ct

Maybe they'll go the Ubuntu hidden menus auto-complete route.

"To answer the question more directly however, WPF or any desktop stack is only a stop gap till web apps are more capable. It's definately on a downword trend."

The web will always be playing catch up to native desktop/mobile apps. And when web apps catch up to the desktop, there will be something else new that web apps can't do that desktop apps can better. (It might take 7 yrs to catch up -- like being able to play DOOM on the web).

I love this. Thanks for the post.

If they want to succeed:

1) Distance themselves from the "Windows" branding (like they did with the XBox) -- as most people just upon hearing "Windows" won't even wait for the "phone" part and will automatically associate it with a negative connotation, whether warranted or not, with the desktop OS and Windows Mobile.

2) First impressions are the most important, and while people might actually like it if they were forced to use/try it for a few days the most crucial thing is it appeals to the consumer during the first few mins in the store. Every time I've watched someone at the store play with a WP7 they just immediately move on to the more "glossier" home screens of iPhone/Android. If it requires them to add embellishments to the home screen for the sake of sales despite violating a Metro design principle then that's what needs to be done. You have to give people what they like/want and not be stubborn about sticking to certain principles and/or give options in addition to Metro if you're struggling and about to go down in flames.

3) Treat developers better. Right now there's so much uncertainty in the WP7 development ecosystem wrt Silverlight and XAML/C#. Personally I'm at stalemate on the platform as I don't know if it's a waste of time to focus on XAML/C# if Silverlight/WPF is going to die, and whether all of that is going to be replaced with HTML/JS and/or WinRT/C++. Maybe after a year or two the dust will settle and the messaging for what to use for development will become clearer. But that's a significant time of lost opportunity to market share as developers will just stick to Objective-C for iPhone or Java for Android to avoid wasting time throwing away XAML/C# code for later HTML/JS, WINRT/C++, etc...

An MBA probably won't help you and may even make it worse.

The first step is recognizing there's a problem and seek help, which you've done and I congratulate you for that. I think you just have to be more patient and humble.

Even if you think you're the smartest person in the company, you have to learn that others can bring something to the table also. Just setup what the goals are of the meeting at the start then give people a chance to speak and withhold your own opinion until after you've heard everyone else talk at the end. Again don't try to interrupt too much and give everyone a chance to voice their opinion, and use it as an opportunity to try to learn something from others (ie. respect that others have something to teach you as well). And sometimes you'd be surprised at learning something you didn't expect or know beforehand that would change what you thought should happen.

yep totally agree, definitely not the awful layouts, automatic music playing, blinking animated gifs everywhere that caused MySpace to stagnate. Definitively it was the backend code that caused people to not want to visit MySpace again...

Nice. As a gluten intolerant person this is awesome. However, I don't have a WP7 yet to buy this. Waiting for the next version of Nokia's phone next year.

While I applaud Microsoft for trying trim down the chrome, gradients, etc. to leave only the content, in the end it feels too industrial with the sharp hard corner edges and monochromatic dumb-terminal look where all the apps look basically the same. People want something warm and fuzzy which skeumorphic, rounded corners, gradients, and shinyness offers despite detracting a bit from the content which makes it more accessible to ordinary people.

From an efficiency standpoint of getting the data and interacting with it the Metro design is definitely superior in that sense, but fails to capture the connection of the phone being something that just isn't a tool.

I think Microsoft should offer more choices than just Metro despite having things look different app to app, and let the user better customize the home screen with whatever personalization embellishments they want (backgrounds, gradients on tiles, folders, etc.) instead of forcing a design on everyone as everyone is different.

If they did that maybe, people initially would start out with the "skeumorphic" look similar to the iPhone/Android/etc. as that's what they're used to with other phones and in the real world, and slowly allow them to change settings to transfer if they want back to a content focused Metro mode.

I think having this option would allow them to sell the devices better despite it breaking some minimilistic cohesive designer sensibility in favor of what the consumer wants and what will sell which is the ultimate goal anyhow.

Before you go to sleep write down on a post it note ONE thing you want to get done and put it on your monitor. Tomorrow first thing work on that ONE thing and get it done. After a while add one more additional thing to have TWO things to get done tomorrow. And finally once you've mastered completing two things a day, add another for a max of THREE things. Good luck!

They've pretty much lost the desktop search engine market. The mobile search is still petty nascent and lots of opportunities for innovation and a market leader.

So I'd get on the forefront of mobile making it the thing to focus on possibly partnering up with a hardware device developer. Fork Android OS and make customizations to it tailored for Yahoo services.

Invest in R&D for mobile search and bring something new and useful to the table that nobody else like Apple or Microsoft has to wow everyone and put them back on the map as an innovative company. ie. still lots of mobile browser inefficiencies that can be improved upon.

Lastly make everything lean and mean, and focus.

Don't sweat it and focus strongly on your strong points and their weaknesses.

Expression Sketchboard

Selling is about helping someone find a solution to a problem by finding the best product that fixes it (whether it's your own or someone else's).

The goal of a company is to make as much money as possible. If you want to get people to develop for your OS over another OS you have to give them an incentive to do so. Using a cross-platform API disincentives one to only develop for Windows as now the benefits to using platform specific technologies available only to Windows has been marginalized.

If they're going for lowest common denominator apis like HTML/JS, then you get subpar LCD applications that Apple can blow away via better support in native apps and Apple OS specific APIs for Objective-C/XCode. Windows devs will then feel like they can do better than HTML/JS and move over to Objective-C/XCode and Apple.

In fact I'm strongly considering moving to the Apple camp after being a long time staunch MS supporter for my entire career.

I agree it's absolutely ridiculous. Supporting HTML/JS and being "open" might sound like a good idea but all it's going to do is turn former Win32/WinForms/WPF/Silverlight devs over to HTML/JS which then they'll lose a platform lock on as they'll migrate over to Macs. Good job Microsoft and good luck with that stock price.

The leadership at MS needs serious re-work if they want to maintain their position in the enterprise. Their cash cow is Windows OS and based on what we've seen with their push for HTML5 at conferences like MIX over proprietary hooks into their OS like WPF and Silverlight will just eventually decimate their hold on the money making enterprise world.

Apple's enterprise hold last quarter grew 66%. This should scare Microsoft.

Our company has now pretty much set their sights on developing in HTML5 for internal line of business apps which used to be heavily desktop Windows based applications. This will eventually lead to less reliance on Windows and Microsoft, which is a good thing for the company but a terrible blow for Microsoft.

Apple seems to get it as to how to grow their business and keep the competitor from cannibalizing it. Apple has been downplaying HTML5 support in Safari/Webkit and almost purposefuly leaving things broken. This is a smart move on Apple's part in my opinion.

I've been mostly a loyal MS supporter but with the way things are going I'm strongly considering moving over from Windows to coding Apple apps and learning Objective C despite how nice C# coding is.

There's still time and hope to see if they change things around and announce something good at PDC in September, otherwise say goodbye to stagnant Microsoft.

Very cool dude! Congrats on finishing it. This is motivating me to start on a game also this weekend :)

I've been feeling the same way myself the past couple of days. Not sure if it's due to the weather and all the rain recently. But I've been feeling burnt out myself. I don't have any solutions at the moment, except I think on Friday I'm going to take a personal day off (1st time this year) and stay away from the computer and go out of the city and just hang around. Maybe the change of scenery might do me some good.

As for you - sorry no advice but maybe go somewhere you haven't gone before yet preferably outdoors. Good luck!

At the end of the video Patrick mentions his website has some example businesses for women. Anyone have the link to that page?

3 years is an eternity in Internet years. If there's a failure to generate a MVP like you mentioned in 3 yrs (one should've been able to get something out in 6 months to a year at most to test the markets), then it's time to cut your losses. Tenacity and willingness to not give up is one thing, but it's also another to know when to call it quits.

Each day spent without releasing an MVP is a day of lost opportunity that could've been spent elsewhere.

A large company isn't necessarily a bad thing either as it'll help you accumulate savings in your early years (which are the most important years to accumulate savings so you can put it to work generating interest, capital gains, etc. so that the power of compounding works passively for you). There's some chart out there somewhere comparing savings compounded early on vs. someone that started later and the difference when you retire is huge.

Plus sometimes you learn alot about how big companies processes work, how they make purchases, contacts, etc. that will help you later on in life if you do intend to go back to a startup world or start your own.

Good luck!

I was expecting more of the same old CRUD crap, but was pleasantly surprised. Good luck with it!

If one thinks the market is going to go down and wants to hedge seems another alternative is to go long the dollar like UUP instead of GLD, since the dollar is inversely correlated with the market. A higher dollar makes investing in US companies more expensive for foreign investors.

I was in college working part-time doing websites, etc. Should've dropped out and went full-time with several of the offers being given. But at the time I sort of wanted to finish the college thing.

But that's not a private messaging system. I get enough spam as it is and don't feel like playing games with obfuscating my e-mail when there's a better solution.

And if you don't want private msgs, just turn on a flag to disallow it.

Like what?

Have a widget on the homepage that shows the top 10 links of the day so that we don't have to read and sift through every single submission. Just reading only 10 links per day would be less of a time sucker.

The neural network that Bradley was working on sounds interesting.

Respectfully disagree about not dipping into your IRA to fund a startup if you're driven to succeed and raising capital otherwise falls through. Just make sure it's for the right idea and it'll pay multiples over the crappy returns the S&P has over the past 10 years (which is almost nothing).

Or never launch because you're always worrying about the millions of users you'll never get because you're too busy trying to learn NOSQL instead of just using MySQL for the first iteration.

"I'm engaging in anecdotal junk science here but my theory is that the people who really loose themselves in games like WoW are people with very poor time management skills."

I totally concur with this statement. It's just a matter of prioritizing your time correctly. There doesn't need to be all of this WoW is a drug you need to cut it off completely or else you'll be a fat gamer that hasn't gone anywhere in life.

All of this WoW bashing could easily apply to several other things where people don't take in moderation, like alcohol, watching football, etc.