Sagittarius and Mensa

CNet News.com has posted online Microsoft's previously confidential "Project Constellation" document -- the one with the Sagittarius and Mensa code names -- in which executives detailed for the company's board of directors their rationale for seeking to merge with SAP. To download the documents, go to the fifth paragraph of this story.

Reliability vs. Features

At right are the final results of seattlepi.com's Monday online poll. (Keep in mind that these polls are voluntary and unscientific.) As you can see, an overwhelming majority of people said they would prefer reliability to innovative new features in their software. (See this earlier post, and this story, for more background.)

By focusing on reliability, the poll was cast more narrowly than the issue as discussed by the Microsoft executives and the international students during their Friday afternoon meeting. They touched on the issue of reliability but focused more on what Jeff Raikes called accessibility -- making it easier for people to find and use any given program's existing features.

Still, the overwhelmingly one-sided response to the reliability-vs.-new features question is notable, demonstrating where a lot of people would prefer Microsoft focus its attention. Granted, in reality, fancy new features don't necessarily exclude reliability, but it's clear what people would choose if they could. Well, at least it's clear what people say they would choose.

Apple's Konfabulator?

Apparently Microsoft isn't the only software company with a penchant for "borrowing" good ideas from others. The people behind an independent product called Konfabulator are pointing out the striking similarity between their product for the Mac and a new feature Apple unveiled yesterday, called Dashboard, which will be part of the forthcoming "Tiger" release of the Mac OS X. (Link via Sandy McMurray's Corante Apple blog.)

The headline on the Konfabulator home page is "Cupertino, start your photocopiers, a reference to Apple's earlier "Redmond, start your photocopiers" jab at Microsoft.

But like they say, there's no such thing as bad publicity. In that way, this turn of events might not be all bad for Konfabulator. Before yesterday, I'd never heard of the product. Last night, after reading about it on the Corante site, I downloaded it and tried out some of the desktop "widgets." I'm sure I wasn't alone.

'Fwd: quick cash'

If you've ever received one of those purported e-mail messages from Bill Gates promising a windfall for taking part in an e-mail tracking program, you probably knew it was a hoax. But did you ever wonder how it began? An interesting story by Jonathon Keats in the latest issue of Wired magazine traces the message to its origins. The article is now online. (Thanks, Brian, for the link.)

Gates blogging, boating?

Mary Jo Foley of Microsoft Watch, who last week reported in her subscription-based newsletter that Bill Gates plans to start his own weblog, points out this amusing Bill Gates parody blog. The opening line: "First of all, I must say that I am happy to join you in using this interesting brand new technique called Blog (Soon to be called MDD - Microsoft Digital Diary)."

All joking aside, Foley reiterates today that her sources have told her Gates himself will soon start a blog.

Meanwhile, the New York Post, citing no sources, reports today in its Page Six gossip column about some complications that the newspaper claims the Microsoft chairman encountered while boating on a recent Italian vacation. (Update, Tuesday morning: Link to Page 6 now fixed.)

Clippy vs. C.A.R.L.

Making software easier to use and more reliable, even if it means adding fewer new features, was one of the key themes offered by a group of international university students during a presentation to Microsoft executives last week. As this morning's Microsoft Notebook explains, Microsoft Group Vice President Jeff Raikes and some of the students didn't see eye-to-eye on the issue, with Raikes acknowledging the importance of ease-of-use, but also pointing out that it's necessary for the company to keep innovating.

Following up on that angle, the daily poll on the P-I's home page Monday asks: "Which would you rather have: Software with innovative new features, or software that works reliably?" As of early this afternoon, the vast majority of people who responded said they preferred reliability over fancy new stuff.

In making their own case last week, the students singled out "Clippy," the much-maligned animated paperclip that pops up by default to assist users in earlier versions of Microsoft Word. The students made their feelings for Clippy clear, showing him on their slides with a line through him.

But later in the presentation, they acted out a concept they called "C.A.R.L." -- a Creative Artificial Responsive Lifeform -- that would monitor what a computer user does, pick up on patterns, interact in a human way via voice recognition, make helpful suggestions and perform helpful functions liking picking music to match your mood. In their example, C.A.R.L. said such things as, "You've got a call coming in from your boss. I think it's about that report that you didn't submit last week, the one I reminded you about. Would you like me to take a message instead?"

Raikes later noted an apparent inconsistency in their criticism of Clippy and their proposal for C.A.R.L. "Clippy was a software-based assistant that was trying in many ways to help people the way in which you were suggesting that we try and help people," he said.

One of the students, Simon Moss of Australia, said the difference would be C.A.R.L.'s ability to adapt to a user's individual situation and needs. Clippy, in contrast, seemed to have the same advice for everyone, invariably saying, "It looks like you're writing a letter," and offering to help.

Said Raikes: "If a software-based assistant has to be at the level of human intellect before people value it, it's an incredibly difficult goal to deliver on. ... It was interesting for me to hear the common theme of dissing Clippy, yet really, Clippy in my opinion was right in line with what you aspire to. You might say it was at the kindergarten level or the preschool level but it does point out one of the challenges that we have."

Another student, Øyvind Kildal Stangnes of Norway, pointed out that Microsoft is already working on some of the basic technologies behind the C.A.R.L. concept, such as voice recognition and connections between disparate devices. (See this January post about Microsoft's connected concept car, for example.) He asserted that it wouldn't be that hard to just make that technology interact and react to situations in a human way.

"Oh, it's hard," Raikes corrected him. "Don't think it's easy."

Tiger takes on Longhorn

MacMinute and CNet News.com report on some none-too-subtle jabs at Microsoft by Apple Computer at its WorldWide Developers Conference today. Posters there for Apple's upcoming operating system, Tiger, allude to delays in the release of the next version of Microsoft Windows, code-named Longhorn, and to the Redmond-based company's reputation for mimicking features of Apple's operating system.

The posters feature Tiger software CD images with headlines such as: "Introducing Longhorn," "Redmond, start your photocopiers," "This should keep Redmond busy," and "Redmond, we have a problem."

This News.com story has the word on Apple CEO Steve Jobs' speech, in which he said Tiger will be out in early 2005. As the story notes, that's about a year before Longhorn is scheduled for release. The story says Tiger is also expected to include an improved search function. That's one of the major selling points for Longhorn, via the new WinFS file system.

Update: Gizmodo has photos of the posters.

Gates on tape, circa '95

Blogger Phil Crawley of the U.K. posts a RealAudio version of a 1995 interview conducted by the BBC's Radio 4 with Bill Gates.

It's an interesting time warp, especially the second half, which gets more into his expectations for technology at the time, along the lines of the themes in "The Road Ahead," the book Gates published around the same time.

Now it's even got a store

The Toronto Star reports on "what's being touted as the first retail computer store devoted exclusively to Linux-based products."

It's 'time we bought SAP'

An e-mail from Bill Gates to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, made public yesterday as part of the Oracle trial, indicates that Oracle's bid for PeopleSoft spurred Microsoft to initiate the previously disclosed merger discussions with SAP. Gates also thought about making an investment in PeopleSoft, according to the message.

See coverage by the Associated Press and Bloomberg News. Also see the full text of the message, as published by Reuters.

No Comdex 2004

Complaining about sluggish attendance, the cab drivers at last year's Comdex convention in Las Vegas were almost universally convinced that the show wouldn't be around this year, as we noted in this post at the time. Turns out they were right. CNet News.com reports today that the November 2004 show has, indeed, been cancelled, although the organizers hope to revive it in 2005. See also the official press release.

The suspension of the legendary show is the end of an era, at least temporarily, for Bill Gates, whose opening Comdex keynote became something of an annual tradition in the technology world. Here's a story we ran in November reflecting on his first Comdex keynote in 1983.

E-mailing Bill Gates

Microsoft employee Sara Ford's weblog is highlighted in this story in the current edition of Business Week magazine (page 100 of the June 28 issue). In this post yesterday, she told the amusing story of what happened after she e-mailed Bill Gates to alert him to the article. (link via Robert Scoble.)

Why, thank you!

A prominent sign in the lobby of one building on Microsoft's Redmond campus reads: "You're professional. Intuitive. Clean. Approachable."

No, Microsoft isn't kissing up to its visitors, or its employees. Another part of the sign has a heart-shaped symbol in front of the word Longhorn, the next version of Windows operating system. The flattering words apparently refer to some of the company's goals for Longhorn's user interface.

The sign is part of an on-campus awareness campaign for the product, which is currently under development and expected to hit the market sometime in 2006. A post on Microsoft's Channel 9 site explains more and mentions a different sign in another building.

McAfee/Microsoft denial

Network Associates, the company behind the McAfee Security brand, today took the unusual step of denying a CRN report that it's for sale, with Microsoft as the likely buyer.

Microsoft and Network Associates are "very good partners," Network Associates spokeswoman Jennifer Keavney said this afternoon, citing arrangements including the availability of McAfee products through Microsoft's MSN service. "But that's it." See additional coverage by CNet News.com

Ordinarily, companies don't comment on speculative reports about possible acquisitions. But Keavney said Network Associates "felt like there was so much reaction to the one story that we had a responsibility to clarify it." The same publication, CRN, reported in this story in May that Microsoft had "killed" its Next Generation Secure Computing Base project, drawing strong denials from Microsoft.

What to do with that cash?

CNN/Money looks at the issue of Microsoft's cash balance in this story and, in a related sidebar, offers a few ideas for how the company could use the money. Among the ideas: Creating a Seattle sports monopoly with the purchase of the Sonics, Mariners and Seahawks for a mere $1.2 billion.

Of course, as Seattle sports fans know, the company is already part of the way toward that goal. Several Microsoft executives are part of the Mariners ownership group, and, though he's no longer with the company, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen owns the Seahawks.

'Exploiting' a DRM speech

In a speech at Microsoft last week, Cory Doctorow of the Electronic Frontier Foundation sought to show that digital rights management technology is a "bad business move" for the company. It was an interesting speech, especially considering the amount of money and effort that Microsoft has put into various forms of DRM, technology that lets companies and people set limits on ways that others can use music and other types of digital files. (See stories here and here for more background.)

Doctorow's speech has gotten a lot of attention online, not only because of its content, but because he is offering it under a Creative Commons public domain dedication -- sort of the opposite of putting DRM on a file -- allowing it to be "exploited by anyone for any purpose."

That inspired people to offer versions of the speech as an annotated wiki, in standard html, in html with permalinkable paragraphs and -- best of all, in my opinion -- as an audio file, read by Jason Kottke in the style of an audiobook performed by a narrator. I was able to download the MP3, put it on my music player and listen to Kottke's reading of the speech while doing laundry and other chores around the house over the weekend.

Kottke, concluding his post on the subject, notes that he'd "love to see someone other than Cory give this talk at a conference. Now that would be 'exploitation by anyone for any purpose.' "

Gates and Formula One?

Here's something unexpected: "Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates wants to become Toyota's chief Formula One sponsor with an investment of $40 million a year in the Cologne-based team, the Bild am Sonntag reported on Sunday." See the Reuters story. (Link via Watching Microsoft like a Hawk.)

Storage: Gmail vs. Hotmail

In this article, Mary Jo Foley of Microsoft Watch looks at one way that Google may force Microsoft's hand in an area other than search: Free e-mail storage capacity. She also points to this BetaNews story on the subject. Google's Gmail, currently in limited-access beta testing, offers 1 gigabyte of free storage.

I've been trying Gmail out for a week or so, and I gather from talking with others who've used it that the free storage is a big draw, especially for people who like to swap large photos and other files with their friends. MSN Hotmail, in contrast, charges $60 a year for 100 megabytes of storage, or 10 percent of what Gmail offers for free.

Buyback talk fuels stock

Microsoft's share price has been rising this week (see Yahoo Finance chart), based apparently on speculation that the company is preparing to buy back a sizable amount of stock and/or make a special payout to shareholders to reduce its cash balance, which is fast approaching $60 billion. Microsoft shares, which started the week around $26.50, were trading above $28 earlier today.

Speculation about a possible buyback was fueled initially by a Monday report from Goldman Sachs analyst Rick Sherlund (see our coverage from earlier in the week). Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. analyst Charles Di Bona issued a report with similar themes yesterday, as Reed Stevenson of Reuters explains toward the end of this story about the rise in Microsoft's share price.

Memorizing 'Star Trek'

Some interesting nuggets in today's coverage of the new Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame in Seattle, a project of the other Microsoft co-founder, Paul Allen. In this Q&A with Allen, P-I reporter Rebekah Denn asked him if he really was a "Star Trek" fan, and his answer suggested something about some of the people who joined Microsoft in the 1980s:

"Yes, although not as hard-core as some people," he answered. "I remember being on a recruiting trip for Microsoft, probably in 1980, 1981, I think, and I went to MIT to recruit MIT undergraduates and graduates, and I went into one of the lounges ... everyone was watching 'Star Trek,' and they knew every line. They were chanting the lines. They had memorized the lines. So I was never that level of 'Star Trek' fan."

The museum is in a wing of Allen's Experience Music Project at Seattle Center. The P-I ran a special pullout section on it today. Access the online version here. See additional coverage by MSNBC, USA Today, and Reuters. Frank Catalano blogged about his sneak peek at the museum, and the Stranger alternative weekly in Seattle panned it as mostly "a collection of junk that could have come straight off the floor of a 17-year-old Paul Allen's bedroom."

Video chat via Xbox

One of the announcements made by Microsoft's Xbox team at the recent E3 video-game convention was plans for an Xbox video-chat system to debut under a pilot program in Japan. G4TechTV and GameSpot have details from a demonstration of the technology, including an image of the Xbox-style camera to be used as part of the program, complete with acid-green and black coloring.

Enterprise ambitions?

The latest from the Oracle trial: Internal documents show that PeopleSoft was concerned about Microsoft's growing presence in the market for business applications.

As CNet News.com explains in this story, the documents seem to counter the Justice Department's contention that Oracle's attempted acquisition of PeopleSoft would leave it and SAP too dominant in the market. Oracle argues that there are others -- most notably Microsoft -- eager to get into the space. The CNet story continues with an interesting e-mail message:

After Microsoft announced in late 2000 it was buying Great Plains Software, PeopleSoft executive Renee Lorton sent out an e-mail: "Breaking News. Microsoft buys Great Plains. Yikes!" In the missive, addressed to Ram Gupta, she wrote that PeopleSoft "should be shaking in our boots," characterizing Microsoft's move as "a gun at our and Oracle's back."

She also wrote that she didn't buy claims that Microsoft wanted to stay in the midmarket but would move up into the enterprise space, where SAP, PeopleSoft and Oracle sell to large customers. "If (Microsoft Chairman Bill) Gates doesn't want to own the space, he doesn't bother," her e-mail said.

Findory spawns 'Blogory'

MSN's forthcoming Blogbot won't be the only new entrant in the weblog-search market. Seattle's Greg Linden, the former Amazon.com software engineer who runs the Findory.com personalized news-search site that we profiled in this April story, has launched the Findory Blogory, applying a similar concept to weblogs.

Ruling on Microsoft secrets

The judge in the Justice Department's suit against Oracle is unsealing some of the documents in the case that Microsoft had hoped to keep under wraps, as this Bloomberg News story explains. The exact nature of the documents to be made public isn't yet clear. (See also this story last week, foreshadowing the judge's decision.)

Oracle has been able to obtain documents from the companies -- including confirmation that Microsoft held merger talks with SAP -- through the process of pretrial discovery. See this earlier post for more background, including a link to the letter in which an Oracle lawyer asked the judge to limit the materials that Microsoft and PeopleSoft could designate "highly confidential."

Media outlets including the San Francisco Chronicle, the Los Angeles Times, the Associated Press, the Contra Costa Times and Bloomberg also had asked the judge to unseal documents from Microsoft and other companies in the case. (Click here for a .pdf of their motion.)

Microsoft and other companies had sought to block the move, stressing the importance of protecting confidential business information. (Download their reply to the media outlets' motion here.)

One of the points they made was that Forrester Research "recently advised companies that the trial would be a good source of business information about non-party witnesses." They were referring to this report by Paul Hamerman. The executive summary notes that, by following the Oracle case, "software buyers may glean useful insight into software sales tactics and the future directions of the market."

Analyzing Gates' words

Commenting on Brian's post about the discussion of Bill Gates' "D" speech, Kevin Schofield of Microsoft Research refers to what he calls the unfortunate tendency of people to "hang on Bill's every word and try to read as much significance into it as they possibly can." He compares it to the "Greenspan factor," where economists and Wall Street analysts do the same with Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan's public comments.

That made me me think back to an exchange on the Gillmor Gang audio program a few weeks ago with Steve Gillmor, John Udell, Doc Searls, Dana Gardner and the guest that week, Mary Jo Foley. (The Gillmor Gang is an interesting weekly program, by the way -- worth checking out.) During a discussion about Gates' speech that week at Microsoft's CEO Summit, the group talked at length about his comments on RSS and blogging. For several minutes -- noticeably longer than Gates himself devoted to the topic during his speech -- they analyzed and dissected the significance of his statements, trying to figure out what his words signaled about Microsoft's RSS intentions.

Finally, one of them concluded, "It could be he's just blabbing."

Console name game

Conventional wisdom says Microsoft won't name its next video-game console the Xbox 2, a label that would imply it's a generation behind the next Sony console, which many expect to be called PlayStation 3. But Microsoft has so far been quiet about what name or acronym it might append to "Xbox" to denote the next generation.

However, video-game site 1UP reported last week on a survey circulated by a research firm, apparently on behalf of Microsoft, listing some of the names the company is purportedly considering, including Xbox FS, Xbox HD -- and Xbox 2. A user in the G4techTV forums took it a step further and, through a series of "whois" searches, looked into which Xbox-related domain names the company has registered. Some of it is guesswork, because only a few of the domain names are actually under the company's name. But those registered directly under Microsoft's name include xboxnext.com (see screenshot above).

Nintendo, meanwhile, said last week that it is working on a next-generation console code-named "Revolution," as reported in this Associated Press story. Reuters reported that the new Nintendo console could be unveiled as early as next year's E3 video-game convention.

Playing catch-up

Todd's off for a couple days so I'm filling in. He did point out this interesting item, however:

John Battelle shares some comments that Bill Gates made about Microsoft's strategic plans for search during the Wall Street Journal's D: All Things Digital conference. Among other things, he vowed that Google "will be matched."

Have you noticed how what Bill Gates says in public nowadays is often less interesting than other people's dissections of what he says? That's true in this case as well. In followup comments, Batelle's readers (including some guy named Dave Winer) discuss how the avowedly innovation-obsessed Microsoft often misses the boat -- but does a really good job making up lost ground.

Oh, that fluctuating fine

Careful readers might wonder why stories about the European Commission antitrust ruling, in the P-I and other U.S. publications, give different numbers at different points in time for the fine levied against Microsoft in the case. The reason, often unexplained, is the exchange rate.

The actual figure, the constant, is 497 million euros. But the degree to which the fine has fluctuated in U.S. dollars shows just how much changes in exchange rates can mean to a company. Since the March 24 ruling, the fine has ranged from slightly less than $615 million to slightly more than $585 million, depending on the strength of the U.S. dollar against the euro. (See chart above showing the ups and downs in the fine based on the exchange rate since the ruling was announced.)

Based on yesterday's exchange rate, the fine was toward the high end of that range, around $610 million. But the difference between high and low points during the period is nearly $30 million. In some ways, that's mere change in the pocket of a company that reported more than $13 billion in operating profit last year. But to put it in a different context, it's about half the annual savings the company expects from scaling back its employee stock purchase plan.

And a strengthening U.S. dollar could help Microsoft even more on this issue. In this story, Bloomberg News yesterday quoted a currency strategist for Bank of America saying that he expects the dollar to strengthen to $1.15 per euro by the end of the year, compared with a rate of slightly less than $1.23 per euro yesterday.

Explained in basic terms, if the U.S. dollar strengthens against the euro, Microsoft would need fewer U.S. dollars to come up with the 497 million euros needed to pay off the fine. If the currency strategist’s prediction bears out, the size of the fine, in U.S. dollars, would drop to less than $572 million by the end of the year.

Microsoft’s appeal, filed this week with the European Court of First Instance, seeks to significantly reduce or eliminate the fine. The company also plans to ask the court for a stay that would suspend the behavioral remedies imposed by the ruling -- including an order to sell a version of Windows without Windows Media Player -- until after the court case is resolved, potentially years from now.

On the surface, that would seem to render the issue of the exchange rate moot for the time being. But Microsoft hasn't said specifically whether it will ask the court to suspend the imposition of the fine as part of its request for a stay. The company, which accounted for the monetary penalty as part of its most recent quarterly results, could end up paying the fine up front, then looking for a reimbursement if the ruling is ultimately overturned. That would make the exchange rate a more significant issue in the short term.

Microsoft's SAP motives

In this commentary, Business Week magazine's Jay Greene considers Microsoft's reasons for talking with SAP about a possible merger. His conclusion:

"Microsoft is desperate for new growth. Not so much last quarter, when revenue climbed 17%. And things seem O.K. in the current quarter, when analysts expect sales to rise 12%. But they're likely to slow considerably in the fiscal year that starts July 1. Analysts are projecting Microsoft's annual revenue will increase just 6% in fiscal 2005. With its PC software businesses maturing, Microsoft is keen to find new markets to add revenue."

Defining Apple, Microsoft

Blogging today about the new AirPort Express, Macworld's Jason Snell had a great line, calling it "a product that manages in true Apple fashion to be about a half-dozen ideas rolled together into one small white plastic box."

P-I senior online producer Brian Chin, who writes the Buzzworthy blog, pointed out Snell's description to me and asked a great question: "What would be the archetypal description of a Microsoft product?"

Of course, a Microsoft critic might respond, "Today, Microsoft unveiled the [insert complicated product name here], a system that manages in true Microsoft fashion to incorporate a seemingly infinite number of flaws and potential profit centers rolled together into something so abstract and incomprehensible it can only be described as a 'solution.' "

But I don't think that's entirely fair. And I'm sure someone else can do better. So I pose Brian's question to you: What would be the archetypal description of a Microsoft product? Leave your responses in the comments section below, or send me an e-mail. I'll collect the best of them and publish them in a follow-up post.

More Microsoft secrets?

It might be hard to top for shock value, but yesterday's news of Microsoft's past merger talks with SAP may not be the only Microsoft secret to emerge from Oracle's defense against the U.S. Justice Department's legal challenge to its attempted PeopleSoft acquisition.

In going through the online docket in the case this morning, I came across this letter (download .pdf here) from an Oracle lawyer, delivered to U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker in San Francisco over the weekend, on the eve of the trial.

According to the letter, Microsoft has designated all or part of about 70 percent of Oracle's potential Microsoft-related exhibits "highly confidential," which would prevent them from being presented in open court, leaving them for closed-door sessions. These are materials that Oracle obtained through the process of pre-trial discovery, the same way it was able to confirm the SAP talks. PeopleSoft has designated a slightly larger proportion of exhibits related to its business as
highly confidential.

But Oracle essentially wants to remove that designation from many of the exhibits. It's asking the judge to make Microsoft and PeopleSoft show that any given exhibit really deserves such a strong level of protection -- not letting them make the "unilateral designation of their discovery materials as 'highly confidential.' "

The docket doesn't yet reflect whether the judge made any statement or ruling on the issue yesterday, and none of the reports I've seen from the San Francisco courthouse mention anything along those lines. I'll keep you posted on anything I'm able to find out.

EU appeal links, info

Microsoft said this morning that it filed a 100-page appeal of the European Commission's antitrust ruling against the company. The document is confidential under European court rules, and Microsoft is declining to provide a copy. Here's some of the coverage so far today:

• AP: Microsoft files appeal of antitrust ruling
  
• InternetNews.com: Microsoft's EU Appeal: 'Innovation Undermined'
  
• CNet News.com: Microsoft appeals EU antitrust ruling
  
• Voice of America: Microsoft appeals EU filing

Here's the official statement from Horacio Gutierrez, Microsoft associate general counsel for Europe, the Middle East and Africa:

"On Monday June 7 we filed our appeal against the European Commission’s decision with the EU’s Court of First Instance, based in Luxembourg. The Court has assigned case number T-201/04.

"We believe that the interest of consumers and other European companies should be at the heart of this case. Consumers and the industry benefit from product innovation and competition. The Commission’s decision undermines the innovative efforts of successful companies, imposing significant new obligations on successful companies to license their proprietary technology to competitors, and restrict companies’ ability to add innovative improvements to their products. The legal standards set by the Commission’s Decision significantly alter incentives for research and development that are important to global economic growth.

"As we pursue this appeal, we remain firmly committed to Europe and will continue our efforts to work collaboratively with European governments on the important issues facing European consumers."

'Double-click' patent

Here's the full text of the Microsoft patent referenced in this morning's Insider column. One good story on the subject appeared last week on the Wired News site. See also the related Slashdot discussion.

This was the full statement issued by Marc Miller, a Microsoft spokesman:

We haven’t had any internal discussions recently about this particular patent. This patent relates to functionality utilized in Microsoft’s Pocket PC. As with most of our patents, we would consider licensing it for others to use on commercially reasonable terms if another company asked for a license. Doing so would be consistent with our December 3, 2003 policy statement. Microsoft receives dozens of patents every week. We don’t speculate on what products may or may not infringe patents.

Aside from this particular patent, there are other concerns out there about Microsoft's broader effort to license its intellectual property. See this story by Antone Gonsalves of TechWeb News. For more background, see also this story from last year.

Microsoft's SAP talks

Microsoft today is acknowledging that it held ultimately fruitless merger talks with German software giant SAP last year. SAP also is confirming that the talks took place. Both say Microsoft initiated the discussions. The companies say they are disclosing the talks now because they're expected to be used by Oracle in its effort to defend its proposed acquisition of PeopleSoft against a U.S. Justice Department challenge. See coverage by InfoWorld, and Reuters. Also see this MSNBC story from May about the agreement the two companies did reach.

On tap: Microsoft v. Monti

Microsoft this week is expected to file its formal appeal of the European Commission's antitrust ruling. EU competition commissioner Mario Monti is saying he's confident that the ruling will stand. But the more significant question in the short run is whether Microsoft will be able to convince the court to stay the remedies pending the appeal. See coverage of the issue by Business Week and CNN.

More from Reifman

Former Microsoft technology manager Jeff Reifman's weblog drew an interesting collection of comments on his Seattle Weekly story about Microsoft. (See earlier post). I found it noteworthy that a couple current Microsoft employees were among those who responded to him -- not to criticize what he wrote but to offer possible solutions for the trouble he was having with Microsoft Word.

Ex-Softie's Mac epiphany

The new issue of Seattle Weekly has a cover story by a former Microsoft technology manager, Jeff Reifman, who, as the subhead puts it, "says addiction to Windows revenue, mediocre products, and missed opportunities could doom Seattle’s most successful company." Among his comments:

Over the past year, my frustration with Windows grew, as did my envy of Apple’s cool new products. Finally, last month I went out and bought an Apple Macintosh G5 and began using the new Mac operating system, OS X. It had been years since I’d used a Macintosh. Until recently, I dismissed those who did as impractical, elitist hipsters, and I mocked the Mac “switch” ads on TV.

But in the first five minutes on my new Mac, I was surfing the Internet, sending e-mail, and ripping a CD. OS X has been a breath of badly needed fresh air after Windows.

This made me wonder about Microsoft’s willingness to innovate and compete. Why are Microsoft products still so difficult to use and so unreliable? Why is the company improving them so slowly? Is Microsoft losing its competitive edge? Has the company seen its best days?

Read the full story here.

Windows Media 10 beta

Microsoft today released a preview version of its next media player, Windows Media Player 10. Windows XP users can download it here. New features include what the company is calling a "digital media mall," directing users to various music download sites.

The player also expected to support devices that use "Janus," the company's new digital rights-management technology that will let people transfer subscription-based songs to portable players. (See this Microsoft Notebook on that subject from a few weeks ago.)

See reports on the Windows Media Player 10 "technical beta" on Microsoft Watch, CNet News.com, and PC World.

More reaction to cutbacks

The reaction to Microsoft's decision to cut back on its benefits package, from both inside and outside the company, has been an interesting study in human nature and employee expectations. It's a highly divisive issue. Consider these excerpts from two messages waiting in my inbox this morning:

1) "So when did it become an employer's job to facilitate everything for an employee? Is the outfit there for them or is it the other way around? Do today's workers understand economics, at all? Do they understand where all this started? Should the employer just buy the workers a home on the lake, a new Beamer, and a college education for all the kids too?"

2) "In today's world, struggling with saturated markets for their existing products, struggling to open new markets, what could possibly be better than investing in making employees happy, motivated and productive? Nothing. The company's attitude is misguided. It's not just a bunch of weenies whining about tarnish in a gold-plated work environment. It's about feeling respected for putting the company first, freely working far beyond a 40 hour week to rush complex new products to market, doing whatever is needed to come through in the clutch."

Both of those were in response to yesterday's Microsoft Notebook, which included comments from Microsoft's HR chief, Ken DiPietro, and others, including a stock-compensation expert who outlined what he believes would have been a more equitable method for Microsoft to cut back on its employee stock-purchase program. Also see the second item in yesterday's Insider column for reaction from Boeing workers.

About that $50 iPod killer

There were a bunch of online reports last week saying that Microsoft planned to take on the iPod with a comparable product selling for as low as $50. The stories were based on a news brief in the Denver Post summarizing comments by MSN's Yusuf Mehdi. It made for an interesting debate over Microsoft's prospects for taking on Apple with such a strategy.

Only one problem: That's not what Mehdi said. Jupiter Research analyst Joe Wilcox, of Microsoft Monitor, has a good summary of what happened here. Paul Thurrott also pointed out the mistakes on his Internet Nexus site. Various sites (examples here and here) are running corrections.