Category: Technology

Microsoft’s Next Windows, Longhorn….

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This Bill Gates quote: “Gates did promise that Microsoft’s biggest-ever marketing campaign would accompany Longhorn’s release. Microsoft recently announced plans for a precursor to that campaign, a “Start Something” blitz that will tout the abilities of current versions of Windows.” reminds me of SUN Microsystem Founder Bill Joy’s great quote: “The quality of a company’s software has an inverse relationship to the amount of money spent on marketing”. I’ve found this to be uniformly true.

Fetal Cell Therapy for Humans

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Wired:

University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher said he would ask federal regulators Friday to approve the first clinical trial injecting special stem cells into the spinal cords of people with the degenerative nerve ailment called Lou Gehrig’s disease.

The trial would test whether a technique anatomy professor Clive Svendsen has pioneered on rats afflicted with the disease is safe to use on people. If successful, Svendsen said a much larger clinical trial aimed at treating the disease could be under way in two or three years.
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The research does not involve human embryonic stem cells, the blank-slate cells derived from human embryos that can be molded into any type of tissue cell in the body.

Is Microsoft Toast?

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Thomas Hazlett:

The US government proved that Microsoft possessed, and ?illegally exploited, monopoly power in the “antitrust case of the ?century”, the six-year action that ended in July 2004. The Final ?Judgment allowed Microsoft to remain whole, but imposed conditions ?that permit rival software makers to tuck their products into its ?Windows operating system. Anti-Microsoft groups were outraged; a ?spokesman for one said: “This decision represents the failure of ?antitrust laws in the high-tech industry…An unrestrained ?monopolist in the most vibrant sector of the economy cannot be good ?for America.” The critics were right: the Government’s remedies have had little ?impact. Yet today customers are flocking to Microsoft’s competitors. ?Hammered on multiple fronts by opportunistic rivals, the high-flying ?starship of the PC Age has stalled, and many wonder if it will now ?crash and burn..