It's been a while

Hey Bill,
Thanks for everthing. Microsoft won't be the same without you. A bit of advice: Throw some cash toward hydrogen fuel cells. They could help us all out and go a long way toward ending poverty. Well, God bless.

Media Center PCs

Media Center PCs

Media Center PCs

Media Center PCs

Houston, we have a problem...

Looks like the government will have to resort to nuking the city ala Independence Day.

It might be worth it to pick up Yahoo at $2 per share, but at $33, this deal would seriously hurt MS by depleting its reserves and send it's stock down. MS fans, Xbox 360 fans etc. should be glad this deal won't go through at $33 or more per share. And really, all of America should be glad it won't at that price. Imagine the economic mess this country would be in if MS collapsed and thousands of its employees were laid off. MS should have been focusing on spending money on getting studios to support HD DVD and in turn it's Xbox/Vista Media Center platforms and dealing a knock-out blow to Sony -- something that would have directly benefited MS Xbox and Vista customers. Gates and Ballmer need to get over the fact they lost the Internet search engine battle years ago by not looking at what was needed by Internet users at the time. Now it's time to focus on improving Vista and getting Windows 7 out on time with new, compelling features "Killer aps" that will give people a real reason to buy rather than Ultimate this and that. How about streaming DVDs/HD DVDs make that BluRays with Java encryption DRM (sorry MS, but Java's what you'll have to make work now that you let HD DVD die) from changers/stripped to hard drives and on to Xbox media extenders huh MS? Don't count on Internet downloads being the way to go. Internet connections fast enough to allow on demand services like IPTV on the Xbox (which hasn't been seen in the real-world yet) are not afforable and won't be for years. I could go on...

Personally I blame HD DVD "supporter" Microsoft for the downfall of HD DVD. MS's fixation on "downloads are the way to go for High Def content" is foolish. Not only is downloading HD too slow, its quality isn't as good as either BluRay or HD DVD. Plus, the monthly cost for a broadband connection fast enough is out of reach for most people, espcially with the economy tanking.
MS missed a chance to deal a knockout blow to Sony and give consumers a "Killer Ap" for Vista and pad their own interest both near term and long term.
If MS has 45 Billion to spend, they would have been better off paying off Warner, Disney, Blockbuster, Netflix and the rest to go HD DVD exclusive. Even if they didn't incorporate the HD DVD drive in the 360 as they should, they should have at least had NATIVE (no external program required: see Chris Lanier's Blog at: http://msmvps.com/blogs/chrisl/archive/2008/01/25/1480420.aspx ) streaming of DVDs and HD DVDs to extenders such as the 360 from 200 disc changers. This would have killed the PS3, given Vista sales a boost and the external HD DVD drive wouldn't be useless for loyal early adopters. Once HD DVD had caught on, MS would have the time to allow networks to be built for faster, cheaper and higher QUALITY HD rental/purchase streaming down the road. As it is, they've missed a chance to put Sony out, help their bottom line and customers. As it is, BluRay fanboys have successfully convinced people that Sony's extra layer of DRM (BD-J), rootkits and players that are buggy and aren't even uniform in features are superior because they cost more and have a few gigs of extra space and a "scratch-resistant" layer. Had HD DVD won and 200 disc changers streaming HD around the house to 360s and media extenders caught on, then you wouldn't need a "scratch-resistant layer" since you would only have to put the disc in once. The HD DVD disc could have been ripped and converted for use on a portable device, and be out of inventory for use on the changer until the PMP was cleared of the HD movie. But all these wonderful things won't be unless MS acts quickly and spends $45 billion not on buying a search engine in fight it's already lost, because Sony's BD-J DRM system is Java based, and MS will never support streaming of HD content in Windows with a Sony and Java based system. We will probably see 200 disc Bluray changers from Sony, but the interoperability with Media Center/360s will be much more difficult and likely have to come from third parties.

Winter: It cuts the other way too. If Bluray would just die now, HD DVD, which is already lower in price, would become even cheaper sooner than Bluray will. Plus, the extra DRM in Bluray hurts chances for managed copy and streaming via Windows Media Center