There’s some great comments on yesterday’s piece about Microsoft. And there’s still time to add your thoughts before my dinner tonight. You know what to do.
How can Microsoft stop us hating them?
So what do you think of Microsoft, eh? No, really. I want to know.
I have to admit I’m not exactly a fan. I’ll explain why momentarily. But Microsoft is changing, or at least wants to change, and I’m finding it hard to shed old impressions.
The Blue Monster cartoon is part of this changing Microsoft. Its creator, Hugh MacLeod, intended it as a conversation-starter — what he calls a social object. Steve Clayton from Microsoft UK says they use it to help Microsoft start talking about its own process of re-birth.
I’m cynical when software companies claim grand goals like “changing the world”. That over-the-top rhetoric was central to the first dot-com bubble. Usually, the bigger the rhetoric the crappier the product. Still, I’m willing to listen.
Another sign of a changing Microsoft is my friend Nick Hodge, who sold me my first Mac back in 1985. Nick now works for the Blue Monster as an “enthusiast evangelist”, and represents how Microsoft is embracing blogging and a new culture of openness — and actually having conversations with people instead of talking at them.
But can Microsoft really change and, more importantly, convince us to believe them?
Stupid long Microsoft product name
Microsoft was already well into their keep-the-customers-confused strategy with at least five different versions of Windows Vista rather than the two of XP. But does the world _really_ need — I kid you not — Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate UPGRADE Limited Numbered Signature Edition?
Is Google a spammmer?
Could the most popular search engine Google, which claims it can make money without doing evil, be engaged in spamming? Recent activity on this blog would suggest so — and they certainly have both motive and opportunity.
DCITA Conflict of Interest
Doesn’t anyone else think “Ahem, conflict of interest!” when the new chair of the federal government’s Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Advisory Board is one Steve Vamos, MD of Microsoft Australia? Especially when there’s no “community” representation whatsoever.
If Microsoft made iPods
Can you imagine Microsoft making something as sexy as Apple’s iPod?
I didn’t think so.
And neither does the creator of this parody video showing what Apple’s sleek, minimalist iPod packaging might look like if it were redesigned by Microsoft. And the version I’ve shown in the thumbnail image (right) is just the start — watch the video and you’ll see what I mean.
Humour aside, this is a beautiful illustration of how two very different companies approach the task of packaging — one with class, the other with all the grace and style of a drunken hippopotamus.