Revenge is sweet and, in the case of some disgruntled employees from NetGuide Live, it takes the form of a little subtly coded HTML. My news brethren have already documented the manner in which CMP Media laid off the few remaining NetGuide Live employees--by giving them one week's severance, shutting down their network and printers, and telling everyone to scram by noon. But it looks like someone from NetGuide Live got in a jab at CMP before they were booted. This line showed up at the bottom of the NetGuide Live home page last week: Copyright (C) 1997 CMP Media Sucks.
Speaking of Web sites, Microsoft needs to get theirs working. For the past two weeks, I've been bombarded with email from readers who've been turned away from the virtual Gates to Redmond. In most cases, the Microsoft site rebuffs them with a bureaucratic "HTTP Server Too Busy" message. I can only guess that those marvelous NT Servers running the site aren't so marvelous after all. Then again, the crush of users downloading IE security fixes might be more than a Unix box could handle.
Right now, the most dreaded job in Redmond is taking press calls on Explorer security bugs. That's the skinny from Tod Nielsen, Microsoft's manager of developer relations, who did his best Scott McNealy impression and delivered a top-ten list of lessons he learned about security last month at the SD 97 developer conference yesterday. (No. 1: "According to National Enquirer, O.J. is an ActiveX programmer.")
Nielsen also ventured into black humor territory with a Heaven's Gate cult crack. When he heard about the mass suicide of the Web savvy cultists, Nielsen said was relieved to find a "best viewed with Netscape Navigator" button on the cult's home page, instead of an Explorer button. Gee, Microsoft does have a sense of humor after all. I think.
Now, if Microsoft could just apply some of its enthusiasm to copy editing...The company recently issued a letter to press promoting its Expedia travel site in Canada with this glaring typo: "Canada is one of the world's most wired countries. With an annual travel market exceeding $__ billion, Microsoft officials anticipate Canadian Expedia usage to proportionally meet, if not exceed the tremendous success seen in the United States." Either Microsoft doesn't proofread or the Canooks don't leave home much. Then again, who needs to leave home when you've got hockey on the tube, eh? I won't leave home until you email me your rumors. Maybe that's a good thing.