Mr. Ray Ozzie and Microsoft's Chief Software Architect - So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, adieu, adieu, adieu
A Microsoft position got retired this week: Chief Software Architect.
That used to be - quite unofficially - Mr. Bill Gates by the sheer nature of his intellect. And it led to many entertaining and terrifying BillG Reviews. A good friend of mine at the time, an architect for his team before we got all hung up about titles like that, bragged: "I've never been to a BillG review and I intend to retire without going through one." He did.
But I think he missed out. As have, unfortunately, many intellectually shallow PowerPoint B.S artists who rose up the ranks in the meantime.
When I was a teenager, one book I loved to contemplate over was a series of quotes by Robert Heinlein's character Lazarus Long. One goes like (courtesy the internet vs. hard-copy because the book is lost behind a stack of neglected Col Solare): "[...] Roman matrons used to say to their sons: 'Come back with your shield, or on it.' Later on, this custom declined. So did Rome."
The rigor of a focused, intellectually deep and sturdy software development declined with BillG's departure. No more technical assistants. No gauntlet of the BillG review. On his way out of the company, Bill anointed Ray to serve as Chief Software Architect. I don't think that was Ray's idea. In fact, I can only imagine him tilting his head and saying, "Wha-?" He didn't take a broad view of Microsoft at all, but rather focused on growing the Groove momentum into other areas for the future.
As part of any enduring legacy, it will be interesting to see what happens to Mr. Ozzie's groups over time, Windows Azure especially. And I can only hope to the Good Lord above that the "I'm all in" cloud claptrap takes a retirement, too. We get it. We have The Cloud as a platform. In my mind, it makes as much sense as saying "Compilers! We're all in!" or "Layered Windows! We're all in!"
I feel with Ray Ozzie's departure that Steve Ballmer has finally asserted his complete control over the company. We've had some house cleaning this year, ranging from Mr. Ozzie to Mr. Bach & Mr. Allard to Technical Fellows to continued targeted layoffs. Perhaps this is due to the big, contemplative review Mr. Ballmer had with the Microsoft Board this year. Mr. Ballmer has hit the reset button. Do we have a Hail Mary pass, or is this Ballmer 2.0?
We'll see how that goes. In the meantime, here's hoping that the technical Presidents reporting to Mr. Ballmer can take up the custom of intellectual rigor. Because that is one custom we can't let decline anymore.
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3) If you read more about Google's 10% raise, it's simply shifting the bonus budget to the salary budget. I don't think anybody's actually getting more money (other than the unrelated Christmas bonus). But it does make for good news/gossip."
Atleast they had some brains to move the salary budget around to give everyone 10% raise. Our brainy partners couldn't even "think" of this before they announced "free" WP7 phone for everyone.
You can get a WP7 phone for a penny in Amazon.com now. So much for the "free" phone.
It's much more than moving the budget around.
People are getting more money and they are getting them faster. Raise and bonus will now based on the new salary.
Every pay check will go up at least 10% immediately.
What's Microsoft's response? More layoff and less healthcare benefits.
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3) If you read more about Google's 10% raise, it's simply shifting the bonus budget to the salary budget. I don't think anybody's actually getting more money (other than the unrelated Christmas bonus). But it does make for good news/gossip."
The fear of failure and CYA ethos that began in 2000ish continues to stifle Microsoft and the MiSFiTs. After leaving Microsoft ~2 years ago, I finally got the nerve to switch from a WinPhone (Having used every version to 6.5) to an iPhone. It's slick and it works.
The advertising theme of 'stop looking at your phone' makes me think 'well if there's little that your phone can do, well sure, I wouldn't look at it much, either"....but I am an admitted geek so perhaps not the average user in the demographic being sought out by WinPhone....
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How many of the other execs have written “Hello World?” This is a software company run by folks who for the most part don’t know the nuts and bolts of software
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Take for example CVP Vahe Torossian and see the people mess & Gov. corruption culture he made in CEE
no new posts Mini. Whats up?
You can get a WP7 phone for a penny in Amazon.com now. So much for the "free" phone.
MSFT is an indian giver
I really can't say enough bad things about how my org is being run right now.
If you ever wanted an exciting career at Microsoft, you can have mine here shortly. It is all yours.
"BillG by the sheer nature of his intellect"
Ok, that made me laugh out loud, and it would have the same effect on anyone who ever read any of his code. Gates was a mediocre coder who was in the right place at the right time to 1) stab Gary Kildall in the back, and 2) catch IBM's fumble.
The guy couldn't even implement the recursive flood algorithm, despite the fact that it was available in the SIGGRAPH proceedings when he set out to write it.
But no END USER EVER LOVED LOTUS NOTES.
I've never seen any organization using Notes that wouldn't have been better off just turning on an internal NNTP server.
Notes was a half-assed product from day one, and it only ever got worse.
BobMu was my pick for next MSFT CEO, oh well.
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