Live @ Sax.net

In a recent blog post Robert Scoble addresses the powers that be at Microsoft about why he’s not going to the PDC this year:

But the stone that made the scale tip is that you have employees out there who are attacking bloggers without consequences. That makes me feel unwelcome, which I really don’t need given all my other concerns about attending

A call for corporate censorship of all Microsoft employees who have a personal blog. This comes from a guy who, long ago, in a galaxy apparently very far away, played an important role in making Microsoft a more open, transparent company that embraced reasonably uncensored blogging of its employees.

I’m curious what “consequences” Robert had in mind.

It gets worse: in the comment thread of his post, Scoble writes:

When I was at Microsoft PR told me to never attack anyone who used ink by the barrel. I wonder what changed? Now it’s OK?

The policy that Microsoft (apparently) has adopted is “don’t do anything stupid”, which I personally believe is a GREAT policy. It appeals to common sense, and it shows respect and trust in your employees. 

Robert, your statements go against everything you used to stand for when it comes to empowering bloggers. You’ve become a prima-donna believing that you should be above criticism and that anyone who verbally attacks you should suffer consequences. That’s not the Robert Scoble I used to know.

BusinessWeek has posted a detailed review of the new BlackBerry Storm:

This new BlackBerry is hiding an important breakthrough. Developed in partnership with Verizon and Vodafone, the Storm is a true world phone.

Very nice! However, a few paragraphs later BusinessWeek reveals the Storm’s fatal flaw as a world phone:

The Storm also lacks Wi-Fi, which iPhone users may miss, though access to worldwide 3G data speeds partly makes up for that.

The lack of world wide 3G data speeds make up for that? Not unless you want to spend a fortune on roaming charges. Data roaming is absurdly expensive, and at 3G speeds you could easily rake up thousands of dollars on your next phone bill.

Having Wi-Fi is essential when travelling abroad. Without it, the Blackberry Storm could very well become the most expensive phone you’ll ever buy.

Google Chrome made its debut and has instantly become the talk of the blog world and beyond. Even here in Eugene, Oregon, the local newspaper today dedicated a half page to an article titled “Google redefines the browser”. What is the hoopla all about? A browser that puts tabs above the address bar instead of below it and runs web sites in their own process to prevent one website from crashing all open tabs. If a smaller company had released a product like this, nobody would have ever noticed. Coming from Google, this is headline news in all corners of the planet.

So what is interesting about Google Chrome? It’s not the technical internals like the number of processes or the position of browser tabs. No, this time the devil is in the legal details. The license agreement reveals a lot about Google’s plans and thinking. The original language of Google Chrome’s license agreement contained the following language:

11. Content license from you

11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the Services and may be revoked for certain Services as defined in the Additional Terms of those Services.

11.2 You agree that this license includes a right for Google to make such Content available to other companies, organizations or individuals with whom Google has relationships for the provision of syndicated services, and to use such Content in connection with the provision of those services.

11.3 You understand that Google, in performing the required technical steps to provide the Services to our users, may (a) transmit or distribute your Content over various public networks and in various media; and (b) make such changes to your Content as are necessary to conform and adapt that Content to the technical requirements of connecting networks, devices, services or media. You agree that this license shall permit Google to take these actions.

11.4 You confirm and warrant to Google that you have all the rights, power and authority necessary to grant the above license.

Wow. In other words, use this browser and sign your life away. It’s all fine print, so nobody will read it anyway, right? Not quite. Some bloggers actually did read the fine print and started making a fuss about it. Google, realizing that this could turn into something ugly, acted quickly and removed the offending language. It’s hard to imagine an enormous company like Google not having an appropriate review process that would catch these “mistakes” if they were unintentional. Especially since the exact same thing happened when Google Docs was launched: Google claimed unreasonably excessive rights on anything you created using Google docs.

No big deal, “mistakes were made” and they were corrected… right? Well, sort of. There is more language in the Google Chrome license agreement that may give consumers (that’s you!) pause:

17. Advertisements

17.1 Some of the Services are supported by advertising revenue and may display advertisements and promotions. These advertisements may be targeted to the content of information stored on the Services, queries made through the Services or other information.

17.2 The manner, mode and extent of advertising by Google on the Services are subject to change without specific notice to you.

17.3 In consideration for Google granting you access to and use of the Services, you agree that Google may place such advertising on the Services.

In other words, Google reserves the right to watch your every move, to keep a record of it, and make money off of your privacy through advertising. Google also reserve the right to change their policy and find new ways to use and monitor your information without telling you. You get a free browser and all they want from you is your right to privacy. Pretty good deal, right? For Google. 

Commercial software companies have a very simple proposition to consumers: you pay some money, and you get to use their software. Google’s business model is all about advertising: You get lots of stuff for free, in return for giving up your privacy, which allows Google to sell more targeted advertising.

I actually believe that this can be a legitimate business model, as long as everyone knows exactly what they are getting and giving up. Frankly, I’m not sure that consumers realize the amount of personal information they surrender when they start using Google’s products and services. Google’s self-proclaimed motto of “Don’t be evil” may appear somewhat ironic if you consider that its proposition to consumers is starting to look more and more like a pact with the devil: you get unlimited free software and services but slowly, bit by bit, you end up selling your soul. No wonder they’re worth more than $140 Billion.

Jon DeVaan and Steven Sinofsky have started blogging about Windows 7 and they want your questions.  Here’s mine:

Part of the role of the OS is to both provide infrastructure and show leadership in UI design. Unfortunately, we haven’t seen much from Windows, other than the Windows common controls and a few Vista design guidelines.

Microsoft Office (both Office XP and 2007), not Windows, has really set the standard for how applications should interact with users. Doesn’t this leadership role belong to Windows?

Do you plan to make Windows 7 a platform for building applications with an awesome, consistent user interface?

Earlier this week Office Open XML (OOXML) was voted an ISO Standard by 86% of the voting countries. Having the world’s most popular document format become an ISO standard will obviously enhance the interoperability and longevity of office documents.

Soon a new wave of competing applications will fully support Office Open XML. Everyone involved – including and especially Microsoft – will be required to follow the standard to the letter. No wonder 86% voted to approve it!

OOXML is not the only open document standard: OpenDocument, the native file format of OpenOffice, was approved as an ISO standard two years ago. Sun and IBM have argued that OpenDocument should be the only ISO document standard. These are the companies that have relentlessly lobbied governments under the banner of consumer choice.

Unfortunately, many OpenDocument supporters have no intention of accepting the ISO process and the will of the overwhelming majority. They intend to do everything possible to make sure consumers have no choice of open standards. They’re calling for government investigations, repealing the vote, allegations of corruption, you get the idea.

Wouldn’t we all be better off if they would focus on creating value for their customers instead of lobbying governments to harm their competitors? Isn’t it much better to compete by building more innovative products, doing more original marketing, and taking better care of your customers?

For a more in depth look at the hypocrisy behind this, check out this thoughtful post by Jan van den Beld, former Secretary General of the ECMA standards body. The last paragraph nails it.

I have rediscovered Martin Heller’s writings, and I really enjoy his thoughts. One of his recent columns is on computer languages.

For the last two years or so I have really enjoyed Ruby. So much, in fact, that I may have become a Ruby-snob. For the first time in my life I look down on other languages and I get seriously annoyed when I have to use Java, VB, C#, etc. Thoughts like “this would be so much easier|more readable|shorter|etc. in Ruby” keeping going through my mind.

The other interesting thing is that my experience with dynamic languages like Ruby reminds me of the thoughts I had when I first learned C++: “This OO stuff is a bunch of hot air – you can do the exact same thing in C with function pointers”. Well, that may be true but you can do it a lot easier, shorter, etc. in C++ (and now even more elegant in Java and C#). That’s how I feel about Ruby, and it applies in many aspects of the language.

I very much like Martin’s insight about learning one language making you better in another language. Pascal made me a better Basic programmer. C++ made me a better C programmer. Ruby made me a better C# programmer.

Finally… there are languages you learn, and languages you actually use to write a significant piece of software in. My favorite column of all time is “Exotic Language of the Month”. I don’t remember if it was in Computer Language magazine or in DDJ. Someone should do a blog like that.

Sure, I had read the blogs, viewed the online demos, and watched the hype storm. Based on all that, my impression was that the iPhone was a very nice, well-done first generation Apple product. Today I walked into the Cingular store to check out the iPhone. WOW! I was blown away.

There are no words to describe the experience. I feel like I stepped into the future. It feels so natural. It’s the first time in my life that software – pixels on the screen – actually feels like a real object. I’ve used tablet PCs and other devices, but this is totally different. The flicking your finger to scroll, the pinch for zoom, the super-resolution of the screen. It all adds up to an experience that was almost surreal.

Having said all that, I am NOT buying one right now. (I know, it’s hard) Why? It *is* a first generation product and I’m willing to wait six months (seems like Eternity right now) for a model that has GPS and real 3G, and 16GB. On the software side, I want push email, WiFi calling (like T-Mobile Hotspot@Home), and over-the-air Calendar and Contacts sync. It’s a good thing they didn’t have them in stock or I might not have been able to resist the temptation…

Chad Fowler one of the leaders of the Rails community writes on twitter:

“Just sat down with Scott Guthrie and got a demo of the latest in LINQ. It really does make a Rails developer jealous.”

Now that’s a compliment!

Scoble speculates about Google and Silverlight:

” I can see Microsoft coming at Google with a raft of stuff built on top of Silverlight. For end users at home it’ll look slicker, feel better, and have far better video quality than anything Google can throw at Windows users with YouTube/Flash/etc. “

Robert, Silverlight is the best thing that could ever happen to Google: It validates and empowers their vision of the web as the new application platform. Google doesn’t care whether you run IE or Firefox to check your mail, watch videos, or click on adwords.

Google will fully embrace Silverlight across the board, while continuing to support other technolgies. That’s what they’re doing now: they support old browsers, they take advantage of AJAX, they have native Windows and Mac apps and they use flash. They’ll use whatever technology gets the job done. Good for them, and good for all of us.

TechCrunch nails it:

” Microsoft have a battle on their hands to convince the developer and designer communities that their platform is the best platform, but most of this convincing won’t be a technical showdown but rather the establishment of trust between users and Microsoft as the vendor of this new platform. “