[geeks] Ya-HoooooO!

[nate at portents.com]

> As for a few Microsoft non-suckages --
>
> -- I was very happy with my Microsoft Z-80 card.  It let me use Turbo
>    Pascal on my Apple ][+!

You mean the Turbo Pascal that runs on CP/M, the OS that was imitated by
Seattle Computer Products in their 86-DOS product, which was used as the
basis of MS-DOS by Microsoft after first purchasing a non-exclusive
license and then purchasing all rights to 86-DOS from SCP?

> -- Their computer mice are generally high quality and inexpensive.

Were high quality.  I've seen a very high failure rate of MS mice made in
the last three years, especially the buttons.

> -- Their computer gaming hardware (joysticks, joypads, etc.) is
>    generally good to high quality as well.

Computer gaming hardware they used to make.  They've basically exited the
market, unless you could the XBox 360 controller (a non-standard, non-HID
USB device that needs it's own drivers to work with an OS), and I'm not
sure their co-ventures with Razer in mice and keyboards can really be
counted.

> -- I never cared for their keyboards, but others love them.

They've slowly declined in build quality over the years, with some of
their latest products having very mushy keys that get worse over time.

> -- People like to bash the Xbox and Xbox 360, but in general I'd say
>    the Xbox 360 (and related things like Xbox Live) seems to be doing
>    well.  Not perfectly, but well.

The XBox is called the XBox because it started life as the DirectXBox. 
It's the hardware implementation of an API Microsoft already had, hardware
designed to make them more money and give them more platform control than
if it just existed as a stand-alone software API on desktop computers.

The hardware itself is an IBM and ATI designed platform, with a PowerPC
processor which only supports static, in-order execution (like older CPUs
such as the original Pentium), only 1MB of shared L2 cache, and an ATI GPU
that's a little better than the ATI X800 chip.

The backwards compatibility with the original XBox architecture through
software emulation was developed I'm sure with the help of the VirtualPC
staff who were transferred to Microsoft from Connectix with the sale of
the product.

And regarding the XBox 360's success otherwise, it's at least partly
thanks to Microsoft putting up $1 billion to cover extended warranties on
their prematurely failing hardware.  Regarding the titles they have for
the platform, that's as much due to Microsoft's purchase of key
development studios (i.e. Bungie) and pouring lots of money and resources
into key third-party developers to bring their products to the platform
(often as exclusively as they can get them).

> -- Many of the games, both computer and console, that have come out of
>    Microsoft (or companies they have acquired) have been very good.

I wouldn't expect otherwise considering the financial resources available,
as well as the ability to get their developers the technical resources
they need.

> -- I've found msnbc.com to be less heinous than most other similar
>    news sites.  (I know, high praise!)

Wouldn't know, don't watch it.

> -- The Zune doesn't suck.  It's just mediocre compared to it's
>    competition.

Considering how long it took them to seriously enter that market (iPod -
2001, Zune - 2006), five years was more than enough time to make something
that doesn't suck.

> I guess as long as you avoid Microsoft Windows/Vista, you're good!
> (and without Windows, you can't run Office, the source of most of the
> rest of Microsoft's suckage.)

Good?  You'd be mediocre to blah, like most of their products.

- Nate