If you're a fan of
Seinfeld
(or former fan, after Michael Richards'
Tourette's-like outburst), you'll remember the episode where Elaine got
a cartoon published in the
New Yorker
. Unfortunately for her, the idea
was lifted subconsciously from a Ziggy.
Well, Scott Adams of Dilbert fame did the very same thing to yours truly.
My October 2006 Redmond column was entitled "Bill for President."
More
Posted by Doug Barney on December 05, 20060 comments
Maybe Microsoft should have shipped the consumer version of Vista first. After
all, home users were the first to buy speakers, CD-ROMs and high-res graphics,
and I dare you to find a corporate PC that is the match of a 12-year-old's gaming
machine. Many of these pre-teens will move to Vista on day one, with some standing
in line at Circuit City to be the very first.
Corporate types are different, and for a good many it will be a
More
Posted by Doug Barney on December 04, 20060 comments
A 2,000-year-old astronomical computing device of Roman origin has been found
in the waters off of Greece. No, this isn't a fake news report from theonion.com
--
it actually
happened
.
No word on what OS it ran, but the corroded remnants of the Ctrl, Alt and Del
keys do offer a clue.
Posted by Doug Barney on December 04, 20060 comments
Windows 3.0 and Windows 95 were monster launches -- you would have thought
cancer had been cured. But despite
calling
it the "biggest launch in company history,"
last Thursday's Vista
press conference in New York was as subdued as Don Rumsfeld getting his walking
papers.
As Redmond magazine editor Ed Scannell explained, he expects the real launch
to happen in January, when the consumer version of Vista appears.
More
Posted by Doug Barney on December 04, 20060 comments
A new operating system isn't much without new apps, and the news on Vista is
good and bad. The good news is that
ISVs
are arriving in droves to announce Vista plans
.
The bad news: These apps in general ain't showing up anytime soon. First up
are utilities like communication software from Attachmate (not sure how terminal
emulation software will exploit the Vista interface!) set to ship this spring,
and security, backup and disk imaging software from Symantec due this month.
But the killer software meant to exploit the new UI will, like
More
Posted by Doug Barney on December 04, 20060 comments
Recent research shows that despite having a brand-new search engine,
Microsoft
continues to lose ground to Google
. And you know why? Because Microsoft's
Live Search isn't as good. I made the vain move of Googling myself (admit it,
you do it to!), and came up with 18,700 results. Live Search crushed my ego
with only 3,527 pages. I'm not switching till Live has at 20,000 Barney hits.
Posted by Doug Barney on November 30, 20060 comments
Craig Ferguson is not my favorite talk show host (he was the annoying English
boss in the "Drew Carey Show"), but he did a
mildly
amusing riff on the Zune
. Ferguson assumes the Zune is inferior to the iPod.
Just looking at the features list, I have the opposite impression. Have you
used both? What do you think? And what gizmos are you asking for/buying this
holiday season? Let us know at
More
Posted by Doug Barney on November 30, 20060 comments
Microsoft
announced
a plan
to let software developers use the Office User Interface royalty-free
to build apps that should be easy to learn -- provided you are adept at Office
(I still find Word to be about the most difficult app to fully master, and sometimes
even keep under control).
Looks to me like Microsoft flaks are recycling press releases. A decade or so
ago, when I wrote for
More
Posted by Doug Barney on November 30, 20060 comments
I'm all for free speech, but I'm not sure if the U.S. Supreme Court got it
exactly right when it ruled that bloggers and those who host blogs are pretty
much
immune
to libel and defamation suits
.
I can understand the part about the hosters. If I'm an ISP or host a site
with blogs, I don't want to pay for the misdeeds of those who might visit and
post from time to time. Nor do I want to spend my days censoring each and every
nugget. But to allow people to knowingly post false and harmful information
about others with no repercussions seems a mite insane. Your thoughts, libel-free
of course, are welcome at
More
Posted by Doug Barney on November 29, 20060 comments
Bill Gates
gave
an interesting speech
recently about why he started giving away his money,
and why it made him want to retire. It seems that spending your days making
money -- and evenings and weekends giving it away -- might get confusing. So
Bill decided that as long as the Microsoft money keeps pouring in on its own,
he might as well devote himself to philanthropy.
More
Posted by Doug Barney on November 29, 20060 comments
Most PR folks are moral, law-abiding citizens who help bring us all information
about companies and products and people. And some are as honest as a nun attached
to a lie detector.
Then there are those who would do anything to get their clients publicity,
and in the case of BetUS.com, the tasteless
tactic worked.
Recently, I got an e-mail asking if I wanted to interview an analyst. Hmm,
is there a new controversial tool from Microsoft, a major security breach or
a new government regulation concerning compliance?
More
Posted by Doug Barney on November 29, 20060 comments
The European Union fought like Conquistadors against XP, Windows Server, Vista
and operating systems to be named later, claiming they violated all manner of
antitrust law.
Despite an all-new wave of products, Redmond is still dealing with the aftermath
of EU decisions made years ago, like a March 2004 ruling that claimed Microsoft
leveraged its desktop monopoly to gain share in server operating systems. The
company gave out over 8,000 pages of documents attempting to prove that Windows
Server is as open to third parties as it is to Redmond itself. If you want to
read Microsoft's obtuse explanation of the situation, go
More
Posted by Doug Barney on November 28, 20060 comments