What, if anything, did Microsoft announce? 

This morning, before we recorded the RTN podcast, there was evidence that Microsoft had announced something. Apparently they had briefed the press at some undisclosed location on some date we don't know about some products we don't understand.

Last week I gave Google a ton of grief for announcing an operating system that has been shipping for 17 years and a web browser that had been shipping for about a year as a new product with the same name as the browser that had been shipping for a year.

In the podcast we talked about a river of realtime news. The analogy fits these pseudo-events in the following way. Sometime in the past weeks Microsoft held a private event, trying to build a dam on the river, hoping to blow the dam at a predetermined time earlier today, thereby creating a rush of news that would impress everyone. It didn't work because apparently the dam developed a leak in the middle of the night and the water rushed down the river of news while everyone was sleeping. No one was impressed. Sad Microsoft.

The moral of the story: Companies probably should announce products when they are new, and when ordinary people and the savvy insiders can try it all out and share their opinions. That way if the product is any good it will generate interest. If it's not good, no one need bother get excited.

ReadWriteWeb: Microsoft Office Web Access Not Here Yet.

Marc Canter leaves California 

I remember when Marc came to California in 1988. He got here just in time for the Loma Prieta quake. Two people died outside his office on Townsend. They had just been to visit Marc.

There would be no tech industry South Of Market if Marc hadn't moved his small company here from Chicago in the late 80s. He was young then, he had a purpose, he was going to turn desktop computers into movie machines. He did that.

He was hugely influential, although time has a way of paving that over. Remember that, young people, you may be important now, but there will come a day when no one knows your name. Prepare for that day.

He got rich, very rich -- but he blew through the money like a drunk rock star with an entourage, which he had.

Marc is a wild man. California has captured his wildness for a long time. Now that wildness belongs to the rest of the USA.

Good luck man -- keep blogging so we know what's up with you.

Rebooting The News #16 

Recorded this morning at 9AM Pacific.

Show page here, with notes written by Jay.