In an earlier poll, I asked What should Apple's mascot be? (Poll's still open; have a whack at it! I think "Steve Jobs's ego" is going to win.)
It's only proper to now ask your help in choosing a mascot for Microsoft. I mean, they don't even have a company icon like Apple's fruit logo; just boring text. With YOUR help, maybe a perky mascot can breathe some life into lackluster Redmond!
No, not the Microsoft Watch website.
This Microsoft Watch.
In 2003, a Windows user who simply wanted to install Microsoft Moviemaker ran into the non-functioning Windows hell that plagues – well, nearly all Windows users.
No, an everday rant like this isn't big news, but it's worth a read as a look at what's seriously wrong with the Windows experience. Things like this: "Someone decided to trash the one part of Windows that was usable? The file system is no longer usable. The registry is not usable. This program listing was one sane place but now it is all crapped up. But that is just the start of the crap..."
(I know, life isn't perfect across the street in Macland, but 99.9% of the time, this sort of software update is about as eventful on a Mac as eating a peach. Linux users, how about you?)
Oh, by the way, who was the guy who couldn't get Windows to work? Name's Bill Gates, or something like that. Not that it matters.
The email, as reported by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:
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Funny tech news has been sparse. This one, though, just cracked me up:
"...the Jura F90 Coffee maker, with its honest-to-God Jura Internet Connection Kit, can be taken over by a remote attacker, who can cause the coffee to be weaker or stronger..."
The next Hollywood "Internets" flick: Not content with making our traffic signals go crazy and bringing down our computerized financial systems, evil foreign hackers are now toying with American hackers' caffeine supply...
What's funny about that? Nothing, really. I just liked the reporter's sentence below:
"The technical term for what Microsoft has achieved in search (at least in comparison to Google) is "squat." "
A MS exec only tried to inject a little more comedy, by stating:
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The Zune music player is probably not a topic on many people's radar, but given the Zune-specific origins of this site, here's a short double-header of music news:
My Dear John Letter from MSN Music
The shoe drops: MS officially tells its PlaysForSure customers to get bent.
Zune Sales Still In the Toilet
Well, not much need to explain that article's premise, is there.
You know, Zune probably isn't an awful product in terms of, say, falling apart or blowing up or just plain dying after a month... so, what is it that makes it so danged unpalatable? Like Vista, it just has this taint that goes beyond actual product flaws. All jokes and snark aside, it's truly a fascinating phenomenon to see.
Sweet mother of Jebus. This is apparently what it takes to get the beleagured Vista sales team energized about meeting quota.
In their defense, "Why not create a decent product instead of wasting time on cheesy videos?" isn't a totally apt criticism, as the sales team doesn't create the product; they can only try to flog what's been extruded from the product dev section.
One thing in life I would not want to be is a Vista sales manager, and this video just made that go double.
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Microsplot is built upon an older site poking fun at the Zune music player. But that wasn't too fun (see details). The whole world of tech is full of wonders, good and bad, and it's more enjoyable to take a crack at any worthy target.
Your comments and ratings on any posts are welcomed, as are comments and ideas tossed directly to me.
