Now, I’ve subscribed to Scoble’s blog for almost 2 years or so and I really enjoy his writing style and much of what he has to say. Though in the past few days he’s written a few posts I need to comment on.
Maybe it’s because I took the weekend off to spend with the family and reading about three days posts just gets me more motivated to address some things. Keep in mind, I’m not upset with Robert, and I’m certainly not about to stop reading his blog! So I’ll start with the newest and work my way back – it won’t take long, it’s only a few posts:
- Inside new Sharepoint’s RSS, blogs, and wikis – Thanks for the information! I’ve been following the SharePoint product for the past 2-3 years and am very excited for new details on what’s going on. My hope is to have SharePoint brought inside my employer in the next year or so – its just too powerful a platform not to implement. The nice part is that many business and IT leaders are starting to find the usefulness of the product. The only reason it didn’t make it in the door in 2004 was because of restore options for the database – just not flexible enough. One simple question, and when Microsoft and their partners said “well, not in this version” and couldn’t put a timeline on the request – talks dissolved on the project. We’ll see where they’re at now.
- Has Microsoft changed? WinFS post getting questioned internally – Hmmm, I’ve had similar thoughts and wonder a number of things. Is WinFS as the “Windows Future Storage” really gone? Does it matter? As our Web 2.0-centric world spins faster and faster – with better broadband and wireless connections, does it matter for a local relational file system? If all our data is stored online, and most of our apps are web-based, what is the usefulness of a WinFS type subsystem – heck what’s the use of a fat client? Did Bill Gates just let all his pet projects whither as he left for “summer vacation” as Robert puts it? Does Bill care? Was WinFS a pet project? Humph!
- Dear Al Gore: here’s some inconvenient truths – Now I have to admit up front that I am not fond of the former V.P. and that I have not read his book or watched his movie. It’s my opinion that his current media attention is simply targeted at his 2008 run for President – ’nuff said on that. What I will say on this one is that I agree with Robert that our society has several self-induced issues facing it in the next many years, the environment is hardly one of them. Yes, we all could work better at conserving energy in the instances that Robert mentions – and more. The real challenges that we face are the re-writing of history to meet currently desired interpretations, lack of integrity & objectivity in the drive-by media, rejection of traditional cultural norms, and unwillingness to find the middle ground in the political arena.
One thing I’ve noticed about Robert’s blog in recent months is that he really has taken it back as a personal blog instead of the Microsoft PR outlet that it had a tendency to sound like. Now I know I’m on the opposite political fence from Robert, but I do appreciate his open discussion.
On a side note Robert, I do hope the move goes well, with as little issue as possible!