Microsoft Reports First Loss in History
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If you read the article, it is because of a write-off of aQuantive. Otherwise would have been a small decrease, probably due to decline of 13% for Windows.
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If you read the article, it is because of a write-off of aQuantive. Otherwise would have been a small decrease, probably due to decline of 13% for Windows.
Much as some might go into denial, acquisitions are part of M$'s business strategy (for many different reasons, not all humanitarian). Put it in the same basket as WinME and Vista. Maybe it looked a good idea at the time, but it didn't work out. Peter
Software rusts. Simon Stephenson, ca 1994. So does this signature. me, 2012
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"In the earning release, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer reminded investors that there was much to look forward for the rest of the year" For a minute there I actually thought he was going to say he was retiring... Not so much to look forward to, after all.
"People who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the boot that kicks them." Eric Hoffer "The failure mode of 'clever' is 'asshole'" John Scalzi "Only buzzards feed on their friends" Patrick Dorinson
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"In the earning release, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer reminded investors that there was much to look forward for the rest of the year" For a minute there I actually thought he was going to say he was retiring... Not so much to look forward to, after all.
"People who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the boot that kicks them." Eric Hoffer "The failure mode of 'clever' is 'asshole'" John Scalzi "Only buzzards feed on their friends" Patrick Dorinson
He is not that bad is he?
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Much as some might go into denial, acquisitions are part of M$'s business strategy (for many different reasons, not all humanitarian). Put it in the same basket as WinME and Vista. Maybe it looked a good idea at the time, but it didn't work out. Peter
Software rusts. Simon Stephenson, ca 1994. So does this signature. me, 2012
The worst I ever saw was when AT&T bought all of those cable companies, and then spun them off as Comcast (I hate comcast)
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Microsoft and Apple, both, in the past, have done "pre-emptive" acquistions where they either wished to block a potential threat to a future product of their own, or wished to acquire a few ideas, a patent portfolio, or certain key employees of a company, but had no intent of continuing or re-using the acquired company's patents, or products. I have personal knowledge, back in the time of antiquity, pre-1990, of Apple paying a certain manufacturer a very large sum of money to dis-continue an about-to-be-released product that Apple knew would threaten their high-profit margins on a soon to be released product of theirs. But, back in those palaeolithic days of early personal-computerdom, we certainly didn't have the large-scale portfolio wars seen today, and companies that did nothing but buy patents to get revenue from people they could threaten to sue. Even in the 1990's, there was a time when Texas Instruments, generated three times the income from all its chip business from patent-based legal proceedings, and settlements. best, Bill
It keeps me humble to think there's more bacteria in my gut than neurons in my brain, and that twenty trillion neutrinos pass through one hand a second, and that the average mattress contains 20 million bedbugs each of whom shits once per hour.
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"Microsoft Multiyear Contracts Gain As Companies Upgrade Software By Dina Bass - Jul 20, 2012 11:01 AM GMT+0700"[^] Perhaps this article on Bloomberg adds some perspective on the MS quarterly "loss" that is useful ? best, Bill
It keeps me humble to think there's more bacteria in my gut than neurons in my brain, and that twenty trillion neutrinos pass through one hand a second, and that the average mattress contains 20 million bedbugs each of whom shits once per hour.
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"Microsoft Multiyear Contracts Gain As Companies Upgrade Software By Dina Bass - Jul 20, 2012 11:01 AM GMT+0700"[^] Perhaps this article on Bloomberg adds some perspective on the MS quarterly "loss" that is useful ? best, Bill
It keeps me humble to think there's more bacteria in my gut than neurons in my brain, and that twenty trillion neutrinos pass through one hand a second, and that the average mattress contains 20 million bedbugs each of whom shits once per hour.
"Consumer PC demand was weaker than corporate demand in the period, as was the case in other recent quarters, Klein said. The trend will probably start reversing with the release of Windows 8" :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: When touch-screen displays become affordable and ubiquitous on desktop systems, Windows 8 will begin to have some utility, though not much. It's bad enough that we currently have to switch between a mouse and a keyboard just to enter a State on a form; when we have to touch a screen to enter an application and select major functions, it will only further disrupt workflow. Instead of a single integrated UI, we'll now have to interact with three input devices; absurd! I wish I had some Microsoft stock, just so I could sell short 100 times my holdings. On a related note, why hasn't anyone implemented Intellisense in a ComboBox control? Or, if it's been done, why don't WebForm designers use it? It's damned annoying to type in the contents of a form, only to have to stop and use the mouse to select from a list of States when I order something online. If I type "ARI" in a typical web control, I end up living in Alaska! There's no excuse these days for web controls to be that stupid.:mad:
Will Rogers never met me.
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"Consumer PC demand was weaker than corporate demand in the period, as was the case in other recent quarters, Klein said. The trend will probably start reversing with the release of Windows 8" :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: When touch-screen displays become affordable and ubiquitous on desktop systems, Windows 8 will begin to have some utility, though not much. It's bad enough that we currently have to switch between a mouse and a keyboard just to enter a State on a form; when we have to touch a screen to enter an application and select major functions, it will only further disrupt workflow. Instead of a single integrated UI, we'll now have to interact with three input devices; absurd! I wish I had some Microsoft stock, just so I could sell short 100 times my holdings. On a related note, why hasn't anyone implemented Intellisense in a ComboBox control? Or, if it's been done, why don't WebForm designers use it? It's damned annoying to type in the contents of a form, only to have to stop and use the mouse to select from a list of States when I order something online. If I type "ARI" in a typical web control, I end up living in Alaska! There's no excuse these days for web controls to be that stupid.:mad:
Will Rogers never met me.
Roger Wright wrote:
When touch-screen displays become affordable and ubiquitous on desktop systems, Windows 8 will begin to have some utility, though not much.
Hi Roger, I share your predictions here, but, perhaps, I am even more skeptical. I am making the inference from your comments that what you are talking about here is use of Windows 8 on touch-enabled large monitors. Let my express my opinions (biases ?) rhetorically: ~ 1. what's the "value proposition" in the use of large-monitors that support touch-control ? ... for general use in content production systems, or in business where extensive use of Excel, Word, and custom Enterprise solutions ... other than in specialized situations, such as information kiosks, for which, imho, "front-ends" like Metro are appropriate, and already in use ? 2. how many major software vendors, outside of MS, of software of the types of use-scenarios described in point #1, above, will even want to re-do their software for basic touch and/or Metro ? A possible disclaimer being: if a company sees a major profit to be made in producing a small form-factor adaptable (usable on tablets, smart phones, etc.) product which is a limited-functionality version of their "big product:" then they'll go for it ? ~ Finally, I personally am very interested in the evolution of high-precision no-touch-the-screen gestural control, such as that in development at leapmotion.com, which I've already cited more than once, I believe, in responses here on the Lounge. I'd separate out the big issues you raised by Win8/Metro touch usage on the desktop, from the "how bad it is" about how many issues, like the lack of intellisense you describe, are wrong, wrong, wrong, and stupid, stupid, stupid in today's software from MS, on both web-using applications, stand-alone applications, and in Win 7 itself. But, I will spare you, and others, from my list of pet-peeves that have persisted in Windows since Win 95, which is when I started using the OS: issues which I experience every day as interrupting the smooth flow of my using the computer across the whole gamut of usages: from Windows Explorer to running applications. But, I can't help myself from saying how amazing it is to me that a free utility, Agent Ransack, can perform complex searches at speeds which put the native Win 7 search utility (of course I have mine disabled) to shame. best, Bill
It keeps me humble to think there's mor