Hillary Cry Scoble Cry

Whats with crying now a days? Everyone seems to be shedding a tear in public. Having tears in your eyes is suddenly fashionable. It certainly is driving up votes for some. For others it may just be driving up the page hits on their blog.

Real Men Cry: Blame It On Microsoft

The popular tech blogger Robert Scoble wrote a piece today about a forthcoming product announcement from Microsoft. It was titled "Microsoft researchers make me cry". Apparently he is so pleased with the product demo that it is making him cry with joy. Aww. Building up the suspense, he compares this upcoming 2/27 product release to the release of some well known software products in the past, like Excel, Photoshop, Netscape, ICQ and Skype. He really seem to be totally awed by the research efforts of M$. And yes, he got my attention with his post.

The Onion Peeling Machine ?

What else could it be? It certainly could make anyone cry. But Scoble mentioned that it is actually a piece of software, not hardware. So we can rule out the Onion Peeling Machine, or a newer XYZ-Box or Zune 2.0. And no, it can not be a Microsoft iPhone either.

It is a piece of software "that really changes my world", he says. Is it IE8? Well, IE7 makes me cry. Hell, many Microsoft products make me cry. Is it Virtual Earth meets Multi Media meets Multi Touch meets Distributed Storage meets Silvershit, or whatever? Whatever.

Stealing The Thunder From Adobe AIR and Mozilla Prism Launch?

Looks like Adobe has a pre-release tour going on for a planned launch of its Flex and AIR products at the end of February. Is it a coincidence that the M$ launch is scheduled around the same time?

And Mozilla Prism is supposed to be released at the end of Feb. as well. That would bring Mozilla's popular browser a step closer to the desktop -- a territory where Microsoft is king. Is it making Microsoft nervous?

Would It Really Make A Difference?

Sometimes shedding a tear in public can be a good thing. It is drumming up the hype for Microsoft. The whole blogosphere is now holding its breath. I can't wait till February 27th. I hope it does not turn out to be a dud like like the over hyped Segway that Jeff Bezos praised so much before it was launched at the end of 2001. Let me quote Bezos from 2001:

"You have a product so revolutionary, you'll have no problem selling it. The question is, are people going to be allowed to use it?"
—Jeff Bezos, Founder Amazon.com

Scoble seems to be drooling with a similar enthusiasm. So really what is left to be seen is that even though this new Microsoft product may be super cool, but would it really matter?

Update 05/13/08: It was all about the World Wide Telescope. Doh.