Microsoft's Concept Videos From 2000: Why Didn't Ballmer Build Any of It?

Post by milesf » Thu, Sep 12, 2013, 2:39 AM UTC

kvb wrote: post #80

milesf wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know Gates was/is in favour of stack ranking, but I don't think it was in use during his term as CEO. Ultimately the answer doesn't matter to me. The company has always been a bully, both in the marketplace and internally towards their staff. No one wants to see a bully succeed. Edit: Wikipedia says "Since the 2000s, Microsoft used a stack ranking similar to the vitality curve." ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vital…

Root against Microsoft all you want - I just think that stack ranking is too convenient a scapegoat. Valve and Google stack rank, too, but that doesn't mean they're not great companies. Also, Wikipedia's not necessarily an infallible source; see [1] for evidence that stack ranking dates back to '96 or so (at the latest). [1] http://www.alexstjohn.com/WP/2013/08/30/microsoft-review-tim...

Post by bcoates » Thu, Sep 12, 2013, 2:46 AM UTC

corresation wrote: post #31

acchow wrote: post #7

Ideas are worth nothing. A 15 minute conversation with any expert in HCI 15 years ago would cover 95% of these ideas. Execution is everything. Microsoft tried to execute on some of these ideas, but the result was always too cumbersome/confusing.

"Ideas are worth nothing." While it is seen here regularly -- and is always strangely given a pass -- this remains the most profoundly meaningless, if not outright stupid, thing that anyone in this industry can mutter.

Post by mabhatter » Thu, Sep 12, 2013, 3:00 AM UTC

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #10

saurik wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW, Windows Journal was epic , and nothing on the iPad even comes close (nor really can it, due to the inaccuracy of the input compared to an active pen digitizer). I provided some more details on this a long time ago on Quora (which kind of sucks, but it at least saves having to go into a long description ;P). http://www.quora.com/Tablet-Devices-and-Tablet-Market/Why-do...

Pen and touch computing are not competing technologies: you could have one or the other, or both, and the experiences would be complementary. Touch seems to have led to a much larger market than pen, which is still quite useful, just not something that everyone would wind up using like touch. Would love to see Apple get into Pen computing, and this is one area where I think Surface could have really distinguished its…

Post by educating » Thu, Sep 12, 2013, 3:43 AM UTC

notJim wrote: post #82

educating wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Backstabbing happens everywhere, unfortunately. The main problem with MS was that it was too profit driven for too many years instead of trying to do what was best for the users. Making profit eventually has a direct correlation to providing consistent quality that is better than the next guy or more consistently better. It all comes back to happiness; customers are happier when they get what they expect (intuitive)…

Did you read your link? > Despite the above, the quality of the code is generally > excellent...

Post by sahaskatta » Thu, Sep 12, 2013, 4:29 AM UTC

x0054 wrote: post #58

feniv wrote: post #23

Ballmer building any of that would be equivalent to Microsoft actually building some of the technology from their latest "Vision" clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6cNdhOKwi0 All of those things seem simple in hind sight, but there were very real hurdles preventing them from being realized at that time (for example, the Internet infrastructure for real-time video chat). Concept videos like this are just the tech…

You know what's really sad about that Video, even in the future Microsoft imagines them selves using low resolution displays. I mean, for god sakes, every time they would zoom in on that frameless phone thing you would clearly see pixels. Since it's all CGI, they actually went out of their way to give it low res screen look my painting in the pixel lines. I think, at least for me, the true failure of MS Surface was t…