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Sarge
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Steve 'the monkey' has gone one better, here an email he sent to M$ employees:
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From: Steve Ballmer
Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2008 4:30 PM
To: Microsoft–All Employees
Subject: FY09 Strategic Update
With FY08 complete, I want to discuss my priorities for the year ahead and share my thoughts about the key strategic topics that are on everybody’s mind, including Windows, competition with Apple and Google, our software plus services strategy, and Yahoo.
I also have news about an organizational change and a transition in our Senior Leadership Team.
First, I want to thank you for your hard work and the dedication you showed during the past 12 months. FY08 was a milestone year. Our revenue jumped $9.3 billion to more than $60 billion. Operating profit grew 21 percent to $22.5 billion.
These outstanding numbers are the direct result of your commitment to the priorities I outlined last July. A lot has happened since then, but our fundamental strengths, challenges, and strategic goals remain largely the same. Therefore, my priorities are consistent with last year. In FY09 we must continue to:
1. Invest in the right opportunities;
2. Expand our presence with Windows, Office, and developers;
3. Drive end user excitement for our products;
4. Embrace software plus services; and
5. Focus on employee excellence.
By focusing on these five areas, we can continue to grow revenue, increase profit, and expand our market share. These priorities are also critical as we work to address key issues surrounding our business in the coming year:
· Windows: The success of Windows is our number one job. With SP1 and the work we’ve done with PC manufacturers and our software ecosystem, we’ve addressed device and application compatibility issues in Windows Vista. Now it’s time to tell our story. In the weeks ahead, we’ll launch a campaign to address any lingering doubts our customers may have about Windows Vista. And later this year, you’ll see a more comprehensive effort to redefine the meaning and value of Windows for our customers.
We also have to drive developers to create rich applications for Windows. With Internet Explorer and Silverlight, we have great tools for creating applications that run everywhere. But we also need to make sure developers have the.NET skills to write unique Windows applications using Windows Presentation Foundation. To keep today’s Windows applications alive, vibrant, and exciting, we need both—applications that run everywhere and rich client applications.
· Apple: In the competition between PCs and Macs, we outsell Apple 30-to-1. But there is no doubt that Apple is thriving. Why? Because they are good at providing an experience that is narrow but complete, while our commitment to choice often comes with some compromises to the end-to-end experience. Today, we’re changing the way we work with hardware vendors to ensure that we can provide complete experiences with absolutely no compromises. We’ll do the same with phones—providing choice as we work to create great end-to-end experiences.
· Business and enterprise: Our enterprise and server business has never been stronger—today we are on the verge of becoming the number one enterprise software company. We need to continue to push on all fronts—mail with Exchange, business intelligence with PerformancePoint, virtualization with Hyper-V, and databases with SQL Server. We have to drive our enterprise search capabilities, our unified communications solutions, and our collaboration technologies. And we must continue to compete against Linux in key workloads such as Web servers and high performance computing.
· Software plus services: Some people think software plus services is all about search. But it’s really about changing the way software is written and deployed. The future is about having a platform in the cloud and delivering applications across PCs, phones, TVs, and other devices, at work and in the home. It’s also about driving change in business models through advertising, subscriptions, and online transactions. Software plus services is a huge opportunity for us to deliver new value on the desktop and the server to all of our customers. This year at PDC, you’ll hear more about our cloud platform initiatives and the next versions of our Live and Online technologies.
· Google: We continue to compete with Google on two fronts—in the enterprise, where we lead; and in search, where we trail. In search, our technology has come a long way in a very short time and it’s an area where we’ll continue to invest to be a market leader. Why? Because search is the key to unlocking the enormous market opportunities in advertising, and it is an area that is ripe for innovation. In the coming years, we’ll make progress against Google in search first by upping the ante in R&D through organic innovation and strategic acquisitions. Second, we will out-innovate Google in key areas—we’re already seeing this in our maps and news search. Third, we are going to reinvent the search category through user experience and business model innovation. We’ll introduce new approaches that move beyond a white page with 10 blue links to provide customers with a customized view of their world. This is a long-term battle for our company—and it’s one we’ll continue to fight with persistence and tenacity.
· Yahoo: Related to Google and our search strategy are the discussions we had with Yahoo. I want to emphasize the point I’ve been making all along—Yahoo was a tactic, not a strategy. We want to accelerate our share of search queries and create a bigger pool of advertisers, and Yahoo would have helped us get there faster. But we will get there with or without Yahoo. We have the right people, we’ve made incredible progress in our technology, and we’ll continue to make smart investments that will enable us to build an industry-leading business.
As I mentioned earlier, I have important organizational news. Today we are announcing that the Platforms and Services Division will be split into two businesses: Windows/Windows Live and Online Services. We are also announcing that Kevin Johnson will leave the company. He will work to ensure a smooth transition.
Since 1992, Kevin has been a key contributor to many of this company’s most important achievements. As president of the Platforms and Services Division, Kevin has built an incredibly talented organization and laid the foundation for the future success of Windows and our Online Services Business. Over the last 16 years, through everything from his work as head of the company’s worldwide sales, marketing, and services efforts, to his leadership in transforming our field operations and repositioning the company to focus on opportunities in emerging markets, Kevin has played a vital role in this company’s success. There is no doubt that his passion and dedication will be missed.
Effective immediately, Steven Sinofsky, Jon DeVaan, and Bill Veghte will report directly to me to lead Windows/Windows Live. In the Online Services Business, we will create a new senior leadership position and conduct a search that will span internal and external candidates. In the meantime, Satya Nadella will continue to lead Microsoft’s search, ad platform, and MSN engineering efforts, and Brian McAndrews will continue to lead the Advertiser and Publisher Solutions Group. Both Windows/Windows Live and the Online Services Business are led by a strong group of executives on the technical and business side who have the talent and experience to address the challenges we face and drive the next generation of growth and success.
Looking ahead, I see an incredibly bright future for our company. As I said at the June 27th Town Hall for Bill, we are the best in the world at doing software and nobody should be confused about this. It doesn’t mean that we can’t improve, but nobody is better than we are. Nobody works harder than we do. Nobody is more tenacious than we are. We’re investing more broadly and more seriously than anybody else. Our opportunities to change the world have never been greater.
I look forward to working with all of you as we focus on our five priorities in FY09.
Steve
courtesy of All Things Digital
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I can't wait to get the M$phone and then keep on buying the anti-cell phone virus software every month 
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Thai Girls : Meet Sexy Thai Girls
Posted on: 4:30 am on July 25, 2008
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DaffyDuck
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Like I said - this kind of stuff just writes itself. You couldn't make this up, even if you tried.
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Bangkok Women : Meet Sensual Bangkok Women
Posted on: 7:40 am on July 25, 2008
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tezza
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I guess when you stand back and think about it when you buy a new computer with a Microsoft Operating System such as Vista, with a pre-installed 90 day free trial of an anti-virus application like Nortons or McAfee, Microsoft is admitting...
‘You have bought a brand new product from us that is defective because we can’t guarantee it will work on the chance someone exploits our ‘security measures’. And by the way as soon as you accept our ‘terms & agreements’ box you have no legal comeback ‘
If a bank said they may not be able to guarantee your money is held safely because of possible security flaws would you deposit your money with them?
Like 99.9% of the products available on the World market today, try that one on & your business will be out of business in 1 month
I guess I’m pissed off because my new Vista Service Pack 1 has not fixed any problems I have with the Operating System – probably only the ‘behind the scenes’ security flaws that have being exploited since it was released
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Thai Girls : Meet Sexy Thai Girls
Posted on: 12:56 am on July 31, 2008
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DaffyDuck
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But it gets better.... I guess those 300 million are already being put to good use - first, time to insult our core customers...
From the “Our Customers Are Stupid and Have No Idea What They Really Want” dept. in Redmond:
http://wilshipley.com/blog/2008/07/mojave-experiment-bad-science-bad.html
“The Mojave Experiment:” Bad Science, Bad Marketing
I guess I should first admit I hate the show Punk’d. I mean, here’s a guy who is famous for lying about his age so he seems hipper, telling us that his show’s purpose it to deflate the big egos on other stars, and show them what truly matters in life. So he sets up situations where anyone would get upset, and then laughs when he upsets people. I call *cough*bullshit*cough*. (Also *cough*jerkface*cough*.)
So I have to admit I’m not predisposed to like The Mojave Experiment, where Microsoft took a bunch of “regular folks” XP users who were afraid of Vista, and told them Microsoft was going to show them a secret new operating system — which was actually Vista.
UNSURPRISINGLY, these people mostly said they liked Vista.
Now, if you read this blog, you know I pretty much hate Microsoft, because of their incredibly shady business practices (moreso in the early 1990s) and their shoddy products, most especially their operating systems, whose crappy user experience and programmer interfaces hold back the advance of technology. However, I’m not going to rail on Vista here. Seriously, I’m not.
What I am going to rail on is this “experiment.” (I use that word advisedly.)
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I hate bad science. Hate it. Hate. So let’s look at not one, not two, but FOUR, yes FOUR (ah-ah-ah!) key flaws in this experiment, any single one of which would render its results meaningless:
• The Placebo Effect: Every time I do a software release, no matter how minor, even if I just change one word, in French, to another French word, someone will send me mail or post on a forum, “Thanks, this release seems a lot faster!” Do I make fun of them? Or videotape them and put it on a blog? No. Because it’s just human nature. If we are told something is new-and-improved, we prime ourselves to believe it (c.f. Blink by Malcolm Gladwell, which I’ll refer to again in a bit) and make it so in our minds.
This is why we have, for example, blind taste tests: because humans are proven to not be able make dispassionate judgments about subjects they already know about. So, if you say to someone, “Hey, I’m giving you a top-secret peek at a new operating system from Microsoft, you’re incredibly lucky and special, and I really value your opinion!” of COURSE they are going to like it. They almost can’t not like it.
• The Pepsi Challenge Effect: “The Pepsi Challenge” was a blind taste test that Pepsi overwhelmingly won (again, from Blink). Yet, most people still drink Coke. Why? Gladwell’s thesis is that a single sip of a soft drink is very different from drinking a whole can, which is the smallest unit most people imbibe. Pepsi usually wins the challenge because it's a sweeter drink, and initially people respond to this extra sweetness. But after drinking a can, Pepsi becomes cloying.
So, here I am, sat down in front of Mojave-err-Vista, and all I've ever used is XP. Well, look, nobody is doubting the graphics are prettier in Vista. It looks nice compare to XP (it should — they hired the guy who designed Aqua for Mac OS X).
I play with Mojave, and, yes, some system tasks are easier. Again, nobody doubts there are things that work much better. When I plug my iSight camera into Vista it shows up as a device and offers to let me take pictures in the Vista Explorer thingy. That’s kind of cool! Hey, I kind of like Mojave-nee-Vista!
Except, those glossy features aren’t why people downgrade from Vista to XP. Those are not the reason people hate on Vista!
Now, again, look — I don’t use Vista or XP for anything but games. I liked using Vista better, until the new UFO (X-Com) game that I had played great on XP, and wouldn’t launch at all on Vista. Then I bailed. That’s my story. There are apparently hundreds of others.
You, personally, may never have encountered a piece of hardware or an app that didn’t work on Vista, and you might be perfectly happy with it. I’m not going to try to argue you out of that happiness. My point is that the problems that Vista has become famous for are not the kinds of problems you encounter in a few minutes of playing with it in a controlled environment.
Vista is known for people initially liking it, then after a while discovering it’s not working for them, and “downgrading” to XP. This study has told us exactly what we already knew: that, initially, people like Vista. (Initially, people like having sex without condoms, too... it’s simply not a very good criterion all by itself.)
• The Perfectly Controlled Environment Effect: Microsoft set up the hardware. Microsoft brought the accessories. Microsoft picked the software. Microsoft sat people down with Vista experts driving the mouse, and walked people through Vista. What an INCREDIBLE SHOCKER that in this INCREDIBLY TIGHTLY CONTROLLED ENVIRONMENT Vista performed OK!
Microsoft had set up an environment with a philosophy similar to Apple’s: “Look, we work well with this hardware and software, and too bad if you want something different.” Unfortunately, that’s NOT why people choose Windows. They hack together their own machines, and they want their software to still run.
Did any of these customers bring in their favorite games and try to play them? Did they bring in their graphics tablets and discover they fail?
Did any of the test machines ever say, “Oh, I’m sorry, Windows Genuine Advantage has determined that you may be running an invalid copy of Windows, so please jump through these hoops or we’ll disable some of your hardware”? I’m going to guess no. But I’ve seen this message a lot. And I own three valid licenses to Windows.
• The Personal Tutor Effect: If you sit anyone down with an expert in a particular program, and the expert walks them through the features and answers their every question, chances are good that person is going to report that she had a good experience with the program. Very good, indeed.
Personal training is so important to customer experience that Apple thinks of it as a key asset of its Apple Stores. But Microsoft doesn’t have Apple Stores in real life. Or any analog. It’s you and a box with a holographic sticker on it. Good luck!
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Microsoft has managed to prove that if you have a friendly expert on a controlled machine (with Vista pre-installed) showing a carefully selected subset of Vista features to an ignorant XP user for a few minutes, the XP user will often say he finds Vista acceptable. Wow.
This so-called experiment of Microsoft’s is an insult to science, and to our intelligence. And I am dying to see the out-takes from their shoot. I mean, how many people do you suppose like being told, “Hey, this giant, unpopular monopolistic software company just made an ass out of you! Ha ha! Our leading scienticians just PROVED that you LOVE VISTA and WANT TO MARRY IT. You are TOTALLY GAY for Vista! Haaaaaaa HAAAAAAA!”
Vista may or may not be an upgrade in user experience for most Windows customers. I personally prefer the feel of Vista over XP when the former works as well as the latter, but Vista has failed me on several occasions, and I also don’t enjoy running games MORE slowly than XP.
I've got to imagine that the Microsoft customers who took all the damn time to upgrade their machines to Vista, determined it was unworkable, and then had to take all the time to go BACK to XP, probably did so for a reason, possibly even a valid reason, and not because they had been swayed by bad word-of-mouth. I further imagine that these customers are completely livid at having Microsoft not say, “Oh, sorry, we’ll get right on those bugs,” but, instead, “You’re just stupidly following the crowd, and if you’d just free your mind up, you’ll discover you actually love Vista... hater.”
Is “Our Customers Are Stupid and Have No Idea What They Really Want” really Microsoft’s new mantra?
Again, wow.
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Sexy Bangkok Girls
Posted on: 10:32 am on July 31, 2008
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DaffyDuck
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They are good. Man, they are good:
http://www.microsoft-watch.com/content/marketing/why_the_mojave_experiment_fails.html
Why the 'Mojave Experiment' Fails
News Commentary. I rarely so suddenly turnabout about an opinion or analysis about Microsoft. But I can admit being wrong.
The "Mojave Experiment" is conceptually a fresh marketing effort—at least for such a lame marketer as Microsoft. But after looking more closely at Mojave and reviewing Microsoft Watch reader comments, I have to call the experiment perhaps the worst kind of marketing.
I apologize to readers. I got caught up in the Microsoft glow after so many months of marketing darkness. Did I drink Microsoft Kool-Aid? Sadly, yes. The reasons why the Mojave Experiment fails should have been obvious. They are:
1. Microsoft treats its customers like they're stupid. I've had this complaint for a decade. Wizards perhaps best personify the attitude. Microsoft compels customers to go through long and unnecessary step-by-step processes to set up something. It's click, click, click, click, click, click, click, where one or two clicks should be enough. The iPod model is an example of the right approach. The end user plugs in the device and it begins loading music.
Microsoft takes an infantile approach, of holding the end user's hands, like a parent with a child learning to walk. But Microsoft doesn't let go—doesn't let Windows users grow up. Microsoft's handholding holds them down.
The marketing campaign presumes that people are too stupid to see how great is Windows Vista.
"Telling the customer that they have been stupid is a great way to get business," wrote commenter Ken Houghton. "Especially the customer who then goes to her Corporate IT department and says, 'Gee, I see people saying Vista is a great OS?' and is then told that there are no plans to roll it out this decade." Or maybe if that person works in the IT, they're fired for seeming to be so stupid or having given out bad advice.
2. Microsoft embarrasses Mojave participates. Continuing on the stupid theme is how Microsoft finally gets that "ah-ha" or "wow" reaction to Windows Vista. As I said yesterday, "I am wrong" isn't the best emotion to elicit about a product. Nobody likes being shown they're wrong or for it to be insinuated that they're stupid. "Wow, I feel like an idiot" is light years removed from "Wow, this is a great product."
Good marketing campaigns tout product benefits, show how the product will make the buyer's life easier. There's nothing aspirational or good feeling about making someone look foolish or stupid.
Last night, I watched Monday's "Saving Grace" from a DVR recording. To my surprise, Apple had two separate iPhone ads in the program. Right now, iPhone 3G is one of the hottest products on the planet. The hype alone, propagated by blogs, mainstream media and word of mouth, is like billions of dollars in free advertising. Yet Apple chooses to advertise on TV, to spend hundreds of millions more to tell its story.
What story does Microsoft choose to tell about Vista after about 15 months of silence: You the customer are too stupid to see how great is Windows Vista. Wow, that's brilliant marketing, guys.
3. The marketing campaign blames customers for Vista's problems. It's easy for Microsoft to say that bloggers, reviewers, forum posts and even Apple advertising are major reasons for negative perceptions about Windows Vista. But the blogs and reviews are negative for a reason. Many advanced users don't like Windows Vista. Problem: Mojave doesn't really blame them directly but the people in the videos. Everybody else is the problem with Vista but Vista.
There's presumption here that there's nothing wrong with the operating system. This was a consistent theme coming from Microsoft executives during last week's Financial Analyst Meeting and the Worldwide Partner Conference two weeks ago: Vista is OK now; Service Pack 1 has come to the rescue.
Oh? Then why are so many customers still asking for Windows XP? And why are so many OEM partners aggressively pushing XP over Vista when that means, after June 30, shipping two Windows licenses on new PCs? Something's wrong here that is much bigger than negative perceptions.
"The first step in fixing a problem is admitting that you have one. The only way to read this campaign is that Microsoft considers Vista's failure to be due to customer ignorance rather than failings of the product itself," wrote commenter Phil. "Either fix the product, or lower the cost to make it a justifiable purchase."
Microsoft isn't good at fixing some of its problems. On the one hand, the company's corporate culture is self-deprecating, in a fairly positive way. Company execs can laugh at themselves. But this "It's not my fault," blame the customer or partner attitude is pervasive. Microsoft treats many customers and partners with contempt. Licensing polices are great example, but that's topic for another blog.
4. Microsoft denies there is a real problem. Contempt and blaming relate to corporate cultural denial. Microsoft's way of deflecting fault is to look ahead. Microsoft messaging consistently is that the next version will be better. It's "Let's look to the future," when the problem is now.
The company will spend billions of dollars on research and development for future products but barely a fraction of that promoting its existing stuff. It's the same "tomorrow will be better thinking" that denies problems now and arrogantly presumes research is the only way to make things better.
When it comes to advertising, Microsoft is the worst kind of cheapskate. Microsoft should spend a whole lot less on R&D for the future and lots more now selling its products' benefits. Microsoft does advertise. Its TV commercials are about corporate vision, about how people will achieve their dreams. They're arrogant commercials. They're feel good for Microsoft, rather than feel good for customers, by showing them how the company's products could make life better.
5. Mojave seethes with arrogance. Microsoft's stated Mojave Experiment hypothesis: "If people could see Windows Vista firsthand, they would like it." The real hypothesis: If we trick people, they will see just how stupid they are.
From conception to execution, Mojave carries a strong undercurrent of arrogance: We're smart. You're stupid. The mechanism of tricking customers, who were specifically chosen because they had strong negative attitudes about Vista, is hugely arrogant. Microsoft says that "Hardy har har har, we're better than you."
There's already a perception of arrogance about Microsoft, and now company marketing executives want to reinforce it? Who's really being dumb and dumber here?
If the Mojave Experiment is example of what Microsoft spent $300 million on to promote Vista, bad is going to get much worse.
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Thai Women : Meet Matured Thai Women
Posted on: 10:56 am on July 31, 2008
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China Sailor
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It was reported today that IE 8 (beta) has been released.
It contains a grunch of new features including Private Browsing (yes iDuck, I know Safari has this already) which would be great for browsing pussy sites.
On the other hand I understand that it's performance, albeit better than IE 7, is still crappy on Vista and XP.
Dunno about y'all but I am gonna stick with IE 6...
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Bangkok Women : Meet Beautiful Thai Girls
Posted on: 6:10 am on Aug. 28, 2008
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DaffyDuck
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Quote: from China Sailor on 8:45 pm on Aug. 28, 2008
It contains a grunch of new features including Private Browsing (yes iDuck, I know Safari has this already) which would be great for browsing pussy sites.
Yep, or just use Safari (which is out on Windows as well, you know...?)
Quote: from China Sailor on 8:45 pm on Aug. 28, 2008
On the other hand I understand that it's performance, albeit better than IE 7, is still crappy on Vista and XP.
In all fairness, it's a beta, so I don't expect good performance -- on the other hand, it's a PUBLIC beta, which for MS means they are trying to dazzle the masses with all the shiny...
I don't expect performance to improve, though. On Apple's softare, with each revision, existing software and operating systems get faster; with Microsoft's, increasing bloat renders them slower.
Quote: from China Sailor on 8:45 pm on Aug. 28, 2008
Dunno about y'all but I am gonna stick with IE 6...
I'll just stick with Safari, on both platforms. I like 2x faster than IE.
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Attractive Thai Girls
Posted on: 8:13 am on Aug. 28, 2008
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Mr Alan
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Quote: from China Sailor on 9:45 am on Aug. 28, 2008
Dunno about y'all but I am gonna stick with IE 6...
IE6 works fine for me.
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Thai Girls : Meet Active Thai Girls
Posted on: 8:28 am on Aug. 28, 2008
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China Sailor
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Quote: from DaffyDuck on 11:48 pm on Aug. 28, 2008
Yep, or just use Safari (which is out on Windows as well, you know...?)
If I dump IE6 I will move to Mozilla. Hell, whenever I bill SUN (one of my clients) I can only log into their Payments System on Mozilla anyway.
I understand that Mozilla will release a new browser with private browsing in the near future.... I can wait...
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Thai Women : Meet Matured Thai Women
Posted on: 9:04 am on Aug. 28, 2008
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DaffyDuck
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Private Browsing (now that Safari had it for one year) is one of those 'me too' features that is relatively useless, except in an office environment.
Thus, considering that MS claims that the Enterprise is their main client, and Apple targets consumers, I find it oddly surprising that MS never thought that maybe this would be a good feature -- until Apple did it, and MS can 'innovate' (*cough* copy *cough*) again.
Hey, Enjoy IE - you deserve it!
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Attractive Thai Girls
Posted on: 9:51 am on Aug. 28, 2008
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