The company Thursday fell back to highlighting its un-sexy multi-year licensing agreements with big customers as proof its business is sound and can endure a recession and netbooks onslaught, as it saw software sales tumble.
... The company's Windows client business grew by half its anticipated target — two percent instead of four compared to last year. Microsoft said fewer traditional PCs and more netbooks had shipped than expected.
Performance is moderately improved over a year ago but revenue fell nearly five percent and net-income was flat compared to the July quarter. The Vista and Office 2007 sales spurts are over and they never gained significant market share. Microsoft revised their projections downward for economic conditions and they don't have anything new."
Microsoft has instituted a hiring freeze, likely spurred by the worsening economic conditions in the U.S., according to a source close to the company.
... On Friday, the software giant started sending a note to employees informing them of the decision, according to an employee who saw the letter but asked not to be named.
The denial story shows that the original email was genuine and has more details:
On Friday, some employees received a note saying that the company was re-evaluating open headcount and wouldn't be adding new headcount.
But Gellos [M$ spokesweasel] said the company intends to continue hiring new workers. "This year we expect lots of growth and that we will hire lots of people," he said. "I think the nuance is in the fact that in light of the economy it's important that we do the prudent thing and evaluate projects that we're working on."
It is important not to blame this move on the economic climate alone. Healthy companies will prosper and grow in the adversity, especially as M$ loses their ability to interfere. Companies that don't have anything people want to buy will sink into debt and fail.
Anyone think this will hurt Steve Ballmer's chances for a $20,000,000 bonus?"
Assumpcao, "this difference between who commands this technology and who is commanded by technology determines in our society who rules and who is ruled, who has access to money and who hasn't and who has access to rights and who hasn't.
...
"The Brazilian government has a profound conviction that free software is the way to go, so we are demanding that there is a whole suite of free and open-source software installed in these computers. The whole idea of having closed software on public computers is something which strikes me as wrong"
"It's active learning, they take part in the search for information and they are not waiting for the teacher," said Prof Lopes. "They are having more fun using this technology, not only to read and write but to make videos and take pictures"
Broadband is being delivered to schools, so the project is working as planned. Information is flowing cheaply. There was some talk about Intel Classmates and the need for "interoperability" but that is easy to meet with a resurgent Sugar."
Private companies in the US are hoping to use red light cameras and speed cameras as the basis for a nationwide surveillance network similar to one that will be active next year in the UK. Redflex and American Traffic Solutions (ATS), the top two photo enforcement providers in the US, are quietly shopping new motorist tracking options to prospective state and local government clients.
The article quotes plans and sales pitches from both companies, then cites a case of police abuse of a previous database to track and intimidate a reporter.
So now the real reason for traffic cameras comes out. The catching of red light runners was and excuse barely sufficient to overcome massive public opposition and then only for a short time. We already knew from a Virginia study that cameras actually increased injury accidents, without considering the influence of corruption. Anyone who gave the issue more than a passing thought concluded that the cameras were a nation wide spending pork barrel project that can easily be used to track and harass political opposition.
Earlier in the week, Microsoft had e-mailed members of the state's House delegation who voted against the first version of the bill Monday. The message, Smith told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer on Tuesday, read: "Microsoft strongly urges members of the U.S. House of Representatives to reconsider and to support legislation that will re-instill confidence and stability in the financial markets. This legislation is vitally important to the health and preservation of jobs in all sectors of the economy of Washington State and the nation, and we urge Congress to act swiftly."
More extensive quotes and analysis can be found in my journal submission, but there seems to be a problem with journal submissions going nowhere."
The story was first submitted to MacRumors.com, but the website's owner did some background checking, and quickly found out the story was a fake, and consequently didn't post it. The story also appeared on Digg, but didn't make the front page, and — as we know — on iReport. It was picked up by the respected Silicon Alley Insider, which simply said something along the lines of "There's a report that Steve Jobs might have had a heart attack, we're fact checking right now". Not too long after that, Apple denied the story, Silicon Alley Insider updated the item, stating it wasn't true. In the time between posting and updating, Apple's stock made a 10% drop, but quickly recovered after Apple made clear it wasn't true.
It is difficult to tell who picked up the story, but there seems to be a pattern here. Both Apple and Google have been relentlessly pounded by M$ through old media, with iPhone and Google privacy coverage being the most visible examples of hypocrisy. Steve Ballmer and friends would like to tell you that all of IT is poised to fail in the present credit crunch but Apple and Google are far better positioned with a range of cheap products that people actually want to buy. Google and Apple are also targets of proxy lawsuits. Negative attention is also showered on Mozilla, Wikipedia, ODF, free software and everything else that threatens M$ and old media. Let's see how far down the rabbit hole the SEC will go this time."
"The one charm of marriage is that it makes a life of deception a neccessity." - Oscar Wilde