Over the holiday break, I came across an
article
from The Hindu news service about some Wall Streeters suggesting that Microsoft jettison nearly 10,000 employees. Why anyone would listen to Wall Street these days is beyond me. Shouldn't Wall Street listen to Microsoft, a company that has more than proven it knows how to run a business?
More
Posted by Doug Barney on January 07, 20090 comments
We've had a lot of executives on the cover of
Redmond
magazine, and sometimes our timing is perfect. Turns out the cover of
Redmond
is either a path to riches or the kiss of corporate death. We
interviewed Ray Ozzie
days after he joined Microsoft, and not long thereafter Ray took over Bill Gates' job as chief software architect. Then we put
More
Posted by Doug Barney on January 07, 20090 comments
Yesterday, Doug wondered whether
six-and-a-half years in a Chinese prison
is too harsh a sentence for software piracy. But most of you think that sounds just about right:
As a founder in a software company and a former police officer, I have no sympathy for software counterfeiters or anyone who chooses to commit any kind of crime. They steal from people who put in the time and energy to create something of value. I wish we could give all counterfeiters/criminals what I hope is an absolutely miserable prison experience for those guys.
-Veijo
Frankly, 1.5 to 6.5 years in prison for piracy seems far too lenient. You have the lost tax revenue to the U.S. (gee, touchy subject right now), you have the lost revenue to the reseller channel (which in turn trickles down to the individual level), you have the time lost by companies and individuals who were gullible enough to purchase the counterfeit software (assuming they even know they are running illegal software; many counterfeit versions are hard to detect), and of course you have the lost revenue to Microsoft (which, much like the reseller channel, trickles down to individuals). And for all of this, 11 people got these short prison terms?
While admittedly I don't know the full details of the case, $2 billion lost and 11 individuals serving up to 6.5 years -- that's still about $30 million per individual per year served. I have to assume there is a financial fine that these individuals will need to pay, and they probably didn't charge full price for the software they sold...but still, that's hardly sending a tough message to counterfeiters!
-Cynthia
There is more than one side of the "pirated software" story. Besides the loss of revenue that Microsoft experiences, what about all of the unsuspecting consumers who purchase software that cannot be supported or even patched? These pirates are making tons of money, and for every copy of a program that is sold, the impact is the same as if they walked into a store and stole it off of the shelf.
I have long thought that as long as the government continues to slap software pirates on the wrist, there will be no incentive for the behavior to stop. Knowing that they may face 6.5 years of incarceration may well deter the next pirate from embarking on an illegal career.
-LouAnne
Given the value of human rights in China, they would've gotten sentenced to death if the Chinese were really serious about deterring counterfeiting. A man in the U.S. was sentenced to four years in jail for spamming. Granted, an American prison is a country club compared to a Chinese one, but this was just for spam -- an inconvenience.
Software counterfeiting is outright stealing and, when done on what sounds like a similar scale, should be considered worse, according to this armchair judge. I am by far not the biggest fan of China, Microsoft or intellectual property law, but in my opinion these 11 guys got lucky.
-Jon
If the pirates didn't want to go to a Chinese jail for their crimes, they shouldn't have done it in China. They should have done it in France or Switzerland or somewhere where the jail doesn't force you to make 1,000 pairs of shoes a day.
-Randy
These guys broke the golden rule that's well-established in kindergarten: Share! I have not heard of any fines levied. These guys will need to spend some of their bread on prison protection, which will hopefully balance out if they partnered with Microsoft and shared their slice of the pie. Now, that would be justice.
Seriously, don't cry for millionaires that will be treated like royalty, albeit in a nasty prison. They may finally appreciate an honest day's work.
-Jim
More
Posted by Doug Barney on January 07, 20090 comments
The holidays were a bit strange this year. The economy was tough, malls were empty, and we in America awaited a new and very different presidential administration.
My own family here in North Central Massachusetts also had an odd time. Due to a massive ice storm and an inept power company, our electricity went out and I had no heat for 15 days. It didn't crank back up 'til the day after Christmas (though many, including the elderly and poor, had it far worse than I did, so no complaints here). My family huddled around a space heater on Christmas morning and were none the worse for wear.
More
Posted by Doug Barney on January 07, 20090 comments
Doug recently
called out Apple
for not doing enough to expand its market and asked readers how they would bring Apple products to enterprises and low-income consumers. Here are some suggestions:
Why, license OS X to hardware vendors, of course. But that would kill Apple's moneymaking proprietary hardware business, so it'll never happen until it has profitability problems -- at which point it would probably be too late.
-Ed
I would do one thing that would immediately expand the Mac market: drop the whole company in a waste basket and set it on fire. Mac has never been a user-friendly OS or company and should fall to the wayside. Just my thought on the matter.
-Joe
More
Posted by Doug Barney on January 05, 20090 comments
I have a great interest in supercomputers. I'm not smart enough to really use them or completely understand all the ins and outs, but I'm fascinated by just how much power can be jammed into a single box. And nowadays, you don't have to pay millions for this horsepower. Commodity chips, memory, storage and operating systems mean these puppies are affordable to the average shop -- or even the average yuppie.
More
Posted by Doug Barney on January 05, 20090 comments
Software counterfeiters in China have long been a thorn in the side of Microsoft bean counters (who never actually saw a lot of beans coming from China). Years ago, one could argue that few Chinese could pay for legit copies of Windows and Office anyway, so what's the harm? But now that the balance of trade with the U.S. is tilted so far in China's favor, you could argue the Chinese can better afford these prices than debt-ridden Americans.
More
Posted by Doug Barney on January 05, 20090 comments
The Windows 7 beta has
leaked out
beyond the small base of testers Microsoft originally intended, and I for one don't think Microsoft is the least bit upset.
In fact, Microsoft seems to be talking more about Windows 7 than about its shipping products. And its Vista commercials mention Mojave (the code name for Microsoft's Vista taste test) way more than Vista itself. Let's face it: Vista is the Blagojevich of the PC market. Everyone wants to steer as clear as possible.
More
Posted by Doug Barney on January 05, 20090 comments
SQL Server is in the news this week nearly as much as Gov. Blagojevich. No, SQL Server didn't try to sell a Senate seat, refuse to leave office and go for a jog. Instead, SQL Server gained a new beta of what will probably be SQL Server 2010 and got a bunch of new security tools for the current version and a new service pack.
Starting with what's shipping today (or near-abouts), we have beta versions of two SQL Server security tools. Both the Anti-Cross Site Scripting Library and the Code Analysis Tool are built to deflect SQL Injection attacks.
More
Posted by Doug Barney on December 18, 20080 comments
Despite Apple's reputation, Macs need protection, too -- as these readers will attest:
I get weekly reports from US-CERT about cyber threats. One of the recent ones was about OS X. Actually, most of the weekly ones are about open source software and, increasingly, OS X. I guess in the downturn of the economy, folks figure they are getting a bargain buying their software at the "dollar store" (OK, Macs from Neiman Marcus). I guess you get what you pay for -- disposable software or a gated community with holes in the fence.
-Dan
Many years ago, a friend gave me a disk of files for my Mac SE. At least one of the files was infected with a virus. My Mac became infected also. I immediately bought an anti-virus program and removed the virus. That lesson taught me the importance of running an anti-virus program, and I have done so ever since. I've never had a problem since then.
-Anonymous
More
Posted by Doug Barney on December 18, 20080 comments
Let's say there's a big independent convention that does nothing except gather your customers and promote your products. Oh, and they offer you the keynote so you can shock the world with amazing new products. "Where do I sign up?" you might ask.
But if you're Steve Jobs, you'd ask, "How can I bail?"
That's what Apple and Jobs are doing with Macworld. Job cancelled his keynote and next month's Macworld will be the last Apple will support. Instead, Apple will push its own events. Can you say proprietary?
More
Posted by Doug Barney on December 18, 20080 comments
Cisco -- or, for the purpose of this story, Captain Obvious -- released a study showing that hacker attacks are
getting more sophisticated
. Doesn't this happen each and every year?
Diving into the details, Cisco says spam makes up about 90 percent of all e-mail traffic. (Since my e-mail is published everywhere, including in this newsletter, spam is about 99 percent of all my mail.) There's also a new form of personalized spam; this way, phishers trick you into thinking the mail is truly legit. Botnets are also getting trickier, the network giant says.
Posted by Doug Barney on December 18, 20080 comments