"There are plenty of people in the world who can scrounge up $100 or $200 for a portable computer but can't afford to spend $600 or $1,000 for one. These are the people you see riding motor scooters instead of driving cars in developing countries. Telling them they can't have a cheap Linux-powered laptop but should have an expensive Microsoft-designed one is like telling them they can't have scooters but must wait until they can afford cars -- and, no doubt, cars with air conditioning, automatic transmissions, plush upholstery, and push-button windows instead of simple, stripped-down ones.
To Bill Gates the difference between $100 and $600 may be too small to notice. And to a family living in a mud hut, wondering if they're going to eat today, a $100 laptop is as distant a dream as a $600 one. But most of us are somewhere between these two extremes."
Ditto.
And he's still a butthole.
Monday, March 20, 2006
Saturday, March 18, 2006
Why do Malformed URLs Redirect to Microsoft?
"The Solution
The solution to this problem is simple. By abusing Google's own page-rank algorithm, the correct web site can be brought to its rightful position. All that's needed is for a large enough population of people to embed the following HTML into blogs, message boards, and personal home pages:
HTTP"
The solution to this problem is simple. By abusing Google's own page-rank algorithm, the correct web site can be brought to its rightful position. All that's needed is for a large enough population of people to embed the following HTML into blogs, message boards, and personal home pages:
HTTP"
Thursday, March 16, 2006
WSJ.com - Microsoft to Spend $500 Million On New Marketing Effort
"At a customer event in New York, Microsoft demonstrated a number of products, promoting how they integrate to help people work more efficiently,..."
Funny, it doesn't seem to work for Microsoft. HALF A BILLION to market, and TWENTY BILLION to develop? Maybe they need IBM consulting services to help them get their projects organized!
Funny, it doesn't seem to work for Microsoft. HALF A BILLION to market, and TWENTY BILLION to develop? Maybe they need IBM consulting services to help them get their projects organized!
Banned from WoW for using a programmable keyboard
WOW! (pun intended). Sounds like the WoW people are real asswipes.
Fortunately there is now a program that demonstrates that good 3D-VR software doesn't have to be OS dependant.
Second Life now runs on Windows, OS X, AND Linux!
Fortunately there is now a program that demonstrates that good 3D-VR software doesn't have to be OS dependant.
Second Life now runs on Windows, OS X, AND Linux!
Our Options Have Changed …
"Please note that while you were listening to the previous menu, our options changed yet again. For Option 1, press 4. For Option 7, press 3. For Option 6, press 7. For Options 2 through 4, press 0 or hang up and call our Consumer Relations Department at (427) 555-9221. Long-distance charges may apply."
Mini-Microsoft: Interesting Incoming Comments
"In the meantime, some homework: why is Vista better than XP?
If your non-techie friend or financial advisor or Mom asked you that question, what are you going say?
I only ask because recently I was watching a video of a speaker at Microsoft. During the Q&A, he asked that question of a lady Microsoftie in the audience. Not only could you tell her brain was momentarily frozen (uhhhhhh), you could feel that the entire crowd hit a panicked brain freeze. The lady then came up with an almost apologetic answer saying the Vista is more stable, safer, and faster than XP."
Well, is there any reason to leave out the simplest, and I think, most honest answer: Windows Vista is not significantly better than XP, and the new Office isn't significantly better than the old one.
In both the operating system and office automation areas, Microsoft products have achieved commodity status along with most of the hardware they run on.
If you got an announcement every few years from General Electric that you simply MUST buy their new toaster, you'd think someone at the corporate headquarters had a screw loose. Still a lot of toasters are sold every year for one reason or another, my most recent was white instead of chrome, matched my other appliances, and was only $15.
I'm sick and tired of being expected to go out and pay over $1000 every few years for a new PC, even when my plan might be to format the hard drive and install Linux. Months ago Balmer said the world needs a $100 PC, yet today Gates is being quoted as saying the MIT effort to produce such a device for developing countries is stupid. So which is it? The head office there needs to get its story straight for a change. The fact is that the world is heading for cheaper and cheaper PCs whether Microsoft approves of the idea or not. Current prices are being propped up by bundling more and more extras, monitors, printers, cameras, TWO DVD drives, DVD and CD burners that will print labels on the disks, and so on, but the base machine is floating around a couple hundred already for the average user (excluding gamers) and the price of Microsoft software is beginning to stick out like a sore thumb by comparison.
Microsoft isn't alone in this of course. I can hardly tell the difference in the last three versions of OS X I've used, and in fact I'd like nothing better than to be able to turn off some of the new "features" and just settle for the pretense that the new version are maybe a bit more secure, or 3% faster. But I know the truth is that every few years, Apple has budgeted to receive an infusion of cash from simply announcing the availability of the new toaster, er, OS.
Users are hopping off this treadmill at an alarming (to you vendors) rate. The stock analysts know the score, and I even suspect Bill and Steve know the score. Who can still be in the dark about it except someone squeezing their eyes closed?
In the "ideal" world (for Microsoft and Apple stockholders) we would be on the verge of some revolutionary technology, such as voice recognition, or a system that could easily pass the touring test, etc. Gates has been predicting this for so long it's tiresome, and of course we all know these things will happen eventually. But for now, the networking technology we have is "good enough", the interfaces like USB are "good enough", and how many people really need more than 1600x1200 resolution on a 17 inch screen? Hard drives keep getting bigger, but so does the nagging feeling that you should have an external 250Gig to back that internal one up. More and more people (like me) are using multiple computers with multiple operating systems and wondering why we can't just keep everything online, backed up by someone else, and we don't necessarily want to pay $20 a month for the privilege (even though it may well be worth that).
Microsoft's two cash cows are rapidly staring to look like dinosaurs, and the company's sudden increased focus on things like MS Live, new portable devices, and the XBox is beginning to look a bit like desperation. The sad news for Microsoft is that the replacements for the cash cows all look like a lot of work for a lot smaller payback. You're like the rich kid who has spent through his inheritance and now has to look for a job. The world looks on as you mutter to yourself "what's a resume?"
Microsoft is big enough, bright enough, and still rich enough, I think, to work (oh there is that word again) its way out of this inevitable end-game that monopolies go through. A large measure of re-invention is necessary, and not just around the edges. I read your blog because you seem to be one of the few MSers who, at least publicly "gets it". So I don't know whether your question on Vista and Office is serious or not. It will be interesting to see what people come up with though. As for the reinvention that I think the company needs, I've posted about that before, and my convictions get stronger with every "new" product announcement, and every new quarterly report. The window (pardon the pun) of opportunity is closing though and like so many companies, I wonder if you won't start changing after it is too late.
For the record, I dropped out of the computer industry, partially over frustration at having to support Windows users. OS X and Linux are more than meeting my personal needs, and ultimately I'll probably stop using OS X too, because I don't like the Apple treadmill any more than I liked Microsoft's. I moved far from the big city so that my friends who call me for free support will have to at least pay for long distance charges, and more and more I feign ignorance when asked about registry keys (the worst design decision in computer history). So there is little chance that I'll feel compelled to buy any new MS OSs or applications. Not , at least, until we have that talking computer that notices when I'm waking up and starts the percolator and lays my clothes out for me. But I think that will be a while yet, and sadly, I fear the vendor will have a foreign sounding name. Will Microsoft still be around?
If your non-techie friend or financial advisor or Mom asked you that question, what are you going say?
I only ask because recently I was watching a video of a speaker at Microsoft. During the Q&A, he asked that question of a lady Microsoftie in the audience. Not only could you tell her brain was momentarily frozen (uhhhhhh), you could feel that the entire crowd hit a panicked brain freeze. The lady then came up with an almost apologetic answer saying the Vista is more stable, safer, and faster than XP."
Well, is there any reason to leave out the simplest, and I think, most honest answer: Windows Vista is not significantly better than XP, and the new Office isn't significantly better than the old one.
In both the operating system and office automation areas, Microsoft products have achieved commodity status along with most of the hardware they run on.
If you got an announcement every few years from General Electric that you simply MUST buy their new toaster, you'd think someone at the corporate headquarters had a screw loose. Still a lot of toasters are sold every year for one reason or another, my most recent was white instead of chrome, matched my other appliances, and was only $15.
I'm sick and tired of being expected to go out and pay over $1000 every few years for a new PC, even when my plan might be to format the hard drive and install Linux. Months ago Balmer said the world needs a $100 PC, yet today Gates is being quoted as saying the MIT effort to produce such a device for developing countries is stupid. So which is it? The head office there needs to get its story straight for a change. The fact is that the world is heading for cheaper and cheaper PCs whether Microsoft approves of the idea or not. Current prices are being propped up by bundling more and more extras, monitors, printers, cameras, TWO DVD drives, DVD and CD burners that will print labels on the disks, and so on, but the base machine is floating around a couple hundred already for the average user (excluding gamers) and the price of Microsoft software is beginning to stick out like a sore thumb by comparison.
Microsoft isn't alone in this of course. I can hardly tell the difference in the last three versions of OS X I've used, and in fact I'd like nothing better than to be able to turn off some of the new "features" and just settle for the pretense that the new version are maybe a bit more secure, or 3% faster. But I know the truth is that every few years, Apple has budgeted to receive an infusion of cash from simply announcing the availability of the new toaster, er, OS.
Users are hopping off this treadmill at an alarming (to you vendors) rate. The stock analysts know the score, and I even suspect Bill and Steve know the score. Who can still be in the dark about it except someone squeezing their eyes closed?
In the "ideal" world (for Microsoft and Apple stockholders) we would be on the verge of some revolutionary technology, such as voice recognition, or a system that could easily pass the touring test, etc. Gates has been predicting this for so long it's tiresome, and of course we all know these things will happen eventually. But for now, the networking technology we have is "good enough", the interfaces like USB are "good enough", and how many people really need more than 1600x1200 resolution on a 17 inch screen? Hard drives keep getting bigger, but so does the nagging feeling that you should have an external 250Gig to back that internal one up. More and more people (like me) are using multiple computers with multiple operating systems and wondering why we can't just keep everything online, backed up by someone else, and we don't necessarily want to pay $20 a month for the privilege (even though it may well be worth that).
Microsoft's two cash cows are rapidly staring to look like dinosaurs, and the company's sudden increased focus on things like MS Live, new portable devices, and the XBox is beginning to look a bit like desperation. The sad news for Microsoft is that the replacements for the cash cows all look like a lot of work for a lot smaller payback. You're like the rich kid who has spent through his inheritance and now has to look for a job. The world looks on as you mutter to yourself "what's a resume?"
Microsoft is big enough, bright enough, and still rich enough, I think, to work (oh there is that word again) its way out of this inevitable end-game that monopolies go through. A large measure of re-invention is necessary, and not just around the edges. I read your blog because you seem to be one of the few MSers who, at least publicly "gets it". So I don't know whether your question on Vista and Office is serious or not. It will be interesting to see what people come up with though. As for the reinvention that I think the company needs, I've posted about that before, and my convictions get stronger with every "new" product announcement, and every new quarterly report. The window (pardon the pun) of opportunity is closing though and like so many companies, I wonder if you won't start changing after it is too late.
For the record, I dropped out of the computer industry, partially over frustration at having to support Windows users. OS X and Linux are more than meeting my personal needs, and ultimately I'll probably stop using OS X too, because I don't like the Apple treadmill any more than I liked Microsoft's. I moved far from the big city so that my friends who call me for free support will have to at least pay for long distance charges, and more and more I feign ignorance when asked about registry keys (the worst design decision in computer history). So there is little chance that I'll feel compelled to buy any new MS OSs or applications. Not , at least, until we have that talking computer that notices when I'm waking up and starts the percolator and lays my clothes out for me. But I think that will be a while yet, and sadly, I fear the vendor will have a foreign sounding name. Will Microsoft still be around?
Gates mocks Negroponte's poor peoples' PC | The Register
"In a move unlikely to endear the world's richest man to PC users in either the developed or the developing nations. Gates advised them to 'get a decent computer' that offered a decent screen, a broadband connection and isn't powered by a wind-up handle."
Butthole.
Butthole.
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Boot Windows XP on an Intel Duo Core Mac and Make Money
Step 1: Eliminate that goofy old oddball processor.
Step 2: Replace low percentage OS with the same thing the majority uses.
Step 3: Find the cheapest hardware to run this "new" combo on.
Step 4: Bye bye Apple.
Step 2: Replace low percentage OS with the same thing the majority uses.
Step 3: Find the cheapest hardware to run this "new" combo on.
Step 4: Bye bye Apple.
Thursday, March 09, 2006
FORTUNE: Trapped in cubicles
"Reviled by workers, demonized by designers, disowned by its very creator, it still claims the largest share of office furniture sales--$3 billion or so a year--and has outlived every 'office of the future' meant to replace it. It is the Fidel Castro of office furniture."
Another case in which, with both common sense and logic on our side, the bad guys still won. I stayed out of cubicles for most of my career, but had to endure them for a year here and there too.
Does this mean that Windows is the Fidel Castro of operating systems?
Another case in which, with both common sense and logic on our side, the bad guys still won. I stayed out of cubicles for most of my career, but had to endure them for a year here and there too.
Does this mean that Windows is the Fidel Castro of operating systems?
NewsForge | Second Life released for Linux
"Fans of the online virtual world Second Life can now connect from Linux machines. Linden Lab, creator of Second Life, recently launched a public test of the Linux client, sporting the same feature set and interface as the Windows and Mac OS X versions. The download and membership are free, so there is no excuse for not taking a look. If you were ever jealous of the exciting world your Sims live in, now you have the opportunity to get a taste of their experience firsthand."
When SL first came out I tried to convey to them that a Linux client would yield a lot of users. This is especially so when Linux systems often take a back-seat in the gaming world, having to run Wine, or some other go-between software making the Linux experience second rate, if it exists at all. I think there is pent-up demand among Linux users (which apparently include a lot of Linden Labs staff) and after all, the huge (2000 server) back-end is all Linux powered, so now we can see what is possible on a very large scale using only Open Source infrastructure (even if the client app itself isn't open).
Since the Linux client has taken so long, I've since switched to OS X, but with Apple now only a subsidiary of Intel (boy it must burn them up to be left out in the cold while Intel once again makes sweet love to Microsoft with that Origami device) I'll probably be going back to some sort of dual processor AMD desktop and Linux sooner or later. I'd almost guess sooner so that I can see this new SL product at full speed.
Get on in there Linux fans!
When SL first came out I tried to convey to them that a Linux client would yield a lot of users. This is especially so when Linux systems often take a back-seat in the gaming world, having to run Wine, or some other go-between software making the Linux experience second rate, if it exists at all. I think there is pent-up demand among Linux users (which apparently include a lot of Linden Labs staff) and after all, the huge (2000 server) back-end is all Linux powered, so now we can see what is possible on a very large scale using only Open Source infrastructure (even if the client app itself isn't open).
Since the Linux client has taken so long, I've since switched to OS X, but with Apple now only a subsidiary of Intel (boy it must burn them up to be left out in the cold while Intel once again makes sweet love to Microsoft with that Origami device) I'll probably be going back to some sort of dual processor AMD desktop and Linux sooner or later. I'd almost guess sooner so that I can see this new SL product at full speed.
Get on in there Linux fans!
Thick, as a Brick
Thick as a Brick, by Jethro Tull. That's my idea for the theme song for Microsoft's new portable device, which was code-named Origami, but should properly be called Tablet PC II. I see no reason why this effort will be any more successful...
But, most computer users long for something more portable, more "handy", and every few years someone comes out with something that looks like it might fill the bill. Only problem is that there are a few "gotchas" that you inevitably "get" after you have plunked your money down and used the thing for a while. Depending on your retailers return policy, you may be stuck with more than a bad attitude about whoever's name is on the thing. In no particular order:
Battery life. Standard benchmark for this seems to be a transcontinental (New York to LA for example) plane trip. Not surprisingly, nobody bothers to market anything like this with less than 4-hours battery life. Ooops, well, nobody but Microsoft, but if you'll notice, as was the case with the tablet PC, they helped design the thing, they won't be making them, and they won't be stuck with an inventory of unsold units should the thing flop. It sells Windows licenses, and that is all MS cares about at this point (often seemingly to their own detriment). These will last from 2-3 hours of that plane flight, promises of better battery life (is a portable fusion reactor in the works?) are already being made before the first units go on sale.
Display brightness. All new portable devices, even if they are "desktop replacement" laptops these days brag about display brightness. I don't have a single display, CRT or LCD that I don't have to adjust down so that I feel safe from radiation burns. That is, under normal indoor lighting conditions. Take those same displays out into bright sunlight and suddenly you can't tell if the thing is switched on or off. My original black on grey Palm Pilot from years ago had no trouble in bright sun, but my new COLOR model requires me to pull off the road and cup the thing in my hands forming a little "room" so that I can see the thing, only then my eyes are too close to focus. Maybe they should come equipped with a shoe-box that you could put them at one end of and look through a peep hole from the other end to read the display. I'll send Palm that idea. Raise your hand if you know why there is this disparity between color and black and white displays.**
Ruggedness. No, not the lumber-jack kind. But you know you are going to drop one of these eventually. You may also sit on it, put it in a briefcase with a few to many other things and of course, fling the briefcase across the room when you get home (or am I the only one this careless with the tools of the workplace?) When the tablet PC I came out a few years ago I made the effort to track them down in several local retailers. None of them were in working order, and it wasn't because the batteries had run down. Cracked display, or displays that didn't respond to the touch any longer were the norm. Even in the store, bolted to the counter so they couldn't be flipped about, they were not rugged enough for inspection by the public. Today, in stores that might have 20 laptops on display, all in working order, you are not likely to find a tablet PC. Ask yourself why. When the screen on these things is quarter inch plexiglas that has somehow been made touch sensitive, I'll be interested. Until then, like many people, I'll take one only if my employer agrees to pay for it.
Familiarity. Finally, from the lowly Palm Pilot to the most sophisticated Tablet PC, without a keyboard and a mouse you have a contextual transition*** to make as you go from what you are used to on your desktop to anything else. Even on laptops with the new scrolling touch-pad I'd rather hook up a mouse when I have the space. Scrolling touch-pads, joystick controls and things your touch on the screen to move around don't get to feel "normal" unless you use them a lot, as in ALL THE TIME. If you ever manage to get used to such a thing, then chances are when you use a regular PC you will be reaching for the touch-pad that isn't there or putting fingerprints all over your screen to no avail. Go into Second Life for a few hours or play with Google Earth for an equal amount of time and then go brows a web page. Feel a little hesitation as you navigate from one page to another, bump the text size up or down, scroll down the page? Well, I do. Which is why I hope someday they merge the actions we take from gaming and 2D work so that one is a subset of the other. It hasn't happened yet, and won't, not in this product's lifetime anyway.
Really, don't mind if you sit this one out.
** Brightness of display is an important factor ONLY for displays that depend on self produced, rather than ambient light to work. The original Palm Pilot and similar devices actually were EASIER to see in bright light because they used reflected light by coloring a normally grey surface black. Moderns color LCD devices really should be given a different name because they depend on backlighting for everything you see. In a dark room, the original black and white LCDs were useless, which is why Palm Pilots and those old LCD watches came with some sort of button you could push to momentarily light the display from behind. That has a lot to do with why the original Palm Pilots (not to mention all those digital watches) would last for months or years on a set of batteries, but the new "improved" color devices will probably always last for hours, or, given fancy new fuel cell batteries, maybe days.
*** Or maybe a better term is Cognitive Dissonance (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance) a term you can also use to describe the feeling you have after you have had a new toy for a few weeks and realize it made your life more complicated, not less.
But, most computer users long for something more portable, more "handy", and every few years someone comes out with something that looks like it might fill the bill. Only problem is that there are a few "gotchas" that you inevitably "get" after you have plunked your money down and used the thing for a while. Depending on your retailers return policy, you may be stuck with more than a bad attitude about whoever's name is on the thing. In no particular order:
Battery life. Standard benchmark for this seems to be a transcontinental (New York to LA for example) plane trip. Not surprisingly, nobody bothers to market anything like this with less than 4-hours battery life. Ooops, well, nobody but Microsoft, but if you'll notice, as was the case with the tablet PC, they helped design the thing, they won't be making them, and they won't be stuck with an inventory of unsold units should the thing flop. It sells Windows licenses, and that is all MS cares about at this point (often seemingly to their own detriment). These will last from 2-3 hours of that plane flight, promises of better battery life (is a portable fusion reactor in the works?) are already being made before the first units go on sale.
Display brightness. All new portable devices, even if they are "desktop replacement" laptops these days brag about display brightness. I don't have a single display, CRT or LCD that I don't have to adjust down so that I feel safe from radiation burns. That is, under normal indoor lighting conditions. Take those same displays out into bright sunlight and suddenly you can't tell if the thing is switched on or off. My original black on grey Palm Pilot from years ago had no trouble in bright sun, but my new COLOR model requires me to pull off the road and cup the thing in my hands forming a little "room" so that I can see the thing, only then my eyes are too close to focus. Maybe they should come equipped with a shoe-box that you could put them at one end of and look through a peep hole from the other end to read the display. I'll send Palm that idea. Raise your hand if you know why there is this disparity between color and black and white displays.**
Ruggedness. No, not the lumber-jack kind. But you know you are going to drop one of these eventually. You may also sit on it, put it in a briefcase with a few to many other things and of course, fling the briefcase across the room when you get home (or am I the only one this careless with the tools of the workplace?) When the tablet PC I came out a few years ago I made the effort to track them down in several local retailers. None of them were in working order, and it wasn't because the batteries had run down. Cracked display, or displays that didn't respond to the touch any longer were the norm. Even in the store, bolted to the counter so they couldn't be flipped about, they were not rugged enough for inspection by the public. Today, in stores that might have 20 laptops on display, all in working order, you are not likely to find a tablet PC. Ask yourself why. When the screen on these things is quarter inch plexiglas that has somehow been made touch sensitive, I'll be interested. Until then, like many people, I'll take one only if my employer agrees to pay for it.
Familiarity. Finally, from the lowly Palm Pilot to the most sophisticated Tablet PC, without a keyboard and a mouse you have a contextual transition*** to make as you go from what you are used to on your desktop to anything else. Even on laptops with the new scrolling touch-pad I'd rather hook up a mouse when I have the space. Scrolling touch-pads, joystick controls and things your touch on the screen to move around don't get to feel "normal" unless you use them a lot, as in ALL THE TIME. If you ever manage to get used to such a thing, then chances are when you use a regular PC you will be reaching for the touch-pad that isn't there or putting fingerprints all over your screen to no avail. Go into Second Life for a few hours or play with Google Earth for an equal amount of time and then go brows a web page. Feel a little hesitation as you navigate from one page to another, bump the text size up or down, scroll down the page? Well, I do. Which is why I hope someday they merge the actions we take from gaming and 2D work so that one is a subset of the other. It hasn't happened yet, and won't, not in this product's lifetime anyway.
Really, don't mind if you sit this one out.
** Brightness of display is an important factor ONLY for displays that depend on self produced, rather than ambient light to work. The original Palm Pilot and similar devices actually were EASIER to see in bright light because they used reflected light by coloring a normally grey surface black. Moderns color LCD devices really should be given a different name because they depend on backlighting for everything you see. In a dark room, the original black and white LCDs were useless, which is why Palm Pilots and those old LCD watches came with some sort of button you could push to momentarily light the display from behind. That has a lot to do with why the original Palm Pilots (not to mention all those digital watches) would last for months or years on a set of batteries, but the new "improved" color devices will probably always last for hours, or, given fancy new fuel cell batteries, maybe days.
*** Or maybe a better term is Cognitive Dissonance (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance) a term you can also use to describe the feeling you have after you have had a new toy for a few weeks and realize it made your life more complicated, not less.
Monday, March 06, 2006
Winner mocks OS X hacking contest | CNET News.com
And there was great gnashing of teeth in Cupertino.
Intel confirms hyperthreading is a goner
"Still, you have to give Intel credit for pushing so much money into the software industry. That is not something that Microsoft does."
Who woulda thunk it.
Who woulda thunk it.
Sunday, March 05, 2006
IBM Linux head says savings real
"The New Zealand government could save millions of dollars a year using open source software, says IBM's global head of public sector Linux sales.
Mary Ann Fisher says IBM is pushing an open standards and open source approach for public sector customers, but one tied to proprietary software as well."
Interesting. This was our account rep, or SE (I can't remember which) when I worked at Mitre.
Mary Ann Fisher says IBM is pushing an open standards and open source approach for public sector customers, but one tied to proprietary software as well."
Interesting. This was our account rep, or SE (I can't remember which) when I worked at Mitre.
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