The Nexus of 2024

Tag: microsoft

  • Lessons from the Past: What Zoom can learn from Microsoft

    —

    by

    jon
    in ,

    What Zoom can learn from Microsoft

  • What can Diaspora learn about security from Microsoft? (REVISED DRAFT)

    —

    by

    jon
    in ,

    It’s counter-intuitive to think of Microsoft as a poster child for security — or as a role model for Diaspora, the “privacy-aware, personally-controlled, open-source, do-it-all social network”. But the security mess Microsoft created back in the 1990s, the progress they’ve made since 2001, and the challenges they continue to face all provide some interesting lessons…

  • What can Diaspora learn about security from Microsoft? (FIRST DRAFT)

    —

    by

    jon
    in

    It’s counter-intuitive to think of Microsoft as a poster child for security. But the progress they’ve made since 2001 along with the challenges they continue to face have a lot of lessons for anybody in this space — including Diaspora, the “privacy-aware, personally-controlled, open-source, do-it-all social network”.

  • Ask @bing to create grants for nonprofit advertising on their site (DRAFT)

    —

    by

    jon
    in

    Update, September 1: Microsoft responded.  More here. Draft!  Work in progress!  Feedback welcome!

  • Microsoft layoffs

    —

    by

    jon
    in

    5000, but only 1400 announced now … meaning everybody gets to twist in fear over the next 18 months.  As MiniMSFT says: Personally, I feel like we’ve taken the Sword of Damocles and rammed it through a bunch of pink slips and now we intend to dangle that above the head of Microsoft for the…

  • How’d that one get by QA: Z2K

    —

    by

    jon
    in ,

    Ya can’t make stuff like this up.  From Ginny Mies at PC World: Picture this: You’re gearing up to create a killer playlist on your 30GB Zune for your annual New Year’s bash. All of a sudden, your Zune locks up, reboots itself, and freezes. What the heck is going on? Fox News picks up…

  • “A very special Ad Astra holiday” 2.0

    —

    by

    jon
    in ,

    For those of you who have gotten to know me over the last twelve months, Ad Astra (Analysis and Development of Awesome STRAtegies) was a grassroots strategy/culture change project I led at Microsoft.  Its positive focus, wiki-centricity, and network-oriented strategies foreshadowed a lot of work on Get FISA Right and the Voter Suppression Wiki; it’s…

  • danah boyd joins Microsoft Research — computer science *is* a social science

    —

    by

    jon
    in ,

    Guess who has a post-dissertation job? [Yes, that implies I’m actually going to finish this *#$@! dissertation.] ::bounce:: In January, I will be joining the newly minted Microsoft Research New England in Boston, MA. w00000t!!!!! I couldn’t be more ecstatic. — danah boyd, I will be joining Microsoft Research in January, apophenia, September 2008 “Breaking…

  • It’s over. Isn’t it? Microsoft/Yahoo, continued

    —

    by

    jon
    in

    “It’s over. Isn’t it?” — the end of Killer Klowns from Outer Space Act 1 ended with a temporary resolution: Microsoft deciding not to “go hostile” and instead withdrawing their offer to buy Yahoo! After a brief intermission, Bill Gates’ announcement of Live Search Cashback is bang-up start to Act 2, featuring guest star Carl…

  • Color me impressed …

    —

    by

    jon
    in ,

    Flying down to SF last Monday for RSA, I opened up my Macbook and got … nuthin’. Once I landed and plugged it in, and the little green light on the power supply connector didn’t even come on, I realized I was in trouble. So I headed down to the Mac store, conveniently right by…

  • Microsoft/Yahoo! roundup

    —

    by

    jon
    in ,

    Note: this thread summarizes what others are thinking, and my reactions. My opinion on the potential acquisition is here — and along with many others’, on MiniMSFT. Andy Borowitz has the biggest news: Obama to buy Yahoo! Other than that … Microsoft has been fined a record €899 million ($1.4 billion) for defying the EU’s…

  • Yahoo!!!! (was Yahoo!?!?!): Why, after further reflection, I think Microsoft’s offer for Yahoo! is a brilliant strategic move

    —

    by

    jon
    in

    Plunking down $44.6 billion, or whatever the number turns out to be, for “change” and “social software” sends a huge message — although bizarrely enough a lot of Microsoft employees, on MiniMSFT and internal email discussion lists like Litebulb, have managed not to hear it. It’s been several weeks since Microsoft’s unsolicited offer for Yahoo.…

  • Mashups and teaching dinosaurs to dance

    —

    by

    jon
    in

    The hot pink beanbag chairs are a dead giveaway: Ad Astra (Analysis and Development of Awesome STRAtegies) and Mashups are in the news! In the Yahoo!?!?! thread, Michael Foster posted about Jessica Mintz’ Microsoft-Yahoo could skip culture clash, relevant no matter how the potential acquisition came out: SEATTLE – Yahoo‘s walls are awash in bright…

  • Yahoo!?!?!

    —

    by

    jon
    in , ,

    Todd Bishop’s Microsoft goes after biggest buy ever to catch up with Google in the Seattle PI has the most common framing: Could a PC software giant and an Internet icon join forces to take on the Web search king? That was the big question Friday as Microsoft Corp. stunned the online world with a…

  • Microsoft 2008: Where are the opportunities?

    —

    by

    jon
    in

    Yeah, I don’t work there any more, and I’m practicing saying “they” instead of “we”, but I still think that Microsoft’s situation is extremely interesting from a strategy perspective. So as a companion to Mini’s What’s going well?, MSFTextrememakeover’s Will this dog ever hunt again, Joe Wilcox’s Definitive, unsolicited advice, Slashdot’s Microsoft’s biggest threat, and…

  • On Mini: “Microsoft’s 2008 – What’s Going Well?”

    —

    by

    jon
    in

    Who da’ Punk’s got a new post up on MiniMSFT with a great, and somewhat out-of-character, topic.  Most of the commenters thus far appear to have missed the request “I’d like to know what you honestly think is going well, too”, but it’s early days yet.  The areas Mini lists as going well in his/her/their…

  • F—ing Mac

    —

    by

    jon
    in

    I usually love my Mac, but right now is a big exception.  When I got a new MacBook Pro earlier this year running Tiger (10.4), the migration over from my previous (two-ish year old, running 10.1 or 10.2 I think) machine went incredibly smoothly with the minor exception of no longer being able to print…

  • I love it when stuff like this happens!

    —

    by

    jon
    in ,

    Recently somebody who’s interviewing around Microsoft told me that they had brought up Ad Astra in an interview context as a way of demonstrating that they understood viral marketing: “Remember all those hot pink Mashup posters around campus? Well, here’s how we approached it; this was my role; this is what I learned.” And it…

  • Advice to people thinking about their next job

    —

    by

    jon
    in

    Over the last couple of days, I had very similar conversations with a couple of people who are looking for a new job. They found my perspective helpful, and so I realized it might be more generally useful. [Caveat: since both of them are ex-Microsoft people (who have good reasons for considering going back there)…

  • I’ve got fans! Kind of.

    —

    by

    jon
    in , , ,

    In  a comment in the Power vectors thread, Vanita said: You were useless (I met with you several times at Microsoft) and it looks like you still are. I am glad to hear you are gone – it made no sense for Microsoft to pay you a hefty salary given the “work” you were doing.…