There's an old expression that people use in lots of different parts of the 
  U.S., although the people who use it always think that it only applies to where 
  they live: "If you don't like the weather here, wait a few minutes and 
  it'll change." (Incidentally, we have not at all found that expression 
  to hold true in New England in February or March, when it's pretty much cold 
  and gray all of the time -- but we digress. And, on a sunny, 80-degree day in 
  May, we won't complain.) 
 
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	Posted by Lee Pender on May 31, 20071 comments
          
	
 
            
                
                
 
    
    
	
    In case you haven't seen demos of (or even heard of) "Surface," Microsoft's 
  
new tabletop 
  computer
, trust us when we say that it's pretty cool. It also could be coming 
  to a hotel or casino near you.
Are any partners out there involved in selling Surface? If so, tell me your 
  story at 
[email protected]
 
	
Posted by Lee Pender on May 31, 20070 comments
          
	
 
            
                
                
 
    
    
	
    Anybody with even a feeble sense of irony will have to chuckle at least a little 
  bit at this one: The Federal Trade Commission is looking into the 
possible 
  antitrust ramifications
 of Google's proposed purchase of DoubleClick. (This 
  doubles Google's investigation trouble, as the ever-nosy European Union is 
 
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	Posted by Lee Pender on May 30, 20071 comments
          
	
 
            
                
                
            
                
                
            
                
                
 
    
    
	
    After Microsoft announced that R2 of the forthcoming Windows Server 2008 (nee 
  Longhorn) will only come in a beefy (get it?) 64-bit version, rumors spread 
  that Microsoft might not release another 32-bit operating system after Vista. 
  That might or might not be the case, though -- because 
Redmond 
  hasn't decided yet
 
	Posted by Lee Pender on May 22, 20070 comments
          
	
 
            
                
                
            
                
                
 
    
    
	
    Last week, in a 
rather 
  innocuous RCPU entry
, we linked to a study put out by the school of business 
  at the University of Michigan that suggests that Microsoft's rating for customer 
  satisfaction is getting worse. We wanted to get your take on that and how it 
  affects partners.
Let's just say that we touched a nerve. RCPU's inbox quickly filled with e-mails 
  about dissatisfaction with Microsoft -- although not all of them were as angry 
  as you might think. Here's the best of what we received, edited in some cases 
  a bit for length. (And, lest you think we've lost our grammar skills, yes, the 
  headline of this entry is an allusion to the classic Rolling Stones song. We 
  hope you knew that already, though.)
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	Posted by Lee Pender on May 22, 20070 comments
          
	
 
            
                
                
 
    
    
	
    If you're old enough, or just enough of a fan of TV trivia, you might remember 
  the tastefully named Lee Majors starring in "
The 
  Six Million Dollar Man
." The actor played a test pilot who was horribly 
  injured in a plane crash and subsequently rebuilt by the U.S. government with 
  all sorts of high-performance bionic parts in his body -- hence the reason his 
  reconstruction cost $6 million, a hefty price tag back in the mid-'70s. (That 
  kind of money might get you a decent middle reliever today, but we digress.)
 
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	Posted by Lee Pender on May 18, 20070 comments
          
	
 
            
                
                
 
    
    
	
    Unlike some other commentators, we're not big fans here at RCPU of referring 
  to Microsoft as "evil" or "the devil," so let's put the 
  headline of this entry into context. SAP -- the big, German, still mostly dominant 
  enterprise resource planning vendor -- has been 
snuggling 
  up to Microsoft lately
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	Posted by Lee Pender on May 17, 20070 comments
          
	
 
            
                
                
            
                
                
 
    
    
	
    Whether or not the latest (and oddly persistent) flare-up of the 
Microsoft-to-buy-Yahoo 
  rumor
 turns out to be true -- and we're not betting that it will -- Steve 
  Ballmer does seem to have a hankering for a bit of shopping. Ballmer said this 
  week that he wouldn't rule out dropping a bundle of Microsoft's 
dwindling 
  pile of cash
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	Posted by Lee Pender on May 11, 20070 comments