Losing money not moving product
At least he has experience.
Posts by Mikel
2643 publicly visible posts • joined 19 Oct 2008
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Microsoft shunts top exec Julie Larson-Green sideways to make way for Stephen Elop
1bn down, 6bn to go: Zuck to grow Facebook by touting 'free internet onramp' for the poor
'Polar vortex' or not, last month among the warmest Januaries recorded
Microsoft asks pals to help KILL UK gov's Open Document Format dream
Sunday 23rd February 2014 01:06 GMT
Microsoft pride point: nothing else can use Office files
Let's examine that point in close detail. To whose benefit is that? Who has the power to fix it? To whom it it a nuisance? From whence does this incompatibility come?
Answer these questions and you know why you don't want it: It is engineered to thwart your interests. Its purpose is not to serve your needs, but Microsoft's.
Google's 1Gbps fiber 'not driving' Time Warner Cable's sudden Austin speed increase
Seagate's LaCie touts a 25TB (not a typo) box o' disks for your DESK
Google teases more cities with bonkers-fast fiber broadband rollouts
Thursday 20th February 2014 04:28 GMT
Another step in the plan
Ultimately Google will be a major US cable TV and Internet provider in every sizeable town. Maybe in as many nations as profitable and possible too. This is a good way for Google to convert excess capital into ever increasing cash flow. Two years after installation these fiber customers become pure profit, $840/yr each. It also guarantees them equal access to the last mile, protecting their ad business.
Incumbent cable oligopolies have the same level of investment to pay as Google if they want to offer fiber, so Google is not disadvantaged. I can't foresee Comcast even putting up a good fight. They are still trying to sell the story that we don't even want this.
Fiendish Internet Explorer 10 zero-day targets US soldiers
Google promises 10Gps fiber network to blast 4K into living rooms
Sunday 16th February 2014 07:43 GMT
I could not saturate 1Gbps
Well, I could, but I have no reason to. If I could get this at a decent price I would take it though. I would find something useful to do with it. I don't think people would have a lot to use it for now, but the few who do, why not?
By the way, 4k resolution VP9 encoded video is only 15Mbps for Netflix. Presumably you could easily do 50 of those at a time on gigabit without too much trouble.
I think this is more Google shoving the cable companies' "people don't need gigabit" back at them.
Microsoft may pick iPad for first release of Fondleslab Office™
PSST! New PCs with Windows 7 preinstalled are out there – and will be into 2015, at least
Time Warner merger great for Comcast, but not for anybody else
IT'S ALIVE! China's Jade Rabbit rover RETURNS from the DEAD
Comcast to acquire Warner Cable – reports
Thursday 13th February 2014 07:27 GMT
Regulators
US Regulators are bought and paid for on this one. The cable companies own the FCC - past and present FCC Chairmen are cable industry lobbyists. Their media arms own the Justice department thanks to "Hollywood" Joe Biden's appointments - see "Kim Dotcom". They own the FTC. The US government is going to roll over like a puppy begging for a belly rub this time. This will be approved in record time. Opponents will likely be labelled enemy combatants.
You have to understand something. Media and cable companies hold huge sway in a democratic society - especially when the vote is always so close either way. Comcast and Time Warner cable own considerable content properties that define the culture and they own the video pipe that pacifies the populace in doses of four hours per day. They create and deliver the mental space that many voters live in. No politician wants to be their enemy because a few points this way or that define whether they keep their seat and either Comcast or TWC could promise that, but between them they can deliver it. These media companies control who sits in congress, who is president.
This isn't a merger. It's a coup.
Grimly determined Cisco reports weak earnings
Microsoft denies reports of scrubbing Chinese-language Bing searches
It's a scientific fact: Online comment trolls are sadists
Server tech is BORING these days. Where's all the shiny new goodies?
Nokia to launch low-cost Android phone this month – report
Tuesday 11th February 2014 06:48 GMT
Re: ... and in next week's news
@Anonymous Coward - For the China thing will Bloomberg do?
Oh, did you mean the intention to be a patent troll? That comes from Nokia's earnings call. You will find it in their financial statements, but here is a report. "Going forward, we see opportunities to expand our licensing coverage to presently unlicensed vendors and to parts of our portfolio that are not broadly licensed under our current agreements."
As for the scenarios... those are scenarios. Mutually contradictory speculative possible situations. Scenario: "an outline of the plot of a dramatic work, giving particulars as to the scenes, characters, situations, etc"
Tuesday 11th February 2014 00:35 GMT
Re: ... and in next week's news
Post split the remainder of Nokia planned to be a patent troll. China is blocking the deal because they don't like this plan. No telling at this point whether it goes through.
A number of scenarios are possible: Elop has discovered the value of a "plan B". The objective is to justify the Windows Phone decision by "proving" nobody would buy the worst possible Nokia Android phone. It isn't really an Android phone. To transition Android fans to Windows Phone gradually by letting them experience its amazing [sic] interface. And so on.
Friends don't do tech support for friends running Windows XP
Google invades videoconferencing market with Chromebox for Meetings
Friday 7th February 2014 00:25 GMT
Why pay for Google?
I actually know the answer to this one. For far too long the business model of selling technology to businesspeople has been "baffle them with BS". It drives huge margins when said people overpay. Maintaining high barriers to entry shield this berry patch from startups. Google casts about for high margin value systems like this to disrupt. They would not even consider doing anything if it was not disruptive. They have huge cash flows, so a high entry barrier to someone else is to them a tiny crack in the sidewalk.
Then with their superior technical prowess they deliver faster, more efficient systems. This by itself would of course never get anywhere, as people tend to stay with the familiar or poular even in the face of the obviously technically superior. Here is where the strategy to only compete where you can be disruptive comes in. Google has one weird trick. It's a forbidden occult technique for warping the minds of buyers, persuading them to make your product their own. They don't teach it in business school. Corporate America is doing their best to have it banned as anticompetitive. But Google brazenly uses this abhorrent strategy in full view of the public.
It's called "value for money."
Sony set to axe 5,000 workers worldwide as it flings PC biz overboard
Satya Nadella is 'a sheep, a follower' says ex-Microsoft exec
Schmidt gets $100m in Google stock on top of his $6m bonus
Wednesday 5th February 2014 21:36 GMT
He earned it
The company is growing like a weed. He was the CEO from before the IPO, so much of what he did positioned them to become the $380B company it has grown into. He achieved this despite considerable headwinds - the largest, most powerful tech company in the world spending billions a quarter and considerable influence to "cut off their air supply". In 10 years investors are up 9.4x their investment.
"Bind not the mouths of the kine that tread the grain."
Life support's ABOUT to be switched off, but XP's suddenly COOL again
HP UK: meeting unions over staff redundancy plans
'That was quick!': AT&T ends $450 T-Mobile poaching promotion
Just as we said it would: HP clamps down on server fixers
Tuesday 4th February 2014 18:02 GMT
Interesting choice
So no firmware updates for out of warranty HP servers. That is an interesting choice of strategy. It should be a crushing blow to the market in used HP servers.
It will be interesting to see what it does to the value proposition of new ones. Cutting off the long tail is not going to sit well with SMB.
It's Satya! Microsoft VP Nadella named CEO as Bill Gates steps down
Tuesday 4th February 2014 17:49 GMT
He's singing the right song
His email hit all the right notes - people, enable, empower, for a better world.
Now can he live it? We will see.
The bit about Microsoft being the only one positioned to deliver that should be a surprise to Apple and Google, and spur some closed door meetings at Microsoft's hardware partners.
Google bit barge ordered to set sail for safe waters
HP offers $150,000 for 'exploit unicorn' in Pwn2Own hacker competition
Tell us we're all doomed, MPs beg climate scientists
Microsoft-backed lobby group demands market test of Google's proposed 'search fix'
Microsoft veep Satya Nadella now frontrunner in race for CEO spot
Friday 31st January 2014 23:24 GMT
Re: Microsoft's VP of cloud
But wait. For a long time he was also boss of Online Services Division (OSD, AKA Bing and Hotmail). As in, the money-losingest operation they have. Surely that counts for something. The man has tons of experience tilting at windmills. That will be helpful in his new role.
Google's ad-slinging juggernaut gobbles more BEEELLIONS in revenue
Wanna make your own Azure? Now you can: Microsoft joins Open Compute Project
Valve showers Debian Linux devs with FREE Steam games
Samsung profits deflate after mobile division runs out of puff
Friday 24th January 2014 13:56 GMT
Adored my Samsung Android phones
Now I have a Nexus, and know what Android is supposed to be like. No going back. Moto X is a nice style phone, and the Google Play editions are close to the pure experience. I'll probably stick with Nexus though.
Battery life on my SGS3 was so bad it barely deserved the term "mobile" phone.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
