simplicity

Bill Gates and Steve Jobs | D5 | AllThingsD

It’s not every day you get to see two of the most brilliant minds in technology sit down and have a candid discussion about the past, present, and future. I highly recommend viewing the videos that are posted. I haven’t had an opportunity to sit down and watch every single one, but what I’ve seen has been enlightening. I personally believe that Gates and Microsoft revolutionized the PC industry not only from a technological standpoint but from a business standpoint also. The vision that Gates had early on that software was the real money maker in the industry and then manipulating each business deal to be representative of that when everyone else believed hardware was the only real way to make profit, it just shows how much of a visionary he was. Then you have Steve Jobs, who has really revolutionized the way hardware and software should look, feel, and act. How he was able to take a sinking ship and turn it around, especially after he was initially fired. What a story that is. Not to mention he has consistently been relentless in his pursuit of absolute perfection with his products. It’s interesting to imagine what the future will be like for these two companies�

Optimize your Buzz: How to Stay Where you Want to be

Most people drink alcohol because it makes them feel good. But that’s true only up to a certain point, after which alcohol makes you feel worse, then bad, then sick, then�well�dead.

Everyone needs to read this. Though, who really keeps tabs on how many drinks they’ve really had? Come on now!

It was a beautiful weekend in Boston, especially for baseball. The Sox ended up taking two-out-of-three from Baltimore, the best of the three games for the Sox coming yesterday afternoon. A 9th inning comeback on Mothers Day. I’ll be honest around the 7th inning I stepped away from the tube to play some Halo 2 with one of the roommates, but I left the TV on for any audible cues.� Low and behold I had to step away from playing Halo 2 online to watch the Sox get 6 runs in the bottom of the 9th. Here’s an article from the Globe detailing the come-back. I’m still astounded that Baltimore took out Guthrie, who had only thrown 91 pitches, with one out in the bottom of the 9th. They should have tried to have him get the double play, the likely-hood that he himself was going to cost you the game after pitching a gem was minimal. Not to mention Coco only got on base by sheer luck, the fans at Fenway must have started blowing at the same time to cause the wind to wreck havoc on that pop-up. Perlozzo was kicking himself in the ass after that game for making that move.

Computerworld – Jobs takes top CEO pay spot, makes $US646M

Steve Jobs’ $US1 salary was dwarfed by $US646 million in stock compensation for 2006, Forbes magazine said Friday, ranking the Apple CEO as the highest-paid executive in the U.S.

Wow is all I can say…

I think this was inevitable, the Yankees have had a injury prone starting rotation and their bullpen is exhausted behind belief, so he’ll definitely be of more help to the patch work rotation they’ll have there. I think it would have been nice to have Clemens in a Red Sox jersey one more time before he retired, but I’m glad they didn’t have a chance to counter-offer the $28 million that the Yankees offered him. I personally don’t think the 45 year old is worth the amount that the Yankees are paying him. He’ll be giving them a maximum of six innings and he’ll only be playing for four months not to mention he’s been pitching in the NL the past few years. The AL has a more potent offense then the NL, so it’s hard to really value how his arm will be against the AL. I do understand the Yankees need for a pitcher, but again this man is 45 years old and I’m not saying he isn’t the greatest pitcher of our generation but his arm is going to give out at some point as a Red Sox fan I hope it’s this year. Also does anyone find it kind of alarming that he’s following around Andy Pettitte? Anyways I guess we’ll have to wait till he takes the mound against the Sox the first week of June, in any rate it should make for a fantastic boost in ratings for Fox as well as help them to put together an even longer montage.

There were a lot of articles around the whole Roger Clemens deal, but two articles that I found the most interesting:

1.) Nick Cafardo’s piece on Boston.com

2.) The Daily Collegian piece on Why the Return to NY Was Wrong

Papelbon blew a 4-2 lead last night in the 9th against Oakland. Schilling was having a game I�was slowly in and out of consciousness during the last few innings of the�game, but it was definitely a shock to see Pap blow the save. Is it disappointing? Yes. Am I scared? No.��The man, no matter how much people want to believe he isn’t, is still human. I hope he bounces back from this,�but it’s always disappointing to see the Sox lose,�even worse when�it’s�blowing a lead. �

Ozzie’s quiet revolution at Microsoft | Newsmakers | CNET News.com

I still think there is huge importance in every OS, in innovation in the OS itself. But there will be pure Internet apps that don’t care what they’re run on.

If�you are interested in where Microsoft is heading and what it’s stance on web-only apps is I suggest this interview. Ray’s a�brilliant man and he sheds light on some important aspects on desktop applications, the�web, and Microsoft.��

Microsofts Bach pitches user-driven marketing | CNET News.com

How can you not agree with Robert Bach on this? With the large increase and user awareness to sites such as YouTube, Facebook, and MySpace the idea of consumer marketing being pushed into a new direction can easily be seen. I think an even important take-away from this is the�cost-savings that “user-driven” marketing can have on companies.��The $1.2 million�a company has budgeted for creating an advertisement or commercial, could�drastically be cut�through “user-driven” marketing. The key here also is�that this type of marketing is essentially�”word-of-mouth”, but�in a far faster manner.��”Word-of-mouth”�tends to be a far better marketing tool, because it pushes away the hoopla of the product or service. You are more likely to want a product or service after�your friends or peers have given talked about it and given it the ok.��I think that’s the case with user-driven marketing, you push the marketing off to the�users, essentially having them drive the sales through the technologically advanced “word-of-mouth”�tool.�