uh-oh microsoft

[SoulEata]

80% of MS employees have ipods!!

http://www.wired.com/news/mac/0,2125,66460,00.html

[seadzz]

A. I find this hard to believe since 4Poo's do not support WMA

B. Gates has a "woodie" for Apple

C. MS is really pushing to get a competitive music service similar to iTunes

If this is true rest assured they will be giving out H10's free in Redmond WA(MS Hq) next week.

sdz

[FlameGrilled]

I really dont give a rat's wotsits what the management at Redmond think of this.

At the end of the day, those employees are free to do as they please when it comes to buying their choice of player.

If it irks the management so much, they have the option to ban the units - that said, they'd have to instigate a DAP/MD/CDP/FP wide ban (aka no personal audio or multimedia units allowed) in the workplace.

And do you think that'll attract any of the non-owners to buy PlayForSure compliant decks..??

Would you buy one, knowing damn well your bosses were instigating a 'only our products are to be used on our sites' witchhunt..??

I think not.

Let the management team go rot in hell, and blow off their hot air over something that's even worthy of wasting much conference and meeting time over.

I once argued a case that totally destroyed a workplace ban that should have prevented me from taking a DAP into work with me, and i didn't just win... it was a Perry Mason grade win vs the management.

Details, i'll skip, as the story is way too long and involved to go into - but the key to my win, was breaking their case open with a sledgehammer and destroying the creditability of their supporting case.. by effectively 'nuking it from orbit', and not one mention was used over 'freedom' either

[ripgroove2002]

bill gates has a massive share in apple anyway maybe just dishes them out to everyone who he dont like! haha

[Praz]

I guess this would seem like a bigger deal to me if Microsoft produced a hardware player itself. It's not as if people are really passing up a company product anyway. Plus, it is none of the company's business really. However, I would have to say, for the people in the digital media departments (that work on Windows Media Player) it may be a bit of a conflict of interest. You'd think that the people in charge of that department would be able to make something that they themselves actually like to use.

[musiknonstop]

As a former employee I find that statistic very unbelievable!

[TCK]

Originally Posted by FlameGrilled

I once argued a case that totally destroyed a workplace ban that should have prevented me from taking a DAP into work with me, and i didn't just win... it was a Perry Mason grade win vs the management.

That big?

[sweetspot]

This is pretty old news. But I"ll bite again. There aren't many times when I'll fully agree with FG, let alone not be scared off by his really short posts, but this is definitely one of those times that I fully agree. Whether it's true or not that management would try to ban iPoos on the premisis or not, I don't know, no one does really. But if it is, then I take FG's stance on this, and digress from saying anything further.


P.S. That may have been one of the shortest FG rants I've ever seen. Congratulations on attempting to tune the fine art of condensing ! Joyful day!

[riffraff]

Originally Posted by From the Article

"It shows how their backs are against the wall.... Even though it's Microsoft, no one is interested in what we have to offer, even our own employees."

Face it; Bill missed the boat again, just like he did the internet. MS is pretty much doomed to forever play catch-up.

[jkavanagh58]

Missed the boat? The iPoo units were out and trendy before decent competition hit the streets. Many of my techie friends were sporting the inadequate iPoo, sharing their music libraries across the wire...I have a small and very old MP3 player that I just used for the gym and stuck with it due to my distaste for Apple.....

[sweetspot]

MS is pretty much doomed to forever play catch-up.

LOL...Tell that to Bills wallet !!

[Astec]

I did some research for a project a few years back and it was for bill gates, purely out of interest. They guy pays $1,000,000 in land tax alone, then his heating bill (air conditioning) in his fortress on lake michigan (Spelling?) is another 50times that as its on all day everyday. Thats per year. So he is sorted for life. I read somewhere he can afford to spend 1million a day till he is 60 (provided MS stay afloat) and will still have several million left. I would strugle to spend 10grand a day personally.

[sweetspot]

You'd struggle to spend ten grand a day ? That means you're pretty damned well off then man. I'd struggle to spend less than a hundred a day !

[Astec]

Im a computer tech nut and love cars and bikes too so could easily spend it on those, but other crap only (ie non cars computers etc) then no chance, 20 a day for some food and I'd be fine.

[BBD]

Originally Posted by From the Article

"I don't really care if it pisses them {Microsoft upper-echelons--BBD} off," he said. "I'll argue why they're doing it wrong. If you want me to stop using it, give me a product that works and is as easy to use."--Dave Fester, general manager of the Windows Digital Media division....

I think that sums it up pretty well. I personally don't like the iPod and don't understand why anyone would buy one when there are so many better DAPS out there; but what I do like is that (cr)Apple forces other manufacturers to up their game to compete. If MS would get its shite together and pump cash and marketing at their attempt to get a bite of the DAP marketshare, it could only benefit all of us.

BBD

[NPswimdude500]

**UPDATED**

Mr. Gates was worth ~47 billion dollars

thats: $47,000,000,000 (USD)

absolutely insane. the man could more than live off the interest from that

but then again, i guess he's still trying to catch up to the world's richest man (no, its not Gates)

in fact, the founder of Ikea (Ingvar Kamprad) is worth a good bit more, at ~$53 billion

[Astec]

Gates sells 2 copies of Micro shite every second of every day. Yet more useless facts.

http://www.askman.com/toys/top_10/11b_top_10_list.html

top 10 richest men according to that and others he is worth 60Bn. I would guess thats a US bn not a Uk one thats 1,000,000,000,000

[NPswimdude500]

well....i guess my facts are a bit outdated. but how come Ingvar Kamprad isn't even on that list ? the no.10 guy is worth 23 billion, which is much less than 53 billion (obviously)

Astec: read this bit about a billion, although idk how true it is

EDIT: i've figured it out (as i'm rather interested, because this stuff is pretty fascinating)

when Kamprad owned IKEA, it was considered part of his wealth, so owning IKEA, he was worth $53 billion.but he was forced to sell it, so now he's only worth $18.5 billion, leaving him 13th on the list of world's richest men.

although Forbes still has Gates at $46.6 billion...

[jaysee]

I think the Ikea guy also got a helping hand with the state of the US dollar which bumped him up over people who were rich in US dollars rather than Swedish ...ummmm, thingys....? (I really should know the currency of Sweden).