Is the rumored Microsoft/Yahoo deal about search and online advertising or something more? If you own Microsoft stock, you better hope it’s more because a $50 billion price tag on Yahoo does not forebode ROI for quite some time.
Microsoft still leads the way in business software, from their hugely popular operating systems and office product lines, but change may be on the horizon. More and more, in the Web 2.0 world, organizations are leaning towards online processes for business development, and arch-rival Google is positioning to fill this void. Through shared application and collaboration services like SharePoint (a Microsoft product), businesses are exploring more ways to migrate from PC-based (stand-alone) to inter/intra-net-based mechanisms for work product development. Companies are also “searching” for ways to increase productivity with business products through cost-effective means.
Personally, I am a huge fan of Office 2007, both as a shared application and stand-alone, but the price is steep ($559 for an upgrade to Office 2007 Ultimate and $800 for the full version). Microsoft must find ways to create and develop profit margins in this unit as it expands with the Office-Live initiative without passing the bill directly to the consumer. If Microsoft cannot adapt to more effective price models, they risk losing their “Golden Egg” to Google. One speculative possibility for these "alternative" profit-making measures is through targeted online advertising, of which Yahoo is the "second-most" authority in the world. Their assistance in this effort might very well be the answer and the rationale for spending the $50B.
Showing posts with label microsoft. Show all posts
Showing posts with label microsoft. Show all posts
Friday, May 4, 2007
Monday, April 16, 2007
Silverlight is illuminating
Just a quick note, in case you don't subscribe to Microsoft Blogs.
Microsoft has come up with a name for their new graphics platform, formerly known as "codename" WPF/E. The new platform, set to compete with Adobe Flash, is called Silverlight.
From a marketing perspective, an application that competes with (and actually surpasses) Flash, that is a cross-platform and cross-browser plug-in capable of supporting HD-type video, is something worth noting. The sample applications such as the video library and page-turn gizmo are really nice (and fast).
Of course, this application was not created solely for designing web-sites or making new whiz-bang presentations, but more likely designed also as a format to drive the next YouTube and be omnipresent in the evolution of the Network-TV-Internet led by YouTube and Joost.
Kudos to Mike Harsh and the rest of the guys at Microsoft.
Microsoft has come up with a name for their new graphics platform, formerly known as "codename" WPF/E. The new platform, set to compete with Adobe Flash, is called Silverlight.
From a marketing perspective, an application that competes with (and actually surpasses) Flash, that is a cross-platform and cross-browser plug-in capable of supporting HD-type video, is something worth noting. The sample applications such as the video library and page-turn gizmo are really nice (and fast).
Of course, this application was not created solely for designing web-sites or making new whiz-bang presentations, but more likely designed also as a format to drive the next YouTube and be omnipresent in the evolution of the Network-TV-Internet led by YouTube and Joost.
Kudos to Mike Harsh and the rest of the guys at Microsoft.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Does immigration process hinder US innovation?
Does the current H1-B visa immigration system hinder US innovation, dissuade domestic research and development, and create more of a job gap by increasing the demand for off-shoring and outsourcing? This is the question that Congress has been pondering over the past few weeks. On March 7, 2007 Bill Gates (Chairman of Microsoft and Co-Chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation), spoke on this topic as well as education policies during an open hearing to the US Senate committee on Education and Labor.
I want to post some excerpts of Mr. Gates speech on immigration reform. The entire testimony can be found here. Mr. Gates addresses the need to not only increase the number of foreign engineers and developers that may come to the US, but also to retain the engineers that are being trained in our own universities. Mr. Gates speaks eloquently and succinctly on the pitfalls of the current practice and the “backwards” logic of our current regulations.
From Mr. Gates Testimony on 3/7/2007:
“Unfortunately, America’s immigration policies are driving away the world’s best and brightest precisely when we need them most. I appreciate the vital national security goals that motivate many of these policies. I am convinced, however, that we can protect our national security in ways that do less damage to our competitiveness and prosperity. Moreover, the terrible shortfall in our visa supply for the highly skilled stems not from security concerns, but from visa policies that have not been updated in over a decade and a half. We live in a different economy now. Simply put: It makes no sense to tell well trained, highly skilled individuals – many of whom are educated at our top colleges and universities – that the United States does not welcome or value them. For too many foreign students and professionals, however, our immigration policies send precisely this message.
This should be deeply troubling to us, both in human terms and in terms of our own economic self-interest. America will find it infinitely more difficult to maintain its technological leadership if it shuts out the very people who are most able to help us compete. Other nations are recognizing and benefiting from this situation. They are crafting their immigration policies to attract highly talented students and professionals who would otherwise study, live, and work here. Our lost opportunities are their gains. I personally witness the ill effects of these policies on an almost daily basis at Microsoft. Under the current system, the number of H1-B visas available runs out faster and faster each year. The current base cap of 65,000 is arbitrarily set and bears no relation to U.S. industry’s demand for skilled professionals. For Fiscal Year 2007, the supply did not last even eight weeks into the filing period, and ran out more than four months before that fiscal year even began.
For Fiscal Year 2008, H-1Bs are expected to run out next month, the first month that it is possible to apply for them. This means that no new H-1B visas – often the only visa category available to recruit critically needed professional workers – will be available for a nearly 18-month period. Moreover, this year, for the first time in the history of the program, the supply will run out before the year’s graduating students get their degrees. This means that U.S. employers will not be able to get H-1B visas for an entire crop of U.S. graduates. We are essentially asking top talent to leave the U.S. As with H-1B visas, the demand for green cards far exceeds the supply. Today, only 140,000 permanent employment-based visas are available each year, which must cover both key employees and their family members. There is a massive backlog in many of the employment-based green card categories, and wait times routinely reach five years. Ironically, waiting periods are even longer for nationals of India and China – the very countries that are key recruiting grounds for the professionals desperately needed in many innovative fields.
In the past, we have succeeded in attracting the world’s best and brightest to study and work in the United States, and we can and must do it again. We must move beyond the debate about numbers, quotas, and caps. Rather, I urge Congress to ask, “How do we create a system that supports and sustains the innovation that drives American growth, economic opportunity and prosperity?” Congress can answer that question by acting immediately in two significant ways.
First, we need to encourage the best students from abroad to enroll in our colleges and universities, and to remain in the United States when their studies are completed. Today,
we take exactly the opposite approach. Foreign students who apply for a student visa to the United States today must prove that they do not intend to remain here once they receive their degrees. This makes no sense. If we are going to invest in educating foreign students – which we should and must continue to do – why drive them away just when this investment starts to pay off for the American economy?
Barring high-skilled immigrants from entry to the U.S., and forcing the ones that are here to leave because they cannot obtain a visa, ultimately forces U.S. employers to shift development work and other critical projects offshore. This can also force U.S. companies to fill related management, design, and business positions with foreign workers, thereby causing further lost U.S. job opportunities even in areas where America is strong, allowing other countries to bootstrap” themselves into these areas, and further weakening our global competitive strength. If we can retain these research projects in the United States, by contrast, we can stimulate domestic job and economic growth. In short, where innovation and innovators go, jobs are soon to follow.
Second, Congress should expedite the path to Permanent Resident status for highly skilled workers. The reality for Microsoft and many other U.S. employers is that the H1-B visa program is temporary only in the sense that it is the visa we use while working assiduously to make our H1-B hires – whether educated in the U.S. or abroad – permanent U.S. residents. Rather than pretend that we want these highly skilled, well trained innovators to remain for only a temporary period, we should accept and indeed embrace the fact that we want them to become permanent U.S. residents so that they can drive innovation and economic growth alongside America’s native born talent. These reforms do not pit U.S. workers against those foreign born. They do not seek to make or perpetuate distinctions among the best and brightest on the basis of national origin. They simply recognize the fact that America’s need for highly skilled workers has never been greater, and that broad-based prosperity in America depends on having enough such workers to satisfy our demand. Far from displacing U.S. workers, highly skilled foreign-born workers will continue to function as they always have: as net job
creators.”
I want to post some excerpts of Mr. Gates speech on immigration reform. The entire testimony can be found here. Mr. Gates addresses the need to not only increase the number of foreign engineers and developers that may come to the US, but also to retain the engineers that are being trained in our own universities. Mr. Gates speaks eloquently and succinctly on the pitfalls of the current practice and the “backwards” logic of our current regulations.
From Mr. Gates Testimony on 3/7/2007:
“Unfortunately, America’s immigration policies are driving away the world’s best and brightest precisely when we need them most. I appreciate the vital national security goals that motivate many of these policies. I am convinced, however, that we can protect our national security in ways that do less damage to our competitiveness and prosperity. Moreover, the terrible shortfall in our visa supply for the highly skilled stems not from security concerns, but from visa policies that have not been updated in over a decade and a half. We live in a different economy now. Simply put: It makes no sense to tell well trained, highly skilled individuals – many of whom are educated at our top colleges and universities – that the United States does not welcome or value them. For too many foreign students and professionals, however, our immigration policies send precisely this message.
This should be deeply troubling to us, both in human terms and in terms of our own economic self-interest. America will find it infinitely more difficult to maintain its technological leadership if it shuts out the very people who are most able to help us compete. Other nations are recognizing and benefiting from this situation. They are crafting their immigration policies to attract highly talented students and professionals who would otherwise study, live, and work here. Our lost opportunities are their gains. I personally witness the ill effects of these policies on an almost daily basis at Microsoft. Under the current system, the number of H1-B visas available runs out faster and faster each year. The current base cap of 65,000 is arbitrarily set and bears no relation to U.S. industry’s demand for skilled professionals. For Fiscal Year 2007, the supply did not last even eight weeks into the filing period, and ran out more than four months before that fiscal year even began.
For Fiscal Year 2008, H-1Bs are expected to run out next month, the first month that it is possible to apply for them. This means that no new H-1B visas – often the only visa category available to recruit critically needed professional workers – will be available for a nearly 18-month period. Moreover, this year, for the first time in the history of the program, the supply will run out before the year’s graduating students get their degrees. This means that U.S. employers will not be able to get H-1B visas for an entire crop of U.S. graduates. We are essentially asking top talent to leave the U.S. As with H-1B visas, the demand for green cards far exceeds the supply. Today, only 140,000 permanent employment-based visas are available each year, which must cover both key employees and their family members. There is a massive backlog in many of the employment-based green card categories, and wait times routinely reach five years. Ironically, waiting periods are even longer for nationals of India and China – the very countries that are key recruiting grounds for the professionals desperately needed in many innovative fields.
In the past, we have succeeded in attracting the world’s best and brightest to study and work in the United States, and we can and must do it again. We must move beyond the debate about numbers, quotas, and caps. Rather, I urge Congress to ask, “How do we create a system that supports and sustains the innovation that drives American growth, economic opportunity and prosperity?” Congress can answer that question by acting immediately in two significant ways.
First, we need to encourage the best students from abroad to enroll in our colleges and universities, and to remain in the United States when their studies are completed. Today,
we take exactly the opposite approach. Foreign students who apply for a student visa to the United States today must prove that they do not intend to remain here once they receive their degrees. This makes no sense. If we are going to invest in educating foreign students – which we should and must continue to do – why drive them away just when this investment starts to pay off for the American economy?
Barring high-skilled immigrants from entry to the U.S., and forcing the ones that are here to leave because they cannot obtain a visa, ultimately forces U.S. employers to shift development work and other critical projects offshore. This can also force U.S. companies to fill related management, design, and business positions with foreign workers, thereby causing further lost U.S. job opportunities even in areas where America is strong, allowing other countries to bootstrap” themselves into these areas, and further weakening our global competitive strength. If we can retain these research projects in the United States, by contrast, we can stimulate domestic job and economic growth. In short, where innovation and innovators go, jobs are soon to follow.
Second, Congress should expedite the path to Permanent Resident status for highly skilled workers. The reality for Microsoft and many other U.S. employers is that the H1-B visa program is temporary only in the sense that it is the visa we use while working assiduously to make our H1-B hires – whether educated in the U.S. or abroad – permanent U.S. residents. Rather than pretend that we want these highly skilled, well trained innovators to remain for only a temporary period, we should accept and indeed embrace the fact that we want them to become permanent U.S. residents so that they can drive innovation and economic growth alongside America’s native born talent. These reforms do not pit U.S. workers against those foreign born. They do not seek to make or perpetuate distinctions among the best and brightest on the basis of national origin. They simply recognize the fact that America’s need for highly skilled workers has never been greater, and that broad-based prosperity in America depends on having enough such workers to satisfy our demand. Far from displacing U.S. workers, highly skilled foreign-born workers will continue to function as they always have: as net job
creators.”
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Don't Forget About DST
Just a friendly reminder, several weeks ahead, that Daylight Savings Time will be undergoing a change this year. First mentioned by Benjamin Franklin, and first observed in the US in 1918, Daylight Savings Time will shift its schedule this year as part of an energy plan presented by President Bush last year. The plan, while currently under a trial basis, is hypothesized to cut energy costs by shifting the amount of time spent at home and in the office during sunlight hours and adding approximately four weeks to DST.
Why mention it now? Well, for those applications running on legacy operating systems, there might be a slight hiccup in their automatic time adjustments. For some of my friends still using Time-lapse VCRs (dinosaurs), this is just a reminder to set your schedule a bit differently this year. If you are running systems by Microsoft, here is a good link to keep you up-to-date on the updates for your PCs. If you are running a Unix-based DVR/NVR, you may have to adjust the schedule manually at 2AM on March 11th. Any comments on other update sites are appreciated.
Why mention it now? Well, for those applications running on legacy operating systems, there might be a slight hiccup in their automatic time adjustments. For some of my friends still using Time-lapse VCRs (dinosaurs), this is just a reminder to set your schedule a bit differently this year. If you are running systems by Microsoft, here is a good link to keep you up-to-date on the updates for your PCs. If you are running a Unix-based DVR/NVR, you may have to adjust the schedule manually at 2AM on March 11th. Any comments on other update sites are appreciated.
Monday, January 8, 2007
The Blogosphere, RSS, and the Wall Street Journal
I need to say “Thank you” to my local paper delivery service for not being able to deliver the Wall Street Journal. I have been a WSJ subscriber for years and I still believe the Journal is the best source for unbiased and critical reporting of today’s top issues. However, upon moving about a year ago, I was dismayed to find out that even though I have moved to the fastest growing county in Virginia, I could not receive morning delivery of the Journal. Instead, I would have to wait until the postal mail came sometime after lunch to get the news that I needed to keep on top of the day. Obviously, short of starting my own paper-route there was nothing I could do that would allow me to keep my routine of reading the top stories with my morning java, or was there? Along with my print subscription to the Journal, I also signed up for an online version that I could read 24/7 (as the news broke). Of course, I set my homepage (or actually one of my home "tabs" using IE 7.0) to this link and I was back in business.
Now by starting my cyber-routine at “coffee-time,” I can not only browse the Journal article I want, but I can scan my RSS feeds and keep up on the blogs that are of interest to me. That’s the difference in today’s online media versus the old days of 2002-03. Today we are much more aware of targeted media outlets like blogs or RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds that allow us to digest more relevant information and not wade through the cosmetic crap that fills up the AOL or MSN homepages.
Most of the readers on this page have probably figured out how to use RSS or scan blogs, but for those unlucky few who came across my musings by happenstance, I have listed a couple of tips that may help you consolidate your morning routine and ensure you have the information that is important to you.
First, get yourself a good mail program and/or browser. As a “Microsoft” guy, I use Outlook 2007 and IE 7.0, but you can use Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird as a ready alternative. The key is to have the ability to integrate RSS feeds into your mail or favorite websites section. There are specific RSS Readers that are great for this ,too. With a little preparation, you can open your program of choice and, voila, have the news feeds you care about. They may be from the Journal, Department of Homeland Security, or possibly Bob the Builder. Whatever it is that you are looking for, if it was posted, written about, or captured on video while you slept, it will be ready for you first thing in the morning. Personally, I like the integration with Outlook 2007 and IE 7.0. When I subscribe to a feed using the RSS button in IE 7.0, it automatically adds the feed to Outlook. Then any time a new feed is written, it comes into my mailbox like email messages. I can scan the subject line and determine its relevance before I engage the story itself.
But how do you find what you are looking for? Well, fortunately most traditional news outlets use RSS today, and most have topical RSS feeds (such as Tech Journal or Washington Wire). Also, a lot of today’s companies are instituting RSS feeds or blogs to discuss topics relevant to their development. If you want information from a supplier or vendor and want to be alerted of a change, a blog subscription or RSS feed is a great way to stay on top of it (i.e. Suite-Soft Blogs). Finally, there are several engines devoted to sorting out relevant blogs. My favorite is Technorati (http://www.technorati.com/). Blogs are a great way of communicating with other like-minded thinkers out there. Some great blog topics for businesses deal with tax strategies, corporate policy, and, of course, a plethora of sites on programming.
By the way, look for the RSS Gadget in the Microsoft Windows Vista™ Operating System. It is nice to have a feed for RSS always on the desktop. I am sure there is a “Widget” available for you Mac guys as well. Finally, I have a friend who lives by the phrase “Cash is King,” but I am repeatedly thinking to myself, “Information is King,” and the blogosphere is becoming a great place to find it.
Now by starting my cyber-routine at “coffee-time,” I can not only browse the Journal article I want, but I can scan my RSS feeds and keep up on the blogs that are of interest to me. That’s the difference in today’s online media versus the old days of 2002-03. Today we are much more aware of targeted media outlets like blogs or RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds that allow us to digest more relevant information and not wade through the cosmetic crap that fills up the AOL or MSN homepages.
Most of the readers on this page have probably figured out how to use RSS or scan blogs, but for those unlucky few who came across my musings by happenstance, I have listed a couple of tips that may help you consolidate your morning routine and ensure you have the information that is important to you.
First, get yourself a good mail program and/or browser. As a “Microsoft” guy, I use Outlook 2007 and IE 7.0, but you can use Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird as a ready alternative. The key is to have the ability to integrate RSS feeds into your mail or favorite websites section. There are specific RSS Readers that are great for this ,too. With a little preparation, you can open your program of choice and, voila, have the news feeds you care about. They may be from the Journal, Department of Homeland Security, or possibly Bob the Builder. Whatever it is that you are looking for, if it was posted, written about, or captured on video while you slept, it will be ready for you first thing in the morning. Personally, I like the integration with Outlook 2007 and IE 7.0. When I subscribe to a feed using the RSS button in IE 7.0, it automatically adds the feed to Outlook. Then any time a new feed is written, it comes into my mailbox like email messages. I can scan the subject line and determine its relevance before I engage the story itself.
But how do you find what you are looking for? Well, fortunately most traditional news outlets use RSS today, and most have topical RSS feeds (such as Tech Journal or Washington Wire). Also, a lot of today’s companies are instituting RSS feeds or blogs to discuss topics relevant to their development. If you want information from a supplier or vendor and want to be alerted of a change, a blog subscription or RSS feed is a great way to stay on top of it (i.e. Suite-Soft Blogs). Finally, there are several engines devoted to sorting out relevant blogs. My favorite is Technorati (http://www.technorati.com/). Blogs are a great way of communicating with other like-minded thinkers out there. Some great blog topics for businesses deal with tax strategies, corporate policy, and, of course, a plethora of sites on programming.
By the way, look for the RSS Gadget in the Microsoft Windows Vista™ Operating System. It is nice to have a feed for RSS always on the desktop. I am sure there is a “Widget” available for you Mac guys as well. Finally, I have a friend who lives by the phrase “Cash is King,” but I am repeatedly thinking to myself, “Information is King,” and the blogosphere is becoming a great place to find it.
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