Morons and Jackasses, oh my - New comment on Microsoft FY07Q2 Results

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Microsoft FY07Q2 Results":

Many U.S. positions are being replaced (not one-for-one, but fading out of the U.S. and reappearing overseas) by engineers in India who have 6-8 yrs of university education and will work for half the U.S. salary...and be grateful for it!

Half a decent US salary goes a LONG way in India, moron. Let's say a decent US salary is $60,000. On $30,000, you could live like a KING in India.

Try comparing apples to apples next time jackass.

(You’ve got a point, does it need to be decorated with insults?)

Crackdown - New comment on Microsoft FY07Q2 Results

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Microsoft FY07Q2 Results":

Uh oh. Mini's kicked into sphincter mode again. "Protect the motherland!" Yikes.

Quoting Mini, who said "Is it such a positive for Microsoft to be so transparent?"

I might remind you that the transparency is probably the only thing keeping the flesh eating bacteria from gaining a foothold and completely consuming the host.

I was reminded by this article linked on Drudge re `Google Regrets'.

http://business.guardian.co.uk/davos2007/story/0,,1999994,00.html

If Google, the `do no evil' company does this, what would Microsoft do? Or any corporation across America for that matter? What actually is the difference between the corporate cultural mentality and leadership mentality and Hu who shook hands with Bill?

http://news.com.com/2300-1012_3-6062673-1.html

Has anyone at MS or other tech companies really thought about the consequences of those smiles and what they actually mean?

I think Doug's response at Slashdot was the correct one and in the long term will show a side of your company that has a higher standard than that which would consume it.

Either that or you send a team of managers to China to learn how to control and punish your people. No doubt about it, censorship is really just another form of punishment control, which leverages weak minds over strong ones.

(Sorry I couldn’t CRF the previous comment I skipped letting through due to email provider issues.)

Multi-untalented - New comment on The Good Manager, etc, etc, ...

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "The Good Manager, etc, etc, ...":

Apropos of nothing, I just want to start a little viral attack to the inner bowels of the Borg.

In my recent rereading of the wonderful novel, "Emma Who Saved My Life," I came across a description of someone that seems to fit magically onto the foreheads of so many MSoft execs.

You can refer to someone as "multi-untalented."

Genius, I say. Genius.

Let the undercurrent start throughout Borgdom with a wicked snicker campaign of "he/she is so multi-untalented."

Or, to make it real Mr.Softy, "he/she is so super multi-untalented."

Heh. Heh. Heh.

Aargh, lead away - New comment on The Good Manager, etc, etc, ...

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "The Good Manager, etc, etc, ...":

Not the original poster here, but I assume you wouldn't whine to Ford cos you lost the key to your Escort and couldn't drive it.

Does Ford put ignition locks on their cars for my convenience or theirs? Compare and contrast with DRM.

I guess you don't get it either.

And by "it" I mean that there is all the difference in the world between a crappy experience that's the best anyone can reasonably do (batter life on a laptop) and a crappy experience intentionally injected into the product because of dubious business goals (DRM).

DRM is especially idiotic because it only annoys paying customers. Pirates get a better experience than people who paid for the product!!!

Let me say that again. Pirates get a better experience than people who paid for the product. What kind of leadership thinks that's a good idea?

Cold water for Kirk - New comment on The Good Manager, etc, etc, ...

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "The Good Manager, etc, etc, ...":

"It's a big leap from "I can't get my DVD's to play" to "Microsoft has denied my use" (and since you mention AACS, I assume you're only talking about DVD's here). That's quite an accusation, which I assume you will back up with proof very soon.

Not in civil cases, but we're not there yet.

I have been struggling with how to respond to your request. Hmmm. Time for humor as this is a blog after all.

Anything I might say at this juncture is likely to get the post kicked to the cutting room floor, so all the proofs are in, for yrars now, and DRM has been problematic since its inception, always the source of a very unstable and user unfriendly experience.

My proof is in the simple words of Sherlock Holmes from Sign of the Four: "How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?" and in 'The Undiscovered Country', Spock says, "An ancestor of mine maintained that if you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." I may not always believe a fictional character like Holmes, but I know its true if Spock said it!

So the improbable eliminations are:
1. DVD player, (NEC RW DVD 6450A)
2. WinDVD 4, other players, (Manufacturer says it should work)
3. missing codecs* Not.
4. my DVDs (i.e., scratches)
5. Graphics driver for notebook nVidia card all current.
6. Other hardware issues (ram, processor, etc.) (computer motherboard, memory display, OS etc., have all been replaced--processor is an AMD 3400, 1 gig of dram,
7. Non DRMed movies (which play fine)
8. XP and Windows 2000 un patched before service packs i.e., circa 2003-04)**
9. Transitional environmental factors such as newly reinstalled os did not fix it, factory reinstalled defaults did not fix it etc.
10. Security software. Tested with and without it and no positive result.
11. Problem has been increasing in frequency for three years . Symptoms changed and continued to increase in seriousness until nothing except non drmed films can now be viewed.
12. consistently kept OS up to date.
13. Computer itself is a widescreen notebook designed for viewing movies and listening to high quality audio on the Harmon Kardon speakers by HP.
14. Region is correct

*codecs. It is conceivable that DRM changes from 2003 to 2007 have outdated 2004 codecs even though the manufacturer claims otherwise.

** unpached windows. DRM has been causing issues with viewing movies since the purchase of the computer in 2004.

The only reasonable explanation is DRM and updates as applied to Windows XP simply because those things were the only variable at the same time that viewing capability failed.

I would like to leave you with something this experience reminded me of. I am a movie buff, and to return to the Spock analagy, in `Star Trek 3 the Search for Spock' Kirk is in a dreadful fight with a Kleon on the Proto planet that is about to explode, and in the fight the Klean loses his balance and falls, hanging on to Kirk's leg to keep from falling into the firey abyss. Kirk tries to help him out but the stubborn and unbending Kleon keeps fighting. Kirk finally says to the Kleon:

"I've (kick) had enough (kick) of you (kick)" as the Kleon falls into the firey abyss from Kirk's kicks.

So let me leave you with this. Microsoft is the Proto Planet about to Explode, you are the Kleon, and I . . . am Captain Kirk . . . of course.

"D- (kick) R-M (kick) doesn't work (KICK).

Neener Neener - New comment on The Good Manager, etc, etc, ...

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "The Good Manager, etc, etc, ...":

To the person who thinks that the Vista Ship-It Gift SUCKS, maybe, just maybe you could have shipped an operating system that doesn't suck.

I have been trying to use it since you released it and I still have to do most of my work on XP in a Virtual Machine because Vista doesn't work with so much of my standard corportate software.

Hmm, and it was late, had most of the revolutionary features cut, and oh yeah it still isn't in the hands of the ordinary home user.

Why do you expect a ship-it gift at all?

Zuned - New comment on The Good Manager, etc, etc, ...

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "The Good Manager, etc, etc, ...":

Zune.

doomed.

good.

Deprogram Mini - New comment on The Good Manager, etc, etc, ...

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "The Good Manager, etc, etc, ...":

Right, even Patti Hearst thought the SLA were just misunderstood.

Mini, see a deprogrammer and get over it. Microsoft is doomed and we'll all be better off when we wake up from the nightmare of MS desktops.

If you want to help, grab a can of gasoline and help disinfect the fields where the stricken fell.

Microdoft? New comment on The Good Manager, etc, etc, ...

mortalez has left a new comment on your post "The Good Manager, etc, etc, ...":

Well looking at the requirements for microsoft vista, I feel many will be left behind.
like I always say intel/AMD givith microdoft taketh away.

Who are their own... what? New comment on The Good Manager, etc, etc, ...

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "The Good Manager, etc, etc, ...":

>> Harsh...

Someone wise said "The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it". At least he's got the balls to admit it.

Most MSFTies have their heads firmly in the sand, though as far as non-MSFT products are concerned. They don't have any idea of what's going on out there on Mac and Linux platforms. And a heck of a lot is happening right about now.

This, Jim, is why Microsoft has lost its way. It's intellectual inbreeding in its purest form.

Let me adapt a joke to the situation at hand: I worked some gigs in the Northwest ... Redmond ... You talk about Darwin's waiting room. There are guys in Redmond who are their own father.

Initially he joke was about Alabama, but you get the gist.

(I agree with the head in the sand part, but I’m still trying to figure out someone being their own father.)

We already know - New comment on The Good Manager, etc, etc, ...

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "The Good Manager, etc, etc, ...":

In choosing the name Zune, somebody forgot to check out what it connotes in the French-Canadian context:

http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/index.cfm?NewsID=15876

(We know, we know.)

 

I would never throw a Zune at J - New comment on The Good Manager, etc, etc, ...

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "The Good Manager, etc, etc, ...":

Wait a minute.. Zune doesn't even SYNC over Wi-Fi? Do you mean to tell me the ONLY purpose of wasting power on a transceiver is so that you can send and receive songs that commit hara-kiri after three days or three plays?

Is the thing at least heavy enough that it can give you a satisfying "thunk" when you fling it at Allard's pointy head?

(I think he as a wonderfully balanced head. I wish mine looked so good without hair, for when that day comes.)

Hmm? New comment on Time Travel Around the Windstorm

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Time Travel Around the Windstorm":

Yah, I just tried to setup my girlfriend with a "free" small business website at Office Live. And I gotta say, the team over there really takes the old adage "you get what you pay for" to heart, because their offer is an unmitigated disaster. What a pathetic joke.

Not so fast, mon frere! This is simply a great idea passing through too many partners and too many levels at your beloved Microsoft. It's like when you get in a big circle and tell a story to be passed on. When it comes out the other side, you get...Office Live!

It's endemic at Microsoft and kills every project of note regardless of whether the author is Ray Ozzie or Sam Spade. No accountability! Tsk!

(?)