The most useful thing Microsoft ever made (OK, funded) was Age of Empires. Now if only they'd make another.
The Microsoft Empire Reboots
151–160 of 173 posts
Re: The Microsoft Empire Reboots
#152Earlier quoted context omitted.
I see it as the same reason chefs don't like cutting carrots with table knives. It's a lot cheaper than a nice knife, and the carrots get all mushed up in the stew either way. But a nice knife is just a joy to use, and when you cut carrots all day, you want something that is a joy to use.
I don't disagree with a chef having a good knife to cut carrots, I disagree with a chef needing a new knife for every batch of carrots he cuts, especially when lesser chefs will have to come and tend to these carrots with special cuts (and you must understand these special cuts) 2, 3, 5 years down the road.
My knife isn't perfect, but I'll keep just it and no other life long if I have to. I don't need a new one for each batch of carrots.
But when collaborating on a curry, I don't want to use the same knife as the guy who cut the tomatoes wants to use. That knife looks blunt and rusty to me.
Re: The Microsoft Empire Reboots
#153Earlier quoted context omitted.
This rings true. I had some relations with Microsoft last year and it's incredible how inward-looking they are. They spend most of the time telling you how great everything Microsoft-like is or will be, and don't seem to be well aware of the outside world. They know there are things like iPhones and Android devices, but they appear truly baffled that anyone would want one. They think it's some kind of conspiratory re…
With most companies, the center of gravity is obviously on the customer side. The customer, and the market, is ultimately the boss. With the customer lies the product/market fit, the fickle and life-giving revenue stream, the demand that drives features and product and ultimately existential corporate strategy. But when you achieve the dominance and size and cash hoard of Microsoft, that center of gravity shifts -- t…
[deleted]
Re: The Microsoft Empire Reboots
#154Microsoft has some of the most amazing products and many terrific engineers. Unfortunately, it is also has some extremely negative associations, most of which have been earned and even, perhaps, proven. * unfair and sometimes illegal business practices * sabotage of innovative technologies when they conflict with Microsoft's monopolies * eugenics * empire * surveillance state (Skype/NSA)
Eugenics? Are you high or just incredibly stupid and listen to that nut job Alex Jones?
This might be what they're talking about: http://skeptoid.com/blog/2013/12/16/why-would-bill-gates-wan...
Yes, it is "drunk or high or Alex Jones"-level idiocy. It is, in fact, fractally stupid: Believing it requires you believe multiple other things, each of which is just as dumb as the whole. For example, it requires you to believe the following things are evil: GMOs in general, vaccines, and wanting to reduce the world's population.
Re: The Microsoft Empire Reboots
#155Earlier quoted context omitted.
I cut my teeth with VB 5/6. I still think there is nothing on the market that is as fast in creating applications. If you did things properly (MVP! remember that?) it was quite maintainable. I still know of several VB apps still in service.
If you do things properly, PHP is maintainable... C is maintainable... The problem is "properly" is surrounded by a lot of people who slap stuff together, reinvent the wheel (NIH syndrome) or just plain don't know how to program. I shudder when I look at old VB code... and thank God that I have VS2013, resharper and C#. I think the issue people have is "it's never as good as it used to be". You remember the good, for…
> I think the issue people have is "it's never as good as it used to be"
Part of it is probably that the computing world has become more complicated: A significant share of developers have left Windows, and clients want to play around on their iPads and Samsung tablets. It was much easier to be a "perfect" dev environment when absolutely everyone was running Windows.
Re: The Microsoft Empire Reboots
#156Earlier quoted context omitted.
Apple stopped selling it on their website. I heard they've stopped producing it and what you see in stores now is the remaining stock - what's your source that they're still making it? Furthermore, the virgin mobile link you gave is for no contract - but locked phone. While it's not comparable to $200-with-a-2-year-contract, it is also not comparable to an unlocked phone.
Apple stopped selling it on their website. Most competitive makes don't sell their devices on their website at all. That really doesn't demonstrate anything. Not only does Apple still manufacture the 4S, they recently restarted production of the iPhone 4 (sans S) for the developing world. I would cite this, but you can find references everywhere and with ease, so that hardly seems necessary.
> Most competitive makes don't sell their devices on their website at all. That really doesn't demonstrate anything.
And yet, Apple does, so it's a hint. They've been selling 4S on their website up until a month ago.
> I would cite this, but you can find references everywhere and with ease, so that hardly seems necessary.
It took you longer to write this than it would have to google a reference and post it. But then you would have noticed that (a) it is all rumors, and (b) it is from February - 8 months is a long long time in manufacturing.
Re: The Microsoft Empire Reboots
#157Earlier quoted context omitted.
Apple stopped selling it on their website. Most competitive makes don't sell their devices on their website at all. That really doesn't demonstrate anything. Not only does Apple still manufacture the 4S, they recently restarted production of the iPhone 4 (sans S) for the developing world. I would cite this, but you can find references everywhere and with ease, so that hardly seems necessary.
> Most competitive makes don't sell their devices on their website at all. That really doesn't demonstrate anything. And yet, Apple does, so it's a hint. They've been selling 4S on their website up until a month ago. > I would cite this, but you can find references everywhere and with ease, so that hardly seems necessary. It took you longer to write this than it would have to google a reference and post it. But then…
And yet, Apple does, so it's a hint.
Markets have segments. Apple decided to sell their 4S through other channels in the US (they still sell it on their site in Brazil, which I guess by your logic proves that they still manufacture it. That is a country of 200 million), likely to continue this absurd and so easily disproven myth, repeated in here, that they only chase the high end.
But then you would have noticed that (a) it is all rumors, and (b) it is from February - 8 months is a long long time in manufacturing.
It actually isn't hard at all, nor are they rumor sites. I'll give you a hint -- Apple moved all iPhone 4s and 4 production to a manufacturer called Pegatron. And before you implore me to provide the research for you, how about you demonstrate a single credible source that Apple ever stopped manufacturing it?
Re: The Microsoft Empire Reboots
#158Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Most competitive makes don't sell their devices on their website at all. That really doesn't demonstrate anything. And yet, Apple does, so it's a hint. They've been selling 4S on their website up until a month ago. > I would cite this, but you can find references everywhere and with ease, so that hardly seems necessary. It took you longer to write this than it would have to google a reference and post it. But then…
And yet, Apple does, so it's a hint. Markets have segments. Apple decided to sell their 4S through other channels in the US (they still sell it on their site in Brazil, which I guess by your logic proves that they still manufacture it. That is a country of 200 million), likely to continue this absurd and so easily disproven myth, repeated in here, that they only chase the high end. But then you would have noticed tha…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone#Model_comparison says it is discontinued. If it's so easy to cite a credible site that says it is still in production, why don't you just do it?
No, wikipedia isn't credible. Can you find a source that says the 2007 first generation iPhone is no longer in production? By your logic, it is still in production.
It's possible that you are a party to non public knowledge. All power to you. But the public knowledge I was able to find does not support your assertion.
Re: The Microsoft Empire Reboots
#159Earlier quoted context omitted.
This, a million times. I'm a bit further down the abstraction chain but I am thoroughly glad I sit there all day writing C/C++ for Windows native (win32) GUI applications. I know once I've tested it on one machine it's going to work fine on all the other ones. It's the most stable API and platform I've ever seen. Code we wrote for Windows NT4 works fine on Windows 8.1 and behaves exactly the same. Compare that to our…
I agree, but if your coworkers is anything like mine and you asked him if there is a fundamental problem with web development as a platform choice for internal apps, I expect he would suddenly forget all the pain he goes through on a regular basis. I've watched my company burn about a million dollars unnecessarily in the last two years because of choosing a 100% web interface for an entirely internal project (of dubi…
The frameworks are the problem. There is no such thing as a "JavaScript guy" really, everything is about the framework, every app is some dev's first in that framework before it drops out of fashion, and knowing framework X doesn't give you any leg up onto framework Y. Experience counts for nothing.
In the old days, you could learn C or SQL and for every hour of learning get a hundred or a thousand hours of real use, and you have at least a fighting chance of picking up some other guys code, or vice versa.
Re: The Microsoft Empire Reboots
#160Earlier quoted context omitted.
> But the web is hard to write and hard to extend/maintain. The web is distributed and distributed is hard. The problem is that it is also what people want. We haven't regressed from VB6 -- we've advanced, but the demands of the market may have gotten more complicated faster than the popular tools have advanced in their ability to simplify them.
But the web isn't hard because its distributed. Its mostly because HTML and CSS were not designed for making applications.
Exactly. If Microsoft had written Outlook in VBA as a plugin for Word, they'd have been laughed out of the room. But that's exactly what Google did with Gmail...