| WIKI | FAQ | Tech FAQ | |
 http://csua.com/feed/ | |
| ||||||
| 5/4 |
| 2005/9/6-8 [Computer/SW/OS/Windows] UID:39526 Activity:nil |
9/6 Ballmer goes nutzoid!
http://news.com.com/Court+docs+Ballmer+vowed+to+kill+Google/2100-1014_3-5846243.html
\_ Developers Developers Developers
\_ Why is this so weird? I would expect this from my CEO.
I want my CEO actively plotting to destroy the competition.
Should Ballmer have sent Schmidt a nice card? - danh
\_ Yes, but I can't say I've ever heard my CEO say "we're going
to FUCKING KILL <insert name of competitor>".
\_ When I worked at Documentum, the founder/CTO was fond of
saying things like, "If we do X, we're going to fuck Filenet.
That's my goal -- to fuck Filenet." It made our all-hands
company meetings pretty damned unique. -mice
\_ fyi, the guy who recounted the Ballmer argument:
http://mark-lucovsky.blogspot.com/2005/02/shipping-software.html
http://conferences.oreillynet.com/cs/p2p2001/view/e_spkr/1079
"Being a 16 year Microsoft veteran, a Distinguished Engineer, key
architect and code writer for windows, architect of the largest
source code control and build system ever attempted, I deeply
believed that Microsoft knows how to ship software. ... I am not
sure I believe anymore, that Microsoft 'knows how to ship
software'."
It's no wonder Ballmer had a shit-fit, with a talented old-guard
grunt leaving, and probably not the only one. |
| 5/4 |
|
| news.com.com/Court+docs+Ballmer+vowed+to+kill+Google/2100-1014_3-5846243.html TalkBack Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer vowed to "kill" Google in an expletive-laced, chair-throwing tirade when a senior engineer told him he was leaving th e company to go work for Google, the engineer claimed in court documents made public on Friday. The allegation, filed in Washington state court, is the latest salvo in a n increasingly nasty court fight triggered when Microsoft executive Kai- Fu Lee jumped to Google in July in what Microsoft claims is a violation of a one-year, non-compete agreement. In a sworn statement made public Friday, Mark Lucovsky, another Microsoft senior engineer who left for Google in November 2004, recounted Ballmer 's angry reaction when Lucovsky told Ballmer he was going to work for th e search engine company. "At some point in the conversation, Mr Ballmer said: 'Just tell me it's not Google,'" Lucovosky said in his statement. "At that point, Mr Ballmer picked up a chair and threw it across the roo m hitting a table in his office," Lucovosky recounted, adding that Ballm er then launched into a tirade about Google CEO Eric Schmidt. "I'm going to f***ing bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again . Schmidt previously worked for Sun M icrosystems and was the CEO of Novell. Late Friday, Ballmer issued a statement disputing Lucovsky's declaration. "Mark Lucovsky's account of our conversation last November is a gross e xaggeration of what actually took place," Ballmer said. "Mark's decision to leave was disappointing and I urged him strongly to change his mind. But his characterization of that meeting is not accurate." The Lukovsky declaration is the latest salvo in the heated battle between Google and Microsoft over Google's hiring of Lee. Google has said Micro soft is attempting to scare its employees away from Google. In the filing made public Friday, Google also said in the filing that if Lee is allowed to join the company before a trial he will not "work or c onsult in any of the technical areas identified in Microsoft's proposed preliminary injunction. Rather, pending tiral, he will open a product de velopment center in China, and staff it with non-Microsoft personnel." Meanwhile, in separate court documents also made public Friday, Microsoft said e-mails that Kai-Fu Lee sent to Google executives bolster its case that the researcher is seeking to violate his employment contract by ta king up a position as head of the search giant's China efforts. According to the filing, Lee sent a May 7 e-mail to Google's founder and chief executive saying that he had heard Google was opening a China offi ce and expressing interest in discussing the matter. In the e-mail, Lee described himself as "Corporate VP at Microsoft working on areas very re lated to Google," Microsoft reveals in the court documents. Microsoft also notes that, in the same e-mail, Lee linked to his corporat e biography, which Google has cited as evidence that Lee's work was not directly related to the work he would do at Google. temporary restraining order preventing Lee from doing such work for Google until Tuesday's he aring. Plans by Google to hire Lee sparked an immediate legal battle between the two companies, which have increasingly emerged as one another's top com petitors. Microsoft's request for the injunction was filed some time ago, but only made public on Friday after both sides had an opportunity to redact conf idential information. A representative for Microsoft did not comment beyond the filing. A Googl e representative was not immediately available for comment. regarding specific candidates that Google was consid ering--or candidates Dr. Lee wanted them to consider--for Google's China R&D facility," Microsoft said in the filing. Lee gave detailed fee dback and Google acted on his recommendations." The filing cites examples of Lee's work on Microsoft's China strategy, in cluding a white paper titled "Making it in China: strategic recommendati ons for Microsoft." The software maker said it was "surprised and disapp ointed" to learn that Lee had forwarded an edited version of that paper to Google on June 7, while he was still a Microsoft employee. The versio n he sent, the Windows maker said, removed the "Microsoft Confidential" notation as well as credit to other Microsoft contributors and the chapt er entitled "recommendations for Microsoft." Microsoft also said in the filing that Lee also "advised Google on the po ssibility of recruiting candidates in China from Microsoft" noting that Intel and Microsoft were the best opportunity to get technological leads for projects, but that recruiting from both would be difficult. Microso ft also cites an e-mail response Lee got from Google Vice President Omid Kordestani, in which the Google executive writes that "it was nice talk ing to you and learning about your insights into a successful approach t o Google's operations in China." |
| mark-lucovsky.blogspot.com/2005/02/shipping-software.html Markl's Thoughts Saturday, February 12, 2005 Shipping Software A few weeks ago I had lunch with the now famous "Mark Jen". I never knew Mark while we were at Microsoft, even though we both worked in the same group. We had a great Google style lunch at a sunny table in Mountain View. I wa s too dense to notice that Mark was doing research for his blog. Something that many have said over the yea rs, that Microsoft "knows how to ship software". Being a 16 year Microsoft veteran, a Distinguished Engineer, key architec t and code writer for windows, architect of the largest source code cont rol and build system ever attempted, I deeply believed that Microsoft kn ows how to ship software. We know how to build it, test it, localize it, manufacture it, charge lots of $$$ for it, etc. Mark and I talked about this briefly at lunch that day, and I have been t hinking about it from time to time since... I am not sure I believe anymore, that Microsoft "knows how to ship softwa re". When a Microsoft engineer fixes a minor defect, makes something fas ter or better, makes an API more functional and complete, how do they "s hip" that software to me? The softwar e sits in a source code control system for a minimum of two years (signi ficantly longer for some of the early Longhorn code). At some point, the product that the fix is a part of will "ship" meaning that CD's will be pressed and delivered to customers and OEM's In best case scenarios, t he software will reach end users a few months after the Release To Manuf acturing (RTM) date. In many cases, particularly for users working in la rge corporations, they won't see the software for a year or more post RT M. Not unless you si gn up to ship Microsoft's software as well. It is present on a small fraction of machines in the world. Microsoft built the software, tested it, released it to manuf acturing. They "shipped it", but it will take years for it to be deploye d widely enough for you, the ISV to be able to take advantage of it. Microsoft is supposed to be the one th at "knows how to ship software", but you are the one doing all the heavy lifting. You are the one that has to ship their software the last mile, install it on end user machines, ensure their machines still work after you perform this platform level surgery. When an Amazon engineer fixes a minor defect, makes something faster or b etter, makes an API more functional and complete, how do they "ship" tha t software to me? What is the lag time between the engineer completing t he work, and the software reaching its intended customers? A good friend of mine investigated a performance problem one morning, he saw an obvio us defect and fixed it. His code was trivial, it was tested during the d ay, and rolled out that evening. By the next morning millions of users h ad benefited from his work. Not a single customer had to download a bag of bits, answer any silly questions, prove that they are not software th ieves, reboot their computers, etc. The software was shipped to them, an d they didn't have to lift a finger. I would argue that Microsoft used to know how to ship software, but the w orld has changed... The companies that "know how to ship software" are t he ones to watch. They have embraced the network, deeply understand the concept of "software as a service", and know how to deliver incredible v alue to their customers efficiently and quickly. |
| conferences.oreillynet.com/cs/p2p2001/view/e_spkr/1079 The first and most important conference on P2P O'Reilly Peer-to-Peer Conference Westin St. He joined Micr osoft in 1988 with Dave Cutler and others to form the Windows NT group. From 11/1988 - 7/2000, Mark was a Lead Architect and Developer designing and building the Windows NT executive, kernel, win32 runtime, and sever al other key areas of the system. Mark was recently named a Mi crosoft Distinguished Engineer in recognition of his contributions to Mi crosoft. |