I do this all the time, but for some reason it bugs me when someone, besides
myself, who's never run a company tees off on those who do.
Robert Scoble, who was paid by Microsoft simply to blog, became famous because
Microsoft paid him simply to blog -- so famous, in fact, that he left the company
that helped make him famous and went out on his own.
Now Scoble thinks he knows more about success on the Internet than Bill Gates,
Steve Ballmer and Ray Ozzie put together.
According
to Scoble, whose sole achievement on the Internet is writing a blog (not
inventing the concept!) says that Microsoft is failing in search and Web advertising.
Not just failing, but
s*&^!cking.
Hmm. Last time I checked, IE had about 90 percent market share, XP, Vista and
Office all have myriad Internet hooks, and Microsoft has an impressive line
of Web development languages and tools. That clearly doesn't s*&^!ck.
And by the way, since when did the "s" word cease to be a swear?
Do the folks that toss this word around forget what it actually means? I'm no
prude, but it bugs me when 8-year-olds use the word as casually as they use
"Mommy."
Now that I see how distasteful I find Scoble's criticisms, I am actually rethinking
my own tone and style. Do you want to see a kinder, gentler Doug Barney? Let
me know at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 03/22/2007 at 1:15 PM0 comments
The man who invented
Fortran
– and, in the process, laid the foundation for much of what we now take
for granted in computer programming --
passed
away at the age of 82. John Backus developed Fortran for IBM out of frustration
with all the low-level work required at the time to program.
For many in the science community, Fortran is alive and well, just as Cobol
is in mainframe business computing.
Posted by Doug Barney on 03/22/2007 at 1:15 PM0 comments
Microsoft this week promised to support and promote AJAX interoperability by
joining the OpenAJAX Alliance. If all parties truly cooperate, then Microsoft's
ASP.NET AJAX (I had to use the caps lock to type that name!) will work with
AJAX tools from other vendors.
This also shows that Microsoft is serious about Web 2.0-style development.
In fact, if you really think about it, Microsoft has a broader range of Web
2.0 development tools than Google. Here's
what Google offers in this area.
Redmond Developer News Executive Editor Jeff Schwartz has the deets
here.
Posted by Doug Barney on 03/21/2007 at 1:15 PM0 comments
Here's a technology I don't think I need and know I don't want. By figuring
out what wireless router you're using, AOL's instant messaging service can let
your friends (and your boss)
know
exactly where you are.
This reminds me of all the hype around presence, when we were all supposed
to fall in love with the notion of knowing if our co-workers were in the office,
on the phone or in the john. It's not enough that we are tethered to work through
cell phones, BlackBerrys and home broadband connections -- now our every physical
move is to be known, as well?
Posted by Doug Barney on 03/21/2007 at 1:15 PM0 comments
There's a hot new rumor that
Google
is prepping a mobile Internet phone. If the rumor isn't just phony-baloney,
then I've got some big questions. Can Google actually build great hardware?
What kinds of software innovations are possible? And what kind of connectivity
can one expect if the Internet is the data source? Does it rely upon wireless
broadband from companies such as Cingular and Verizon?
Meanwhile, Microsoft, whose Smartphone software drives a good many phones,
is moving
into small-business telephony with a new IP-phone system that will be built
by third parties. The key to the system is letting the people in the small or
remote office manage the phones, rather than calling in IT or telecom pros.
This is a godsend when you want to move that backstabbing worker in the office
next to the gas leak.
Posted by Doug Barney on 03/20/2007 at 1:15 PM0 comments
This newsletter is getting easier and easier to write. My kids feed me a lot
of the funny stuff, readers write gobs of great letters and now readers are
practically writing items for me.
Take Randy, who told me a great story about a keynote speaker at the Microsoft
Small Business summit who
probably won't be invited back. Julie Clark said, "When you think of
tissues, you think of Kleenex. When you think of computers, you think IBM."
Posted by Doug Barney on 03/20/2007 at 1:15 PM0 comments
I never thought of IBM as a leading company for developers. Sure, it has all
the Cobol code-monkeys pretty well sewn up, but it doesn't have the footprint
of a Microsoft, Borland or Sun.
Yet somehow, IBM managed to get 5.7 million people to register for its developerWorks
Web site, which it revamped last week. The new news is Developers Exchange,
a set of areas where coders can share code and programmers can share programs.
We're looking to add some of these features to Web sites for Redmond
Developer News and Visual Studio Magazine.
Is this a good idea? And if so, how should we do it? Let me know at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 03/19/2007 at 1:15 PM0 comments
Microsoft is
close
to shipping Expression Blend, a tool to help developers more easily design
and build Vista and XP applications. The software works with Visual Studio.
By the way, did I tell you that my group now owns Visual Studio Magazine?
Take a look at it here
and don't be afraid to bookmark this puppy.
And if you're a software developer, or just like to tinker, check out our new
Web site and twice-monthly magazine Redmond
Developer News. Don't be afraid to bookmark this bad boy, too.
Posted by Doug Barney on 03/19/2007 at 1:15 PM0 comments
The battle between network giant Cisco and software colossus Microsoft over
video and Web conferencing has been brewing for a while. Last fall, for instance,
Microsoft announced plans to build a mobile video conferencing device. That
same week Cisco jumped in, announcing a product that increases the frame rates
of Web video so we won't get a headache watching herky-jerky video.
Now Cisco is really getting serious, vastly overpaying for the privilege
of owning WebEx, which competes with Microsoft's Live Meeting.
WebEx made less than $50 million in profit last year, but somehow the math
whizzes at Cisco reckon the company is worth north of $3 billion.
That's, what, 60 times earnings? I hope WebEx has some hot stuff in its labs!
Which do you like better, WebEx or Live Meeting? Let us know at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 03/19/2007 at 1:15 PM0 comments
Recently, I received praise from the FoxPro community for writing a small number
of sentences in praise of the product.
But I apparently made on error, arguing that the loyal FoxPro user base would
not let Microsoft kill off the product. I
was wrong.
Visual FoxPro 9, due this year, will be the last of what Microsoft believes
is a legacy tool (it has its roots in the old dBase market), but what users
consider a powerful, controllable tool with plenty of third-party support and
a massive library of custom applications.
Posted by Doug Barney on 03/15/2007 at 1:15 PM0 comments
Going to Jupiter and back seems like a long trip, but not if you're analyst
Michael Gartenberg.
Gartenberg recently left a cushy job at JupiterResearch to join Microsoft as
an evangelist. Apparently, Mike doesn't quite have the necessary Redmond religion;
he no sooner got there than he turned
around and went back to Jupiter (here's
Mike's blog).
I defended Gartenberg against critics who called him a sellout and a corporate
shill (some of my best friends are sellouts and corporate shills!). Now I don't
know what to think. I do, though, wonder what the heck happened during those
few days he spent at Microsoft!
Posted by Doug Barney on 03/15/2007 at 1:15 PM0 comments