9.7
Substitute Microsoft for Acme, software failures for gravity, a plain white background for the desert… well, you get my drift.
Charles Miller, on how strangely similar Mac and PC are to a couple of classic cartoon characters. via DF.
5.21
This CNET article (via Gruber), about a grand plan, by Microsoft’s ad division, to open the flood gates (even further) and place ads on every device (even the Zune! … a personal device.) and service Microsoft owns, points to one of the main, and I think, under-appreciated differences between the Mac and the PC user experience.
With all it’s bubbles and windows constantly popping up every minute, telling you how vulnerable your computer is unless you get this or that upgrade or the gobs of nagging entreaties for trial software and their subsequent pushes for you to buy said software at the end of the trial period that you probably don’t remember signing up for because it was probably automatically done for you, using a PC can feel like slowly creeping down an L.A. freeway during rush hour frustrated by the molasses-like drip of cars slowly going nowhere and assaulted left and right by a plethora of garish billboards asking you to buy this, that or another thing. Every manufacturer of third party piece of shit software wants a piece of your attention on the PC. The PC is an advertisement venue much like a fashion mag: 99% ads, 1% content.
The Mac, on the other hand, feels tranquil by comparison; like cruising down a country road with the top down on a clear, sunny day. No nagging. No warnings of impending doom. Just you and your computer ready to sit down and get some shit done.
As Apple’s products get more and more popular and ubiquitous, more and more people are going to want a piece of the pie. Will it be a challenge for Apple to keep it’s user experience as simple and clutter free as it is currently? I don’t know, but I think Apple, with how much control it insists on wielding over the look, feel and behavior of it’s devices, is in a unique structural and philosophical position to do just that.
5.16
Just when you think it’s safe to go back in the water … it looks as if Microsoft’s pull-out was not the end of the matter.
5.8
Seems to be a fair bit of confusion — even among the interested parties — as to what sort of deal Microsoft and NBC have cooked up regarding what sort of technology hocus-pocus Microsoft has agreed (or not agreed?) to perform in return for getting the rights to distribute NBC’s TV shows. This is all verrry unprofessional. (via Daring Fireball)
5.5
In other words, the Microsoft offer increased the value of Yahoo! Inc. by more than $7 billion and decreased the value of Microsoft Corporation by almost $33 billion.
The answer to my question over the weekend is … Yahoo! ↓$4.74 to $23.93, Microsoft ↑$0.55 to $29.79.
As John Gruber says …
that’s not bad, given that their stock was at $19 prior to the Microsoft takeover bid.
That $4/share difference? I think it’s hope. Hope, that the shareholder’s and public’s rooting for the underdog is going to bare fruit.
Give ‘em hell Yahoo!
5.3
Color me shocked! Microsoft has withdrawn it’s bid for Yahoo!.
No one will know until Monday what affect this decision will have on both Microsoft’s and Yahoo!’s stock price. I am, by no means, facile in the ways of the business world but to me, this shows a surfeit of tenacity and strength on Yahoo!’s part and a dearth of both on the part of Microsoft. But I’m biased. (@NYT, via Daring Fireball)
4.29
So, after June 30, when you buy XP Microsoft will score it as a Vista sale.
–– John Gruber
4.28
“If Microsoft goes fully hostile on Yahoo” is Marc Andreessen’s step-by-step, option-by-option outline of how Yahoo! could be consumed by a Microsoft hostile takeover. (via Daring Fireball)
8.14
From my girlfriend* upon returning from a company pep rally for their recent acquisition by Microsoft… –>