How the PC Could Be Insanely Great

Over at Salon today there's an article about the Mac. It's mostly just a rah-rah thing, but it does have two very interesting quotes in it. (Note: Salon can be accessed through a 1-time view of a day pass ad.)

One from Andy Hertzfeld, original co-creator of the Mac:
The problem with the modern personal computing environment is that, in some fundamental sense, it's a broken business. "There's a poison in the computer industry," Hertzfeld says, "and that is the fact that the common software base is controlled by a predatory software company with a lack of ethics. Microsoft is not a good steward of the standards," Hertzfeld says, and if Microsoft is to be beaten, and if a company like Apple is to exert more dominance in the PC world, Microsoft has got to first lose control of the standards. Hertzfeld actually believes that this is occurring; Microsoft is in fact slowly losing its grip on the software development standards, he says. "But I don't think Apple is the driver of that dynamic -- I think the free software movement is pushing that."

Second interesting quote is from David Gelernter, the Yale computer scientist, who argued in a Wall Street Journal op-ed piece that the US PC industry was missing the boat. On the occasion of IBM's sale of its personal computer business to Lenovo, a Chinese firm. Gelernter lamented that sale; it indicated, he wrote, that IBM no longer saw potential for the greatness of the PC, and that this "is a shame, even a tragedy -- because the modern PC is in fact a primitive, infuriating nuisance. If the U.S. technology industry actually believes that the PC has grown up and settled down, it is out of touch with reality -- and the consequences could be dangerous to America's economic health."

An interesting read. Check it out here

A Gentler Side of Microsoft: YES

Okay, I'm going to contradict what I wrote yesterday.

Contradiction? Yep, I'm only human after all. There is one other very good reason that we're seeing a "gentler" Microsoft.

USA Today recently noted that "While it's clear that Microsoft is changing, old behaviors die hard." It is an older Microsoft. But how does this change things?

Let us count the ways:

• Ten years after college, most of us don't pull all-nighters anymore! We physically can't do it anymore.
  
  
• Courtrooms are no longer considered a 'cool way' to 'beat the man'.
  
  
• People have kids -- they want to go home. Look at what Brad Silverberg did.
  
  
• People want to do something socially responsible rather than just greed
  

So, to sum up, maybe we're seeing an unconsciously softer Microsoft. It sure as hell ain't consciously softer. Look at the MS annual report this quarter!

A Gentler Side of Microsoft: NOT!

Okay, so it's been five years since Bill G. "retired" into the Software Architect role. As I've previously pointed out, that hasn't made an iota of difference internally at Microsoft.

However, it seems to have made an impression on the larger world. In fact, people claim to see a purported gentler Microsoft (or at least ZD-Net sees one). How? Why?

Because Steve Ballmer is fundamentally a better people person than Bill G. He knows how to yell at people and also how to motivate people. He's a sales guy, after all, a veritable velociraptor of human interaction -- not a tech dweed who loves his own introverted thoughts (like BillG). This is the ONLY reason we're hearing about a gentler Microsoft - not because the company is gentler, but simply because Steve is better at projecting that idea.

DRM hole

So, another day, another hole in MS product. Whatever happened to secure code, my friends?

Key take-away for me here is that Microsoft denies that an anti-piracy "feature" in its Windows Media Player that allows a Trojan horse to run on a user's PC is a vulnerability.

What part of "running code on our desktops" and "Trojan horse" makes this NOT a security vulnerability? Just because Microsoft ostensibly "designed" this feature into their hackneyed and jerry-rigged DRM system doesn't mean that it is a good thing! Their advice is to make everyone install Windows XP SP2 -- which shuts down any firewall I may already have! My god, these people really are smoking crack!

Of course, those useful corporate spokes-drones at "Microsoft didn't say whether Windows XP SP2 fully protected users from unwanted downloads." Um, so they admit that their solution may not work?

The War Between Hackers and MS

There's an interesting post by Summers regarding Robert Hensing's security Incident Response team at Microsoft. Summers writes that because cracker kiddeez have figured out how to replace WINLOGON.EXE, the time to be complacent about security updates has come and gone. Kinda makes you want to head home as fast as possible and unplug everything, eh?

Why does Hacking WinLogon.Exe matter? Because it's your root -- it's your machine -- it controls everything. And now hackers know how to do this. Perhaps they've know for awhile.

Hensing at Microsoft explains that part of the hack includes obfuscation techniques using GIFs as EXEs -- after all, you can run any file, regardless of its extension from inside a command shell if it is an executable. Kind of scary.

The point of all of this? It just goes back to the fact that MS products continue to be swiss-cheese for any hacker worth his salt.

Spyware Investments for MS?

Last Thursday, Ben Edelman reported that investors are now chasing spyware players in a big way. Here are some of the Investors. Edelman believes that 180 Solutions, for example, is trying to move their business closer and closer to delivering a value proposition to their users, rather than simply figuring out how to pour more water into a bucket that's leaking with big holes on the bottom.

Of course, the $64 billion dollar technology question is who created those holes. Sadly, my old employer, your friend and mine -- Microsoft!

I guess that the company's acquisition of Giant doesn't look so dumb, after all. Now they have a strategy, and my previous idea that it was dumb to acquire without a plan is probably off the mark. After all, MS has folks who are paid simply to forecast the future.

Blast from the Past: Microsoft in Education

okay, I'm about to give away something that would let anyone who knows me figure out who I am, not that it matters...

Back in the day, I worked on the Microsoft in Education web site. Extensively. In fact, I built huge chunks of the thing.

So, it was somewhat humorous to me to see this thing about open source software on the higher education web site. It purports to be a "factual analysis" of what kinds of software are good to use in academic environments. And when you think of education and academics, you probably think of well-argued papers, thoughtful analysis and professors working for the best in their students and themselves.

Okay, that's all bullshit when it comes to Microsoft in Education. I went to that group thinking that's why I was getting. How naive of me, you'll say. And you'd be right.

Because Microsoft Education group is pure and simple a sales group. That's all they are. Do they care about education? Not a shit's worth. Do they care about academic integrity. No way in hell. They are in the business of selling things. That's all. And I guess I'm sad about this.

*(Sure, maybe back in the day Nathan Myrhvold's group did some of this academically rigorous analysis. But if it's still being done, it sure as hell doesn't hit the public web site anymore.)

Microsoft Losing War on Spam

Salon today has an article today about spam and Microsoft policies. It's an interesting read. McWilliams says "according to many experts, Microsoft remains as much the root of the spam problem as the key to solving it."

After all, Bill Gates said junk e-mail would be history by 2006. His prediction has been being buried by an avalanche of Viagra ads and Rolex pitches -- and his company's policies are a big reason why. Check it out!

(Note that the complete article can be accessed via a one-time advertisement "Day Pass")

Microsoft Fights Back

Information Week recently completed a survey of consumers, businesses and partners about Web browsers. And Microsoft responded today with a Wag Ed letter sent to Info. Week. Of course, they never mention Mozilla or Firefox by name, but keep the IE mantra going in the letter, saying (among other brands of bullshit) that people should "visit this Microsoft web page to learn more about the hundreds of add-ons that this community has created. In addition to these extensions, customers have built thousands of line-of-business applications on IE." So, um, their business depends on their customer add-ons, not on selling product?

The kicker is this little note at the end:

"The IE team is in the process of developing the browser for Longhorn, the next version of Windows. It's too early to provide a list of specific features..."

Yup, we're building for the future. Yes, we are. But we just can't tell you what we're building, even though it was supposed to ship next fall (in the original Longhorn plans)!!! So, sorry, no help here. Move along.

What does a Software Architect Do?

Is Gates in charge of Microsoft? Back in 2000, business reporters thought he was stepping down. And now, over on Slashdot, the trolls are growsing about how Bill Gates "now focuses on what happens on the software level, leaving all the other things like antitrust lawsuits to Ballmer.... rather than coming up with exclusionary contracts for business dealings, he is now working on controlling intellectual property."

This is complete and utter bullshit, as anyone who's worked at Microsoft over the last 5 years could tell you.

Gates is involved, more than ever, in the day to day decisions of whether or not a particular product will ship, when it will ship, and what features it will contain. He is in charge of every product review -- and everyone still talks about the "Bill G." meeting that went well (or not so well). Despite the statements of "removal" and "distance" in recent books, Gates is still very much in charge. Jesus Christ, folks -- he's the primary shareholder! He can fire Ballmer in a heartbeat, if he wanted to!!!

More on Open Source, Microsoft Style

Microsoft's approach to asking "external" people to look at code and provide fixes is, as usual, two-faced.

Out of one side of their mouth, MS says "help us fix our code."

But out of the other side of their mouth they say that "Even someone with good intentions can't possibly create and test an IE fix properly. It may patch the immediate vulnerability but cause another set of problems with compatibility." (to be precise, a Gartner guy said it, but MS agrees.)

(note: thanks to Bradley for the story link yesterday.)

Microsoft Goes Open Source?

Interesting to see that Microsoft is now asking external coders (ie. hackers) if they have any patch suggestions!

This eWeek article gives the corporate-speak spin: "The formalization of Redmond's new Security Update Validation Program clears the way for external patch testers to get "limited and controlled access" to security updates ahead of public release." But hey, aren't they just relying on un-paid volunteers to patch their software. Security experts don't like it much, because it smells of open-source. But Bradley's Small Business Server Blog made some good points about security in MS software back in December, and the fact that any and all browsers could benefit from some added security screening -- especially from real world users.

But Microsoft is still using an open source model, I say. Who the hell cares if they sign an NDA, if Microsoft isn't paying them?

Apple Strikes Again

So everyone in the Home PC market (Windows Media edition, anyone?) is still trying to get the PC to work in the home, and of course, they're also working hard at building a credible MP3 player that can take on the iPod.
Meanwhile, Apple has jumped the shark once more with the iPod Mini -- smaller than a stick of gum -- and their other announcements at MacWorld SF.

I think it's a sign of the times that long-time anti-Mac holdout Scott Kurtz has finally announced that the Mac Mini has hooked him. He's buying a Mac! and I think this just presages more on-the-fence PC buyers who are going to do the same thing. The analysts seem to agree with me (except the Motley Fool) Scott's an average power-PC user -- I think if he's succumbed, others will too!

RSS and Microsoft

A story, and a parable:

Back in 97 or 98, when I was working at Adobe, the company's co-founder, John Warnock, sent a note to me and a bunch of other strategic thinking folks, outlining the basic idea of what became RSS. He talked about the value of syndicating content, and what we could do if we added syndication capabilities to individual websites. I didn't get the value, and wrote back that anyone could write code to grab content from other web sites. He wrote back to explain more... I still didn't get it... etc.

Long story short: Warnock got it. Regardless of who invented RSS, Warnock was thinking way ahead of the rest of us mortals, yet again.

But where was Microsoft on this front? Recently, Bill Gates said that "as RSS (Really Simple Syndication) has gotten more sophisticated and value-added search capabilities have come along, this thing is really maturing."

C'mon, if Microsoft had half the brains of some of these really forward thinkers like Tim Bray and John Warnock, they wouldn't lose the real smart thinkers like Bosworth and Silverberg, to other companies.

So, one simple question to sum up: where has Microsoft been when it comes to innovation?

Microsoft Going the IBM Route

A quick thought about this C|Net Interview with Bill G.

So in this interview, Bill Gates repeats the standard marketing line about Microsoft, competitive factors, Apple iPods, and such.

However, halfway through the interview, he takes an interesting route to respond to the fact that Firefox is making significant headway against IE.

Here's what he says: "Well, people get confused about browsers. You can have as many browsers as you want on your PC, just like you can have tons of music players and things like that. So when people say Firefox is being downloaded onto people's systems, that's true, but IE is also on those systems. Firefox is new, and people are trying it out. There's a certain percentage of people who do that--it's very easy to download."

Okay, does anyone else remember that IBM said almost exactly the same thing about OS/2 Warp and Windows -- "you can load both, and it don't matter that people have both loaded on their machines, because WE'RE still on the machine."

Bullshit, Bill.

IBM left the OS business after saying stupid things like this. When are you going to leave the browser business?

Year in Review: Microsoft Agonistes II

When I worked at Microsoft, it was always interesting to me how far in advance people were using Beta and Alpha software. For example, a long time before Windows 2000 shipped, employees were using stable versions of the OS. This was years in advance of the ship date.

Yet when I was last at Microsoft (2003), NO ONE was using Longhorn for day to day production work. This is a big sign to me of serious issues with software. No one was eating the dogfood.

In light of this knowledge, it's interesting to read News.com's summary of Longhorn issues. As Mike Rucciuti points out, "Windows users anticipating Microsoft's next major version of the operating system had little to cheer in 2004."

Longhorn is still under development TODAY, despite the grand coming-out party held by the company more than a year ago. And I guarantee that few Microsoftees are using Longhorn even today. Anyone care to refute me?

I'm waiting...

Year in Review: Microsoft Agonistes

Okay, with all the megabytes of data on our machines (and online), we need to FIND things more and more often. Google nailed this in a heartbeat -- that's the ENTIRE KEY to their success!

Thus, Longhorn always had as a core component the idea that Search was key. As MS said, WinFS "promises to make information stored on local PCs and corporate networks easier to find."

But now WinFS won't ship until 2009 !!! (See C|Net's Microsoft Year in Review for the details, and more links.

So, why is WinFS stripped from Longhorn? God only knows. Marketing probably. Bastards.

The Vaunted Google Browser & Bosworth...

More news on Microsoft's failing fortunes in the browser battle. Firefox resurgent -- that's old news. Opera? -- even older. What about Google? What's that you say? Rumor has it that Google is pondering a browser too. Over on the Fool.com, Alyce Lomax reports that Google has jumped in the mix by acquiring the domain name "Gbrowser.com," plus some experienced browser programmers from Microsoft -- including our old friend Adam Bosworth (co-inventor, and original proponent of XML at Microsoft!) Oh, funny side note on this one -- Tim Bray, Sun Microsystems'
Director of Web Technologies, and long time XML guru, was a "reference" for Bosworth to get his Google job. Of course, Bray calls Bosworth "one of the top 20 people on the planet. Check it out!

Spyware Fumble for Bill G.

So, about 1.5 years ago, I interviewed with a guy in the security / anti-virus group at Microsoft. (Yup, they have such an animal. And a strategic plan to address spyware, viral infestations, and all that stuff.) But this guy tells me that they had a whole plan to acquire various players in spyware elimination and virus fighting software, and roll most of it right into Longhorn.

Made sense. A hell of a lot of sense.

However, then this guy tells me that the executives, in their all-knowing foresight, decided to kill the plan and told them they could go ahead and conclude negotiations to acquire one of these little vendors. The guy -- and remember this is in an internal interview -- shakes his head, and says "now what do we do with this little company? Doesn't make any sense to acquire them now, but here we are, with some little company that we have to fit into Microsoft, somehow."

I'm betting this Giant acquisition is the one he was talking about (of course, even if I knew the real name of the company, I couldn't tell you in plain speak). So you go figure it out. Here's the Motley Fool story. As the Fool says: "better late to the party than a complete no-show, I guess. Today, Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft announced it had acquired private Giant Company Software, maker of anti-spy and spam-blocking software."

It's gonna suck to be them, I bet. All dressed up for the Microsoft party, and nowhere to go!

Adobe Kicks Ass in Earnings

Recently saw the Adobe Quarterly Report (600K PDF) for last quarter. Remarkable earnings -- their Acrobat platform seems to be really gaining steam in the enterprise. And this is even without some of the "Cardshark" related things they were planning 4-5 years ago. Probably can't talk about that, because it still hasn't shipped, but it was interesting stuff.

Anyway, when I look at Microsoft's generally flat earnings over time, it's kind of sad to see that the rocket propulsion has moved away from the company's earnings and energy. Adobe is at 29% growth Year over Year, earning $0.45 per share! Microsoft isn't even posting overall company growth, instead just noting that they're at $0.28 per share.

(Of course, as anyone will point out, Adobe's earnings are still pennies to Microsoft's dollars -- or millions to billions -- but the key takeaway here is that the little upstart Adobe is taking their millions OUT of Microsoft's market-share for desktop productivity and enterprise software platform, which are Microsoft's golden eggs for the future. When Bill G. loses that market, even incrementally, he's on the way down.) Comments?

eBay to Drop Support for Microsoft's Passport

Appeared originally in NY Times Technology Section: http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/technology/tech-tech-microsoft-passport.html

By REUTERS Published: January 1, 2005

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. said on Thursday that eBay Inc. will soon drop support for its Passport service, originally intended to make the world's biggest software maker the gatekeeper of Web identities.

But Microsoft said it will keep Passport up and running, despite the loss of one of its earliest and most important partners.

eBay (EBAY.O) said in a message to users on Wednesday that in late January it will stop allowing them to sign on to its Web marketplace through Passport.

Passport allows users to store such things as passwords and credit card information for use across the Web. With its launch in 1999, Microsoft (MSFT.O) aimed to insert itself in a key position in e-commerce transactions.

But the service has since fallen short of that goal due to several significant hurdles -- including security and privacy concerns.

The move by eBay, far and away the most popular U.S. shopping Web site, ends a partnership forged in 2001 and underscores consumers' unwillingness to embrace Passport outside Microsoft's own MSN Internet network.

``A very small percentage of eBay users regularly signed in using Passport,'' said eBay spokesman Hani Durzy, who added that the company also has provided alternatives to users who receive eBay alerts through Microsoft's .Net service.

Passport swiftly met with resistance on several fronts.

The competitive response to Passport came in the form of the Liberty Alliance, a consortium of companies including Sun Microsystems Inc. (SUNW.O), Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ.N), American Express Co. (AXP.N) and Sony Corp (6758.T). The group's aim was to create standards for identifying people on the Web and to promote services to rival Passport.
Privacy groups and antitrust regulators weighed in with concerns, and in 2003 security experts unearthed a flaw that could have allowed scam artists to hijack older Passport accounts.

Retailers also balked at the prospect of having Microsoft at the center of online transactions and worried that it might one day try to take a cut.

Passport currently has 200 million users, many of whom use it to sign on to Microsoft's e-mail and instant messenger products. The company continues to be committed to providing authentication services to its partners, a Microsoft spokeswoman said.