Microsoft Research has gotten many a bum rap from the business press. Journos
who are fixated on stock prices and product launches just don't understand why
Redmond would invest billions researching "a best-first alignment algorithm
for automatic extraction of transfer mappings from bilingual corpora" or
do a "comparative study of discriminative methods for re-ranking LVCSR
N-best hypotheses in domain adaptation and generalization." (When you put
it that way, I'm not so sure either!)
The real knock is that the billions spent on research don't magically turn
into stock price-raising products.
And that's the point: Microsoft doesn't restrict its research to things that
make money. It's interested in advancing the state-of-the-art in computer science.
But there are projects that could become products, and every so often Microsoft
shows them off. At the recent Computer/Human Interaction 2007 Conference, Microsoft
showed
off a few cool projects, including Shift, a tool that lets you use your
finger as a stylus for a mobile device. It also talked about two projects that
bring users and customers into the product design phase.
Most intriguing to me is: "Do Life-Logging Technologies Support Memory
for the Past? An Experimental Study Using SenseCam." The idea here is for
people to wear a camera throughout their lives. The question is whether going
back to actual images from the past changes how one remembers them.
This question is mildly intriguing, but the very idea of constantly wearing
a camera and archiving all the footage is what really gets my wheels turning.
If only O.J. had been wearing one of these on June 12, 1994!
Posted by Doug Barney on 05/03/2007 at 1:15 PM1 comments
Microsoft's plan to take over the anti-virus/security software from those who
created it has moved into overdrive with the
release
of Forefront Client Security.
I've been critical of this move on the grounds that partners -- including Symantec,
McAfee and Sunbelt -- together saved Windows from the unrelenting peril that
is viruses. Once they showed the way, it was easy for Microsoft to do the exact
same thing, competing with the very vendors that helped keep Windows running
in the first place! We tackled this and other issues in our January cover story
"Unfair
Fight."
Symantec isn't taking this lying down. It released a statement arguing that
Forefront Client technology is based on OneCare, which Symantec argues is substandard.
What do you think of OneCare and Forefront? And would you rather buy anti-virus
software from Microsoft or a third party? Let us know at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 05/03/2007 at 1:15 PM0 comments
Versions of Windows have always suffered and benefited from the use of old code.
The benefit is backward compatibility. The suffering comes from a failure to
move fully forward, slow performance and security holes.
After Trustworthy Computing, many of us thought that Vista would be different.
And in most cases it is. But not every hunk of code is new and that leaves pieces
of Vista vulnerable.
I learned all this from Redmondmag.com contributor Steve Swoyer, who explains
that old code from Windows 2000 led
to the recently reported mouse cursor vulnerability.
Software may never be perfect, but I still applaud the lengths Redmond went
to lock down Vista. Then again, only time will tell just how hacker-proof the
new OS will be.
Posted by Doug Barney on 05/03/2007 at 1:15 PM0 comments
Savvysoft
isn't
so savvy when it comes to trademarks.
The company, realizing that Microsoft hadn't registered Excel as a trademark,
launched a product called "TurboExcel," and then tried to finagle
Microsoft into paying heaps of dough to keep the name "Excel."
It didn't work, and now TurboExcel, which runs on top of Microsoft Excel, is
called "Calc4Web."
Not the catchiest name I've ever heard, but it sure does beat Windows Live
Hotmail. Is it Windows, is it Live or is it Hotmail?
Posted by Doug Barney on 05/02/2007 at 1:15 PM1 comments
Love is a wonderful thing, except when it clouds your judgment and makes it
impossible for you to let go of what you've already lost. And no one loved their
computers more than the owners of Commodore Amigas.
The fact that Commodore went utterly bankrupt and that the machines have been
pretty much dead for over a decade didn't stop these users from dreaming, and
the true believers from plotting a comeback.
The latest scheme comes from Amiga Inc., which promises to deliver two
brand-new PowerPC-based models.
Technically speaking, the Amiga never completely went away. A dedicated group
of enthusiasts have kept the OS going, and folks have been able to load the
AmigaOS onto PowerPC boxes and compute to their hearts' delight.
What's different about the Amiga Inc. news is the preconfigured hardware.
The Amiga is the only computer I've ever had a deep affection for, but even
I have to admit it's over.
Posted by Doug Barney on 05/02/2007 at 1:15 PM3 comments
The word "Ubuntu" may mean a universal bond that unites humanity,
but these days it also refers to the tight ties between the Ubuntu desktop version
of Linux and Dell, which will
preload
the OS onto PCs and laptops for any customers who ask.
Desktop Linux has long been maligned for its lack of driver support. Nowadays,
that rap is also given to Vista.
I'd love to run a new Dell Ubuntu box alongside Vista and see if that old Linux
knock still holds up. If any of you have tried 'em both, give us your verdict
at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 05/02/2007 at 1:15 PM0 comments
I got a couple of reminders last week from Microsoft about how Windows Genuine
Advantage (WGA) works and why it's so important (at least to Microsoft).
The company is hoping I'll pass on this information about anti-piracy to customers
and partners so we can all do our part in protecting Microsoft's revenue stream.
But in reading the description, I was left with a nagging doubt. I'm not an
anti-piracy technology guru, so the need for WGA to regularly check the software
after it was initially confirmed as legit is puzzling.
As a user, I must prove in the first month of using Vista that I paid for the
copy. Thereafter, Microsoft pings my computer to make sure my copy is still
legit -- as if I've stopped payment on the check, or something.
Is there a technical reason that my underdeveloped brain can't fathom? Let
me know at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 05/01/2007 at 1:15 PM0 comments
The
second
beta of Microsoft's Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) shipped a few days ago,
and Microsoft says it is an utterly different product from beta 1.
VMM is a tool that helps track performance and manage virtual machines. And
if Microsoft wants to keep pace with VMware, it better get products like VMM
right.
In fact, I can't think of a company that has been so successful, despite being
in Redmond's crosshairs. Well, maybe Google!
Does virtualization really represent a sea change, or is it just rehashed mainframe
technology from the '70s? Let me know at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 05/01/2007 at 1:15 PM0 comments
There are a whole lot of big areas where Microsoft's strategy is unclear. Software-as-a-service
(SaaS) is one of them. Instead of showing leadership, Microsoft is allowing
companies such as Salesforce.com to define what SaaS is and how it's done.
Microsoft
finally went on the record, and while it didn't lay out a grand SaaS strategy,
it did define its idea of how a SaaS app is architected.
In Microsoft's view, a SaaS app has three parts. The consumption side refers
to those who use the software. There's an application architecture that is supported
by the ISVs that write the software. And finally, the delivery piece is handled
by the service providers who host the app.
Now, if Microsoft could just explain how it plans to address these three chunks,
I'll be happy.
Posted by Doug Barney on 05/01/2007 at 1:15 PM0 comments
In a recent editorial, I argued that
print
is far from dead, and pointed out that the Redmond Media Group launched
three print pubs in the space of 25 months.
Now the editor in chief of PC Magazine,
Jim Louderback, is seeing things my way.
A PR man/blogger from Edelman PR had the unmitigated gall to write that he
tosses his free copy of PC Mag right into the garbage. This PR man/clown
apparently never paused to reflect on the countless pitches his company makes
to PC Mag, literally begging to get into Louderback's pages.
Louderback, knowing the power that print still wields, responded by musing
that perhaps
the magazine should boycott this PR company's clients.
And what did the man with the intestinal fortitude to stand up to PC Magazine
do? He shriveled up like a worm on a hot Alabama driveway and apologized
profusely.
Posted by Doug Barney on 04/30/2007 at 1:15 PM0 comments
Sometimes, journalists write provocatively just to be provocative. The Web
site
Light Reading
did this early in its life, and now it seems that
The
Register out of the U.K. is doing the same thing.
Last week, just before Microsoft's earnings report, The Register posted an
eight-page diatribe arguing that Steve
Ballmer should be replaced with someone like Lou Gerstner, who ran IBM in
the '90s.
First, I would like to point out that before joining Big Blue, Gerstner made
his shareholders wealthy by promoting Big Cancer. As chairman of the company
that owned R.J. Reynolds, Gerstner defended smoking while shipping millions
of butts to eager lungs around the world.
Say what you will about Microsoft, but its products don't lead to a prolonged
and agonizing death.
Microsoft and Ballmer are not perfect (though they are plenty fun to watch),
but let's look at the fundamentals. A day after The Register ripped into Ballmer,
his company announced record profits. Microsoft has also managed to hold onto
its desktop market share at the same time that it's building an impressive server
business, and is poised to become a major player in ERP with Microsoft Dynamics.
I challenge critics like the hotheads at The Register to spend a day researching
what Microsoft offers on the desktops, in gaming, for developers, in ERP and
on the server. Then match that up against any rival.
I agree that Microsoft spends too much time thinking about and responding to
Google. I don't think Google really matters all that much. Google and Microsoft
only overlap in a few markets and all these markets (search, ad-based software,
mapping) are new to the boys in Redmond -- and represent an expansion of the
Microsoft franchise.
Tell me where I'm wrong and where The Register is right at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 04/30/2007 at 1:15 PM0 comments