Cameron's Brain

Microsoft tried to hire Eric Raymond

Old news (Sept 9) but I missed it until today. Found it on Doc's blog. A recruiter from Microsoft sent Eric S Raymond, the Godfather of the Open Source movement, an email suggesting they set up a time to chat about Eric having a career at Redmond. If you haven't already, read Eric's email response. I went looking on Scoble's blog for his reaction but can't find any mention of it. The guy Eric mentions who left Microsoft after talking to him about open source, Stephen Walli, has a blog and provides his side of the story here. He makes this acute observation:

In discussions with friends about the article, it was observed that the type of people leaving now are the sort that question everything and aren't willing to take "no" for an answer.  Essentially, these are the sort of people that made the company what it is, and exactly the sort that can't be happy in what it's become.

 

I never worked in Redmond but I can relate to his frustrations. The Australian Microsoft operation is very similar. It's hard to get time with the folks at the top who can make decisions and there are lots of layers of padding between them and the people on the street. Lots of spreadsheet jockeys covering their asses and "managing upwards". Lots of great people though and none of them "evil" (a few of them clinically insane perhaps, but not John Carpenter evil). It was a great 6 years but I'm having so much more fun now than it's not even comparable. I think it took me a year to get used to being able to just do things without having to check in with five middle managers first.

That's not to say the company isn't turning out some cool shit. XBOX360. TABLET PC. POCKET PC. MEDIA CENTER. Four cool products at one time is nothing to sneeze at.

First impressions of Microsoft Office12

I've just been watching Scoble's interview with Julie Larson-Green on Channel 9 where she demonstrates the PDC build of Microsoft Office12. Despite Robert's aurgasms, I don't get the big deal.

Yes - it's prettier, and that's nice. I like pretty as much as the next person. The general tone of the demo reminded me of Windows ME. WinME was prettier than Windows 95 too. Remember what a great product Windows ME was!? Yeah... right. Now, of course, MS did much better when they gave us the prettiness of WinME combined with the stability of WinXP.

So, my question for Microsoft, is this:
How will forking out the money for this product/upgrade make my life significantly better?

To be specific:

• Will this product save me significant time and/or effort and/or money every day?
  • Is it more stable?
  • Will Outlook toolbars stop failing and crashing?
    
  • Is it faster?
  • Does it help me share information seamlessly with my colleauges and my customers?
  • Does it have RSS integrated?
    

The "ribbon" is nice, but I don't believe Julie's demo indicated that it is really going to address the main concerns I listed above.

Example:
ACTIVEWORDS gave me an exponential productivity boost.
RSS Readers have me an exponential productivity boost.

Will Office12 give me an exponential productivity boost?

I like pretty. I love the OSX interface. But software is about more than being pretty, right?

Now, perhaps Office12 will make my life significantly better, but I just didn't see it presented that way in Julie's video.

Final point - I love what Robert is doing with Channel 9. Simply shot, no frills, but it bloody works. This is the future kids.

Microsoft Max flops

Microsoft released the beta of "Max" today. What is it? Well despite fluffy marketing-speak on their website like...

Microsoft® Codename Max is not like any other product. That's because it's not a product—it's your opportunity to try an exciting new user experience from Microsoft. Today Max lets you make lists of your photos and turn them into beautiful slide shows to share with your family and friends. Tomorrow...who knows?

... it looks and sounds like a photo app. Make that ANOTHER photo app. How many photo apps has Microsoft put out in the last 5 years?

Early user reports aren't positive. Alex Saunders (another ex-Softie) had this to say about his experience:

Installation is a lengthy process.  Downloading Avalon and Indigo takes time.  For me, the process required a reboot, and then failed on restart.  I had to locate the shortcut on my desktop to continue.

Loading the software is slow.  Once loaded, the beautiful UI is not completely intuitive.  You create "lists" of photos to share with others.  Using your passport, you create an account, and then you can share the photos.

Slide shows are beautiful streamed slide shows, with large full colour images quickly rendered, even from a web site.

What’s not to like?

• Well, I mentioned the speed. I run a 2 Ghz Athlon processor with 512M of memory, and an ATI Radeon 9200 video card.  Max grinds my PC to a halt.  If this is the future of Windows, then I will be upgrading every PC in my house.
• Half of my family runs Macintosh.  How do I share photos with them?
• How do I tag photos?  The feature seems non-existant.
• Did I mention that it’s slow?

Final analysis:  Not enough meat on the bone.  It’s very pretty, but both Flickr and Picasa are more functional.

Based on Alec's review and the others I read on Google BlogSearch, I think I'll pass for now.

Frank's shirt

At Tech Ed I asked Frank Arrigo to tell me the story about his shirt. Watch the video.

Tech Ed Australia 2005 is done and dusted

Well it's been a crazy week up here on Queensland's Gold Coast, with the TPN team producing 80+ videos. Many of them are up already on Microsoft's Tech Ed site and the rest will be up over the next few days. Shooting a bunch of short videos wasn't at all what I had in mind when Mick, Frank Arrigo and I first started workshopping this project a few months ago, but a bunch of Microsoft people got involved and it kind of morphed into something very different from what we had originally planned. I guess that's to be expected. (think of the money think of the money think of the money) Lots of stories to tell ya. Seeing the looks on faces of former Microsoft colleagues when they saw me walking around a Microsoft event was classic. Especially the looks from some of the Microsoft middle managers.... it was like a combination of "what are YOU doing here??!" and "SECURITY!!!"...  We got taken to some skanky bars around Surfers Paradise.... I saw things I'd rather forget... Mick got into several heated arguments with security guards at MOVIEWORLD last night while he was trying to shoot video of people on rides at the Microsoft party... they wanted to kick him out... my nephew Chris, who was up here editing video for us, did a great job and got to see what's behind doors A through C. We didn't get to door D... this time... another highlight was my five-hour come-one-come-all debate from 10pm until 3am one night with a handful of fundamentalist Christian creationists who made outlandish statements like "there is no evidence to support the theory of evolution" to "there is more independent evidence to support the existence of Jesus Christ than any other figure in history" to "NASA have proven that the Earth stopped rotating for a full day proving the "Joshua's long day" story in the Bible"... but then couldn't back any of those statements up when I drilled them... I also managed to squeeze in some fun G'DAY WORLD recordings, including a "BLOGGING v JOURNALISM" argument with some of Australia's top IT journalists (and you'll hear one of them throw a tanty) and one with hot Aussie game developers TEAM DYSTOPIA. I also asked guys like QLD MVP Angus Logan and Elon Aizenstros from UWS why people should buy Microsoft CMS instead of just using a blogging engine... and you'll get to hear their answers... another highlight was sitting through the presentation by Betsy Aoki from Microsoft on podcasting where she didn't mention TPN even once... even though I was sitting there podcasting the session!!! We woz snubbed.... (think of the money think of the money think of the money) another highlight was watching the Australian HALO 2 champ, Dean Loaney, play all-comers and kick their asses big time. I thought I'd seen some good HALO players, but this guy is totally sick.

But the top highlight? The really REALLY nice and comfortable FLUORO YELLOW 100% Polyester shirts Microsoft had made for us.... nothing like running around Queensland in a hot convention centre wearing 100% polyester... thanks guys... (think of the money think of the money think of the money)

My Tech-Ed 2005 photos

Yup, I'm up on the Gold Coast for Microsoft Tech-Ed 2005.
Check out my photo diary here.

Last night we went to the world's nastiest RSL for dinner... Chuck Sterling's idea... he ain't getting to pick any more venues, that's fer shure.

Steve Ballmer remixed

ah shit. This extended video of SteveB doing his thing on stage really makes me a bit homesick for the ol' Microsoft days. I sat through at least half a dozen of Steve's "performances" over the years and I was always simultaneously amused, inspired and embarrassed. It's hard not to have a soft spot for a billionaire software CEO who is prepared to get halfway through a heart-attack to wake his troops up after they've been sitting on their asses in an internal conference for several days. And then he would start talking... and talking... and talking... I remember the MGB of 1998 in New Orleans where Steve started about 11pm at night and was still talking at 2am... and as much as he looks like a bit of a buffoon in these videos, when you're in the middle of it... I don't care how much of a cynic you are (and believe me, I'm one of the biggest), you'll feel good about SOMETHING.

(Thanks to Tony Harris for the link!)

Yahoo buys Konfabulator

Smart buy from Yahoo. I’ve been testing the new version of Konfabulator on my Tablet for the last couple of weeks and it’s sweet. A little buggy (another app that doesn’t seem to like coming out of HIBERNATE),  but sweet most of the time. Really cool Widgets available to make Tablets much easier to deal with. Combine Konfabulator, ActiveWords InkPad, and RitePen, and you’ve got everything you need to live comfortably in INK mode most of the day. Konfabulator makes Windows much more user-friendly. Isn’t it cool how Microsoft leaves so much out that small vendors like Konfabulator can fill the gaps? J

In other news, Yahoo is buying Konfabulator. Yahoo has been making a bunch of great acquisitions lately. Buying companies I really respect and like.

[Scobleizer: Microsoft Geek Blogger]

Microsoft departures

Speaking of Microsoft, I just did a quick tally with a friend of mine who is also ex-Microsoft Melbourne, and we counted 17 people who have left the Melbourne office in the last year. A couple have moved to Redmond, but most have left the company. This is an office that, under previous management, used to have VERY low turnover. Like one or two people a year. Admittedly, it's a much bigger office these days, but still... that's a lot of people for a branch office.

Vamos to go into politics?

Microsoft Australia's MD, Steve Vamos, formerly MD of NineMSN, is going into politics. At least, that's the rumour being spread by Computerworld. It's an interesting idea for a number of reasons. Steve's a very likeable guy. He communicates well. He's also worked for IBM, Apple, Packer and Microsoft. He's into heavy metal. He'd definitely bring a different perspective to Aussie politics, just like we've been discussing here lately. How much truth there is to the rumour, I have no idea. The Computerworld article speaks of "tension" and "friction" surrounding Steve Ballmer's recent visit. BTW, Mick tried to get a ten minute interview with Ballmer for G'DAY WORLD, but was rebuffed.