stick to what you know

Goshdarnit Microsoft. Why are you seriously putting so much effort into a smart phone? I've said it before and I'll say it again, you're niche is not the consumer market - sorry bro. Apple has the consumer market for personal computing, music and phone stuffs. Blackberry has the corporate market for phones. Why do you think you're going to break into an already dominated market? Microsoft makes me sad all the time, it's like being the little brother trying to keep up with the big boys, "oh hey guys, can I try? can I come along, pleeeeease?". Stop it, seriously. Your place is in corporate computing, why don't you just try to perfect that?

windows live - saving my life

So recently the HDD on my work computer died. I was working on an old school tablet vaio, I really loved it but it couldn't handle all the work. I had been backing up most of my files on my windows live account and it was really convenient. With windows live they give you 5GB of storage for free- can you believe it? It's so easy to upload and download files- and it can be accessed anywhere. I know this technology isn't new or anything but I've never taken advantage of it before. I can't get over how easy it is. I've talked about online storage before but with services like mozy, you have to pay a lot. Though you get a lot more storage space with mozy, I don't think it's worth the fee. I'm definitely going to be using my windows live account during the school year to back up my files (because I tend to work on a lot of different computers). I used to carry a thumb drive but why bother? How many times can I honestly say I've been in a situation where I needed to get some files from storage and didn't have internet? Very rarely. Bottom line, good on ya microsoft for developing a decent product.

Note: Windows live has many other services too, which I haven't explored. The "skydrive" as it's called is only a small portion of the windows live experience.

uhhhhhhhhh really?

So I guess Bill Gates is leaving microsoft many resources say (here too). So he's leaving to apparently focus on "philanthropic work" details found here. When I make that much money as a famous whatever I'm going to be, after 30 years of work I'll move onto "philanthropic" work too aka sipping lemonade on a beach, because I'm pretty sure that's all it means. Well, I guess he deserves it, creating a software empire and all.. It's hard to just ... replace someone like Mr.Gates. I'm sure they'll find someone, I mean what does he do these days anyway? He's not exactly writing code like he used to. He's like the Queen of England, going to conventions and such, representing the company while not really doing anything, right? I'd like to think so..

You're so hot.. got sunscreen?

I'm not REALLY sure how I feel about this ad, but it's cool that they're actually using the surface somewhere. Actually, no I know how I feel about this ad... it's dumb, it's really really dumb. I mean it takes being a creeper to a whole new level. Show the people the versatility of the surface, how you can order drinks from it and it can be like an interactive menu, who's idea was it to have it serve as a virtual pick-up line? Poor choice m.soft. I'm not sure who handles your advertisements but man this one was terrible.

HCI etc.

The genius of Steve Jobs is that he saw how interface and product design could serve as barriers to entry (and exit). By making great, user-friendly products, Apple has achieved lock-in through customer loyalty.

That's what I'm talking about man.. HCI is so important, interface design has made Apple into what it is today. Calburn said it best in his article today bout google vs. apple. He talks briefly about how microsoft spent too much time in the earlier years fighting legal battles and putting its monopolizing foot down instead of pouring time and resources into innovation like Apple did. While I'm not sure how much validity the rest of his article has, I did enjoy the bit about the importance of an elegant and usable UI.

OLPC = a secret microsoft mission

I recently read that OLPC is thinking about using windows instead of the open source os, Sugar, that they had originally planned to use. When I first read this I though, damn, another one bites the dust.. meaning how in the world does microsoft get its hands in everything? The one laptop per child mission is a good one I think, giving computers to children in underdeveloped countries. Part of the mission is to make it a charitable, not a profitable act. Though I guess there's always money to be made. If microsoft can make some money out of it then more power to them I suppose. I'm surprised though that some linux or other open source company isn't jumping on the opportunity to market and make "Linux" a household name. I think that linux in general is good, it's just a good operating system, secure, customizable and in many instances it's free (like free beer) what could be better? Money quote- "Will using Windows help kids in developing countries? Or is One Laptop Per Child compromising its mission and just helping Microsoft spread its software into new markets?" good question, right?

And we're back!

You're right, my "strike" was just an excuse for my busy life, I apologize. Now I have a few moments I would like to react to the recent proposal for the Microsoft/Yahoo merge.

Microsoft struggles to keep its head above water so to speak with the recent trends. Apple is all over the younger generations for computers and mp3 players. Google has certainly taken control of the whole search thing. I don't really understand why M.soft keeps trying to buy into these little kinds of things once there is a clear dominator of a market. Google is good at what it does, people like it, why try to compete? Microsoft is really good with their corporate work, a ridiculous percentage of companies and governmental programs all use windows machines, why not just try to make that better and leave the consumer stuff to those who do it better? I mean there are always ways to improve a product or introduce a new service that people will like but it needs to be done selectively.

Microsoft needs to find its niche in the consumer market, and I'm not sure that they're going to find it with purchasing Yahoo. Though forbes reports "If Microsoft succeeded in acquiring Yahoo!, Chester argues, the software giant would be buying the e-mail, instant messaging and search information of hundreds of millions of Web users. Added to Microsoft's own Web properties, a "MicroHoo" merger would host 80.1% of the Web's traffic to e-mail services and 27.8% of users' Web searches according to the most recent data from the Web measurement firm, Hitwise". This could be a HUGE market for targeted advertising on Microsoft's part. It seems as though this is M.soft's new kick- advertising. If they plan on bringing in the ads they have going with facebook and the potential of knowing a lot of information from millions of users they could do something AMAZING.

I did find FSJ's point interesting that perhaps Microsoft is trying to lure google into a bigger battle. Perhaps we're not always so informed to the bigger picture with this kind of thing. Maybe this really was a good move.. who knows. Till then. I'm back.

What's next for facebook?

But Facebook, like Apple and Google, has so far been successful in crafting its image so that even many industry insiders are continually convinced that something borderline revolutionary is in the works behind closed doors. The $15 billion valuation was, essentially, a sign of confidence in the shaky fact that Facebook's current advertising strategy is that it's developing an advertising strategy.

I too think that our beloved facebook is on the verge of something big. The buzz around the microsoft/facebook deal has propagated much anticipation of what facebook is planning; microsoft knows something that the rest of us don't. Some believe that it will be in the realm of advertising. I suppose there's not much else that the site can do to bring in huge revenues. I think that facebook should have used their application venture as a money maker, too bad that ship has sailed. If facebook charged the application writers a nominal fee their profits would increase exponentially. Thus far facebook users have experienced a luxury that myspace users have not- an advertisement free experience. This will soon change, but as I said in my last post, targeting advertising is the wave of the future, and what better place to really see it flourish than in a social networking site. People post such personal information, ads towards their personal interests would be of unmeasurable use to advertisers. That is the problem with most ads, they're not personal enough. Google has a good thing going with their adwords, placing non offensive (not tacky flash banner ads or banner ads in general) ads on the sides of pages that coincide with keywords from the site. If a powerhouse like microsoft can work with the genius of facebook to effectively harness targeted advertising I think it can be good for everyone. On the otherhand, mess it up and facebook will lose a lot of users. If facebook gets to be anything like the over-commercialized myspace, users will go running to other networking sites.

Microsoft backs F.book

I didn't really want to write about this topic, but it seems everywhere I look there are articles after articles after articles about how microsoft (or as FSJ politely names "the borg") nailed a deal with facebook for a $240 million piece of their $15 billion company. From what I can tell they want to be the ones who control the advertisements that facebook users will enjoy in the next few years. I don't know if I'm happy about this deal or not.. I mean, good on ya Mark for one heck of a company you've made, seems Harvard isn't just a name. As an avid facebook user myself, I really really hope that they don't bombard our pages to resemble the tacky pages of myspace. I don't want to see flash banners stuffing up the site or any general ads that have nothing to do with me. I guess it's a good move on the microsoft's side to try to regain some sort of attachment to our generation, one that is almost wholeheartedly engrossed with the apple company. Though I think I would have preferred that google man up and make an acceptable offer to the social networking site. Think of the possibilities google, you hip little giant- being where the hipsters are.. That could have been amazing! There is a wall post about I don't know, what movie so-and-so is going to that night and to the right are some non-offensive ads about movie times etc. That would have been nice. Oh well.. so much for dreaming. I guess there's no stopping the microsoft/facebook team to revolutionize the way we think of advertisements, perhaps something good will come of this for everyone... let's see

HealthVault

Wow- what a great idea! Robert Langreth of Forbes reports about Microsoft's launch of HealthVault. HealthVault is a website that allows users to upload a cohesive account of their medical history. This is brilliant because, as the report says, "Current recordkeeping is a mishmash of files. Chronic care patients can wind up taking multiple medications prescribed by doctors who may be unaware of one another. Care of critically ill patients gets mismanaged because doctors can't find the right records" (Langreth). The article goes into more detail about the security risks.

Microsoft is the company that everyone loves to hate, but somewhere in the back of my mind I'm always rooting for them. Lately they've been beaten out by the sexy styles of Apple and the trendy nature of their products. I only wish that Microsoft would take their good ideas and produce products that are actually good. Bottom line: I like the idea of HealthVault but I doubt that anyone will trust their personal health information on the web, or more specifically with Microsoft. As a friend of mine who works in security says, "Once a piece of information leaves your hands, your physical grasp on it, you can no longer call it secure."