It's all WPC all week here at RCPU, and there's more online about the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference at our dedicated Web home for the WPC. Scott Bekker and Jeff Schwartz are running around DC like lobbyists chasing after Congressmen, digging up stories and talking to partners to get their perspective on the show. Here at RCPU, we're aggregating Scott and Jeff's work, but the WPC '10 site is definitely worth following daily. Check it out. It's just like being at the show except that there are no box lunches.
Posted by Lee Pender on July 12, 20100 comments
The premier annual event for Microsoft partners will take place next week in what might be a sizzling Washington, DC -- although nothing could compare to the Houston Humidity Festival from '08.
Anyway, Microsoft partners invading DC will want to have a plan, which RCPmag.com helpfully lays out here. And those of you who won't be there (which will be most of you) will still be able to follow the WPC blow-by-blow with superb reporting and expert commentary from RCP's coverage team on our dedicated WPC site.
That's about all that we at RCPU have to say about the WPC, but this entry feels a little short. So...let's run a reader e-mail! This one comes from Bob, who takes on the topic of whether an upgrade to Office 2010 is worth the money:
"If your organization is heavy into SharePoint and all of the obscure things Office can do, then maybe it is worth the money. But for most of us (90 percent or more?), it is a complete waste. It is used because, well, that's just what you do. I don't think Google Docs is a replacement, but OpenOffice [.org] is. I use it; I love it. I'm a developer specializing in Microsoft technologies, and I have no desire to even look at Office 2010.”
Interesting, Bob. We'd love to know what the reaction that statement would be at WPC...Anyway, we're using Google Docs here at RCPU more heavily all the time (although not right now...), but we should probably check out OpenOffice.org, too. Thanks for sending your thoughts. We'll keep running reader e-mails in the weeks to come. In the meantime, enjoy the WPC and send your thoughts on anything and everything to [email protected].
Posted by Lee Pender on July 08, 20100 comments
Apparently some security researchers aren't feeling the love (or anything positive at all, for that matter) from Microsoft and are fed up with that they perceive as repeated snubs by Redmond. So, what do they do? Form a group with a semi-clever four-letter abbreviation, of course. What did you expect, protests outside Microsoft's campus? That would have been a lot more fun, actually...
Posted by Lee Pender on July 08, 20101 comments
Microsoft's biggest product disaster ever (in our opinion) is dead, but it's not forgotten. Or, at least, it wasn't for a while. Apparently some smart fellow came up with a Kin tribute site that let users memorialize the phone, the life of which only just managed to outlast the presidency of William Henry Harrison. Well, now, not only is the Kin dead, the site is apparently dead, too -- pending a new home, at least. Is there anything the Kin can't destroy?
Posted by Lee Pender on July 07, 20101 comments
Some months ago here, we asked for your take on Microsoft and privacy for a story called "What Does Microsoft Know about You?" which was to run in Redmond magazine, RCP's sister publication.
At last, that article is now online, and we're pleased to say that it has received a healthy response from readers. (That is to say that it has driven some traffic to our Web sites -- hooray!) Anyway, we mention this because there really is some pretty interesting information in this piece.
For RCPU (your editor did write the story...), the bottom line here is that a lot of the freaking out that goes on about privacy is just that -- overreaction to something that's usually not that big of a deal. Yes, companies screw up -- Google in particular lately, although you'll find in the article that Google really does take privacy seriously and really isn't looking to sell out its user base.
But, for the most part, companies like Microsoft and Google aren't interested in you; they're interested in how you use their products and services. So, they're really not trying to track you down or keep tabs on you. They're trying to figure out how you use their products so that they can make those products better.
Seriously! Now, once you give a company your personal information -- as you do when you sign up for an e-mail service, for example -- the game changes a bit. But even then, Microsoft and Google aren't using their respective Hotmail and Gmail products, for instance, to snoop out your medical records or report you to your boss for visiting ESPN.com 15 times a day at work (or for streaming live World Cup games at the office...ahem). They're just trying to serve you ads that they think you'll want to see.
It's funny that many of the same people who blog or who dish information openly to Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn get nervous about Microsoft's Windows Activation Technologies (formerly known as WGA) or Google's retention of search information. By far, the greatest risk of privacy loss involves users voluntarily giving up information.
Microsoft and Google don't make money by selling your personal information, and furthermore they certainly don't want to alienate their own users by, for instance, selling their medical information to insurance companies. That's just not how their business models work. Granted, it's pretty annoying to have to use WAT in order to use Windows or to have to agree to a 4000-word-long privacy policy that's somewhat incomprehensible in order to sign up for online e-mail, but those things are a lot less scary than they seem.
That doesn't mean, of course, that users shouldn't be vigilant about privacy or question vendors (most of which take information from you in some way) when something looks dodgy. But while caution is a must, living in fear of software vendors is just not necessary. They're not out to get you.
What are your biggest concerns regarding privacy? Should users be more fearful than we're suggesting they should be? Send your thoughts to [email protected].
Posted by Lee Pender on July 07, 20101 comments
Wow, this is almost hilariously embarrassing. Microsoft's Kin phone, evidently named for what Jed Clampett called his family, is...dead!
Yes, it's all over for the phone that was supposed to kind of, sort of take on the iPhone by appealing to those darn kids, who just can't get enough of the Facebook and the Twitter these days. Apparently, they can't get enough of the iPhone, either, because they sure didn't buy the Kin, even after Microsoft and Verizon started nearly giving the awkward little phones away.
Gee, that commercial with the guy taking pictures of his ex-girlfriend and then not doing anything with them didn't entice the teenage set to embrace Steve Ballmer's idea of cool? Hey, we're as surprised as you are. Once again, Microsoft has failed miserably in an attempt to be cool. When will Redmond learn that it does enterprise well and consumer (outside of the Xbox) relatively poorly? Maybe this will serve as a wakeup call. Probably not. There's no doubt, though, that it's an embarrassment. Feel free to laugh -- we are.
Posted by Lee Pender on July 01, 20106 comments