Here's a really excellent wrap-up of the staggering mediocrity at Microsoft for pretty much a decade. Detailed, informed, right on target.

We lost the domain name in some administrative snafu a couple years ago, but for anyone who might still care, I just realized Jason Shellen has revived TEOF's archives hosted now on blogspot.

The Google "everything for free" effect is now at its apex with the NYT, WSJ or the Economist pretty much throwing the towel on online paid content to go after more ad revenue. Of course when the next advertising cyclical downturn comes there will be a lot of hand wringing about lost revenue and how subscriptions are nice and predictable.

This must be why we're working on our own subscription service! Not for the general public though. We might be bold but not crazy.

Another data point aligned with prior observations: Google Secure Access. Google's platform play is taking shape. They're fine with leaving the client OS to Microsoft by a) putting lots of tiny internet plugs into it and b) creating value in what Microsoft has been dubbing "the cloud" for years without delivering much (Hotmail, Spaces, blah blah blah who cares?).