Links for Friday April 8th, 2011
Microsoft's office: Why insiders think top management has lost its way: More on Microsoft's woes.
Google: Software patents are bad, so we're accumulating lots of them: I think that as Google gets bigger, they've been having a harder and harder time making their actions fall in line with their ideals. Google's idealism elevated them beyond "normal" companies, which is what makes actions like this so disappointing.
Why Facebook open-sourced its datacenters: More evidence of the rivalry between Facebook and Google.
Android chief Rubin's response to Android critics misses the point: Pretty good take-down of Andy Rubin's latest blog post about Android:
"The current status of Android falls far below the standard of openness that Google promised in Android's early days when the company touted its vision of opening smartphones to third-party hardware and software in the same way that the Carterfone decision opened the phone networks."
Android really isn't all that open. It's not entirely closed either. It seems like Google is staking out some new ground between the two. But their actions don't exactly match with their rhetoric.
Bootstrapped, Profitable, & Proud: Coudal: Interesting profile of Coudal Partners:
"There’s this great quote by Dan Gilbert. He said that the reason that most of us are so unhappy most of the time is that we make our goals for the people we are when we set them, not for the people we’re gonna be when we reach them," Coudal explains. “And when I started at an ad agency I said, ‘I need to be a creative director. I need to be a hotshot creative director in an agency that’s highly visible.’ And I got there and was miserable doing work I wasn’t particularly proud of for people I didn’t like."
Sounds like pretty good advice.
Nintendo 3DS struggling in Japan, outsold by PSP: To me, the 3DS doesn't smell like it's going to be a big hit. Time will tell if this is an aberration, or a harbinger of things to come.
The problem with Microsoft...: There have been a few stories this week examining Microsoft's woes. But this seems to be one of their big problems:
"But the root of Microsoft's paralysis seems to be Ballmer himself. Interviews with a range of former Microsoft employees -- from ex--vice presidents still on good terms with their former boss to middle managers and engineers who helped build the company -- paint a picture of an executive determined to protect the legacy (and legacy businesses) he inherited from founder and friend Bill Gates."
I, for one, won't be entirely sad to see Microsoft go.
How a big US bank laundered billions from Mexico's murderous drug gangs: Amazing story from the Guardian, about how the big banks have been aiding drug traffic, by laundering money. Incredible that no bank employees have been prosecuted over this.