'Cause I'll throw you off the line. I'll break you and destroy you, given time.
This site is turning into all OLPC news all the time. But I can't help it if it seems to stay in the limelight.
These fuckers think they can run roughshod over OLPC! First Microsoft attempts to re-design Windows to fit on the ultralight and ultra-hot OLPC XO, and realizes it for the fool's errand it is. My guess is someone finally told the boss MISSION IMFUCKINGPOSSIBLE in no uncertain terms. Such as, you know, yelling "MISSION IMFUCKINGPOSSIBLE" right in their face.
But wait, there's more! Microsoft, showing audacity levels never before seen, has asked OLPC to help them. "Can you redesign the whole fucking thing so we can play, too?"
If Negroponte has any stones whatsoever, and I bet he does, he will send back this message: "Nuts!"
Apologies for this profane rant. It has been tagged accordingly.
As promised, a book review. Technobabble will resume tomorrow.
The book Leaving Microsoft to Change the World: An Entrepreneur's Odyssey to Educate the World's Children is by an interesting guy named John Wood, who, as you may be able to guess from the title, used to work at Microsoft, left, and founded an excellent charity concerning books. You can see how I might be biased towards such a piece, since it involves both of my favorite things to do, but I think it is a genuinely good piece of writing.
A word about how I came by the book. Normally, I have a stack of books five or six high to read, and when I was given this book was no exception. Nine times out of ten a book I have never heard of given to me as a gift will end up getting ignored, not because of any fault of the gift giver, but due to the fact that I keep finding stuff to read in the meantime, and never get around to my gift. However, the person who gave me this book means a great deal to me, and I respect her opinion immensely. So a book that otherwise might never have had a chance got bumped to the top of the list.
And what an amazing book! John Wood has a particularly conversational style of writing, which makes for excellent nonfiction. Subjects which may have been boring when broached by other authors are quite interesting when rendered in his style. Also, he liberally sprinkles the book with interesting asides, both about his time at Microsoft (he worked in China during the height of Microsoft's power, and even had some dealings with The Bill) and about his attempts to start a charity. His stories about raising funding ring especially true to me, and anyone else running a startup.
While I don't want to give away too much of the book, I will end my mini-review by saying how inspiring the book is to anyone wishing to leave a lasting legacy of good in the world. And thanks to Audrey Etlinger for finding it!
And in case anyone reading this has spare pocket change or is looking for a cool charity, look no further than the one the book is all about, Room To Read.
Says Microsoft.
The nerve of these idiots never ceases to amaze me. The plan is to bootstrap the whole of Africa by dragging them screaming into computer literacy. I think this is one of the best uses of charity I have ever seen, and not just because I am a rabid computer nerd. Tito Negroponte is to be commended for both his vision and his execution.
But wait! Microsoft needs to shit all over little kids! Again, for those too colorblind or lazy to click the orange text, Microsoft is trying to slim down their OS enough to work on the OLPC. While this adds a long-needed whiff of legitimacy to the OLPC project, I think they never factored the cost of a SOFTWARE LICENSE into their $200 target price.
Windows, to me, is a piece of waste. And an expensive piece of waste to boot. To foist it onto children in Africa or any other developing continent(s) is akin to a business war crime. I'd be even more enraged if I thought they could make that fat fuck of an OS lose enough weight to run on the OLPC. The chance of that is about the same as the chance of me suddenly being able to excrete solid uranium: painfully unlikely.
And to any of you with sensitive ears (eyes?), I apologize for my profane post.
I think this is more than enough Diplomats references for any blog, ever. I promise I will stop.
I just wanted to touch on this, like every other dumbass blogger out today. This is the most interesting piece of news to come off a major network in a long time, for those of us interested in startups. I remember when (just a few years ago) Facebook was soundly ridiculed for not selling out for $875 million. I was one of the people doing the ridiculing.
For those of you too lazy to click the blue text, Facebook sold 1.6% of their stock to Microsoft for a cool $246 million, Sit back and think about that for a second. I and my co-founders were just in the running for the latest YC funding round, and we were pumped about getting maybe 20K. And yes, I know it is more about the connections than the money. But still, to anyone starting a startup, or even contemplating it, chew on this: the current valuation of Facebook is in the neighborhood of $15 billion. With a B. Ford Motors is worth $18 billion, in comparison.
I'd also like to touch on the significance of this to Microsoft. It is the smartest thing I have seen them do in quite some time. As I read in some other random blog linked to Hacker News, some envision the role of Microsoft morphing into a company that soaks up hot startups to add innovation to their otherwise quite stale product. I sincerely hope that this is the case; it would be really interesting indeed to see Microsoft in such a role.
I'm heading down to Boston tonight. Now seems like a good opportunity to add this link, in case you actually want to see what Sean is up to 'round the clock*:
http://twitter.com/cagedbird
*DIsclaimer: Twitter is weirdly addictive. You've been warned.
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