Archive for February, 2008

How funny is this? Why on Earth would Microsoft be “slashing” prices?

Microsoft Corp. will cut the price of some versions of Windows Vista, the software maker said late Thursday.

The move came a day after court filings revealed internal dissent over which Windows XP computers would be considered capable of running the new operating system — and a feeling on at least one executive’s part that the company had “botched” the marketing of computers as “Vista Capable.”

Only copies of the year-old operating system that are sold in boxes directly to consumers are affected by the price cuts — not the versions pre-loaded on personal computers. The cuts will range from 20 percent to 48 percent.

They delayed the heck out of it. They released 50 million different versions of it. They promised free upgrades for people who bought XP machines at Christmas. People were not, and are not happy with Vista. So they cut the price.

This is what companies do when their product sucks. When was the last time you saw Apple cut the price of an iPod by 48%? Hopefully it won’t take too long for Microsoft to get back on the horse, that is, if their developers can find their saddles.

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Did the bank really think that “shutting down” one website would eliminate the “source” of the documents. How crazy is that. Once something hits the internet, no matter how it hits it, it’s there forever. If someone else hasn’t taken an active role in spreading something around, Google has a great cache of many documents.

An effort at damage control has snowballed into a public relations disaster for a Swiss bank seeking to crack down on a renegade Web site for posting classified information about some of its wealthy clients.

Documents from Bank Julius Baer containing information about several bank clients, including San Diego venture capitalist Jonathan Lampitt, were posted last month on Wikileaks.org. The site purports to discourage unethical behavior by corporations and governments by putting leaked documents online.

…

In federal court in San Francisco, the bank asked a judge to take down the site. Much to the outrage of free speech advocates and others, the judge did.

But instead of the information disappearing, it rocketed through cyberspace, landing on other Web sites and Wikileaks’ own “mirror” sites outside the U.S. The digerati call the online phenomenon of a censorship attempt backfiring into more unwanted publicity the “Streisand effect.”

Techdirt Inc. chief executive Mike Masnick coined the term on his popular technology blog after the actress Barbra Streisand’s 2003 lawsuit seeking to remove satellite photos of her Malibu house. Those photos are now easily accessible, just like the bank documents.

The “Streisand effect”. Wow. A totally different image conjures up in my mind when I think of that phrase and satellite photos have nothing to do with it. But I am weird. I guess that bank can’t claim they’re as good as they thought they were, huh? If he was holding a Titleist golf club when he said that he would have eagled it for sure.

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Why am I not excited about this? Why am I not chomping at the bit to test the latest and greatest OS from Microsoft? Oh yeah, Microsoft. ’nuff said.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is due to launch two major product upgrades at an event — tomorrow in Los Angeles — the Windows Server 2008 OS, which is due for release next week, and its SQL Server 2008 database, expected in the third quarter after delays. He’s also expected to discuss Visual Studio 2008, which shipped in November.

The launch of a new family of Windows server products this week will kick-start a broad shift among customers to 64-bit versions of Microsoft’s server software, analysts and customers said.

Like their predecessors, the new products will be offered in both 32- and 64-bit editions. But several factors this time will prompt more customers to choose the 64-bit versions, including the broad availability of 64-bit x86 server hardware and the trend toward consolidating and virtualizing server workloads to reduce power consumption and improve efficiency.

In other news, the sun came out from behind a cloud today. Weathermen make their predictions accordingly. Now pardon me while I look for some home theater sconces. I need mood lighting in here, because the glare of obviousness is killing me.

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Earlier today, Microsoft announce they were going to open some of their code. Wow. If anyone else made this announcement, it wouldn’t be all they exciting, but this was Microsoft, and Microsoft just doesn’t do that.

Microsoft Corp, faced with regulatory concerns in Europe and customers struggling with complex computer systems, said on Thursday it would publish critical information so rival programs can work better with Windows, Office and other major products.

The world’s largest software maker will share the underlying technology that connects its software to other programs, considered a built-in advantage that has been the basis of antitrust scrutiny of the company.

Microsoft’s new policies are seen as a way of heading off future battles with regulators in Europe, Asia and the United States who have long accused it of using its dominant position to move into new businesses and squeeze out competitors.

I don’t think there is any doubt that they are doing it to avoid future legal battles. I will be curious to exactly what they will reveal, and how that will affect development in the future. Maybe they should be offering some free wine gifts or something to help sway the regulators, every little bit helps you know.

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At first I thought Microsoft’s acquisition of Yahoo was a sure thing, then after reading more about it, I figured it would die because the powers that be at Yahoo would fight tooth and nail not to be taken over by Microsoft. Now, I’m pretty sure it’s going to be a done deal. Why do I think that? Well, take this first headline,

Microsoft readies Yahoo proxy battle

Microsoft Corp. is getting ready to take its bid for Yahoo right to the Web portal’s shareholders, even as analysts wait for a higher offer.

Then look at the very next headline,

Yahoo adopts new severance plans

Yahoo Inc. is adopting severance plans to take effect if the Web portal is taken over by Microsoft Corp.

The plans cover all of Yahoo’s full-time employees, including its top executives, for two years after a change in control of the company.

Yeah, they know it’s coming. One way or the other, we’ll see MicroHoo sometime soon.

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For two weeks they were telling us it was a rogue boat anchor. Now they say it may have been sabotage? Say it isn’t so.

Damage to several undersea telecom cables that caused outages across the Middle East and Asia could have been an act of sabotage, the International Telecommunication Union said on Monday.

“We do not want to preempt the results of ongoing investigations, but we do not rule out that a deliberate act of sabotage caused the damage to the undersea cables over two weeks ago,” the UN agency’s head of development, Sami al-Murshed, told AFP.

Of course it was sabotage. Five cables at various locations throughout the Middle East would not go out all at the same time. Duh.

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The powers that be at Yahoo! definitely have a better outlook about their company than many of us outsiders have. In fact, when I first read this story, I wondered why Yahoo would be pouring money into anything else, seeing as they just about kill everything else they pour money into.

Undeterred by the threat of a hostile takeover, slumping Internet pioneer Yahoo Inc. completed an acquisition of its own Tuesday by buying online video service Maven Networks Inc. for $160 million.

The deal marks Yahoo’s latest attempt to expand its online advertising network and snap out of a two-year financial funk that has culminated in unsolicited takeover offer from Microsoft Corp.

Yahoo’s board rejected the bid Monday, prompting Microsoft to raise the possibility of taking its offer — originally valued at $44.6 billion or $31 per share — directly to shareholders.

On top of it all, T-Mobile announced they were dropping Google and going to start using Yahoo as their preferred mobile search provider in Europe. Did the world just start spinning backwards or something?

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It’s times like these when I am happy that I no longer have a Blackberry, although I do miss it a little bit. Okay, not really.

BlackBerry smart phones have lost service across the United States, wireless carriers said Monday.

In a statement, AT&T spokesman Fletcher Cook said the disruption is affecting all wireless carriers. Cook said the company first learned about the problem from BlackBerry maker Research in Motion about 3:30 p.m. EST.

There was no word on the cause or how widespread the outage was.

I wonder what caused the outage? It’s kind of strange that they all lost service, no matter which network they were running on. I bet a lot of people had no idea what to do when the outage occurred too. Since they don’t read books anymore, they probably just sat there doing thumb exercises, huh?

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Their initial comments mention nothing of the fact they just don’t want to be purchased by Microsoft. I guess it’s easier for them to just say the offer wasn’t high enough.

Internet giant Yahoo’s board has decided to reject Microsoft’s 44.6 billion dollar takeover bid, an informed source told AFP Saturday.

The source confirmed an earlier Wall Street Journal report that Yahoo’s management believes the Microsoft offer, which would bring together two top names in online computing, massively undervalues Yahoo.

So what do you think? Will Microsoft attempt a hostile takeover? Will Yahoo! buckle? Will Google gobble them up? Who’s going to get to play with all the toys? Stay tuned…

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