Post #34,746
4/8/02 3:16:06 PM
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An interesting file...
[link|http://www.oz.net/~inthane/something.swf|[link|http://www.oz.net/~inthane/something.swf|http://www.oz.net/~...omething.swf]]
Requires shockwave flash.
Please do not share this link with anybody else off of this site. If you want somebody else to see it, save it and host it on your own space.
The file will be removed on wednesday.
"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche
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Post #34,750
4/8/02 3:36:17 PM
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ugh.
----- Steve
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Post #34,754
4/8/02 3:43:30 PM
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fell asleep trying to watch it all the way to the end
prolly works at the same speed. thanx, bill
TAM ARIS QUAM ARMIPOTENS
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Post #34,761
4/8/02 3:57:08 PM
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The scariest part - it may actually work.
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Post #34,762
4/8/02 4:02:13 PM
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Yes, this is what they've been saying they would do.
I predict this will be wildly successful. It looks to be fatally attractive to any business person who can't think ahead far enough to see the consequences (99.937%).
This will close the last escape routes to business users of Windows. Businesses will be paying a fee to Microsoft for every employee until the end of time, or until the business folds under the weight of Microsoft fees.
It is also very bad news for AOL.
Now, with more details, I will start seriously preparing my business clients for this. Most will not be able to escape it because their business partners will insist on it.
Prepare the sheep to be sheared and the lambs for slaughter.
[link|http://www.aaxnet.com|AAx]
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Post #34,769
4/8/02 4:45:16 PM
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Disagree
IMHO:
Large businesses will just buy the full, non-connected version of Office.
Small businesses - well, they'll do whatever the budget allows. Which is likely continuing the mass piracy of Office 2000/XP which they've been doing so far.
Peter [link|http://www.debian.org|Shill For Hire] [link|http://www.kuro5hin.org|There is no K5 Cabal]
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Post #34,788
4/8/02 7:35:24 PM
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Disagree back at you
It's not Office itself that is the deal, it's the interbusiness and intrabusiness communications, cooperation and coordination features that will be the "killer app" here. Companies will be setting up their "Community space" and other applications, and their vendors and business partners had damned well better participate.
Some of my clients communicate with their customers primarily with email attached Word and Excel forms - sent, filled out and returned. This will eliminate the sending and returning part. It'll all be done on .NET servers.
Note the built-in discouragement for upgrading from subscription to "Pro". You lose your subscription attachment to the .NET servers. The objective is to get as many businesses and employees addicted to the subscription features as quickly as possible.
This thing has the potential of giving Microsoft complete control of interbusiness communications among small and medium businesses. I'm sure they understand this, and I'm sure that's precisely what they are after.
Yes, in big companies, only a limited number of people will be on the subscription, but in the smaller companies they deal with, everyone will have to be on subscription to access colaborative features. That eliminates most of the piracy, and incompatibilities with versions that don't require registration will fix the rest.
[link|http://www.aaxnet.com|AAx]
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Post #34,790
4/8/02 7:41:35 PM
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I guess we're in different worlds.
I don't have very much (note: not "none") experience of SMEs, but I am involved in the volume licensing for a reasonably large company.
We turn over versions very slowly. We're just about migrating our desktops from NT to 2000. Office is changing version from 97 to XP, and that won't complete for a long time.
I think we're really not interested in something that would involve a regular, not-driven-by-the-business payment to MS.
Maybe we're atypical. From my conversations with peers in other companies of similar size, I don't think we are.
Perhaps it's different across the pond.
Peter [link|http://www.debian.org|Shill For Hire] [link|http://www.kuro5hin.org|There is no K5 Cabal]
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Post #34,803
4/8/02 9:23:20 PM
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The world I see is . .
. . more the interface among companies than the internal workings of a large company. Many of the companies I work with are so shallow there really is no "internal". All systems face customers, partners, vendors, and their own outside sales reps. This is common with wholesalers, importers, small manufacturers, professional organizations and the like.
When a customer (who is often much larger) says "this is how you will communicate with us", then that's exactly the way you communicate with them. If this happens to be EDI, then you contract with an EDI service. If it means upgrading to Office XP, you do that. If it's .NET, then .NET is what you use.
I think many companies will start by using this stuff for their own outside staff and branch offices, for which it looks very attractive. Then they'll start insisting partners and vendors use their established communications methods.
The process will be accelerated by basic service being very low cost - and it will stay low cost - but more and more "add-on" services will become more and more necessary to use the system effectively. These will be bundled and unbundled and rebundled constantly, with ever changing costs - and always "in response to customer demand".
The fact that a bunch of big company IS departments are dragging their feet on upgrading internal systems becomes less and less important in the overall picture.
[link|http://www.aaxnet.com|AAx]
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Post #35,024
4/10/02 6:33:00 PM
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Heads up...
We've just completed doing that and sadly, undoing some of it. Office XP does not like any of the Decision Tools add-ins (ie. @Risk add-in). As well, it doesn't play with Maple or SPSS add in/ plugins... We've had to redo our core image with Office 2001... If you have extensive macros (read VB for Office), you should test them as well.
We just finished tything to MS (Campus licensing agreement) for another year, so what Andrew is saying rings true for me... YMMV.
Just a few thoughts,
Screamer
"I'll tip my hat to the new constitution, take a bow for the new revolution, smile and grin at the change all around, pick up my guitar and play, just like yesterday..."
P. Townshend
"Nietzsche has an S in it" Celina Jones
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Post #34,802
4/8/02 9:17:54 PM
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My SB experience is that the 'extras' don't get used much
(e.g. the web collabaration stuff) but of course my sample size is also small.
Office XP is still in the future, which is fine for me -- the current version does everything I need.
And, for development tools, we may very well install a Linux server to handle CVS and such. We have zero interest in Visual Studio.NET; in fact, right now, I'm doing most of my development work in Python.
Tony
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Post #34,792
4/8/02 7:52:22 PM
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Hmmm...
"Office NoGO"?
Regards,
-scott anderson
"Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson..."
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Post #34,892
4/9/02 5:41:10 PM
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Hmmmm....Sounds sorta like Lotus Notes
The only thing I see different about this beyond what they already offer is this "put everything you own out on a 'secure' website somewhere or another" (and, given that this is Micros~1, this is only for very small values of 'secure')
...and, of course, the subscription model
Can you say "baaaaahh"? I knew you could...
jb4 (Resistance is not futile...)
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Post #35,015
4/10/02 5:46:53 PM
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Difference being... In Notes, *you* own the *server*, right?
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Post #35,092
4/11/02 9:12:50 AM
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Yeppir!
And I know where my mail is (Most of the time, anyway...Our crack(-smoking) IT department notwithstanding...)
jb4 (Resistance is not futile...)
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Post #35,418
4/15/02 3:05:43 AM
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OK, I couldn't let this thing lie . .
. . so I wrote an article, [link|http://www.aaxnet.com/editor/edit027.html|The Next Microsoft Office], based on it, which I have now posted to be savaged by the critics. To resolve an included phrase, I also wrote one it links to on [link|http://www.aaxnet.com/topics/webserv.html|Web Services] (which is still in somewhat unfinished form).
[link|http://www.aaxnet.com|AAx]
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Post #35,436
4/15/02 11:07:10 AM
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Very well done but who's the scary lookin dude in the tie?
TAM ARIS QUAM ARMIPOTENS
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Post #35,440
4/15/02 11:15:27 AM
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That's my evil twin
I always use him for business photos, since I find a tie enables me to apply a $20 to $40 premium on the hourly rate. Sheesh! If I could just get him to wear a suit jacket I could push it up a whole lot more.
[link|http://www.aaxnet.com|AAx]
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