firmly attached to the teat of the DVD and its successors, the longer the user is going to be paying for the same content over and over again. Eventually they'll need to realize that all-digital/downloadalbe content is the way to go. If I have to pay a little more to ensure that I can replace my copy if I lose it or if they offer a new version with better graphics sound I might do that. Or, I can just buy a downloadable copy one-time. But buying physical discs is going to go the way of the do-do eventually.
Re: developers...I agree completely. I work with developers a lot but am not one myself. The only time they seem to want to work in a collaborative space is for short period in a "war room" setting.
I think you're make vast generalizations. Lots of people prefer the open concept because they're more social and like the interaction or because their jobs require more collaboration. Also, where I work people are increasingly working more remotely...half days or full days at home, more business travel, working somewhere else on the corporate campus...so not everyone really needs or wants their own little private office. I know of several people who have private offices who generally prefer to work in centralized lounges from their laptop...and their office sits empty most of the time. I think you sound a bit paranoid when you talk about the company keeping an eye on more people at once. Wow. That's definately not my company. Management here could care less what people are doing on a minute by minute or hour by hour basis provided they get their work done. If you want to spend some time doing personal stuff while at work (like I'm doing now), not big deal as long as you meet your goals.
Microsoft is sort of famous among tech companies for giving every employee a private office, regardless of status/level. But increasingly some groups are deciding to move to open concept offices by choice. Each work group has a pretty high degree of autonomy to decide what they want to do and those that need a high degree of ongoing collaboration throughout the day like the open space approach. They aren't really cube-farms like at Intel. Rather, they're open spaces with little clusters of desks and lots of lounge-type rooms/spaces etc. The nice thing about it is the exposure to natural light compared to private offices where quite a few are on interior corridors. I have worked in both environments at various companies - cubes, cube-less open work spaces and private offices and I prefer private offices for privacy and quiet. Friends of mine who do design work really like the open space approach. To each his/her own.
For the record, my comments reflect my opinions. Show me an example of outright bias and I'll post a correction. Cheers
Yes, slashdot is not the best place to get a sense of the real world. It's a bood place to find out what a small sliver of the world thinks about a slightly larger sliver of the topics that matter to the world. The ultimate success of Zune or iPod is hardly the most important topic of the day but it sure does get geeks excited. Here's one more geeks POV. Zune 2 is without a doubt NOT going to kill the iPod. Zune 3 may not either. Zune 4? Much better chance? Zune 5? iPod will be a significant player but will have lots its monopoly. People just don't seem to get it: Microsoft rarely gives up on something that they decide is important. I'll go back to the old yarn about Lotus 1-2-3. At one point people didn't think there was a chance that Excel would be able to compete with Lotus... Lotus OWNED the spreadsheet business. Microsoft kept at it and...well, the rest is history. Let's talk gaming consoles. Microsoft decided that they needed to have a bigger presence in the living room. So they kept at it and now they're at worst at parity with Sony and Nintendo and more likely they're leading. They sell more games/unit and they're (finally ) profitable. I'll say it again: Microsoft does not give up. Zune will eventually be a success.
Maybe you're just not a good developer. I spent several minutes thinking about any crashes I might have had. The only thing I could come up with was some kind of scripting error that gave me a warning saying, essentially, do you want to run this script which may slow down your system? I remember clicking "yes" and, in fact, it did slow down my system. If that's a crash then I guess you're right. In terms of havint the system just stop running, requiring a restart, I don't remember any. Maybe I'm just an optimist and have blocked it out but I don't think so. Good use of bold, btw.
You said: Note however that with those pretty massive advantages it still remains a very marginal player on the phone market. Well, change "phone market" to "smartphone market" and the picture changes. Windows Mobile is doing very well in the smartphone market overall, especially in the US. That's where the innovation is happening. Anybody can build a basic little toy phone OS/experience.
I wonder whether you're being honest. I've used several Windows Mobile phones and can't think of a single crash - ever. Maybe I had one about a year ago when I installed some wierd app. Also, Windows Mobile has improved greatly in UI and Microsoft gives the handset makers pretty much total freedom to customize as they see fit. Windows Mobile is just a platform. It's the handset makers who do interesting things with it.
He's right in this case though, isn't he? I'm amazed that Google is quickly overtaking Microsoft in the vaporware business.
Any tool in the wrong hands is innefective if not dangerous. Take a circular saw...ever see someone who doesn't know what they're doing try to cut a straight line? Doesn't work. PowerPoint is somewhat similar. I have seen many PowerPoint presentations that we're well put together and did a good job of supporting the presenter. But as someone else pointed out above, many if not most presenters are weak and rely on the PowerPoint too much to make their...points. I say ban PowerPoint for dolts and make them write a real report. Everyone else can use it within limits.
Try it out. The UI is just as good (improved from previous version when Google was better) but the mapping is just better. Live search will automatically alter your route based on traffic conditions. The 45 degree angle shots are way superior to Google's overhead images. The only thing I'd ding Live search for is that SOMETIMES the screen re-drawing is slower. Not sure why. Any ideas from an AJAX expert?
You can find all you'd ever want to know and more about Microsoft's financials at www.microsoft.com/msft/. If the person who posted this silly topic had bothered to check facts beyond www.electronista.com (huh?) he might have noticed that Q1 is a down quarter every hear for Microsoft overall. You can look at the last five years and see the same pattern. It doesn't seem particularly surprising that Vista sales would generally drop over the summer when corporate procurement and individual PC sales are lower. Then Q2 whichOct - Dec you'll see sales go up. Big deal. d
Guess what? They paid the fine years ago so this is a non-issue. The issue is the pricing for the protocols.
Dude...this is about you controlling the information. I suppose MSFT or somebody else could build a desktop application that holds this stuff but that's not particularly practical for easy access by health care providers or insurance companies. The idea is that you can grant permissions to specific stuff that you WANT to share WHEN you want to share it. You're in control. You can question the ability of MSFT to execute this in a way that works and is secure but the idea is cool. I read somewhere that something like 15% of all Web queries are related to healthcare. That means that there are dozens of millions of people every day who are using the Web to help manage their health related stuff. This is just another way to make that work better IMHO. PS. I bet MSFT or someone else could easily write a desktop app that would store this info locally and then allow you to sync it up with a Web site when you want to.
Putting paranoia aside, managing healthcare information is a major pain in the butt. I see this as a way for ME to control how my information is shared rather than my Dr. or my insurance provider. If this idea matures I can see how insurance providers and health providers would need to ask for the patients permission to exchange information rather than just doing it...which is what happens today. If you're worried about the CIA looking into your health information this isn't going to make the problem any worse. Perhaps a little medication might alleviate your stress on that...
I used Vista on four PC's - both at work and at home - and like it a lot. It's not perfect. Installing it on two older machines could have been easier. I had a few minor driver problems. But overall the experience is great - far far superior to Windows XP. I'm not sure why this guy has his panties in a twist but perhaps he should talk to more real customers and see what they think about Vista?
Yeah except for two things. One, 89.927% of the idiots on /. would scream bloody murder if Microsoft were doing the same thing and two, Apple is increasingly showing bad signs of pulling a Microsoft circa 1990's in other ways as well - particularly iTunes/iPod. Just try to imagine the abuse Microsoft would get if they owned the most widely used media player AND they made sure that it only worked with iTunes.
You're dissembling. My point is that Microsfot's stragegy is to offer an integrated set of software and services. Quite honestly, they have a much more challenging job than Apple because Apple is the ultimate closed system...their hardware and their OS. Microsoft makes software that runs on billions of combinations of hardware and software. If you didn't know...doing that is tricky. Saying that integration is only relevant to the user at the UI levels suggests you don't know what you're talking about. Here's one easy example. One of the big challenges facing software in general is synchronizing. Synchronization should just happen according to rules set by the user. Making all of that happen is hard.
This is modded as interesting? Please. Hotmail works just fine for me and millions of other people. If you're getting a lot of SPAM on Hotmail it's because you're doing something dumb. Signing up for too many porn emails? I get maybe 2-3 spam emails in my Hotmail inbox a day among hundreds.
You use one word that turns your post from interesting to, IMHO, nonsense: tying. Microsoft's whole strategy for the last 15-20 years has been about integration. Their users have benefited greatly from integration. Framing something that many users (individuals and businesses) see as a benefit (integration) as a negative (tying)misses teh whole point. Yes, there are people out there who want to cobble things together themselves - essentially making the user into a system integrator. But the vast majority want their hardware and software to just work, connecting the information and devices that they use automatically. I'm not saying that Microsoft or Windows Live is doingn that perfectly today but there is absolutely nothing wrong with them trying. Use of the word "tying" reminds me of Republican sleaze tactics to frame issues like the inheritance tax with divisive words like "death tax." All the sudden a reasonable thing - making it harder for the super rich to pass down vast amounts of wealth to their heirs - turns into an evil attempt to "tax death."