I'm going to use the term God. If you find yourself dragging your religious preconceptions into this as a consequence of this label, feel free to substitute the word "Reality" where you see the word "God". I do this because, to my mind, they are describing the same thing using different technical languages that come from different knowledge systems, and I hope to provoke others to look at them the same way.

The universe can be understood in terms of the complexity of the arrangement of God's substance.

The singularity is the ultimate victory of Gravity and Entropy
The big bang is the ultimate failure of Gravity and Entropy

The creation of this universe is the eruption of the substance of God into an increasingly complex pattern. The limits of this complexity are imposed by, gravity, entropy and the amount of God. These limits will cause the complexity of the pattern to peak, and the complexity will degenerate back into simplicity, which will be pulled back into a singular state.

These perspectives as I've articulated them are written from the observing position of a living creature within the multiverse and bound by time.

From the position of an imagined observer outside of God, and thus outside of time, this would look very different.

To model this in your mind, it may be helpful to imagine the universe as a soap bubble being blown from a wand. The force of the big bang is like the air being blown at the soap film.

As this force causes the soap film to erupt out of a two dimensional plane into a three dimensional sphere, there are other forces at work that keep the soap film from simply disintegrating.

By acting in opposition to this "creative wind", these forces maintain the coherency of the soap film, allowing it to be a bubble with a beautiful complex pattern rather than simply dust.

However, from a perspective inside the soap film, these forces would look like the forces of entropy and gravity look to us. They drag us back towards the simplicity of death, just as the surface tension in the soap film drags the film back towards the state of being a plane.

This model makes an interesting segue into contemplation of the contrast between the infinite model of the universe and the finite model of the universe.

I believe the evidence does not support the perspective that we live in an infinitely expanding universe, because such a model would look like the soap film being blown into dust by the creative wind rather than assembling itself into the complex patterns that we see around us.

Some other interesting things to consider when looking at this model from the perspective of the outside observer watching the soap bubble of our universe being blown:

Does the ending of the creative wind cause the soap bubble to fall back into a simple plane, and have all it's complexity vanish as though it never was?

Does the creative wind cause the soap bubble to resolve into a sphere and blow off the wand?

Does the soap bubble resolve into a sphere but remain stuck to the wand?

If the observer sees the soap bubble fall back into a simple plane, that would imply that time resides outside the universe. This isn't really consistent with what we've observed about relativity.

If the creative wind causes the soap bubble to resolve into a sphere and blow off the wand, that would imply that the universe either is in the process of being created by some sort of God and cast away, or it already has been. This also implies that time resides outside the universe.

The model in which the soap bubble resolves into a sphere but remains stuck on the wand is the model that is consistent with relativity. It is the model in which the definition of time is permitted to remain relative to this universe.

In this model, the imaginary observer outside of the universe does not see any dynamic action in time because, residing outside the universe, there is no capacity to relate, and thus, they see the soap bubble in its entirety, at all of its "times".

Following this line of reasoning, the universe in its complex state and the universe in its simple state is something that can only be expressed in terms of time,

How can I verify this?

Not the right question

How might I make this a more useful predictive tool to govern behavior than others who have espoused similar views before me and failed to do so?

I might use the model to imply useful and previously unrecognized boundaries between what is local and what is global in scope in terms of the "laws of nature" and thus find new "patterns of reality" by implication or learn how to break "laws of nature" that were previously considered inviolate by moving beyond the scope of their pattern.

I might use the model to help people recognize the difference between knowledge systems derived from experimentation and knowledge systems derived from deduction, allowing people to abandon the false assurance of faulty tools and work towards reconciling the conflict between science and religion.

I wonder if Paul Davies would consider this to be #3 or #5?

I draw comfort from the fact that I am not really a 3 dimensional object transforming and translating. I am actually a 4 dimensional object experiencing becoming. I have a boundary on the top of my head, and on the soles of my feet. I have a boundary at the surface of my chest, and at the surface of my back. I have a boundary on my left side, and on my right. And, finally, I have a boundary at my birth and at my death. I will never cease, but will exist forever within these 4 axis. At the time of my death, I will finally consciously know myself in my entirety. I consider that something to look forward to.

All the usual hype is flowing about Vista 8. This mostly means that Vista 7 was a failure, but I decided to log it for laughs. Vista 7 did not sell as well as Vista did and Vista 8 won't sell any better than Vista 7. Vista failure has really killed Microsoft. The upgrade inevitability myth is six feet underground, traditional desktops are becoming a thing of the past and everyone looks to Google, Apple even IBM for cool and reliable computing. Despite that, Microsoft brings out the same old lines and strategies.

2009

• 05/29 - Steve Ballmer tries to freeze the market by announcing an early release date, only to have Micrsoft quietly rebuff him. In reality, OEM outrage at Microsoft's limitations and power grab pushes Vista 8 release out of 2012.
• 06/02 - A fawning article from business insider. We get all the usual BS, "riskiest OS ever," "biggest step forward in more than 20 years, when it pushed Windows as the replacement for DOS", "underneath that layer is the old Windows that users are accustomed to. It will run old Windows apps", Linux and Apple are too jarring, expensive and suck, and so on and so forth.

As the Linux Foundation wins new friends and influences people, sharp reporters at PCWorld notice that Windows sales as a fraction of PCs shipped are in a steep and accelerating decline. Woody Leonhard of Infoworld does the math on Microsoft's numbers,

Between launch and June 30, 2010 -- a period of 251 days -- Microsoft sold 0.78 Windows 7 licenses for each PC sold. Between July 1, 2010, and April 22, 2011 -- a period of 275 days -- Microsoft sold 0.67 Windows 7 licenses for each PC sold: 175 million Windows 7 licenses, and 260 million new PCs. To turn the numbers the other way around, in the past nine months, more than one-third of all new PCs sold didn't have Windows 7. ... it's entirely possible that 40 percent of all new PCs in the past nine months shipped without Windows 7. Maybe more.

So, the Windows 7 PC sales "refresh" is over. Business adoption rates are still under 10%. Kanthryn Noyles of Computer World interprets that as a Win for gnu/linux

I think it's fair to assume that a good number of them are running Linux instead. Preloaded options, after all, are increasingly common, and the reasons to switch are more compelling with each passing Patch Tuesday.

Android/Linux, is another reason for the decline. Why sit around mom's basement with a big, noisy PC when you can drop the net in your pocket? PCs are less important and Windows is downright archaic.

Microsoft's bottom line sags with its cash cow. There was good evidence in 2010 and January of this year that Windows 7 was not driving sales. Roughly Drafted now looks at Microsoft's quarterly report and shows that Windows profits are down since 2008 back when they were trying to sell Vista which many people dumped in less than six months.

Florian Mueller has thrust himself into the news a lot over the last couple of years, mostly to the detriment of Microsoft competitors, and has been particularly successful at getting Slashdot to copy his message. Roy Schestowitz, of Techrights, noticed him early because Boycott Novell was on Florian's journalist mass mailing list. So was Groklaw. Both rejected Florian's message and both are now smeared by him. Techrights has this index and PJ has this about bad behavior in 2005, this, this and more. Florian waged a Twitter/Social Media FUD campaign against both "Groklie" and Techrights in retaliation. Even Slashdot submitters have called Florian a "gadfly" and noticed he's behind anti-Google FUD. All of Florian's media manipulation has earned him special mention by actual lawyers who advise those threatened by lawsuits to ignore him and people like him.

The best way to understand what Florian has been doing is to make a list of it. Here then, is a list of what he's been telling Slashdot readers over the last year or so, with context and links to refutations as time allows.

Android/Google Spin.

• Google violated Java patents on purpose (See source article for source of silly opinion. ITWorld should be ashamed.)
• Speculation about why Apple replaced their chief patent lawyer. While Apple is quiet about the change, Florian pretends to be an Apple spokesman and tells us it's all about plans to block Android features.
• Sensationalized Oracle's obnoxious demands for money as something that would "far exceed any money Google has ever earned with Android", Google's no cost, free OS. Groklaw puts things in perspective and lawyers advise people to ignore Florian and people like him.
• Google Loses Bedrock Suit, All Linux May Infringe Florian put his anti-linux spin into CNet, the article source. See refutations, [2 SJVN], [3 PJ].
• A refutation that points to Florian as the source of Android copyright FUD.
• Huffington Post and Florian level copyright charges against Android, call it a "serious problem". Techrights and Groklaw answer these charges and take a careful look at Florian. [2]
• Google and Microsoft are working to make sofware patents livable
• Backs Google's request to invalidate Oracle VM patents.
• Florian charges Google of copyright violation against Oracle, blames ASF.
• Florian claims Android is doomed by Google's small patent portfolio, so Google had better pay fees to Apple, Microsoft and Oracle.
• Android and iPhone charged with violating media patents
• Counts patents involved in Apple's attack on Android.
• Pumps up Paul Allen's sue everyone lawsuit as trouble for Android.

Red Hat FUD

• Red Hat Feeds Patent Trolls.

IBM FUD

• EU investigates IBM for anti-trust in Turbo Hercules debacle. Grocklaw answers this [2].

Novell's Patent Hoard.

• Notices Microsoft, Apple, Oracle and EMC are to receive Novelle's patents and predicts dire results for free software.

Reframes Microsoft's attempt to tax Motorola's use of GNU/Linux and Android.

This issue should not be separated from general anti-Google FUD but Florian does this.

• Compares LG Sony fight to Motorola Microsoft
• Talks about new patent charges by both companies as if they were equals.
• ITC investigates Xbox after Motorola complaint.

That's 16 articles in less than a year and each represents dozens of Microsoft press echos. All of it says something bad about Google, Red Hat, IBM and other free software users. When he's not busy smearing Microsoft competitors, he's telling us that they Love Microsoft and are working with them towards some noble goal.

People speculate that Muelller is fed inside information as part of Microsoft's coordinated campaigns against free software and Microsoft competitors. PJ of Groklaw thinks that Microsoft hoped that a community of deluded coders would form around Florian, but only Novell employees and Mono boosters pal around, while the larger free software community ignores him. His recent praise of the SCO Gang and smears of PJ places him among the most disgusting of Microsoft company.

I simply can't believe how awful Windows is, and (unfortunately) how gullible I am. [my laptop] came loaded with Vista Business, and a "fallback" DVD for XP Professional. I tried running Vista on it. I really tried, I really wanted it to work, and I said exactly that in my blog here. But it didn't. Every time I tried it, things started out looking promising, and after a month or two it would go belly-up. Three or four times I reloaded Vista from scratch and tried again, hoping that the latest Microsoft Updates would fix it. Eventually I gave up, reloaded one last time with XP Professional, and ran that with no problem for two years.

A month or so ago, through my own carelessness, I wiped the disk on this laptop. I had to reload everything from scratch, so (like a fool) I thought well, Vista SP2 is out, everyone says that it is "all fixed up now and works great, and reliably", so I'll try that again. I loaded Vista from scratch, added all the updates to SP2 and beyond, and I've been running it that way since. Until today. ... Windows is unreliable garbage, it always has been, it always will be, and if you use it you should be willing to accept that risk. I am no longer willing to accept that risk, even part-time as a secondary operating system on this laptop. Windows is gone, it has puked all over its disk for the last time here, and I will not reload it. I am in the process of transferring the data to one of the Linux partitions - yes, Linux is quite happy to read the partition that Windows says is hopelessly corrupted.

Please, PLEASE, unless you want to hear a very long string of words that I learned during my military service, do NOT tell me that the "solution" to this problem is to give Microsoft even more money and "upgrade" to Windows 7. ... if Vista is not stable, or reliable, then Microsoft should withdraw it and either offer a free "upgrade" to Windows 7 or offer a refund of the purchase cost. ... I absolutely don't believe the Windows 7 is any better, any more stable or any more reliable than Vista. They come from Microsoft, they are utter garbage...

This is a sign of things to come for Windows. Windows 7 was predictably just as bad as Vista was. People no longer are falling for Microsoft's promises of "this version fixes everything."

Well, I finally got around to trying Linux out on a spare laptop. You'll have to bear with me because I don't have the exact specs to hand, but it's a Toshiba Celeron D with 512MB of RAM and an ATI card (Mobility 7000 series?).

Distro #1: Mandriva One 2010

Mandriva failed to boot from the LiveCD. Great start everyone, round of applause. We'll gloss over that and press on.

Distro #2: Ubuntu 9.10

Attempt 1 involved the disc failing to burn 100% correctly and Ubuntu cycling from the loading screen, to the terminal, to a black screen with gobbledygook at the top, back to the loading screen again. I admit this part isn't Linux's fault, so I'll skip to attempt 2, which is when it starts to get a little more interesting.

Attempt 2 got me a bootable install of Ubuntu. The install time was pretty long but once done I started plugging away and seeing how easy it is.

My first impression was that Ubuntu is dog-fucking-slow on a machine with that spec. Considering I'd just done away with a more than passable install of XP I was unimpressed. From looks alone I wouldn't put anything between them (though it was nice to get away from Fisher-Price land) but, from the speed of it, I would have expected a user interface that operated more like Vista/7 than XP and it does not deliver that on any front. Window movement and alt-tabbing was jerky and tiresome, and I honestly could only give it half an hour before I started looking into other distros. In that time I failed utterly to get the chess program to render in OpenGL because there were two dependencies missing. Not sure why you'd distribute a program and then not bother actually installing everything it needs to run properly. Oh, and the laptop ran so hot it shut itself down about 20 minutes in, but that's probably the laptop.

Status: Abandoned for something faster.

Distro #3: Xubuntu 9.10

Having read some reviews praising XFCE's speed over Gnome and KDE, I decided that would be the route I went. Installed again and far more smoothly than Ubuntu install did, working first and picking up everything except the graphics card. Actually, that's worthy of a rant - when I did install the drivers, I started getting random black windows and notification boxes. This probably means they were right not to download them in the first place if it did work out my card, but the pissing thing didn't bother to tell me that, so I wasted half an hour installing and uninstalling the drivers for no reason, and it's hard to work Synaptic when the window keeps blacking out.

Magical.

Oh, and the other fun thing - apparently my dial-up modem isn't free enough, so it initially refused to install drivers for that too. I would like to point out that most users don't give two fucking hoots about ideology, They just want things to work. So, why not install the drivers anyway and then tell me afterwards that I'm a capitalist pig? Cheers.

Other than that, I won't say that I was blown away, or even enthused, but I was surprised at how far Linux has come. Installing programs is getting close to easy, though sometimes the descriptions are a little naff, and it took me a good chunk of an hour to work out how to copy graphics files for OpenTTD from one folder to another thanks to some permissions based shit on the destination folder that I couldn't change without dropping to the terminal. I eventually copied each file one by one in the terminal using sudo. I'm sure there's an easier way than that, but I got frustrated enough that I'd had it. Installing from Synaptic rather than hunting down an installer made a nice change but I can't help but feel that repositories aren't something that Linux can keep going if, in the long run, Linux becomes more popular.

XFCE is a good replacement for Gnome and doesn't suck up processor and graphics power like a hoover, though creating desktop shortcuts is a bit odd, and took a little bit of poking before I realised you can't just drag icons from one place to another.

I think I came away from the experience thinking that there were too many little things that Windows 7 makes really bloody easy that just take one step too many in Linux. Copying files, creating shortcuts, installing games, all worked but required just a little bit more fucking about than I'd like. That's not to say I'm wiping the laptop again, on the contrary - I'll be trying a few things out. I just don't see it as a full-time replacement.

Nethack rocks, though.

Digitimes has another reason for Windows 7 sales to be low.

PC replacement demand is not driven significantly by the consumer market, but rather enterprise and government purchases ... most enterprises in Europe and North America are expected to start planning annual purchasing budgets for the year in March and April of 2010, actual replacement demand is not expected to spur until the second half of the year.

Companies and government might buy computers next year, but they should already be buying orders placed in March and April of this year. There are already accounts of corporate rejection of Windows 7, so that OS is not likely to have anything to do with corporate buying and government won't be a big market because UAC still does not meet government security standards . Back in January, retailers at CES remembered being "burnt by Vista" and saw nothing to change their minds about the contracting PC market. Perhaps OEMs and retailers could deliver the gnu/linux netbooks and desktops that people actually want to buy.

Who decided that all story submissions would be tagged with user email addresses? You might as well demand and publish people's real names.

This is a breach of trust that will drive away long standing users such as myself. Email addresses were collected under the promise of never being published. Now I have the choice of submitting things as AC, publishing my email address or just giving up. I'm leaning towards giving up. Boycott Novell has been more fun anyway.

Despite all the hype, it is easy to predict that Windows 7 will go the same way Vista did. Vista was a failure in every way, so a pretty new face was made to sell the same buggy and customer hostile core and the Microsoft hype machine was turned on full blast. Now that Vista 7 is RTM, we no longer have to make predictions, we can simply watch the results. Here is a collection of Vista 7 failures found on YouTube. Enjoy what I found in a few minutes:

• Counter Strike Fail
• Power Management Fail Hibernate seems to be broken. Any power management working would be an improvement over XP or Vista but we should not expect such miracles from non free software.
• Cracking Video shows how to p0wn "activation." Soothing music welcomes you to the botnet.
• Good rundown of Windows 7 problems by seasoned IT professional who has yet to give up on Windows. He's not correct about being able to upgrade from Vista to Windows 7.

Update 1/2/2011 Real users have been forced to buy Vista 7 with their new computers for more than a year and it's Vista all over again. They tell the story better than I can.

Here are videos that have collected at YouTube over the last year. Windows 7 is no less a pig and no more secure than Vista was, everything the Microsoft boosters say is a lie. All of these videos were made after the RTM date and most after the October 22nd, 2009 shelf date. The best have bold dates.

2009

• 07/28 - an amazing Windows 7 failure video. Ten minutes long but fun the whole time.
• 09/11 - buggy dual monitor action. It's funny how my PIII can correctly do this kind of thing with composting using E16 and Debian. Multitouch on Windows 7 has had a lot of high profile failure too.
• 10/22 - Fails the day it was released to the public. Man forced to wipe Vista to install Windows 7 and ends up with two dead computers.
• 12/29 - Windows 7 speech recognition, impressive and completely worthless.
• 12/31 - What Windows 7 OEM "support" is really like, explained by a former Gateway support tech. The techical issue was product activation but the video is a profoundly sad portrait of betrayed US tech workers.

2010

• 01/03 - A gamer hates Windows 7 performance and broken Steam
• 01/05 - Another user abandons the Windows world over Vista/Windows 7.
• 01/15 - Another tech and XP fans tell his users to go from XP to Mac OSX because Windows 7 is so poor
• 01/18 - This poor user thinks Vista was better, how pathetic.
• 04/19 - Hardware does not work with Windows 7, user hates it.
• 07/10/2010 - Excellent critique by long term Windows user fed up with Vista/Window7. After fighting "updates" for two years, user runs to Mac and vows to never purchase Windows again.
• 07/29 - Windows 7 ruins a netbook and lots of other hardware, user can't use CDs and is very frustrated.
• 8/21 - Infuriating general flakeyness, poor user wants his XP back.
• 09/04 - Poor battery life of Windows 7 graphically illustrated.
• 09/30 - Windows 7 broken so that user can't log in.
• 10/04 - User complains about poor performance and incomplete Vista facelift for Window 7. Thinks it works a little faster with "classic" 1995 like menu bar.
• 10/10 - Fake AV demonstrated, shows that Windows 7 is still insecure and preyed on by all sorts. The demonstrator should have actually used virtual machine if he really needed Windows.
• 10/31 - Slow shutdown ruins someone's day.
• 12/10 - Great demonstration of CPU usage in Windows 7 vrs GNU/Linux.

2011

• 02/01 - Bugs and clown music
• 02/11 - Microsoft Anna voice tells you how annoying Windows 7 is
• 02/13 - Windows 7 ruins $1,000 computer so user is unable to play games, make videos and whatnot.
• 03/16 - Five crashes a month belies hype for this man. He wanted an improvement over Vista and 64 bit OS, but thinks Windows 7 is worse than Vista, which he also thought suckes. Wants to go Linux but has a few programs holding him back.

This ZDNet opinion piece has got to be the worst defense of unethical business practices I've see to date. Basically, the author admits M$ bribes and punishes OEMs and that's AOK with him. Let's preserve this gem:

a company gets twice as much from a PC with their brand on it as one they make for someone else. MSI needs this money to survive in a world where its Chinese partners can undercut them. The margin justifies MSIs existence.

It is also true that Linux cannot afford a presence in the channel. Its not how we roll. You cant invest in retailing if your product costs nothing. There is nothing to invest. Thats why Linux and open source depend on the Internet.

A monopolistic practice occurs when two sides are offering the same deal and one side gets all the business. But in this case both sides were not offering the same deal. Microsoft offered channel support, Linux a hearty handshake and rhetoric about freedom.

... What Linux needs to succeed is a way to offer more than was offered MSI. The question is, how would you structure a deal?

Well, that's a good question. What besides an OS that works and costs zero dollars does free software offer? OK, it can cost up to half what Windows costs if you get it customized and maintained by a company like Xandros. "Channel Support" is just a code word for exclusion of competition by bribes and threats, the very definition of anti-trust conspiracy. Lately, "Channel Support" has come at a terrible cost to companies like Asus. Retail partners like CompUSA, Circuit City and others who got themselves channel stuffed with Vista. This is what Li Chang, vice president of the Taipei Computer Association, was complaining about and it's worth a DOJ investigation. People don't want Windows, they want computers that work. Retailers and OEMs that don't deliver are going the way of other M$ partners and M$ themselves.

Ordinarily, I don't pick on language and style but the phrase, "how we roll," references to his parents' national origin bring special disgrace on ZDNet and the Wintel press. It's hard to tell if he's being cynical or if M$'s culture has really degenerated so far. This single article earns Dana a place in my Poison Pen Collection.

Rewind back to 2000. While everyone was taking a breather after Y2K turned out to be a relative non-event (thanks to hard work from the technical community everywhere), I was coming up with ideas. Ideas for things. Things that would do stuff.

Some of these things caught the attention of my then-employer (a company often associated with the words "big" and "blue"), and the slow wheels started grinding them towards some patents. Two of them in particular made their way through the internal grinder, and became actual applications: "Executing Native Code in Place of Non-Native Code", and "Dynamic Generation of Program Execution Trace Files in a Standard Markup Language".

Then that company gave me the boot.

Over the years since, I've kept an eye on my ideas through online databases. Both were filed in both Canada and the US, with the US applications appearing to be "links" to the Canadian patents. I'd look in on the CIPO database here in Canada every few months, generally to see the only "progress" being that my former employer had paid some yearly renewal fee.

This changed briefly back in 2006, when ""Dynamic Generation of Program Execution Trace Files..." was listed in CIPO's database as "dead". You win some, you lose some.

Ever since, nothing has changed...until I decided on a lark to take a peek today, to find:

• EXECUTING NATIVE CODE IN PLACE OF NON-NATIVE CODE - Issued 2009-04-28

I AM AN INVENTOR!

So I decided to do a quick search of Google's Patent Database to see if it shows up there too, only to find an unexpected entry instead:

• Dynamic generation of program execution trace files in a standard markup ... - Issued 2007-07-31

...so I have been an inventor on a patent since 2007, and didn't know it. The one that was marked as dead in Canada turned out to have been issued in the US. So not only was I surprised today to find out that one of my inventions was just issued a Canadian patent, but that another one was granted a US patent nearly two years ago.

Regardless of what I might think about software patents, this is still a pretty happy day. Both of the ideas patented in these two patents are in use in the wild (and presumably without a license from IBM), and I personally hope it stays that way. I have no say over how my old employer uses these patents (I technically didn't have any say in them applying for these patents either), but it feels pretty good to have these two added feathers in my cap today. It's been a very long wait, and I had long ago given up on anything ever being granted, so this has been a rather pleasant surprise for me.

Yaz.

So, I wonder what they did this time to force Opera to only be able to open Slashdot as an RSS feed?

It was doing the same for IE8 for a little while - but that seems to be fixed. Jeez, it's like I can't read this site for 10 minutes nowadays without them trying to ruin the way I read it.

Roger Grimes makes this startling admission of public perception:

Youll often read similar recommendations to dump Microsofts Internet Explorer (I work full-time for Microsoft) and use any other browser instead. To completely protect yourself, theyll advise moving off of Microsoft Windows all together.

He goes on to make some long winded excuses and insult users in a way that's completely torn apart in the comments. His readers sanely point out that Window's endless problems have been well demonstrated. What's interesting about this article is not the same old blame the user and "popularity" excuses, it's that M$ is no longer able to pretend to the general public that "computer experts" still trust Windows. They don't and neither does anyone else any more.

I enjoy gloating, so a pair of articles, 1 and 2, from the M$ employee known as Mini Microsoft were quite enjoyable. It sucks to work for a big dumb company that's being raped by greedy and stupid people at the top of the org chart. It must suck even more at a company like M$, which long ago became a parasitic cult, loathed when people have the inclination to care. Mini's observations come through rose colored glasses, but there's no mistaking the lack of motivation and useful leadership.

He's got mood swings the size of Steve Ballmer's ego. He swings from wishing everyone well to wanting people fired, now - damn it! Desperately, he seeks a simple solution for his broken company but realizes none is can be found. This is typical of the emotional rollercoaster employees of a failing company ride.

Do you think that the concept of shared sacrifice would work at Microsoft? If it still felt like a company driven by the employees, probably so. ... if we still felt like the drive and ambition of the front-line employees shaped the company and defined it, then helping one another would make sense. But the huge growth shattered that sense of employee ownership, abetted by the abysmal Microsoft stock performance we've had since, yes, Mr. Ballmer became CEO.

Microsoft gorged itself at the buffet bar of mediocre hires. And now we're bursting at the seams and deadlocked. We are stagnant right when we have two major product releases coming in for landing ... Zero attrition. Stagnation. Organizational constipation. Nothing good comes out of that but corporate sepsis.

He proposes a crazy plan where people can move freely in the company but crashes hard the very same day. He celebrates the fifth birthday of his blog by basically saying, "I was right, M$ is stupid and hopeless. All of my efforts have been wasted."

Soon to be five years ago, I started this blog up because I felt Microsoft was a train not only off-track but also heading straight for a cliff. We were massively expanding and incapable of dealing with the exponential complexity that a fast growing Microsoft required of us. It appeared as though we were growing for growth's sake and without a particular elegant plan in mind. [twitter note: most people think they were just buying revenue to keep their stock price from collapsing.] ...

... Early 2009, we publically reached that cliff and went flying off. ... all the publicity this blog has garnered and the awkward questions it forced to be asked, none of it helped to avoid that cliff we've been steaming towards the last five years. My reality check has been cashed.

Yes Mini, you were right. Non free software quit making sense about a decade ago. Everything M$ has done since then has been to perpetuate a lie to enrich top leadership at M$, broadcast media and other fraudulent companies. Vista is non free software's crowning achievement in treacherous and disfunctional computing. Re arranging the org chart won't make Windows 7 any better. The non free software development model will never be able to provide enough resources to code production to make it competitive. This is true even if M$ were to quit wasting billions on Zune, Xbox, advertising and executive toys like the world's larges private yacht and failed private resort towns. But they won't do that any more than they will divest NBC, CNBC or any of the rest of the news organizations bought by M$, the Gates Foundation or funded by M$'s massive budget. The lies will go on till the company falls over like Enron did. M$ has entered the same death spiral it created for so many more worthy companies over the years. M$'s demise alone won't bring the owners of those other companies justice. That will take many protracted lawsuits to strip the ill gotten wealth from those who think they have gotten away with it. A country of ruined worker bees will be more than happy to see it happen.

Confidential Memo

To: Microsoft Internal
From: Walmart/Linux Taskforce: Robin Bradshaw, Christine Briggs, Mark Croft David Hoffman & Tom Perrier
CC: Rogers Weed
Date: May 16, 2006

Summary

Microtel PCs without an operating system ("naked") first started appearing on Walmart.com in CY 01. We responded by workding with Walmart.com on the language that was used to market those PCs. The focus was on "anti-piracy" messages.

The first Microtel Lindows PCs appeared on Walmart.com in June 2002. We are responding with a taskforce and coordinated efforts to understand the situation and intentions of all parties involved.

To date, there has been a lot of press about the Linux PCs selling on Walmart.com (See attached list of articles.) The media has been mixed, some telling a positive story about the Linux efforts and some pointing out the flaws in the offerings. One consisten message is that these are "substandard" PCs based on todays technology advances.

There is one critical data point we are missing: volume. Walmart will not disclose the volume of Microtel PCs they are selling, and Microtell has told us they are under a "non-disclosure agreement with Walmart." We have been working on some tactics so attempt to obtain volume estimates, but at this time, we can't confirm any numbers.

- We understand that Microtel is shipping approximately 100 units per week on Walmart.com orders.
- We understand that most of the volume is at the $199 price point.
- We understand that most of those systems are shipping with NO OS. (Naked Systems)
- We understand that there has not been a customer satisfaction issue. Walmart sets fairly strict standards for customer return rates and service calls.

The PR activity and focus from Walmart has definitely increased out efforts to understand the Linux threat on the desktop. Several Linux PCs were purchased and evaluated. See the summary of those findings below.

Linux on the Desktop

Abcdefghijklmnop.....

Microtel

Microtel is a small system builder in the City of Industry California. A couple of principles in the company came from a previous OEM Mitsuba. Microsoft filed suit against them in _____ for piracy and they went out of business. They haven't been proponents of Microsoft, their volumes haven't warrented direct account management, and we just began to engage and build a relationship with them in 2002.

We started to engage with Microtel in the beginning of FY02, but the AM was met with a closed door and had little if no success. When the Lindows issue broke, Tom Perrier (tperrier), Microsoft System Builder RSM, discovered that Rich Hindman was their VP of Sales/Marketing (from Mitsuba). Tom had worked with Rich prior at AST Computer. Tat got us in the door and Rich is open to work on the relationship with Microsoft and Tom, but isn't sharing any information regarding their plans of volume. This is a summary of his progress with Rich:

1.) Continue the engagement with Rich Hindman to focus on strategies to differentiate the offerings as Microtel introduces a new wave of SKU's. This will seperate the offerngs and focus on the added value of the Windows based systems. (Avoid the current situtation where the $299 Windows Home SKU is the same config as Lindows model but $100 more for the same model with XP Home, with no other differentiation). This can be accomplished with scenarios like the Office XP 20-Day trial (in place today).

2.) They are still very "non-disclosure" oriented. I tried and tried, but could not get Rich to divulge any shipment data. I continue to think that the shipments out of their facility in City of Industry are small. In addition, Rich would not give me any real data for the current PRM Account Profilling that we are doing.

3.) All of the conversations with Microtel are centered on growing their Microsoft business, and improving the relationship between Microtel and Microsoft. We avoid any direct conversations on Linsows.

4.) Rich realizes and states that Microtel is getting increased focus and attention based upon their offerings on the Wal-Mart.com site. He will continue to take advantage of these opportunities as they arise.

5.) In developing the relationship with the local VIA Sales Rep, Roger Goh (rogergoh), System Builder AM was able to determine that the systems built for Walmart.com are build somewhere on the east coast, and the volume is approx 1000 a week. He was not able to get the mix.

Tom has been working closely with the taskforce team and David Hoffman on driving a longer term strategy with Walmart.com. Microtel seems willing to do the implementation.

Walmart.com

Retail relationship efforts have been historically focused on Walmart corporate and not walmart.com. There is a high level of autonomy at walmart.com. They are not managed under the same guidelines and processes as Walmart corporate. They are making their own decisions about product offerings. Luke Ellison is the Technology Manager at Walmart.com. David Hofman, Microsoft HRD Account Manager, has developed a relationship with Luke. He is eager to work on some additional Microsoft programs with David, but isn't sharing too much regarding their Linux plans. This a summary of his meetings with Luke:

1.) Luke is concerned that Microsoft is mad at them for selling Linux PCs.
a. He wanted to make sure that we knew that www.wal-mart.com is very "pro-Microsoft"
b. They feel that customers that purchase Linux PCs were never a "Microsoft" customer anyway, and that by offering Linux PCs, they were broadening their customer base
c. Their goal with Lindows was to hit a very low price point - if it sold, they would keep it, if it didn't they would dump it after 90-120 days. It's selling.

2.) "Naked PCs" (no O/S) are still outselling Linux PCs (but not by much)
a. They plan to start selling Windows XP OEM (bundled with mouse) as a standalone product (technically this is legit)

3.) All the machines are build-to-order and that www.wal-mart.com carries no inventory.

4.) They are currently working on a way to offer additional software bundles with all of their PCs (like Office, Anti-Virus, etc.)

5.) He mentioned that Microtel was upset about the E-machines deal with Wal-Mart retail, but that Wal-Mart didn't think Microtel could handle being a retail partner - it was just too big of a job for them.

David is working with Walmart.com to help them promote the Windows XP PCs that are listed on walmart.com today. In an effort to differentiate the Windows XP PC from the Linux PC, we are working on a consumer software title bundle to promote as part of the purchase of the Windows XP machine.

Next Steps

1.) Continue the relationship efforts with Microtel and Walmart.com. (Tom Perrier & David Hoffman)

2.) Develop a deeper understanding of the Linux efforts at other System Builders and OEMs in the US. (Datel, ZT Group, MEI etc) (Tom Perrier & Ken Goetsch)

3.) Work with Windows Team to understand options for a Windows XP eval solution. (Mark Croft)

4.) Stay close to HP and eMachines (tow OEMs selling PCs at Walmart) to understnd their efforts and position in the account.

DRAFT

http://www.startribune.com/stories/789/3341339.html

http://mslibrary/news/elecpub/csn

http://msnbc.com/news/813350.asp

http://www.pcmag.com/print_article/0,3048,a=30914,00.asp

http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS9675669942.html

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,3973,491621,00.asp

http://newsforge.com/newsforge/02/08/22/1855237.shtml?tid=23

http://biz.yahoo.com/fo/020821/doesn t do windows 3.html

Wal-Mart Sells Windows-Less Computers
Associated Press
Silicon Valley.com

USA Today: http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/review/2002-07-17-walmart-computers x.htm

Linux finds fans at Wal-Mart
C/Net:

Sun, Lindows.com Strike Deal
Internet.com: http://www.internetnews.com/ent-news/article.php/1404731

Mandrake on Lindows
C/Net:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A35576-2002Jul20?language-printer

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentID=A35576-2002Jul20&notFound=true

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0.4149.470658.00.asp

http://www.pcmag.com/print article/0,3048,a-30914,00.asp