getwired.com

I’ve mentioned before how much time I spend investigating spam. It’s allowed me to observe some pretty interesting, sometimes amusing, often annoying, criminal behavior. I also enjoy analyzing Twitter spam as well, and have built a pretty interesting collection of spammer examples. One of the most common things I see on Twitter, though, is spammers using shortlinks to try and pull off their crime. Shortlinks (goo.gl, bit.ly, etc) have made sharing links handy, especially on character limited communication mediums such…

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From when I joined Microsoft in 1997 until I left in 2004, and even since then (but especially during the heady days of the DOJ lawsuit), accusations flew fast and furious accusing Microsoft of misusing the word “innovation”, that Microsoft couldn’t innovate, or didn’t innovate. To a large part, I don’t agree with that. Sure, you can say that Windows Phone 7 was a reaction to the iPhone and Android, but it wasn’t a clone, and it attempts to offer a…

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In Louisiana, there is a bridge on Interstate 55 that crosses the Manchac Swamp. One of the world’s longest bridges, it’s over 22 miles long. I mention that because I think it’s important that you be visualizing a very long bridge, because that is, in so many ways what Microsoft is building with Windows 8. Win8 on the legacy (x86/x64) architectures and Win8 on ARM are in many ways two different platforms, and WinRT is the (very long) bridge that Microsoft…

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A few years ago, someone in Hollywood got scared. They started looking at the volume that DVD/Blu-Ray (“shiny media”) movies were selling at, versus the volume movies were selling to shiny media rental stores and Netflix. And that someone’s reaction? The most idiotic idea I’ve ever seen (I even think it was dumber than DIVX). The “28 56 Day Rental Window”. I said it was stupid then, I’ll reaffirm it is stupid now. But just wait – it’s getting dumber. You…

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On January 2, 2012, Apple accidentally released an app called “Game Store” to the iOS App Store. I saw this early in the day, so thought I would check it out. Turned out it was only in the German App Store – and that it wasn’t really that exciting. In the end, it didn’t even show up in my search results. But what did show up in the search caught my eye. Take a look. See all those “Maker” apps in…

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Last night, a follower on Twitter asked me the following: [blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/robertmclaws/status/154446168846368768″] For those who don’t know, my day job is as a research analyst at Directions on Microsoft (DoM). Unlike most analysis firms that focus horizontally across various vendors in various markets, we focus exclusively on Microsoft (which DoM has done for 20 years this year). This single vendor approach has enabled us to dive deep and lets us answer questions about Microsoft’s software, services, hardware, and even complex licensing…

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Last Friday I posted this on Twitter: Netflix/Quickster, GoDaddy, Verizon… fascinating to watch an Internet beat-down cause a business decision to be reversed. 2011 should go down on record as the year that companies – some of them, anyway, experienced resonance to the point that they were forced to reverse a key business decision. I refer to resonance as the innate amplification of topics across the Internet as they reverberate from user to user that agrees with the sentiment. Amusing topics that…

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As a child, my favorite treat was a cheeseburger. Not just any, but a Burger King cheeseburger “minus mustard”. Years later, a cashier pointed out that BK cheeseburgers didn’t have mustard on them, but nobody had ever corrected me. Have it your way indeed. I’ve had innumerable meals out. I’ve eaten too much fast food, candy, sodas, and junk food. A few years ago, while we lived in Austin, my wife and I somehow began to contemplate eating healthier. I don’t…

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Who doesn’t love a free lunch? C’mon now – you know there’s no such thing as a free lunch. Yet why do countless people fall for “the inbox hustle“? I’ve been working on whitelisting technology for over a decade, and my sojourn has taken me far from where it started on Windows to the Internet at large, and to the base psychology at play when a typical person gets gamed by crap in their inbox, on Twitter, or on the…

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Almost a year ago I posted a two part set of posts discussing “The war for the family room”, where I discussed an impending battle between the Xbox, Apple TV, and Google TV. Things are evolving quite nicely. Though Google TV has effectively flopped in it’s first (overpriced and overly complex) implementation, I’m sure Google will be back. In the meantime, I wanted to take a bit of a look into where all three are now. Apple TV – more content providers, but largely…

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