Last week, we
gave
you control of the Microsoft robot
, and you grabbed the command right out
of our hands. What resulted were some of the best e-mails we've ever had.
First up was David, who created a couple of robots of his own:
"The Microsoft robot could be the Swiss army knife of robots. It
could store your music collection, balance your checkbook and do your online
Christmas shopping for you. It would probably be squat and boxy but easy for
everyone to learn and use, but, like children, you have to worry about them
spreading viruses on the playground.
"The Mac OS robot would be sleek and sophisticated, if just a little
arrogant. It would edit your home videos and clean up your digital photos
all while poking fun at the boring, old Microsoft robot. It would be more
expensive than the Microsoft robot and claim to be able to do everything the
Microsoft robot can -- and do it better.
"The Linux robot would be built from any parts available, and therefore
could appear as anything from an insect to a racecar to a Microsoft robot
with a knowing smirk on its face. It would be the most highly configurable
of all of the robots, with huge numbers of components available, many of which
work mostly as advertised if the owner is willing to spend the time to get
them configured properly. It comes with a preinstalled flamethrower triggered
by an RTM sensor."
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Posted by Lee Pender on 12/07/20070 comments
It's whether you know the right people in Redmond that can make a huge difference
in your success in dealing with Microsoft. And even if you don't know these
people personally, you should at least know who they are and what they have
going on. (Of course, getting to know them face to face never hurts.) From our
December
issue
, here are
23
execs
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Posted by Lee Pender on 12/07/20070 comments
Well,
here he
is again
, that smooth-talker wearing an ascot and a smoking jacket and carrying
two champagne flutes. He wants to make up. Really, he does. He wants the channel
to know that it's real this time -- that he won't go behind your back with that
direct-sales model again. He just wants you to listen. He says that he needs
you now more than ever.
Dell has a channel program -- a real one, with logos and levels and everything.
Oh, it's not a surprise or anything; partners have been raking in money for
the direct-sales giant for a while now. But Dell, which has treated the channel
like a jilted girlfriend in the past, wants to get serious about working with
partners now because it has to. So the company is reaching out to partners,
hoping to woo them, promising them that Dell's commitment to them is real.
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Posted by Lee Pender on 12/06/20070 comments
The results of the reader survey
RCP
conducted this past summer (and
thanks to all who took part, by the way) are finally in. And the survey says...
you're
happy
! Almost ridiculously happy being Microsoft partners. But there are
a few little thorny issues. If you want to find out what they are,
click
the link
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Posted by Lee Pender on 12/06/20070 comments
SAP, the big German enterprise resource planning monster, put on a little conference
in Boston this week that offered one of the great dessert tables of our era.
Seriously, it was epic, offering everything from blueberry cobbler to kids'-party-style
cupcakes and fudge. Accustomed to the standard fare of lemon squares and mediocre
tiramisu on offer at most conferences, your editor delighted in a sugary mid-afternoon
romp. For that, we say
danke schön
, SAP, and come back to town any time.
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Posted by Lee Pender on 12/05/20070 comments
A thousand apologies from RCPU for not bringing you this story last week,
but, in case you missed it, popular former Microsoft Dynamics executive Tami
Reller (who, RCPU once speculated, might have been
a
little too Great Plains
for Redmond) has
landed
herself a plum gig
as CFO of Microsoft's Platform & Services division.
Posted by Lee Pender on 12/05/20070 comments
Michael Toutonghi is headed back to the Redmond campus, presumably a wealthier
-- although maybe not that much wealthier -- man after Microsoft's
acquisition
of his start-up
, WebFives (which, incidentally, is a name that has "dot-com
boom" written all over it, even though it's obviously not from that era.
No wonder the company struggled.)
Posted by Lee Pender on 12/04/20070 comments
A new report tells us what we already knew: It's a Microsoft world, at least
as far as open source is concerned. This time, The 451 Group (Ray Bradbury fans,
perhaps?) took a look at the viability of open source software in the small
and midsize business (SMB, of course) space.
And guess what? SMBs aren't
so hot on open source. Why? Well, the report says that SMBs don't have big
enough IT budgets to make major changes to their Microsoft-dominated systems,
and besides that, they can't find the type of expertise they need to run open
source systems, anyway -- whereas MCSEs are all over the place. The report also
noted that the earth revolves around the sun and that Bill Gates is rich.
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Posted by Lee Pender on 12/04/20071 comments
So...normally on Friday, we run reader feedback. But since we haven't had any
reader feedback since before Thanksgiving (Thursday of last week, for those
of you outside the U.S.), we're going to keep this Friday issue of RCPU fairly
short and hopefully somewhat sweet. Don't let us down during this festive season,
though -- an e-mail to RCPU (at
[email protected]
)
is the gift that we'll give right back to you in this space next week.
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Posted by Lee Pender on 11/30/20070 comments