Notes from the Field | Robert X. Cringely® » TAG: America Offline

July 18, 2008 | Comments: (0)

Microsoft + AOL: Let no man tear them asunder

TAGS: Acquire this...., America Offline, Microsoft Madness, Yahoo's your daddy?

Proving that you can't keep a good rumor down, news reports swirled yet again this week about a possible marriage of inconvenience between the House of Redmond and the House of Dulles. Though my gut instincts tell me this is just another gambit in the endless Microhoo saga, it's possible MS would swallow the slimmer trimmer but still largely useless AOL and continue its shark-like pursuit of Yahoo as an alternative to the Google Juggernaut.

Time Inc would be happy to divorce AOL, no matter who bites. And I cannot think of two more worthy parties to be joined in holy headlock. They deserve each other.

The fact the World's Most Feared Software Company desperately needs to hook up with some other aging behemoth just to stay in the game -- not dominate the market, mind you, just keep from disappearing altogether -- is kind of remarkable.

Microsoft is still ginormous and expanding into every space it can imagine -- mobile devices, TV set tops, your toaster, etc. But without a desktop OS monopoly to wield as a club, it has to start from scratch. It actually has to compete and win on merit. When's the last time Microsoft did that? 

Now some Cringesters have taken umbrage at my statement earlier this week that "everything Microsoft touches turns to excrement." One reader argues that Microsoft...

...is directly responsible for the crushing majority of the past two decades' innovations and developments in software architecture as well as its newer focus on the internet, entertainment, and gaming.

Admittedly, the excrement statement was a bit over the top. But I've been thinking about this "crushing majority" for the last day or so, and I'm drawing a blank. I can't come up with anything MSFT has done on the scale of Google or Web Services or even (gasp) Facebook in changing how we use technology. But maybe I haven't been paying attention. So I put it to the Microsoft fans in the audience: What are those crushing innovations? Where has Microsoft lead and not merely imitated?

Post your thoughts below, email me direct -- cringe (at) infoworld (dot) com -- or take this BuzzDash poll. Top entries will qualify for cool swag.

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Posted by Robert X. Cringely on July 18, 2008 06:48 AM

March 14, 2008 | Comments: (0)

Geek Week: AOL goes for younger breed, Spitzer girl gets ID'd

TAGS: America Offline

The kids are alright. Some folks hit middle age and buy sports cars, get hair plugs, or take up with $3000 an hour hookers. AOL has decided to celebrate its midlife crisis by buying Bebo, the third largest social network on the planet, for $850 million. Bebo has some 40 million members, most of them euro-teens who at this moment are probably saying, "Grand dad, what's an AOL?" Any bets on how long it takes AOL to totally screw this up? I'm guessing just slightly longer than it took for the feds to nail a certain ex-governor.

Lay lady lay. All week long I've been biting my tongue about the Spitzer thing (which, as it turns out, is far cheaper than paying someone else to do it for me). But now that the identity of the mysterious and highly priced "Kristen" has been revealed -- Ashley Alexandra Dupre, better known to her high school friends as Ashley Youman -- I've finally succumbed to temptation. Turns out the 22-year-old Ms. Dupre is an aspiring R&B temptress with her own MySpace page, which received three million hits the day the news broke. Her page lists Madonna, Whitney Houston, and Amy Winehouse as friends (no surprises there) and features Ashley crooning a R&B hip hop song that is, frankly, better than anything Jennifer Lopez has ever produced. Looks like this gal may have a bright future after all, though probably not in politics. And with traffic like that, Maybe AOL should forget about Bebo and start a social network for call girls. The question is, should they call it My*** or *****book?

All in the game. Earlier this week, McAfee reported more than 20,000 pages on hundreds of gaming Web sites had been compromised by hackers looking to steal log ons and passwords. Today, Trend Micro reports that its own site was hacked via a similar exploit. The problem? They don't know what exploit was used to get into the sites; we seem to have moved from zero day attacks and into the negative numbers. Fortunately, everybody was too busy searching for Ashley Dupre to be affected.

Is there anything that's really worth $3000 an hour? Nominate your candidates below or email them to me here. Top tipsters qualify for cool swag.

Think you've got the right stuff to pass our tech quizzes? They're not as easy as they look:
• The InfoWorld News Quiz
• Test Your Geek IQ
• Test Your Network Security IQ

Posted by Robert X. Cringely on March 14, 2008 08:16 AM

August 23, 2007 | Comments: (0)

AOL goes AWOL

TAGS: America Offline

AOL – or at least the Webmail portion of the service – appears to have pulled a Skype. According to postings on AOL's webmail messageboards, the service has been inaccessible for roughly 24 hours, with no explanation forthcoming as to why.

Untold numbers of AOL sufferers are encountering the mysterious error code C0FE1800 when they try to log in to their accounts. Notes one agitated AO-Heller:

I agree with the others when I say the new "improved" aol sucks. It has gotten a lot worse and every time I log in sometimes it will let me read my mail and sometimes it won't. Its freaking ridiculous and someone better fix it soon so I can switch to some other email provider.

Anybody out there know what's going on? Post your answers below or email them to me here.

(Thanks to Cringester K. H. for that late breaking tip.)

UPDATE: An AOL spokesperson says "we experienced a sporadic AOL Web Mail outage earlier today. Our product team identified the problem quickly and put a solution in place by 2:00 pm EST restoring service to members."

However, disgruntled AOL users continue to post complaints as of one minute ago (or 2.5 hours after service was allegedly restored). So... who knows what's really going on over there.

Posted by Robert X. Cringely on August 23, 2007 12:10 PM