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Forbes Says Vista Not People Ready 362

Diomedes01 writes "Daniel Lyons has an opinion piece up on Forbes.com about a recent press conference held by Microsoft, and the results are anything but flattering."
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Forbes Says Vista Not People Ready

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  • Vista not People Ready

    But, but, but... "When you combine people and technology, you have a very powerful combination." Fashion designer (and part time Microsoft shill) Tommy Hilfiger said so! So it MUST be true! Vista is the future! Viva la Vista!

    Seriously, though. A voice command from your cellphone to check email? What are these guys smoking?
  • Cyborgs...? (Score:4, Funny)

    by drrck ( 959788 ) on Friday March 24, 2006 @10:58AM (#14987678)
    FTA: Microsoft execs also talked about "Impacting People," then they dragged out fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger, who seemed very "impacted" as he sang praise for Microsoft programs ...
    "When you combine people and technology, you have a very powerful combination." Think about that. Just let it sink in for a minute.

    I for one welcome our new Vista powered overlords.
  • by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 24, 2006 @10:59AM (#14987691)
    "When you combine people and technology, you have a very powerful combination."

    As SciFi has clearly pointed out, this is not a good idea...
  • colleagues (Score:4, Funny)

    by mattoo ( 909891 ) on Friday March 24, 2006 @11:01AM (#14987696)
    From the article:
    ...that lets you see how your colleagues and your colleagues' colleagues rate various Web sites.
    Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't your colleagues' colleagues by definition also your colleagues?
  • by cagle_.25 ( 715952 ) on Friday March 24, 2006 @11:06AM (#14987719) Journal
    Let's take my three sisters. Each has a degree in biology. Each considers me their personal tech support when anything "breaks." It sucks.

    Yeah, but when you have questions about reproductive activities, you've got instant tech support...

  • by blackbeaktux ( 525688 ) on Friday March 24, 2006 @11:07AM (#14987727)
    You mean i can seamlessly receive an urgent request for a business relationship from a top Nigerian official just by saying "Clippy, fetch my email?" Say no more, my friend.

    I'm sure this is the feature i need to push me over the edge to upgrade my O'97. /sarcasm.
  • by Gr8Apes ( 679165 ) on Friday March 24, 2006 @11:09AM (#14987747)
    The new 'Aero' technology is no match for my sisters' Airhead logic.

    I feel your pain.
  • Yeah, but when you have questions about reproductive activities, you've got instant tech support...
    They're my sisters. I don't talk about reproductive activities with my sisters.

    Wait a minute, are you from West Virginia?
  • by Tackhead ( 54550 ) on Friday March 24, 2006 @11:14AM (#14987778)
    Quoth Daniel Lyons in TFA:
    > Instead, we got a demo that was about as compelling as a root canal followed by a 15-minute press conference with Ballmer, the Microsoft chief executive who seems incapable of speaking at any level softer than a bellow.
    >[...]
    >I wonder if Ballmer ever feels like the guy in Groundhog Day, reliving the same press conference, over and over. I know I do.

    Developers. Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers.

    Gee, I wonder why it feels like Groundhog Day.

    (I was in the Virgin Islands once. I met Natalie Portman. We ate hot grits and drank pina coladas from tikis made of petrified wood. At sunset we made love like sea otters. *That* was a pretty good day. Why couldn't I get that day over and over and over...)

  • by solarbob ( 959948 ) on Friday March 24, 2006 @11:15AM (#14987785) Homepage
    ...people will just have to twist their ways until it fits. "To open the CD-Rom you just have to press ALT+E+P with you hands then Num Lock with your nose and it will eject"
  • by shrubya ( 570356 ) on Friday March 24, 2006 @11:17AM (#14987800) Homepage Journal
    Quote:
    Microsoft execs also talked about "Impacting People,"

    You see, this is an example of where the article goes wrong. Daniel Lyons didn't realize they were talking about this kind of impaction [google.com].

  • by clickety6 ( 141178 ) on Friday March 24, 2006 @11:19AM (#14987811)
    ... you get the fricking Borg !!


  • by Dante Shamest ( 813622 ) on Friday March 24, 2006 @11:19AM (#14987821)
    All empires...fall.

    I find your lack of faith disturbing.

  • "Windows Vista -- Get The Facts"
    "Windows Vista -- A Powerful Combination Of Combined Powers"
    "Windows Vista -- Sheep Ready"
    "Windows Vista -- Because The Richest Bloke In The World Says So"
    "Windows Vista -- Almost Ready"
    "Windows Vista -- Or I Hit You With This Chair"
  • by solarbob ( 959948 ) on Friday March 24, 2006 @11:22AM (#14987849) Homepage
    Prehaps its following that old *NIX joke.

    "UNIX is user-friendly, its just picky about who its friends are"
  • by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 24, 2006 @11:27AM (#14987886)
    Dude, if it's coming out of you yellow, then you need to see a doctor, now.
  • by caffeination ( 947825 ) on Friday March 24, 2006 @11:27AM (#14987892)
    Splendid discernment. Simply splendid.
  • by hey! ( 33014 ) on Friday March 24, 2006 @11:28AM (#14987904) Homepage Journal
    Let's take my three sisters. Each has a degree in biology. Each considers me their personal tech support when anything "breaks." It sucks.

    OK, you clearly have issues.

    What you haven't realized is your hostility towards your sisters is a form of transferance. You are transferring your need to show your mother that you are a competent adult (and thus worthy of regard) onto your sisters, and projecting your own infantile dependency onto them. It is worth noting that while you must constantly demonstrate your expertise and competence in computers to them, they have no compulsion to retern the favor by offering you help in their area of expertise. Likely this difference is due to insecure paternal attachment on your part. Could this be unresolved castration anxiety? Certainly that would explain the difference between you and you sisters. In any case, the underlying assymetry in your relationship reinforces your infantile anxiety, which creates rage, part of which is displaced onto Microsoft, the balance of which is sublimated in the form of further demonstrations of technical competence. Naturally, such heroic (dare I say histrionic?) demonstrations of technical finesse that only exacerabate your problem.

    What you need to do is to address the imbalance in your relationship to your sisters. A few concrete suggestions:

    * Encourage them to install the beta of Vista. Then when they have problems, throw up your hands and confess you don't know anything about Microsoft operating systems.

    * Develop a stock response to technical question and consistently use it for every problem no matter how trivial e.g., "Try reformatting your hard drive and reinstalling the operating system." This will encourage your sisters to be less dependent on you.

    * Demand that your sisters provide you with equivalent services in their areas of expertise. For example, why did your last batch of homebrew beer come out sour? What can you do about the crabgrass on your lawn? When you are going out on a date after work, how can you avoid having body odor even if you've showered in the morning (claim you are allergic to deoderant)?

    Follow this strategy, and you cannot help but develop a more adult, mutually satisfying relationship with your siblings.
  • by donscarletti ( 569232 ) on Friday March 24, 2006 @11:30AM (#14987932)
    If your sisters have any reproductive queries, outsource them to my "callcentre", I'd be happy to take them, it's cheaper than a phonesex hotline and I get the satisfaction of doing something for the community.

    Interestingly enough, when I was 17 I was asked by an attractive 22 year old woman what the difference between sperm and semen was. I cowardly responded by explaining the differences using technical language, rather than the slightly contrived situation involving a "practical lesson" that I ususally tell my friends.

  • by fatted ( 777789 ) on Friday March 24, 2006 @11:31AM (#14987936) Homepage
    I think I must be one of the few on here who's actually had it with all the M$FT bashing...
    I've had it with the love fest with anything that is not M$FT...
    I want scientific analysis...
    I'm not sure you're really getting this whole slashdot thing...
  • by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 24, 2006 @11:31AM (#14987944)
    If combinations of people and technology all end up looking like seven of nine, let me be the first to say I welcome our new borg overladies.
  • by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 24, 2006 @11:31AM (#14987951)
    "When you combine people and technology, you have a very powerful combination"

    Yeah, its called the Borg.

    RESISTANCE IS FUTILE!!!!
  • by ArsenneLupin ( 766289 ) on Friday March 24, 2006 @11:59AM (#14988158)
    I personally produce over $500,000 worth of professional documents every year.

    I used to use Photoshop to produce $500,000,000 worth of profesionnal-quality documents every months. But then, they introcued some annoying security feature [slashdot.org], and I had to switch to the gimp!

    They could charge $2000 for office and I would still buy it,

    Careful there. They won't accept "documents" produced by Office as payment for the software itself. That would be too easy...

  • Re:Opinion? (Score:5, Funny)

    by The Angry Mick ( 632931 ) on Friday March 24, 2006 @12:08PM (#14988247) Homepage
    Since when has an Opinion piece become a piece of tech news?

    Don't read many newspapers, or watch much television, do you?

  • by cluke ( 30394 ) on Friday March 24, 2006 @12:10PM (#14988265)
    My mind is kind of boggling at any sort of practical demo that could illustrate that difference.

    "Yes, and this stuff in my hand is semen, which I will now smear on to a slide - if you will come over and look into this microscope..."

    (As an aside, I wonder who was the first guy to look at semen in a microscope? That dude must have been freaked the fuck out, big time!)
  • by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 24, 2006 @12:14PM (#14988305)
    How did emacs get into this discussion?
  • by Recovering Hater ( 833107 ) on Friday March 24, 2006 @12:51PM (#14988666)
    Daikavista.
  • by hey! ( 33014 ) on Friday March 24, 2006 @12:55PM (#14988706) Homepage Journal
    Maybe you can help me with this, it gets really confusing now. My sisters are seated at computers. And when they touch them, they turn into toilets full of excrement--not working at all. But as I walk down the line, my mere touch turns them into golden Alienware desktops running at the speed of light. They get on their knees and start to worship me and again I'm laughing maniacly.

    I know this sounds kind of gross and I have issues, but what does it all mean, doc?


    Ah, yes. Excrement that turns into gold. This a dream motif commonly seen in the anal-expulsive personality type, which as we all know is characterized by high levels of conceit and ambition. This should, I believe, be watched closely. We should consider increasing the frequency of our sessions to twice a week (at the normal rate of course), for is not unusal for these tendencies to grow into an intractable and malignant narcissism.

    For a fascinating example of a parallel case in which the same dream motif if found, see the case study of "Bill G." published in a recent Zeitschrift der Analyse von Träumen. The details of this case are an extreme example, it is true, nonetheless it is well that they should give us pause.
  • by eldavojohn ( 898314 ) * <eldavojohn@noSpAM.gmail.com> on Friday March 24, 2006 @12:59PM (#14988744) Journal
    This a dream motif commonly seen in the anal-expulsive personality type...
    So you're saying I spew bullshit?

    Dumb it down for me, doc, I'm a freaking Slashdot poster for Christ's sake!
  • by hey! ( 33014 ) on Friday March 24, 2006 @01:00PM (#14988748) Homepage Journal
    Ah, I see our time is up. You can leave your chargeplate with my receptionist.
  • by raju1kabir ( 251972 ) on Friday March 24, 2006 @01:06PM (#14988808) Homepage
    A design firm where only 17% of the employees are designers? Maybe if the others had Macs they'd get more work done and you wouldn't need such a bloated payroll.

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