Joel on Software

2002/04/11

According to the New York Times, Microsoft has pretty much abandoned their plans to centralize everyone's personal data.

The plan, a version of Passport on steroids called Hailstorm, never had a chance, for three reasons. First and foremost, Microsoft could never get any other company to go along with it. Partially this is because nobody trusts Microsoft any more; more significantly, it's because there's no real benefit to the other companies. Second, consumers weren't about to trust Microsoft with all their juicy personal data. There was just too much of an uproar. And finally, as in now becomes clear, this was Rick Belluzzo's pet project, and, as anyone could have told Rick, Microsoft doesn't really like executives brought in from outside, even though they keep bringing them in.

Moving to .Net

I wrote up our current thoughts about moving to .NET at Fog Creek.

College students: my company has paid summer internships in New York City, including free housing, free lunch, and the chance to develop software people will really use, with great mentors on interesting projects. Don't miss this chance of a lifetime. We only have a few spaces and they always go fast, so apply today.

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You’re reading Joel on Software, stuffed with years and years of completely raving mad articles about software development, managing software teams, designing user interfaces, running successful software companies, and rubber duckies.

About the author.

I’m Joel Spolsky, founder of Fog Creek Software, a New York company that proves that you can treat programmers well and still be highly profitable. Programmers get private offices, free lunch, and work 40 hours a week. Customers only pay for software if they’re delighted. We make FogBugz, an enlightened project management system designed to help great teams develop brilliant software, and Fog Creek Copilot, which makes remote desktop access easy.