Microsoft in Photoshop racism row!

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Just in case anyone thinks I'm over-analysing here, or just talking through my hat. The positioning of the three actors, plus their body language, is also designed to help convey to a potential customer the sort of image they would expect. I've been in a hatful of meetings and presentations like this over the years, and I can take in every little detail in that photo at a glance.

I took a graduate level cinema class and the same points would have been brought up. (When we saw Edison's 1898 film on a blacksmith shop I spotted the boss amongst the three people immediately. He was swinging the smallest hammer.)

[klr]

Just in case anyone thinks I'm over-analysing here, or just talking through my hat. The positioning of the three actors, plus their body language, is also designed to help convey to a potential customer the sort of image they would expect. I've been in a hatful of meetings and presentations like this over the years, and I can take in every little detail in that photo at a glance.

I took a graduate level cinema class and the same points would have been brought up. (When we saw Edison's 1898 film on a blacksmith shop I spotted the boss amongst the three people immediately. He was swinging the smallest hammer.)

Exactly. The first photo is very professionally done, but there are plenty of places in the world where it just wouldn't be appropriate (for want of a more neutral term). They could have easily re-shot it with one or two different actors (as FIO has said), and made it sufficiently different that no-one would have cared. Even if someone had compared photos, they would likely have understood the need to have a different image for different audiences. C'est la vie.

In this case BTW, the presenter has the best laptop, because it's critical to their job. The boss has one (albeit smaller), because he's just supposed to have one, even though he probably doesn't use it much. Also, something like a nice shiny Blackberry (corporate status symbol) wouldn't be visible enough here. The techie doesn't have a machine here because techies are generally perceived to be not very good at communicating, and are in the meeting just to ask/answer a certain class of question.

[AshtonBlack]

Just in case anyone thinks I'm over-analysing here, or just talking through my hat. The positioning of the three actors, plus their body language, is also designed to help convey to a potential customer the sort of image they would expect. I've been in a hatful of meetings and presentations like this over the years, and I can take in every little detail in that photo at a glance.

I took a graduate level cinema class and the same points would have been brought up. (When we saw Edison's 1898 film on a blacksmith shop I spotted the boss amongst the three people immediately. He was swinging the smallest hammer.)

Exactly. The first photo is very professionally done, but there are plenty of places in the world where it just wouldn't be appropriate (for want of a more neutral term). They could have easily re-shot it with one or two different actors (as FIO has said), and made it sufficiently different that no-one would have cared. Even if someone had compared photos, they would likely have understood the need to have a different image for different audiences. C'est la vie.

In this case BTW, the presenter has the best laptop, because it's critical to their job. The boss has one (albeit smaller), because he's just supposed to have one, even though he probably doesn't use it much. Also, something like a nice shiny Blackberry (corporate status symbol) wouldn't be visible enough here. The techie doesn't have a machine here because techies are generally perceived to be not very good at communicating, and are in the meeting just to ask/answer a certain class of question.

I know.. it's true. My "boss" has a crackberry. It's the bane of MY life. Not only was I expected to be an "expert" in it's use, automatically, but now he knows how to use it, he'd sending e-mails at some freaky odd times. The fucker hardly uses the £2,000 laptop he "needed" a couple of months ago.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Just in case anyone thinks I'm over-analysing here, or just talking through my hat. The positioning of the three actors, plus their body language, is also designed to help convey to a potential customer the sort of image they would expect. I've been in a hatful of meetings and presentations like this over the years, and I can take in every little detail in that photo at a glance.

I took a graduate level cinema class and the same points would have been brought up. (When we saw Edison's 1898 film on a blacksmith shop I spotted the boss amongst the three people immediately. He was swinging the smallest hammer.)

Exactly. The first photo is very professionally done, but there are plenty of places in the world where it just wouldn't be appropriate (for want of a more neutral term). They could have easily re-shot it with one or two different actors (as FIO has said), and made it sufficiently different that no-one would have cared. Even if someone had compared photos, they would likely have understood the need to have a different image for different audiences. C'est la vie.

In this case BTW, the presenter has the best laptop, because it's critical to their job. The boss has one (albeit smaller), because he's just supposed to have one, even though he probably doesn't use it much. Also, something like a nice shiny Blackberry (corporate status symbol) wouldn't be visible enough here. The techie doesn't have a machine here because techies are generally perceived to be not very good at communicating, and are in the meeting just to ask/answer a certain class of question.

I know.. it's true. My "boss" has a crackberry. It's the bane of MY life. Not only was I expected to be an "expert" in it's use, automatically, but now he knows how to use it, he'd sending e-mails at some freaky odd times. The fucker hardly uses the £2,000 laptop he "needed" a couple of months ago.

A computer that weighs a short ton is hardly a "laptop".

[AshtonBlack]

The shocking thing is, that he genuinely believed that he "needed" a powerful laptop, but the techies and even system architects can "make do" with shitty old ones. It put a few noses out of joint when he got that thing. £2,000 for a glorified powerpoint presenter. Git.
But I digress, it maybe cheaper to shop stuff, but this has probably "cost" M$ a bucked load more in terms of bad PR.

[RPizzle]

The shocking thing is, that he genuinely believed that he "needed" a powerful laptop, but the techies and even system architects can "make do" with shitty old ones. It put a few noses out of joint when he got that thing. £2,000 for a glorified powerpoint presenter. Git.
But I digress, it maybe cheaper to shop stuff, but this has probably "cost" M$ a bucked load more in terms of bad PR.

I honestly think Microsoft will end up losing its dominance sooner rather than later. Like IBM back in the day, Microsoft is so large and inflexible, it is only a matter of time before a usurper comes along. I believe that usurper will be Google, especially if its OS is innovative. From the looks of chrome, I think it will.

[AshtonBlack]

The shocking thing is, that he genuinely believed that he "needed" a powerful laptop, but the techies and even system architects can "make do" with shitty old ones. It put a few noses out of joint when he got that thing. £2,000 for a glorified powerpoint presenter. Git.
But I digress, it maybe cheaper to shop stuff, but this has probably "cost" M$ a bucked load more in terms of bad PR.

I honestly think Microsoft will end up losing its dominance sooner rather than later. Like IBM back in the day, Microsoft is so large and inflexible, it is only a matter of time before a usurper comes along. I believe that usurper will be Google, especially if its OS is innovative. From the looks of chrome, I think it will.

I do like Chrome. The thing about Microshaft, they WILL last. You wouldn't believe some of the government contracts they have (in the US at least). Windows 7 + Office 2007 are "good enough" for them to continue for at least another 10 years. Also, don't doubt in the next version of widies, will include whatever innovative ideas MAC OS/ Google OS will have.

[RPizzle]

The shocking thing is, that he genuinely believed that he "needed" a powerful laptop, but the techies and even system architects can "make do" with shitty old ones. It put a few noses out of joint when he got that thing. £2,000 for a glorified powerpoint presenter. Git.
But I digress, it maybe cheaper to shop stuff, but this has probably "cost" M$ a bucked load more in terms of bad PR.

I honestly think Microsoft will end up losing its dominance sooner rather than later. Like IBM back in the day, Microsoft is so large and inflexible, it is only a matter of time before a usurper comes along. I believe that usurper will be Google, especially if its OS is innovative. From the looks of chrome, I think it will.

I do like Chrome. The thing about Microshaft, they WILL last. You wouldn't believe some of the government contracts they have (in the US at least). Windows 7 + Office 2007 are "good enough" for them to continue for at least another 10 years. Also, don't doubt in the next version of widies, will include whatever innovative ideas MAC OS/ Google OS will have.

I think that Google is smart enough to make a more nimble, and more importantly, a more cost effective OS. As long as they can make something of higher quality and cheaper than Windows, they will eventually get the nod. It simply takes one big name company to make a winner, as was seen with the end of the HD DVD vs. Blu Ray war.

[AshtonBlack]

I disagree, somewhat. Microsoft are old hands at beating off completion. IBM OS2 Warp Vs W95 anyone?
The only thing that will be able to beat windows to the mass home and business market is one that allows compatibility with current windows apps/drivers.
React OS for example.

If a big company bought that...... well. Then there would be competition.

[Trolldor]

What a shit shoop.

[Trolldor]

I disagree, somewhat. Microsoft are old hands at beating off completion. IBM OS2 Warp Vs W95 anyone?
The only thing that will be able to beat windows to the mass home and business market is one that allows compatibility with current windows apps/drivers.
React OS for example.

If a big company bought that...... well. Then there would be competition.

The consumers control the market, and most people don't know shit about OS.

[klr]

I disagree, somewhat. Microsoft are old hands at beating off completion. IBM OS2 Warp Vs W95 anyone?
The only thing that will be able to beat windows to the mass home and business market is one that allows compatibility with current windows apps/drivers.
React OS for example.

If a big company bought that...... well. Then there would be competition.

The consumers control the market

Manifestly false.

and most people don't know shit about OS.

Manifestly true.

It's very largely because most users are not sufficiently technically literate that they usually take whatever they get - almost always Windows. They don't make any serious effort to explore alternative solutions which are not only cheaper (even from the wider TCO* perspective), but also possibly better as well. The relatively simple and low-risk step of using free Open Office instead of MS Office is quite beyond most people. In fact, a great many are not even aware of this option. The limit of consumer choice for most people is to delay upgrading to the latest version of the latest Windows OS for as long as possible, and MS works very hard to limit this behaviour. Hardly a consumer-driven market.

Here's a conundrum: Most PC's have optical drive with write capability, which requires a separate authoring package above and beyond the OS to exploit properly. So why don't you see big advertising campaigns for (say) Nero or Roxio? The answer is that the real battle is fought at the level of the PC and drive suppliers. The goal is to win contracts with these to bundle the authoring package, usually on the basis of cost as opposed to features. Keep the costs down and the feature set adequate - but no more than adequate. If you buy a separate drive unit, the bundled software will usually be a minor consideration. If you buy it as part of a PC (as the vast majority are), it would naturally be even less significant, often irrelevant. The software companies offer 'full' versions of their packages which probably earn them a nice profit margin, but account for a very low proportion of total unit sales. Most sales are to 'captive' customers.

*Total Cost of Ownership

[AshtonBlack]

I disagree, somewhat. Microsoft are old hands at beating off completion. IBM OS2 Warp Vs W95 anyone?
The only thing that will be able to beat windows to the mass home and business market is one that allows compatibility with current windows apps/drivers.
React OS for example.

If a big company bought that...... well. Then there would be competition.

The consumers control the market, and most people don't know shit about OS.

The 1st bit, well occasionally, the end user, (not the same as the consumer), have the power to reject a product (ME, Vista), but basically M$ pretty much have the OEM market sown up, though financial domination and government contracts. Unfortunately, I'm a named developer on the MoD's MVL (Microsoft Volume Licensing) contract. It's worth about £20million (at current prices) and that is just ONE department.
The 2nd bit, I despair at the level of knowledge, but to use an analogy: You shouldn't need to be a mechanic, or even know the principles of the internal combustion engine to drive a car.

[Trolldor]

If people don't know about OS, that includes 'about alternative OS'.
There are people out there who think Macs and PCs both use windows.

[AshtonBlack]

If people don't know about OS, that includes 'about alternative OS'.
There are people out there who think Macs and PCs both use windows.

At the "end user experience" they both use the WIMP principle and share more in common than they differ. So it's something that can be forgiven.
But Marketing/PR > Technically Better. (Betamax Vs VHS for example)