HP + Autonomy = Oops...

Wow, that’s certainly a surprise (what font do I use for sarcasm?).

When the Autonomy acqusition was announced, I went to their web site and I remember thinking, “It doesn’t look like these guys actually do anything.” Turns out I was right. But I’m sure that Autonomy CEO Mike Lynch has a forceful personality and is very good with PowerPoint, because that’s all it takes to get rich in this business. I’ve worked for two of the top four global software companies, so I have a bit of experience with the type.

In case people have forgotten, Oracle (yes, I’ve worked there) poked fun (rightfully) at this mess with a couple of press releases. You can see them here and here.

I just hit my daily parentheses quota, so I have to conclude this post now.

Microsoft Is Forgetting History

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” — George Santayana

Let’s talk about the past. Windows 3.0, released in 1990, was the first version of Microsoft’s GUI OS that PC users actually wanted to use. It was the beachhead of the Redmond invasion. But in 1990, Microsoft was an outsider in the office productivity market. WordPerfect and Lotus 123 dominated word processing and spreadsheets in the DOS world.

Unfortunately, both of those companies failed to grasp that a paradigm shift in the way that people interact with computers was underway, a shift pioneered in the marketplace by Apple with the Macintosh. When they finally did release Windows versions of their products, both were poorly received because neither company “got it” when it came to GUIs. This product void was quickly filled by Microsoft’s Word and Excel and the market leadership of WordPerfect and Lotus virtually evaporated overnight.

Today another shift is taking place and Microsoft is the company that doesn’t “get it”. Actually, they haven’t gotten it for awhile, but the popularity of tablet computing, and the iPad in particular, is the tipping point that they are blind to. People are discovering that Office is no longer a “have to have” necessity.

Minimal Mac: Microsoft's Biggest Mess

I misread the tile of this blog post the first time I read it — it’s ‘miss’, not ‘mess’, but my misinterpretation stands. Patrick Rhone perfectly explains something that has been percolating in my mind for awhile now. I’m not a casual user; I use spreadsheets and documents every day in my work. But in a year of using my iPad, I’ve found that the iWork suite meets my needs the majority of the time. Even when I’m not using my iPad, I now find myself firing up iWork or Google Docs more frequently than Office.

Ironically, thanks to Microsoft, I don’t need Microsoft Office. By not offering an iOS version of their productivity suite, Microsoft has inadvertently weaned me off of my addiction.

Colloquialisms

Colloquialisms can be useful in conversation, putting a colorful wrapper around otherwise drab words. This can be especially useful in my line of work, information technology, but sometimes they do backfire…

I was taking over as project manager on a high-risk engagement and the existing manager was giving me some background information.

“When the project started, we kept the software features simple and things went well,” the manager explained. “But then the scope creep started. They wanted the whole ball of wax and that’s when things went down the toilet.”

With the image of a ball of wax going down the toilet now immovably burned into my head, the rest of the project orientation, uhh… went down the toilet.