Keep your eyes on the ball

These kinds of articles from the New York Times and Wired about the proposed Microsoft-Yahoo acquisition really get to me. Why? They’re premise is all wrong. When it comes to whether Microsoft will acquire Yahoo, it’s not about winning and losing the deal. No matter what happens, the next day will come, and the next, and the next. And it’s what Microsoft does with these days that’s really at issue–whether with Yahoo or not.

The trouble signal is not whether Microsoft tries and fails, but whether they are hungry enough to do anything at all. Lack of hunger is the killer of most every tech enterprise I’ve been around. The engineers have to be hungry. The sales staff has to be hungry. The executives have to be hungry. You have to have the drive to try. You have to have the capacity to keep going despite all odds. Tomorrow’s success will quiet the fiercest fortunetelling naysayer.

What I see that’s so promising about all of this is that Yahoo is expressing their hunger right now as it tries to position itself better and Microsoft is expressing their hunger as they try to find the sweet spot on the web. I see losers in neither of them.

Would you give up Outlook?

Robert Scoble twitters: “My Microsoft Office trial is over. I am not spending $450 just to get Outlook. Gmail and Google Calendar win this game: big time.”

and:

“I’ve been watching my usage. In two months I’ve only used Outlook out of the entire Office Suite. Everything else? Moved onto online servcs.”

Yep, the bells are tolling for Office–at least the 1990s Office.

I wonder how fast the transition might be for many of us from Office to some other product. Remember Wordstar in the 80s? And WordPerfect in the 90s? Will we soon be saying the same for Word/Outlook in 2010? Sure is going to be interesting to see how things unfold. I’m voting on change. Who’s change, I don’t know yet. In the past, I would have given the edge to Microsoft, but hmmm… The calculation isn’t as easy as it once was.

I rarely use Office apps too, except for OneNote. The rest of Office I use most often when I have to interact with others in large companies. For the little things, or when working with others I use Google Docs.

If you use C#, do you need spec#?

Scott Hanselman talks to the spec# team at Microsoft.

What is spec#? It sits ontop of C# and according to its website provides:

“The Spec# programming language. Spec# is an extension of the object-oriented language C#. It extends the type system to include non-null types and checked exceptions. It provides method contracts in the form of pre- and postconditions as well as object invariants.
The Spec# compiler. Integrated into the Microsoft Visual Studio development environment for the .NET platform, the compiler statically enforces non-null types, emits run-time checks for method contracts and invariants, and records the contracts as metadata for consumption by downstream tools.
The Spec# static program verifier. This component (codenamed Boogie) generates logical verification conditions from a Spec# program. Internally, it uses an automatic theorem prover that analyzes the verification conditions to prove the correctness of the program or find errors in it.
A unique feature of the Spec# programming system is its guarantee of maintaining invariants in object-oriented programs in the presence of callbacks, threads, and inter-object relationships.”

Here’s an overview in PDF form.

I haven’t taken more than a couple minutes to see what spec# is, but I can see where the general idea of programming by contract is a reasonable one for some cases. Is this implementation discoverable and valuable enough not only to the human, but the computer? I’m not so sure. Worth checking into.

[Found via thred.com\msdev]

The iPhone isn’t what I want

I hope you’ll indulge me for a few minutes. I have something I need to take care of. It’s rather personal, so I hope you don’t mind.

I need to talk with my iPhone.

iPhone?

You’re beautiful. You’re a wonderful device and a pleasure to be with out on the town. And it’s not just me that admires you. You know the looks you get wherever we’re traveling around. And you’ve made a difference in my life too. I appreciate that. With you I’ve stayed more connected with family and friends. You’ve shown me how to enjoy TechMeme and Twitter and Thredr on the go. And with no other device have I enjoyed so much checking the weather, or stock prices, or using the stopwatch, or alarms. Plain and simple, you’ve been there when I needed you. (OK, minus a few dropped calls.)

However, no matter how much I enjoy our time together, I’ve come to realize that it’s not working out. It’s time for a change.

I know there’s not much I can say at this point, however, please understand it’s me not you. Simply, I need more.

I’ve come to realize I need a larger display. Your display is gorgeous and fine for infrequent web browsing, however, since I’ve known you I’ve come to realize how important browsing is to me and now I accept the fact that your display is not for me.

I also need a good camera. Life is too short and too fast not to capture photos of what I want. Just an example: You know I’ve had some issues keeping track of my various medications this past year. I know I could have typed them into your notepad, however, I really wanted to take pictures of the medicine bottles and labels so I’d have all the information with me all the time. However, your pictures are just too blurry. I can make out some of the details on the labels, but I know now I need more.

I also need video. Yes, I’ve seen an app online that looks promising, however, I don’t know if this will ever be something we can use together….you know, jailbreaking makes me uncomfortable. And even I were to get over the jailbreaking part, I see now that I need direct connectivity to the Internet so I can broadcast live. I want to experience Qik with my device.

I also know now that I need more of a browser. You’re cute and all and a blast to surf with. And I never realized how much I enjoy pinching just for the fun of it. However, I miss Flash. When we first got together you knew how important Flash was to me, however, for whatever reason I realize you couldn’t adjust. And, frankly, I’m tired of you cutting out all signs of Flash and just leaving tiny blue boxes. Truthfully? It just seems so petty to do this to Flash. I don’t understand why we couldn’t just get it to work out.

And then there’s Silverlight. As a developer I have to keep trying out new technologies and seeing what they can do. I need Silverlight. And I’m not going to accept more cut out blue boxes whenever Silverlight shows up. I’m not going to live that way.

And while I’m being completely honest, I need to be up front and tell you that I need a device which is more connected. WiFi is great at home, but on the go, you’re not the same. Sometimes when we’re searching the web at a store or in the car, you just sit there. I can’t tell if anything is happening. You show a little bit of blue in your address bar, but I can’t read you. I can’t tell if I’ve done something wrong or what. It drives me crazy. I need more.

Where am I going now? Well, despite the fact that I still think you’re the best “MID” out there, I’ve decided I need a MID. A real MID. For me, a MID is just the right size, with just enough connectivity and power to give me the browser experience I want, and to provide me with a camera I need. I realize I’m giving up something great for the hope of something better, but as an early adopter I have to.

And as a programmer, I need the freedom. I know theoretically I can add whatever features I need to you. However, you come with so many rules and restrictions, I always feel like I’m being held back and wearing a straightjacket. I don’t think you trust me. I don’t think you appreciate what I can do for you. I enjoy writing programs that make our lives better and help people. With you I feel like I’m being held back. MIDs are offering me the freedom I want.

I’m sorry about this, iPhone. I realize I committed to another year with you, but I think we need to reconsider this. I’m willing to share our settings for another year if you like, but it can’t be an exclusive. I need to move on. Well, take some time, recharge yourself, and let me know what you think.

I know I’m going to kick myself for letting the best thing go, however, I need to try something different. I’m not going to be happy staying here and it’s not fair to you if we stay together and we don’t get along.

It may be tough for awhile, but give it some time. I know it’ll be the best for the both of us.

Translating the Obvious

DRUDGE REPORT FLASH 2008®

Hillary Clinton’s inner circle now fears a stinging defeat is likely in North Carolina.

“Look, we worked hard and gave it our best shot, but the demographics, well, they are what they are,” a top campaign source explained to the DRUDGE REPORT as voting began Tuesday morning.

The campaign now believes a 15 point loss, or more, would not be surprising. Her team will work hard throughout the day to lower all expectations in North Carolina.

Here’s what this “leak” to Drudge really means. Hillary now expects to lose North Carolina by five points or less. What her people are trying to do is manage the expectations to make that loss look like a smashing victory (which, in reality, it probably would be).

Today is not going to be a good day for Barack Obama. But I doubt it will change the ultimate outcome. The media, so thoroughly in the tank for Obama, won’t let it.

Blabberwhacky from the WSJ

The Housing Crisis Is Over - WSJ.com

Since then, house prices have fallen 10%-15%, while incomes have kept growing (albeit more slowly recently) and mortgage rates have come down 70 basis points from their highs. As a result, it now takes 19% of monthly income for the average home buyer, and 31% of monthly income for the first-time home buyer, to purchase a house. In other words, homes on average are back to being as affordable as during the best of times in the 1990s. Numerous households that had been priced out of the market can now afford to get in.

This is just more of the usual rah-rah bullshit from the WSJ, always jawboning economic blemishes into invisibility.

What this article misses is that the “housing boom” didn’t occur nationally. It occurred locally, in major urban areas. Places like my home town, Muncie, IN, had a high affordability rating right through the boom. It was places like my current hometown, San Francisco, where affordability plunged to levels like 12 percent. And it’s still low. In fact, it remains quite low for most of California.

We are still in the earlier stages of the great housing bust. Two years from now, re-read this article, and have a good laugh at the author’s expense.

only in california

Major drug bust at San Diego State University.

Those arrested included a student who was about to receive a criminal justice degree and another who was to receive a master’s degree in homeland security.

“A sad commentary is that when one of these individuals was arrested, they inquired as (to) whether or not his arrest and incarceration would have an effect on him becoming a federal law enforcement officer,” said Ralph Partridge, special agent in charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in San Diego.

Yep. You’ve got to wait until after you become a Fed to break the law.

Big Brother (Is Watching Your Heart - and Liver - and Triglycerides….)

New wi-fi devices warn doctors of heart attacks - Times Online

The Bluetooth wireless technology that allows people to use a hands-free earpiece while making a mobile telephone call could soon alert the emergency services when someone has a heart attack, Ofcom predicts.

The communications regulator said that sensors could be implanted into people at risk of heart attack or diabetic collapse that would allow doctors to monitor them remotely.

If the "in-body network" recorded that the person had suddenly collapsed, it would send an alert, via a nearby base station at their home, to a surgery or hospital.

However, Ofcom also gave warning in its report, Tomorrow's Wireless World, that the impact of such technology on personal privacy would require more debate.

This was inevitable. I’m surprised, in fact, that it hasn’t already been implemented. And this won’t be the end. Look for full-body health monitoring on a 24-7 basis, coming soon. It may only go to your home computer, which will contain diagnosis programs, or it may go into the cloud somewhere. But it’s coming. And I expect geezers like me, who are looking for every little edge we can get to help us over the hump into real longevity, will be among the first to snap it up.

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Lots of Microsoft-Yahoo questions

This weekend I don’t know how many times I was asked by friends and neighbors whether I thought the Micorosoft acquisition of Yahoo was going to go through. In particular, I was surprised at how many non-technical people are following the possible deal. The reality is though, I don’t have a clue what’s going to happen. No one does.

Like Mary Jo Foley, the Wall Street Journal and others I have heard rumblings about the proposed deal. Most tech people I know are against it. I’m not, but then again I’m often wrong, so I’m probably on the wrong side of this one. I accept it.

Why do I think a Microsoft-Yahoo mindmelt would be a good idea? It would give Yahoo market leverage and it would give Microsoft new blood–new thinking. The tricky part for both is that Microsoft needs to be careful not to go too overboard in its acquisition so that once if does go through, if ever, that it has the financial strength to leverage it. Likewise, it’s got to be careful not to discourage the Yahoo employees that it very well could benefit from. Same goes for Microsoft’s employees. I also nonsensically like the idea of Microsoft expanding its Bay Area focus. What can I say? I love California–Seattle, not so much.

No matter what happens though, I doubt it’ll have much impact on what I or many of the people I know use or do.

I remember when Microsoft purchased Hotmail. This was one acquisition I was against. The reputation for Hotmail email was terrible. Now, it’s not, even if the name is kind of 1995ish. It just goes to show how things adapt and change.