My Second New Post (again)

For those of you who followed the link from my Wordpress.com blog, I appreciate it.  I certainly hadn't intended on moving so soon.  The good news is, I hadn't even unpacked my boxes yet, so it wasn't too much work.  (Hopefully, it wasn't too much work for you, either.)

If you haven't seen it yet, I have been getting a little ink out in the blogosphere.  It's mostly focused around my tattoo and I would like to take this opportunity to respond to some of the comments I have seen.  (After all, that's the whole point of having a blog, right?)

I showed up on TechFlash thanks to Todd Bishop.  He even sent me an e-mail letting me know about the post.  Thanks, Todd.  I certainly appreciate it.  I wanted to address some of the comments that I saw on his site:

This one, from "A":

Microsoft tatoo? I'm glad he got fired. Who gets a microsoft tatoo? You dont tell your family you work at MS.

While this seems ridiculous and not worth the time it takes me to type a response, I see this type of crap all the time and want to respond.  (One of the things that is probably going to come out now that I have my own blog independent of Microsoft is that I am a snarky, sarcastic person who has low tolerance for stupidity (which is NOT the same as ignorance) and am especially annoyed by stupidity which hides behind anonymity.)  I could go off on the fact that he can't spell "tattoo," despite the fact that Todd had correctly spelled it three times in his post, but I won't.  Instead, I want to focus on the second sentence -- "You don't tell your family you work at Microsoft."  This is pretty common Internet rhetoric.  Microsoft is the evil company whose sole motivation is corporate greed.  This is simply not the case.  Before you get started on your angry retort (which would almost certainly include the word "monopoly"), hear me out.  I am not going to get into Microsoft's business practices because, quite frankly, I do not have any knowledge of the decisions which were made at executive levels.  I do, however, know some of the results.  (Can you say "DOJ?"  I know Microsoft can.)  My point is that, in my opinion (which is all this is), Microsoft was in a fairly unique position in the 80s.  They created an operating system which became wildly popular.  (Point of fact -- they created several operating systems which became popular, but that's not the point.)  They also created software that ran on those operating systems.  Many of these packages, too, became wildly popular.  (Think Microsoft Office.)  It made sense to package these things together.  And, with the Internet revolution, things became even more complicated.  Technology became big business for home users as well as businesses and Microsoft began creating products that took advantage of these new technologies.  They were in a great position to bundle all of these products together to ensure that a user had access to everything they needed right out of the box.  Evil?  Hardly.  Can you honestly say that you would have done something differently if you'd been in charge?  Ok... I've digressed from my point (passion is sometimes hard to control).  I want to point out, however, some good that Microsoft has done (and I don't begin to think I could cover it all here, even if I knew it all).  Let's look at just a few recent examples:

Coding for charity -- this is an event which partnered developers with charities to help them get the technological solutions they need.

Aids Research -- Microsoft developed and released code to the AIDS research community free of charge. 

Gates Foundation -- do I even need to mention Bill and Melinda Gates' foundation and all they do?

And the financial cuts?  How will they impact the philanthropic nature of Microsoft?  According to Akhtar Badshah, manager of the company's global employee and corporate giving programs, not at all. 

Microsoft donated nearly $500 million in fiscal 2008, including cash, employee matching gifts and software. It was ranked the best company for investing in its community by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

To me, that says that not only should I tell my family that I work for Microsoft, I should be proud of it.  And I certainly am.  (Well.... was, anyway.)  :)

Another comment from this same site was from @Joe. 

The best thing in his life was working at Microsoft? No dig on Microsoft but seriously you are missing out on life if the best thing you've experienced is your job.

@Joe -- you are 100% correct.  It is the best place I have ever worked, but not the greatest experience of my entire life.  I should've been more clear.  :)

I also managed to get some press on BoingBoing.net.  A great comment got posted here by TechnoGeek:

Strikes me as an object lesson in why you should never make any permanent marks upon your body that you may not want to live with (and by) for the rest of your life.

I just want to make it clear that I in no way regret my Blue Monster.  As I said in my last post on TechNet, it is a constant reminder that changing the world is something that is within my power and I should attempt it every day. 

Want to see some positive comments?  Take a look here.  I appreciate the comments and look forward to much more interaction in the near future.

There's a lot more out there, but you get the idea.  I'm tired and going to call it a night (watching Super Bowl 43 today wore me out a bit), but I'm excited about the possibilities that this blog will afford me.  :)

 

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, Blue Monster, Dan Woodman