Oy, you so zzzzz - New comment on Quest for Happiness

SnoopDoug has left a new comment on your post "Quest for Happiness":

Dude,

I was just thinking about BillG's lament that Microsoft cannot find enough quality American developers, when it hit me. It is so obvious, I can't believe no one has figure it out before--Microsoft is dull. It's boring, it's old-school, PC, zzzzzzz.

If money is not the issue (hah, whenever I hear that I know the opposite is true), then the biggest hangup is lack of interesting work. Make that the perception of lack of interesting work. Word 8? Ick. SQL Server 2010? Yawn. IE? No way Jose!

Feel free to riff on this theme.

doug in Seattle

(No way IE? Hmm. But I’ve got to say we are lacking in the pizzazz.)

Not so Groovy - New comment on Where's Ray? Where's the Vista Campaign?

Alejandro Toledo has left a new comment on your post "Where's Ray? Where's the Vista Campaign?":

Here's a clue to the answer to your question. You said:

"I viewed it as a benefit and an affirmation of my good
decision to join such a groovy company as Microsoft."

The real fact is that unless you joined in the easly 80's
your employer is not a hip and groovy company.

You want groovy? Look elsewhere. There is nothing
Groovy left at Microsoft. Microsoft is the poster-boy
of the meaning of the words dork, square, etc.

Your hoped-for messiah Ray Ozzie knows this fact
better than you, obviously -- which is why he isn't
trying to sell you Ashlee Simpson as if she was Janis
Joplin.

Look at your president George W. Bush -- once you
lose your credibility you are finished. That is the
fate of Ray Ozzie, because he is working for MSFT.

But do you want him to walk down the plank and
jump off to his professional dead-end merrily fast?

The problem you have is you don't seem to get it
that Microsoft's products are not where the tech
industry and where the consumer market is going.

(But isn’t Ray all about the Groove.exe?)

Vista Vista Vista - New comment on Closure.

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Closure.":

>>>>>But what is that statement a while up the thread about Vista being "a generation ahead of OS X" supposed to mean? That's just insane. I run Vista on my desktop. It's a stretch to say that Vista is even a generation ahead of XP.<<<<<<<<<<<<<<


Because, in your mind you assumed Steve Jobs is your god and OSX was better than XP. Whereas the fact is that both of these are absurd. Your statement and use of "even" looks like that somebody proved a mathematical theorem that OSX is better than XP. The fact is that 90% of XP users won't trade their XP with Mac. But they will be trading there XP with Vista. So logical conslusion

Vista is better than XP which is better than Mac.


When XP released it was a generation ahead of Apple. Apple did some catch-up until SP2, when XP again became way ahead of Apple. And now Vista seems to be unmatchable by Apple for at least next 3-4 years.

Stop taking PC vs Mac ads seriously. They are good homour and a very good marketing campaign for Vista on Apple's dollars. Through these ads more people get to know "Vista". When they go to their local retailer and/or search on the internet they realize how hypocrit Apple claims are. Apple end up pushing them Vista more effectively then our own marketing campaign can pull. Thanks you Apple!

(Even if I agree, it will all end in tears.)

No Vista v OS X, IV - New comment on Closure.

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Closure.":

>> Windows is now a generation ahead of OSX

Drinking too much KoolAid, aren't we? Vista is behind OS X right now in some aspects and it's about to be left in the dust again when Leopard comes out.

(It will all end in tears.)

No Vista v OS X, III - New comment on Closure.

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Closure.":

Windows is now a generation ahead of OSX. They would need couple of revisions to match the power of Vista but by that time Windows would have moved ahead another generation.

Could you cite some examples where Vista is superior to Tiger? All of the press and reviews I've seen say that Vista is just a lame Mac OS X ripoff, and doesn't offer anything over and above Mac OS X.

Looking at the feature sets, I'd tend to agree. Vista is poor competition for Mac OS X. And with Apple set to release a major upgrade this Spring with Leopard, I'd say Microsoft is the one playing catch up.

Apple's developers are clearly more agile and more innovative.

I'd love to see this change, as competition is certainly good for the market and good for consumers, but right now I just have to say I disagree with you. Apple and Mac OS X are well ahead of Microsoft and Windows. Allchin spoke the truth.

(It will all end in tears.)

No Vista v OS X, II - New comment on Closure.

Ihar Filipau has left a new comment on your post "Closure.":

Anonymous said:
> Windows is now a generation ahead of OSX.

You are deluded. I can only advise to do one thing: do what Jim Alchin wanted - and get yourself a Mac. If not to use, just to see what competition is.

People love OSX - not because it is "generation" somewhere else, but because it is here and it "Just Works" (c) Unknown.

Your comment kind of reflects the focus M$ had lost: people do not care about OS as long as their applications work and job gets done.

Vista, as all M$ products, is like swiss cheese: full of holes, specifically prepared to be filled by 3rd party developers. (*) End result is that user get stuck in between: (1) M$ as OS provider, (2) hardware provider and (3) ISV who patch the holes M$ left for them to patch. With Apple, users have advantage that OS provider and hardware provider are the single party: they go with all their problems to one provider. Do not tell me you were not played as ping-pong ball by support stuff: one calls M$ - you say it's Dell's problem, one calls then Dell - they say it's M$' problem.

(*) Example: network firewall. Mac OS X has one and it works. Linux has 3 of them and they all work. Windows? Lemme see. You can't open/close particular port. You can't open/close range of ports. But what can you do? - allow particular application to do *anything* on network. Very thoughtful, I'd say, especially if the application gets compromised. (And network applications gets compromised - like never ending story of M$Outlook) Yeah, M$ did implemented firewall - but best what user can do with it - is to disable it and install one from ISV. The list of such examples can go long: recovery tools (because M$' own tools can only be used to annoy user up to point of OS reinstallation), image viewers (which really support all relevant file formats - e.g. TGA and PSD), video player (which supports standard MPEG4 - and not exclusively WMV), audio players (which really support ID3 tags as well as some other audio formats - not exclusively WMA), etc. Except for productivity suit - M$Office - Microsoft had bulked at its users needs. Windows IMHO suffers a "death by thousands cuts." [ Well, M$ cannot implement everything, it is clear. But when it dumps support for format it is developed - MPEG4 - it is plain stupid *political* decision. There were NO technical problems - it is just you force everybody into bed with Windows Media Services. Recovery tools? M$ reimplemented them at least 3 times: NT4, NT5 and Vista. Instead of reimplementing them 3 times poorly, M$ needed to develop one - but which might be relevant to administrators and system builders. How much money you have wasted on all that political crap? which is now dumped on heads of users? ]

(It will all end in tears. And -20 for M$.)

No Vista v OS X, I - New comment on Closure.

joe has left a new comment on your post "Closure.":

>Far inferior than planned Longhorn
>but far superior than the
>competition.

Wait, what?

>Windows is now a generation ahead of
>OSX. They would need couple of
>revisions to match the power of Vista
>but by that time Windows would have
>moved ahead another generation.

I'm sorry, I ain't buying this flavor of tripe.

This sounds like pubescent chest thumping, for doing something normal.

You know, shipping the next version of your cash cows. Except that it took you wayyy too long, and the features were scaled back to a coat of paint, and annoyances in the name of security.

I suggest strongly that you should let the market decide on Vista, befre you jump up on your pile of bananas and proclaim victory.

(It will all end in tears.)

The Earth Shook - New comment on Closure.

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Closure.":

"Windows is like an elephant now. It moves slowly but with full determination. When it moves the earth around it feel it."

Yes, and with no intrinsic value other than to serve as a reminder of what mediocre excess it brings to the lives of those chained to its laborious and repetitive instructions, it wanders the earth continually trying to convince us all that its earth-moving vibrations serve some useful purpose...other than to signal the presence of a wandering, vibrating, soulless, spiritually, morally and institutionally bankrupt behemoth!

Sigh... who the hell reads this blog, anyway? - New comment on Closure.

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Closure.":

Interesting post by your favorite Ex-Softie, Nial Kennedy here:
http://www.niallkennedy.com/blog/archives/2007/01/windows-vista-launch-san-francisco.html
(No one is lining up for Windows Vista in San Francisco). Probably the reason why the stock has dropped 70 cents.

I know that executive will ignore my statement, but you guys are in control of this situation. I am sure the software would be flying off the shelves at $50, and your piracy issue would be reduced significantly with lower prices. The market does not buy (pun intended) the notion that the software is worth $300+.

This feeds directly into your 350000 employee model Mini. If Microsoft were leaner meaner, you could justify a lower cost and maintain your stranglehold on the market. Ooops. Maybe I shouldn't tell you that all any dominant company has to do in the face of stiff competition and adversity is drop their prices.


side note: Mini wrote: "Updated: typos fixed. Thanks! Updated again: fixed another typo. I had it right in my mind, but somewhere between my mind and the game on the TV it got dropped. Lesson to self."

BTW, Mini, what about the missing universal spell checker for your Vista posting machine? At $300 I would expect it to be installed free by representative of Roxanne's Escort Service. I love Firefox's reminder that literally everything I write that goes on the web gets checked and marked if spelled wrong. I've heard Macs also have a similar system wide spell check component.

(The typos were using adverse instead of averse and DeVann instead of DeVaan and Pollack instead of Pollock. How well does your frickin’ little spellchecker do in finding those errors?)

Charismatic Cult Leader - New comment on Microsoft FY07Q2 Results

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

Gates will lie when it is to his advantage to do so. Jobs lies pathologically, unstoppably, out of a need to be loved and worshipped. Look at either person's formative circumstances and it's not hard to see why they are the way they are. To me Jobs is the more disturbing because at times his behavior borders on mental illness, as with the fracas with Cisco over a silly product name. He is basically a charismatic cult leader.

(Oy. It will all end in tears.)

Vista v Apollo - New comment on Microsoft FY07Q2 Results

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Microsoft FY07Q2 Results": I have a challenge for anyone more determined than I am to figure out something interesting. I keep hearing about the billions of dollars and millions of man-hours spent developing Vista. The thought occured to me.... how does this compare to the dollars and man-hours spent on the Apollo moon project? You know, from Apollo 1 to Apollo 11 and the moon landing. Does somebody want to figure this out? Now, it's very possible that the Apollo project required way more hours and dollars (inflation adjusted of course) than Vista. But imagine if it didn't. That would be a hell of a thing. And it occurs to me too. All that time and money spent on this ho-hum OS ("The ho-hum is now"). What if that same time and dollars had been spent on, say, doubling the average MPG of gasoline powered cars? Could it have been done with the same resources? A wee bit better for this old world, no? Some day someone will write the story about the countless resources wasted by Microsoft. Between Bill G's idiotic philanthropic choices (money, meet rat hole -- rat hole, meet money) and the uber-wastage of MS dev processes, it staggers the imagination.

I'm not "average" - New comment on Microsoft FY07Q2 Results

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

I'm not "average". I've spent six fucking years and a ton of money on school. I like to think that I know quite a bit more than your average Starbucks barista, too.

...So you think baristas didn't go to school?

1. school doesn't make anyone "above average"; nor does it entitle you to a job or "above average" compensation.

2. how many years of actual work have you done? That's the first metric I, and companies I've worked for, look at.

3. and the second thing we'd look for is attitude. You failed that one spectacularly...

"Know more," eh.

(Putting the cut on this thread.)

Amazingly Pathetic - New comment on Microsoft FY07Q2 Results

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

anon said: "What an underwhelming launch for Vista."

Is this what you mean?
Today:
MSFT 30.48 -0.38

I consider myself a genuine ABMer non softie, but you guys are amazingly pathetic. Geeze I would not want most of you on my team if going for a title. I think AC said it will be a while before Vista sees its real strength. I agree. Its a hardware issue. Vista is a hardware pig and therfore will not be widely adopted until the hardware installed base catches up with Vista's resource demands--probably a two year cycle.

Meanwhile, I expect to upgrade my XP pro to XP Pro 64 for a couple of years at least. Hopefully by then Microsoft will have gotten religion by unhooking the killer locks in DRM so normal honest people can view their content, releasing games on PC's and XBOX on the same day, and going to confession saying 'forgive me customer for I have sinned' . . .