Prompt's TechBlog
Yolks on Microsoft
21 May 2008
Posted by James Gerber
Microsoft, the world's favorite multi-billion dollar software conglomerate, recently had its CEO, Steve Ballmer, egged at a conference. Literally.
Below is the video which I first caught on Matt Asay's blog.
It's hilarious, not only for the eggs awkwardly being thrown, but also for the incoherence of the person throwing them and Steve Ballmer's priceless reaction. Listen carefully to see if you can decipher the second half of what he says. I sure can't. (Something about Microsoft stealing money something something Hungarian government something...)
Ballmer actually has a great recovery and finds the humor in the situation, so kudos to him.
While some people might say that Microsoft deserved it for its lack of openness, or applaud the protest for its audacity, I say that it was WEAK and not enough.
It came nowhere near the classic Bill Gates pie-in-the-face from several years ago (gee, Europeans seem to really love Microsoft, they keep giving them free food).
None of the eggs even hit. Much worse, it was a clear step backward from a previous prank. If the software community, and open source in particular, is to foster openness, innovation, and software quality, then WE MUST DO BETTER.
We must think of the next great prank and do it with the community involved. We must join together, and find innovative methods of Microsoft-targeted hijinks, where we can do things like launch 100 pies simultaneously at Bill Gates. Or stealthily leave 1000 banana peels for Steve Ballmer to slip on as he leaves the podium. Or ridiculously-complicated Rube Goldberg devices in Microsoft's executive offices that somehow leave them tarred and feathered after opening their doors. Stranding them in a giant room with a floor made entirely of Microsoft Surfaces that opens a rickroll video each time it's touched, anyone?
I've seen the code in your intricate applications. I've seen your 3D-rendered ultrarealistic machinima. I've seen the innovative way you turn 140-character messages to haikus in your Twitter stream. Now, people, is the time to join together for the next great Microsoft prank.
But eggs? Lame.
Below is the video which I first caught on Matt Asay's blog.
It's hilarious, not only for the eggs awkwardly being thrown, but also for the incoherence of the person throwing them and Steve Ballmer's priceless reaction. Listen carefully to see if you can decipher the second half of what he says. I sure can't. (Something about Microsoft stealing money something something Hungarian government something...)
Ballmer actually has a great recovery and finds the humor in the situation, so kudos to him.
While some people might say that Microsoft deserved it for its lack of openness, or applaud the protest for its audacity, I say that it was WEAK and not enough.
It came nowhere near the classic Bill Gates pie-in-the-face from several years ago (gee, Europeans seem to really love Microsoft, they keep giving them free food).
None of the eggs even hit. Much worse, it was a clear step backward from a previous prank. If the software community, and open source in particular, is to foster openness, innovation, and software quality, then WE MUST DO BETTER.
We must think of the next great prank and do it with the community involved. We must join together, and find innovative methods of Microsoft-targeted hijinks, where we can do things like launch 100 pies simultaneously at Bill Gates. Or stealthily leave 1000 banana peels for Steve Ballmer to slip on as he leaves the podium. Or ridiculously-complicated Rube Goldberg devices in Microsoft's executive offices that somehow leave them tarred and feathered after opening their doors. Stranding them in a giant room with a floor made entirely of Microsoft Surfaces that opens a rickroll video each time it's touched, anyone?
I've seen the code in your intricate applications. I've seen your 3D-rendered ultrarealistic machinima. I've seen the innovative way you turn 140-character messages to haikus in your Twitter stream. Now, people, is the time to join together for the next great Microsoft prank.But eggs? Lame.
Labels: microsoft, open source, pranks, software
Vista: Gotta get me some
17 April 2008 Posted by James Gerber
Have you been yearning to listen to a great Bruce Springsteen cover band singing about Microsoft Vista? Well, I'm sure that you, and the millions of people just like you that have been wanting the same thing, will enjoy the following video that I first caught on Matt Asay's blog today. Microsoft recently had an internal video leak that has just that. Not only is it campy and a bad parody, you just know that it cost them a lot of money. See, this is what I like about dealing with open source companies a lot, there is always a community of people that can say "no, that's a terrible, horrible idea" to make sure videos like this don't happen.
Microsoft really needs to get The SEO Rapper involved to make the next video for Vista. Not only are his rhyme schemes solid, his technical knowledge and advice are sound.
Microsoft really needs to get The SEO Rapper involved to make the next video for Vista. Not only are his rhyme schemes solid, his technical knowledge and advice are sound.
Labels: bruce, microsoft, rapper, seo, springsteen, vista
Preserving our digital future
04 July 2007
Posted by Sean McManus
Yesterday I tried to get Brian Eno's Generative Music running on my PC. It's a program that replays Eno's music and regenerates it within the parameters he's defined so that each performance is unique. The album was issued on a floppy in 1996 and was compatible with Windows 3.1 and Windows 95. It doesn't run under XP, though, which means that the music sequences Eno programmed are effectively lost to me and probably most others who don't want to tinker with the program.
More and more of our business and cultural data is stored digitally, and that means its lifespan is as short as the software and hardware it runs on. In 1986, the Domesday Project aimed to create a digital record of then-modern Britain. Barely a few years later, the BBC computer was obsolete and the video disc players were hard to find in fully working order. The data was effectively lost, until a massive rescue operation a few years back. Compared to the print edition of the 1086 Domesday Book, which is still available at London's Public Record Office in Kew, the digital version didn't last long.
Now the National Archives and Microsoft have teamed up to try to preserve digital documents. Microsoft has of course caused many of the problems with its proprietary and incompatible file formats, used to force people to upgrade software. And rather than work with the existing Open Document Format for Office 2007, Microsoft specified its own format and had it ratified as an open standard, so that it wouldn't have to cede too much control.
The deal will provide National Archives with an operating system that can run different versions of Microsoft Windows and Office applications from the same PC. The idea is that the staff will be able to swap between the operating system and application version they need to access any data.
Is this the right solution, though? Is this not perpetuating the lock-in by ensuring that this data will always be dependent on Microsoft software?
I wonder whether a better solution would be to convert data from obsolete formats into current open source formats. If the source code and format documentation is archived too, it will make it much easier for future generations to recreate code that can open files. The code can be adapted for different platforms without breaking any copyright or licensing restrictions. The software to access the data can be copied as widely as the data itself, which would ensure everybody could access it.
Clearly hardware changes will continue and even open source file formats can obsolesce. Perhaps the simplest thing of all, certainly for documents and other data files that don't depend on interactive features, is just to print them onto archive quality paper and keep them somewhere dark and dry.
More and more of our business and cultural data is stored digitally, and that means its lifespan is as short as the software and hardware it runs on. In 1986, the Domesday Project aimed to create a digital record of then-modern Britain. Barely a few years later, the BBC computer was obsolete and the video disc players were hard to find in fully working order. The data was effectively lost, until a massive rescue operation a few years back. Compared to the print edition of the 1086 Domesday Book, which is still available at London's Public Record Office in Kew, the digital version didn't last long.
Now the National Archives and Microsoft have teamed up to try to preserve digital documents. Microsoft has of course caused many of the problems with its proprietary and incompatible file formats, used to force people to upgrade software. And rather than work with the existing Open Document Format for Office 2007, Microsoft specified its own format and had it ratified as an open standard, so that it wouldn't have to cede too much control.
The deal will provide National Archives with an operating system that can run different versions of Microsoft Windows and Office applications from the same PC. The idea is that the staff will be able to swap between the operating system and application version they need to access any data.
Is this the right solution, though? Is this not perpetuating the lock-in by ensuring that this data will always be dependent on Microsoft software?
I wonder whether a better solution would be to convert data from obsolete formats into current open source formats. If the source code and format documentation is archived too, it will make it much easier for future generations to recreate code that can open files. The code can be adapted for different platforms without breaking any copyright or licensing restrictions. The software to access the data can be copied as widely as the data itself, which would ensure everybody could access it.
Clearly hardware changes will continue and even open source file formats can obsolesce. Perhaps the simplest thing of all, certainly for documents and other data files that don't depend on interactive features, is just to print them onto archive quality paper and keep them somewhere dark and dry.
Labels: data formats, microsoft, national archives