They just don't get it. Part infinity.
Aaron Holesgrove of Business Week wrote a response to one of John Gruber’s articles, with the title “Why Windows 8 is NOT fundamentally flawed as a response to the iPad”.
I thought about taking his piece apart point by point, but I decided against it. The sheer number of things Mr. Holes grove doesn’t understand about the way the iPad works and what makes it successful is mind-boggling. Yet he thinks he knows what consumers want and it’s clearly not a device like the iPad. Go read his article, I’ve been chuckling and shaking my head all the way through.
(via Instapaper)
Andy Ihnatko on Microsoft's purchase of Skype
Mr. Ihnatko hit all the points in this piece, it really worth a read. My first thoughts when I heard about this seemingly done deal were the follwowing, in chronological order:
- “WTF?”
- “*Snerk* They don’t even have to “improve” the interface.”
- “That’s a lotta money.”
- “Didn’t Skype use some fancy encryption?”
There’s also a hell of a lot of value in simply owning one of the world’s largest social-media networks. Skype users who are both (a) smart and (b) paranoid will now re-read their Skype terms-of-service agreement more carefully: Microsoft just bought a fairly comprehensive database of who knows whom all over the world. (I wouldn’t worry too much. Microsoft, unlike Google and Facebook, has yet to figure out how to monetize evil. It’s almost adorable.)
When Apple has a secret meeting you get the iPhone two years later. When Microsoft has a secret meeting you read about it in the NYT.
Tim Breen, replying to my link of this New York Times story about Microsoft supposedly meeting with Adobe to discuss their mutual Apple problem.
Two software companies, that are known for their unwieldy software and a lack understanding of their customers, meet to discuss their strategy concerning an agile rival that is the exact opposite of both of them.
I wonder if anybody at Apple will loose any sleep over this?
Offerings of McAfee and Norton reminiscent of scareware
Seth Godin describes a recent experience helping a friend set up his PC:
First, the setup insisted (for my own safety) that I sign up for an eternal subscription to Norton. Then it defaulted (opt out) to sending me promotional emails. Then there were the dozens (at least it felt like dozens) of buttons and searches I had to endure to switch the search box from Bing to Google. And the icons on the desktop that had been paid for by various partners and the this-comes-with-that of just about everything.As someone who occasionally has to set up new PCs for my clients, I can relate. I keep a copy of PC Decrapifier on my thumb drive for this very purpose. It’s a maddening and confusing experience at best. I have no idea how regular people do it.
He then goes on to mention how such experiences are an overall diluting of trust in the digital world.
The digital world, even the high end brands, has become a sleazy carnival, complete with hawkers, barkers and a bearded lady. By the time someone actually gets to your site, they’ve been conned, popped up, popped under and upsold so many times they really have no choice but to be skeptical.Here, here! I could not agree more. I refer you to my pledge to you, the reader, for my stance on trust, ethics, and this site.
This is where you have to give Microsoft the credit it deserves; its Microsoft Security Essentials don’t try to scare/con users into buying shitty software they don’t need (like the offerings of Norton, McAfee and so many others).
Sure, it’s not perfect (yet); as it still lacks a heuristic detection engine, but I’ve installed it on quite a few PCs by now, where I trust the owner to apply common sense when browsing the web.
