it's interesting to see how forward-thinking the company was 20 years ago.
If Microsoft really were forward thinking 20 years ago, they would not be having the troubles they are currently having.
I have to lift my hands from the keyboard to control stuff?
Don't worry, this is just Microsoft trying to look innovative. This, too, shall pass.
...Microsoft said it wants gestures to complement what is possible using mouse and keyboard, rather than replacing them...
Didn't Microsoft say a similar thing about the new interface in Windows 8 and the Start Menu? Yet Microsoft tried burying the Start Menu, only to be chastised by its customers for doing Yet Another Stupid Thing.
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What if Verizon succeeds in killing the Internet?
I've posted countless essays over the years on the importance of Net neutrality and how big ISPs are trying to turn the Internet into a pay-per-view system, rather than the open-access system it was always intended to be. I've written open letters to federal legislators; remarked on the various games being played by AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, and the like; and cheered Google Fiber for demonstrating that the big ISPs are full of nonsense when they claim their backs are against the wall in terms of broadband speeds and reach.
And now, Verizon is claiming it has free speech rights to limit and block content flowing from the Internet to its customers....
Management at my company seems to think that our developers can get extra work done if they work extra long days.
When I managed software engineers, I used to walk around and tell them to go home. The software engineers need the time to refresh, just as an athlete needs time to rejuvenate.
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Here's a good article on the topic.
Yet, according to IHS, client SSD annual failure rates under warranty tend to be around 1.5%, while HDDs are near 5%. So an SSDs not only outperforms, but on average outlast spinning disk."
The unknown in the equation is the length of the warranty periods for the drives used in the comparison.
potentially creating a national security headache for the government.
The Chinese, having been unable to deliver nuclear weapons via ICBMs, have now cleared that hurdle --- place the nuclear weapons within the sovereign state of the enemy with a remote control capability to blow it up at any time. What more could China ask for?
Microsoft has
Microsoft didn't even start to make the yearly Top Ten list of patent recipients until 2007. And even then it usually placed around number 3 to number 5.
Rubbish.
Huge market share, huge profit margins, huge cash reserves
When you compare fundamentals, Apple's position is far more precarious than Microsoft's. Apple relies on its "cool" factor, and cool is almost always short-lived. Microsoft has never been cool, but they have more developers, more patents and more lobbyists than any other tech company on the planet. Write them off at your peril.
I like your rose-coloured glasses.....
Huge market share
Only in old markets. How's Microsoft's marketshare in the mobile segment?
huge profit margins
Only in old markets. How's the profit margin doing for Xbox?
huge cash reserves
Agreed, but no working strategy to turn that cash reserve into viable, growing new businesses.
Microsoft has never been cool,
At one time, they were. But they lost that attribute when the 1990's ended.
they have more developers
Yup, a lot of developers without a strategic direction, but with lots of internal fighting and back-stabbing.
more patents than any other tech company on the plane
Not correct.
more lobbyists than any other tech company on the planet
Now *there's* a feature of a tech company that I would be proud of... NOT. Microsoft needs the lobyists because has lost the ability to compete in the marketplace.
Write them off at your peril.
I did not write them off. I merely said the new CEO has a tough job.
Microsoft needs to get off the teat of the Windows cash cow and look towards the future.
"Ninety percent of baseball is half mental." -- Yogi Berra