puckhead's Journal: Worst of Anonymous Coward 7

Windows Server 2003: The Road To Gold Part Three: Testing Windows Back to part two As the development of Windows 2000 wound down over three years ago, Microsoft was making a transition of another kind: The company's development focus was moving from delivering technology to delivering solutions that met real customer needs. It sounds like an obvious strategy, but consider the ramifications: In the past, Microsoft would determine what features to include in each revision of its products, deliver as many of those features as it could in the time allotted, and then move any dropped features into the next version. Often, the company would tout customer feedback as one of the prime inspirations for the features that were included in each product version, but customer feedback was just one of many criteria that the company considered, and it certainly wasn't the primary one. One must consider the competitive landscape of the past decade and the markets Microsoft was targeting to understand why this was the case. For much of its history, Microsoft was the fiery upstart, scrambling for market share and paranoid that the Next Big Thing would come along, leaving the company behind. For many of its core markets in the 1990's--desktop operating systems, office productivity software, and workgroup-based corporate computing--Microsoft was primarily concerned with low costs, simplicity, and features, as it sought to outdo competitors such as IBM, Lotus, Novell, WordPerfect Corporation, Borland, Apple, and others. Customer research basically amounted to "more is better": The thought was that most users would compare bulleted lists of features and pick the software that best met their needs. And because Microsoft was often able to undercut the prices of the competition, the choice was usually obvious. So I came home from work the other day to discover my cat laying on the floor. His breathing was very shallow and his eyes were very glassy. When I approached him I noticed a belt tied around his arm and both a syringe and a bent spoon laying beside him. Despite all his promises to the contrary, my beloved Mittens has started shooting up smack again! Fortunately the paramedics showed up quickly and gave him some naloxone which saved him. Unfortunately the problem of my cat being addicted to heroin still remains. Last week he sold my stereo and this weekend Mittens stole from my wallet to try for a hit. I love my cat and want to see him off this horrible drug. Unfortunately he won't stop on his own! Mittens says he can quit anytime he wants to and becomes combative when I force the issue. I'm tired of seeing him throw his life away. He could've been a great mouser, one of the best before he got hooked. Can anyone recommend a way to get my cat off heroin? It would be much appreciated.