HELLO, CAN YOU HEAR ME?

Microsoft is introducing a new social networking service in May called Vine.MS created the service to keep families in touch with one another in case of emergencies. Vine would use alerts and news source feeds to keep people informed during a crisis situation. Information from NOAA and other agencies would be available on the site through a dashboard that connects friends and families. However, the technology would be available only if the user had XP2 or Vista on the computer's hardware. The site, furthermore, would be available through subscription.

Pfft. The best friend for information that one can have in a critical predicament is a low-tech gadget called a transistor radio with fresh batteries or a radio that can be cranked by hand. My family owns both. A computer will not work as a source of edification if the power goes out. The hand-cranked radio also has a flashlight which is something that the monolith in Redmond can't supply with this late-in-the-running SNS attempt.

Microsoft does not understand that there are plenty of social networking services like Twitter and Facebook, and innovations like RSS feeds, that can deliver on-demand information in the presence of an emergency. There are also ample non-software based venues for creating crises intelligence in a community. Microsoft's Vine deserves to be chopped.

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STAY IN

This is the LinkedIn profile screenshot of a man who killed his wife and then committed suicide two weeks ago. The man, 33-year-old Jason Montes, was a writer for a game company. His 25-year-old wife, Serena, was a pastry chef. Jason Montes had declared bankruptcy and the couple had planned to divorce. The weapon was a military service pistol stolen from Mr.Montes' parents.


Times are tough. Microsoft just laid off 5,000 people and there is talk of more cuts. The company that my husband works for just laid off 30 in a small organization. He is looking at a pay slash. However, there is no reason to be so despondent as to kill oneself or another. Stay connected to the world even if it seems everything around you has come unglued because tomorrow might be better. And you will never know unless you stick around.

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MICROYA WHO?

Microsoft has made a bid for search engine company Yahoo! to the tune of $44.6 billion. While that is pocket change for Bill Gates, why? Yahoo is just a portal. It doesn't have the applications that Google has such as spreadsheets, documents, notebooks, e-mail, and --- by the way --- a search engine. The Yahoo! MyWeb can't compete with Reader in terms of cross-functionality with other Google apps. Bill and company are too little, too very late in buying a company that hasn't understood how to use the Internet for socialization, information, and business. I don't understand the logic behind Congress and the European Union scrutinizing Microsoft for the purchase as possible monopoly. Whoever thought of this purposed merger was shy five pixels off the screen.

To place the idiocy of the merger in perspective, I Googled not Yahooed or Live Searched for the information for this post. And, yeah, it's an article on Blogger. 'Nuff said.

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