Dawn of the Iconoclast
like a sundown on reverse

Recital ανειλικρίνειας

October 30, 2007 03:35 by KCorax

 

Με ενοχλεί ιδιαίτερα η τάση κάποιων ανθρώπων να ερμηνεύουν τα πάντα με ένα τρόπο, συνήθως τον μόνο που ξέρουν. Κάποιες φορές το κάνουν συνειδητά κιόλας σαν πολιτική ρητορεία και ανησυχώ μην πείσουν και κανέναν. Το αγαπημένο μου παράδειγμα είναι η συζήτηση για το επίπεδο ποιότητας στην τηλεόραση και στις τέχνες γενικότερα.

 

Εμφανίζεται λοιπόν ο κάθε όχι ιδιαίτερα ταλαντούχος ηθοποιός που ασχολείται μόνο με επιθεωρήσεις χυδαίες και υπερασπίζεται τη συνωμοταξία του επικαλούμενος Αριστοφανικές καταβολές. Στην ίδια κατηγορία και ο ένας παρουσιαστής που έχει συνδέσει το όνομα του με τα reality τηλεπαιχνίδια περισσότερο απο κάθε άλλον. Σύμφωνα με τους ίδιους επιτελούν βέβαια κοινωνικό έργο αφού 'δίνουν στον κόσμο αυτό που θέλει'. Το οτι τα δύο αυτά είδη πάνε συνήθως άπατα δεν έχει καμία σημασία, τους αρκεί που ικανοποιούν το 'λαό' .

 

Ή άλλη πλευρά είναι αυτοί που εκπροσωπούν παραγωγές υψηλότερου ομολογουμένως επιπέδου, οι οποίοι αδυνατούν όμως να καταλάβουν γιατί οι μέσοι πολίτες δεν περνούν μερικές ώρες ομφαλοσκόπησης αφού διαβάσουν την ημερήσια δόση τους από άπαντα του Κούντερα. Γενικά προπαγανδίζουν μια στροφή στην ποιότητα αλλά συχνά σερβίρουν και έργα κονσέρβας -κυρίως κωμωδίες καταστάσεων- όταν κρίνουν οτι τους παίρνει να κάνουν μια αρπαχτή.

 

Η αλήθεια βέβαια είναι οτι ο καθένας θέλει μια ποικιλία σε αυτό που παρακολουθεί. Όχι πολλή χυδαιότητα  γιατί σε κάνει να αισθάνεσαι φθηνός και τελικά δεν προσφέρει τίποτα παραπάνω απο διασκέδαση, όχι πολλή σοβαρότητα γιατί κουράζει.

 

Α και μην ξεχάσουμε τους ηθοποιούς που πιάνει η κάμερα μετά απο κάθε πρεμιέρα και εξηγούν πως η παράσταση ήταν ταυτόχρονα τόσο αστεία που πέθαναν απο τα γέλια και τόσο συγκινητική που έκλαιγαν μεταξύ γέλιου. Αυτοί είναι τα μεγάλα ταλέντα, θέλει ταλέντο στην υποκριτική για να καταφέρεις να τα πεις αυτά ενώ σκέπτεσαι να βγάλεις τα μάτια σου με το κουτάλι.

SAP acquiring BusinessObjects

October 9, 2007 03:35 by KCorax

 

SAP probably the largest programmable CRM/ERP provider out there is about to cough up 4.8 BILLION EUROS to buyBusinessObjects . OMG WTF ! I'm dizzy.

 

Remember they are both traditional desktop developers, whose apps are at best network hybrids. Both have extreme diffusion in the market. It's very unlikely that you can live your day without your data passing through systems that are made by either. SAP is pervasive, but BusinessObjects' Crystal Reports... DAMN !

 

But seriously that’s.. That's a damn lot of money.

 

Aaaaah ! 4.8 B-I-L-L-I-O-N-S !!!111!!1one!!!

Kindly relay this to Ozzie ?

October 6, 2007 03:36 by KCorax
Apparently Major Nelson of XBox Live fame is meeting with upper execs later this month. He has posted an open invitational for propositions on what to discuss with the upper management.
 
Passport
  • Stop renaming services again and again. Passport was made into MSN then .net then Live Passport and now login.live.com.
  • Renaming also creates discontinuities in our code. Each change of name for passports was reflected in namespaces, urls etc. I don't think anyone likes that. Just make sure the code is based in very neutral names like Search Engine, Blogs, Mail, Calendar etc.
  • Do you dig loosing money ? If not then expedite the adoption of OpenIDand dump the load to 3rd parties. This also solves the problem of people not trusting you with their data. Feeling lucky ? Make a public challenge to Google to provide you with their authentication services for users who want to log on Live using Google's OpenID servers.
Software plus Services
  • Old timers really dig this approach. It's nice being able to rely on the responsiveness of desktop applications. It is the right way to go. However some services need to get their software. I don't see any reason why I can't monitor Expo auctions or QnA discussions in a messenger tab.
  • There isn't enough action going on. I wholeheartedly understand that services are delayed because you are preparing infrastructure, but that's not an excuse. If the resources are limited then give people access via invitations. It's proven to work, it's viral and it keeps interest at healthy levels.
  • Good god, get us a Live Calendar. We want a desktop app that will sync with an online app. Both should be very simple and fast. The Vista calendar will do as a codebase I suppose.
  • Get Skydrive to mount as a network folder, and merge it with the Live Messenger shared folders. I don't see why I have to pray for my contacts to come online in order to leave my workplace without worrying if they will have their updated files.
  • Give us a unified SDK wrapped in .net code, and package it with Visual Studio. Let the changes be slipstreamed like the Vista SDKs were. Let the tools appear in the toolbox so we can drag drop them in, instread of making REST calls for god's sake. 
Letting people know
  • Blogs are great and stuff, but information is way to dispersed right now. There should be a single vector of pouring in information about Live. An official Live blog, where we would see a monthly article from Ozzie, and get accurate information about what's coming and when.
  • A unified index of the blogs behind each service is a good start. Take a cue from Office's site where each product has a list of it's members' blogs.
  • That said, why is there no RSS reader software available ? Couldn't you at least endorse another free product and package it with the Live Suite ?
  • Fill the gap of information and feedback. Many many products out there don't have a channel where users can tell what's wrong. The forums won't do. They are dated and my personal experience is that Microsoft employees don't read them.
Outlook
  • And final point: Allow us to dump Outlook ! I swear to god, when I realized that I would have to upgrade to Outlook in order to sync with my Windows Mobile device I was seeing red. Outlook is great, but everytime I wait 15 seconds for it to open a mail item on my Core Duo laptop I die a little on the inside.
  • The best way to improve the state of the onion is to detach the Outlook database and ActiveSync extensions from the UI. This way the Live apps can take advantage of those, maybe sync directly with the Live.com services, and perhaps later the open up the API for other apps to click in.
  • The Outlook connector sucks. It ate my data more than once. Thankfully reviving older files in Vista is a snap.

Cha-Cha human powered search -- leaves a lot to be desired

October 2, 2007 03:36 by KCorax

 

Cha-cha made a debut earlier this year (I think). I didn't go there in the first place, but I was looking for a contact to add to live messenger. After many failed queries to Google, I tried to see if there is a people targeted search which would help me find contacts. So Itried this.

 

Sure enough Cha-cha is the 4th result, and intrigued as I was about it I went there. After confirming that I'm not a bot via a standard mail-in confirmation, I landed on their search page and had the following conversation. I should point out that the discussion -including the wait time as I was transfered between human guides- took me 8 minutes. I should also point out that in the end the guide explained that he can't help me and disconnected before I could tell him that I had found a solution.

 

Status: Connecting ...
Status: Looking for a guide ...
Looking: ...
Status: Stacey has connected to help you with your search on how can I find specific people registered on live messenger ?. Please wait while your guide searches for your results.
Stacey: Welcome to ChaCha!
Stacey: Hello
You: hi
Stacey: You're looking for people registering on Yahoo messenger, MSN, etc?
You: yes
Stacey: Ok, let me check it out for you.
Stacey: Thanks for being patient! Rest assured I'm finding the most relevant results for your search.
Stacey: I"m getting another guide for you. Just a moment, please
Transfer: You are being transferred to another guide who can help you search even better!
Status: Looking for a guide ...
Status: Nicholas has connected to help you with your search on how can I find specific people registered on live messenger ?. Please wait while your guide searches for your results.
Nicholas: Welcome to ChaCha!
Nicholas: Hey, sorry for the wait with the transfer.
Nicholas: Let me ask this - do you know any personal information of the person you're looking for on live?
You: I know his name and affiliation with employer
Nicholas: Ok, with a name I believe it's possible to look up somebody on live, through the Add Friend option. One moment while I bring up a page that should help with that.
You: the page doesn't really help, there is no such information in it
You: i'ts just an enumeration of the various versions
Nicholas: Unfortunately that's the best available; there isn't really information saying specifically how. I would suggest checking out the help section of Live Messenger, I believe there's a built in feature to add somebody based on a name, but i'm not too familiar with it.
Nicholas: I would recommend getting in contact with Microsoft directly, as a search engine probably isn't the best way to find that information out.
Nicholas: My apologies. Have a good day and thanks for using ChaCha!
Nicholas: Please RATE ME. Thanks for using ChaCha.
Status: Your ChaCha guide was Nicholas ID: 83253
Status: Session ended.


Categories: Antitech | Whining
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