Further evidence that Microsoft is doomed: Ms. Dewey

[Jim Wynne]

I have a theory. It seems that when businesses reach a certain size, they will inevitably become so unwieldy that they'll begin to collapse and fold back in on themselves, and no amount of management expertise can stop the process once it starts. As a bit of empirical evidence I offer Microsoft's latest contribution to the Seach Engine Wars, an abominable abuse of web technology called Ms. Dewey.

It looks like an exemplar for everything a web page shouldn't be:

• Slow loading
• Annoying Flash animation
• Huge amounts of wasted screen space
• Unnecessary audio

What were they thinking?

 

[DsqrdDGD909]

Well, I for one was totally captivated and have placed an ad on Monster for my own personal Ms. Dewey . (I have a thing for brunettes)

Seriously, it reminds me of a TV ad from a while back where two guys are all excited about their flaming logo on their web page.

 

[ezorangee]

Well....On my pc Ms Dewey stopped loading at the half way point......
I kept staring at the screen, but it just wouldn't load the rest of the site.

At my age, I guess I should be happy with getting half-way there.

 

[BradM]

Yea, but remember how big the first computers were, and how weird the first Windows environment was?

Enough people will use it enough for them to improve it.

Until someone develops a better mousetrap (and gets it out to the masses; it's going to be a massive initial investment), Windows will keep growing, and growing; tentacles getting longer, and stronger...

 

[chergh - 2008]

At least Ms.Dewey is easy on the eyes while waiting for that page to load.

M$ have royally annoyed me today as their next set of office products are going to cost 70% more in the UK than US!!!!!!! I know I live in rip off Britain but this is getting rediculous. That Access isn't included in the small business edition is also a disgrace it's small businesses that can't afford real databases that benefit most from Access.

 

[BradM]

Yep. There's a few breaks for students, but not much.

However, look at it this way. A copy of Access and a little training are still substantially less expensive than many of the specialty software packages.


There are some really cool search engines, if you haven't used them before:

www.kartoo.com
www.grokker.com
www.vivisimo.com

Not revolutionary, just different methods to search, compile, and present the data

 

[chergh - 2008]

However, look at it this way. A copy of Access and a little training are still substantially less expensive than many of the specialty software packages.

Yes but those packages cost more because they are real databases unlike Access which is more of a database emulator.

 

[DsqrdDGD909]

Why do you need the next set of MS office?

I'm sure the answer will be over my head, but why isn't Access a database program? What makes it an emulator?

 

[chergh - 2008]

Why do you need the next set of MS office?

I don't personally but when I buy a new PC I would probably like to have the new version of the office product. I don't object to paying a reasonable price but when I have to pay 70% more than US users it's getting rediculous. I could even live with upto 30% more to take things like VAT into account.

Also this price difference is likely to apply to M$ Vista OS as well.

If M$ really do insist on this rediculous price difference I will be waving goodbye to them and using Linux on both my computers.

 

[chergh - 2008]

I'm sure the answer will be over my head, but why isn't Access a database program? What makes it an emulator?

The main reason is that Access is file based databasew while db's such as SQL server, Oracle etc. are server based databases. Access is not scalable, totally lacks security, it wont handle files above 2gb, it frequently corrupts data (frequent is a relative term here) and a whole host of other more technical things.

Don't get me wrong Access is good little tool but you have to respect it's limits.