Ping: Episode 9

A few comments:

1. no more caffeine for Laura, sometimes it's hard to follow you.
2. what do you guys do at Microsoft?  You really haven't covered that, you probably have on C10, but not here.  Are you developers, managers, evangelists, what does your business card say?
3. porn.. porn.. porn.. haha.. yes, well some of us use our internet connection for other things, most of us use it to download explicit pictures.
4. on the Windows Mobile thing, the thing that does make the iPhone awesome is that Apple does controls the entire experience.  Why doesn't Microsoft?  With it's billions of dollars, make their own phone, without the gluttony of telecom.

what do you guys think?

OK, this is my second time attempting a reply.. The last time, the site crashed.

1. Thought so
2. Sure, cover that in a separate episode.  Most C9 interviewees are asked who they are and what they do within the first 30 seconds of most interviews.
3. Ha!  That is one feature I have not tried.  IE8 is still a bit slow for me.  If I leave tabs open and come back to them after a little while (10+ minutes), the browser is a bit sluggish
4. Yes, I'm sure it is.  Microsoft is a platform company, however, most cellular providers don't care about allowing you to upgrade, they want you to buy a new phone and sign a new contract.  Most people don't realize that hardware is cheap.  Also, most phones you hear about with new amazing features are crippled by the carrier.  For example, I live in Canada, and my provider is Bell, and I cannot download ringtones from free sites because BELL blocks it.  Makes me so angry.  As for what would stop manufacturers from moving to a different OS, nothing.  What stops anyone from moving to a different anything, really nothing.  Or maybe, the ability to adapt and relearn what they currently know on the new device/OS.  But also, one could be said the BlackBerry is great for what it does.  It runs JAVA (sorry, I'll drop and give you 20), but it serves specific niche of users.  I've never really used a Windows Mobile phone for an extended peroid of time, but I Do have an iPAQ and it's the best darn MP3 player I've ever used!

Cheers!

OK,

This is annoying.  The page refreshes, makes Firefox have a seizure, and I lose my post.  Totally frustrating.

Let's see if I can scrape together what I was typing before the world went away.

I absolutely agree with you, anytime Microsoft tries to anything remotely nice, it's perceived as having ulterior motives and is usually thrown against the wall for nothing.

I don't see Google or Apple having a site like C9 where they interview Senior Engineers about what they doing internally.  Actually when was the last time you heard anything from those guys.  Sure Google has a channel on YouTube but I can't remember a time when they interview someone for more than five minutes.  Most of the videos posted are advertising or instructional videos.  The only thing I've seen which remotely resembles a C9 interview was when the Engineers who created Chrome where interviewed.

I don't think Google or Apple is as transparent as Microsoft.  Many people just can't get over old pain.  And if you say, well Microsoft doesn't open source their code, when the last time Google or Apple released anything they've done as open source?  Please tell me if you know.