Bet on Microsoft

If I had one thing to say about the current state of business I would say this:
Microsoft is about to do something real big. They are fully focused and hungry.
I been interviewing with quite a few different types of companies, but none like Microsoft. Most big companies don't know their big and aren't aware of the problems in such a state. MS has moved beyond that stage and knows what they are. It took them some time to snap out of it, but they are back. The key of it all is this. Yahoo lost it's engineering power. Oracle lost their engineering power. Google hasn't. That is where the battle front really is, with the technology and not with the businessmen. MS has realized this finally. Visa is set to IPO. I would bet on them also. If you bought Mastercard stock when they IPO'd two years you would have gotten a 5 fold return.

Haters will Hate

A wise man once said that he only tells people one third of what he's doing. That way, they can hate, only on that 1/3rd. W1, can't you relate? You always had a few haters to deal with at any given time. Are you hater free now? Nonetheless, it has been interesting to see so many companies partner with Yahoo in order to keep them from Microsoft. I guess the enemy of my enemy is a friend concept is being played out live and in the flesh. Every software, web type of company is doing their best to prevent the merger. Newscorp, AOL, Google are the biggest three conspirators but there are a lot of underground conversations being had as well. All of the MS haters are trying to coax Yahoo into maintaining their sovereignty.

The High Definition DVD battle is now over. Why? Because Best Buy and Walmart said so. This is something to take a note of. The specification of choice was decided by the Channel and not the customer. When businesses make decision, it usually has to do with profit and not the consumer. So basically we as consumers sat back and allowed the most expensive DVD format to win. Ignorance is bliss, and also expensive. This is scary. When the channel has influence on the development, this usually spells doom for the consumer.

Microsoft + Yahoo = Google

Before discussing the aforementioned title I just wanted to point out that Exxon had a record setting year last year, and so did Shell. Our President and his staff made large sums of money due to their oil investments(Yes, Condeleeza too).

They also will get a tax break. Our President's earnings will be more recession proof than any other citizen in the country. Somehow this reminds me of the dictators and warlords revenue structure which is to make more than everyone else and to profit on his own people's suffering.

Google is a combination of Microsoft and Yahoo with a little bit of Bell sprinkled in. They started off as a service based search engine like yahoo and evolved to a software company. Microsoft is a software company trying to profit off of web activity like Google and Yahoo.

Meanwhile, the latter is a web company that lacks the ability to become a software company. The software is what will allow them to expand and they don't have the business and technical savvy to grow at the previous rates. Google is adding infrastructure and utilities to their tool belt. This gives them more name power than Microsoft because Google can provide a larger solution. Yahoo stopped playing chess and ran out of options.

I told this to MS today when I interviewed with them in verbatim(almost anyway).
I told them that Google was their number 1 threat and them bidding on Yahoo was a testament.

They had a philosophical interview and asked the following:
What the difference between leadership and management
What is the difference between vision and strategy
What is the difference in a core problem and a symptom
What is the difference between small and large company

How do you think I did getting asked those questions?
The goal is to be so good that they allow me to work in the Bay.

JT Morgan, The Engineering Capitalist!

The End of a Trailblazer

Last Friday AOL announced the end of support for the Netscape browser. What a long and strange trip it was for this company.

The irony of the trip this company took as of 2007 the Netscape browser offspring- Firefox- was gaining market share back from Microsoft's Internet Explorer. ( up to 16% market share)

From being the first tech IPO and creating the Silicon Valley tech boon to getting Microsoft's death blow the legacy of Netscape will be intact forever.

MacWorld

I was hoping Apple would launch their Jetsons suite of gadgets. We must not be there technologically quite yet. It's all a matter of time. Pretty soon there will be autopilots for cars and autocooking in the kitchen. Apple will probably come up with the idea first because they understand people the best.

On other highlight besides the picture above is the ultra thin MacBook Air. If they could get the price to below a G then we will have something. A 'G' meaning grand to all of those in the unknown.

They charge like $200 just to see the exhibits at the event. That is too much. Apple is cool and all, but not $200 cool.