Archive | October, 2003

What a great lead-in line to an article:

“The most powerful piece of software inside Microsoft may be the $40 application from a tiny vendor called Userland that Robert Scoble uses to write his weblog.”

The article, by Ed Cone in Baseline, goes on to describe the potential power of blogging for businesses. A good read, but a great opening. It certainly snagged me.

Apple’s Knowledge Navigator revisited.
“During my session at BloggerCon I referred to Apple’s famous Knowledge Navigator concept video. I first saw that video in 1988. Today I tracked down a copy and watched it again. It stands the test of time rather well! 
…” [Jon’s Radio]

The DynaBook demo was truly a vision at a time when color CRTs were a
novelty in the business world: a flat panel with sound and color and
animation, touch screen drag-and-drop and small memory cartridges with
large capacities. So much of the hardware has come true, and so little
of the software functionality is available! It seems we have once again
underestimated the complexity and resources required for software
development.

CNET News.com – Front Door carries the story that \”PC sales bolster Microsoft profits. The software giant reports earnings that narrowly topped Wall Street expectations as sales rose 6 percent from a year ago. \” Not a surprise to those of us who follow Microsoft. What was surprising was the breakdown of sales across Microsoft’s seven divisions and the fact the CNET reported it without any analysis of what, if anything, those numbers meant. Perhaps a picture would have helped…

This one, perhaps, that would have shown that revenues were flat in client (Windows) and Information Worker (Office) divisions – no surprise with a flat economy and little innovation. That Server bumped up by 15% surprises me, Can anyone explain that one? And it’s pretty obvious, in the big picture, those are the three that matter. In the smaller divisions, though, there’s where the growth is: Mobile up an astounding 88%, Home nearly 20% and MSN 15%. Business Solutions also turned in a respectable 21%. Too bad these weren’t standalone companies: their returns would have been better than the 4.9% overall increase in sales. But then again, would the sales have occurred without the backing of Microsoft?

Remember the weekly Microsoft Security Bulletins that Microsoft
announced would be reduced to one per month to relieve the burden on
adminstrators? That lasted three weeks. In my inbox this morning are
two messages, titled “REVISED: Microsoft Windows Security Bulletin
Summary for October 2003” and “REVISED: Microsoft Exchange Server
Security Bulletin Summary for October 2003” Each bulletin is a complete
reprint of the original, with a paragraph tacked on the front
explaining that one of the items in each bulletin has changed
significantly, and to see that particular item for details.

Well, it’s better than not telling us at all, but the format could be better. I’d prefer individual security bulletins.