What's Up with Microsoft?

eWeek’s Microsoft watcher Joe Wilcox has an interesting perspective on 10 things that went wrong with Vista (click here to see article). His article has some interesting perspective and is written from a sympathetic position. Everything, it seems, from Vista’s continually-delayed release, to its over-devotion to security, to its ability to devastate the underpowered machines with which it was delivered, caused many (including academia in the Pacific Northwest) to wait or even avoid transition. My personal experience with Vista was problematic. Vista was designed for dual-core, and if you have anything less than 2GB of RAM (even if you have Ready Boost), you will be hating life.

Vista is the logical conclusion to the history of constant attacks by a multitude of viruses, by complaining of user groups, by legal actions in the EU, and more. It is almost as if Microsoft hunkered down in its bunkers and said “Oh, yeah? Well, take this!”

After reading Wilcox’s article, and especially with Microsoft’s acknowledgement of a Windows 7 in the works, it appears that MS is acting a bit, well, funny when it comes to its operating system development. They look almost like someone who has just had enough already. Remember that Microsoft’s interests are huge and very diverse. MS has made a huge investment in desk top applications, database, .NET, and Web 2.0 server-based social web structures, not to mention the massive MS Office Suite and the new Groove technology for office collaboration. If you think about it, MS could almost stop producing operating systems today and still be a viable company.

That is not an unusual proposition. When you consider that IBM no longer makes personal computers, for example, companies often release the very product that got them started when that product becomes more of a burden than a backbone. Is it possible that MS will stop producing operating systems? Well, probably not. But…

If I were Bill

If I were Bill, what would I do? First I would allow the development of an OS that did not meet the public’s expectations. Then, I would resign from the company I founded to “focus on my charity work.” Then, as no longer an employee of the company, I would sell off all but about $300 million of my holdings. Then, I would wait until the stock bailed out. Consider that $300 million is really pocket change to the super billionaire, but it is enough to wow the folks. Finally, I would come back, buy tons of MS stock at 35-cents a share, ride in with a “new and improved” OS, and become the modern world’s first trillionaire.

But that’s just me.

What is 3-dimensional text?

Perhaps a better question is "what is 3-dimensional content?" After Blaise Aguera y Arcas wow'd 'em at Microsoft with Seadragon (now Photosynth), the next question is "if we can do that with pictures, can we do that with content [a.k.a. knowledge]?

How can the Internet provide us with a "depth of information"? In other words, is it possible to create a deeper way of seeing information? Not via simple link lists such as with wikipedia (which is actually done manually), but by using the power of the machine.

Web 2.o sites such as del.icio.us and Microsoft's Listas create 3-dimensional content typographically with differing font sizes in a technique called "clouds". Here, the human community contributes to the knowledge base through the popularity of certain sites.

But the Internet, as a vast repository of data, needs more to be a vast provider of information.

A service currently under development is trueknowledge.com. Take a look at this video from techcrunch.com. They have developed a search engine that not only locates a number of relevant sites, but also answers direct questions. Check it out.

Hello World!

Greetings all and welcome to my blog.

The "blogosphere" is an enormous collaborative effort which is expanding daily and at an enormous rate. Many fear this growth. Many more do not understand it.

Yet, at the end of the day, what blog is and will become is an integral part of the Web 2.0 "Rich Internet Experience" where people like you and I can contribute to and be a participant in the collective human experience.

Or, another way to look at it is like this: The Internet is only the machine. It is you and I who are the players. Thus, we seek to enjoy not a rich Internet experience, rather we seek a rich human experience.