Impressed with Microsoft -- finally -- Azure

I, like a lot of other geeks, have become greatly disillusioned with Microsoft in the past several years. I saw them as anti-innovative, fat-cats protected a revenue stream that did not favors for its users, and becoming a stodgy, quaint grandparent in a tech world, where it thought that it was still the same sex object that it was in its early daze.

Microsoft, in my opinion has hung on too long to its archaic operating system which is essentially one big kludge onto top of a stack of turtles of kludges all the way down to the bare silicon. All of their innovations in almost every endeavor from tablets to phones, to music services,  have been market failures because they stubbornly resisted changes to their bloated, digital-cholesterol clogged operating system.  If they truly want to be innovative, they would ditch it in favor of a brand of QNX or Linux for a sleek, less vulnerable system.  Back in the early daze of the 8086 microprocessor, I saw a QNX system being able to boot from one floppy disk, and in its day, that was amazing.

Now that I got that off my chest, I must grudgingly admit that Microsoft has lit a spark that impresses me with their Azure big data suite.  If they are going to re-invent themselves and breathe new life back into the corporation and become innovative again, then Azure might be the vehicle.

Big Data is where it is at, and where it is going to be if we want to manage and monetize the Internet of Everything. And Microsoft Azure is trying to create and promulgate products to that end with Azure.  I only became aware of Azure when several members of the Azure team followed me on Twitter, and when I checked them out, I realized that it wasn't Bill Gates' Microsoft. I really liked what I saw.

Azure offers data analysis as a service, and they have a free component. It is done in a quasi-cloud environment, and from what I see, once you graduate from the newbie class, the prices is okay.  The good news is that there is a link to some pretty nifty free tools.  Here is the link:

https://datamarket.azure.com/browse?query=machine%20learning&price=free

The tools are varied, useful and intriguing.

Microsoft just may have a chance to dominate the market.  Their thin edge of the wedge with azure is great, but they must follow the template of Microsoft Word when it started to dominate the marketplace.  Back in the day, personal computers were useful, but not that useful when it came to creating documents electronically.  The IBM Selectric typewriter was the weapon of choice to use up reams of paper.  Then along came the word processor.  Dr. An Wang made a fortune from inventing computer memory, and then sunk his money into Wang Labs headquartered in Lowell Massachusetts. The Wang word processor became ubiquitous for several years. It was a dedicated piece of hardware, and tightly coupled software that didn't do anything else except create formatted documents.  Prior to that, electronic documents were printed on a dot matrix or impact printer without stylings.  (The Wang OS was the first OS that I successfully hacked).

Microsoft Word came out and essentially destroyed the word processor.  It was order of magnitude cheaper, easier to use and a mere fraction of the cost.  It is still the dominant document creator to this day.  Microsoft needs to do the same thing with Azure.

Right now, a lot of the Azure products use the statistical language R. Other plugins calculate linear regression, and all sorts of stuff like standard deviation, blah blah blah.  Microsoft needs to hide that under a big layer of abstraction and make all of that invisible to the end user. Picture the end user who runs a niche cafe in a hip town. Their Point-Of-Sale and computer system collects metrics, meta-data and machine data.  The owners of this data has no idea what this data can tell them or how they can increase their revenue streams.  They don't know Bayesian inference from degree of confidence.

Microsoft needs to build data analysis for the common person, like they built word processing for the common person.  If they do that, they will take their company into the next century. If not, they will be the biggest Edsel of the tech industry.  However, for the first time in a long time, I like what I am seeing come out of Microsoft.

If Browsers Were Guns

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One of my business partners sent me this graphic. This tongue in cheek graphic is so true. We have been struggling to make our mobile web app work as intended with that stupid piece of crap called Internet Explorer 9, by that dead-man-walking company called Microsoft.

Microsoft Turning into Spamming National Enquirer

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During World War II, intelligence agencies used something called content analysis to determine conditions and morale in war-time Germany. They did this with soft information. They would get regional and small town weekly newspapers, go through them with a fine tooth comb.

Typically, these papers would have lists of local people that died. From that, they could create overall casualty estimates. The local papers would have notices that the butchery was closed due to lack of supplies. That would tell the Allies of food shortages. An article telling folks how many ration coupons was required for a liter of gasoline was a good window into fuel.

Essentially, content analysis is taking innocuous bits of information, making inference about them and coming up with a bit of knowledge. It is the process of integrating facts into knowledge about a situation.

Analysts on Wall Street do this by looking at balance sheets. However analysts miss the big picture very often. I am still irked that Arvind Bhatia was all over the media, pumping up Facebook saying that it was the best thing since sliced bread. He should be fired or resign in disgrace.

That aside, let's put Microsoft under the lens. I could not believe that my Hotmail inbox had spam from Microsoft. And to top it all off, it was salacious spam of the National Enquirer ilk.

My own content analysis tells me that their search engine Bing is suffering. Of course I don't have to cogitate hard to come to that fact. I have several websites, and I can see what search engines are the referrers, and Bing shows up once in a blue moon.

However this latest spam from Microsoft trying to encourage me to use Bing is pretty much a sign of Seattle desperation. The spam says: "We can't make this stuff up. Scary disease is turning cats into living robots !!!!!!". THe fine print says that you are seeing some of the hottest Bing searches.

I suppose that their reasoning, is that if they spam their entire hotmail userbase, and get a few clicks, then their numbers will improve. But this strategy is just as lame as those used by the spammers of malware and the Twitter spammers who say: Click here because I saw a funny picture of you on the Internet.

How the mighty have fallen. Microsoft used to be so supercilious that they didn't need to advertise at all. Now after begging didn't work, they tried scaring. After logging out of hotmail, they re-directed to a page that tried to tell me that my secure Chrome browser was a 2.5 out of 5 and that I should upgrade to the virus haven Internet Explorer. When the scare tactic didn't work, they sunk even lower and tried the tabloid effect with the kitty robots.

So, chalk up another dead man walking. Microsoft has had its day. And I am a geek but I oughta be a stock analyst. And if I was, I would advise my clients to short the living crap out of Microsoft stock. You will make a ton of money. (Fine Print: This by no means constitutes investment advice. You should consult a professional to be properly advised on how to lose money in the stock market. It is their job to mislead the ordinary investor and give inside information to institutional clients.)

Microsoft Buys Into Nook ~ RIP Nook

Having just bought an eReader (the Sony) and wishing that I had bought a Kindle, I eagerly read about Microsoft putting $300 million into the Nook reader. Microsoft is dead man walking, and everything they have touched eventually turns to crap. They couldn't make a go of their phone. They have lost the internet browser market because of their bullheadedness in integrating it with Windows and trying to rule the computing world with an OS that is bulky, bloated, regressive, poorly designed and made and literally a piece of crap.

Microsoft did have dominance, and they were a world changer, but they couldn't take the news that their paradigm no longer works. And, believing that their dominant position was because of their belief in their own brilliance, they haven't had many successes lately.

They are using wads of cash to stuff into the holes to stop the market-share hemmorage, and they have lost the ability to think strategically and re-invent themselves.

So, I am here today as a prophet to say that Nook the eReader is also dead man walking. Having Microsoft invest in anything remotely successful, is the kiss of death in the marketplace. They will bugger up the OS to try to incorporate Outlook or do something similarly stupid and ruin a good product. They are clutching at straws and applying $300 million dollar bandaid fixes and are going nowhere. They need a total re-invention, and they don't have the balls and creativity to do it.

In the meantime, goodbye to Nook. I never did use you because ebooks are cheaper on Amazon, but I am sure that there will be some folks out there who will be sad to see you go.

Microsoft - Facebook Partnership ????

I signed out of Facebook this morning (yes I am still on it, but not for long) and this popped up when I signed out.

When did Microsoft get into bed with Facebook and how much did they pay to do so? This has to be some serious cash for Facebook from Microsoft to do this. But Microsoft has the cash and they are desperate. Not only has the Internet Explorer browser lost it number one dominance, but their search engine Bing has failed to ignite as well.

I was already used to the numerous Microsoft ploys to sneak Bing into the metrics of search engine usage. For example, when you sign out of a Hotmail account, it re-directs to an MSN page. Over half of the links are faux-links with teaser titles that make you think that you are getting an interesting article, where in fact it turns out to be a link to a Bing search. To me, that is a real bait and switch tactic.

But this latest Bing on Facebook thing must be really good for the bottom line of Facebook. I can't even imagine what Microsoft would pay for that exposure, but it would have to be hefty. As for a prediction, I still don't think that it would make a dent in Google -- at least not among the tech cognoscenti.

Microsoft Mango Desperate For Developers

It looks like Microsoft is desperate for developers to make apps for the Mango phone. I am a registered Microsoft developer, and I just received the email printed below. (They want $99 from me to develop apps. Amazon just waived the $99 fee for developers to develop on the Android phone). Here is the email:

Mango for everyone Vol 14 | October, 20

It’s been a very exciting couple of weeks in the world of Windows Phone! Over the past two weeks, we have seen an incredible amount of activity surrounding the launch of Windows Phone 7.5 (formerly Mango). It’s actually been somewhat surreal in some ways because people are paying attention to this release and actually think it’s downright cool!

So what exactly did we announce over the past few weeks? I’m glad you asked! The major announcements included:

The Release of Windows Phone 7.5 by carriers to end consumers: Microsoft has begun delivery of the Windows Phone 7.5 update to Windows Phone users by carriers. To find out when your carrier will be ready to send out the update to you, there is a handy little web page here that gives you the status of the update relating to your carrier.

Introducing the Mango App Challenge: Developers, do we have an awesome deal for you. We have introduced a promotion called the Mango App Challenge that in essence will give you a new phone (up to 300 total for the entire promotion) if you build 2 new, quality Windows Phone 7.5 apps (or games). Interested? Then start your PC and begin coding, because the promotion ends on December 15th, 2011!

The Introduction of the Web-Based Marketplace: Last week the web-based version of the Windows Phone Marketplace was launched. This is great because it allows you and potential end users to find and purchase apps you’ve built onto their phones using a non-Zune experience. It’s also great for providing a way for potential users to see your apps that don’t even have the Zune software on their machines.

Windows Phone SDK 7.1 Launches: Also last week, we launched the go-live version of the developer tools for Windows Phone 7.5 and you can download the tools here for free . Even if you’ve built Windows Phone 7 apps already, it’s a good idea for you take a look at your app and update them to take advantage of the Windows Phone 7.5 features that were previously unavailable.

The Marketplace Expands by 19 Countries: When Windows Phone 7 launched, the Marketplace supported 16 countries. With the update of the Marketplace, we have included 19 new countries making it easier for your apps to reach an even larger audience.

In-App Advertising: In the past it was difficult to collect the revenue from in-app advertising using Microsoft’s Advertising Framework as it required you to provide a US non-PO box address for US tax regulations. That requirement is no longer required for Canadian developers using the Microsoft Advertising solution . This gives you a really great new option for monetizing your creations on Windows Phone.

A Change to the Bulk App Policy: One of the things that Microsoft is committed to is providing the end consumer with the best possible experience to find, download and enjoy apps and games. To ensure that experience remains extremely enjoyable, we have made some changes to our bulk app policies . In a nutshell, app publishers will be able to submit up to 10 apps in a day for certification. Likewise, publishers will limited to publishing 10 apps in a single day as well.

That’s just some of the cool stuff that’s been happening on the Windows Phone front. Excited? We certainly hope you are! So since you’re excited (and maybe have a couple of great ideas for apps that you want to build and get a free phone out of it), how do you start? Below are some steps that can get you from idea to published app!

GO DO's:

Download the Windows Phone SDK 7.1 . All the tools you need to start building apps and games are here.

Read the Microsoft Canada Windows Phone Development resource page . This page contains links to everything you need to start learning how to build amazing app and game experiences on Windows Phone.

Register as a developer on the Marketplace. Once you’ve developed your app, you’ll need to submit it to the Marketplace for certification and publication which requires you to be registered on the Marketplace (it’s a $99 annual subscription).

Build a second app or game, and submit both of your new apps/games to the Mango App Challenge !

Paul Laberge

Developer Advisor, Microsoft Canada Inc.