Aargggh

WTF? blogger, xanga, and MSN spaces all don't allow users to view the raw RSS feed generated by their respective blogs, what the hell is up w/ that? I need to look at some raw RSS feeds for my project and this is stupid and frustrating. I can't even tell whether blogger is using atom, RSS 2.0, or what. There must be a way to grab the raw xml, I'm just not seeing it right now. AARRGGHHH!

At least they're not complete bozos

After the big re-org and watching the company meeting webcast, I guess my first impression is that I'm glad our top management isn't quite as out of touch as they sound to the outside world, though that's not saying much. I thought Ballmer came across horribly in last week's Business week interview, completely in denial, dodging tough questions without giving any substantial answers, and simply being a rah-rah cheerleader. And internally both Gates and Ballmer have came across as completely being out of touch, not truly seeing Google (and Apple and Yahoo) as worthy competitors, and ignoring valid employee complaints about overladen process, bureaucracy, lack of innovation, etc.

At least they are now seeing Google as a worthy competitor, because they absolutely are. I'm glad they finally acknowledged Google's "web as a platform" strategy (not that it's hard, everyone and their grandmothers can probably see it by now), w/ their maps API, gmail, storage, personalized search & content, etc. I have my doubts as to whether this MSN and Windows marriage is going to counter that strategy effectively, given their drastically different cultures, but at least they are finally addressing this threat. Furthermore, they keep speaking of this amazing "innovation pipeline", but I'll believe it when I start to see real products that make me go, "man that's (bleep)ing cool (bleep)."

I still think Google has the edge though, they are what msft used to be 15-20 years ago: young, smart, arrogant, and hard-working as all hell. It's no wonder the msft offer acceptance rate at Stanford is ~50%, hell I'm surprised it's even that high. I do think it's an interesting case study whether msft can avoid the fate of IBM, HP, Merck, and other successful tech companies who became victims of their own success as they grew big and old. But I'm not sure I personally want to be part of this experiment. There are still execs whom I respect tremendously here, particularly Chris Jones in Windows, Steve Sinofsky in Office, and J Allard in Xbox, but whether/when this 2nd generation leadership will really get to call the shots at msft still remains to be seen. btw, Steve's got an excellent post on becoming a general manager that I just have to point out.

So in summary, it's "I'm glad they (Bill and Steve) are not complete morons." But they'll have to show me a lot more to convince me they are worthy of the god-status bestowed upon them around here.

Turning, turning, turning through the years

Accidentally found two ticket stubs to Les Mis in one of my coat pockets today, as I was cleaning out and getting ready to move. It was dated May 25, 2002. Memory has a way of sneaking up on you when least expected. 2002, that was an entire lifetime ago. Nothing remains from that life now.

當我看到這兩張票根時, 我心頭好像被一把大鐵錘重重的敲了一下, 痛得幾乎無法喘過氣來。

今夜孤立橋頭
望殘月稀朦
記憶懷中
佳人倩影依舊
恍惚,恍惚,
心碎無奈回首
往昔纏綿隨風流,
月下小路仍有, 故人不再.

「佳人倩影依舊...故人不再」。 寫得真好! 把我現在的心情形容得再也不能更貼切了。 有時我真是不得不嘆服於中文的博大精深。 在這種情況下, 我覺得只有中文才能表達真正的我。如果我不能和我的另一半分享這種意境那真是一種無法彌補的遺憾...

只可惜, 對我生命中重要的女人來說, 這些似乎都並不重要。是否有一個能真正瞭解,分享中華文化的枕邊人, 是一件可有可無的小事。這些傻事好像都只有我會在乎。我真是一個傻子。我不瞭解, 我真的不瞭解。只可惜, 我不瞭解的事情太多了...