Microsoft Launches 'Channel 9' Blog 311
Decaffeinated Jedi writes "As reported by News.com, Microsoft quietly launched Channel 9, a blog/discussion forum aimed at improving communication with outside developers, on Tuesday. Named for the audio channel that many airlines use to let passengers listen in on crew conversations during flight, Channel 9's creators state the following in a welcoming message: 'Five of us in Redmond are crazy enough to think we just might learn something from getting to know each other...Join in, and have a look inside our cockpit and help us fly the plane.'"
Not surprising... (Score:5, Insightful)
They're all "technical evangelists" (Score:5, Insightful)
If you want to reach more folks: Can we instead talk to a developer who wants to talk about the best way of doing things, rather than someone whose job is to come up with problems where MS is the solution?
Re:the irony of this (Score:3, Insightful)
No, I'm willing to bet that being a pilot in this case merely serves to overanalyze throwaway lines to the point of them not meaning anything any more.
Re:Not surprising... (Score:5, Insightful)
The back-end language & web server shouldn't matter. You should still be able to generate a standards-compliant page that looks great in modern browsers. Instead, their front page has 366 errors [w3.org] on it.
Now, I'm not one of those people who insists every page has to validate, but this is just sloppy. MSDN, not just Channel 9, reeks of it, too. I suppose one could argue that you can't blame them, as they are Microsoft, so of course they're going to code to their browser, but I don't buy that argument.
Re:Ladies and Gentlemen (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:I hate this ... (Score:4, Insightful)
6. Don't shock the system. Lasting change only happens in baby steps.
7. Know when to turn the mic off. There are some topics which will only result in problems when you discuss them. This has nothing to do with censorship, but with working within the reality of the system that exists in our world today. You will not change anything by taking on legal or financial issues, you will only shock the system, spook the passengers, and create a negative situation.
Five of us in Redmond... (Score:5, Insightful)
Seriously, couldn't this have been handled by an additional group in the microsoft.* usenet hierarchy? Including automatic replication to servers all over the world -- for free...
Re:They're all "technical evangelists" (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:First Headline (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:First Headline (Score:5, Insightful)
Which is funny because at the same time they are talking about listening, they are also working on the next service pack for their flagship product, and the whole service pack is focussed on nothing but security. But of course, you won't count that since it would get in the way of your complaining.
Re:Technical evangelist ? (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes, that's basically what they do. Plus they try to convince people that their platform is cool and cutting-edge. Basically what every Linux user does for free (although often not very well). But to be fair, Apple's the one that started it as a paid position, and others besides (such as Be) did the same thing, so it isn't like Microsoft is doing something singularly evil in this regard.
Ha! (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:the irony of this (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Not surprising... (Score:2, Insightful)
I'm not able to use Channel9 to communicate because I'm getting the following error:
"The file "wmpplugin.exe" is of type
application/x-msdownload (Binare Executable), and
Mozilla does not know how to handle this file type.
This file is located at:
http://download.microsoft.com/..... etc.
I'm running SuSE Linux 8.1 with Mozilla as my browser.
No, I'm not trying to be smart-alecky, nor do I have an 'agenda', I'm just hoping to converse and I'm prevented from doing so by the site.
Just wondering whether they can handle this problem...
Wow, Microsoft discovered blogs (Score:3, Insightful)
1. Why would I "help them fly the plane?"
2. Why would I contribute *anything* to Microsoft(positive/negative comment, let alone code) - so they could turn around and eihter sell it or maybe even use it against me?
3. How much are Bill Hill and the rest of Microsoft alumni paid for their blog appearances and patronizing comments like "The most important operating system is not Windows"? (coming from a guy on Microsoft's payroll, this comes across as almost hypocritical)
4. What's up with dorky one-size-too small gray golf shirts?
Seriously, what is the point of Channel 9?
Oh yeah, and BeOS called and it wants its color scheme back.
Re:Don't bother visiting with Firefox (Score:3, Insightful)
In any case, I didn't go any further in the site. I didn't have the right plugins. For some reason I was expecting a blog, what I got instead was a colorful MTV-wannabe multimedia web site. I guess it's technically a blog, but it's certainly not my idea of a blog.
Ugh, look at the rss feed: (Score:1, Insightful)
<SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Lucida Console'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN>
Re:Free Long Distance to India? (Score:2, Insightful)
1. Bill Gates has been losing money. He is only worth 47 billion. If anybody remembers he was worth almost 90 billion a few years ago. He donates his money to his foundation, which frankly, is one of the best foundations.
2. Microsoft is hiring in the US, and aren't out-sourcing. However, IBM is laying off people left and right in the US to be replaced by Indian developers. But that's okay.
3. Microsoft hires a lot of Indian people and brings them to the US, along with people from Japan and China. A lot of them get their green cards and all of the US works pay taxes to the US government.
3. 70 billion? Actually less than that.
4. If you want to talk to the developers you can send them e-mails. Heck I'll respond =) but I won't be of any use for Windows.