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Sarge
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Vista happened on Steve Ballmer's clock. Micro$oft has been on a downhill slope since 2001 when Gates relinquished his post as CEO to Ballmer. The guy is dreadful and should never ever been elevated to that position, every project that has been started and finished with him in charge is awful. Bill Gates needs to jump back in there and sack a bunch of people over Vista, Exchange 2007, and get these things fixed. They could fix Vista's underpinnings by removing the DRM checking subsystem, and returning to the unified driver architecture, but I guess they will never do that.
Ballmer said, when recalling his promotion to CEO: ""I restructured the company to give more decision making power to executives, and elevated people with general management experience into positions previously held by technology focused executives." That says all
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Thai Girls : Meet Sexy Thai Girls
Posted on: 9:52 am on June 5, 2008
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China Sailor
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Gates coming back is not going to happen. I am currently in Seattle on business and the word is that Gates isn't even seen in the city any more.
Like the 'robber barons' of old he is now polishing up his legacy by spending Warren Buffet's money  .
Ballmer is the man here and his big success to date is to have Microsoft fund a MLS (football) expansion team (The Seattle Sounders).
Now before y'all start with the anti-MLS comments it might be good to know that Seattle's MLS team has sold more season tickets than its NBA team (Sonics)...
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Bangkok Women : Meet Sensual Bangkok Women
Posted on: 2:16 pm on June 5, 2008
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Sarge
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Quote: from DaffyDuck on 3:28 pm on June 5, 2008
You realize why they are doing this? Every XP sale will thus be counted as a Vista sale, so Ballmer can claim tremendous success of Vista.
Bait and Switch - the tool of choice of a used car salesman!
further comment on Ballmer's con job, one can downgrade only if you buy Vista Ultimate or Business. However, if you're buying a Vista Home system and want XP, you have to first pay extra for an upgrade to Vista Business before you can downgrade back to XP. ain't funny
but hey, should we not call this marketing gimmick "degrade" to XP? oh wait..... maybe on a second thought actually is: "Buy Vista and Upgrade to XP", at least XP is an OS that works (well, sort of) and accepted by users and enterprises. One can't say the same about Vista.
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Thai Girls : Meet Sexy Thai Girls
Posted on: 10:43 pm on June 5, 2008
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DaffyDuck
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Sounds perfectly well-suited to the idiots clamoring for Vista left and right... well, just left.... well.... somewhere....
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Sexy Bangkok Girls
Posted on: 11:05 pm on June 5, 2008
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Sarge
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well lot has been said about Vista, now the focus is on BG leaving the full time job at M$. Among tons of articles written about him I came across at this little gem. It refers to the time when M$ was defending itself against the anti-trust case. Lots of internal memos, emails and transcripts were handed over to the judge and made public. One particular email sent by Bill Gates, eloquently described the frustration in using M$ software, and although it's 5 years old and the technology of that time is not relevant to these days anymore, the feeling of frustration and hopelessness of Windows users still remain intact.
Here's the infamous email:
---- Original Message ----
From: Bill Gates
Sent: Wednesday, January 15, 2003 10:05 AM
To: Jim Allchin
Cc: Chris Jones (WINDOWS) ; Bharat Shah (NT) ; Joe Peterson; Will Poole; Brian Valentine; Anoop Gupta (RESEARCH)
Subject: Windows Usability Systematic degradation flame
I am quite disappointed at how Windows Usability has been going backwards and the program management groups don't drive usability issues.
Let me give you my experience from yesterday.
I decided to download (Moviemaker) and buy the Digital Plus pack... so I went to Microsoft.com. They have a download place so I went there.
The first 5 times I used the site it timed out while trying to bring up the download page. Then after an 8 second delay I got it to come up.
This site is so slow it is unusable.
It wasn't in the top 5 so I expanded the other 45.
These 45 names are totally confusing. These names make stuff like: C:\Documents and Settings\billg\My Documents\My Pictures seem clear.
They are not filtered by the system... and so many of the things are strange.
I tried scoping to Media stuff. Still no moviemaker. I typed in movie. Nothing. I typed in movie maker. Nothing.
So I gave up and sent mail to Amir saying - where is this Moviemaker download? Does it exist?
So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated.
They told me to go to the main page search button and type movie maker (not moviemaker!).
I tried that. The site was pathetically slow but after 6 seconds of waiting up it came.
I thought for sure now I would see a button to just go do the download.
In fact it is more like a puzzle that you get to solve. It told me to go to Windows Update and do a bunch of incantations.
This struck me as completely odd. Why should I have to go somewhere else and do a scan to download moviemaker?
So I went to Windows update. Windows Update decides I need to download a bunch of controls. (Not) just once but multiple times where I get to see weird dialog boxes.
Doesn't Windows update know some key to talk to Windows?
Then I did the scan. This took quite some time and I was told it was critical for me to download 17megs of stuff.
This is after I was told we were doing delta patches to things but instead just to get 6 things that are labeled in the SCARIEST possible way I had to download 17meg.
So I did the download. That part was fast. Then it wanted to do an install. This took 6 minutes and the machine was so slow I couldn't use it for anything else during this time.
What the heck is going on during those 6 minutes? That is crazy. This is after the download was finished.
Then it told me to reboot my machine. Why should I do that? I reboot every night -- why should I reboot at that time?
So I did the reboot because it INSISTED on it. Of course that meant completely getting rid of all my Outlook state.
So I got back up and running and went to Windows Update again. I forgot why I was in Windows Update at all since all I wanted was to get Moviemaker.
So I went back to Microsoft.com and looked at the instructions. I have to click on a folder called WindowsXP. Why should I do that? Windows Update knows I am on Windows XP.
What does it mean to have to click on that folder? So I get a bunch of confusing stuff but sure enough one of them is Moviemaker.
So I do the download. The download is fast but the Install takes many minutes. Amazing how slow this thing is.
At some point I get told I need to go get Windows Media Series 9 to download.
So I decide I will go do that. This time I get dialogs saying things like "Open" or "Save". No guidance in the instructions which to do. I have no clue which to do.
The download is fast and the install takes 7 minutes for this thing.
So now I think I am going to have Moviemaker. I go to my add/remove programs place to make sure it is there.
It is not there.
What is there? The following garbage is there. Microsoft Autoupdate Exclusive test package, Microsoft Autoupdate Reboot test package, Microsoft Autoupdate testpackage1. Microsoft AUtoupdate testpackage2, Microsoft Autoupdate Test package3.
Someone decided to trash the one part of Windows that was usable? The file system is no longer usable. The registry is not usable. This program listing was one sane place but now it is all crapped up.
But that is just the start of the crap. Later I have listed things like Windows XP Hotfix see Q329048 for more information. What is Q329048? Why are these series of patches listed here? Some of the patches just things like Q810655 instead of saying see Q329048 for more information.
What an absolute mess.
Moviemaker is just not there at all.
So I give up on Moviemaker and decide to download the Digital Plus Package.
I get told I need to go enter a bunch of information about myself.
I enter it all in and because it decides I have mistyped something I have to try again. Of course it has cleared out most of what I typed.
I try (typing) the right stuff in 5 times and it just keeps clearing things out for me to type them in again.
So after more than an hour of craziness and making my programs list garbage and being scared and seeing that Microsoft.com is a terrible website I haven't run Moviemaker and I haven't got the plus package.
The lack of attention to usability represented by these experiences blows my mind. I thought we had reached a low with Windows Network places or the messages I get when I try to use 802.11. (don't you just love that root certificate message?)
When I really get to use the stuff I am sure I will have more feedback.
and here the link. Read on....
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Thai Women : Meet Matured Thai Women
Posted on: 9:28 am on June 29, 2008
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S M E G M A
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It could be interesting to read the replies he got.
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Bangkok Women : Meet Beautiful Thai Girls
Posted on: 10:39 am on June 29, 2008
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DaffyDuck
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Two things, regarding replies and reactions to that email:
a) "So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated."
b) It's 5 years later -- what has changed?
If even the very CEO, flaming the product dev team, can't get anything fixed, is it any surprise MS is where it is now?
The difference to a company like Apple is that if something like that happened with Steve Jobs, several people end up getting fired over it, Jobs cancels the entire project, throws everything out, and makes them restart from scratch.
The problem with MS is that even if you piss off your own CEO, there is no accountability, and there are no consequences for failure.
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Attractive Thai Girls
Posted on: 11:24 am on June 29, 2008
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Sarge
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Steve (Jobs) be afraid, be very afraid! Steve (the monkey) is staging a come back and plans to tell the world how wonderful Vista is. He's fed up with of all your Get a Mac  campaigns, soon he'll fight back. In an effort to differentiate itself from Apple and to further cement the notion that Windows Vista is not simply a clone of Mac OS X, is naming its new campaign Get a PC 
Apart from the obvious sarcastic comments that this initiative is going to bring on them, one particular throwaway phrase struck me:
"Software out there is made to be compatible with your whole life."
What does that mean? Is that a new M$ speak for giz your dosh pals?
These people are putting out there contradictory messages, on one hand they want to promote Vista as damage limitation but on the other hand Ballmer touts how great it is by allowing users to downgrade to XP. Buying the upgrade to Vista, to be allowed to reinstall XP. It's like if Jobs would say to its customers, buy Leopard OSX 10.5 and then downgrade to Cheetah OSX 10.0 555 lol
well, lemme help 'em with a choice of new slogans promoting Windows Vista -
"Hello I'm Vista!" (a Yuppie wearing shades and dressed in striped suit, sitting in dark office overlooking Wall Street)
"Try me, over 500 less bugs than XP had at launch"
"I run faster on a MAC but on a PC it allows you to drink a coffee in between clicks"
"If your PC freezes headbutt the keyboard to continue"
"Blue Screen = end of your Vista session; wanna switch to OSX?"
"I'm available in Basic, Home, Premium, Business, and Ultimate version. I'm better than ever! Our new overpricing structure will you leave bamboozled for choice. If you pay me high enough I'll let you downgrade to my previous incarnation"
"VISTA Shit Happens!"
and here is the full article, if you don't want to click the link:
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Microsoft Admits Windows Vista Mistakes, Criticizes Apple Ads
Microsoft is now acknowledging it screwed up with its initial launch of Windows Vista, and is ready to try again.
"We broke a lot of things. We know that, and we know it caused you a lot of pain. It got customers thinking, hey, is Windows Vista a generation we want to get invested in?" So Brad Brooks, Microsoft's VP of Windows Vista consumer marketing, fessed up publicly this week.
Speaking at a keynote address at Microsoft's annual Worldwide Partner Conference, Brooks signified that Microsoft was ready to admit mistakes and reposition itself to tell a better story about Windows Vista, to counter attacks by rival Apple and let customers know that Vista is finally stable and ready.
"You thought the sleeping giant was still sleeping, well we woke it up and it's time to take our message forward," Brooks said. "We've faced these challenges before, and we're going to solve them again. There's a conversation going on in the marketplace today and it's just plain awful. We've got to get back on the front foot."
He pointed to selected negative quotes from Windows XP's first year as evidence that operating system launches can often be rocky.
In the coming weeks and months, Microsoft will launch a huge advertising campaign that's been reported to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Microsoft advertised Vista to small businesses in The Wall Street Journal and USA Today the last two weeks, and plans a much larger wave of ads under the tagline "Free the People." Brooks gave a taste of what's coming with a few swipes at Apple and some selected highlights of Windows Vista's features.
"We've got a pretty noisy competitor out there," Brooks said of Apple whose "I'm a Mac... and I'm a PC," commercials criticize Windows Vista. "You know it. I know it. It's caused some impact. We're going to start countering it. They tell us it's the iWay or the highway. We think that's a sad message. Software out there is made to be compatible with your whole life."
As part of that compatibility message, Microsoft will work to reverse the widely held belief, informed by early troubles upon the operating system's launch, that Vista isn't compatible with many applications and devices.
The company says 77,000 devices are compatible with Windows Vista today (double the number when the operating system launched) as well as 99% of the major business applications. The company has launched two Web sites, Windows Vista Small Business Assurance and the Windows Vista Compatibility Center, to help turn these perceptions around.
"Windows Vista is an investment in the long term," Brooks said. "When you make the investment into Windows Vista, it's going to pay it forward into the operating system we call Windows 7." All the more reason, Brooks said, to upgrade to Windows Vista sooner than later. Whether this message will find sympathetic ears, it's unclear. Even close partners like Intel are resisting en masse upgrades to Vista, and analyst firms have found a large number of companies claiming they'll wait until Windows 7.
Microsoft also intends to talk up Windows Vista's upgraded security, including features like BitLocker Encryption. According to Microsoft, Windows Vista had fewer than half the security vulnerabilities Windows XP had in its first year. Brooks even made a bold claim that Windows Vista was the most secure commercial operating system ever in its first year of release, and said "you don't hear Apple saying that," though he didn't lay out the evidence for that claim.
It appears that Microsoft will also frame Windows as "a kind of language," as that's how Brooks referred to it in his keynote. "There are over a billion users using it today," he said. "It's bigger than Mandarin Chinese, bigger than English, and like those it connects people. That's what Windows started, that's what Windows delivers today, that's where we're going.
Overall, the message Microsoft hopes to impart is that Windows Vista is ready, and that Microsoft will no longer take a back seat while word of mouth and Apple drive negative messaging about the company and Windows. It's a necessary step for Microsoft, and one the company should have taken the lead on before, rather than waiting until negativity became pervasive. Nevertheless, Microsoft is finally starting to come around to the fact that it can't just sit back and let others define it.
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apparently there are whispers that Steve "the monkey" Ballmer is working secretly on a killer product: ZunePhone. That should do Apple in once for all. lol
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Thai Women : Meet Matured Thai Women
Posted on: 10:21 pm on July 8, 2008
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DaffyDuck
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Unsurprisingly, Microsoft has become one big comedy routine under the leadership of Steve Ballmer -- and Bill Gates has proven his actual genius by bailing out at more or less the height of his success, and leaving Steve Ballmer to both both sink the ship, as well as stay with the sinking ship.
Gates may be many things, but he's not a dumb man.
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Attractive Thai Girls
Posted on: 11:26 pm on July 8, 2008
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