Microsoft acquires Activision Blizzard

 

What an absolute mammoth deal. Here is a list of the major game IPs Microsoft now owns (in alphabetical order)

• Age of Empires
• Call of Duty
• Candy Crush
• Devil May Cry
• Diablo
• Dishonored
• Doom
• Fable
• Fallout
• Forza
• Gears of War
• Halo
• Hearthstone
• Microsoft Flight Simulator
• Minecraft
• Morrowind
• Oblivion
• Overwatch
• South Park the Stick of Truth
• Skyrim
• StarCraft
• Wasteland
• World of Warcraft
• Warcraft

Let me know if I missed out any notables

Link : https://www.theverge.com/2022/1/18/22889258/microsoft-activision-blizzard-xbox-acquisition-call-of-duty-overwatch 

Linux in Windows 10

In my brief stint in Microsoft, I worked on a project that was called Services For Linux. It was a project to get the posix commands working on the command line.

I was pretty excited as I had been a long time user of Linux already, and thought it was quite rad to have this thing in linux iteself. I had already been using cygwin shells before in other companies. However, the excitement turned sour quite early on due to the attitude within the company. If there was a bug, it was mostly marked as 'as per design', and any argument that this is not how it works on linux was met with 'We are Microsoft. We do it our way'.

So, I am quite surprised and excited to see that Microsoft partnered with Canonical to get this in Windows10. So, far the demo seems to show it as an actual full fledged bash shell, instead of the lame implementation the SFU team was working on.

As usual, expect quite a big backlash from the online Linux community towards Canonical.

$ whoami
A Linux user on Windows you traitor to the revolution

— SecuriTay (@SwiftOnSecurity) March 31, 2016

More details at : http://www.pcworld.com/article/3049664/windows/hell-freezes-over-microsoft-partners-with-ubuntu-to-bring-bash-shell-to-windows-10.html

The New Exciting Microsoft

Usually the name of Microsoft does not excite people in the same vein as Google or Apple.

However, all that is changing.

The recent events all point towards a positive direction ( marring the privacy issues). The shift started with the Windows 10 release, and is picking up with the Windows Hardware event.

A hardware event from Microsoft - that was something unexpected.

Well, Microsoft has dabbled into hardware before. The very forgettable Zune that Microsoft tried to beat the iPod with - but with Apple already moving towards the iPhone, the Zune was a disaster. Microsoft then tried again with the Surface - unfortunately that too did not do so well when compared to the iPads or even with Android based tablets.

However, the latest 6th October event is going to change that.

Now, there is a lot of stuff written about the surface pro and the surface book etc. However, in this blog post I am going to concentrate only on the phones.

Why ?

Because these phones double up as full fledged PC experience. Yup - plug in the laptop using the adapter - and BAM! You can run full screen apps on the monitor. Just watch the video below.



So, what does that mean ?

Well, it means that you can actually leave your laptop behind. All you need is the phone. For business users, who are mostly just using emails or working on a few documents, this is all you need. Have a dock at home and in office, plug in and you are all set. Microsoft is calling this continuum.

I am becoming a believer.

Microsoft's Kin is no more

It looks like Microsoft has pulled the plug on developing their own phone - which they had named Kin. There are a lot of theories around why it did not do well, and why they shut down the Kin.

I think that the KIN was killed due to 2 major reasons :
1. It was not doing well.
2. Politics.

1. It was not doing well

Here, I think that the problems were 2 fold.

First the shitty name which no one can identify with. It just does not sound cool. The chap doing the branding , he is not worth the money that was being paid to him.

Two, it was being targetted at the teenagers - but in a way that is patronizing. It was supposed to have all the wow features - facebook , twitter integration etc. However, I doubt they even tried to look at the psychology of teenagers. Teenagers hate it when people tell them what to do - and that was exactly what Kin was doing. Teenagers love to be treated as adults - which Kin was not doing. Teenagers go for brands and cool names - the Kind did not have that.

However, I dont think that this was why the Kin line was pulled up. Microsoft has very deep pockets and can afford to have a loss making product in the market for quite a long while - as one can see from the xbox.

So, my hypothesis about pt 2.

2. Politics

I think internal egos and politics killed the Kin. The people in the Windows mobile had much more of a say than the people developing the Kin. There would have been a power struggle behind the scenes - and Kin eventually lost out. Interestingly, people seem to shun talking about office politics - its taboo to speak about it - but not speaking about it does not mean that it is not existing.

Now, I got a bad feeling about the 'Kin'nect - the motion detection stuff that Microsoft is building. They should change that name to something else ...

LOTRO Finally

Oops ! I missed something ! Dumb ! Dumb ! Dumb ! Apologies to LOTRO devs.

My earlier post about LOTRO was way off the mark ... and the amazing part is that I found the problem and managed to fix it myself ! 

/cheshire cat grin

/pats back

/looks suitably amazed at my own amazicity ! 

Well, here was the peroblemo hombre... 

The .NET did not install. 

Yup. You got that right. .NET 1.1 does not install on Vista directly. Viva le Microsoft ! 

erm. But then one wonders why 1.1 is not available properly on Vista, and also one wonders why developers are not using .NET3.5 - the latest and .. errr.. greatest (?) .NET framework out there. 

Anyhows, the following was the error I was getting while installing .NET ... 

Duh. Amazingly precise and helpful ( /sarcasm) message from the devs on what is happening. 

Fortunately, Google is finally working ok today, so gave a search for the error ... and viola, got a great link for it. 

• Installing .NET 1.1 for Vista
  

Essentially the steps are as follows ... 

1. Download .NET 1.1
2. Download .NET 1.1 SP1 <-- this fixes the install problem, but unhelpfully not bundled as a stand alone installer. 
3. Put both of them in a common directory (e.g. c:/dotnet)
4. Start a command prompt as Administrator (rt click on the cmd prompt icon. no sudo here you dumbo!)
5. Mumble a few voodoo words and run the following commands... esentially the commands make a single installer from the 2 you downloaded above. 

c:\dotnet>dotnetfx.exe /c:"msiexec.exe /a netfx.msi TARGETDIR=C:\DotNet


c:\dotnet>dotnetfxsp1.exe /Xp:C:\DotNet\netfxsp.msp


c:\dotnet>msiexec.exe /a c:\DotNet\netfx.msi /p c:\DotNet\netfxsp.msp

Huzzah ! Ze magik Werks ! 

Run LOTRO

WTF ! Maintainence ! 

Finally is not Finally enough... 

Wait for more demented updates ... 

What happens in Microsoft India?

MiniMicrosoft is a blog i have been following for a long time. It basically talks about reducing the size of microsoft to make it more manageable. Mostly , its on Redmond office and issues there. However, recently it has been getting comments on Microsoft India.

India Dev Center (IDC) is a pure empire building exercise. It is all about creating more partners as the VP mentioned in his Redmond recruitment visits. It is a good tour for a few Redmond folks who find a "sugar daddy", go to India for 2-3 years, get two promotions and come back to a different job in Redmond.

Meanwhile, a few exceptions aside, the quality of the work is abysmal. Components that came back to Redmond had to be completely rewritten.

But who cares, L65 and up are busy building empires following the cue from Redmond. Perhaps they are just the extreme case of the disease in Redmond where everyone is busy building a fiefdom.

It is time to break the fiefdoms down and focus on core products/services here and in satellite offices. Hold VPs accountable too!

woah ! You can read the rest of the comments on the blog here.

The roadblock to Windows

I am not a fan of Microsoft. I like Linux. And this example just shows why I am moving more and more away from MS and more and more to linux.

I just wanted to check out Media Player 11 Beta 2 for windows. Its a beta software.

So, you go and download it from their website. Then, 22.5MB of download later, you start the installer.

And what do you see ?

A screen which says, nay orders you, to validate your copy of windows before you can install a beta software.


Genuine advantage ?? Crap ! My copy of windows is an office copy. Running on my office machine. It has already been validated during the 'security update' phase. And still the folks at Microsoft are not trusting me enough to let me install a 'beta' version on a validated install of windows.

Clicked 'cancel'. Thank you very much - but no thanks. I will continue using winamp. I will continue to work on linux at all the opportunities I get. I dont like anyone - especially a company - policing what I do.

What if Microsoft packaged the iPod ?

iPods are a craze now. Everyone wants one. Even if they never ever fill up the device to its capacity, they want it. Its a cult out there.

One of the first things you notice about the iPod is that it is very chic and yet portraye very simply.

But... oh what if Microsoft marketting got their hands on it ?

This video is what would happen to the packaging if they did. BTW, its supposed to have been created by guys in Microsoft as a parody ;-)

Are you Vista Ready ?

Microsoft's latest OS is going to be up and ready by Mar 06 Oct 06 Jan 07. Lots of nice screenshots are doing the rounds of the net. Non-techie people getting the screenshots are going all ga-ga over it. They tell me - vibhu, you worked on Vista ? Does it not look great !

Sorry to put a dampner on you folks, but most of you will not be able to even run the great looking interface on your system.

Shocked?

Let me explain it. The Aero interface as it is called is a graphics intensive user interface. That means that without a dedicated graphics card (like the ones from Nvidia or ATI), you will not be able to see the great looking trancparencies. And that is not all, to be able to do anything more than just playing minesweeper, you will need to upgrade your system. So, if you are looking at upgrading your comp - and can wait for 6-10 months, I suggest you wait and see what is required for the next version of windows. As for now, the current requirements are :

• 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor1.
• 1 GB of system memory.
• A graphics processor that runs Windows Aero2.
• 128 MB of graphics memory.
• 40 GB of hard drive capacity with 15 GB free space.
• DVD-ROM Drive3.
• Audio output capability.
• Internet access capability.

Since we all know that windows barely runs on the specifications given by Microsoft , and since most of us will be at least using Microsoft office, I would bump up the requirements to (believe me , I was using a AMD 64 with 1GB of ram and it was still slow) :

• GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor1.
• 2 GB of system memory.
• A graphics processor that runs Windows Aero2.
• 256 MB of graphics memory. (pref 512MB if you are into gaming)
• 40 GB of hard drive capacity with 15 GB free space.
• DVD-ROM Drive3.
• Audio output capability.
• Internet access capability.

Now a few notes :

• 128 MB of graphics memory means that the graphics card ( in the point before that) should have 128 MB of memory in it . This is not the RAM of the computer. Typically these cards cost around 10k INR.
• 15GB of free space is needed to install Vista. It comes to around 5-10GB space used after install.
• Internet access is needed for the WGA - Windows Genuine Advantage. In other words it lets Microsoft know if you are using a pirated copy or not. How it does is that it contacts the microsoft servers (without telling you) and will block you from using the system if your credentials are not in their white list. It has nothing to do with Advantage for you if you are using a pirated copy. So, with the next release, Microsoft hopes that it will cut down on piracy.
• One biggest problem with Vista is that it requires activation. so, if you do not have a net connection, you will not be able to use it. In india, most computer users dont have a net connection, and if you dont, then I would suggest that you dont get Vista. And this activation is needed everytime you change the hardware configuration of your system - like say adding a DVD drive.

Its a nightmare.

But, since I have been working on Linux and opensource for sometime, you may call me biased about microsoft. So, I think it relevant that I provide links , some of which are from long time users of Microsoft software ( I was also taken aback by the frustration in these posts).

• Microsoft Drops The Ball on Internet Explorer 7 Standards Compliance
• Is Windows Vista Ready

No. God, no. Today's Windows Vista builds are a study in frustration, and trust me, I use the darn thing day in and day out, and I've seen what happens when you subject yourself to it wholeheartedly. I think I've mentioned the phrase "I could hear the screams" on the SuperSite before. My wife said that to me one day, and she was referring to the sound of me barking some primeval curse at my desktop PC as it succumbed to Vista's stupid slowdowns, crashes, and hang ups for the umpteenth time

• IE 7.0 Technical Changes Leave Web Developers, Users in the Lurch

My advice is simple: Boycott IE. It's a cancer on the Web that must be stopped. IE isn't secure and isn't standards-compliant, which makes it unworkable both for end users and Web content creators.

• Microsoft's sacred cash cow

A former Microsoftie says addiction to Windows revenue, mediocre products, and missed opportunities could doom Seattle's most successful company.

Personally, I am only gonna move to vista when the office computers move there. Till then ... viva le linux !

Wind(ow)s of change ?

Bill Gates Will Retire. One Day. Kinda.

All the news going on in the blogosphere (if you live and breath code that is ) is about Bill Gates saying he is going to step down. As an ex-microsoftie (yeah, my stay there was small, but allow me to rub it in ;-) ) I would say that now Microsoft would not be the same anymore. Its going to be now run by his 2nd in command Steve Balmer. However Balmer is just not as charismatic as Bill. In fact, not many people (lets not talk CEOs here) even knew about SB.

Under Bill Gates, the corporation has become the biggest company as far as revenues go, earning a lot of money, and a lot of fear and hate also. The ethics of Bill were always suspect, and the anti-trust litigations in the recent past proved to many what others had just suspected. Add to it the delays in coming out with Vista , and many were wondering about whether the leadership at the top is ok or not ?

For BillG, I think its the right decision. For the last few years he was more concerned about his donations ( and it looks like it will buy his way into the record books) for AIDS and Malaria etc, than about the running of Microsoft. This move means that he will not have to carry on the sham of being in charge of Microsoft - for better or for worse.

The people stepping into his shoes - namely Steve and Ray Ozzie, dont have an enviable task - but they probably have the best resources around on the planet to use. They have to get out Vista and make more money ( yeah - money is never enough), and contend with the likes of Google and Apple, who seem to be nipping at their heels.

If Microsoft crashes, it would be a collosal crash. I somehow doubt it will happen. But I also doubt if Microsoft will be the same. Everything needs the enigma of an Icon leading. In the companies its mostly run by the individuals and when they leave, the company does not do so well. In the east, it runs into families ( like the gandhi family ) and it keeps the public interested.

More reads :

• Commentary: Gates Departure Changes Nothing for Microsoft
• Taking One for the Team

Last Day in Microsoft

Last day for the blue badge.

Last day in Microsoft. :-)

If you got a surprise dont blame me. Life has its way of playing out ! Now where next is the question ... and I am still undecided.

For the present, here's something I read on slashdot ( it was part of the comments) :

give a man a fish and he'll eat today, teach a man to fish and he'll eat
forever

Alt :

* Give a man a fish, and he'll have fish for dinner. Teach him to fish, and
you've just blown away your entire fuckin' marketbase.
* give a man a fish,
and he owes you a fish ... and teach a man to fish, and he owes you royalties
for each fish he catches.... and if he teaches someone else to fish, take him to
court with your army of laywers.
* Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day.
Try to teach a man to fish, and he'll bitch you're not giving him free fish.
* Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day. Try to teach a man to fish, and
he'll complain that "I DON'T CARE!! You take take of catching fish! I mean,
you're the sysadmin!"

1st Week at Microsoft

The first week at the Microsoft Campus draws to a close. I am not at liberty to tell you about my work ( NDA and stuff ), so I will just give my impressions about the place - and also avoid having to tell my friends individually and over and over again how this place is.

Microsoft India Development Center is located in Gachibowli in Hyderabad. Nothing outstanding about this place actually. It is just space allocated for a tech park kind of place. This was a barren land, and the campus is brand new. Google Earth shows this place as nothing but stones (outdated pics) . The road has the India Business Center, the Infosys Campus, Wipro Campus and Microsoft. Big names in a small road :-)

The campus is pretty nice . Only one building has been built so far, with another one coming up. There is a cricket ground, Basket Ball court, Tennis Court, Volleyball Court, Gym ... and people do play during the day time. Its not a place where you can only go after office hours - cause there are no office hours. How this translates to the working environment is yet to be seen. Each floor has among other things pool-tables and xbox stations (yet to try those out ;-) ) , Coffee and Coke vending machines !

The one thing I really like about this place is the space. There is space in the corridors - miserly treatment to them is not there. The cubicles are big and only one person per cubicle is there. All the companies that I have worked for till now have multiple people per cubicle - with 4 persons per cube being the rule. Here - you have individual cubes. Sitting in my cube I get reminded of my onsite trips to client facilities. It feels like I am working out of San Jose instead of Gachibowli. People are really warm and helpful, though I guess that is because I have just joined and have had lesser time to mess around and make things worse ;-) .

Haven't seen much of the city yet. The roads to the HiTech City and Gachibowli are being widened and quite a lot of repair work in being undertaken. The roads are not up to the standards of the major roads in Delhi , but much better than the sad state of roads in Pune. More info about the city later.

Moving to MicroSoft

Time to relocate again. I am moving to Microsoft office in Hyderabad.

Mixed feelings really.

First of all I never thought that I would be taking up an offer from Microsoft. Not even in my dreams.

I still don't know whether I am making the right move or not. I am not 100% sure about joining MS, but I am 100% sure about leaving my current work place.

Again, as most of my friends know about me , I work quite a bit on Linux as a hobby. The computer at home has always been a dual boot system. I have worked on snmp and on freelords. I have been fed up of Windows, but still have it as I play a lot of games on it. Linux lags far behind microsoft when it comes to gaming.

So, how come a linux guy is going to join microsoft ? A friend asked me that, and I had to look back and reflect on it - how is it happening ? That has taken me to the roots of why I started using Linux. There were 2 main considerations : 1) It was free, 2) It was opensource.

1. The freeness
Living in India, a developing country, a middle class family does not have the money to buy much software. Rs3000/- for an operating system is quite expensive. Again, add to it the cost of 'essentials' like Office , Outlook and VC++ development suite - and you have to shell out much more than what you can afford. Costs of software can easily be almost double of the hardware costs. Actually, in the past few years the cost of hardware has been falling drastically here in India, and with a Windows only system, the cost of software is a deciding factor.
That's where the Tux comes in. Its free. You don't have to worry about prosecution from authorities from using pirated software.

2. The openness
As a geek, I like knowing how things work. I like taking apart stuff and seeing the internals. Linux and Opensource software appeals to that geek in me. When I had started coding my code was not really that great, but I used to think it was. Then I started looking at the way people code for the linux kernel , and I was left breathless. It was beautiful. And I have picked up techniques from there, which I probably would not have had i never looked at it.

So, how does this translate to MS.

Well, I think it would be great if I can see the source code of what most people use around the world. It would be great if I could fix a few things - cause that's the greatest grouse against Windows that I have.

However, I don't know how it would be in MS. Will I have access to the source code base ? Even if I do, can I put in fixes into the modules that I am not working on ? I guess I can only find out after I join.

There is a lot of discontent about MS on the net , the most prominent is the mini-microsoft blog. But, I guess its because with a company the size of MS will have discontent people - its inevitable. But, the company is still the biggest that is out there. For a person in the US, used to living in luxury, maybe their standards from the company are too high, especially after the google blitz. But for a person in India, MS offers quite a lot more than other indian companies.

I know a couple of friends in MS, and they ok with it. The interviewers were also above the level of the other interviews that I had. While most interviews for companies are more on the line of what I know ( rather they were more interested in knowing what I did not know), the MS interview was about getting to know what I could do. At some points it even left me a bit surprised. Working with the people who have set their standards high atomatically causes a guy to raise his standard.

The issues in MS may be very real, but I am sure that the learnings from there would be much more than any other indian company.

Some links about life in MS :

• First day at Microsoft
• First 6 months in MS
• Working at Microsoft
• FAQ : Microsoft as a company