Isotropic is …
... my personal blog.
Unless otherwise indicated, anything I write here is simply my personal, probably ill-formed, opinion and does not represent the views, beliefs, positions, or opinions of any other person or entity.
Tag Archives: Microsoft
14 Jun 2008
Must Be Running Windows
A few days ago iGoogle linked to an old photo of the lengthly (full letter-size page) instructions someone had taped to an office vending machine. I wanted to reference it here because it was quite funny, but unfortunately I’ve wiped out my browsing history since then and can’t find it, even after an extensive search. [...]
26 May 2008
Vista Vista
Steve Ballmer is in no way disappointed with Windows Vista. It is selling “incredibly well”, he told a press conference in Herzeliya, Israel today. “Vista sells on almost 100 per cent of all the new consumer PCs around the world,” the Microsoft CEO proclaimed. He added that the operating system was also selling on, “45 percent [...]
22 May 2008
How Delightful
“The key point is this: You are not Microsoft’s customer. You are not the person they want to delight.”
26 Apr 2008
DRM sux redux
Yet another “service” bites the dust, leaving behind more consumers who probably thought they owned something permanent, only to discover that use of “their” stuff was at the whim of some entity that couldn’t care less. Customers who have purchased music from Microsoft’s now-defunct MSN Music store are now facing a decision they never anticipated [...]
26 Apr 2008
Windows XP downgrade
After some time in June, OEMs won’t be allowed to ship PCs with Windows XP pre-installed. However, Dell and other vendors may get around that by offering to assist businesses in exercising their “downgrade rights”. Microsoft gets to count the sale for Vista, but the XP image that comes with Vista is pre-loaded for you. [...]
13 Jun 2001
Just say ‘NO’ to Smart Tags
Just say ‘NO’ to Smart Tags While the idea in itself is not bad, this article at ZDNet should give you a good demonstration of why you should NOT want Microsoft (or any other company) to have such power to figuratively “modify” a web page. I place the links I want on my pages; I [...]
11 May 2001
free software
I am rendered speechless (typeless?) by the more recent Microsoft pronouncements about the evils of open source, their “prizes” for anyone reporting orders of PCs without operating systems (such hubris to think that only their OS would be installed on these PCs), their new subscription model of software licensing where you pay and pay forever [...]
23 Feb 2001
outrageous spin II
Microsoft Corp. representatives assert that Platforms Group Vice President Jim Allchin was “misunderstood”, according to Peter Coffee of eWEEK in his article “Microsoft clarifies exec’s open-source concerns“. Yeah, he really didn’t mean to imply that open software was “un-American” and that open source developers were criminals. Microsoft is not an altruistic organization; open source competes [...]
16 Feb 2001
outrageous spin
This item from the CNET Investor is absolutely amazing. Microsoft wants legislation (why else do “legislators need to understand the threat”) against open-source software? Notice the unsubtle reference to Napster, trying to taint Linux and all other open-source software with Napster’s current legal problems. Day is night, up is down. Redmond, Washington, Feb. 14 (Bloomberg) [...]
17 Dec 2000
a columnist’s epiphany…
I’d ripped this out of Network World some time back; it resurfaced while I was cleaning up some old files. I’m putting the link here so I can trash the hardcopy. Kevin Tolly says Like most people, I’m a prisoner of Microsoft. And, like most, I spend an inordinate amount of (unplanned) time trying to [...]
