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 InfoWorld, Microsoft announced what seems to be
the exact same thing. As I recall, some folks like Visio hopped onboard, while
competitors like Lotus and WordPerfect politely declined.
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/30/2006 at 1:15 PM0 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 [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/29/2006 at 1:15 PM0 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?
Nah! This PR guy -- I’ll call him Charlie (because that's his real name)
-- wanted me to interview someone from BetUS.com
about the Rev. Ted Haggard sex scandal. Betting analysts have come up with odds
on the Haggard aftermath. The odds are 1-2 that another sex scandal will rock
the church, 4-1 that someone else will accuse Haggard of hiring them for, uh,
well, you know, and 6-4 that the original allegations will be proved true.
After all this ink, I guess Charlie really is a heckuva a PR guy!
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/29/2006 at 1:15 PM0 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.
Gates is now helping to solve problems few of us have even heard about. Instead
of learning that half-a-million children die each year from rotavirus, we are
subjected to hours of TomKat's wasteful wedding, Paris Hilton getting hammered
and Michael Richards' ridiculous rants.
Gates really nails the disconnect between the goals of capitalism and the needs
of the world. For instance, companies have very little interest in curing problems
for which they can't get paid. It's the nature of the beast. But as capitalism
creates wealth, some of this can be diverted by individuals to treating disease,
curing hunger and spreading education. Can Gates save the world? Probably not.
But I'd settle for him saving half-a-million kids.
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/29/2006 at 1:15 PM0 comments
There is a raging and too often specious debate over which operating system
-- Windows Server or Linux -- offers a better payback, or in tech-speak, ROI.
Putting that aside, it's arguable that just threatening to move to Linux can
save millions of dollars when negotiating a Microsoft contract. Our resident
Microsoft negotiator Scott Braden wrote a
recent
column explaining exactly how the threat of Linux, real or feigned, can
knock a bunch of dough off your next contract.
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/28/2006 at 1:15 PM0 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 here.
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/28/2006 at 1:15 PM0 comments
If you can't get enough news about Vista, or need to hone your upgrade plans,
make sure to
check
out what Scott Bekker has to say. Bekker walks through the licensing implications,
how best to work the numbers and how to avoid the activation pitfalls!
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/28/2006 at 1:15 PM0 comments
If I signed a massive multiyear contract under which millions of dollars changed
hands and the eyes of the world were upon me, I'd probably read it first.
I'm not sure how carefully Steve Ballmer and Ron Hovsepian of Novell scrutinized
their cooperation agreement, as only a week or so later the two are
fighting
over what it all means.
The rub is just who needs patent protection from whom (copy editors in the
audience will tell me if this sentence is correct, parentheses aside). Ballmer
apparently believes that Linux violates myriad Microsoft patents, which is why
Novell was interested in patent protection. Novell's Hovsepian blasted
back that he had more than enough patents and more money is flowing from Redmond
to Waltham (which is where Novell is now headquartered) than vice versa. (Read
Redmond's interview with Hovsepian here.)
If two grown men can’t get along, how can their software?
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/27/2006 at 1:15 PM0 comments
When it comes to Vista, Microsoft apparently believes the more versions, the
better. The same is true for Office, and apparently Longhorn will be no different.
Keith Ward, former editor of Redmond magazine, unravels all the options in a
special report. For today's Windows Server, there are half-a-dozen choices,
while Vista follows up with five choices. Figure out which are best for you
here.
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/27/2006 at 1:15 PM0 comments
Do you want to be the one everyone turns to when Vista or Office 2007 go awry
-- or does the mere thought make you flee in terror? If the answer to the first
question is yes, you might want to check out
Microsoft’s
new certifications. The approach is a bit unique -- you start off learning
basic skills, then develop talents suited for specific jobs, such as consumer
customer support.
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/27/2006 at 1:15 PM0 comments
Longhorn server
continues
to push forward, with its third beta set for release in the first half of
2007. If that beta stands up to the test, the final version should be out by
the end of next year. About a half a year later, Longhorn's virtualization technnology,
"hypervisor," should be done. The long-term plan is for virtualization
to be baked into the operating system from the get-go.
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/21/2006 at 1:15 PM0 comments
The ex-IT director of publishing company Source Media apparently believes that
revenge is a dish best served cold. That's why he waited three years after being
sacked
to
exact his mild revenge -- only the joke was on him. Stevan Hoffacker used
old logons and passwords to get into the e-mail system, and there learned about
impending layoffs. Hoffacker's coup de grace was sending e-mail from a Yahoo
account warning those about to get the boot. He could get up to five years in
jail (and maybe use this time to brush up on his hacking skills). How would
you punish Hoffacker? Let us know at
[email protected].
To see how others have abused their IT powers, check out my story "
IT
Gone Bad."
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/21/2006 at 1:15 PM0 comments